10 Tips For Learning Triad Chords

Chords are a good place to start because chords are so applicable to today’s songs. If you want to learn any popular song, you are going to be using chords. One thing I have noticed in my career is that the more you know about chords, the better you can play them.

What I have done here, is listed some tips that you can apply to gain a very thorough knowledge and playing ability of chords. To get the fullness of this post you may have to do some research on your own, but consider this an overview. Here we go:

1. Learn how to build triads. One of the greatest things you can do for yourself is to learn about the triad. Now if you want to know a good place to find explanations, you can go to these links (Here) (Here). After you have done your research on what a triad is, it is time to “spell” them. This just means that you are going to take some particular chords and write them out on sheet music. I won’t go into why this important here but you should spend some time doing this. You can download your own staff paper at www.blanksheetmusic.net  Try out this chord calculator as well.
2. Learn to Play Them With Both Hands. Once you learn how to form triads, it is important to build the coordination with both hands. I will tell you that most of the time, us people who use chords a lot usually play the chord with the right hand and a bass line or pattern with the left. This is not a rule, just typical.
3. Learn A Song. One of the easiest ways to learn chords is just to learn a song. A lot of times, you can find free chord charts online. It is also worthwhile to invest in sheet music from a store like www.musicnotes.com. I would also recommend as you are learning your song, go back to step 1 and write out the chords in root position form. (Find out more about Root Position here).
4. Roman Numerals. It is really important to be able to associate Roman Numerals to each chord in a key. Let me explain what I mean. Every note in the major scale has a triad chord that goes with it. Each one of these chords has a Roman Numeral that also is assigned to it. What you want to do is to be able to identify the I(one) chord in any song. For example, in the key of C, C is I which would make G the numeral V(Five) and so forth. This is explained in a couple of places. (Here) and (Here).
5. Learn Scales. It always comes back to scales for me doesn’t it. Now I have done a lot of posts on scales so I won’t go deep here. Because the scale is the foundation of all chords, it is obviously important to learn your scales so that you can have a background understanding of chords. I would suggest starting with Major Scales. If you are a pianist, I have a great pdf that you can download for free to get you started. (Click Here) Besides being able to play the scales you want to be able to write these out as well. 
6. Learn Arpeggios. You may not be to sure what an arpeggio is. Well, an arpeggio is a broken chord. This means that using a particular fingering and technique, you play one note of the chord at a time. Typically this happens from bottom to top and then back to the bottom. This will help you understand each chord more fully.
7. Construct Chords. There is an exercise at www.teoria.com that allows you to build chords based on the root of the chord. It might ask you to build a G major chord on a G. This will give you lots of practice. Here is the link for the exercise: Click Here If you are new at this, start with the default settings. You can add other chord types and inversions later.
8. Inversions. Now I will talk about something that gets overlooked very often. It seems to be unimportant to most people. While understand the reasoning that “inversions” are unimportant I do disagree. I am all about context and how the study on one concept can enlighten you in the broader context. If you want to understand chords and how they work, you should definitely spend some time on inversions. I won’t go deep here because I already have some posts about inversions. So here is a link to a post of mine. Here is a link that to a presentation on inversions: Click Here
9. Major or Minor. Understanding the difference between Major Chords and Minor Chords is important. The difference changes the function of the chord as well as the sound. The difference really lies in the third of the chord. There are other types of triads that will be important to learn as well. Here is where you can find a nice explanation of the types of triads.
10. Intervals. This one is last but NOT least. You can’t understand chord effectively unless you understand intervals. This one is very related to scales. Again, I have covered intervals in the past so I will simply give you a couple of links. Here is a link to understanding intervals in a generic sense: Click Here  Now here is a link to understanding specific intervals: Click Here And finally, here is my post called: Why Every Musician Needs Intervals and How To Find Them

Singing Tips for using a Breathy Technique

Ok I am no expert on the subject but I am a singing coach and I do teach this method a little bit during singing lessons. So I decided to do some research on the topic of "Singing with a Breathy Tone". 

Some teach this method as a way to add style to a contemporary song. Others seem to say not to do it at all? 

Which one is right? Well I will just say using it only for effect is just fine but it doesn't need to be the constitution of your sound. 
Ok so now I will dive into some singing tips on using breathiness in my tone:

• Never Abuse Breathiness. In your vocal training, don't define your sound as vein breathy.  If you are breathy because you don't know how to do anything else, then you are not doing it the right way. "Breathiness in your tone is an effect and shouldn't be abused.
• Be Stylistic. As Justin Stoney describes in this video, some songs require a breathy tone and others do not. 
• Use Breathiness In Dynamics. My personal preference is to use different amounts of breathiness within the same song. I try to correlate this with dynamics so that I get a lot of variation and emotion in the music. For example, during the first verse of a song, I might start breathy and as I get louder I might decrease the amount of breathiness.

