1. Don’t try and make something happen.

Trying blocks the creative flow and will result in blocks.

2. Don’t expect to create something good.

Expectations will always come with judgments and, consequently, you’ll end up feeling let down.

3. Don’t worry about what is “coming out.”

Improvisation is about play and freedom to explore. Abandon unrealistic expectations and experience the joy of improvisation.

4. Don’t try and please others.

The first person you must please is yourself. This may seem obvious but don’t underestimate the strong need to please – ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO THE ARTS!

5. Don’t try and accumulate a “lot of knowledge.”

All it takes to improvise is a few chords and the proper attitude.

6. Don’t think.

Improvisation is about FEELING. It’s about being in the moment and experiencing the moment through the music.

Thinking will take you away from your intuition, which will guide you if you listen to it. Intuition will lead you places thinking never could!

7. Don’t quit.

Practice is what makes intuition stronger. The more you practice or play, the stronger your intuition will grow and the more you will trust it.

Your unique voice will emerge and will grow stronger each time you sit down to play.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at QuiescenceMusic.com for a FREE piano lesson!

How To Construct Basic Chords on the Piano

The easiest way to start learning how to build chords is to practice their constructions in the key of C Major. You’re just playing all white keys.

All you have to do is play every other white key to create a 3-note chord. A 3-note chord is called a triad. A 4-note chord is called a 7th chord. And a 5-note chord is called a 9th chord.

Now you have the option of playing your chords in one hand or you may use both hands! It depends upon the sound you want to produce.

How to Improvise Melodies

There’s something irresistible about a real melody. If you can convince the listener that they’re hearing a melody when you improvise, they will stay riveted to every note.

Well, you can – and it’s not really that difficult. The one element that is common to almost all good melodies is: repetition.

Repetition.

Repetition and more repetition. I’m referring specifically to the repetition of ideas (motifs, as they are often called). Sometimes the idea is repeated exactly as it occurred the first time, as in the Holiday tune “Jingle Bells.”

More often, the motif occurs higher or lower than it did originally. The notes are different but the rhythm and the shape of the line remain intact, as in “Happy Birthday.” This type of repetition can be defined as “pitch-shifting.”

What I’m describing here is a process often called motific development: the spinning out of ideas through the use of repetition, pitch-shifting, and extension.

So that’s it … if you want your improvisations or solos to sound like a melody, you need to use a lot of repetition.

Ironically many musicians avoid using repetition for fear of sounding repetitious, i.e., boring. You bore a listener if you try to elicit the same emotional reaction from him/her two or three times in a row, but that’s not what you’re doing when you repeat an idea.

When you first introduce an idea, it’s new. The listener waits with open anticipation to hear how the idea spins itself out. But when you repeat the idea, their reaction is very different. Now they can gain a certain sense of control, by connecting what they’re hearing to what went before.

Just listen to some of your favorite songs, and you will definitely hear repetition!

Ron Worthy is the owner of MrRonsMusic.com. He is a Music Eductor and Performer. His site offers online piano instruction for all ages. He specializes in Rock, Pop, Blues and Smooth Jazz Piano disciplines.

Have you ever been told that you were good at something but not good enough to make it a career or life ambition? Especially with music, if you’re passion is music you are hopelessly outnumbered right from the beginning.

“You better have a back-up job” or “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” are common refrains heard from well meaning adults who inadvertently had their dreams crushed out of them.

The world has more than enough computer programmers and engineers and these professions are well paying ones. What are we musicians to do? Well, for one thing we can forget about needing “talent” to make it.

What is talent anyway but a person’s ability to connect with his or her audience. You might think that talent means technical proficiency. You couldn’t be more wrong.

Here’s the good news. Connect with yourself and your art and you automatically become talented. This means you don’t have to wait years and years before you begin to share what comes out of you with others.

In fact, most so called “really talented people” last in the limelight for a few years or so and then burn out to non-remembrance. If you consider yourself hopelessly untalented you are focusing on the wrong problem.

The question isn’t “Do you know enough?” The real question is, “Are you confident enough to believe in your own abilities?” If you do, you will go far. If not, there’s not much hope.

Those who are able to let go and connect with the music inside of them are already truly talented.

About the author:Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years! Visit us now at quiescencemusic.com for a FREE piano lesson!

He has to start somewhere so he begins to examine how to construct a short story. He learns all about plot, character, and structure and now believes he is ready to begin writing.

As soon as he begins to write, he discovers something. He can’t move forward. He is blocked. What’s the problem? He knows how to construct a short story and should be able to forge ahead right?

The problem is he has not allowed his “voice” to unfold naturally. His internal critic is blocking the natural voice inside his head and the pen stops cold. What to do?

Our writer must learn to free write so words can flow freely and not be stopped by the editor voice. The same principles can be applied to us as musicians!

We may want to compose our own music and we may also know all about how to do it, but unless we are able to improvise freely and allow our own natural “voice” free reign, the music stops and we lose the ability to move forward.

This is why learning how to improvise is so important. It allows us to move forward!

This benefits us in two ways.

One, we begin to understand that the joy of music making itself is its own reward.

Second, we begin to trust our voice and feel confident in our ability to move forward without judging the “quality” of the music.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at for a FREE piano lesson!