Is It Difficult To Learn Music?

So often you hear people remark, after hearing a good musician perform, that this person is just ‘so lucky’ because they were born with the talent to make music. Our media holds up the picture of the young person who just ‘started playing,’ and supposedly needed no instruction. Musical groups are just a bunch of friends who got together and started playing; there was no rehearsing and such things involved. The truth is, there are many very talented individuals but they all needed instruction of some kind. Even Mozart had lessons from his father.

Things like music have been made to appear more difficult than they really are because of the ‘snob nomenclature’ that the people who participate in it use. Nomenclature is simply what things are called and ‘snob nomenclature’ is the practise of using or making up very technical sounding names for what is usually pretty simple stuff.

People who get involved in an activity such as music use the ‘snob nomenclature’ to create the effect that they are ‘in the know’ and it is supposed to make others feel left out. Music abounds with this ‘snob nomenclature’ and people get intimidated by it right away but they shouldn’t. A few bucks will buy you a musical dictionary and when you see what some of these complicated terms actually mean, you will probably laugh. For example, the term Tetrachord sounds pretty technical but it just means the first four notes of a scale.

There is nothing more mysterious about learning music than there is about learning golf. If you can learn something like golf, you can learn music. Everything has a technique to it from playing pool to making love, so you just need to avail yourself of the correct information and apply it.

Unfortunately, in this country a key element has dropped out of teaching music and this is what makes it seem like some people can cut it and others can’t. This key element is a little subject, well known in Europe called ‘sight singing and ear training.’ This little subject is simply a bunch of melodies that one learns to sing or hum and rhythm drills that one practices by tapping them out on a table or one’s knee.

When this practice is done and the skills are applied to one’s music playing, the results are forthcoming and immediate. Without this, the results are very haphazard, to say the least. Fortunately, there are many good sight singing and ear training books available in this country and one should just buy one and use it a bit in conjunction with their regular music study. In this way it is not so difficult to learn music and it will be enjoyable because one will soon be able to play.


Why Would You Learn Piano Online? Because It’s the Best Decision!

If you could go back in time and do one thing, what would it be? I know for me, a world renowned pianist, it would have to be to have started learning piano when I was a lot younger and sticking at it. Piano is the basis for all music. Once it is learned, you can truly achieve anything. Studies have proven that learning music stimulates the brain, allowing you to achieve and learn things at a much more efficient rate.

But where would I go to learn piano!

There are many places to learn piano but the best are offered online. This is for many reasons which will be outlined further below.

The reason why I most recommend to learn piano online is that they are cheap, stress free, you can learn anywhere and the best of yet they are stress free!

But why would I learn piano online rather than hiring a tutor?

As said before, there are many answers to this. The first, learning online saves valuable time and money, cutting back on travelling and preparation time. Second, you can learn in your own home. Nothing can beat that! And third, there is no stress put on you by tutors and trying to play to their standards. When learning at home online, you can do the training at your own rate, cutting back on the un-necessary stress. The best courses online offer video, audio, diagrams and text that will help you learn the basics and keep you motivated.

Here is some background information on the wonderful piano:

  • A piano has 88 black and white keys (52 white and 36 black)
  • The piano strings are sounded when the keys are pressed and silenced when they are released.
  • Pianos were developed in the early 18th century. Wow that’s a long time a go!
  • The best music artists all know how to play piano. It is a foundation to loving and learning music.

For those of you that do not know, Mozart is one of the most successful and influential classical pianists. He was a child prodigy that picked up the instrument when he was a very young age after his father deemed him from playing at that age and his sister had only just started learning.

Mozart travelled all over the discovered world playing piano for important figures and helping his family until he soon sadly died from a regular and ordinary sickness but did not have the medication to heal him.


Learn to Play The Flute

The Flute is without doubt the most popular woodwind band instrument in western culture. At the beginning of every school year thousands of young children start their adventure into music by learning how to play the flute.

Here is a bit of history about the flute that will give you some insight into this ancient instrument.

