In chess, there are entire books about opening moves, and the strategic implications of each opening. It’s the same way with music. How you introduce music to someone with no…
When you play guitar, bass or keys long enough, you begin to develop a mental picture of your instrument. You can imagine it as if it's in front of you…
The role of memory is one of the most important, and one of the most neglected aspects of learning music. Memory is at the center of everything we do as…
In Alpin Hong's TEDx video on YouTube, he plays the opening of Mozart's "Twinkle Little Star Variation." ("Twinkle Twinkle Death Star" starts at 14:15) It’s a fast, intricate piece which…
Years ago, classical music commentator Dr Karl Haas devoted an episode of his syndicated radio program, Adventures in Good Music, to the subject of mistakes, and how performers react to…
The question, “What is the true name of a musical note?,” sounds something like a Zen koan, except this koan has an obvious answer. It’s kind of like that time…
Formal conventions in Indian classical music developed over about the same span of time as formal conventions in Western classical music. In Indian music, the steady drone of a single…
Improvisation is composing and performing music at the same time, making it up as you go along. There’s a long-standing debate among modern music teachers over whether it’s artistically legitimate…
Microtonality is probably the most significant single difference between guitar and keyboards. If you plug keyboard sheet music into a MIDI sequencer, then you get something very close to the…
Guitar and piano are similar instruments in a lot of ways. In most modern styles, they are the two main instruments for polyphonic harmony. They cover a lot of the…