Almost a year before George Harrison had began taking sitar lessons with Ravi Shankar there were two massive songs in the charts that had something of the Indian about them. The first was ‘Heart Full Of Soul’ by the Yardbirds, the second was ‘See My Friend’ by the Kinks. Although a sitarist and tabla-player had been present at the Yardbirds session, neither were used; the band much preferred the sound of Jeff Beck’s guitar playing. Beck was renowned for his Eastern-sounding leitmotifs; not just in the Yardbirds but in his earlier band The Tridents also. Perhaps the Yardbirds song was a ‘cheap’ imitation, the Kinks song was more like the real thing. The song was written by Ray Davies. It is alleged that when the Beatles first heard the song, one of them said that the guitar sounds like a sitar and that they would need to get one of them.

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The plot thickens at this point. There are also stories that Jimmy Page was at the Yardbirds recording session and on seeing and hearing the sitar player he just had to have it. After some negotiation it was purchased for a pricely sum of £25. Page showed it to session guitarist Jim Sullivan, who subsequently told George Harrison about it.

Whichever of these two stories is the most correct there is one that can be discounted immediately. Philip Norman (Beatles biographer) claimed that Harrison first came across the sitar while the Beatles were filming Help!. The problem with that story is the fact that Harrison had played the sitar on the song ‘Norwegian Wood’ from the previous year. It wasn’t long after that, that other bands started getting in on the act. The Rolling Stones used the sitar on both ‘Mother’s Little Helper’ and ‘Paint It Black’ in 1966, Chris Farlowe even swapped the saxophone for a sitar on one of his songs.

Trace elements of Eastern musical theory could be found in folk and jazz but it wasn’t until the mid 1960s that it came more and more to the fore. Forget about the influence of the Beatles or the Stones at this juncture. Credit has to go to people like John Mayer, John Renbourn and Gabor Szabo. Their song titles included words like nirvana, Krishna and Ravi (named after Ravi Shankar).

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To the average man on the street in Europe in the early to mid 60s, Shankar was unheard of; it wasn’t until he came into the life of the Beatles that more and more people became aware of him. But it was actually David Crosby of the Byrds that first enticed George Harrison into listening to Shankar after recommending his 1965 LP ‘Portrait of Genius’. The friendship that ensued between Harrison and Shankar meant a lifetime change to the way Harrison saw music. It wasn’t until the spring of 1966 that the two finally met.

Harrison had been trying to teach himself the sitar (as heard on ‘Norwegian Wood’) but it was proving quite hard for him. Shankar told him it was hard to teach yourself and instead it would be better to be accepted as a shishya (somewhere between a student and disciple). Shankar wanted Harrison to travel to India to study sitar with him but Beatles previous engagements meant this was impossible, instead Harrison had to make do with tape-recorded lessons.

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Shankar’s association with Harrison and thus the Beatles themselves was a good move all round but mainly it opened up a new style of music to the masses. The common man on the street was now aware of a type of music that before had been totally alien to them.

The Beatles themselves, and George Harrison inparticular, did not pioneer the use of Indian sounds on pop records, they were just soaking up influence from everywhere else. Learning. Evolving. Because of that and because of their mass popularity, what they did instantly became the ‘done’ thing and spawned many imitators. The Beatle may not have been the first but they certainly did help to popularise it.

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What is a lap harp?

Lap harps are the cousins of the ordinary harps which everyone is familiar with and which are sometimes called Celtic harps. Lap harps come in a variety of sizes ranging from about to about. As the name suggests, the key point about lap harps is that they can fit in the harpists lap as he or she plays them.

There are two quite distinct looking flavors of lap harp. One resembles the familiar type made famous as the symbol of Guinness beer. But the other type is quite different in shape and is probably not all that well known outside specialist circles. Which is a shame because as explained below this latter type of lap harp is ideal for musical beginners to play attractive music on before they have even mastered the basics of music.

The plucked psaltery

Despite its slightly odd sounding name, and its strange looks, this is a lap harp. It is made of a trapezoid shape with strings stretched across the base which are plucked to make music like any other harp. You only need to use one hand to play this kind of lap harp, although you can use your second hand to make the sounds vary in interesting ways if you like. The key benefit of this instrument is that you don’t actually have to have any musical ability to sound good. The secret to this is that under the strings the plucked psaltery can store music cards which contain simple instructions for playing a tune. All the harpist has to do is to pluck the strings as the card indicates to create the tune. Of course accomplished musicians need not use such cards and will be able to enjoy playing the plucked psaltery just as they would any other instrument.

The Celtic style lap harp

This is a smaller version of the more familiar style of harp. It has fewer strings and does not have the pedals the larger version possesses. This limits its range, but the ingenious use of hand operated levers in better quality models makes up for this. Although this kind of lap harp can literally be played in the lap, a more comfortable arrangement is to use a frame or harp sling. Unlike the plucked psaltery type of lap harp, it does require some musical ability to play.