The flute is the most basic instrument among the woodwind family of instruments. It is truly an ancient instrument dating back several thousand years in its most primitive form.

The flute does not have a reed to create sound like a clarinet, oboe, bassoon or saxophone. It is an aerophone which means you produce sound by blowing air across an opening in the instrument (a hole).

Flutes are made of wood or different types and combinations of metal. Silver is the most common construction material used for making modern-day flutes.

Theobald Boehm is credited for inventing the modern fingering system for the flute in the 19th century. The Boehm fingering system is the default setting for modern-day flutes.

Modern flutes are approximately twenty-six inches long with a bore width of approximately 0.75 inch. It is what we call a concert pitch instrument.

I won’t go into a lot of detail about this but it basically means when you play a C on the flute it is the identical pitch of a C when played on the piano. Not so for some of the other woodwinds instruments.

Types of Flutes

The most popular flutes are called transverse Flutes. This simply means that it is held horizontally when played.The other type of flute is called a Vertical flute. It is played with the end of the tube pointed toward the ground. Recorders and many Indian flutes are played this way.

  • Closed hole flute

This refers to the type of keys that are on the instrument. All the keys that cover the tone holes (holes) on the closed hole flute are one solid piece-thus the name closed hole flute.

Saxophone keys are an other example of a closed hole key system.

  • Open Hole Flute

On the open hole flute the keys that cover the tone holes look like a donut. They have a hole in the center of the key. However, not all the keys on open hole flutes are open. There are 7 – 9 closed hole keys on an open hole flute.

Now that can be confusing- closed holes on an open hole flute? Only the 2nd and 3rd finger of the left hand and four fingers of the right hand have the hole in the middle of the key on an open hole flute. The rest are closed.

Most professionals play on open hole flutes because they have the capacity to produce a larger more resonant sound then the closed hole flute.

  • Western Culture

In Western Culture the closed hole and open holed transverse flutes are king. In American public school band programs they are typically the only options available for playing the flute in the school band.

Things that you should know if your going to learn to play the flute:

  • The Good

For the most part there is very little maintenance required to keep your flute in great shape. It is suggested that you have the flute cleaned and the keys and rods cleaned and removed once a year to prevent rust from forming on the rods.

There are no reeds to buy for the flute which is necessary for all the other woodwinds. This alone can save you several hundred dollars a year in expense.

  • The Bad

Flutes are very fragile. They can go out of adjustment easily if they are not treated with loving care. This can become quite expensive.

How much can you expect to pay for a new flute?

New flutes range in price from $1,200 for beginning models to $20,000 US for some professional model flutes.


How To Play Tight Rhythm Guitar Like A Badass


Rock-solid rhythm guitar playing comes as a result of:

-Training yourself on how to hear the right things during practice.

-Being able to spot sloppy rhythm guitar playing errors and correct them.

Watch the video to the end so you can understand the information in the rest of this article!

Question: “Tom Hess, how does working to improve my ear help my rhythm guitar playing? Isn’t ear training mainly used for identifying intervals, harmonies and the notes of scales?”

Answer: Ear training is a big area of music that is made up of many different things. Not only is it made up of being able to identify scales, chords or intervals, but also things like rhythm patterns. Additionally, ear training covers knowing how to identify rhythm guitar playing mistakes (as well as aspects of lead guitar such as poor vibrato, consonance/dissonance, etc.)

Stay away from these common rhythm guitar playing mistakes:

Rhythm Guitar Mistake Category #1: Palm Muting Mistakes

Mistake #1: Palm Muting Everything

When you palm mute everything, every note feels the same and it becomes difficult to add emphasis to any particular note. This makes your rhythm guitar playing sound too similar and it eventually becomes dull.

Palm muting is a great way to create variety between different notes by playing some with muting and others without. When done this way, it causes unmuted notes to feel accented. Muting is also a great way to give you a tighter control over the notes and the opportunity to create percussive sounds on the strings.

See the video beginning at 9 seconds to understand the difference between good and poor palm muting.

