1. The Moonlight of Debussy's Clair de Lune
Clair de Lune is a piece of music that has stood the test of time. It is a piece that is constantly evolving, living and breathing in the fingers of pianists the world over, because each artist expresses it differently....

2. Piano Sheet Music in the Internet Age
The availability of music for the piano is unprecedented in human history due to the internet. For the first time ever musicians can locate and download literally thousands of pieces of music in most any genre....

3. The Many Benefits of Learning Piano Chord Theory
Chances are if you've ever taken piano lessons, you probably spent at least a little bit of time on piano chords. But learning the names of a few basic chords and actually understanding chords are two different things....

4. Fur Elise: Beethoven's Mysterious Inspiration
The mystery surrounding Beethoven's "Fur Elise" has still not been solved. Nevertheless millions of people over the space of 200 years have enjoyed and come to love this all time classic work....

5. Playing Hymns & Gospel Songs On The Piano: A Treasure-Trove of Riches
Thousands of hymns and gospel songs have been written down through the years, and the beginning piano player is confronted with a richness of availability almost unknown in other music styles....

6. Would You Like to Take a Peek at a Naked Piano Player?
Did you know that there are many piano players who are stark naked? Some of them probably live in your neighborhood. One of them might even be your next door neighbor...

7. Piano Note Reading for Beginners
Learning to read sheet music is a bit easier than most people suppose, because there are only 12 different notes on the entire staff -- everything else is repeated an octave or two higher or lower....

8. A Short History of the Piano
If you're thinking of taking piano lessons -- or if you already take them -- it's a good idea to learn something about the long musical tradition in which you will be participating. So let's take a brief look at how the piano came to be....

9. Piano Improvisation in Three Steps
Improvisation on the piano is not just for pros -- anyone can learn to improvise to some degree....

10. Mp3's - The Future of Music? And What About IPOD's?
Mp3 music is an audio file that has been digitally encoded and compressed to make the amount of data smaller without compromising the overall sound quality. It's a revolutionary technique with incredibly good results....

11. I Took Piano Lessons As a Kid, But I've Forgotten Almost Everything
There are literally millions of adults today who took piano lessons when they were growing up, but at some point along the way gave them up. Some couldn't care less, but many have an urge down deep to take up piano playing again someday....

12. How Musicians Can Use Podcasts to Publicize Their Music
Podcasts are excellent ways that you can inexpensively and quickly get your music out there to the public, which is extremely important to your success as a musician....

13. 8 Easy Musical Instruments That You Can Learn To Play Quickly
Not all of us have the time, or want to invest the time in learning to play a complicated instrument such as the piano or guitar. There are easy musical instruments that you can learn to play quickly & easily....

14. Podcasts: What Are They And How Do They Work?
Podcasts are files that can be downloaded directly from the internet or that can be accessed via streaming feeds like RSS feeds. Musicians as well as many other creative people are using them to communicate with their clients and others....

15. 7 Great & Fun Ways To Earn Your Living In The World of Music
There are lots of ways to make a living in the music industry, and very few of them have anything to do with getting on stage and performing, or trying to crack the lineup on American Idol....

16. Is It Really Possible To Play The Piano By Ear?
Playing by ear is the ability to play a piece of music (or, eventually, learn an instrument) by simply listening to it repeatedly. Just like we pick up our language by listening to our parents and subsequently attending school, we can learn music by playing by ear and later taking formal lessons....

17. Piano Books: The Top Piano Books To Help You Become a Better Piano Player
There are thousands of piano books available in music stores and online at such places as Amazon. And piano books are usually necessary if your goal is to become a better pianist. But how does a person know which piano books are necessary and which books are redundant, to say nothing of good or bad....

18. Music Theory & Harmony: The Key To Understanding How Music Works!
Learning music theory and harmony is not just an option you can take or leave: it is part and parcel of the "stuff of music". And yet the majority of piano players ignore the very thing that would take them to the next level in their playing and knowledge -- music theory & harmony....