Why choose a lap harp?

In a word, portability. The lap harp is a go anywhere instrument. Ideal for taking round to friends and family in the holiday season for example. Many experienced harpists have a lap harp as a second harp for just this reason. Lap harps are a good solution for people without the room to store a larger instrument.

Their simplicity makes lap harps also great to learn music on, especially for kids. For those without the time or inclination to learn music, a plucked psaltery style lap harp is the perfect way to play for pleasure effortlessly..

If you would like to learn more about this wonderful instrument, then this lap harp site is a great place to start.

Memory studies should be reinforced with as many ‘cold’ presentations of a memorized piece as possible. A ‘cold’ playing is one where you play immediately after a busy day or physical activity. Try playing through the piece once with few mistakes. Play when you are tired; at odd times. Develop the skill of playing at any time, any place, without too many slips.

Learn to cover slips – do not show the effect of the slip on your face. Jump to a stopping place and keep going. Exceptionally long pieces with thousands of notes need this type of performance practice. Let nothing stop or upset you. Realize you are performing one of the great intellectual feats demanded of mankind; a few slips in thousands of notes is a feat to be commended. Do not downplay your accomplishment. Learn to keep going and feel happy about your growing ability to play from memory anytime, any place.

Time your reinforcements. Play within one hour of a memory session. Follow this with a reinforcement every twenty-four hours. When you feel assured, lengthen reinforcements to two-three-four days. Most people discover they need reinforcement at least once every one or two weeks. Longer gaps in reinforcement mean loss of memory and then you have to memorize again. This is a waste of your practice time.

What are some reliable ear-training programs?

Ear training is an important component of all piano study and should be incorporated into lessons and practice sessions. The major beginning methods books incorporate ear training into their programs. Suggestions for outstanding publications in this field are:

The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, London, England has two series, one for the aural tests of the practical exams and a more difficult series that stand alone as exams. The latter, Musicianship in Practice – Grades 1-4, are very advanced at each level, e.g. Grade 1 (A) is tap a rhythm of eight notes; (B) is echo sing eight notes; (C) play from memory eight notes using up to sixteenths; (D) sight sing to a harmonic accompaniment fifteen notes; (E) improvise two measures after eight notes in any of four keys. The easier version for the practical exam is Specimen Aural Tests – Grades 1-5. This is the series to use after students have completed Grades 1-4 in regular methods books.

Staccato touch is short and bouncy and opposite to the smoothly played legato style. It is shown by these symbols over or under a note. Thinking in fractions may help you differentiate.

The ordinary staccato is played very quickly with the hand in the standard position and the finger just clearing the keyboard vertically as it lifts. At first, you may wish to lift your finger higher to feel the circular, bouncy finger pathway characteristic of the staccato. Because body movements are circular, the path your finger follows is circular. Thus the bottom of a staccato path is circular and causes your finger to take a slightly curved path and then bounce upward. Avoid a straight path at the bottom of the key except when the staccato is poked: or accented strongly or forced.

Your hand should feel free and loose and your arm relaxed and soft to the touch, especially when playing chords. It is the same movement used when a person is impatient or annoyed and taps on a table. Practice by tapping on the fall board or any time you are annoyed!

When you begin to play pieces by J S Bach, you will use a detached style that is crisp and clear with some pressure and with-out heaviness. It is neither long nor short. Ask your teacher to play this staccato; then, listen to recordings of harpsichord staccatos of this era, or Baroque. Once you hear the sound of the Baroque detached style in your mind, you will always be able to play these in the clear, crisp, long style characteristic of this period in musical history.

Staccato may be played with:

1. Finger action — lifting fingers vertically.
2. Hand action – tapping hand as noted above.
3. Forearm motion – same movement as hand action, but utilizing forearm and hand together.
4. Full shoulder-arm-hand movement for large chords.

The usage depends upon the dynamic level and the size of chords. Quiet dynamics using single fingers uses finger movement. Quiet chords tend to use hand-tapping movement whereas octave patters and large hand spread require arm and shoulder movements.

One of the most fun applications of staccato touch is the playing of scales in octaves. A forearm movement with no tension and a little bit of daring will make these easy, provided your hand stretch reaches an octave easily and you play rhythmically with an accent on each accented note. Accenting causes the hand to be thrown through the pattern to the next pattern in a swoop. Accent first note and throw hand to next accented note as you play the staccato octaves.

Here are some ideas to help you develop your touch or tactile sense of memory.

