Music Lessons in Burbank CA | Los Angeles Music Teachers

Lesson on How to Get the Most out of Your Music lessons 

When learning how to play any musical instrument (such as piano, guitar, saxophone, etc.), you can progress fast or you could move at a snail’s speed. It all depends on your learning approach. Most music teachers focus more on making sure that you don’t miss your learning sessions. Of course, missing daily practice sessions will slow your progress down, but your learning approach is more important than the time spent on it.
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Students make several mistakes in their approach and these mistakes impact the result they get from their practice sessions. Here are some of the mistakes and their solutions.

1. Playing without concentration
Some students practice with their musical instrument while doing something else. Most commonly, people play an instrument while watching the TV. Learning requires full concentration as it requires the whole of your mind. When you play an instrument without full concentration, it is just a repetition of what you have already learned. 
It is a waste of time because you won’t learn anything more. Whenever you want to practice, you have remove anything that may cause a distraction, so you can listen to what you’re playing and look out for flaws.

2. Playing without looking for flaws
Another common mistake is playing an instrument through a piece of music without taking note of your flaws. If you do that, you won’t improve. You’ll only turn your training session to a formality. You will continue to move on with your flaws. You’ll slow down your progress that way.
Instead, watch for flaws while you’re playing the music. And if you come across any bad spot, stop and try to improve on the spot before you move on.

3. Playing through a musical piece repeatedly
It is true that practice makes perfect. You’ll improve when you keep playing through a piece again and again, but the rate of improvement will be very slow. You’ll keep playing through your flaws over and over again.
It is better to stop each time you encounter a problem. Find the cause and solution to the problem before you move on. You’ll learn faster that way.

4. Playing a passage over until it sounds better
Some students prefer to play over a problematic area until they observe an improvement before they move forward. The problem with this learning technique is that it is not certain that you’ll breeze through the spot when next you play the piece.

It is better to get to the root of the problem. Find out the real problem and the cause of the problem. That way, you’ll be able to proffer a technical solution to the problem. When the problem is solved, you’ll be able to play it better subsequently.

You need full concentration and engagement for identifying problems and solving them. When your brain is fully engaged in this, you’ll be able to take note of the problems and their solutions. Most importantly, everything you learn will stick with you for a long time. This is the most effective approach to learning how to play any musical instrument.

How to Hold a Guitar Pick with Either Hand

If you are right-handed, you will want to fret with your left hand and hold your pick in your right. Before you pick up your pick, take a moment to shake out and relax your right hand. Next, form a loose fist with your thumb on the outside of your index finger.

Turn your hand so that your thumb is facing you. Slide your pick between  your thumb and  the middle of your index finger. Keep a relaxed grip on your pick with the pointed end sticking out away from your hand. Your pick should be held under the center of your thumb.

You typically want to leave about a half inch of your pick sticking out from beneath your thumb. If you’ll be strumming  your guitar, you might want to leave a slightly larger section of your pick exposed. If you need to pick for accuracy, allow a smaller tip of your pick to stick out. This lets you get closer to your strings.

How to Strum Your Guitar
Hold your picking hand over the sound hole on your acoustic guitar or over the body if you are playing electric. Don’t rest your hand on the guitar; instead allow your hand to hover.

Now, use the pick to strum your guitar from the thickest string down. Don’t move your whole arm to strum your guitar. Instead, let the movement come from your wrist.  Practice rotating your wrist like you are unscrewing a light bulb while keeping your wrist straight and your grip on your pick fairly loose and easy. When you strum, you should feel a rotation in your wrist, rather than bending.


You can strum a chord from the top string down or the bottom string up. Try alternating down and up strums to hear the difference between each type of strum. You can try other rhythms or combinations like down-down-up-down to convey different feelings or evoke a genre. For example, punk music will typically use only quick down strums while an old country standard could be slow alternating up and down strokes.

Drum Rudiments are one of the most important aspects of drumming. They are the building blocks to every drum beat, pattern, fill, and solo. Whatever your skill level is on the drums, practicing your rudiments is a must. Even if you are an advanced drummer, it’s always good to go over some of the more technical rudiments. There are 40 drum rudiments; some more complicated then the other. Out of those 40, there are about 5 essential rudiments that are a must for practicing.

