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1,000-Hour/5,000-Hour Model For Songwriting Success

May 20, 2008 By Graham English

The concept is this: To be a good, competent songwriter, it will take 1,000 hours of practice. If you want to be a great songwriter, it will take 5,000 hours. Winners are made, not born. So forget about talent. Talent is a gift for … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Music Education, Prose Tagged With: deliberate practice, expertise, inspiration, motivation, peak performance, Practice, Songwriting, talent

Advice To Adult Learners Of Music

November 26, 2007 By Graham English

Music is like a language. And we all know that learning languages comes easier when you're a child. And in some ways, it's much easier for a child to learn music, especially to learn how to play by ear. Putting two and two together, you might ask … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Music Education, Prose Tagged With: abstract, adult learning, advice, development, dynamic skill theory, education, Language, learning, peak performance, skill theory, skills

Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 15

September 4, 2007 By Graham English

This will be the last dominant 7 pentatonic scale pattern in this series. This pattern begins in the "outside key" and moves to the tonic key for two notes before switching back. The second part of the pattern begins in the tonic key, switches to the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Music Education, Prose Tagged With: dominant 7, exercises, free lessons, HowTo, jazz harmony, modal, modes, modulation, patterns, peak performance, pentatonic scales, playing outside, scales, tips, transposing

Absolute Pitch Ear Training Podcast 08-20-07

August 20, 2007 By Graham English

Topics covered: The pleasure of finding things out, Richard Feynman, Dr. Kurt Fischer, dynamic skill theory, developmental levels, adult learning, ear training, and much more... Download: Absolute Pitch Ear Training Podcast 08-20-07 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Absolute Pitch Ear Training Podcast, Audio, Music Education Tagged With: Absolute Pitch, abstract, adult learning, development, discovery, Ear Training, education, goals, Harvard, Kurt Fischer, learning, learning absolute pitch, motivation, peak performance, perfect pitch, Practice, relative pitch, Richard Feynman, skill theory, skills, values, wonder

Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 14

August 3, 2007 By Graham English

Now this pattern is the exact opposite of the twelfth dominant 7 pentatonic scale pattern. Every other note is transposed into the "outside key" but this pattern begins in the outside key and is a full bar long. Download the full … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Music Education, Prose Tagged With: dominant 7, exercises, free lessons, HowTo, jazz harmony, modal, modes, modulation, patterns, peak performance, pentatonic scales, playing outside, scales, tips, transposing

Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 13

July 30, 2007 By Graham English

This pattern is almost the exact opposite of the previous dominant 7 pentatonic pattern. Every other note is transposed into the "outside key" but this pattern begins in the outside key and is only two beats. Download the full pattern: Playing … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Music Education, Prose Tagged With: dominant 7, exercises, free lessons, HowTo, jazz harmony, modal, modes, modulation, patterns, peak performance, pentatonic scales, playing outside, scales, tips, transposing

Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 12

July 27, 2007 By Graham English

This dominant 7 pentatonic pattern is super squiggly. Every other note is transposed into the "outside key" for superior in-the-moment transposition skills. As always, don't just memorize this pattern technically. After you have your technique … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Music Education, Prose Tagged With: dominant 7, exercises, free lessons, HowTo, jazz harmony, modal, modes, modulation, patterns, peak performance, pentatonic scales, playing outside, scales, tips, transposing

Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies For Your iPhone

July 23, 2007 By Graham English

In an attempt to hack their creativity and artistic output, Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt created a deck of cards they called the Oblique Strategies. Whenever they came up against a creative dilemma--and especially while under a moment of pressure or … [Read more...]

Filed Under: LifeHacks, Music Education, Prose Tagged With: composing strategies, creative process, creativity, CreativityHacks, flow, GTD, hacks, inspiration, iPhone, music hacks, MusicHacks, oblique strategies, peak performance, PerformanceHacks, problem solving, productivity, SongwritingHacks, strategies

Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 11

July 10, 2007 By Graham English

The primary purpose of this dominant 7 pentatonic pattern is to force you to transpose keys a number of times during the bar. If you keep your wits about you as you play this pattern and don't just memorize it without giving it any thought, you'll … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Music Education, Prose Tagged With: dominant 7, exercises, free lessons, HowTo, jazz harmony, modal, modes, modulation, patterns, peak performance, pentatonic scales, playing outside, scales, tips, transposing

Playing Outside: The Dominant 7 Pentatonic Scale Pattern 10

July 6, 2007 By Graham English

This dominant 7 pentatonic pattern sandwiches the tonic key with two full beats of the "outside" key on either side. It starts in the transposed key, moves to the tonic key, and finishes in the transposed key. What I like about this pattern is … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Music Education, Prose Tagged With: dominant 7, exercises, free lessons, HowTo, jazz harmony, meter, modal, modes, modulation, patterns, peak performance, pentatonic scales, playing outside, scales, tips, transposing

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Graham is a singer/songwriter and jazz-trained keyboard player, music producer and studio musician, best-selling author of Logic Pro X For Dummies, and serial entrepreneur.

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