1. Close your eyes and feel sets of black keys up and down the piano. Find the highest, next highest set. Do not peek. Make sure both hands can do it. Are you sitting in the middle of the piano? How much do you need to roll your bottom to reach the top, middle or lowest set of black notes?
2. Play games finding every white key on the keyboard. Use the black keys and the amount of roll of your bottom to feel the notes in various octaves.
3. Play any note and add a second, third, fourth, fifth, etc., above and below it. Keep your eyes shut or use a blindfold. Don’t peek. What are the names of those notes?
4. When you can do 1,2 and 3, obtain graded sight-reading books and read and read and read until you can feel your way fluently anywhere with rare looks at the keyboard. What you are doing is finding your bodily placement at the keyboard. You are becoming comfortable with and knowledgeable about where your body is when placed in relationship to each note on the keyboard. You are using the sense of touch. In reality we use the senses in combination. Utilize your strongest senses most, but learn to use your weak senses as well.

What are ways to learn to play scales beautifully in piano?

1. Use your metronome from the beginning of scale studies. At first, place the metronome on 35-40 and play one note to one click. Gradually move upwards on the metronome to 80. As you improve, place the metronome at 40 and play two notes to one click. Count one-two, one-two as you play with a slight accent on one. Play notes evenly. Move upwards in speed gradually. Then move to four notes to a dick and finally to eight notes to a click.
2. Strive to place each note to the bottom of each key. Listen carefully.
3. Play smoothly. Keep back of hand steady. Do not let it bounce up and down. If it persists in bouncing, look at your thumb. Your thumb is most likely playing flat on its side and causing a bump. Play where nail goes into skin.
4. Begin quietly. Place more weight on your fingers until you are playing loudly at the top of the scale. Then die away to quietly again at the bottom of the scale.
5. Rock on your seat as you move up and down the keyboard. Rock your hips to the right going up and to the left going down.
6. When playing hands together, keep your nose between hands and balance your body on your feet.
7. Practice scales from quiet to loud or loud to quiet. Think of each scale as a phrase and shape the dynamics upward from quiet through medium loud to loud and down from loud to medium to quiet.
8. There is a tendency to play scales faster downward than upward. Play them rhythmically and to the metronome and listen for this time discrepancy in your playing.

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Most beginning and even intermediate students are amazed by the number of repetitions a phrase or piece requires before a reasonable level of ability is achieved. The average student will believe that more than ten repetitions means the following:

• The task is impossible.
• He/she is utterly stupid and will never succeed.
• Working on a phrase is a foolish endeavor and he/she has no intention of doing it.
• The work is so frustrating that all one can do is give up and decide to never to play the horrid piece again.

Nearly everything we know or learned took each one of us at least five hundred to one thousand repetitions. Some pieces take two thousand repetitions; some more. For example, you know 1 + 1 = 2. This concept took the average person five hundred to one thousand differing practice sessions in differing settings to even comprehend. Saying 1 + 1 = 2 over and over helped. You also learned that 1 candy + 1 candy = 2 candies. You learned to place one fork at a place setting on a table and another fork at a place setting and then you had two forks. All the differing conceptual repetitions caused learning to take place. Allowing oneself to be frustrated is counterproductive. Learning requires thoughtful repetition. Relaxing and accepting the inevitable in the learning process is a dictum for anyone hoping to achieve in any field.

1. Set reachable goals. Avoid goals that move too far into the uncomfortable zone of frustration. Move up to the frustration level and back off.
2. For each repetition be sure the mind is engaged.If only the fingers are engaged, learning is slowed and may be non-existent. Engage the mind in rhythm, memory, fingerings, etc. Avoid ‘empty bubble’ learning at all times.
3. At lessons ask your teacher to help you develop thoughtful, repetitive practicing skills and work through frustrations. For example, if you cannot play a piece to a reasonable metronomic speed, ask your teacher to analyze your fingering and hand movements. Place the metronome at a speed that is very easy. After each repetition, move the metronome one notch higher until the desired speed is attained.
4. Inspire yourself by attendance at a great performance by a noted pianist. Also attend performances by pianists at your level of attainment. You will feel refreshed and inspired to try again.

Modern composers give detailed markings and should be followed, but composers in the years when the piano pedals were in development are difficult to decipher. Realize that composers before the 1750s when the piano was invented did not compose for the piano. The authentic style was detached playing with no concept of the sounds which are possible to produce on a modern piano. Your teacher is your best source of knowledge about recent research.

Some General Peddling Guidelines

• Use pedal sparingly if text has no markings.
• Vary pedaling in a piece. The same pedaling over and over is boring.
• Follow the steps of dances; for example, in a waltz pedal at count one and lift at count three.
• Avoid pedaling scales, but pedal arpeggios.
• Avoid pedaling, or use a flutter pedal, or an accent pedal on the accented notes in fast passages with many sixteenths and thirty-seconds. A flutter pedal is a constant up and down motion between two parts of the pedal mechanism such as quarter to half depth.
• Use a quick pedal touch for emphasis, for a strong accent.
• Use a full pedal with loud chords and a quarter pedal with quiet chords.
• Use a flutter pedal with dry sounding rapid passages to give more color.
• Use a joining pedal for left hand chord progressions.

