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Duane Shinn's Articles

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  • Exciting Improvising: How to Make Up Music Out Of Your Head As You Play
    Improvisation (also known as improvising) is the act of making something up as you go along -- an act with which we all have a little experience.
  • Can You Become a Boogie-Man or Boogie-Lady?
    Boogie music, also known as boogie woogie, is a genre of piano-heavy music particular to America in the 1940s and 50s.
  • Learn a Musical Instrument, Prepare for a Career
    From education to video games, there are careers available for those who happen to have a background in music which the rest of us never see. Each of these fields requires time and study for proficiency, but they represent a career path that is nonexistent for non-musicians.
  • To Make Your Kids More Successful, Teach Them Music!
    Besides being a sure way to become the life of the party, learning to play an instrument can make your children smarter, better adjusted, and better equipped to adopt a position of leadership in a diverse world.
  • I Like It, But Is It Music?
    Are you frustrated when you try to explain your taste in music? Fortunately, one of the benefits of learning a musical instrument is a better understanding of your own musical taste. Learn to play an instrument, and soon you will be able to discuss what works or doesn't work for you, in music.
  • Can You Really Learn To Play a Musical Instrument From an Online Course?
    Out of the 250 million people in the United States, about 25 million of them play an instrument of some kind, or at least used to when they were in school and would like to pick up where they left off. Another 30 million or so sing in a church choir, a barbershop quartet, or at the very least, in the shower.
  • Five Great Practice Ideas I Learned From My Piano Students
    Sometimes the teacher learns more from the student than the student does from the teacher. Hopefully, not too often, but today I would like to share with you some great practicing ideas that have come from my piano students over the years.
  • Mp3's - - The Future of Music?
    Mp3 music is audio file that has been digitally encoded and compressed to make the amount of data smaller without compromising the overall sound quality. Because of it's portability, it promises to be the future of music.
  • How Many Guitar Chords Do I Need To Know?
    Most simple songs contain just 3 chords called "primary chords". So even a stark beginner can learn 3 simple note groups well enough to strum along and accompany himself as he sings. But after that, the sky is the limit; there are thousands of possible chords, so it is up to the individual guitarist as to how many he or she wants to master.
  • What All Do I Have to Know to be a Really Good Piano Player?
    Many students ask me a question that goes something like this:
    "What all do I have to know to be a really good piano player?" The answer is multi-facited and depends largely on the motivation and talent of the individual.
  • Improvising On The Piano: Jazz Musicians Do It -- Why Not Other Styles?
    Jazz pianists improvise all the time. So why not classical pianists, gospel pianists, and piano players of many other styles?
  • Piano Playing Your Way: How To Have More Fun Playing The Piano Than You Ever Have Before
    Piano playing doesn't have to be boring. There's no law that says you have to play a song the same way everyone else plays it. By learning some basic music theory and chord formations, you can have the time of your life playing music like you've always wanted to.
  • Playing The Piano Using Chord Symbols Instead of Being Tied To The Written Sheet Music
    Piano improvising and arranging is an art but definitely not a science. It is all based on chords and chord progressions. There aren't any steadfast rules for creating an arrangement, nothing to dictate the limitless potential of your imagination.
  • Learn To Play The Piano Better By Learning To Arrange Chords & Chord Progressions
    Piano arranging is the process by which you take a written piece of music and rework it with chords, adding new bass accompaniment, fills, or even slightly altering the song's structure. And while it's a process that takes years to truly master, anyone with a basic education in piano and a working knowledge of a few key techniques can create an inventive, satisfying arrangement.
  • Is Your Child Struggling in School? Get Him (Or Her) Music Lessons
    Playing music has been discovered to have a direct and almost immediate effect on the brain of the student. Music lessons have been shown in a German study to have a significant impact on the way the brain functions after as little as five weeks.
  • How Grandma's Lap Robe Saved My Legs
    As I was growing up, Grandma always made sure that I wouldn't catch cold by insisting I have a lap robe over my legs. Didn't matter if it was 32 degrees or 100 degrees; the lap robe was an absolute necessity.
  • Never Open An Outhouse Door Without Knocking
    I suppose that every hometown of every child holds certain favorite hiding places, or short cuts, or little-known doors or cubbyholes or secret passageways or whatever, and Auburn, the little town where I grew up, was no exception.
  • Oh My Aching Head! Can Music Really Make You Feel Better?
    We all know, if only instinctively, that music has a profound effect on us. If we didn't believe that music affects us then singing lullabies to calm children and help them sleep wouldn't be universal. In reality melody, harmony, and rhythm probably impacts the human brain in ways that are far more profound than we realize.
  • How I Found Out That God Bowls On Monday Evenings at 7
    I grew up wondering what Jesus did on Monday evenings. My Uncle Verge went bowling on Monday evenings, and although a good Methodist child wouldn't be caught dead inside a bowling alley back in those days, I sometimes visualized Jesus bowling along side of Uncle Verge, since they both apparently had Monday evenings off.
  • So You Want to be President? Learn to Play a Musical Instrument!
    From Bill Clinton and his sax to Richard Nixon and his piano, many Presidents and leaders have played a musical instrument. Does Condi Rice have an edge in future presidential elections because she is also a concert pianist?
  • Music Downloads: Free & Low Cost Ways For Musicians To Get Their Music Known All Over The World
    For the musician, music downloads are an absolute breakthrough technology, allowing, for the first time in history, for a musician to develop a following without ever leaving his or her house! Marketing possibilities are unlimited for the musicians who avail themselves of this wonderful new technology.
  • Piano Playing is Easier than You Think When You Understand Musical Form
    Understanding musical form in music is one of the proven shortcuts to better piano playing (or better guitar playing, or any instrument). Form is like the blueprint to a house -- it holds the key that unlocks the musical map of a song or a musical compostition.
  • Killer Piano Playing Secrets of a Chord Addict!
    When a lightbulb comes on in the mind of an individual who is seeking knowledge in some area, it is amazing how much progress can be made in a short time. For piano players and other musicians, that moment of insight that changes lives often has to do with understanding chords and how they progress to create music.
  • They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano -- but When I Started to Play --
    Is there a "backdoor to piano playing?" Chords are a way in to the world of piano playing without having to go through the front door: years and years of scales, drills, rote practicing, etc. Chords are really a shortcut to understanding and playing music without all the formal training.
  • Musicians: What Chords Do You Absolutely, Positively Have To Know?
    There are thousands of different chords in music, but there are 3 chords -- just 3 -- that you absolutely, positively have to know. If you don't know these three, there's hardly a song in the whole world that you could play. But by knowing just 3 chords, you can play hundreds, if not thousands of songs!

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