{"id":538,"date":"2019-04-29T14:00:33","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T14:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/classroomreviewsnow.com\/?p=538"},"modified":"2019-04-29T14:00:33","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T14:00:33","slug":"melody-music-studios-books-the-complete-spectrum-of-keyboard-instruction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classroomreviewsnow.com\/?p=538","title":{"rendered":"Melody Music Studios Books \u2013 the Complete Spectrum of Keyboard Instruction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u2022 Ages 4-7, <em>Color It, Say It, Play It and Create It!<\/em> A Piano Method To Teach Little Fingers To<br \/>\nPlay! 51 pgs.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Ages 5-adult, <em>Drill It and Kill It \u2013 Read Music Like a Pro<\/em> \u2013 a Complete Piano Method for the<br \/>\nBeginner<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Beginner skill level, <em>How To Play Chords and Improv On the Piano<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Beginner-Intermediate skill level, <em>Fake It \u2018Til You Make It<\/em> \u2013 A guide to playing a Fake Book<br \/>\non the piano<\/p>\n<p>All written and <sup>\u00a9<\/sup> Copyright, by Kathi Kerr, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.melodymusicstudios.com\">www.melodymusicstudios.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>====================================================================<br \/>\nAssessed by Michael Leppert<\/p>\n<p>Kathi Kerr, owner of Melody Music Studios and author of a complete line of instruction books, brings her wealth of knowledge to anyone interested in learning and developing keyboard skills in a fun and relaxed way. These books are excellent resources for developing any desired level of competence from a living room Lizt to a full-fledged professional.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The first volume shown above, is the launching pad for little students to become acclimated to the world of the piano and experience the pleasure of accomplishing skill development. As the title states, Kathi incorporates coloring the keys of drawings of white piano keyboards in the book, into the process of becoming familiar with the keyboard. Part of the coloring process is learning the names of the keys being colored. <strong>(This is a brilliant application of the scientific fact that information taught through play only requires 10-12 repetitions to imprint the brain vs. 400 repetitions by rote.)<\/strong> Ms. Kerr continues to present more musical information such as rhythm, note and rest values, pitch values and applying these values to playing familiar simple songs.<\/li>\n<li>The second volume addresses, in great detail, development of the all-important skill called sight-reading. This is the ability to sit down to a never-before-seen piece of music and within 5-8 minutes of preparation, being able to play it virtually correctly. Professional recording musicians and orchestral players have to possess as strong a sight-reading ability as text reading to an editor or writer. In my opinion, these two volumes should follow sequentially.<\/li>\n<li>Third in Ms. Kerr\u2019s line of excellent instruction books, addresses playing chords and improvising on the piano. These two skills follow those developed in the above two books. Chords are like the scaffolding that melodies are hung upon and learning to play them is built upon the initial note-reading skills and expands one\u2019s sight-reading ability. Songwriters and composers know that our Western ears hear chords progress in a certain pleasing or (intentionally) displeasing manner, called \u201cchord progressions\u201d. After some initial discussions of music theory (the facts of music), Kathi teaches the concept of progressions and provides actual examples that are immediately familiar from hearing decades of popular songs use them. Finally, she teaches chord inversions. Space does not allow for a discussion of this part of theory, but a deep knowledge of using inversions is absolutely necessary for the professional or semi-pro musician and to a purely amateur player who wishes to enjoy playing comfortably without anxiety.<\/li>\n<li>The last volume in Melody Music\u2019s line teaches the ability to use Fake Books, which are typically, very large volumes of just the melodies of popular songs and a chord shorthand allowing pro musicians, such as piano bar pianists, to take requests at large. This edition is invaluable for an aspiring performer who envisions playing weddings, bar mitzvahs and other events that require a fluid knowledge of hundreds of songs, appealing to multiple generations of listeners and dancers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If your child \u2013 or yourself \u2013 desires to develop keyboard confidence enough to play for others with joy and ease, possibly even to make a living, please visit Melody Music Studios&#8217; website and see Kathi Kerr\u2019s excellent line of instruction books. MjL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2022 Ages 4-7, Color It, Say It, Play It and Create It! A Piano Method To Teach Little Fingers To Play! 51 pgs. \u2022 Ages 5-adult, Drill It and Kill It \u2013 Read Music Like a Pro \u2013 a Complete Piano Method for the Beginner \u2022 Beginner skill level, How To Play Chords and Improv [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[184],"tags":[219,221,210,216,213,214,218,217,212,215,211,220,222,209,207,205,204,206,202,203,208],"class_list":["post-538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts","tag-chord-inversions","tag-chord-progressions","tag-fake-books-use","tag-improvising-on-the-piano","tag-keyboard-confidence","tag-music-instruction-books","tag-piano-chords","tag-playing-chords","tag-popular-songs","tag-reading-music","tag-sight-reading","tag-songwriters-and-composers","tag-western-ears","tag-fake-books","tag-improvising-music","tag-kathi-kerr","tag-melody-music-studios","tag-music-improv","tag-music-theory","tag-piano-instruction","tag-using-fake-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/classroomreviewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/classroomreviewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/classroomreviewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classroomreviewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classroomreviewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=538"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/classroomreviewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":540,"href":"https:\/\/classroomreviewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538\/revisions\/540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/classroomreviewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classroomreviewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classroomreviewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}