An Exercise you can do to work on breathiness:

I want you to think of two variables. The first one is Tone and the second is Intensity. What we are going to try to do is increase the rate of our breath and maybe decrease the volume of our tone so that we can achieve a breathy sound.

Pick a note that is in your comfortable range. Sing it on any syllable and start at a loud volume. Now as you sing decrease the volume of your tone so that by the time you run out of air, all you hear is breath. If you do this enough, you will eventually gain the muscle to apply as much or as little as you want!

Some Resources For and Against Breathiness. You Decide

For:
Nashville Singing Lessons: Breathy Tones for Stylistic Effect - YouTube

How to Use Different Textures in Your Voice | Singing Lessons for Beginners

I just found this video as well. This is one of the best that I found:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqVvIqcOFfs

Against:
Damaging Vocal Techniques

Vocal Coaching Articles | Strained Singing & Cramped Cords

Why Every Musician Needs Intervals and How to Find Them

Do you want to improve your music reading skills? How about your overall understanding of how music works. Your Ear-training skills?

You can improve all of these by learning about Intervals. An Interval in music is defined as the distance between two notes. Now this can get complicated but we are going to stick to a set group of notes for the purposes of this post.

What I mean is this. If you take a look at these two examples you will see that the notes are different, and yet they would both be a type of interval called a Second. The first one is called a Major Second and the second is called a Minor Second.

So for the purposes of this article, I am going to focus on intervals that do not use flats(b) or sharps(#).

Specifically I am going to focus in on C Major. Now this is not the only scale you could use but it tends to be the easiest for understanding.

So watch this video that will walk you through a tutorial on understanding these intervals.

Now let me show you some applications:

1. Reading - One of the most important applications is that you can actually learn to use intervals to help you read. For example, if your first two notes are C and G, you might start reading it as a Fifth along with the letter names.
2. Ear Training - You can learn this ear training exercise that will have a massive impact on the rest of your musical application. The exercise is called Interval Recognition. You can learn more and get started (Here)
3. Major Scale - THIS IS SO IMPORTANT! The Major Scale is the foundation for your musical understanding so do not neglect your scales.  Make sure you take your time to thoroughly understand them and play them. It will take you longer at the time but you will love the long term results. (Please see my post on practice methods to help you along)

Tips for determining what an interval is:

1. Always count the first note as 1 - This is important because if you don’t count the bottom note as 1 then you will be one number too short. Here is an example: This is an Eighth which we call an octave. See if you can count it!
2. Use The Letter Names - When determining what an interval is, the letters will help you as well. For example I always know that from a C to a G is a Fifth. Because I have that memorized I no longer have to count it. Also if you can remember that from a letter to the same letter is an octave, just like the example above, this will help you.
3. Repetition - There is that word again! Eventually you will be able to read intervals like you can read letter names if you spend enough time practicing. I would highly recommend this because it only strengthens your reading speed and accuracy.

Resources for learning intervals online: (these links come from a site called musictheory.net. This is a great site to learn music theory online.

A Lesson in Intervals

An Exercise on Intervals (Treble Clef Only: You can change this on the site)

How to Identify Root Position Triads

Unfortunately, a lot of topics in music theory are hard to explain without using terminology. So I am going to throw one term at you that will really advance your knowledge once you grasp it!

Root Position Triads - Start here if you don't even know what it means. Otherwise watch the video below to get you started. After you watch the video, I have something for you.

I have made a pdf chart for you called Root Position Triads. This will give you a list of all 12 chords with a picture beside it. You can download it and put it on your laptop or tablet, or even your phone! To download the pdf, you must have Dropbox (its free!)

To accompany the chord chart, if you would like to get a video that will show you how to form all of the triads with your right hand, you can sign up for my email list.

After signing up, you will get an introductory email and then when I see you are in the system you will get several past resources including Chord Possibilities.

Just sign up on the form below!

Ways to Learn Music Theory

There is a mystery surrounding Music Theory that suggests that it is all a bunch of lofty ideas that nobody should care to know. When you get really deep into theory this could be true. But you could spend years studying Music before you ever get to that point.

The Problem is, even the simple Music Theory topics are hard when you don’t know music. It would be like going to China and having someone teach you grammar. While grammar is important to learn the language, you have to know a little of the language first.

The truth of the matter is, if you are learning to play an instrument, then you are using theory. It is something you have to have in order to be a good musician. How much of it you learn is up to you but I would say it depends on what you want to do with it.

Generally speaking, if you were going to be a professional musician or music teacher, you would want to learn as much of it as you possibly can. Now I am going to break this down for you a little bit so you can get a grasp on how to apply these theory concepts.

