Play Piano Tonight

The Only Way to Survive Online During Economic Crisis

2010-08-09T23:13:00.000-07:00

Let's not be pessimistic and indulge in over-drama, but it is a fact that the whole world is experiencing serious financial problems. Yes, this is not a pleasant experience, but this is a chance to make more money, especially online.

No one is going to brainwash you that making money on the Internet is easy. It has always been tough and now it gets even more difficult. But there is one simple fact that no one is going to deny - if you can get TARGETED traffic to your sites, you will always make money from the Internet, even during this economic recession.

This rule worked from the first days of the Internet and will work until the last days of the Internet (fingers crosses for ages of life to it).

Yes, this is not a secret, targeted traffic is your key to making huge amount money. But getting this traffic is a real job. It takes time, efforts and money and - most often - you have to be prepared to wait a long time before you see any results.

Because of our proven SEO strategies, the Free Traffic System team believes that 1st page rankings in major search engines, for your niche keywords is the best way to get stable and targeted traffic.

During the prelaunch period of 2 months since September 2008, the Free Traffic System has helped dozens of people to achieve 1st page rankings in Google and other search engines.

Our members - the Free Traffic System "success test team" - are ordinary people with web sites in different niches: health, arts, business management, currency trading, loans, computer games, advertising, spiritual improvement, etc.

Their successes are documented on the Free Traffic System official page.

These web site owners achieve 1st page rankings, in major search engines and they increased their targeted traffic to their sites.

It means they seriously increased the chances to make more sales, attract more subscribers, clicks on their banners, sign-ups to lead capturing forms - anything that converts to revenue on the Internet, for FREE!

Very soon you are going to see that advertisers will shrink their online budgets. But they will keep paying to the sites with targeted traffic, because this is the only way for advertisers to survive online.

Now that the Free Traffic System is officially launched, you can claim your free membership now.

Free is the best price that you can ever find, especially during this economic crisis.

Join the club where other business owners make real strides in gaining targeted traffic from search engines.

To your success,

Ron Worthy

Ron Worthy is a Pianist, Songwriter and Educator. He's been providing online piano instruction for over 10 years. He's enjoyed a Google TOP 10 Ranking for a number of his websites!

Join the Free Traffic System Today!

Play Piano - Improve Your Piano Technique in Just 20 Minutes A DAY!

2010-08-02T18:26:00.000-07:00

Here is the guide to piano technique that takes all the guesswork and drudgery out of your practice sessions - and shows you what to practice... when to practice it... and how to improve your facility at the keyboard dramatically... in just 20 minutes a day!

Each weekly drill outlines a full week's practice schedule, with short, fun-filled exercises selected to give you the most benefit in the shortest amount of time, along with detailed instruction on how to use each study.

These fantastic "drills" will take you through 20 weeks of the most enjoyable technique-builders ever compiled in one volume.

You'll find your abilities at the piano improving day by day!

$10.00

Eva Cassidy Ft. Chuck Brown - You Don´t Know Me

2010-08-01T21:24:00.000-07:00

Play Piano - Why Hanon Exercises?

2010-07-24T15:05:00.000-07:00

I've been studying Hanon from the age of 5 years old.

If you don't understand how important piano drills are, just read the preface to this book.

Now the language is early 20th century, but hopefully you'll understand the message.

The preface was translated from the French by Dr. Theodore Baker.

"The study of the piano is now-a-days so general, and good pianists are so numerous, that mediocrity on this instrument is no longer endured.

In consequence, one must study the piano eight or ten years before venturing to perform a piece of any difficulty, even at a gathering of amateurs.

Now, how few persons are in a position to devote so many years to this study!

It often happens, therefore, that for want of sufficient practice the playing is uneven and incorrect.

The left hand gives out in passages of slight difficulty; the fourth and fifth fingers are almost useless for lack of special exercises for these fingers, which are always weaker than the rest; and when passages in octaves, in tremolo or trills occur, they are usually executed only by dint of exertion and fatigue, so that the performance is very incorrect and wholly wanting in expression.

For several years we have labored to overcome this state of affairs, making it our aim to unite in one work special exercises which render possible a complete course of pianistic study in far less time.

