Once you have a feel for how the musical staff works, and you have worked with some basic scales, it’s time to try a few simple melodies. Not chording to familiar tunes. That will come soon enough (and no doubt are already doing it). What we’re talking about here is playing some simple songs from
“Achy Breaky Heart” was recorded by Miley Cyrus’ dad – Billy Ray Cyrus – in 1991. It was a smash hit for Cyrus and made him famous. This song and line dancing are pretty much synonymous. According to Wikipedia, “The song is considered by some as one of the worst songs of all time, featuring
“Count on Me” was composed by Bruno Mars, Philip Lawrence, and Ari Levine, under their alias, The Smeezingtons. It was released in 2010. The song has been praised for its arrangement and “uplifting” vibe, while others have criticized its “saccharine sound” and “cheesy lyrics”. Mars has obviously moved a long way from this type of
“Home on the Range” is regarded by many as the unofficial anthem of the American west and has actually been adopted as the state song of Kansas. The song is based on a poem written by Dr. Brewster Higley in 1871. He had moved to Kansas under he Homestead Act, and was so inspired by
Here’s a play along practice track in several keys of “One Call Away” by Charlie Puth. “One Call Away” is a pop soul song with fairly obvious gospel influences. It was released in 2015.
Now that you understand the basics (as outlined in the previous series of posts: Reading Music for Guitar Beginners, it’s time to put this knowledge into practice. It may sound too good to be true, but once you understand these basics, “learning to read” is just a matter of practice, practice, practice. The more you
Here’s an ever-expanding collection of familiar and easy songs for new musicians. These are appropriate for any instrument. They consist of the familiar melody with a simple accompaniment.
Learning to read traditional music notation is fairly simple. Once you understand a few basic concepts it is quite intuitive. The two dimensions of the Staff The basic framework for traditional music notation is the staff. The staff consists of a series of five parallel lines. The sequence of musical notes that make up a
The concept of musical “keys” can be a complicated and confusing topic, so let’s give it a go… For the most part, specifying a musical “key” is simply a way of making clear: (i) The pitch range the music is set in (the highest and lowest notes in the song), and (ii) Which notes should
Tempo, Time Signature and Note Values “Duration” – the “length” of each note – is the second basic property of all notes. (The first was “pitch”.) If you tap your foot at a consistent rate of, say, 60 taps per minute (once every second), that would be called a tempo of 60 bpm (beats per
