Have your eyes ever grown big when you open up a piece of music and see a bunch of eighth notes and sixteenth notes and other beamed notes?  When shorter sounds are written on a page of music, the signs can be intimidating.  One of my younger beginner students is already able to talk about thirty-second notes and sixty-fourth notes, while other students are wondering if such notes exist.  They do.  Tune in to the next CMajor Radio Show to find out the various parts of written signs.  FInd out the way that composers write these signs or notes.  Is there a quicker way to write them in a certain way?  How should we encourage students to write down notes.  Should a group of notes be joined by a beam or should they stand alone with a tail or flag.  If you've ever wondered about such things as this, tune in to the next podcast.  It'll be fun.  "The European musical language passed to America and then spread to many other parts of the world...has become cosmopolitan.  It is also the common language of the Hollywood musical, jazz, rock and pop as well as of the piped music which has become inescapable in shops, offices, factories, hotels and other public places."  See you soon!

Have you ever thought about what it will take to play an instrument?  Do you think it will take a short amount of time or a long amount of time?  Maybe a better question is--Who are you trying to impress with your music making?  CMajor will talk to you about making music for the long term.  She recently spoke with a jazz musician who stated that music making is just tied to listening.  "Just put on some records and listen...and you'll be fine."  I agreed with him.  That's one way to make music and strengthen your auditory skills and learning.  But, what if your goal is to become a strong reader in 'paper' music.  CMajor recently read about a reading device that follows the eye movement of musicians, e.g. pianists as they sit at the piano and play and read from a score.  This episode is for anyone looking to build their music making over a long time.  What will it take to gradually learn and let music sink in over the years.  CMajor will talk to you about what a twelve-year plan looks like in comparison to a twelve-week plan.  You don't want to miss this episode.  See you soon!

Do you want to know why Practice, Practice, Practice, Practice, Practice is a new approach?  If you practice 5 to 6 minutes a day 5 days a week you'll start to see improvement in your music making.  If you don't you won't.  I used to say to students if you practice 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week you'll see success in your music making.  If you don't you won't.  I find that I can no longer say the latter with my students.  I live in the Greater New York City area and everyone is busy, too busy to take a little time to practice.  Five to six minutes a day, five days a week is a new approach for busy parents and busy students living, working and going to school in this area of the country.  The key is consistency.  Once you commit to your music making, you must set aside some time to practice or you won't see the results you wish to see.  Don't compound your time.  Don't try to wait until a Friday, for instance, to practice all of your minutes in one day.  That's a different effort that will cause a different result.  We'll talk about this more.  CMajor will tell you who, what and why in the next episode.  See you then!

Hello all.  Thank you for listening to the CMajor Radio Show!  I really appreciate your time and attention.  In the next episode, CMajor will talk about how to stay away from confusion when you are making music.  Her own students sometimes express that they are confused.  CMajor wants you to be confident when it comes to music theory, especially.  Music should never be tricky or puzzling.  And, when you have finally mastered your piece, you can "show off".  Talk to your music teacher or the head person overseeing your instruction.  Explain to them how important it is for you to develop literacy and know what you are doing on your instruments.  Calling all performers, composers, piano players, DJs, turntablists, and active and passive listeners of all ages and abilities--once you can understand the written symbols used in music, you'll go far.  See you soon!

CMajor is taking time to explain how music works for everyone learning to read music, her students especially.  But what if you are an adult learner trying to get back into music making.  You can change your music making game by learning time signatures.  Shout out to all of the adult learners who used to take piano lessons as a young student.  You have reached the advanced beginner level or beyond.  Maybe you took music for a few months or even a few years.  I would recommend either private piano lessons or group lessons.  Group lessons can be more fun with friends and family.  If you can, try to do music theory together.  Listen to the broadcast and let me know where you'd like to go with your music making.  I'd be happy to talk with you further.  Have a great day and see you soon!

She's baaaackkkk!--CMajor is back in action and talking about beats.  Welcome back to the broadcast.  We took a little break to think about how to move forward with The CMajor Radio Show, but now we are aiming to focus more on theory.  If you've listened to the previous almost 30 episodes, you know that CMajor has been introducing you to the concept of music making and explaining in her own words how people learn to play the piano.  We're still in season 1, so tune in to hear CMajor's discussion about tapping your feet to the beat.  Can You March or Dance to Music?--It's an interesting question and one that many people seem to take for granted.  We'll talk about quarter notes, half notes and whole notes...but in a fun way!  See you soon and thank you for listening!

CMajor is not a historian.  She leaves that up to the music history professionals.  But, in addition to piano performance, music education and arts administration she did study musicology once in graduate school at the Master's level.  CMajor is fascinated with the way people are learning to play the piano now in the 21st century and she likes to compare it to how people were trying to learn to play back in the mid-20th century in American history.  Fascinating!--in 1960 there were music books offering to teach people to play by chords and by stamps.  "One that really works!", it reads.  Playing by Chords and by Stamps seems to be considered in the 1960s the newest, most unique approach to the world of chords for recreational musicians.  The cost for the book was $3.00 in the USA.  Tune in to the next CMajor Radio Show to find out more...See you then!

Welcome back to the CMajor Radio Show Broadcast.  In this podcast, CMajor Porter will discuss the basic facts of music theory.  She will be reading some excerpts from the 'First Steps in Music Theory'  book and will refer to descriptions of Time Values, Bars and Time Signatures, etc. from other sources and method books as well.  As a private music teacher of piano students, CMajor has experience preparing students for examinations and helping her students learn to read music.  During the broadcast you'll hear her talk about a number of music examples that she has encountered.  She'll break it down in her own words--a way to make these music theory examples work for beginners and those coming back into music-making after taking a long break. See you on the next show!

Have you always wondered what it means to be a performer as well as a teacher?  Did you think that the two usually are kept separate?  If you are a performance major or a music education major, CMajor invites you to tune in to the next podcast.  CMajor will share with you her ideas about piano performance, music teaching and arts administration.   How can they all blend together to help you build a satisfactory career?  Are you one of those people who thinks that you have to do either one or the other--teach or perform?  If so, you'll want to listen in to find out how much educational ground you need to cover.  But, what about repertoire?  Should a teacher know how to at least perform or demonstrate the pieces that she/he teaches?  That's next time on the CMajor Radio Show!  See you then.

Are you at a point where you are looking to sign up for lessons for yourself?  Is learning to play the piano something that is on your list of things to do for 2018?  If so, listen to the upcoming broadcast of The CMajor Radio Show.  CMajor will explain the options for signing up for piano lessons as she sees it happening in the Greater New York City Area.  All other places in the nation and the world at-large may be about other things when it comes to music making.  In New York, it's usually about one thing and one thing only--Find out what that one thing is when you tune in to the next podcast.  Thank you for listening to The CMajor Radio Show.  See you soon!