1. Get organized - There are a number of websites that have theory organized into sections. You can also get great books about it as well. It is important to know what info to start with. For a list of some important theory topics to study, check out this post

1. Repetition - Much of Music Theory can only be truly learned by repetition. For example, if you are working on how to read and write a major scale, you will have to practice just as you would practice other things. 

1. Apply It - Another reason why I think Music Theory is so difficult is because even if someone does learn the concepts, that doesn’t mean he or she knows how to apply them. Take your time and figure out why the concept matters.

To give you a big example, I will use the C Major Scale which is one of the things that I think needs a lot of attention.

It doesn’t really matter what you start with but you should learn these things:

(To explore each topic, click the link to the right of each number)

1. Learn to play the scale (Scale Prep)
2. Learn what the scale is and what notes are in the scale (Click Here)
3. Learn the numbers that go with the scale degrees (these are called intervals)
4. Learn about whole and half steps (Click Here)
5. Learn what chords fit with each note in the scale (These are called Triads)
6. Learn to write the C Major Scale. Refer to step 2 and then download staff paper. (Staff Paper)
7. Train your ear to hear intervals in the scale. (Start Here)

You see, by the time you are done with all of these angles, you will understand the Scale but you will also be able to do many other things as well. 

5 Things to Know About Music Theory

Every wished you could sit down and play any song by ear? Have you ever had the inspiration to sit down and get started, only to realize that it takes a lot more work than what you thought?

Listen, you’re not alone! It is easy to get discouraged when it comes to music because it is such a vast subject. What you really need is someone to help get you there, to walk you through it. I really want to be one of those people for you. So...Let’s get right to it!

Here are some things you should know about music theory that you can apply to any instrument.

1. Rhythm - Rhythm is one of those things that you can develop. I say this for those of you who struggle in this area. It’s okay to laugh if you’re one of them LOL. You have to start somewhere. Strive for three things:
1. Understand how to count the rhythm. I wouldn’t bother trying to play a rhythm until you first understand it. It won’t be precise if you don’t have a general knowledge of how it should sound
2. Practice many different kinds of rhythms. The most typical note duration to start with is the Quarter Note. If you can master, Quarter notes, Half notes and whole notes, then you are probably ready to start dividing the beat into half using eighth notes.
3. Use A Metronome - Your rhythm will not be precise unless you practice it with a metronome. Whether you are clapping, tapping, playing or singing, this is always best. If you have a smart phone you may want to consider this Rhythm Trainer.
2. Note Identification - You should be able to identify all notes on both the treble and bass clef staves. No worries...if you have no idea what I am talking about then I have a great resource for you. www.musictheory.net has long been a favorite resource of mine. This link will lead you an exercise that will allow you to practice Note Identification. Wait though. You are going to need a guide to help you. You can download it (Here). Must Have Dropbox account. (Its Free)
3. Intervals - Now an interval is the distance between two notes. So all you need to know is that you always count the bottom note as 1. For example, if you want to measure the distance between C and F, you would count C as 1 which makes the correct measurement a Fourth. C-D-E-F. Learning intervals can help with these two things:
1. Note Reading - After reading for a long time, you can actually learn to read by numbers and letters. This increases speed while reading as well.
2. Ear Training - If you want to properly train your ear, you have to understand intervals because we measure interval distances with the ear. For more about Ear Training Click This Link.
4. Scales - Learning Your Major Scales is similar in importance to learning the alphabet if you want to communicate language. This is a subject that isn’t to popular among most students because it doesn’t have immediate gratification. In fact, they aren’t very fun at all, but they indirectly provide the framework for a well rounded musician. A lot of times when teaching music, we start with C Major because there are no sharps or flats. If you would like to get started, click on this link.
5. Chords - After you learn some scales, you may want to start in on chords. Chord can be incredibly complex and complicated, but there are simple ways to start. In fact, a lot of my really young students like to learn chords. If you want to get started on chords, the most basic form of a chord is called the Root Position Triad. The keyword that I want you to focus on is Triad. A Triad is identified as having three notes and each note is a third apart. You can learn more about triads here.  

There are many other topics of course. I hope I clarified some of the most important topics for you. Remember that these will take lots of study to understand fully. I will be posting in the future as I see needs, so tell me what your Music Theory needs are?? You could comment below, or find me on twitter or facebook! Thanks 

17 TIPS FOR IMPROVING MUSIC PRACTICE

Its easy to fall into a rut as a practicing musician. Have you ever been there? Chances are, if you have practiced for a long time you have been there. I know I have. Well, over all the years I have been practicing, I have discovered some tricks and tips to get myself out of a rut or two.

Some of these tips are practice methods. Others of them are organization ideas. As I go through this list, I hope you are inspired to try some new methods when you practice.

