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Personal Piano Professor, Issue#041 -Silver Bells
November 23, 2014
Greetings keyboard friends!

Learn this EZ Christmas classic "Silver Bells"

Greetings to all my friends and Keyboard fans!

This holiday season is a great time to entertain family and friends with some traditional Christmas favorites.

Over the next few issues of Personal Piano Professor I will be bringing you tutorials on some of the most popular secular Christmas Classics

Play "Silver Bells"

"Silver Bells" was first performed by Bob Hope and Marilyn Maxwell in the motion picture The Lemon Drop Kid, filmed in July–August 1950 and released in March 1951.

The first recorded version was by Bing Crosby and Carol Richards, released by Decca Records in October 1950.

As you can see this song has simple chord changes but still evokes memories of winter and the hustle and bustle of Christmas.

I have added a new video to this lesson!! You can see the whole lesson by clicking the link below.

Silver Bells piano tutorial

Piano Chord Inversions

I have to give credit to one of our readers for sending in this question on a contact form.

Her name is Dee and she wrote:

"Hi, I'm a beginner adult piano student who found your website in hopes of learning a method for memorizing chord inversions. How do i begin? I'm determined to learn this but sometimes it's overwhelming. Should it take a long time to accomplish? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you."

First, the definition of invert is:

Put upside down or in the opposite position, order, or arrangement.

That is the dictionary definition and it fits well because when we invert a piano chord we simply take the bottom of the chord ( lowest note) and make it the top (highest note).

Piano Chord Inversions

Dear Singer,

If you're interested in improving your singing, I've found the perfect resource for you.

The Vocal Mastery System will help you extend your vocal range, eliminate straining, perfect your pitch, and start singing in any key like a pro within weeks.

In fact, most students report feeling and hearing the difference in their singing within days of taking just the first course in the system.

By the way, there are 10 different courses wrapped up into one system. There's something for the total beginner, the intermediate singer, and even the advanced, experienced performer (like the "Runs & Stylization" cd).

I recommend visiting their website, reading what it has to offer, and listening to some of the free lesson clips. You'll learn a lot just on the website. Just click the link below

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to let me know.

All the best, Greg

Vocal Mastery System
More about Blues Chord Progressions.

After you get comfortable playing the classic I IV I V I blues progression and have played it enough times you will want to explore other Blues Chords progressions.

You will find that the blues is more a feeling than it is just that basic three chord progression.

One of my favorite Blues chord progressions is The classic blues progression for "Georgia on my mind" by Hoagy Charmichael and Stuart Gorrell.

While learning to play this Classic song you will learn to expand your knowledge of blues chord progressions in general and how to use the blues scales and pentatonic scales you have learned over more interesting chord movement.

More about blues progression and

Learn the 12 bar blues progression on piano."

Learning the 12 bar blues progression is basic to understanding the roots of American popular music.

When you see a group of musicians getting together to play everyone seems to know what to do almost magically.

This is because at one time or another they learned the 12 bar blues progression.

While there are lots of variations of this timeless progression the most common is a three chord 12 measure version explained in this lesson.

The 12 bar Blues for piano

4 Steps to Learning How to Play Any Song on the Piano

1. Determining the melody - Melodies determine what chords will be played. If you can use your ear to figure out what notes are being played in the melody, you are 1/4 on your way to learning a song! More resources on learning how to determine melodies

2.Harmonizing the melody - Once you have figured out the melody (using some of my techniques on the resource page), it is time to harmonize it. This is simply choosing various chords to accompany the melody. There are several techniques and tricks to doing this. More resources on learning how to harmonize melodies

3. Altering Chords - This is the best part! Now that you have strategically figured out the melody to a song and have harmonized it, altering your chords to produce certain sounds is the next step. If you were playing gospel music, you would alter your chords differently than if you were playing classical or country music. More resources on altering chords

4. Listening - After you have determined the melody, harmonized the melody, and altered some of your chords, there are various techniques you can use to make sure that your song sounds right. More resources on listening techniques

I personally recommend "The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear" 300-pg Course and through my relationship with Jermaine (the author of this course), I've been able to get him to throw in a few bonus items (3 additional piano software programs). He has taught literally thousands of musicians how to play the piano by ear. If you understood just half of what he discussed above, you'll definitely benefit from his 300-pg course. Click here to learn the secrets to playing absolutely any song on the piano in virtually minutes! I highly recommend it.
Learn Jazz Here!!

Best Gospel Course for Ear players

Introducing GospelKeys 101...

Now In Less Than 2 Hours, You Can Jump Start Your Piano Playing With These 3 Easy Steps!

Dear Friend,

Jermaine Griggs, the pioneer of the award-winning GospelKeys learning system, has come up with 3 simple steps so that you won't waste any time at all. In fact, it'll virtually cut your learning time in half! I copied and pasted the most important parts below so you can get a general idea.

HERE IT GOES...

Step One: Determining the Melody

Step Two: Harmonizing the Melody

Step Three: Adding the Bass


These three steps are not super complicated theories that require several years of experience. In fact, they were designed for the total beginner with absolutely no musical experience.

What most people don't understand is that most songs follow patterns. If you've been mistakenly learning songs, one by one, you're only exercising your ability to MEMORIZE chords --- and
that's exactly why it takes SO LONG to learn just one song.

BUT...

If you concentrate on LEARNING PATTERNS, you'll never go wrong because songs are built on repeating patterns. You should NEVER EVER have to memorize dozens of songs when they all share the same exact CHORDS, PROGRESSIONS, AND PATTERNS.

So head over to their site and let me know what you think

If you have any questions, feel free to reply.

Talk soon,




P.S. - You might find more interesting information, techniques, or resources just by clicking around on their website..
I want to remind you that many of the ideas for lessons come from those of you who contact me with questions. I encourage you to let me know what you need.

Also you can find a contact form on the site and suggest a song for a future lesson. Don't be shy. Let me know how i can help!!

I am grateful for all of you, and wish you the best success in your playing!!

Thanks, Greg

Go To Piano Lessons For Life
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