19. Piano Playing Secrets Of The Pros
It's not surprising that professional piano players have some tricks up their sleeves that the rest of us mortals don't have. But that doesn't mean we can't try to emulate the great pianists....

20. Music Chords: How To Become a "Chord Detective" And See Through The Notes Right Into The Music!
There's a logic behind every note written in music, & you can learn to understand that logic, and therefore understand music....

21. Runs & Fills: How To Add Real Excitement To Your Piano Playing!
If you're anything like me, you would love to learn how to "fill up the empty spaces" in the songs you play with scale fragments, chords, broken chords, and so on. Learning how to "fill it up" with runs and fills would certainly take your piano playing to the next level....

22. Piano Chords: How Many Are There?
An interesting experiment is to ask people how many chords there are in music. You'll be surprised to find out that most musicians don't do any better at answering that question than non-musicians....

23. The Blues Scale & Cool Stuff You Can Do With It
Most of us who took piano lessons as kids are all too familiar with scales, and most of us hated practicing them with a passion. But understanding scales and what they do is critical to the process of improvisation as well as key orientation and just a general understanding of what's happening in the song we are playing....

24. Did You Know That Music Is Based On Natural "Laws"?
Did you know that music is based on natural "laws" -- like gravity -- and by learning to understand how those natural laws work we can actually understand what we are doing when we play -- we don't have to be at the mercy of what someone else has written on a piece of music?...

25. Music Notes: How Pitch & Duration Are Determined
Notes are the musical notation representing a fixed pitch. While the word strictly refers to the physical notation of a pitch, it's more commonly used to refer to both the pitch and the notation....

26. Piano Lessons: Make Sure They Include Chords & Music Theory!
Proper piano instruction is an element extremely vital to learning the instrument well. Often overlooked in the teaching curriculum, however, is music theory and chord structure....

27. Transposition and Modulation: How To Transpose To a Different Key & Modulate Between Keys
How do transposition and modulation relate? Are they the same? Let's take a look at both of them and see what makes them tick....

28. How To Tell What Major Key A Song Is In Quickly & Easily
Key signatures are a type of musical notation that indicate which key the song is to be played in. But key signatures, despite the name, are not the same thing as key....

29. How To Color Without Crayons: Adding Color Tones To a Chord
Adding color tones to a chord is like adding colors to a black and white drawing; it adds depth and dimension and well as bringing it to life....

30. Inversions: How To Stand a Chord On It's Head
Many people get all confused when chords are turned upside down. They recognize them when they are in root position, but when you stand them on their head...well, it gets kind of fuzzy for folks....

31. Learn Music Fast Online
Learning music online has revolutionized learning, since it is the first time in history that anyone with a computer can virtually find out anything they want to know about music -- and find out quick!...

32. Sprinkle Some Pepper On Your Musical Meal Through The Use Of Augmented Chords
Augmented chords are to a piece of music like pepper is to a meal; you would never sit down to a meal of pepper alone, but you might sprinkle a little on your food to liven up the taste a bit. Use augmented chords judiciously and you will find they add real interest to your piano playing....

33. The Immense Popularity of the Piano Continues To This Day
The piano has been vastly popular for about 300 years now, and despite the resurgent popularity of the guitar, piano sales and piano lessons continue to accelerate....

34. Add Some Spice To Your Musical Meal By Using Diminished Triads
Major and minor chords are the meat & potatoes of a musical meal. To add saltiness to the meal, add a few diminished chords....

35. Minor Chords -- How To Form Them & Use Them
Minor chords create a sound which is somber or serious; some people even think of minor chords as "sad", as opposed to major chords which sound "normal", or "happy"....

36. Christmas Carols You Can Play This Christmas With Just 3 Chords!
Did you know that there are literally thousands of songs you can play if you know just 3 chords? And some of them are Christmas Carols that you can learn to play this Christmas if you know, or are willing to learn, three simple chords....

