Tag: Chicago piano instructor

The first big Opera of the 21st century has millions of dedicated fans. Ever since it started it was a sensation. Lin Manuel Miranda, its creator, has been recognized as a modern genius, the cast is celebrated everywhere, and, in the tradition of all the great Broadway musicals, it has offspring sprouting in other towns…

Here is the method: doing crap. You go on the piano, on the drums, on the computer, on the pottery making thingy, and you say out loud: time to make crap! You know it won’t be good, and you do it anyway. You know it won’t be good and you work for an hour or…

Every creator has to deal with writer’s block, as they are called, which describe a creator (not necessirily a writer, could be a pottery maker) that doesn’t feel the flow of idea coming to him. As always he sat down to do his deed, but nothing comes to his mind. Or, everything that comes seems…

And, because no rock band goes without the guitar, I picked up the guitar. I liked it. I’m still the one who does most guitar parts in our band. It is a complete instrument as much as the piano. I know that statement will make many people cringe. But guitar is among the rare ones…

Because we were forming a band, I had to pick up the bass. Every one dabbles in bass playing. Every one thinks they know how to play. But what a complex instrument. How difficult it is to carve a groove, how demanding it it to hold it! The bass is very difficult. One has to…

You would have asked me twenty five years ago if I will ever be playing another instrument, I would have said no. At the time, my life was consumed by the drums. I was, at every second, thinking about it in one form or another. Then came the piano. The beautiful piano. That’s the first…

Anchor points: In the rock beat accent the hi hat on the down beat (Which goes great for many rock songs.). Or accent the up beat (For a song like Heavy cloud no rain” by Sting.). Drummers should really understand what are the anchor points they need to emphasize in the beats they play. It’s…

Dynamics 1: The simplest way to approach it is to go from soft to loud and back while doing the rock beat. But playing soft is very difficult. Most of the time, the beat will lose its energy, its drive as the player struggles to feather his strokes. One way to sidestep that land mine…

One rock beat: 8th notes on the hi hat, snare on 2 and 4, bass drum on 1 and 3. Use this beat for all the different concepts. Simultaneity. This is when two or more sound sources happens at the same time. In a simple rock beat it means the bass drum and the snare…

As a self employed person, I am constantly hit by questions only I can solve. Questions about my schedule. Questions about my teaching concepts. Questions about my budget. My hopes. My plans. My relationships with people. Because everything affects everything, because all in my life is interconnected, I am obliged to think through all that…