The goal is to build a strong habit, there is a spanish proverb that says habits start off like cobwebs and grow into cables. *The Power Of Less - Page 147. You want to create good practice habits… so here are some guidelines I’ve learned from reading a great book called The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential…in Business and in Life

Start small and easy. focus only on building one habit for 30 days. if you stop get back on. make your habit the most important thing for that day. don’t schedule it at a time that will have other commitments encroaching on it. evenings are bad because you’ll cancel your practice time for social engagements. you want to build a habit of practicing, not build a habit of NOT practicing.

How to apply this:

I’ve added a picture of my fridge below. It has my practice goal on it with 30 circles. Each day I practice enough to meet my goal, I fill in one of the 30 circles. As soon as the whole page is filled up I’m buying myself a reward! Filling in the circles is a lot of incentive in itself, but to complete the entire page of 30 really helps give me the initial push I need to build a new habit of practicing… or whatever I want to make a habit of in my life. My previous goal was for exercise.

One of my goals is to practice piano more so I changed my desktop background to just remind me of my practice goal. I’ve made one for you right here that says "10 minutes a day, 3 days a week"

1. Right click on the picture
2. Select "SET AS DESKTOP BACKGROUND"
3. Leave it on your computer until you successfully complete the goal.
4. Then increase the goal by one day, or 5 minutes at a time per week.

The important thing is to practice just a little bit each day…start off with something simple that you can do for 3 days a week 5 minutes a day… add a little more time each week until you get to a solid practice goal like 15-30min/day 5 days a week.

Don’t set your initial goal too high… Its much harder to maintain practicing or exercising for an hour a day if you’re coming from a cold start of not practicing at all. You have to train your mind and body to get used to the new routine first.

Version #1 of Everything - For Solo Piano. (Bass line and melody)

Version #2 of Everything - Fancy Introduction & Play / Sing

Let me know if you want to see the chords for this!

Technology is getting so good that one person (a piano player) can record all the instruments and have it come out sounding like a live band played together! 

Its taken a while to work out most of the technical bugs and things like distortion or video not syncing to audio… but after much trial and error, things are starting to get interesting! You can use ustream.tv’s chat window to ask me questions or use twitter and just type @chrismarx85 before your tweet so that I’ll see your questions right away and then through the video I can respond by playing some of that good piano music.

Most of the lessons will either be in the late evening or 1pm pst.

Live Broadcasting by Ustream

Enjoy!!! But don’t get any ideas about making a cat piano at home…

I’ll begin posting more lessons soon! I’ve been really focused lately on practicing and recovering from fun ulcerative colitis/crohn’s issues.

Stay tuned!!!

The Notation for the song:

Mercy Mercy Mercy Music Handout

Video Contents:

There are two arrangements of Mercy Mercy Mercy in this video.

The first half is the easier one, its all written down in the handout.

The second half of the video is trickier. I’m using a bass line in the left hand and chords and melody combined in the right hand.

Left Hand Voicings from the Video!

In the example below, there are a few different voicings, play through them to hear how they sound! 

Example 1 is the basic root position voicing for Eb and Bb.

Example 2 has the root of the chord in the left hand, and the 7th, 3rd & 5th of the Bb7 chord. It then moves to the 3rd, 7th & 9th of the Eb9 chord. Each finger moves only a half step which creates a very smooth sound!

Example 3 is the same as example 2 but reversed.

The trick to combining the chords and melody in the right hand is to always make the melody note the highest note. Keeping the melody on top helps it ring out. If its in the middle of the chord, it gets hidden and masked.

WARNING FLATS AHEAD!

Don’t forget the flats by the way!

Because of the key signature at the beginning,

All the B’s and E’s are flatted in the music below.

Cool Bb Blues Lick!

This is taken from the middle section of the handout. Play through it to get a feel for how it sounds. You can print it off by clicking on it.

In the example above, the left hand is acting like a bass player playing the roots of the chord in 8th notes.

The right hand is playing the famous blues lick. Its all based around a Bb7 chord. Start off with the Bb major triad then move your top two fingers up the Bb7 scale.

Bb7 Dominant Scale aka Bb7 Mixolydian Mode

Below is the Bb dominant scale. This is the scale to play on Bb7 chords. Its exactly like the Bb major scale, but "A" the 7th note has been lowered to "Ab". (Notice it says "Flat 7th Note").

Also try using the Bb Blues scale. Bb Blues scale would sound good over the entire song!

1. Play along with the video.
2. Then play through all 12 major chords in one hand. Time yourself!
3. Then work on all 12 minor chords in one hand. Time yourself again! Try to beat 30 seconds. I know you can do it! I’ve had a few 5 year old piano students of mine accomplish this!
   

This will help you become one of the fastest piano players in the west!!! …or the east if thats where you live. If you live in the south, sorry you’re out of luck.

You don’t have to be able to play all those chords in 30 seconds, but it does help when you try an learn a new song. When learning a new song, you don’t get stuck on how to play the chord among the 50 million other things you have to learn, your only worry is what chord comes next. So just time yourself and make sure that you can find each chord in both hands fairly quickly!

How long does this take to learn?

I remember that it took me quite a few weeks to practice this and see a lot of improvement. Some of my piano students who practiced a little bit everyday have accomplished this goal to be able to play all their major triads in under 30 seconds in one week though!

What order should I play all the chords in?

They usually play them in this order because its fast: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, Ab, Bb, Db, Eb, F#. That’s useful, but eventually you’ll want to challenge yourself so you keep improving your reaction time and you’re not just practicing a routine. The circle of 5ths shown below is another pattern that you can play your chords in!

The Circle of Fifths:

The image below is the famous circle of fifths. It is a great way to make sure you get through all 12 keys when you’re practicing. Its called the circle of fifths because each chord is a 5th apart. Its a good challenge to find chords that leap so far apart.

Some people can only read chords symbols or just a few of the notes on treble clef.   I tried to accommodate all the possible answers, but if you don’t fit in anywhere, just write something in the "other" field or the comments!   After answering, the poll shows all the information it has collected and will tell you how many can read music!  

I’m going to use twitter to point to good piano lessons and mention other things I’m doing.