To attain this end, it sufficed to find the solution of the following problem:

If all five fingers of the hand were absolutely equally well trained, they would be ready to execute anything written for the instrument, and the only question remaining would be that of finger, which could readily solved.

We have found the solution of this problem in our work 'The Virtuoso-Pianist, in 60 Exercises,' etc.

In this volume will be found the exercises necessary for the acquirement of agility independence, strength and perfect evenness in the fingers, as well as suppleness of the wrists - all indispensable qualities for fine execution; furthermore, these exercises are calculated to render the left hand equally skillful with the right.

Excepting a few exercises, to be found in several methods, the entire book is our personal work.

These exercises are interesting, and do not fatigue the student like the generality of five-finger exercises, which are so dry that one requires the perseverance of a true artist to summon up courage to study them.

These exercises are written in such a manner that, after having read them a few times, they can played in quite a rapid movement; they thus become excellent practice for the fingers, and one loses no time in studying them.

If desired, any of these exercises may be played on several pianos simultaneously, rousing a spirit of emulation among the students, and habituating them to ensemble-playing.

All descriptions of difficulties will be met with.

The exercises are so arranged, that in each successive number the fingers are rested from the fatigue caused by the one preceding.

The result of this combination is, that all mechanical difficulties are executed without effort or weariness; and, after such practice, the fingers attain to astonishing facility of execution.

This work is intended for all piano-pupils.

It may be taken up after the pupil has studied about a year.

As for more advanced students, they will study it in a very short time, and will thereafter never experience the stiffness which may have been previously felt in fingers or wrists; this will render them capable of surmounting the principal mechanical difficulties.

Pianists and teachers who cannot find time for sufficient practice to keep up their playing, need only to play these exercises a few hours in order to regain all the dexterity of their fingers.

This entire volume can be played through in an hour; and if, after it has been thoroughly mastered, it be repeated daily for a time, difficulties will disappear as if by enchantment, and the beautiful, clean, pearling execution will have been acquired which is the secret of distinguished artists.

Finally, we offer this work as giving the key to all mechanical difficulties.

We therefore consider that we are rendering a real service to young pianists, to teachers, and to the directors of boarding-schools, in proposing their adoption of our work, The Virtuoso-Pianist."

But, you don't have to punish yourself the way I did...

To review my 20-Minute Piano Workout Drills for the Contemporary Pianist, Click Here!

Play Piano - The 20-Minute Piano Workout for Adults Who Hate to Practice!

2010-07-23T16:08:00.000-07:00

The 20 Minute Piano Workout is "LIVE!"

All pianists - from the struggling beginner to the experienced artist - want more technique.

I know I do...

We all want to be able to play with greater accuracy, control and apparent ease.

The drills or etudes included in the Twenty Minute Workout have all been written, selected or arranged to help you work toward that goal.

Although developing a fine piano technique is a life-long study, involving years of hard work inisolating and continuously improving the elements that constitute a good technique, the Twenty Minute Workout can be enormous help toward that goal for those without sufficient practice time.

Organized into 20 Weeks (or chapters), each week is devoted to different aspects or problems of piano playing: 5-finger patterns, chords, double notes, repeated notes, octaves, and more.

After completing each Week in the Twenty Minute Workout you will also receive a performable piece which contains some of the technical difficulties encountered in the drills... a way of enjoying your new found level of facility!

Aside from improving your technique, the course will also help your sight-reading to improve.

Each Week or Chapter is accompanied by a Practice Calendar to help you organize your practice time.

Follow the Practice Calendar and your own musical instincts.

Try to make the most of each 20 minute period, and do not expect too much of yourself in just one or two sessions.

Patient practice will create results!

Just Click Here!

Enjoy...

Ron

Piano Lesson – The Piano is a Drum Set

2006-05-09T14:57:00.000-07:00

Too many pianists seem to have forgotten that their instrument is classified as part of the percussion family. They spend so much energy and focus on the minute details, such as which note goes where, that they lose (or never get) the visceral connection with their instrument, the relaxed physicality that drummers have.

