The Win Report

English singer and pianist Jamie Cullum has released his debut CD titled Twentysomething. A CD has already registered double platinum in the UK.

Though the jazz label that he is being tagged with doesn’t necessarily fit Cullum as I see him as more of a lounge singer in the mold of a Bobby Darin. Kind of reminds me of the young Billy Joel in style of delivery.

Whatever the genre I’m finding that I definitely enjoy this young new talent who seems to have energy and talent to burn.

Most will be surprised by Cullum’s emotional and musical range for such a young musician.

I enjoy Cullum’s no fear approach to his music as he takes songs by artists like Radiohead and the legendary Jimi Hendrix and puts his own spin on them in a way that others wouldn’t even dream of doing.

The CD launches with a great track, These Are The Days and from there Cullum proceeds to display why he is one of the best new talents to come along in quite some time.

On Track 5, Lover, You Should’ve Come Over Cullum positively shows he can project an emotional intensity that breaks through the clever arrangements of his music.

Overall Twentysomething is an excellent contribution by the young and clearly very talented Cullum and would be a great addition to your music collection. It’s quite simply a very entertaining CD and fun to listen to.

The standout tunes are Twentysomething [track 2], Lover, You Should Have Come Over [track 5], and I Get A Kick Out Of You [track 7]. My SmoothLee Bonus Pick, and the one that got Sore […as in “Stuck On REpeat”] is track 12, I Could Have Danced All Night. Very nice!

Release Notes:

Jamie Cullum originally released Twentysomething on May 11, 2004 on the Verve record label.

CD track list follows:

1. These Are The Days

2. Twentysomething

3. Wind Cries Mary

4. All at Sea

5. Lover, You Should Have Come Over

6. Singin’ In The Rain

7. I Get A Kick Out Of You

8. Blame It On My Youth

9. High and Dry

10. It’s About Time

11. But For Now

12. I Could Have Danced All Night

13. Next Year Baby

14. What A Diff’rence A Day Made

15. Frontin’

To listen to samples of each song on Twentysomething by Jamie Cullum go to: Jamie Cullum CD - Twentysomething Samples

Children in piano lessons need opportunities to perform, but all of these don’t need to involve a formal recital with kids dressed in their Sunday best and all their relatives present. Piano recital parties can be rather spontaneous events that allow children to enjoy sharing their music with other kids in a relaxed way. Here’s a great piano party idea that kids love because it’s just for students! If you’re a parent, share this idea with your child’s piano teacher and offer to be a helper at this fun event.

The Ice Cream Social - The Ice Cream Social Piano Party is a great way for kids to get together and have fun playing for each other. This can even be an outdoor recital with games such as Musical Alphabet Croquet, or Piano Chord Hopscotch. Improvise an outdoor cabana for your portable keyboard with a Pop-up canopy or a large beach umbrella.

Break the party up into sections. Start with the Games so kids can get to know each other and create a sense of community. You may even have a craft table for kids to make something they can take home with them as a piano memory.

Then let students play the songs they’ve been practicing in the special piano cabana! The songs students play for this recital can be the pieces they have currently been playing in their lesson books. Remember the idea is to create a piano community and to let kids learn to share their music with others in a relaxed way that will break down any walls of worry that students often have about performing. There is no need for formal seating since parents won’t be there. Just put some big quilts on the lawn where the children to sit while they are waiting their turn to play.

After their performances, have plenty of ice cream and toppings such as sundae sauces, whipped cream, cherries and sprinkles. Let the children make their own creative ice cream sundaes. Since it is an outdoor recital you won’t have to worry about the kids making a mess. The Ice Cream Social is great idea any time of the year the weather is nice. If you live in the U.S. you might want to have your Ice Cream Social in July and have your students play some patriotic music to celebrate Independence Day. You can decorate your piano cabana with red, white and blue ribbons.

Remember to take some photos of this fun event and put them in a special piano party memory book. If you are a parent helping at this event you could offer to help the teacher make a memory book to have available at formal recitals so all the students can show their parents how much fun they had at their piano party.

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

I’m on a mission. To convert.

To convert guitar players and aspiring guitar players to open-D. It’s the tuning so important to guitar in the last number of decades, but too often, so overlooked by the mainstream. Standard tuning has a stranglehold on the business of learning guitar. The reason, to me, remains unclear.

