Easily Create Your Own Piano Meditation!

Soothing and relaxing, meditation music is designed to calm your mind and center your spirit. There is a lot of music out there that will help you do this, but have you ever thought about creating your own meditation music?

It's possible. And it's a lot easier than you might think.

The cool thing about creating your own meditation music is that you can tailor it to suit your own taste. Many instruments are perfect for creating this type of music, but the piano is especially good. Why? Because a complete beginner can learn a few chords and begin to create immediately.

But how you ask? Here's how.

The first thing I have my students do is learn something called the open position piano chord. This chord structure allows the complete beginner to create sounds that are modern and easy on the ears.

It's not an easy chord structure to master at first, but once accomplished, it really gives you all you need to easily play the piano.

One style that's synonymous with meditation music is the New Age style. In fact, New Age music is the place most look first when they need to relax and unwind.

Most people have heard of New Age piano. The man who put this genre on the map, George Winston, has literally sold millions of his soothing, reflective solo piano CD's.

You see, the thing about actually creating this kind of music on your own is that it actually allows you to go deeper than just listening to it. That's because you are actively engaged in making it. This alone will help you stay in the present and experience a deep peace seldom found by just 'taking it in.'

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music's online piano lessons He has been helping students learn how to create meditation music for over 15 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Visit Quiescence Music now and get a free piano lesson and special offer!

Don't Just Study Piano - Play It!

Many piano students spend much time learning how to play the piano. Years upon years of study time devoted to perfecting technique, tone, dynamics, etc.

All the while, many of these same students have never really played the piano. That is, they have spent their time practicing in preparation for the moment when they can "perform" for others.

Wouldn't it be refreshing if instead of learning how to play other peoples music, we could feel confident enough to create our own? Why is it so daunting a task for most of us?

I think it's because we've been taught that only a very few gifted individuals are capable of producing music from scratch - whatever the genre. Rock, jazz, classical etc. Unfortunately, this belief is enough to stop most dead in their tracks and for those, whose spark of interest was lit in childhood, it soon turns cold and lifeless.

Now, playing the piano is entirely different than learning the piano. Here we are at home. Why? Because we are playing. So different an approach it is too! Children are allowed free-play and are even encouraged to do so. But as we grow up, we decide we must "make something worthy of performance." What a tragic error in thinking! Yet one that pervades the music world.

The solution is to understand that we all have our own special music inside of us and each and every one of us has something wonderful to share with the world. This something comes through when we stop learning how to play the piano and begin to play it truly for the first time.

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. Visit http://www.quiescencemusic.com now and get a FREE piano lesson and more!

Improvisation ... It's About Feeling

It really doesn't take much to improvise. A few chords, a scale to play in and that's that. But once these technical decisions are out of the way, we must allow our feeling to guide us.

Playing this way has many advantages. First, you don't have to worry about what you're going to play. You let your intuition guide you in this. The hands are placed on certain chords. The fingers move and the mind is in abeyance, waiting in surprise to see what the hands will discover.

You also don't have to think about what chords to use or how you're going to play them. When you take care of the technical aspects first, you free yourself to explore your materials. Of course, things can change and we must allow for this, but playing within a set of limitations will free the mind.

For example, in the improvisation exercise 'Nurturing Rain', 2 chords are used. How they are played is determined and a Key is chosen. Now the improviser can relax and explore the possibilities available.

The other way of playing, the way where there are too many choices present, distracts the improviser from improvising. The mind must be free from these distractions so feeling can be expressed easily. Many students have a problem with doing things easily.

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 15 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Ready to freely improvise on piano? Visit Quiescence Music now for a risk-FREE special!! 

Don't Put the Piano On a Pedestal

The piano. It’s a musical instrument that many would love to play. Yet for most, it’s got a rarefied air about it. Something almost mystical as if touching a key would cause a Steinway lid to shut tight around unworthy fingers if the note wasn’t perfect.

The above scenario is humorous yet sad. Because my friends, in the classical music world, this is what we have. A reverence for ritual and the ‘masters.’ God forbid one should just go over to a piano and play off the top of one’s head. No. This isn’t usually the case as children are taught that to make music, ‘real’ music, one must study. And study hard!

It’s not enough to just learn a few chords and go off exploring. That wouldn’t be right now would it?

It’s so sad that some children learn the ‘Tiger Mom’ approach and then, after the policeman with a stick is gone, the adult never goes near the piano again. There’s no one threatening to punish them if they don’t practice so why bother.

Think I’m kidding about this? This is the rigmarole that some kids are put through right from the beginning. If a creative approach is taught, and that’s doubtful, it’s relegated to background status - a thing not to be valued.

