Learn to play “Yellow” by Coldplay : Piano Lesson #24

Hello everyone!

This is Shohini, and I am very pleased to have joined Edutainment! Playing the piano is my hobby and although I had wanted to play the piano since I was a child, I got the chance to learn and play this glorious instrument only as recently as 2005. I love picking up songs by ear and letting my mood decide what I play!

I am sure that all you piano lovers will agree that handing control of your thoughts to your fingers as they play the piano is nothing short of beautiful! Here is an honest confession though: I have never really been very fond of reading sheet music and prefer playing by ear any day!

It feels great to be a part of The Piano Encyclopedia team and I am very excited about bringing to you new songs to try out on the piano as part of the Piano Video Tutorials column of Edutainment!

I also have very exciting news to share! After almost three years of development, and more than 50 contributors – musicians, pianists, developers, graphic designers, writers and editors from all corners of the world, the second major venture of The Piano Encyclopedia, The Logic Behind Music Digital Home Study Course is completed!

Piano enthusiasts everywhere, rejoice! The method that revolutionizes conventional piano teaching is about to be unveiled to you!

I have been personally talking with Rod (the CEO & Founder of The Piano Encyclopedia) and he has been telling me some of the high points of our Digital Home Study Course. It is a dream come true for all of us here as we look forward to presenting before you the most exciting and fun way to “tickle the ivory”!

Interactive, innovative and exhaustive, The Logic Behind Music aims to help music enthusiasts learn the theory of music in a ‘practical way’ so that they have no trouble whatsoever in composing and improvising and get a well-deserved boost on their way to becoming musicians. So if you love playing the piano and don’t want to merely “interpret” music but “create” it as well, The Logic Behind Music is perfect for you!

Do watch this space, everyone, as I will be keeping you up to date with all the “secret” and inside sneak-peek news of the launch of the Digital Home Study Course “The Logic Behind Music”!

Today, I have a wonderful piano lesson for all of you –

You are about to learn:
Song: Yellow
Artist: Coldplay

Yellow strikes a hypnotically alluring note right from the first few chords. Produced by Coldplay and Nelson, Yellow released in 2000 and was the band’s first breakthrough hit. The song remains an eternal favourite among Coldplay fans even nine years after its original release.

Hauntingly beautiful, it is one of those songs that you simply cannot stop humming once you hear it! In fact, Yellow is one of my all-time favourite songs! The background music in the original song is mostly acoustic guitar, however, a song as melodious as Yellow can’t possibly sound anything but good on piano, can it?

The first video here is a tutorial that shows you how to play the song by slowly showing each note with the accompanying chords. If you are just starting out with the song then getting the notes right is very important so you can learn the right notes to play from this video and then listen to the actual song to get the tempo right.

The next video is an amazing piano rendition by Adrian Lee who has played this entirely by ear. You can see the notes and chords that he has played quite clearly. How we all wish we were this good, right?

Now let me tell you a little about the original song video. The band had come up with the idea to film the video in a happy, sunny background with moving stars in the sky – an allusion to the lyrics. Yet, the weather played spoilsport with Studland Bay, where the video was filmed, being held hostage by howling winds and rain. Right then, let us have a look at the video itself!

Enjoy yourselves while learning to play this, and remember to:
“Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And all the things you do”

I hope you liked this piano lesson!

If you would like to take your piano playing skills to the next level so that you can easily play all the songs you love on the piano, do look forward to the launch of The Logic Behind Music! I promise you that you will have even more fun creating your own music following our approach towards learning music!

Till then,
~ Shohini 🙂

—

Now we have a new fun feature as part of the run-up to the release of The Logic Behind Music.

I will be asking trivia questions regarding the song taught in each post and all of you are invited to submit the answer in the comment box. In a particular quiz, the first person to give the right answer will be the winner. We are also going to have weekly “merit lists” where I will mention the winners with the most number of correct answers in this very column!

Sounds exciting, right? So are you ready for today’s question? Here it goes!

What, according to the band is the theme of the song, Yellow?
(Answer: “Yellow refers to the mood of the band. Brightness and hope and devotion” and also Chris Martin’s unrequited love.)

Piano Tutorials Up and Coming – Have a Say!

Hey guys,

Wow I can’t believe it’s been since before Christmas since our last post and figured it’s time that we give you a little bit of an update. For all our piano followers you’ve probably also been hitting up the truly astounding Piano Encyclopedia site that we’ve been working up buttocks off on for over a year now. It is really coming along and I must say, if I wasn’t apart of helping work on things I’d be getting on board myself.

The developments that Piano Encyclopedia has been going through is above what we even expected at first. We started off with all these simplistic ideas, but they soon skyrocketed into some of the most amazing ideas we’ve ever had. Not only will you be able to interact with other piano enthusiasts like yourself, but get to learn many new tricks along the way!

