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How to Include Music Theory in Group Music Classes

JeffDec 29, 2023

Incorporating music theory into group music classes can enhance the learning experience significantly, providing students with a deeper understanding of…

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What Should You Learn, Piano or Guitar?

April 23, 2024

This is a common question among parents and adult students alike. As a parent, you want to send your child down the right path. As an aspiring adult musician, you want something that brings you joy, and that you don’t need to wait many years for. This blog digs into the key differences between the two instruments, what to expect, and different frameworks for making your decision.

What’s More Difficult, Piano or Guitar?

The piano presents a straightforward and logical layout of keys, which can make it easier to understand music theory and scales. The visual representation of notes and scales on a keyboard can be more intuitive than on a guitar. However, playing the piano requires coordination between both hands performing different actions simultaneously, which can be challenging for beginners. Additionally, mastering pedal use and reading multiple lines of music simultaneously makes it a challenging instrument. Guitar: The guitar involves learning to coordinate finger placements on frets with strumming or plucking. Beginners often find it physically painful in the early stages as they develop calluses on their fingertips. Unlike the piano, where each key corresponds to one note, the same note can be played in multiple places on a guitar, which can complicate the learning process. However, many find basic guitar playing easier to pick up initially because you can play chords to accompany songs relatively quickly. In general, the piano is much harder in the long run than the guitar. A new guitarist can probably learn to play sets of chords to accompany any pop song they wish in the first year of lessons if they practice. But if you put the time into learning piano, you will be able to play deeply meaningful pieces of music after 4-6 years of taking piano lessons with a qualified instructor.

Time Investment to Reach Proficiency

Becoming proficient on either instrument depends on the individual’s practice habits, natural aptitude, and definition of “proficiency.” Generally, with regular practice, basic skills on the guitar can be acquired within a few months. To reach an intermediate level, where one can confidently play most songs, arpeggiated patterns, and finger picking patterns, it might take 2-3 years. For piano, reaching a similar level of comfort may take longer. Basic proficiency, where one can read simple songs and play both hands together, typically requires about 2 years of consistent practice. Achieving intermediate proficiency, which includes playing more complex pieces and better hand coordination, might take 3-5 years depending on your level of commitment.

Cost of Buying an Instrument

A new acoustic piano can be a significant investment. A used Steinway can cost $25K+, and used Yamaha and Baldwin pianos can be up to $10K-$15k. However, for beginners, many opt for electronic keyboards, which can range from a few hundred to over a thousand dollars based on quality and features. Maintenance costs for acoustic pianos also add up, including tuning and possible repairs. Urban environments require digital instruments anyways; according to Alex Barsov, a piano teacher in NYC, “almost none of my students have acoustic pianos, and that’s because of noise restrictions in buildings, the difficulty of transferring a large piano up a high rise building and so forth. Some students buy digital hybrids, but most of my students need to be able to use headphones.” Guitars are more affordable than pianos, on average. A decent beginner acoustic guitar can be purchased for around $100 to $300, while higher-quality models might cost up to $1,000. Electric guitars need an amplifier, which could also be an added expense. Guitars are more portable than pianos, which is a cost advantage in terms of mobility and storage.

Availability of Lessons

Both instruments boast widespread availability of lessons, both in-person and online. Many music schools and private instructors offer piano and guitar lessons, but guitar lessons might be slightly more accessible due to the instrument’s popularity in contemporary music. Online platforms provide a plethora of learning materials, including video tutorials, which cater to both piano and guitar learners. Community centers and local music shops often offer workshops and classes, making beginner lessons fairly accessible. Unless you live far away from a major city, you should be able to find a music school with a physical location, or sign up for in-home piano lessons or guitar lessons.

Opportunities Presented by Learning the Instruments

Both of these instruments are good for practical use. With the piano, you can play rock keyboard, jazz piano, classical music, or accompany singers or instrumentalists as a collaborative pianist. The guitar does offer more social and commercial opportunities though. You can become a session guitarist, start a band with friends, carry your instrument around to open mic nights, and so forth. The guitar has a very low barrier to entry, and there is still a great deal of demand for it. In the end, your goals should help you make the decision. Do you see yourself as a sophisticated musician playing Chopin or Rachmaninoff in your living room? Then you might be cut out for the rigors of learning the piano. Or do you want to jam along with Led Zeppelin with friends? We suggest the guitar. Either way, you will learn music, and that in of itself is rewarding!

Fun Activities You Can Do With Friends

February 25, 2023February 27, 2023

As you get older, life gets busier and the world becomes more hectic. You slowly spend more and more of your time working and you do not have all of the free time that you had when you were young. It is very important that you maintain the relationship that you have with your friends and do things together as much as you possibly can. Here are some fun activities that you can do with your friends to connect with them.