Yet I argue that the creative, playing part is where the value really is.
I’m not saying that one shouldn’t practice. But music should be a place primarily for play and recreation, not a testing ground to see if one has mastered a piece or not. The reward for getting it right of course, is an atta boy or that’s great from an authority figure - the dreaded piano teacher.

And sadly, this turns into deadly approval seeking as the child now is programmed to give a good performance for a pat on the back. The piano is a great instrument, there's no doubt about it. But don't make the mistake of making it more important than you - that is, don't put it on a pedestal. It might be hard to reach.

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 16 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Visit Online Piano Lessons by Quiescence Music now and get a FREE piano lesson!

The Piano and Music Therapy: A Perfect Match!

If there was one genre of music perfect for music therapy, it would have to be New Age piano. Soothing and relaxing, the piano offers many benefits to those in need of respite.

The wonderful thing about this style of music is that it's also easy to learn how to play!

A few chords, a scale, and you're able to make music. And not just any kind of music, but one that's conducive to alleviating stress.

Let's look at how one might go about learning how to play piano in the New Age style.

First, it's best if you learn one chord position that will give you a nice modern sound right away. The open position chord structure accomplishes this. It's easy to learn and can be used by the beginner right away to make music with. And it uses both hands as well to cover more than 2 octaves of the piano keyboard.

Once this chord structure is practiced, it's time to add in a few chords. Just a few chords is all that is necessary for the beginning adult to experience the joy of improvisation. The hands are placed on the open position chord structure and the fingers move around creating melody. Nothing more is required than an openness to explore the possibilities.

And once students get started, they find that they can't stop playing. The therapeutic aspect of this comes from the free-form improvisations students are able to play only after a few minutes of practice. They begin to unwind, relax, and forget about the problems and cares of the day. It's a music therapy that goes one step above just listening to 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. Visit now and get a FREE piano lesson

How To Capture Your Musical Ideas!

Have you ever watched an artist demonstrate how they create a painting? If not, you’re missing something wonderful … how to go from nothing to something.

How to create beauty where before there was only blank canvas.

Let’s take a landscape artist as an example and assume the subject has already been chosen - a peaceful woodland scene.

Now, how does the artist go about capturing this idea? Easy! They have a working method already in place! In art, the background is usually composed first.

Foreground details are added in later.

We can apply this same concept to music composition as well; specifically New Age piano composition. You see, we can also lay in the background and set the mood for the entire piece of music. And the best part about this is it’s quite easy to do.

This is the technique George Winston uses in much of his early work. A left hand pattern lays in the “wash” so to speak, while the right hand creates a lovely melodic foreground. Why this isn’t taught by most piano teachers is a mystery to me. Especially since the use of this technique gives immediate satisfaction.

Entire pieces of music have been and are created using this technique. All we need to know are the chords and when the chord changes occur. This is done by placing the chord symbols on something called a chart.

The chart is simply bars of music drawn out that indicate when you change chords. The cool thing about creating harmonic backgrounds is you don’t have to chart out more than 8-bars to create your musical canvas. Even 2-bars is enough. Why? Because once you have the chord progression down, you simply keep playing it over and over.

Eventually, this will get monotonous. But if we wanted to, we can add in a new harmonic background and keep the piece of music fresh!

Learn how it's done! Visit Quiescencemusic.com now for a FREE sample lesson and more! 

Chord Changes for Piano and How to Chart Them Out

As much as I like to just "fool around" on the piano, there comes a time when I want to remember or capture what I've been doing. But what's an easy way to do this you ask? I'll tell you.

By charting out your chord changes on a piece of paper, you'll remember the harmonic background easier. Here's how... First, get a sheet of paper. Any paper will do. It doesn't have to be lined or ruled and it doesn't have to be music paper. Next draw out 8-bars. I usually just draw 4 bars, skip down some and then draw another 4-bars.

This is your chord chart! It doesn't have to be more complicated than this. In fact, this quick sketch method will serve you well when inspiration is running high and you want to very quickly jot down your chord changes. You can do it anywhere! On a napkin, on a piece of paper in your purse or wallet. In fact, I've actually used ATM receipts to jot down chord changes on.

After you draw out 8-bars, you know have a template to use. You simply write your chord symbols on top. The chord changes may last for 1 bar, 2 bars… whatever. Eight bar frameworks are excellent to work in because they give you your first section of music! Plus, it's a nice space of time to work in. In fact, you could use just 2 chords and fill out the 8-bars, i.e., C Major for the first 4 bars and F Major for the next 4.

After you fill up this 8-bar space, you have basically captured the harmony aspect. But, you'll probably want to jot down the first 2-bars of melody as well. This will really help you remember what you are creating. You might also want to sketch out the arrangement of your chord changes. For example, if you are playing arpeggios in the left hand, indicate the pattern by writing it in for 2-bars. Well, there you have it. My quick sketch method for creating with.

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. Visit now and get a FREE piano lesson!