Take a break from boring music - Game of Thrones time!

In my past few blogs, we looked at the meaning of music and started learning some of the fundamentals.  My advice at this point is to not get bored.  If all you're doing are exercises, you'll get bored and leave music.  Don't do that.  Find a song you like and try to learn it.  If it becomes tiresome, move on to a new one.  I found that being excited about what I was playing was what kept me going this entire time.

That being said, this week I have something special to offer: Ever felt like learning the Game of Thrones opening theme?  If the answer is yes, then you're in luck.  Check out the video posted above and follow along (warning: an extreme urge to watch all four seasons may appear after watching this video).

If the answer is no, then I feel bad for you and you live a sad life.

As I explain in the video, there are ways to make songs easier and harder.  For instance, a lot of people have a hard time having each hand do a separate movement on the piano.  A potential solution to this is to move your hands at a similar tempo.  It may sound a little choppy and blockish, but at this point, it's better than nothing.

If multitasking is not an issue, then you implement different tempos on each hand to add a continuous flow of music.

Let me know in the comments section if you want more of these types of videos!

Starting to create your own music

This week we’re going to look at actually creating our own music.  A lot of people that I have talked to have thought that it must be a masterpiece with many fluid parts, such as having multiple rhythms on the go to be considered music.  Some of it is, but accompaniment alone is also essential, and particularly easy to play.  

For instance, check out Eminem’s classic “Lose Yourself”.  If possible, listen to the piano and bass notes, and hopefully you’ll come to understand that such a vital part of the song is simply a few notes repeated multiple times.

In my video posted above, the simple melody can be broken into two different parts.  Here is a quick break down:

Part 1 Right hand: Hit the two keys on the outside of the two black keys – specifically “C” and “E” over and over again at any desired tempo (they are both listed as #1 located in the middle of the piano in the video).

Part 2 Left hand: This is like your bass.  The cool part about this is that you can play it alone or in accompaniment with other melodies.  In this case, if you wish to mimic the video, match the tempo of your right hand or get creative and make a new one that harmonizes itself well with it.  The notes you’ll want to hit are “A” (#1 in the video), “C” (#2 in the video), and “G” (#3 in the video) on the left end of the key board.

This is a meant to be a quick demonstration that simplicity can lead to new levels of musical beauty, either in aiding other parts of the same song, or by standing out on its own.

Please leave a comment below if you have a hard time understanding or wish for some of the mechanics to be further explained.