Many of you may be unfamiliar with the term Rudiments; however, do not worry. Drum rudiments aren’t a concept you aren’t aware of, maybe just a term you haven’t heard before. A drum rudiment is basically a sticking pattern. Every sticking pattern you play on the drum set is derived from different drum rudiments. Most are very common patterns that you are well aware of like the single stroke roll, double stroke roll, and flam stroke. Some are more complex and difficult to play. The next time you play the drums, you should look and see what rudiments you are actually playing. Drum rudiments are the essentials of drumming; they should be practiced by drummers to increase their stick control, speed and independence.


You may have heard of the 40 Essential Drum Rudiments before; this is the list of rudiments that are played. They say if you master the 40 essential rudiments you are on your way to becoming a professional drummer. This is very true; if you can identify and play each one of these rudiments you will have built up enough knowledge and stick control to be a very skilled drummer. However, this takes a lot of work. Here is the list of rudiments

• Single Stroke Roll 
• Single Stroke Four 
• Single Stroke Seven 
• Double Stroke Roll 
• Five Stroke Roll 
• Six Stroke Roll 
• Seven Stroke Roll 
• Nine Stroke Roll 
• Ten Stroke Roll
• Eleven Stroke Roll 
• Thirteen Stroke Roll
• Fifteen Stroke Roll 
• Seventeen Stroke Roll 
• Single Paradiddle 
• Double Paradiddle 
• Triple Paradiddle 
• Paradiddle-Diddle 
• Flam Stroke
• Flam Accent 
• Flam Tap
• Flamacue
• Flam Paradiddle
• Single Flammed Mill 
• Flam Paradiddle-Diddle 
• Pataflafla 
• Swiss Army Triplet 
• Inverted Flam Tap 
• Flam Drag
• Drag Ruff 
• Single Drag Tap
• Double Drag Tap 
• Single Dragadiddle
• Drag Paradiddle #1 
• Drag Paradiddle #2
• Lesson 25 
• Single Ratamacue 
• Double Ratamacue
• Triple Ratamacue
• Multiple Bounce Roll 
• Triple Stroke Roll

Drum Rudiment Practice

Practicing these drum rudiments are very important. The best way to practice these is to take a pair of drum sticks, a metronome, and a practice pad and start playing. Make sure you are playing with a metronome to keep yourself on time. If you do not know where to start, here is a list of the top 5 rudiments you should start with: the single stroke roll, the double stroke roll, the flam stroke, the paradiddle, and the double paradiddle. These are the top 5 rudiments you should start with, as each one will teach you speed, control, independence and endurance on your sticks. 

Most of the drum rudiments are variations of each other, meaning it is not too hard to learn all 40 rudiments. For example, if you can play a flam stroke, and a paradiddle pattern, you should have no trouble playing the flam paradiddle. In any case take the time to go over each one if you can. 

Drum rudiments are more than just sticking patterns you practice on a practice pad. They are designed to be played in common drumming applications. What this means is they are designed to be played in drum beats, fills, and solos. 

​If you're interested in taking Drum lessons on Zoom or In Person in Burbank, Glendale or North Hollywood, we have some of the  best drum lessons in Los Angeles. Our drum instructors are picked by interviewing hundreds of drum instructors and we have really high standards on both their teaching ability as well as their personality. If you'd like to talk to one of our instructors or set up a first lesson we have a guarantee that if you don't absolutely love your first lesson you don't have to pay for it. Please contact us at (818)902-1233 or on our website at https://www.losangelesmusicteachers.com/online-drum-lessons-in-burbank-ca.html​

Lesson on How To Create Melodies For Your Song Writing based on Your Chords

Melodies are easy to create once you have created a good chord progression. First you need to learn all of your chords in Major and Minor Keys. Here is a list below in the key of C Major. Then a list of all of the secondary dominant chords that are possible. Just those two things will give you lots of possibilities, but outside of that you can then "borrow" chords from the parallel minor. That will give you almost anything that has ever been done in pop and rock music.