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I have read that anyone can learn to play guitar, and this is true. Music programs like Guitar Hero teach rhythm, and are good in exposing the guitar player to be, to the feeling of being in sync with the flow of a song. Although, actually playing guitar is very different from these kinds of guitar programs.

I think some people are born with a predisposition to music, and have a faster ability to absorb music, and technique. While others learn to play at a slower pace.

I play guitar, and am basically self taught. I have learned some very valuable lessons from the trial and error approach, that I first used when trying to learn how to play guitar. I have taught these basic tips to others, who have learned to play guitar, and have continued to improve and play on their own.

Here are some very basic steps, and ideas that can help almost anyone learn how to play guitar.

1. First of all, think simple. No one can just pick up a real guitar and start playing it. It takes time, determination, and patience. If someone has the mind set that they can just pick up a guitar, and play it. This person will give up, or become frustrated.
2. My first suggestion is to buy a very cheap guitar. If your first guitar is expensive. It can in a way be a little more intimidating. Let’s say it would be more stressful on the person learning to play, in the knowledge that they had paid so much for the guitar, and they couldn’t play it right away. The beginner wouldn’t feel the love for playing because of feeling pushed to learn how to play it.
3. Put light gauge strings on the guitar. I would suggest on an acoustic guitar, which in some cases are cheaper. This would make it easier to get out a good clear sound quicker, and easier when learning to press the strings.
4. Learn how to hold the pick. Holding the pick correctly is the first step in having the right strum and creating the right sound.
5. Learn how to tune a guitar. This makes the learner get in touch with the harmonics of a guitar.
6. Obtain a simple and easy guitar book with basic chords, or have someone that knows how to play, show you the basic chords. You tube has many videos that have musicians who show you. How to play guitar step by step. But remember, start out slow, and simple. Don’t google “You tube Zakk Wylde”. Zakk has some amazing “how to” videos, however, to the beginner this can really be intimidating.
7. Learn how to press the strings to make the appropriate sound by arching the fingers.
8. If possible, learn a two chord song. I would suggest learning the G chord and D chord. There are thousands of songs that use these two basic chords.

This is usually enough for the first lesson, when I am teaching a student to play guitar. There is no use in stressing the beginner guitar player. I give my students practice time to try out their new skills. I praise them regardless of their progress This inspires them to want to play more. The new guitar players feel a sense of accomplishment in the fact that, they can play a simple song on the first lesson. Most are amazed, and happy to hear themselves even making one chord, then two chords, then a real song. Of course, If the student is very young, the learning takes longer than one lesson.

The hardest part for most students is pressing on the strings, to get the sound of the chords by raising the fingers in a arch. I wait patiently and don’t rush it. Anything, hurried or rushed causes frustration in the beginner player, and stops the natural flow of the music inside of them. This is so needed to be a good guitar player.

Okay, you HAVE to get a guitar. Since you are reading my article, i guess you already have one. It is recommended that you use an basic training guitar. Now, you need fingers that can switch to different positions pretty fast. Note: Fast for beginners.

Starting out:

OK, don’t think I’m a guitar expert now who is going to show you every single thing in guitar playing. You will get experienced with this over time.

What i want you to start with is to stretch your pointing finger and thumb from the first string to the last one, now hold them there for 30 seconds until you get used to it.

Now try the same with your pointing finger and ring-finger and continue down the fingers until you are used to it.

Trying out:

Great. Now you strum the strings one by one and get used to them. Try to place your fingers and make random chords. After you have done this i want you to make a A grip.

 ( Note: Sorry, it should be 3,4,5 )

This would be Single Second Band of the guitar. That means you only make the chord on one band, that is not official but only something i found up.

Only strum from the second string, not from the first. The first string is called E and it does not sound nice with a A. The last string is also named E but you have to strum it.

Playing more chords:

Okay, i guess you have learned that chord until now. Make it clean, not noisy. Now i want to learn you the D. I removed the numbers now.

The trick here is to use the pointing finger on the upper, the ring finger in the middle and the middle finger at the last string. Now try to strum it. Now try to play these two chords for a while until you think you got them clean. Do the same trick as you did at the last chord to not strum the upper E string. To a practice, only use your thumb to play.

Ending:

Now were soon finished. Now i want you to play these chords a few times until you got them clean:

( Note: The first chord is an E, so strum the upper string too! )

Okay! I think your finished with my beginner guide! The chords go in order: E,G,D,A.

I hope you enjoyed it and learned something even if it was a beginner guide, happy rocking!