37. How To Play The Piano Using "Shorthand" -- Chord Symbols -- Instead of Reading the Full Score
Most people who took piano lessons as a kid, including me, grew up learning to read music exactly as it is written on the printed page. Being able to read music is a valuable skill, and I am delighted I learned that skill at an early age....

38. Can YOU Play All The Major Chords in 3 Seconds or Less?
Some people go through their entire lives not being sure about what such and such a major chord is -- and it's all so unnecessary, because you can memorize them in just a few minutes, and learn to play them in 12 seconds or less - one second per major chord....

39. Exciting Improvising: How to Make Up Music Out Of Your Head As You Play
Improvisation (also known as improvising) is the act of making something up as you go along -- an act with which we all have a little experience....

40. Can You Become a Boogie-Man or Boogie-Lady?
Boogie music, also known as boogie woogie, is a genre of piano-heavy music particular to America in the 1940s and 50s....

41. Learn a Musical Instrument, Prepare for a Career
From education to video games, there are careers available for those who happen to have a background in music which the rest of us never see. Each of these fields requires time and study for proficiency, but they represent a career path that is nonexistent for non-musicians....

42. I Like It, But Is It Music?
Are you frustrated when you try to explain your taste in music? Fortunately, one of the benefits of learning a musical instrument is a better understanding of your own musical taste. Learn to play an instrument, and soon you will be able to discuss what works or doesn't work for you, in music....

43. Mp3's - - The Future of Music?
Mp3 music is audio file that has been digitally encoded and compressed to make the amount of data smaller without compromising the overall sound quality. Because of it's portability, it promises to be the future of music....

44. To Make Your Kids More Successful, Teach Them Music!
Besides being a sure way to become the life of the party, learning to play an instrument can make your children smarter, better adjusted, and better equipped to adopt a position of leadership in a diverse world....

45. How Many Guitar Chords Do I Need To Know?
Most simple songs contain just 3 chords called "primary chords". So even a stark beginner can learn 3 simple note groups well enough to strum along and accompany himself as he sings. But after that, the sky is the limit; there are thousands of possible chords, so it is up to the individual guitarist as to how many he or she wants to master....

46. What All Do I Have to Know to be a Really Good Piano Player?
Many students ask me a question that goes something like this: "What all do I have to know to be a really good piano player?" The answer is multi-facited and depends largely on the motivation and talent of the individual....

47. Five Great Practice Ideas I Learned From My Piano Students
Sometimes the teacher learns more from the student than the student does from the teacher. Hopefully, not too often, but today I would like to share with you some great practicing ideas that have come from my piano students over the years....

48. Can You Really Learn To Play a Musical Instrument From an Online Course?
Out of the 250 million people in the United States, about 25 million of them play an instrument of some kind, or at least used to when they were in school and would like to pick up where they left off. Another 30 million or so sing in a church choir, a barbershop quartet, or at the very least, in the shower....

49. Improvising On The Piano: Jazz Musicians Do It -- Why Not Other Styles?
Jazz pianists improvise all the time. So why not classical pianists, gospel pianists, and piano players of many other styles?...

50. Playing The Piano Using Chord Symbols Instead of Being Tied To The Written Sheet Music
Piano improvising and arranging is an art but definitely not a science. It is all based on chords and chord progressions. There aren't any steadfast rules for creating an arrangement, nothing to dictate the limitless potential of your imagination....

51. Learn To Play The Piano Better By Learning To Arrange Chords & Chord Progressions
Piano arranging is the process by which you take a written piece of music and rework it with chords, adding new bass accompaniment, fills, or even slightly altering the song's structure. And while it's a process that takes years to truly master, anyone with a basic education in piano and a working knowledge of a few key techniques can create an inventive, satisfying arrangement....

52. Is Your Child Struggling in School? Get Him (Or Her) Music Lessons
Playing music has been discovered to have a direct and almost immediate effect on the brain of the student. Music lessons have been shown in a German study to have a significant impact on the way the brain functions after as little as five weeks....

