Fast Piano Lessons Blog

TALK TO ME!

Please tell me what you wish had further explanation! Anything that you didn’t quite understand, or aren’t sure how to apply it. Just post a comment to this post and I’ll do my best to update the course!

I really want to make the Chords 101 Course better, as you can see I’ve posted a new blog category called “CHORDS 101″ (in the right hand link bar under “categories”) By clicking on that, you’ll find all the videos that have been associated with the Chords 101 E-book. Its easier to show examples of certain piano concepts through video. Its also more fun to watch!

Til now, I’ve just been guessing what concepts you’d like to see explained in further detail. It would be really useful to hear your feedback though!

Thanks,
Chris Marx

New Chords 101 Videos:

Beginning Piano Day One - Learning Half Steps and Whole Steps - Chords 101 Course - DAY 1

Building Major and Minor triads by counting half steps - Chords 101 Course - DAY 2

The 12 Most Common Chords on Piano - Easy Lesson with Picture Chords - Chords 101 Course - Day 3

If you haven’t heard of this charity, prepare to be blown away!
Through http://www.charitywater.org/
Just $20 can give one person in a developing nation clean water for 20 years.
Charity:water has done an incredible amount over the last couple years creating 1,200+ wells.

Challenge yourself to do something to help someone out today! Even if you just want to write a song you can create positive change. Try giving a charity performance… Let your audience know that $20 could give someone clean water for 20 years. Record it and post it on youtube…

Brad had a question, he wants to learn more about gospel music and get away from reading the music… His goal is to interpret and embellish what he reads on paper.

I’m not a gospel expert because I grew up in washington state… I don’t have a lot of experience playing that style of music or in churches! BUT I have really worked hard to make some of the elements of gospel music a part of my playing to broaden some of the sounds I can create on piano.

One of the books I recommend for learning more about gospel music is called Gospel Keyboard Styles. You should be able to read music before working through this book. I like that it has short examples of rhythms or chord progressions that you can pull out and put into your playing.
For example, they give you a cool walk up to do when going from a 1 to a 4 chord, C to F and then its up to you to actually apply that in a song you are working on, or transpose it to a new key! Not too much different than what we do on this blog with licks.
This book is great, because it offers a lot more concentrated information than a video would, going in depth to tell you all about when to use certain progressions and how things developed.

(This is an affiliate link,
so I receive a 4% commission on any books you purchase after clicking on this link).
THANK YOU!

Another good gospel book is Gospel Piano: Hal Leonard Keyboard Style Series. I like all the books in this piano series because they have a lot of good fills and licks and history. The only thing that I don’t like so much is it requires you to be a good reader, but it comes with a CD if you have a good ear.

Just added a table of contents to the top 3 tabs, and there is also a link to it on the right hand side under “PAGES”.

It should help make finding specific lessons easier because there are starting to be a lot of them!!!

Also the About and FAQ pages have been relocated to the right hand side bar in the “PAGES” group as well.

To get ready for Valentine’s Day, lets do a poll!!!

Keyboard player’s: Why not serenade your loved one from outside their window with a little portable amplifier? –Not recommended for grand piano players.

UPDATE: I started to do a lesson for elton john while he was in the lead, but it looks like elvis is now in the lead… I guess well do both?