Is It Possible To Create Cool "New Age" Sounds On The Piano Without Knowing A Thing About Music?

I'll admit that for many years as a piano teacher I didn't think so.

But in the last couple years I made a discovery about creating pleasant sounds on the piano that I never would have believed during my earlier piano teaching career.

I recall a physician friend asking me if I had any kind of course he could take that didn't involve learning to read Music or Music theory or any of the traditional materials. He had purchased a beautiful Yamaha grand for his daughter to take lessons on when she was growing up, but now she was married and moved away, so he had this grand piano in his living room with no one to play it. He was much t oo busy in his career to take traditional piano lessons he just wanted to doodle after work in the evening and relax after a stress-filled day at the hospital.

Unfortunately, I told him no I don't have anything like that available sorry! and that was the end of that story.

But a few months later another student had heard a new age pianist somewhere, and loved the sounds he produced so much that they wanted to do the same, and asked me how in the world he got those sounds. They weren't really songs more like the sounds of nature and running water and nature in bloom.

I have taught piano for 30 years and I'm a firm believer in learning to read Music, understand Music, and really master the keyboard. I'm no fan of mindless shortcuts because I know in the long run they just don't work you've got to have understanding.

But I also know now that there are many people like my doctor friend people that would love to be able to make their own pleasant sounds on the piano just for their own satisfaction, relaxation, and amusement. They know full well that they will never be full-blown piano players, but still, they would like to sit down now and then and just make some sounds on the keyboard that sound good, feel good, and give satisfaction to them and/or their family.

I should have understood that earlier, because as I think back to my own youth, I recall my Dad sitting down at our old upright piano for a half-hour on a Saturday night and playing some kind of chording pattern that absolutely delighted my Mom and my big brother and I. I guess you know that if I could call him back from He aven and have him play that again for me, I wouldn't trade the entire London Symphony for that half-hour.

There is a style of Music that is quite popular these days known as new age Music. It tries to capture the sounds of nature water flowing, birds, wind that kind of thing. It is very descriptive Music, and very relaxing. It's fun to play, too, because there are really no wrong answers anything that sounds nice and pleasant is right.

After trying for several mo nths to create some of these sounds on the piano, I was delighted to discover that there are some very simple finger patterns that can create some wonderful impressionistic sounds patterns that can be repeated in various places on the keyboard and in various ways.

And so for those people who just want to make some nice sounds on the piano (or keyboard or synthesizer it doesn't matter what kind of keyboard) I discovered some 15 different sound patterns that anyone can duplicate. I named some of them:

Cascading waterfalls
Wind in the forest
Rainbow after storm
Oriental gardens
Stroll in a meadow
Peaceful morning
Playful kittens
Gentle waves
and 7 others.

After I discovered each sound pattern, I then linked those sound patterns together in various ways so that anyone can create their own song, their own creative improvisation that expresses the feelings they want to express.

I guess an old doctor friend who just wanted t o make some pleasant sounds on his grand piano can teach and old dog piano teachers like me a few tricks after all!

Duane Shinn is the author of over 500 Music books and Music educational materials such as DVD's, CD's, Musical games for kids, chord charts, Musical software, and piano lesson instructional c ourses for adults. His book-CD-DVD course titled How To Create Cool New Age Sounds On The Piano! is now being used around the world by folks who just want to relax and enjoy some pleasant sounds of their own. Duane is also the author of the popular free 101-week online e-mail newsletter titled Amazing Piano Lesson Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions with over 70,000 current subscribers.

Author:: Duane Shinn
Keywords:: new age Music, piano playing, Music
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