Gurus Of Music

Consonance And Dissonance In Music This article is useful in the practice of improvisation. It will explain why certain scales can be used to good effect in improvising and also why a certain amount of chord theory is handy. If you don’t understand what the term interval means, you should first go and read over the following post; Intervals And Their Qualities .  Major and perfect intervals in a C major scale So, having established what an ‘interval’ is, we can move on to the concept of consonance and dissonance. It’s a rather simple concept that states that certain intervals harmonize or are pleasing to the ear and certain intervals clash or are unpleasant to the ear. Naturally this is a bit subjective and changes somewhat from era to era, but we can establish a basic overall accepted norm and work from there. The intervals, which harmonize and are known as consonant, are specifically the thirds and sixths, regardless of their quality (major or minor.) Fourths and ...

Key Signatures And The Circle Of Fifths A 'key signature' shows up at the very beginning of a piece of music, directly after the clef;

The key signature tells you two things; the name of the key and what flats or sharps, if any, are to be applied in the music.  Flats or sharps that appear in a key signature apply to the entire piece, which is different than when they are used as accidentals.
 You can learn more about sharps, flats and accidentals by watching this short video; Accidentals, Whole Steps and Half Steps . There is a scale that goes with each key that starts on the same note as the name of that key. For example; for they key of G Major, the scale would start on G. Any sharps or flats that are in the key signature would apply to that scale. For example; the key of G Major has one sharp which is F, so the scale of G would have an F sharp in it.
 There is a system to the key signatures and understanding it makes using key signatures much clearer and eas...

Intervals And Their Qualities This gives more information about intervals and their 'qualities.' Before tackling this information you should view the video on Note Reading Made Easy . 
It is important that you study music theory by following the right gradient; the proper gradient is outlined in the article about gradients .
 Intervals
 The definition of the term interval is the distance between any two notes. The distance is counted by simply counting up the letters inclusively from one note to the next.
For example; C to G would be called a fifth because there are five letters from C to G (counting C and G); CDEFG. Interval of a 5th 
In counting the interval on the staff, you would count the note you go from and then count every space and line until you got to the second note and count it as well. The above example would be called a harmonic interval since the two notes would played simultaneously.
An interval can also be melodic, meaning the two notes would b...

Purpose In Music Lessons One thing you should do in regards to taking music lessons, or any learning activity for that matter is to take a bit of time and decide what your goals in learning are. I’m not really talking about big long-term plans, necessarily, but something quite a bit simpler.  One consideration is what style or genre of music are you mainly interested in playing? For example, so-called classical music relies heavily on note reading. Being able to play the classics requires fluency in note reading and a solid foundation in theory. Now pop music breaks down into a few categories. The songwriting end of it definitely requires much of the same expertise and theory as classical music and, if you’re going to be happy picking up song books off the music store shelves and playing them, then a good basis in note reading will take you to your goal the quickest. However, often has been the time that someone has learned a song from a piece of sheet music and then ...

Balance In Learning There are basics to almost any field of endeavor. Let’s take a look at basketball, for example. I’m certainly no basketball player, so that makes me uniquely qualified to write about it. I am fairly certain that things such as dribbling, throwing a ball, catching it and being able to get a ball into the hoop (I do remember a thing called the ‘layup’) would all qualify as ‘basics’ in basketball. There are probably at least fifty or more other things that are basics that I’m unaware of, not being a pro basketball player, as I’ve said. I would guess that, when basketball players practice, they drill some of these basics, especially if they are newer to the game. Then, having all these basics under their belt, that is to say these basic skills have become more or less second nature, the players play the game, using each of the skills where needed with intention and focus now on playing and winning the game. What do you suppose the reaction would be ...

Online Music Lessons You see a lot on the Internet these days about online lessons. Mostly people are talking about the switch to online studies that most schools have made and there have been quite a number of critical opinions about this voiced. Certainly the challenges of delivering quality online lessons to a class are a bit formidable.  Even one on one video tutoring can be problematic, if there has not been enough preparation for use of this medium and, certainly, events have demanded that many make an immediate jump. Online music lessons, on the other hand, have been around for a long time and many have made a good study of the most effective ways to deliver online music lessons. Indeed, with the technology available and the correct preparation of teaching materials, online music lessons can be every bit as effective as music lessons in person. One of the challenges of it is not just demonstrating the technique of the instrument but the theory end of i...