Since this has taken up a lot of our time we’ve sort of slacked around here and so sorry for that. When we get glued to an idea, we really put our all into it. Apologies.

Now that things are beginning to come together I figured on behalf of The Piano Encyclopedia team I’d post a little update to let you know we are still alive and kicking. The blog hasn’t died, we are just a little preoccupied!

I myself will do everything in my power to start posting more Piano tutorials in the future while the rest of the team continues working in finishing all the final touches of Piano Encyclopedia and help you guys learn all those truly amazing songs. Since we haven’t posted since December any new tutorials there is guarantee quite a few new songs out there everyone wants to learn so give me a shout and let me know! I am always game for learning something new too so don’t be shy. C’mon we are all learning here, so let’s at least throw it down and get some good grooves going on up in here!

Until next time

~Chrissi~

Rihanna’s-Take a Bow: Piano Lesson #23

Piano Lesson #23

View all previous Piano / Keyboard Lessons

You are about to learn:
Artist: Rihanna
Song: Take a Bow

Rihanna fan or not, Take a Bow was beautifully composed and written by Neyo and the production team Stargate.

Released in 2008, Rihanna’s single has risen to the top. Men lovers worldwide enjoy this song…there is just something about the sarcastic singer croning to her boyfriend that his “performance” was an Oscar winner. 🙂 Enjoy this first performance of mysterious hands showing us the keystrokes to the ballad Take a Bow.

David Sides does a beautiful rendition in the next youtube video. All is not lost when it comes to the material that can be found on the internet…parental supervision not required : ).

Now, this blog would be incomplete without a video of Hanson performing Mmm Bop. I mean Rihanna performing Take a Bow (very similiar songs, so you can see my initial confusion). Enjoy:

Ahhh yes, handsome guy and a stunning gal (not me…Rihanna) almost always make for a good video. Take a Bow is a wonderful ballad, and I wish you a great deal of fun while you take the time to learn how to play this song.

Ciao.

xoxo Sheena

The New Piano Tutorial’s Section is Here! On Edutainment!!!

Hi everybody! 🙂

I have such good news for everyone! Specially for this Christmas eve and upcoming holidays! 🙂

We’re are building a completely FREE New Piano Tutorial’s Section so that you’ll be able to learn how to play your favorite songs!!!

Yes! But before I jump into details let me present you the new member of the Edutainment Team: Chrissi.

She is a pianist and musician and you’ll fall in love with the way she writes! 🙂

And here is some great news for you, Chrissi has prepared a very nice present for all of us.

She is going to teach us how play Christmas songs on piano -special for this Holidays!!! Videos included- so that you can learn all the chords and all those beautiful jingle-bell melodies just in your computer!!!

Yeah! And that’s just the beginning, in the following lessons past Christmas she is going to show us how to play all our favorite songs. And if that’s not enough, you’ll even be able to tell us all the songs you like so that we can add new tutorials!

Trust me, the lessons are so great that even Panda (the cat) will learn how to play for real ;o)

However, enough of me talking and presenting the new section, let’s hear from Chrissi herself. She told she wanted to write something for all of you: 🙂

Hello Edutainment,

My name is Christine but you can call me Chrissi. I am pleased to be apart of the Edutainment team and hope to get a lot of feed back from you. I am a Mom of two children, a boy Owyn, and a girl Sophie. I love to write as you can tell with the amount of articles that I will be posting for you. I’ve written for many years and have made writing my career since I had my kids. Music is also one of my favourite things to do. I have the ability to play trombone, clarinet, bass guitar, piano, and of course the Guitar Hero guitar!

I’ve grown in Ontario, Canada and will probably never leave. I love snow too much to leave this beautiful country.

I can’t wait to get to know all you fellow fans of the Edutainment blog and if you ever want me to do an article on a musical group you love just let me know I’ll be more then pleased to please my fans.

Let’s all give a WARM WELCOME to CHRISSI to Edutainment!!!!!!!

We’ll keep posting about diverse topics, but…

If you want to link to new Piano Tutorials Section use this link:

https://edutainmenteng.wordpress.com/category/piano/

Stay in touch and tell us what you think about this initiative!,

Cheers!

Questor

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Current Piano Lessons / Tutorials’ Featured Artists:

• Coldplay
• Sting
• Vanessa Carlton
• Christmas Songs
• Elvis Presley
• Johann Sebastian Bach
• VIEW ALL PIANO LESSONS

 

Learning Piano on your own

What’s the problem, no time for teacher?

Too stressed but still want to play piano without a teacher?

Well with today’s software learning to play the piano is much easier!.

(Even a dog can play piano now!)

Before getting deep into software reviews, we will present an article discussions other alternative methods.