Mistake #2: Not Using Consistent Palm Muting

Palm muting comes in two forms when it is inconsistent:

-1: Switching between muted and unmuted notes at random. In some cases, the first riff is played with consistent palm muting and the next is not.

-2: Switching between heavily/aggressive muting and light muting at random. In other cases, the first power chord is played with consistent palm muting and the next is not. Sometimes the muting is spot on, other times it is too aggressive or too light.

Both of these kinds of inconsistent palm muting frequently happen at the same time.

Note: Inconsistent palm muting is NOT the same as playing with intention. The former is just a mistake. The latter is done with the purpose of creating variation in the rhythm of the notes.

Question: “Tom Hess, can you truly understand the difference between arbitrarily inconsistent palm muting and palm muting that is varied on purpose? Isn’t that just your opinion?”

Answer: Inconsistent palm muting is pretty easy to identify. Here are a few ways to spot it:

-Inconsistent palm muting usually occurs on weird places within a riff. Example: muting on a downbeat and not muting the rest.

-Inconsistent palm muting usually also includes unwanted string noise and weak articulation (plus other mistakes mentioned below).

-Inconsistent palm muting has no strict pattern to it. This comes off as sounding unintentional.

A great guitar teacher can easily identify flaws in your rhythm guitar playing and give you honest feedback on how to improve it.

Rhythm Guitar Mistakes Category #2: Poor Timing

Common rhythm guitar timing flaws include:

1. Playing ahead of the beat: the notes you play are timed poorly and land ahead (early) of the drum/metronome.

2. Playing behind the beat: the notes you play are timed poorly and land behind (late) of the drum/metronome.

Your main objective is to play exactly on the beat (right on top of the metronome/drum beat).

When you take rhythm guitar lessons you will quickly master perfect timing.

Rhythm Guitar Mistakes Category #3: Lacking Solid Picking Articulation

Excellent picking articulation will make it very easy to hear individual notes within guitar riffs. Poor picking articulation causes the notes to run together.

Poor rhythm guitar articulation is a product of:

Weak Pick Attack – not using enough force whenever you pick a note.

Inconsistent Pick Attack – hitting some notes with a lot of force, others with little force. This inconsistency makes it difficult to articulate the notes clearly.

Sloppy Two Hand Synchronization – your picking and fretting hands are not in perfect timing with each other. The faster you play, the more apparent a lack of 2-hand synchronization becomes. This makes it easier to play without clear articulation.

2-hand synchronization issues are caused by poor guitar technique and bad practicing routines.

How To Improve Your Rhythm Guitar Playing Right Now:

1. Record yourself practicing rhythm guitar playing on a consistent basis and pay close attention to your recordings. This trains you to see the weaknesses within your playing.

2. Make a list of particular issues in your playing that you want to eliminate. This helps you avoid becoming overwhelmed so you can know exactly what needs to be worked on next.

3. Focus on the issues that you want to solve. You can do this in two ways:

Focus on one single issue in complete isolation until it is fixed. This tactic is best used for smaller problems that can be quickly fixed.


Approach the issue by rotating your focus among several problems within the same practice session. For instance: play a guitar riff over and over for 1 minute focusing on palm muting only. Then play it for 1 minute while focusing on playing in perfect time. Next, focus on articulation for 1 minute. Repeat this circuit for a total of 15 minutes. This will help you to develop your skills in the long term.


How To Create A Flourishing Guitar Teaching Business



2. Use the most effective guitar teaching models.

3. Keep your students for several years or more.

4. Help your students become amazing guitar players.

5. Develop the ability to think for success at all times.

When your guitar teaching career isn’t going well, you’re making mistakes in one or more of these areas. You have to figure out which areas you struggle in and take action to fix them.

Once you understand your guitar teaching weaknesses, find out the reasons why these weaknesses exist in your business. This gives you a foundation to build your teaching business from.

