Piano Guidance
Piano Guidance
Photo: Sergey Makashin
Recent research suggests that the varying shapes and sizes of our vocal folds, pharynx, nasal cavities and even our skull, means that some people can produce a more pleasing natural sound than the rest of us. “We call this the timbre of the voice,” Hutchins says.
Once we've assumed that refretting is the way to go, you'll need to know a few things in advance: It's a delicate process. You might not get it...
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Guitar is easier for adults to learn because it is less challenging to learn songs at the beginner level. Piano, however, is easier for younger...
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grade 5 The full version of Fur Elise is considered reasonably difficult, broadly an intermediate piece around grade 5, but a shorter arrangement...
Read More »“It’s a little bit like when you pinch the ends of a balloon and then let the air out,” Hutchins says. “The way that noise is generated is quite similar to the air being pressed from the lungs through your narrow vocal folds. And that’s the basics of it. You can also vary that sound through the way you hold your tongue, lips, pharynx, nasal passages, the rest of your articulators.” Some people may appear to be sharper than others at learning the complex physical mechanisms needed to vocalise what you want, but that can be a result of being exposed to music from a much younger age. As with anything involving muscle memory, it’s far easier for singing to become a natural, subconscious process if you’ve learnt how to do it while your brain’s still developing. “Early childhood exposure is extremely important when it comes to all musical ability,” Hutchins says. “We know that children are able to hear and perceive musical qualities from even before they’re born. There’s really good evidence that if your mother exposes you to music pre-birth, these children are taking in these musical experiences and using them to subconsciously guide their ability to produce music later in life.” Of course it isn’t just pitch control which defines what we perceive as a great voice. When it comes to choosing our favourite singers, a lot stems from the natural aesthetic of the voice and that seems to be defined at least in part, by our natural physiology. Recent research suggests that the varying shapes and sizes of our vocal folds, pharynx, nasal cavities and even our skull, means that some people can produce a more pleasing natural sound than the rest of us. “We call this the timbre of the voice,” Hutchins says. “It’s the aspect of a note which doesn’t have anything to do with its loudness, duration or pitch. What makes a piano sound different to a voice or a guitar. To understand timbre, thinking about speaking in a large cathedral compared to speaking outside. The sounds you hear are ultimately quite different. And timbre is definitely natural to some extent but it can also be trained. You can learn to adjust your vocal tract to gain the type of timbre you’re aiming for.” Our vocal timbres vary because the cavities inside of your mouth and nose act like a cathedral hull, setting up places for the sound waves to bounce off. The way that they bounce determines the particular shape of the sound. Some people have cavities which are more naturally suited for certain styles of singing, making it easier for them to create the types of resonances they want.
Practice everything – scales, licks, voicings, improvisation and songs – in every key, especially your weak keys. Accuracy is more important than...
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Know your notes! The demands of the Grade 1 pieces will mean that it would be very difficult to make progress with the pieces without having a good...
Read More »“At the end of the day, it really depends on what you want to achieve in terms of musical genre,” Hutchins says. “Everybody produces some type of sound, it’s just a matter of whether that’s the one you want to go with or not. There are some musicians who just go with the voice they have like Bob Dylan for example, and some who really work at what they’ve been born with to style it in the way they want.” Singing ability is also heavily controlled by your state of mind and high anxiety levels can make it far harder to achieve the kind of pitch control you’re aiming for, which is why even professional singers are occasionally accused of being out of tune at a concert. Hutchins’ research has found that many people struggle with singing simply because they believe they’re a poor singer. “The psychology involved can make a very big difference,” he says. “I’ve given talks where a number of people have come up to me afterwards and said that a teacher had told them they didn’t have any musical ability when they were young and they should just mouth the words in the school choir. And that just made them think, why bother to try. Which is tragic really, as trying is the only way you’re going to improve the skills you have.”
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Eddie Van Halen went on to popularize the two-handed tapping technique in the late 1970s. Van Halen claims that his own inspiration came from Led...
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Blues guitar keys The two most common keys in blues music are E and A. There are others, but these two keys are the most common.
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With a guitar, you can bend up to a note, you can unbend down to a note, you can hit a note a quarter step up, you can bend up then down, or down...
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