5 Minute Piano Lessons: Counting Music

Music is sound waves played over a period of time.  A pianist must learn to count and feel it while he plays.  The closest archetype that demonstrates this is the tick of a clock.  Sixty ticks a minute tells us whether we will be late or early to an appointment, how long until the next hour, when school will be over.  In music the tick varies depending on how fast or slow the song is.  It could be 80 beats a minute (which is faster), or 42 beats (slower).  Military marches tend to go twice as fast as a second (120 beats per minute).

One thing to realize in all of this, music has a beginning, middle, and an end.  It doesn’t stop until it wants to.  This means that whether fast or slow, music is constantly moving at a steady pace to whatever end the composer made for it.

Tick tock

Let’s learn the basics of counting.  The magic number here is 4.

Mimic the steady beat of a clock by counting to 4 three times back to back (you might want to tap your foot or clap while doing this).  You have just counted three measures of music.

A measure is usually four beats long.  A song is made of measures tied together.  For example: a pop song that lasts two minutes, with ticks going 60 beats per minute, will have 30 measures in it.  If it is 120 beats a minute, it will have 60 measures.  The measure can be counted fast or slow depending on the tick.  In music we call the tick a count or a beat.

Try this the next time you’re in your car.  Listen to a popular song on the radio, preferably dance music.  Try and count out the measures.  It doesn’t matter how many measure there are, just count a steady 1 2 3 4, over and over until you feel the beat.  Basic dance music is really easy to do this with.  Every time you hear that low boom and high tap done as so: boom tap boom tap, you have just heard a single measure of music.  Boom tap boom tap is counted 1 2 3 4.

Most dance tunes are done 120 beats per minute.  This means you will be counting the measure rather fast.

Exercise 1

Place your hands in C position.  With your R. H. play and count a C major scale.  Each key of the 8 note scale is a beat of music.  This means you will be counting for two measures.  Do the same with the L.H.

Remember to play slowly now.  The idea is to get you counting as you play, which can be very difficult.  It is important for a musician to feel the beats while he plays though.   Learn to do this now while it’s easy.

Preparing for harder rhythms

More difficult tunes have very complicated rhythms.  Sometimes a song will seemingly ignore the beats, choosing instead to play around them.  Just listen to some fast jazz songs to get an understanding of this.

If you manage to catch the bass guitar thumping a steady tune in a jazz piece, he is keeping the beat well enough for you to count out the measures.  This will also allow everyone else to play around that beat.  Even if an instrumentalist isn’t playing on the beat, he is counting the beats and measures in his head: 1 2 3 4/ 1 2 3 4/ 1 2 3 4, just like you are learning to do.

Learn how to count and play while it’s easy.

The time may come when you will have to play off beat.  The only way to do this is to understand where the beat you aren’t playing is.  The only way to do that is to count it out in your head as you play…  All this is miles down the road.  For now, practice playing your scales slowly and counting.

Exercise 2

After mastering the 1^st exercise, play the scale up with both hands (while counting the two measures of course).  Now play and count them down with both hands, starting on the very top C.

More lessons to peruse at your leisure

Happy piano playing!

To Compose a Writer’s Group

Photo art by Marvin

Accountability is a rare commodity to have.  Everyone needs it, everyone but Charlie Sheen.

“I have a different constitution. I have a different brain; I have a different heart; I got tiger blood, man.”

Charlie is dangerous to himself and anyone he touches.  Much like an author who thinks he can do it all alone.

In order for writers to be successful, they must have accountability.  Do-it-yourself, “I’m the man!” mentality has no place in good literature.  For this reason, some people, like Glory and Stuart from the Eclectic Review, are against the notion of self-publishing.

My roommate, fellow aspiring author Jason Craft, wrote them an email about this.  The above link is the Eclectic Review’s thirty minute response.  In short they believe that publishers still have a role to play in the future of books, even on venues like the Kindle and Nook.  This is because publishers can do what self-publishing authors can’t… format the pages in a creative and artistic way that catches the eye… kind of like what I just did for this post.

The Eclectic Review point out something I quite agree with though.  The word “self” in self-publishing can be misleading.  Truth be told, no one can publish a great book without a little help from his friends.