​Here's lesson below with a list below of all of the Major Chords, Parallel Minor Chords, and secondary dominants (every chord can be approached by it's dominant chord). 

I     ii     iii    IV    V    vi     vii dim
C    Dm    Em    F       G    am     B dim
       A7      B7    C7    D7  E7      (Secondary dominants) for interest
Cm   Ddim Eb  Fm     Gm    Ab     Bb   (Parallel Minor Chords) 

Here's some common chord progressions that use some of the "borrowed" chords.
I     IV      bVII     I
     Vm     IV       I 
I      IIImaj       IV      IVm     I   Creep by Radio Head
Using Parallel Minor Chords 
Eb C Eb C Eb C Bb Ab F Ab F 
Bb - C (bVII - I)
Ab - C (bVI - I)
C - Db - Eb - Fm
C - Gm - F - C
C - Ab  - F  - C
Cm - Ab - Eb - Bb- Cm

Here's a complete list of all the chords available from all of the scales above.
C, Cm, Dm, Ddim, Eb, Em, E, F, Fm, G, Gm, Ab, Am, Bb, Bdim (all of them)

You can also take chords from any of parallel MODES.

No matter your level of proficiency, you can create great melodies along with your chord progression using any of the two approaches outlined below.

First Approach
It is a good idea experiment with different chord inversions while playing your chord progression. You can try each of the inversions one at a time as you move on with your progression. You may seek the guidance and supervision of an experienced keyboardist or guitarist on this.

The melodies will be obvious as you make connections with the chords. Bear in mind that you may not actually hear the whole of the melody at once, but you should be able to filter out the skeleton of the melody from what you hear. As you continue to practice, you’ll be improving on the melodies and more parts of it will be coming out. With time, you’ll be able to produce an interesting melody. 

At this point, you should not bother about whether you are getting the notes right. Rather, follow your ears. Listen to the melody and continue to make corrections as you deem necessary. Let the process flow naturally and organically. Getting the notes correct will come naturally. The more you practice with the chord progression, the more the notes will fall in the right place. If you don’t like this approach or it is difficult for you to follow, you can adopt the next one, discussed right below.

Second Approach
The approach involves attaching a particular rhythm to your chord progression. Lay it down on a recorder. You can then play it repeatedly. Listen as you play it. If you play the melodies so many times, you’ll be able to listen to them without recording. 

After playing the chord progression, close your eyes and try to hear the melody. Try to arrange the musical set pieces mentally. At this point, you should be able to come up with several melodies. You may also record the melodies as you align them with your chord progression. The more you memorize the progression, the easier it will be for you to hear organic melodies naturally. You’ll no longer need to fiddle with your musical instrument to come up with a nice melody. 

Instead of focusing on your musical instrument, unleash your creativity. Listen to your head and dig out the melodies in them. Letting your voice run at the same pace with your ears is one of the best ways to come up with nice music.
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Of course, there are several other ways to create melodies and music, but the two approaches above are easy to adopt and they are effective as well. Most importantly, regardless of what approach you choose, always let your imagination work. Don’t focus on only instruments. The musical instruments are distractions. They’ll sever the synchronization between your ears and voice. So, it is better to use your voice, record it, and transcribe it. When you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to create nice melodies more effortlessly.

If you're interested in taking Guitar lessons on Zoom or In Person in Burbank, Glendale or North Hollywood, we have some of the  best guitar lessons in Los Angeles. Our guitar instructors are picked by interviewing hundreds of guitar instructors and we have really high standards on both their teaching ability as well as their personality. If you'd like to talk to one of our instructors or set up a first lesson we have a guarantee that if you don't absolutely love your first lesson you don't have to pay for it. Please contact us at (818)902-1233 or on our website at https://www.losangelesmusicteachers.com/online-guitar-lessons-in-burbank-ca.html​

Our wonderful piano/voice teacher, Danielle Crook, was featured this month in Martha Stewart's Weddings Magazine as a French Singer performing for a very upscale French Themed Wedding in Los Angeles at the Langham Hotel. She was hired through Rossi Music a sister company to Los Angeles Music Teachers. "Danielle is not only one of our outstanding voice teachers, but she's also a wonderful vocalist who has the ability to sing in 13 languages. That could be a Guinness world record!", jokes Grammy Winner, Rick Rossi, who manages both music based businesses. "I knew Danielle was an outstanding musician and vocalist since hiring her as a piano and voice teacher a few years ago. Then months later, after seeing the comments that were coming directly from her students and reading the Google reviews her students were leaving for her, confirmed that she was quite special!!"