Here’s why so many guitar teachers struggle:

Why You May Have A Hard Time Attracting New Guitar Students Throughout The Year:

Reason #1: You don’t advertise consistently. The easiest way to get tons of new guitar students is to expand your advertising efforts. This helps you understand which approaches work best and gets you new students at the same time.

Reason #2: You don’t advertise consistently during every month of the year. Advertise consistently during every month of the year (even the summer months).

Reason #3: You advertising strategies don’t work. Look closely at the approaches you use to get students, understand how to make your efforts more effective and start getting tons of new students.

Reason #4: Your conversion tactics don’t transition into sales. You need to find out how to efficiently turn prospects into new students. If you can’t do this consistently, you will struggle to run a successful guitar teaching business.

Reason #5: You teach guitar in a generalized manner. The most dedicated guitar students seek an expert guitar teacher who teaches in their specific style. Specializing in a particular style gets you more students and helps you hold onto them longer.

Note: Don’t overspecialize in a style that only a small handful of people play in.

Why You May Feel Over-worked From Guitar Teaching:

Reason #1: You don’t teach anything other than 1 to 1 lessons. Teaching one on one lessons exclusively takes up tons of your time. Unfortunately, working tons of hours like this will become tiring fast. Teaching group guitar classes is the solution to this issue.

Reason #2: You do work you shouldn’t be doing. Having a lot of students who don’t pay on time while also re-scheduling lessons to suit their needs makes your job much more stressful. This is fixed by using a solid teaching policy.

Reason #3: You get don’t get paid time off. A large percentage of guitar teachers do not make income in between lessons and cannot take paid time off. The best guitar teachers give value to their students even if they aren’t together with them in person.

Why Your Guitar Students Might Leave Too Soon:

Reason #1: You attract bad students. The worst kind of students lack general motivation, don’t respect your policies and have no dedication for reaching their goals. These students usually do not stick with guitar lessons for longer than a few weeks to a month.

Tip: Attract higher quality students by raising your lesson prices and improving your overall guitar teaching skills.

Reason #2: You teach your guitar students exclusively in private lessons. One on one lessons aren’t as motivating for your students as classes/group lessons are. Simply put, group lessons are much more fun for them. They give your students the chance to play with each other and work on real-life playing skills at the same time. This kind of atmosphere will keep them coming back for many years.

Reason #3: You teach guitar with general guitar books. Basic guitar teaching books are terrible for helping your students accomplish their particular musical goals. By using these, your will become disinterested fast and stop taking lessons with you.

Reason #4: You don’t give enough attention to your students. Guitar students don’t usually quit without warning. If you know how to look for it, you can see the signs that a student is about to quit before they do so (helping you to prevent it). You can improve this skill with a guitar teacher trainer.

Reason #5: You don’t learn from your mistakes. You must pay attention to and track all the reasons why students leave lessons. This is what helps you learn and get better as a guitar teacher.

Why Your Guitar Students Don’t Seem To Be Making Progress:

Reason #1: You don’t train your guitar students on how to practice. Your guitar students generally do not understand how to practice at home alone. You must train them to do it effectively. Don’t just tell them how to practice, but actually observe them practice during your lesson together so you can correct their mistakes. Do this often.

Reason #2: You teach your guitar students too much information too soon. Guitar students often struggle when you teach them too much information all at once. Instead, teach new things a little less, and train your students a little more. This will help your guitar students become better players faster. It will also keep them from feeling overwhelmed by too much new material to learn (a major cause of students quitting).

Reason #3: You don’t prepare your students for real life situations. Your guitar students need to get trained to play with others, perform on stage and make their skills consistent in all situations.

Hint: group lessons are excellent for this.

Why Your Mindset Could Be Keeping You Back:

Reason #1: You don’t think in the big picture. Don’t accept only earning a modest wage in a year’s time with your guitar teaching business. Don’t accept low-quality results for your students. By setting small goals, you only achieve small things. Think BIG, make huge goals for yourself and take tons of action.

Hint: It’s definitely possible to earn more than 6-figures each year as a guitar teacher… but only if you set big goals for yourself.