Here we will point up excerpts of a very interesting article on the pitfalls that you should avoid when trying to learn piano on your own:

While no self-training program can provide the many benefits of a committed private piano teacher, some individuals may lack time, funds or motivation to learn to play from a private teacher and will seek to train themselves, perhaps with the help of software, videos or other modern learning aids. The problem with using such learning aids by themselves is that the average beginner is in no position to evaluate their potential effectiveness, let alone their pedagogical soundness or applicability to his own situation and needs. Thus, in some sense, those who train themselves are likely to be “flying blind.” If you need to train yourself at home, here a few tips that may help you avoid some of the many pitfalls inherent in self-training.

As we have said many times on the site, modern multimedia software can be a very powerful aid to learning to play at home and can help you determine if you have the interest and motivation to take lessons effectively from a private teacher. Much of current software is pedagogically sound and has the virtue of always being available when you are. Assuming that you have the time and motivation to use software, the inevitable issues that arise are how to choose the best software for you and how to use it to best advantage. Keep in mind that even the very best programs won’t work well for every student and that no software is as flexible or knowledgeable as a well-trained private teacher.

Software isn’t the only tool you can use to learn at home. There are MANY video courses and books that claim to help you learn to play, including numerous ones available through the Internet. In our experience, the quality and value of these is highly variable. Determining the worth of an individual “method” can be virtually impossible for the beginner. That said, there are a few principles that will serve you well in evaluating various self-proclaimed “revolutionary” methods. First, if a method promises to teach you to play in a day, a week, or a month or asserts other “miracles” associated with its use, be cautious. Almost by definition, these “play-in-a-day” methods must be incomplete and focused entirely on immediate gratification, rather than building the necessary knowledge of music theory, sight reading, and technique that can only come with hard work over time. You may learn to play a few simple songs, but what happens when someone asks you to play a piece not included in the method? Even Mozart, perhaps music’s greatest prodigy, couldn’t have learned to play piano well in a day. So unless you’re convinced you are so talented that you can absorb these other critical elements of music training through your skin, we suggest that you give little consideration to those methods that promise “miracle” results.

Setting aside the “miracle methods,” which, unfortunately, constitute the bulk of what you will find advertised online, what criteria can you use to evaluate other video, software, and book methods which don’t make such claims? First, look for detailed descriptions of what the method embodies, including what is taught at each level, the specific manner in which critical elements (music theory, sight reading, technique, etc.) are introduced, and the types of music taught (strictly popular tunes vs. a well-rounded collection of popular, jazz and classical works). Second, be wary of any method which uses “position playing,” rather than emphasizing reading music by recognizing intervalic relationships and notes. Position playing methods will ask the student to place the hand in specific positions on the keyboard which span five notes and to change the hand position to another specific hand position to reach new notes. Such methods don’t teach the student how to read music and generally produce students who are locked into playing by position. Third, give little weight to “testimonials.” In our experience, the promoters of methods offered online are usually very unwilling to give e-mail addresses that will allow you to ask your own questions of those providing the testimonials. This leads us to suspect that some of those individuals giving the testimonials are either paid for their comments or are friends of the promoter and, therefore, incapable of giving an unbiased, let alone knowledgeable, viewpoint. Fourth, look for a detailed statement about what the promoter considers unique and advantageous about the method. Merely stating that the method is unique does not constitute evidence that the method is advantageous for anyone, let alone you! Fifth, look for a money-back guarantee. If the purveyor of the method is that sure that the method is good, he should be willing to give you your money back within a certain specified period of time if the method doesn’t work for you. Sixth, if you can’t find enough information on the Web site advertising the method to draw an informed conclusion, look for an e-mail address that allows you to write the person selling the method, not just an address for orders. Then, write the person with your questions. If you don’t get a reply that answers them, you can draw your own conclusions.

It may seem like a miracle when, after putting in a lot of time, effort and commitment, you are able to play the piano, but the fact is that this achievement is no miracle at all. If you’re willing to bring that kind of commitment to the table, chances are you’ll learn to play at least to some extent, irrespective of your level of inherent talent, the method used, or the way in which you do it. You’ll almost certainly learn faster and avoid mistakes with a good private teacher, but, like a lot of things, playing the piano is, in the final analysis, “5% inspiration and 95% perspiration.” There are no miracles involved, just good, hard-working students who really want to learn to play.

I hope you found the article as intresting as I did. 🙂

In the following posts will provide you with reviews of the best software for helping you learn and practice piano.
This type of software is not only for beginners. There are some software to point up to advanced to students who want to perfection themselves. Others teach you harmony, composing, and improvising. There are excellent software out there that can make you a better piano player. We will review them in the following posts. Keep tuned!.
Please write us comments!

Cheers!

Questor

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