Imagine being able to sit down at the piano and create your own unique music without years of study. Now imagine being able to do it within 1 hour! It’s possible when you learn how to play the open position piano chord!

The OPC is a special way of forming chords at the piano. You use both hands right away to create a modern sounding chord that’s perfect for today’s contemporary styles. It’s called “open position” because of the way the notes of the chord are spread out.

The left hand plays the root, fifth, and seventh notes of the chord while the right hand takes the third and seventh again. The sound is amazing but this isn’t the biggest benefit of this particular chord structure. The biggest benefit is what you can do with it!

For example, in the piano lesson “Reflections in Water,” you start by playing a C Major 7 OPC. Now that you have the chord what are you going to do to make music? You are going to improvise a melody with the right hand using the tones from the C Major scale. You see, all you really need to know in order to make your own music is chords and the scale the chords came from.

You need to know the notes of the scale so you can use them to improvise a melody. Now the beauty of the open position chord is that you don’t have to move your hands around too much in order to create a melody with. In fact, you can pretty much stay within this chord structure and create a beautiful piece of music.

Reflections in Water uses 4 chords to create a few minutes of music with. A beginner can learn to use this chord structure within 1 hour and create music with it. It really is that easy!

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

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Parents can play an important role supporting their child s piano lessons and their piano teacher. However, about a third of parents do too much and try to take over responsibility for their child s progress, which hinders their child s ability to develop positive learning skills on their own. In contrast, about a third of parents don t do enough, and fail to support and can get in the way of their child s learning. The remaining 1/3 gets it right. These parents have learned to work together with the piano teacher to support their child s piano journey.

Parents who are not getting it right fail to effectively support their children in piano lessons because they either take too much responsibility for their child s success or not enough. Getting this balance is important because it sets boundaries that create a positive learning environment where children can learn from their mistakes within limits. Parents attitudes about your child s piano lessons matters for setting boundaries and teaching learning values. For example,

Regarding your child s piano progress, do you

(a) feel personally embarrassed if your child is not progressing as fast as you think they should;

(b) want your child to do their best and learn how to achieve their goals;

(c) feel that it doesn t really matter how your child is doing, as lessons aren t that important anyway.

If you chose (a), you may be taking TOO much responsibility for your child s success and creating dependency instead of fostering your child s ownership and responsibility of their lessons. If you find yourself answering (c), you may well be abdicating part of your responsibility as a parent and may be missing out on a wonderful way to encourage your child s success. If you have answered (b), relax. You ve got the right attitude and are encouraging your child while helping them take their share of responsibility for their piano success. Keep it up!

For great home piano activities parents can use to help children ages 5 to 11 develop their musical talent, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child - right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f ree internet newsletter so you can download f ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com

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Just as children need their parents to read to them and teach the alphabet, parents can also teach their young children the foundational “music Language” skills for piano or keyboard. If you can teach your child the alphabet, you can also give them an important foundation at home for learning to read music and understand keyboard theory. Even if your young children are already taking piano lessons, piano teachers don’t have time in a 30 minute weekly lesson to give kids the complete foundation they need to read music easily. But most parents don t know how easy this is to do because they don t have the right tools, resources and support from their child s piano teacher. Sometimes piano teachers even make parents feel stupid when they ask what they can do at home to help. They act as though only a piano teacher with their level of education and experience is qualified to do this. This is not true! Even if you don t play the piano, you are absolutely qualified to help your child get a great keyboard foundation at home.

When I show parents how easy it is they are so relieved. Their young children taking lessons are able to get the right musical foundation they need to advance much more quickly. Plus they stick with piano because their experience is so positive! I have been showing parents how they can do this for years. It s a very simple straightforward process. And you can learn it too.

So find a piano teacher who is willing to give you the guidance and support necessary to help your young children get the musical foundation they need to excel in piano. Don t believe you are unqualified. In fact when it comes to piano pre-skills, parents are the most qualified of all!

For great home piano activities parents can use to help children ages 5 to 11 develop their musical talent, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child - right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f ree internet newsletter so you can download f ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com

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