"Recognizing her unique ability as a singer came a bit later, when we were discussing music and bands and she told me that she could sing in 13 languages. That immediately got my attention because in 2011, I had created a French and International Band called "Esperanto" that made an album of International music. At that time we were getting quite a few bookings at events, festivals and various kinds of dinner parties and even weddings! Right at our peak of success we lost our singer because she needed to move back east to help her aging mother. Ever since that time we were unable to find an adequate replacement because of all the languages she was able to sing. So when Danielle mentioned her ability to sing in many languages and the love she had for French Music and International music, I began to start marketing for our French Band again and this French Themed Wedding became her very first event with Rossi Music. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to be able to get some video footage and here's a sample of her singing at the event. https://youtu.be/Iiis5wTs-bk. This was a beautiful wedding filled with the best of everything, beautiful ballroom, amazing floral designs and for entertainment, the French music of Danielle and the band as well as French dancers who put on two 20 minute shows in between the sets of the french music."
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As a result, Martha Stewart Weddings asked to feature the French Themed Wedding in her magazine. Click the link below to see the photos from the event. 
https://www.marthastewart.com/8131884/french-inspired-ballroom-wedding-california-kurt-boomer?slide=7e28f1b6-c30e-4f5e-913d-3cdfba4136c5#7e28f1b6-c30e-4f5e-913d-3cdfba4136c5

You can check more out at Rossi Music French International Event Bands for Hire or visit our Los Angeles Music Teachers website for more information on how you can take piano or voice lessons with Danielle. 

Our band, Paris Cafe is a tasteful marriage of French Chanson, jazz swing music of the American Songbook and more contemporary pop featuring French Chanteuse Danielle. 
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With a variety of repertoire of vintage American standards, French jazz songs and mixed with some contemporary current Top 40, Paris Cafe is a unique alliance between the old world and the new, French charm,   vintage Hollywood glam and soulful pop and R&B. With world class singers and musicians, Paris Cafe gathers all the ingredients to make it hot as well as to keep you dancing!!

Check out more at www.Rossimusic.biz or call us at 818-902-1233. We're the specialists for connecting the best unique artists with the right events. We serve all of southern california including, Los Angeles, Manhattan Beach, Newport Beach, Laguna Niguel, Malibu, Palm Springs, Indian Wells, Santa Barbara, Orange County, San Diego, Pasadena, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Brentwood, Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Marina del Rey, Irvine, Pacific Palisades, Westlake Village, Woodland Hills, Thousand Oaks, Ventura County, Bel Air, Westwood, Century City, Venice, Long Beach, San Fernando Valley, Anaheim, Newport Coast, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, San Juan Capistrano, Dana Point, San Clemente, Costa Mesa, Orange, La Habra, Century City, San Gabriel, Sierra Madre, Valencia, Coronado, Rancho Santa Fe, Carlsbad, La Jolla.  We specialize in Vintage and contemporary Jazz Bands, Swing Big Bands, Smooth Jazz, French Jazz Quartets, French Lounge Music, Pink Martini Cover Bands, World Music, and Electric String Quartets with Tracks.

If you're interested in taking music lessons on Piano, Guitar, Voice, Violin, Drums, Bass, Cello or Woodwinds check out our website at www.losangelesmusicteachers.com or call us at 818-209-2620

You have probably heard many times that the trumpet is one of the most difficult instruments to play. Maybe you play the saxophone and you’re wondering where the famous trumpet ego comes from, or maybe you’re thinking about learning the trumpet. Either way, there’s something to what people say about it, let’s learn why. 