1. Slow it down - One of the biggest mistakes a music student can make is to go too fast. We often think that we can play better faster. This is just not true. At first it seems like we do better faster, but you must be able to play slow accurately before you can play fast accurately. 
2. Use a metronome - A metronome serves two basic functions. The first function is to slow you down. This is a great tool to force you to go slower than you think you need to go. Find a tempo that is comfortable and start there. The second function is to speed you up. Once you can play a passage perfectly, start gradually speeding it up. Check out this (tempo chart) for optimal results. 
3. Break it down - Another mistake that students often make is that they try to practice a whole song when they really should break it down and take it a little at a time. Try playing two or four measure segments at a time. This will allow you to take one bite at a time and fix any errors in each particular secton.
4. Increase repetition - One of your greatest allies as a practicer is Repetition. Sometimes when I practice a section, I may play it one hundred times correctly before moving on. This is because I understand the power of repetition. Do not cut your repetition short. Make sure you feel really comfortable with a section before you move on. It may seem like it is taking forever but you will be more satisfied with the results. I like to repeat a section almost without stopping so that I don't waste time.
5. Recognize 2 types of mistakes - 
1. Habitual Mistakes are mistakes that happen in the same place everytime. These kind of mistakes need the greatest attention. Slow down and even stop at the point where the mistake is to ensure that it doesn’t continue.
2. Random Mistakes are often hard to avoid. You can get rid of these by increasing focus or slowing down.
6. Frequency of Practice - If you find that you aren’t meeting your goals, try increasing the number of days that you practice. 5 days for 30 minutes per day is better than 1 Day for 2 1/2 hours even though they are the same amount of time. There is just no replacement for Frequency.
7. Increased Practice Time - After you have optimized your practice time, you may want to consider increasing the amount of time you spend on your instrument each day. Obviously more time spend will result in faster results.
8. Keep a Practice Chart - For those of you who are like me, you love charts and planners and stuff. No matter who you are, this discipline is a good idea. It will help you evaluate how effective your practicing is and it will help you make decisions as to how much you should practice in the future. You can get as detailed as writing down what you practice and at what tempo it is completed.
9. Mark Your Music - The greatest musicians, yes even professionals, mark their music. Markings might include: circles so the eye can detect a problem area, reminders, etc...You should mark according to your needs. However, do not write in notes. This will not help you in the long run because you will stop looking at the notes and start reading by letters.
10. Practice it Backwards - If you are struggling with a section, try playing it backwards as well. The more ways you can familiarize yourself with something the better. When you do this, you don't even have to do it in rhythm. You can just practice the notes backwards and it will help!
11. Practice With Your Eyes Closed - Believe it or not, I have never met a musician who played better with their eyes glued to their instruments. It isn’t bad to look down occasionally but by far the best way to practice is by keeping your eyes on the music. Sometimes closing your eyes helps because it gets your mind off of doing everything perfect. It is kind of a mind trick.
12. Think About Something Different - There are do’s and don’t’s here. You shouldn’t think about anything not related to what you are doing. What you should do if you know you can play something but you are too distracted or unfocused is try focusing on a particular muscle or breathing or anything else related to the task at hand. This helps remove tunnel vision or hyper-focus on a certain task. There is a great book out there for any musical perfomer called “The Inner Game of Music” by Berry Green. Find it HERE.
13. Change the Rhythm - Again one of the best things you can do is practice a passage in as many forms as possible. Try making up new rhythms using the same notes. I’m not sure why this is so effective but I have had it in my toolbox for a while now and I always pull it out when I am struggling. 
14. Isolate Hands - This look different depending on the instrument. But for example, If you are playing the piano, it is as simple as playing one hand at a time. If you are a guitar player, you could try just forming the chords but not strumming. 
15. Set Goals - Another tool I have put in my toolbox is goal setting. I am a goal driven person so I really like to set goals and then see how long it takes me to meet them. It keeps me motivated and it helps me measure my progress.
16. Get Inspired - Find something that will motivate you to practice harder. Often times watching a video of someone who is better than me is enough to make me want to practice. YouTube is a great resource for this.
17. Share Ideas - The final tip is to share ideas. It is good to learn from those who are a little more accomplished than you, but you can also learn somethings by teaching those who are just starting. I have learned a lot of details about music just by teaching.

Recommended Resource:

Frozen Ape Tempo

By now you should have enough information that you could maybe come up with some stuff on your own. You want to try to find some things that work for you. Everyone is different, so don’t feel like you have to do all of these. The point is that you get motivated, get organized and then be persistent. Whatever instrument you play you can adjust some of the tips accordingly.

What kinds of things have you tried? Were those things successful? Please comment below!