There are thousands of piano books available in music stores and online at such places as Amazon. And piano books are usually necessary if your goal is to become a better pianist. But how does a person know which piano books are...

Learning music theory and harmony is not just an option you can take or leave: it is part and parcel of the "stuff of music". And yet the majority of piano players ignore the very thing that would take them to the next level in ...

There's a logic behind every note written in music, & you can learn to understand that logic, and therefore understand music.

If you're anything like me, you would love to learn how to "fill up the empty spaces" in the songs you play with scale fragments, chords, broken chords, and so on. Learning how to "fill it up" with runs and fills would certainly...

Most of us who took piano lessons as kids are all too familiar with scales, and most of us hated practicing them with a passion. But understanding scales and what they do is critical to the process of improvisation as well as ke...

Did you know that music is based on natural "laws" -- like gravity -- and by learning to understand how those natural laws work we can actually understand what we are doing when we play -- we don't have to be at the mercy of wha...

Proper piano instruction is an element extremely vital to learning the instrument well. Often overlooked in the teaching curriculum, however, is music theory and chord structure.

How do transposition and modulation relate? Are they the same? Let's take a look at both of them and see what makes them tick.

Key signatures are a type of musical notation that indicate which key the song is to be played in. But key signatures, despite the name, are not the same thing as key.

As I was growing up, Grandma always made sure that I wouldn't catch cold by insisting I have a lap robe over my legs. Didn't matter if it was 32 degrees or 100 degrees; the lap robe was an absolute necessity.

I suppose that every hometown of every child holds certain favorite hiding places, or short cuts, or little-known doors or cubbyholes or secret passageways or whatever, and Auburn, the little town where I grew up, was no excepti...

I suppose that all males at some time in their life attempt to impress girls. My efforts started in about the 5th grade, and left a great deal to be desired.

Playing by ear is the ability to play a piece of music (or, eventually, learn an instrument) by simply listening to it repeatedly. The majority of self-taught musicians began their education this way; they picked up their instru...

Disregard the popular image of rappers with their ghetto blasters, terrorizing neighborhoods with eardrum-splitting cacophony. Consider instead our delightful school bands and orchestras... and ponder on whether those students m...