Go to an Escape Room

A really fun activity that you can do with your friends is an escape room. Escape rooms are a lot of fun and they are a good challenge if you are looking for something fun to do with your friends. There are escape rooms everywhere and they all have different themes that you can choose from. If you want to, you can also do an escape room from your house and you can order these on Amazon. This means that you can set up any room in your house to be the perfect escape room.

Do a Bring Your Own Board Night

If you are someone that has a TikTok presence, something that you will have seen is the board nights that everyone seems to be doing. These board nights can either be bringing a board that is a certain color or bringing a board based on the first letting of your name. This is a lot of fun and it is a great way to spend an evening with your friend and it can actually be really affordable if you know where to shop. You can bring your own board and have a few drinks or you can watch a movie together.

Game Together

If you have friends that love gaming, something that you can definitely do is have a gaming night together. As we get older, it is not unusual for us to move around and we may be distant from our friends. Though you may not be able to spend time together in person, you could always voice call and play a game together.If you have been playing games for a while and you want to shake it up, you can find new PC games here and you can recommend some for your friends that you can try together.

Pottery Painting

If you are looking for something cute to do together, something that I would definitely recommend is doing a pottery painting class. There are a lot of businesses out there that offer really great classes that allow you to get artistic. If you have friends that love to engage with their creativity, taking a pottery class together may be a good way to engage with this side of them. You will also have something that you can take away from the activity, so you will have a really cute memento of what you have done together.

Go to a Comedy Night

Life has been pretty stressful and also quite intense for the last couple of years. There is just a lot going on and the world has been pretty bleak. We could all use it with a bit of a laugh and there is no better place to go for a bit of a laugh than a comedy night. If you look at local clubs and comedy bars, they will likely be performing quite a lot and so you should be able to easily get tickets. There is nothing better than being in high spirits with the people that you love and watching some comedy is a surefire way to experience this.

Is Snorkeling The New Fun Sport?

February 12, 2023February 13, 2023

It can be hard trying to find a new fun sport that is right for you, luckily, snorkeling has been a major success for many who have tried it. Snorkeling is a fun and exciting way to experience the underwater world and see the beauty of sea life up close and personal. It can be a great way to lose weight, keep yourself fit and pass the time. Snorkeling only requires newcomers to find a place where you can dive and to purchase some quality swimming equipment. Below are some ways in which snorkeling has become the newest fun sport.

Improving Health

Snorkeling is a great form of low impact exercise that doubles as a good form of cardio and a way to strengthen your muscles and core. By exercising in this way, you do wonders for your heart and your body. It is important to always keep up a stable cardio regime to build stamina and keep your body in fit shape, and that’s why snorkeling is a perfect addition to dedicate some time a week. Snorkeling also does wonders to increase your lung capacity. By keeping up a strong regime and setting yourself achievable goals with the sport, you can be in the best shape of your life.

By choosing an area with plenty of natural light, you can help to facilitate your body’s production of Vitamin D. Increasing your Vitamin D production can help alleviate feelings of fatigue or low mood. Snorkeling also has been proven to be a good stress relief, with the sounds of water being shown to have a calming effect on the brain.

Snorkeling also does wonders for your mental health, as well as physical. By getting you outside more and more, this not only elevates stress but also can help lift feelings of depression. Snorkeling is also a social sport that is better as a shared experience among friends. By engaging in the sport as a social activity, you can form closer bonds with your friends as you all work on improving your health across the board. The vibrant colors of marine life and bright suns can aid with symptoms of anxiety. Snorkeling puts the mind in a calmed state as mentioned earlier, but this state is vital in keeping your stress level and mental health in top shape.

Adventure

As previously stated, snorkeling is a good way to have a shared experience among friends. Even with no interest in marine biology, snorkeling can be a good introduction into just how vast our oceans are and the incredible range of life that is down there. By also choosing a diving location that is far out, you and your friends can also learn more about the local area and also how important diving can be to an economy. Sharing your diving experience is crucial in keeping your mind calm and ensuring your experience is as real as possible. Just because you’ve had an amazing experience doesn’t mean you should be keeping it to yourself!

Snorkeling is also an incredible way to learn new skills, these skills can come in the form of diving itself or in marine biology. By exposing yourself more and more to the range of sea life out there, it can become easier to spot and differentiate the types of fish. This can be an incredible skill that can be used as a good conversation starter or as a way to open more doors career wise. Snorkeling can also teach you the importance of safety reaching deeper depths of the ocean, and how water pressure can affect us in different ways.

Conclusion

By joining the hundreds of new starters to the exciting sport of snorkeling, you can become a part of a growing community and have exclusive bragging rights to what you can experience. Snorkeling is an incredible sport to get into that promotes benefits in our everyday lives. If you’re still struggling to find a way to fill your day and keep healthy, then snorkeling is an excellent choice that won’t have you regretting your decision. Convince a friend to join and you’ll both be in for a sport that you will struggle to quit.

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