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A tie and a slur can be somewhat confusing to a beginner. They look exactly the same, but have completely different functions. I have attached a picture of a tie, which is the curved line underneath the two notes. So how do you tell them apart? A tie is a curved line that connects two notes that are the same (two middle C’s), which means they are on the same line or space. The two notes connected by a tie…

Learning to sing in head register may be one of the most important things you can learn as a singer. Singing in the head register will help you expand your vocal range and hit those high notes! So, what is your head voice and how do you access it? The head voice is an old school Italian term used to describe notes in the top part of the vocal range. The Italian singers called it head voice because they noticed…

The picture attached is called the treble staff, which consists of five lines and four spaces (Middle C sits below the staff). It includes of all the notes from middle C, moving to the right, up to F on the top line. The treble clef (or G clef) is the music symbol on the left side of the staff. In the beginning, to help you remember the lines on the staff, use this saying “Every Good Boy Does Fine”. You…

Having a clear picture in your mind of what you want as a singer, songwriter, pianist (musician) is the biggest step. If you cannot visualize it, it’s hard to accomplish what you don’t see in your mind. It’s important to stay current in music, technology, social media (vital) and knowing what the new generation is interested in. What is everyone listening to, who are the new artists, producers, musicians in the field. How are the new artists writing music, who’s…

The bass clef staff is made up of five lines and four spaces, just like the treble clef staff. If you look at the picture attached, you will see the middle C note on a line (middle C has a leger line going through the middle of the note). The note below middle C is B, which is on a space. This pattern of line – space – line – space continues all the way down the bass clef staff,…

The formation of clear and distinct sounds, clarity in playing or singing successive notes is key. Articulation, diction, enunciation are different ways to describe how you sing. It is the way in which we enunciate our words as we sing them. If you add inflection, accent, intonation this will add texture to your singing voice; how you sing your vowels sounds and close out your words, will create a very unique vocal sound. When you hear Rhianna sing, listen to…

It takes time to really learn how to read notes and understand rhythms, hopefully you have read the first two blogs about how to read music and deduce some important features of the music. When you look at piano music, you probably noticed that it is split into two parts (as you can see in the picture attached). You have a staff at the top (treble clef staff, blog – How To Read Music Part 1) and a staff at…

Singing or playing piano with a specific style depends on a few things. How do you interpret the lyrics for a song? What do they mean to you? What feelings do the words awaken in you, and how can you evoke those feeling to the audience? Where does it make sense to increase or decrease volume? Also, the rhythmic pattern you choose to use will create a specific feel and style to the song. Your stylistic choice will determine your…

A sharp symbol (#) looks like a pound sign or a hash tag, and it raises the pitch (note) a half step. The parallel lines should be slanted a little. Let’s say you are playing middle C (white key) and needed to play C#, you would play the black key to the right of the white key. A sharp note is an alteration of the natural note. It raises the note a half step higher (or semitone higher) than the…