The trumpet is considered a difficult instrument because the sound of the trumpet is reliant on the delicate embouchure. The brass embouchure, particularly the trumpet embouchure, must be capable of producing frequencies upwards of 1000 HZ.

Who Makes The SoundMusic is practically the same as vibration. The way sound works is vibrating air (or another medium… bone-induction headphones prove that.).
The vibration from an instrument vibrates the air which in turn vibrates our ear drum which in turn vibrates our inner ear’s cochlea which in turn excites nerves that our brain can understand. 
For a trumpet to make sound, the trumpet player’s lips must produce the vibration.
It helps to understand the challenge here if we compare what is required of a trumpet player vs. other instruments. 

• For a saxophone or clarinet player, the player’s breath moves a wooden reed back and forth.  The reed is what is vibrating back and forth to create the sound
• For a flute player, their breath causes wind oscillation within the instrument, and so the flute player controls the pitch by wind speed. This is true of concert flutes and other flutes like the recorder or the tin whistle. 
• A piano player presses a key and the piano strikes a string with a hammer which produces the sound
• A guitar player plucks a string which vibrates and produces the sound
• A drummer strikes a taut drum head and the vibrating drum head vibrates the air which produces the sound
• A melodica player breathes through an aperture and presses a key to pass through tuned reeds to make the sound
• A harmonica player works very similarly to a melodica.  The player blows through an aperture which vibrates a reed which makes the sound

In all these examples, and most examples of other instruments, the player provides the power through wind or through kinetic energy (like pressing a key on a piano) which vibrates something else which produces the sound.

• Trumpet: F#3-D6 (And higher. You will see High Gs in music now and again
• Trombone: E2-F5
• Tuba: D1-F4

Does lower mean easier to play necessarily? Definitely not. Low instruments have their own challenges, particularly with breath support.

Again, so what? Why are higher notes hard to play?

As you play higher, the trumpet player has to buzz higher frequencies. To play High C, the trumpet player has to buzz around 1046 times per second! 

To be able to play this frequency takes an enormous amount of practice. In fact, culturally, being able to “hit the high notes” is a huge deal for many trumpet player. 

The embouchure is so complicated that there are entire books and theories written specifically for training an embouchure. Not all experts agree on the best system for developing an embouchure because there are so many complicating factors.  Everybody’s mouth and lip configurations (shape of mouth, placement of teeth, etc) are different. Therefore, everyone’s embouchure and embouchure development is different. 

What further complicates matters is that many trumpet players in K-12 school programs do not get formal embouchure training, and so get bad habits.

This can lead to several problems. 

• Plateaus where the player never can get above a certain note no matter how much they practice. 
• Endurance problems where the player can’t effectively play for more than an hour, and loses any range they had.
• Poor form leads to applying too much pressure from the trumpet to the lips causing pain and even embouchure damage.
• Fuzzy or Sloppy Sound. Embouchure problems can lead to poor sound.

​All this is to underscore that the trumpet embouchure is difficult and tricky enough to get the hang of that if you don’t learn decent enough technique you could struggle for months or even years with endurance, good tone, and range. 
Although it’s not unusual to learn to play around 15 notes for a beginner with 6 months, it can take much longer to play with good tone.

Embouchure Shelf LifePerhaps one of the more unfortunate aspects of the embouchure is that if you don’t use it, you lose it. Very similar to athletic conditioning–advanced trumpet technique (or chops as they call them) will be lost quickly if you are not continuously practicing.  Some experts experience a noticeable difference even after only a day or two of not practicing.

But even with the trumpet being so difficult to learn, it is majorly worth it! Would recommend looking into finding a great teacher like ours to help you push past these obstacles and become an amazing Trumpet player. 

The Top 3 things to avoid Bad singing habits. These cringe-worthy bad habits are high up on my list of things that make beginner singers sound well… beginner.

If your voice gets tired after a warm up routine, or you feel a strain in your neck, you might be missing a step somewhere. 

• Don’t forget to warm up your body before warming up your voice.

 

• Don’t neglect breathing exercises.

If you’ve had any formal training, you already know this: expanding your diaphragm is good, raising your shoulders is bad.

