If you sign up for music lessons hoping to get some good information then you will definitely get that from the teachers at Grosse Pointe Music Academy. Our teachers have University training which will give you the certainty that the information you are getting will be the most accurate and up-to-date information available in the […]
Music Tips
What’s the buzz?
A guitar can buzz or rattle for many reasons. A large number of repairs that come into my shop are due to complaints of buzzing or rattling when the instrument is played. When these kinds of complaints arise, I like to have the musician play for me and show me what they are hearing themselves […]
More info about Intervals
It’s common for beginning guitar players to use a basic chord chart to learn some of the fundamental guitar positions. Most beginning guitar chords charts will show chords consisting of 4 strings, 5 strings, or 6 strings. It’s not nearly as common to find a method or chart that concentrates on learning to play simple […]
Rock drummers ‘are top athletes’
Playing the drums for a rock band requires the stamina of a Premiership footballer, research suggests. Tests on Clem Burke, the veteran Blondie drummer, revealed that 90 minutes of drumming could raise his heart rate to 190 beats a minute. Despite rock’s reputation for unhealthy living, Dr Marcus Smith, from Chichester University, said drummers needed […]
Ukulele Christmas
Guitar Players, Piano Players, Violin players, and all instrumentalists have enjoyed picking up the Ukulele and learning to strum simple chord accompaniments. Relatively speaking, Ukulele is an easy instrument with only 4 strings. Everybody thinks that the ukulele came from Hawaii. Well, while it’s true that the word ukulele is a Hawaiian word (it means, […]
What should I do about poor rhythm?
The answer to this is so simple. It’s should be the easiest thing to do but it somehow perplexes people to the point of giving up on playing music all together. It’s really too bad because if most of the people baffled by rhythm had just been willing to SLOW DOWN then they wouldn’t have […]
Musical Intervals and their names
Musical intervals can be likened to measurements that we learn early in life like the inch, the foot, the yard and so on. Music notes are are also given names for the space that exists between two points. In the most basic way, intervals can be defined as the distance between two musical notes. Musicians […]
Gift Certificates for Music Lessons
Giving the gift of music lessons for the holidays can be a very rewarding gift for anyone with even just a little bit of musical interest. I hear from people all the time say things like “I’ve always wanted to play guitar” or “I’d love to play the piano, but I don’t have the time”. […]
The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook
Playing guitar with just the lyrics and the chords on a sheet of paper is a common practice of many guitar players. The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook is a collection of almost every Beatles song ever played and recorded by the Beatles. Using chord grids at the top of the page and chord symbols over […]
How to write creative music
Creative writing in music can happen in many different ways and begin from many different angles. If you’re a singer or just someone who thinks up songs and melodies, you might want to learn to play guitar or piano to provide accompaniment for your singing. In this method, the creative process will first begin with […]
The Theory of Jazz Music
In Mark Levine’s well known “Jazz Theory Book” he says that a great jazz solo consists of 1% magic and 99% stuff that is Explainable, Analyzable, Categorizable, and Doable. His book is all about the 99% part of it. In the introduction Levine goes on to say to say: ” There is no one single, […]
Spelling your scales
A scale is a series of notes that can be used to create chords and play melodies. When a musician first begins to understand scales and their purpose there are a number of ways to go about it. The process of learning the scales includes learning to write and identify notes on staff, playing the […]
Do I need to bother learning modes?
Modes are inversions of a particular series of notes. In music, notes are grouped into patterns called scales that are used commonly in songwriting. Major scales have 7 unique notes in them and thus have 7 modes. The key of C Major contains the following 7 notes: C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. […]
What is Tonic, Supertonic, Mediant, etc.?
If you start reading a book on music theory you will most likely come across words like Tonic, Supertonic, Mediant, Sub-Dominant, Dominant, Sub-Mediant, and Leading Tone. In the scale of C Major there are 7 notes. They are C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. In this scale, C would be the Tonic, D-Supertonic, […]
Is it ok to start on bass guitar?
There are a good number of people that don’t know the difference between a 6 string guitar and the 4, 5, or 6 string bass guitar. Those that are familiar know the vast differences in the function of each instrument. Bass guitar provides the link between rhythm and harmony that the guitar will follow with […]
Do I have to learn scales on the guitar?
Many people don’t like the idea of having to practice their scales on any instrument. There seems to be this idea that because the guitar is a pop music instrument that you don’t have to learn any real fundamentals like scales to be a good player. It’s no surprise because beginning music players, regardless of […]
How many guitar chords are there?
Chords are groups of notes that when played together form some type of consonant or dissonant harmony. It’s typical for beginning guitar students to ask how many guitar chords exist. The answer is not infinity, but it’s still too many to bother counting. It’s much more productive to learn a few fundamental chords in depth […]
Can I start my lessons on a keyboard rather than a piano?
Modern technology has made it very inexpensive to get a full 88 key piano keyboard. These keyboards often have hammer-action keys which give it the feel of a real piano. Anyone who has compared keyboards without weighted keys to a real acoustic piano knows there is quite a difference. The feel from piano to the […]
Don’t you cry I’ll be back again someday
After waving goodbye to the children, Frosty the Snowman reassures them that he will be back again someday. Did Frosty ever return as he promised? Some people who are not satisfied with the ambiguity of “I’ll be back again someday” decided to change the lyrics to “I’ll be back again on Christmas Day”. Is it […]
Acoustic or Electric. What should beginners play?
Beginning guitar players are often faced with the dilemma of choosing the type of guitar to play first as they begin lessons. Many people love the looks of the electric guitar but heard somewhere that you should always start out playing the acoustic guitar. Other people have heard that you always want to start on […]