53. Why Piano Students Knew More About Sex Than The Other Kids In My Home Town
The center for sex education in my home town of Auburn, California in the mid-to-late 40's was not the home, the church, the school, or the health clinic. Not that these did not contribute to our growing body of knowledge; they certainly did; but the center for the dissemination of actual facts was a piano studio on Jasper Way....

54. Never Open An Outhouse Door Without Knocking
I suppose that every hometown of every child holds certain favorite hiding places, or short cuts, or little-known doors or cubbyholes or secret passageways or whatever, and Auburn, the little town where I grew up, was no exception....

55. Real Shortstops Don't Chew Their Gloves
When I was growing up, even though I loved baseball, I nervously chewed on my baseball glove. I guess I wasn't meant to be the next Derek Geter....

56. How To Impress Girls - Or Maybe Not
I suppose that all males at some time in their life attempt to impress girls. My efforts started in about the 5th grade, and left a great deal to be desired....

57. How Grandma's Lap Robe Saved My Legs
As I was growing up, Grandma always made sure that I wouldn't catch cold by insisting I have a lap robe over my legs. Didn't matter if it was 32 degrees or 100 degrees; the lap robe was an absolute necessity....

58. Oh My Aching Head! Can Music Really Make You Feel Better?
We all know, if only instinctively, that music has a profound effect on us. If we didn't believe that music affects us then singing lullabies to calm children and help them sleep wouldn't be universal. In reality melody, harmony, and rhythm probably impacts the human brain in ways that are far more profound than we realize....

59. How I Found Out That God Bowls On Monday Evenings at 7
I grew up wondering what Jesus did on Monday evenings. My Uncle Verge went bowling on Monday evenings, and although a good Methodist child wouldn't be caught dead inside a bowling alley back in those days, I sometimes visualized Jesus bowling along side of Uncle Verge, since they both apparently had Monday evenings off....

60. So You Want to be President? Learn to Play a Musical Instrument!
From Bill Clinton and his sax to Richard Nixon and his piano, many Presidents and leaders have played a musical instrument. Does Condi Rice have an edge in future presidential elections because she is also a concert pianist?...

61. Music Downloads: Free & Low Cost Ways For Musicians To Get Their Music Known All Over The World
For the musician, music downloads are an absolute breakthrough technology, allowing, for the first time in history, for a musician to develop a following without ever leaving his or her house! Marketing possibilities are unlimited for the musicians who avail themselves of this wonderful new technology....

62. Piano Playing is Easier than You Think When You Understand Musical Form
Understanding musical form in music is one of the proven shortcuts to better piano playing (or better guitar playing, or any instrument). Form is like the blueprint to a house -- it holds the key that unlocks the musical map of a song or a musical compostition....

63. Killer Piano Playing Secrets of a Chord Addict!
When a lightbulb comes on in the mind of an individual who is seeking knowledge in some area, it is amazing how much progress can be made in a short time. For piano players and other musicians, that moment of insight that changes lives often has to do with understanding chords and how they progress to create music....

64. They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano -- but When I Started to Play --
Is there a "backdoor to piano playing?" Chords are a way in to the world of piano playing without having to go through the front door: years and years of scales, drills, rote practicing, etc. Chords are really a shortcut to understanding and playing music without all the formal training....

65. Musicians: What Chords Do You Absolutely, Positively Have To Know?
There are thousands of different chords in music, but there are 3 chords -- just 3 -- that you absolutely, positively have to know. If you don't know these three, there's hardly a song in the whole world that you could play. But by knowing just 3 chords, you can play hundreds, if not thousands of songs!...

66. Win Friends & Influence People Through Music -- Is It Possible?
Can learning to play a musical instrument really help you "win friends & influence people?" It almost seems like a stretch, but scientific research seems to support the idea. Rock stars aren't the only ones to be popular; there is a direct correlation between music study and the ability to relate will with others....

