14
votes
How to break out of playing scales up and down when improvising
Try working around chord tones.
Three things you can add to playing only chord tones are auxiliary tones, passing tones, and enclosures.
The enclosure example shows enclosures targeting each tone of ...
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12
votes
How do I know when I have sufficiently mastered a right hand speed drill for accordion?
You're never 'done' with speed drills. You can get faster and faster, although at some point you'll approach your personal limit where you can't increase the speed any more and still play rhythmically ...
- 22k
10
votes
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What method for learning the guitar fretboard is most effective?
In a sentence, mix it up and steer away from where you're comfortable.
Mix it up
To start with find some methods and exercises to work with. Some examples:
Always say (or sing if possible) the ...
- 4,138
9
votes
Accepted
Is there any way to practice different strengths on same hand?
Not really an exercise, though you could make this into an exercise:
When you need to play certain notes louder than others when playing several notes simultaneously within one hand, make sure that ...
- 2,693
9
votes
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How do I know when I have sufficiently mastered a right hand speed drill for accordion?
One idea of these sort of exercises is that they are in fact drills. Drills designed to help you play certain things without thinking about what you're playing. Automatically.
When you reach the point ...
- 197k
8
votes
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Guitar book to complement my guitar lessons
The type of book you're talking about is called a method book and it contains exercises and home work for a student. Method books are meant to be used with an instructor. I personally favor Hal ...
- 4,635
8
votes
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How good am I supposed to be at my 3rd year of playing electric guitar? Also, suggestions for songs and exercises to improve faster
There just isn't a simple graph that could be made - time played against ability to play. Every single person's would be very different!
And then there's actual playing ability. Playing any of those ...
- 197k
8
votes
Is the fingering the same for Hanon exercises when you play in a different key?
Hanon exercises are designed to be played on white keys, and it was not Hanon's intention they be transposed. However, transposing them can be an excellent exercise, in which case it's up to you how ...
- 94.8k
8
votes
Learning to interact with an audience
This is going to sound funny, but every time I practice, I do so by performing as though I am front of the live audience.
I strap my guitar on, plug it in thru my pedal board and amps, and I stand up ...
- 2,181
7
votes
Giant Steps - Coltrane and Slonimsky
In Slonimsky's book, page 27 (page 39 on your pdf) "Ditone Progression, Equal Division of One Octave into Three Parts" you see that Slonimsky uses the notes C E G# and C again. They all are a major ...
- 31.5k
7
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Giant Steps - Coltrane and Slonimsky
Giants Steps bears a striking resemblance to this "12-tone progression" from the Introduction to Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales (pg. vi):
This was mentioned by Quincy Jones in a recent documentary ...
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7
votes
How to break out of playing scales up and down when improvising
Two broad strategies:
Since you're familiar with scales, keep practicing them, but in different patterns
Break up the scales into different patterns
X: 1
T: Scale in 3rds
M: 4/4
K: C major
L: 1/8
&...
- 94.8k
6
votes
Piano exercises post-chemotherapy
Simply stated, but a difficult question. I have never experienced cancer first hand, though I have had family members who have. That said, I have been in situations where I had to play piano with very ...
- 25.7k
6
votes
Accepted
Exercise from second chapter of Harmony by Walter Piston
The subdominant of G♯ minor is C♯ minor. The C♯ minor chord is C♯-E-G♯. The first inversion of that chord is E-G♯-C♯. So that would mean that E should be the bass note.
But the question is a bit ...
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6
votes
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Recommended Breathing Exercises to Play Woodwinds
First, a warning: the best way to improve breath control is by playing long-tones on the instrument. WIthout this, you don't hear the tone quality (or lack thereof) in relationship to breath control. ...
- 15k
5
votes
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How to play this rhythm exercise?
Yes. For a three-staff exercise, tap your foot or vocalize the third part.
Sometimes I'll tap both feet (on different parts) and then clap the third part. In general with these exercises, the more ...
- 94.8k
4
votes
Are there any violin exercises for advanced playing like Hanon and Brhams for piano?
Yes, there are very many instruction and technique books available. Many Etude books are also available, providing technique work using specifically written pieces, which tends to be more entertaining ...
- 7,544
4
votes
Are there any historical facts about what specific piano exercises where taught by Fred Francois Chopin, Felix Mendelsohn and JS Bach?
Well, for JS Bach it's easy. Start with the notebooks Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and Notebook for Anna Magdalena.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klavierb%C3%BCchlein_f%C3%...
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4
votes
Is it possible to learn advanced piano technique from the book alone?
I'm teaching myself piano. I think I'm making good progress, but still far from my goal.
Can all this be learned, practised from some book alone without human supervision?
I would say "no" if you ...
- 59.5k
4
votes
How good am I supposed to be at my 3rd year of playing electric guitar? Also, suggestions for songs and exercises to improve faster
This is really a supplement to @Tim's excellent answer.
First, you played for a year, took a year off, then spent part of the next year recovering what you'd lost / forgotten during the year off. So ...
- 512
4
votes
What musical activities can locked down musicians do via video-conferencing?
As a preface, my experience playing duets via Zoom is that in addition to the latency, Zoom doesn't handle the simultaneous sounds well -- I can hear myself or my partner, but not both.
That said, a ...
- 94.8k
4
votes
Exercises away from the piano
A student of mine was in exactly the same position. I lent him an old keyboard of mine, but the keys worked more like an organ than a piano. It helped a bit.
However, I asked the head of the local ...
- 197k
4
votes
Accepted
Advice for positioning my pinky on the fretboard, it is slightly twisted toward the ring finger
There will be no right answer for this. your pinky goes where your pinky goes. Everyone's physiology is slightly different, so one will say like this, another like that.
That apart, looking at your ...
- 197k
4
votes
Exercises for 21st century piano sightreaders
I've personally used Bartok's Mikrokosmos for practicing sightreading. It helps me pay more attention to what notes are really there, and avoid trying to anticipate the harmony of the piece (which, ...
- 211
4
votes
Accepted
Left hand finger exercise giving massive tension
Is it healthy? No. Even the C major version I would never do and would never suggest a student to it. The exercise reinforces isolating the fingers, which is not how one plays the piano, and it ...
- 94.8k
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