Reason #2: You have a bad mindset about money. You won’t become a successful guitar teacher, if you:

– Think that money is inherently bad

– Feel bad about the idea of earning a lot of money

– Have an anti-capitalist view in life

The income you make money in your guitar teaching business will be equal to the value you offer to your students. When you give more value to your students, you make more income. The more money you make, the more you can give… and the cycle continues.

Reason #3: You don’t believe highly enough of yourself. What you believe is what you become. If you believe you won’t become successful, you won’t become successful. When you truly believe you will, you will make it happen at any cost.


5 Mistakes To Avoid When Learning The Piano

Ignoring the metronome

Whether learning piano online or in a physical class, it’s always good to have a metronome. This is a tool that keeps you on time. Due to the annoying nature of the tool, as you have to follow it for you to perfect playing the piano, many learners avoid using it. This results to them learning incorrect rhythms that take a lot of time to unlearn. To be on the safe side always use the metronome regardless of how annoying and inconvenient it is.

Trying to jump levels

Sometimes some of the levels might seem too basic and be tempted to jump ahead to higher and more challenging levels. While you might be able to practice the levels, in most cases you get confused. Just like in life, learning how to play the piano is a progressive development. For you to appreciate the next level you have to complete the current one. To master piano lessons you should start from the lowest levels and work your way up without skipping any level. It will take you longer to complete the lessons but it will be worth it.

Having an irregular practice pattern

When people are beginning their piano lessons, they are usually excited about it and often practice every day. With time, the initial excitement fades and becomes difficult for them to stick to their initial practicing pattern. This is wrong as it results to you not completing the lessons as soon as you should. To be on the safe side you should stick to a strict practice pattern. Experts recommend that you practice every day.

Trying to learn everything in one day

As mentioned above, whether learning piano online or in a physical class the learning process is developmental. Just as you can’t be born and be an adult the same day, you can’t learn everything in one day. Regardless of how smart you are you can’t be an expert piano player by practicing in only one day.

The piano uses different parts of your brain and trying to learn a lot in one day would resort to you finding it too difficult to learn. In most cases, you will find it being a chore to learn the piano and you will most likely stop practicing altogether. To have fun in your lessons you should divide your learning into different sections. The best way of going about it is practicing every day 1-2 hours and over a period of time, you will be an expert.

Choosing the wrong instructors

There are many people offering lessons both online and offline but few are ideal for you. Due to lack of knowledge or going for the cheapest instructors, it’s common for some people to choose the wrong instructors and this results to them not getting the services that they deserve. Whether planning to take piano online lessons or the physical lessons, always take your time to research and find the most reputable instructors.




In spite of all the statistics that half of all marriages end in divorce, I believe this one can beat the odds. Both are college graduates, and both have careers with salaries and benefits.

Nevertheless, I was a little worried by a song I heard on the oldies station during the drive to the wedding venue. I tired not to see it as an omen when Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” began playing with John Deacon’s discomforting bass intro.

For the rest of the trip I kept listening for more ominous songs, even though I would be powerless to stop the proceeding regardless. Fortunately, none of the other tunes seemed to portend a bad ending for this upcoming union.

Here are ten songs that a couple would not want to hear on the day of their wedding.

Let’s Call It Off by Peter, Bjorn, and John

This tune from the Swedish power pop trio is just one of the gems from Writer’s Block, along with singles such as “Young Folks” and “Amsterdam.”

Every Day I Love You Less and Less by the Kaiser Chiefs

“You are turning into something I detest” is just one of the many disparaging remarks singer Ricky Wilson snarls on this opening track from their debut album Employment.

I’m Not In Love by 10cc

The pop group hit the Top Ten with this tune from The Original Soundtrack, and soon after they struck gold again with “The Things We Do For Love” and “Dreadlock Holiday.”

Change of Heart by Bread

The affianced in this ballad falls for her betrothed’s best friend, but we never find out how the jilted man reacted upon the news.