Self-publishing gives you the power to make the final decisions for your book and ideas.  You must choose how to tell it, what editors will look at it, and what cover artists to delegate your work to.  On top of this, you must find accountability partners, authors with like-minded goals, willing to walk with you to the end.

This is naturally accounted for in publishing companies.  For 60 years, the best authors have flourished under them and I don’t fault their success!  There’s a reason why every book I have bought, up to this point, has had the publisher’s seal of approval behind it.  Truth be told, I will always buy a good, recommended book, whether it is indie or otherwise.  This is because as a consumer, I could care less.  As long as the story is good, I’m going to read it.

Three Books by Van Gogh

Not all published books have been great though.  Readers must learn to distill the hogwash from the gems.  This is done traditionally through word of mouth.  A friends recommendation is invaluable.  Someone has to be the pioneer and read it first though.

Some believe self-published authors will produce so much hogwash there will be few, if any, gems for pioneer’s to find.  The terrible truth of it all: this will be the case… if the indie author does it alone, which is why they should unite under effective writing groups.

I have been blessed greatly in this!

On my journey in completing Void Voyage 1, two colleagues, who are themselves aspiring authors, tag along for the ride.  In the same way, I tag along with them in their own endeavors.

Our group is three chords united, moving to become professional authors.  We have kept the group small so that every voice can be heard.  This allows for each person to be treated as an equal.

Though I tend to set the agenda, there is no leader to our group.  This means that every person has their say and mutual respect.  This is key to an effective writer’s group.  If one man dominates it all… the rest just sit there while he boosts his ego.  That is NOT good!

Amanda White, Jason Craft, and I meet once every two weeks.  After eating a delicious supper, and rolling our eyes at Lance’s pun-ridden jokes (Amanda’s husband), we move into the living room to chat about our books.

Their advice and ears are invaluable to my craft.  Speaking of craft, let me introduce Jason Craft (See what I did there Lance?).

Jason is quiet around crowds, but very caring and focused with his close friends.  His BS degree in Computer Science, gives him a pragmatic, mater-of-fact sort of mind.  This makes him the perfect balance to me and Amanda’s artistic tendencies.  I can always expect his honesty and professionalism.  He has our back and we have his.

His personal venture into self-publishing is coming along quite nicely.  Supremacy is a volume of serial fiction, mixing science with fantasy, set deep in a large galaxy (not so very far away from our own).  The technology of Q gates, for interstellar travel, is countered with whole worlds remade by the magic of the gods, who have left their people and empire long ago.  Powerful relics are the only clues to their existence.

Though Jason does not yet have a due date, I wager it will be out by April 2011, around the same time as Void Voyage 1.  Read more about Supremacy: Reformation here.

Amanda White (not related to me) is my third partner in crime.  She is the wisest, and best-looking of the bunch.  Her experiences in life are matched with an unfathomable energy and zeal to make it as an author.  Having a master’s degree in clinical psychology has made her the premier, go-to girl for character development.  Jason and I have a tendency to miss certain important details.  Amanda’s perspective balances this.

She is writing a fantasy novel for kids and grownups alike.  Transformation is set on three worlds, one fighting for dominance over the other.  The third world is oblivious to it all, a little known place called Earth.

In the midst of tragedy, a teenaged boy, uncovers a chilling portal while running from a being of unearthly powers.  Trained in the ancient weapon called a sling, he crosses over, equipped and ready to face any goliaths that dare cross him.

And then there’s myself: B. L. White.  I’ve been working on my writing ever since my college days eleven years ago.  I graduated in 2005 with a Bachelors of Music degree in Music Theory and Composition.

I have always loved stories.  Even before I took writing seriously I would write poetry and songs.  This has made me very astute with the flow of words.  All the unnecessary stuff is cut out in writing a focused, compact tale.

Being a musician and a composer tempers this flow with artistic perfectionism.  I read and edit through my stuff more than anyone else.

I’m very critical of my work.  This has toughened me against criticism from others.  I do not mind taking it in and learning from it.  May the best idea win, is a saying I take to heart.

 

On top of these personal projects, our writer’s group is collaborating on an urban fantasy: Tales from Carson City: Shadeskin. More on this as it develops.

We are coming up on our first anniversary.  For the longest time, I walked alone in my dreams as a writer.  It is such a blessing to find two colleagues right there with me; or as Jason puts it, “Friends don’t let friends publish crap!”