67. Music & Emotions: Can Music Really Make You a Happier Person?
How many times have you turned to music to uplift you even further in happy times, or sought the comfort of music when melancholy strikes? We all know it works -- we just don't know why. Now science is beginning to unravel some of the mystery behind the relationship of music and our moods....

68. Piano Playing Your Way: How To Have More Fun Playing The Piano Than You Ever Have Before
Piano playing doesn't have to be boring. There's no law that says you have to play a song the same way everyone else plays it. By learning some basic music theory and chord formations, you can have the time of your life playing music like you've always wanted to....

69. Piano Playing For Adults: More Fun Than Sex And Not Nearly As Dangerous!
The benefits of adults learning to play the piano are many and varied, but most of all, it's just plain fun....

70. Is It Possible To Create Cool "New Age" Sounds On The Piano Without Knowing A Thing About Music?
I'll admit that for many years as a piano teacher I didn't think so. But in the last couple years I made a discovery about creating pleasant "new age" sounds on the piano that I never would have believed during my earlier piano teaching career....

71. The Many Incredible Benefits Of Learning Chording Techniques On The Piano
Many piano players seem to spend their entire lives "chained to the written music". They can sight-read sheet music, but when it comes to knowing what to play when the music blows off the stand and onto the floor, they are entirely lost....

72. How To Match The Melody Notes Of Any Song To A Chord In Your Left Hand!
Is it really possible to know which chords go with which notes in a song without having to depend on the written sheet music? Can you pick out a song by ear and then harmonize that tune with chords that match it?...

73. How To Predict Which Chord Comes Next In A Song
It is quite possible to predict which chords will occur in a given song, once you know the key and understand the "guts" of music theory & chord progressions....

74. How To Play More Notes On The Piano Without Reading More Notes!
Most people learn to play the piano by playing just the written music. Playing by written music is exactly what the phrase says it is -- playing the exact notation on a piece of sheet music....

75. 33 Tips to Becoming a Great Pianist
"There are at least 33 elements that contribute to becoming a good pianist," says Duane Shinn, pianist and owner of Keyboard Workshop in Medford, Oregon. "There are probably more, but without these 33 principles a pianist cannot hope to rise to the level of his ability."...

76. I Know a Man Who Can Take You To Narnia...
I know a man who can take you to Narnia. Well, not really Narnia, but to the very spot in England where Narnia was born in the mind of C.S. Lewis, author of "The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe" which is now a major motion picture by Disney, and the entire Chronicles of Narnia series....

77. "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" - Einstein would have loved it!
Einstein would have loved the movie "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" because it is filled with not only imagination, but also time dilation and wormholes that tunnel into distant regions of space and time and black holes and string theory and spacetime curvature...all implicated in his General Theory of Relativity....

78. Families That Hit Pine Cones Together Stay Together
It is said that families that pray together stay together. I think it's almost equally true that families that play together stay together. If play time is the glue of family life, our family is a sticky crew! ...

79. How Many Chords Are There, Anyway?
Since chords (the main component of harmony) are one of the three most vital elements of music - the others being melody and rhythm - it would be useful to know how many chords there are. And it doesn't matter whether you play piano or guitar or some other instrument - chords are chords. ...

80. Piano Playing For Adults: More Fun Than Sex And Not Nearly As Dangerous!
The benefits of adults learning to play the piano are many and varied, but most of all, it's just plain fun....

81. Do you really need college to learn to play music?
In the last few years a new dimension to learning music has appeared in the form of the internet - the world wide web. Now instead of being limited to classroom courses, students are free to create their own schedules and learn at their own pace....

82. What In The World Would We Do Without Music?
What in the world would you and I do if there was no such thing as music? Can you imagine a world without music? No songs, no tunes, no rock, no roll, no jazz, no hymns, no boogie-woogie, no country-western, no symphonies. No singing in the shower. No whistling Dixie....