To make sure you know how to breathe correctly to improve your singing skills, stand in front of a full length mirror and place your hands at the bottom of your ribcage on both sides to locate your diaphragm muscles. While you’re breathing in through your nose and exhaling through your mouth, your goal should be to expand your diaphragm, while keeping your shoulders down.

• Don’t whisper.

So many singers make the mistake of whispering during their vocal rest days, thinking that if their cords are not vibrating, whispering should still count as resting. 

Not true.

Whispering, especially loud whispering, leads to tense muscles in the front of the neck. When you strain your neck, it becomes more difficult to sing with a healthy technique, because your voice box lacks the support from the surrounding muscles it usually relies on. 

So Try to avoid these 3 vocal warmups that could end up creating bad habits for your vocal lessons. 

For a lot of people, the image of a talented virtuoso conjures up images of pianist in a concert hall, or an expert violinist. However, the double bass is a beautiful and necessary instrument that forms the backbone of any serious orchestra; and a number of emerging studies show that playing it can help your brain, as well.
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In this article, I’ll give a quick rundown of some of the major mental and physical benefits that learning and playing the upright bass provides.

1. LEARNING THE BASS CAN HELP YOUR CHILD READ BETTER
The basic premise behind the claim is that musical performance and practice helps expose children to sounds they wouldn’t otherwise have encountered – thus firing the areas of the brain associated with sound processing, and analysis. This is known as “neurophysiological distinction”.

Developing neurophysiological distinction in a young child gives them the tools to tackle complex words and sounds in an academic setting, giving them skills that can aid in all areas of learning, but provide a special significance to reading and writing.


2. THE DOUBLE BASS IS GOOD FOR YOUR MEMORY
This isn’t necessarily a benefit unique to the upright bass, but it is one that it can give you nonetheless. Organized music lessons have a positive effect on overall IQ and general cognitive function. What’s more, the longer you keep at it, the larger the positive effects are. Memory tests administered to a control group and a group who had a musical background indicated a significant score increase in the test subjects who had affiliation with organized music education.

3. PLAYING CAN MAKE YOUR BRAIN HEALTHIER
Playing the bass is a worthwhile pursuit for a number of reasons. Studies performed on developing children showed not just a difference in brain activity, but a physical one as well – those that participated in music showed a significant increase in brain volume, as well. In layman’s terms, the grey matter in the brain is the part responsible for processing information. That means an increase in volume can have benefits such as increased attention span, improved social behavior, and a greater mental acuity and cognitive response time. Grey matter is a sign of a healthy, functioning brain – it’s the part that does the thinking.


4. THE DOUBLE BASS IS GOOD FOR PHYSICAL HEALTH AS WELL
Playing any instrument has elements of good posture and position, but the upright bass may be an instrument where these qualities matter most. Not only is it one of the more physically demanding instruments due to its large size and heavy strings, it also is typically played in an upright, standing position. This makes proper posture essential for learning, and encourages a healthy spinal column and correct vertebrae alignment that carry benefit through one’s entire life.


5. THE BASS CAN OPEN PROFESSIONAL DOORS
The upright bass is a wonderfully dynamic and versatile instrument – professional musicians that learn the double bass have a leg up in the music industry due to the flexibility of the instrument giving it a niche foothold in several different genres. Bassists are always in demand because they are a necessary part of so many different kinds of musical styles – be it jazz groups, live music, recording artists and bands, or symphony orchestras.

CONCLUSION
​If you’ve been considering taking up the double bass, I hope this article has convinced you the positive benefits are absolutely worth it. The bass not only helps your musical ear and body, but helps encourage brain health as well.

If you're interested in taking Bass lessons on Zoom or In Person in Burbank, Glendale or North Hollywood, we have some of the  best Bass lessons in Los Angeles. Our Bass instructors are picked by interviewing hundreds of Bass instructors and we have really high standards on both their teaching ability as well as their personality. If you'd like to talk to one of our instructors or set up a first lesson we have a guarantee that if you don't absolutely love your first lesson you don't have to pay for it. Please contact us at (818)902-1233 or on our website at https://www.losangelesmusicteachers.com/contact-us-for-info.html​