The three musketeers couldn’t have said it better!

Art by Boston Madsen

 

To Compose an eBook

The author’s dream is to touch a reader’s heart and mind with stories woven from the soul.  For the longest time, Publishers held the means to break apart the delicate relationship between artist and patron.  A world void of such middle men would be ruled by free-market and democracy.  This is why self-publishing as the next frontier of books.

Some fear a writer unhinged will only produce half-baked tales, literature ill-prepared for any capital gain.  The unfortunate truth, companies publish half-baked tales of their own.  Read books three through six of Frank Herbert’s Dune series for proof.  Better yet, for your own sake, read the first two and skip the rest!

It’s really a shame because Dune and Dune: Messiah got me into writing.

Frank Herbert set his tale in a grand universe, expanded over seven thousands years.  I really wanted to enjoy such a ride!  Unfortunately, the magic that made Dune so epic, dwindled in each book that followed.  Halfway through Children of Dune (book three), I found myself nodding off.

I still cannot fathom, how the best sci-fi book ever written preludes a series lost in a sea of plotless words.  Perhaps the editors ran out of red ink.

More likely the publishing company was unwilling to tell legendary Herbert that his books expanded, with plot-stopping monologues, while the storyline itself grew ever small.

What is more, before Mr. Herbert became a household name to nerds everywhere, Dune (best sci-fi book ever written mind you) was rejected by more than 20 publishers.  It was the small company Chilton Books, known for auto repair manuals, that gambled with Herbert’s ground-breaking story.

This raises a dooming question.  How many awe-inspiring books have never seen the light of day because an author gave up on their 19th rejection letter?

Self-publication places power in the hands of the public.  It is the audience’s delight to uncover the next Frank Herbert.

Yet, none can argue how, for hundreds of years, these same faulty publishers have produced every page-turning, trend-setting, best-selling classic we know and love.

We shouldn’t throw away everything that came before just to be different.  Aspiring authors can learn much from the process publishers have perfected.  This means that writers should not work alone in bringing their fiction to the public.

Where should a writer go then, without losing any freedom?

Once upon a time, publishing companies where the only solution.  This placed beginning author’s at the whims and fancies of executives, who held the power to change manuscripts for the sake of the bottom line.  This framework has worked out in some cases (everyone wants to make money), yet I believe many great stories have been marred by the bureaucracy of large publishing companies.

Huge cuts and forced deadlines are a detriment to well-paced, thrilling literature.  Sometimes too many people have looked at a book.  Put all of this together and you get a patchwork of failures.

Conventional wisdom has deemed the author incapable of figuring out how to do any of this on his or her own.  With the rise of self-publication through the Kindle, nook, and iPad, such sentiments are slowly dwindling.  Out of necessity, self-publishing authors must learn how to write and market their fiction.

Self-publication doesn’t mean working alone.  It simply means you are the publisher, in charge of finding as many people as it takes to bring quality fiction to the public.

Editors, cover artist, and marketers all have their role to play in publishing industries.  Indie writers must learn how to duplicate this.  Unless you can write, edit, and paint, all by yourself, you’re going to need some help.  Which brings me to how I will self-publish my own eBook.

Void Voyage 1, has been in the works for nearly a year.  The idea itself came much earlier.  For over 12 years I have perfected and matured it, honing it into a lean focused tale, very different from the simple musings of my teens.  Now I see it nearing the point of no return, when I place my dearest story in the fickle hands of the public.

This has not been a lonely trek for me.  Friends and family have played a crucial role in the development process, reading through its many dubious drafts.  I have gone out of my way to find and pay free-lancing editors and artists willing to add their professionalism to the table.  Over the next few weeks I will be highlighting these noble souls doing their best to help me write quality fiction.

 

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Synopsis of Void Voyage: A good emperor inherits a corrupt empire that he must fix, planet by bleeding planet, before war consumes our Solar System.  The first episode is set on the Martian heights of Olympus Mons.  A beautiful clone, spawned to symbolize the sacrifice of perfection, must choose to live for peace, instead of die to it.

Current status: Book cover: nearly done.  Halfway through first edit.

Expected Sale’s Date: Due to editorial reasons, I have pushed the original March 31st date back to mid April…

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