As a starting point, an open tuning is clearly the logical choice. What easier way to begin to play guitar, but with an open, major chord? How much more confidence could an aspiring guitarist (of any age, but more on that later) need than to be able to play a nice sounding chord without putting finger to fret? That’s what you get when you start with an open tuning.

My personal story went like this. Frustrated novice guitar player (”novice” for years on end!). Gets nowhere with guitar for years. Does research (i.e. reads guitar magazines). Realizes many of the greats played in alternate tunings (K. Richard, J. Mitchell, E. James, R. Johnson, R. Cooder, J. Page, etc, etc.). Re-tunes guitar until he finds one that works - open-D. Presto! Light bulb comes on, a better guitar player is hatched.

Open tunings are mentioned, frequently enough, in magazines articles, transcriptions, books and the like. But very seldom or never have I seen an outright promotion of their use as a stand-alone approach to guitar (my god, even Keith switches to standard tuning every now and again!). And open-D, the most logical of all starting points, is rarely mentioned at all. I have yet, in 20+ years of public performance, have anyone come up to me and say - “How about that - you play just like I do, in open-D”. People do come up, but the comments are almost always, “You sure use some funny chord positions” or “Are you playing in a different tuning”. Amazingly, many guitar players associate “open tuning” with “more difficult”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sure, to make the transition from standard tuning is a bit of a learning curve, but once you’re there, POW! You’ll never want to play any other way (although just adding proficiency on an open tuning to your standard tuning is a giant leap).

Which brings us back to beginners. No matter what the age, a beginner, whether 6 or 60 years old will find open-D an easier way to start playing guitar. It is so obvious. Focus on the strum without any fingers on the fretboard, and then work your way up to one finger on the fretboard (the basic major chord in open-D is just one finger). What a way to develop early confidence. The truth is, and I am living proof, you would never have to make the flip to standard tuning. But if you wanted to, it’s just small tweak up to standard - sort of drop-D tuning with three other minor adjustments back and forth, to and from standard E A D G B E, to D A D F# D.

One question that arises - why open-D, then, of all the potential starting points? The absolute simplest choice may be, for easier understanding of theory, keys and harmony might be open-C C G C E G C, but that gets a tad floppy sounding, as the guitar strings are so slackened. Going the other way to open-E E B E G# B E might be going too far the other way, though it’s used. Open-D seems the perfect choice! For singers wanting to accompany themselves, of course, it becomes an issue of vocal range tied to the guitar tuning. A capo may be in order.

Frank Foxx is a semi-professional guitar player who plays exclusively in the tuning of open-D. He has written a guitar method book, extolling the virtues of what he considers to be the most versatile and easiest of all guitar tunings, entitled Guitar-eze A Simpler Approach to Playing the Guitar. His website is http://www.easierguitar.com. He keeps a blog at http://open-d.blogspot.com dedicated to helping guitarists and aspiring guitarists see the light.

You’ve spent good money on books. Workbooks, lesson books, other books on piano playing. But you still can’t play the piano. Why not?

Two reasons. One, you lack motivation. That’s understandable. After all, most lesson books require you to learn how to read music first, then play other people’s music. Pretty uncreative if you ask me.

The second reason is you haven’t learned how to use chords. Music, real music is created with chords as the foundation. In music there are 3 aspects; rhythm, melody, and harmony. Harmony is created with chords. Chords can give you melody and rhythm. Weird huh? But once you have chords under your eager fingers, you’re not far off from making music.

Now that you know chords are foundational for your creative success at the piano, you’re left with what to play, or what style to play in. Most people just want to learn how to play the classics. They want to learn how to read music so Bach, Beethoven and Mozart come to life through them. A noble goal but guess what? You’re still playing other peoples music.. no matter how good it is.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could create your own music? But how you’re wondering. Very easily. By using chords! I’m a big fan of the New Age piano style. It’s very impressionistic and attractive. Chords are used to create with and a complete beginner can begin improvising AND composing music literally within minutes! Fantastic sounds begin to appear and students are amazed what comes out of them.

Now they can truly play the piano. The creative juices flow as the warm sound of the piano floats in the air. Passerby’s wonder where that sound is coming from. You smile as they pass as your gift of music gently descends upon their ears.

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!