It’s no mystery why drummers tend to make the best jazz pianists. Listen to the great Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba. He was originally a drummer, and you can always hear it in his playing. To be able to spontaneously craft beautiful melodies on the piano while functioning also as a percussionist is just one of the many tightropes you must learn to walk as a musician.

In the following metaphor I have used absolutes to make a point strongly. I’ve minimized the important of individual notes in favor of the larger elements of rhythm and shape. Certainly this is an injustice to a more complex truth. Undeniably, tension and release, occurring as one melody note moves to the next, is a vital and emotional part of music.

However, much of the emotional content in music is to be found in its larger elements: the rhythms and the contours of the line as opposed to the individual notes.

If you want to express your emotions freely, you need to be able to focus your attention on those elements. And you can only do that when the smaller, mechanical tasks have been “hard-wired” into your hands. For instance, shifting scales as the harmony changes is not a creative act. It is largely a bookkeeping issue that should be delegated to your hands – it should become automatic.

In order to thoroughly program your hands to handle the mechanical aspects of playing, you need to spend years focusing on them – working out note-choice, fingering, and technique minutiae. And you need to know theory: the task of analyzing a tune for scale-choice (another non-creative act) should feel automatic. But all of this disciplined detail work is a means to an end, and you’ll progress much more quickly if you have a clear image of that end.

Image an odd-looking keyboard with keys, just two touch-sensitive drumheads where the keys used to be.

The drumheads are digital and there is also a built-in computer that can instantly analyze chord to determine the most appropriate improvising scales. You simply insert a card that has a recording of your style of playing, so the computer can adjust its scale analysis to match your style.

Before you play, you insert the sheet music into the data slot. During your solo you tap rhythms on the right drumhead, shifting your right and left to indicate higher or lower pitch. While your right hand is busy tapping, you comp on the other drumhead with your left hand –again, just by tapping the rhythm you want. The computer selects one of your favorite voicings for each chord. Your only concern is the rhythm.

Playing this piano is almost as easy as playing a set of bongo drums. You can express your rhythmic impulses freely through the instrument without the usual complications of being in the right key, making transitions from scale to scale, or searching for the right voicing.

Do you want to buy this piano? Sorry, it hasn’t been invented yet!

The point of this metaphor is to get you to envision what being a pianist is like after you’ve learned all your theory, scales, voicings, and other structure thoroughly. It’s a way for you to imagine the physical, loose, big-movement, conductor-like, drummer-like way of being at the instrument. It’s to help you keep that end vision in mind so that you don’t end up boxing yourself in. And it’s to remind you that the piano is a percussion instrument.

Click Here to Join The Play Piano Tonight Community

2006-03-12T09:47:00.000-08:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

Here's How to Make Your Music Meaningful

2006-03-09T18:17:00.000-08:00

Whatever you play, wherever you play, play with musical meaning.

Ask yourself - does it swing along with a steady pulse?

Are the recurring strong and weak beats where they should be?

Is there enough elasticity in the rhythmic pattern to avoid that drone, dull oom pah oom pah?

Does the melody flow along smoothly, breathing in the right places?

Are the dynamics effective?

If the answer to any of the above questions is negative you are not doing enough to make your music meaningful.

Music Must Communicate

If you feel you are not doing your best and you would like to do something about it, I would suggest that you sit back and take a good objective look (listen) at your musical product so you can diagnose the problem and then prescribe the remedy.

You are asking how you can diagnose your own playing problems - how can you listen to yourself - either objectively or subjectively.

Make a tape recording of your playing. Then sit back and listen objectively, as if you didn't know the performer. Watch the music as you listen and mark the spots that sound like just notes - not meaningful music.

Since rhythmic pulse is as vital to music as the heartbeat is to living, that would be the best place to begin to criticize your playing.

Once you get your time (duration of notes) and meter (arrangement of beats into patterns) under control, you will be on your way to making your music more meaningful.

Don't forget to call me at: (301) 585-0118 EST so that I can assist you with your short and long term playing goals.

If you wish, just send me your phone, time zone and best time to call, and I will call you!

To your playing success,

Ron

www.playpianotonight.com