83. 3 Secrets To Understanding What Music Is Made Of
It's no secret that virtually everyone loves music in some form or other. After all, it is the universal language, and we all participate in it to some degree from the cradle to the grave. It starts with our Mothers' lullaby, ends with our funeral song, with a zillion other stops along the way...

84. How To Make a Fortune Teaching Piano (or Guitar, or Drums, or Singing, or...) To Beginners
Every year millions more kids get to the age where their parents start thinking about getting music lessons for them, so your prospect list is constantly getting bigger every day. There are plenty of beginners to go around, so competition is really not an issue at all for a person who loves both people and music. ...

85. Church Service Family Style: How a 3 Year Old Preacher & a Beagle Made Our Sunday Unforgettable
One unforgettable Sunday our church had a three-year- old preacher, an organist who could play one song, an altercation involving the offering and a visiting beagle who knocked over the pulpit....

86. Does Music Impact Epilepsy - For Bad Or For Good?
At the present time music is not yet used as a formal treatment for epilepsy, but the sheer fact that music has shown a potential ability to be a treatment for epilepsy as well as its ability to induce epileptic seizures would seem to indicate that music just might play a more significant role in the human experience than we ever imagined. ...

87. How to Become a World Class Expert in Just 20 Minutes a Day
Is it really possible to become an expert in some field in 20 minutes a day? Here's some ideas that just might make it possible....

88. Music Therapy: Can Music Really "Soothe The Savage Beast?"
It has long been suggested that "music soothes the savage beast." But is this true? And if it is, does this have any implication where humans are concerned?...

89. 10 Top Reasons You Should Learn to Play 'Chord' Piano
There are roughly umpteen zillion reasons why you should learn enough chords to be able to "chord a song" at the piano. By "chord a song", I mean the ability to play 3 or 4 chords on the piano in some sort of rhythm while you or someone else sings the tune. To do this, you don't need to be a Van Cliburn; all you need to do is learn a few basic chords and be able to more back and forth between them in some organized rhythmic pattern....

90. 3 Quick & Easy Steps To Playing Music by Ear
Playing by ear is the ability to play a piece of music (or, eventually, learn an instrument) by simply listening to it repeatedly. The majority of self-taught musicians began their education this way; they picked up their instrument and began playing an easy melody from a well-known song, slowly picking out the notes as they went along....

91. How To Dress Up "Naked Music" On The Piano
What in the world is "naked music?" You know it when you hear it, but the words that describe it sound strange, don't they? We've all heard of popular music and rock music and gospel music and jazz music, but naked music?...

92. How To Play Piano Using Chord Symbols
Chord symbols (for example, Cmaj7 or G6) are a type of notation used frequently in jazz and other areas of modern music to notate chord progressions and changes....

93. Is Your Child Capable of Composing Music? Maybe the next Mozart?
We've all heard of them. Child prodigies who begin composing music at some ridiculously young age. For instance, history reports that Mozart was writing minuets by the time he was five years old. Amazing. At five years of age, I'm not sure that I knew the difference between my finger and my thumb and I certainly wasn't composing music. ...

94. Music & Intelligence: Will Listening to Music Make You Smarter?
Will listening to music make you smarter? Will learning to play a musical instrument make your brain grow larger than normal? Questions like these ones have been popping up all over the place in the past few years, and not just in scientific journals either. ...

95. How To Get An Avalanche Of Free Publicity For Your Home Business!
There are many ways you can get tons of free publicity in the form of write-ups in magazines, newspapers, and even radio and TV. And sometimes you can turn family events into human-interest stories that editors like and will publish in their magazine and newspapers. ...

96. Music & Citizenship: Can Playing a Musical Instrument Help Your Child Become a Better Citizen?
Disregard the popular image of rappers with their ghetto blasters, terrorizing neighborhoods with eardrum-splitting cacophony. Consider instead our delightful school bands and orchestras... and ponder on whether those students might be becoming our best future citizens. Unlikely as it may seem, recent scientific research suggests this hypothesis might actually be true. It appears studying music can, in fact, impact the development of the human personality, especially in the area of socialization...