The Breakup Song by the Greg Kihn Band

More commonly known by the subtitle “Oh Oh Oh Oh”, the 1981 release became the biggest hit for the group made famous by Weird Al’s parody of their “Jeopardy.”

It Is Not Meant To Be by Tame Impala

The Australian indie rocker started off the album Inner Speaker with this tune about doomed love.


Shortly after encouraging women to “Stand By Your Man” the wife of George Jones must have changed her mind and spelled it out clearly.

You Go Your Way, I’ll Go Mine by Bob Dylan

The greatest American songwriter has plenty of songs about the end of relationships, but this one from Blond on Blond is probably the least desirable to hear on the day of your wedding.

I Started Something I Couldn’t Finish by the Smiths

This line from Morrissey came on their last album Strange Ways Here We Come just weeks before he split from Johnny Marr, so it has proven to portend the end of a close relationship.


How to Make Someone’s Day From Playing Piano

If you’re about to play piano in front of your first audience, you might be a little scared. People almost always tend to think about what could go wrong instead of what they can do to prevent something to go wrong.

Here are some tips that may help you on your big day:

* Prepare your music:

You need to know for how long you’re going to play the piano, if there are going to be any breaks, etc. Only by knowing all the details you can proper schedule the music you’re going to play.

* Engage with your audience:

If you never played live before and you’re not very comfortable in this position, it may be a little hard at first. But all you need to do is to focus on your goal. You learned how to play piano, you play well, and now you can show that to people.

The best way you have to engage with your audience is by playing piano with your heart. Make sure that you show the people you love the music you possess, how a specific music makes you feel when you play it. Even if you’re not comfortable on stage, people will notice your emotion and they will love your music.

* Play for some friends and family first:

If this is the first time you’re going to play piano for an audience, you can “test” yourself by inviting some friends and family over and play for them. Although you might feel nervous, you just need to think that they’re here to help; not to judge you. So, just embrace your music and play with your heart.

* Accept their comments / criticisms:

You invited your family and friends for one reason: so they can give you their honest opinion about you. So, please make sure you don’t get mad if you don’t like something they say. Just take on whichever negative things they point out (if any), and try to turn them into positive ones.

* Time to get to stage:

Now you can say that this isn’t the first time you play piano for an audience and this should make you feel more confident. These people are there to listen to you, to listen to your music. So, just have fun. Enjoy. This is your moment. The moment you’ve been waiting for. Don’t let your nerves get in the way.

* Cater to the audience’s enjoyment:

When you’re on stage, you just can’t ignore your audience. You need to make sure they are liking your performance. So, you can even improvise. Imagine there’s a couple who seem pretty much in love. You can dedicate a song to them. This way the entire public will be more engaged as well. These are the kinds of details that people like to see. So, make sure you’re alert and spot any chance you have to interact directly with your audience.





Mistake #1. Learning Without Application





Do not make the same mistake as most guitarists by overwhelming yourself with tons of new scale patterns in only one or two positions. To master any new scale, you must learn to play it all over the fretboard. Getting stuck playing scales in 1-2 areas on the guitar severely limits your creativity.

To avoid this problem, you must consistently practice fretboard visualization. Visualize the guitar neck as ONE giant scale pattern and learn to navigate it fluently.

Warning: many systems for learning scales make this step very hard (more on this below). Work with a proven guitar teacher to learn how to visualize scales easily and fast.

Mistake #3. Not Following An Effective Process For Learning Scales On Guitar

You must have an effective process for: learning, visualizing and applying any new scale in your guitar playing.

Do NOT assume that “any system for learning scales is equally valid”. Many systems for learning scales on guitar are incomplete and damaging to your progress. The CAGED system is one such system. Using it creates A LOT of problems in your guitar technique and musical creativity.

Learn why the CAGED system sucks and what you should do instead to master scales on guitar. Avoid these mistakes in your guitar practicing and you will become a better guitarist and musician a lot faster.


Inspirational Female Singers That I Love




