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FEATURED ITEMS

THEMES FROM THE SEA CD

Themes From The Sea CD

Themes Of The Sea is a compilation of easy listening & meditative melodies. I hope you will find in this music a backdrop for your own sense of inspiration, rejuvenation and creativity..
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Piano for Quitters

Piano for Quitters DVD

Millions of Americans have taken piano lessons and quit! The culprit is rigid teaching methods that make students wait months, even years, before they truly make music. In this video, Mark Almond teaches you how to play beautiful music in literally minutes.
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Piano for Life DVD
Piano for Life DVD

Now you can get top-quality piano lessons---without leaving home! Mark Almond eliminates the "boredom factor" that causes millions of would-be musicians to give up too soon. Students learn to play beautiful music through basic principles of chords and harmony---and they're on their way! Three DVDs, 4.5 hours total.
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Articles

Article first appeared in Making Music www.MakingMusicMag.com

Upon retiring from teaching elementary school, Vivian Jacobson of Portland, Oregon, found herself with extra time on her hands to enjoy her love of the piano. "When I was getting ready to retire I thought 'I want to do more with music,'" she says.

Classically trained as a child, Jacobson learned курсы тестировщика to play the piano by playing scales and reading sheet music. She found the note reading daunting and stressful. Several years ago, Jacobson saw an advertisement in her local paper about a three-hour workshop focusing on easy piano playing.

On a whim, Jacobson attended a "Just for Fun Piano" workshop put on by piano consultant Donn Rochlin. What she found was an eclectic group of students, at all levels of learning, who simply wanted to enjoy playing the piano.


Are you interested in learning how to improvise at the piano?
Have you always wanted to be one of those people who can just sit down at the piano and go off into an inspired trance?

Does the Idea of improvisation scare you? Don?t feel alone.
    
Several years ago I was asked to give a presentation, on improvisation to a group of music teachers at the California Music Teachers Association?s Annual Conference.

During the demonstration I asked for a volunteer out of an audience of 30 or 40 teachers. I couldn?t believe it! It was like pulling teeth. Nobody wanted to come up. Finally, one of the students in the group came up, and as kids do ?. Proceeded to improvise fearlessly.

I was amazed to see that so many teachers themselves had ?Improvphoebia?. On the other hand, it makes sense when you consider most teachers were taught the traditional ?Classical? method of playing piano, where improvisation is a topic restricted to Jazz Musicians, or taboo altogether.

To read the rest of The Art of Improvisation

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Are You Struggling with Practice? by Donn Rochlin

Are you struggling with practice, or given up altogether? Do you get frustrated and don?t know what to practice? Do you get stuck in the rut of discouragement?

In his wonderful book, ?Effortless Mastery? Kenny Werner writes:

"A meaningful path is a path of action. Without practices, a path is a mere philosophy. Be careful of that. A philosophy is thought about and talked about, but a path is for walking."

To achieve the nectar of any skill, you need to practice, however there is within practice an art form in itself.

To read the rest of Struggling with Practice?

 
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DONN ROCHLIN
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