Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange
Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange

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1500 questions
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5 answers

What is the importance of practicing scales on piano, and the proper fingering of them?

First of all I want to point out that I practice scales a lot and even enjoy it. I just don't know why they are so important, as this site says for example: "Proper fingering of the scales on the piano is very important to development of your…
iddober
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8 answers

I sight read at 20 bpm, and not getting any faster

I'm working through Berklee Press' Modern Method for Guitar 1. I start every new piece at 40 1/8th notes per minute, so 20 bpm. 40 bpm (1/4 notes per minute) is the lowest my metronome goes, so I just make each tick an 1/8th note instead of a 1/4…
Frank Henard
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11 answers

I play oboe and I'm in the top band, but I feel like a failure whenever my band director yells at me

I have been playing oboe for 1 year now and I am in the top band at my school. How come I can't do anything right. I feel like a total failure and not confident in myself. I feel as though I can't face my band anymore after what happened yesterday.…
Oboistinneed
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8 answers

Why does the melodic minor scale turn into natural minor when descending?

I understand the construction of the scales; natural minor, harmonic minor (raises the 7th) and melodic minor (raises both 6&7 when ascending). What I don't understand is why, when I play melodic minor descending, it flattens the 6&7 ,giving me the…
Slick
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8 answers

Memorizing notes on guitar fretboard

I have 2 questions, which are somehow interrelated. Learning which-note-corresponds-to-which-fret-position was told to me as an extremely important task for any guitarist who want to get better at it. But, I find is very difficult to memorize all…
Quazi Irfan
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27
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4 answers

Piano with two treble clefs on grand staff

How do you play the notes in the red square? On the upper staff, the lower chord is G but the note in the lower section is also G. Do you just ignore it?
Zynoakib
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15 answers

What are the pros and cons of Traditional Grip vs. Matched Grip for snare and drumset?

So far I've just been learning matched grip for my snare and drumset playing, but I see of lot of people using traditional grip as well. I'm curious, what are some of the pros and cons of matched vs. traditional? Is it hard to develop them both at…
Gordon Gustafson
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4 answers

How to train recognizing chords by ear ?

How should I train my ears to recognize different 'flavours' of chords ? I mean especially recognizing what fourth/fifth notes were added to the chord (beyond the minor/major triads) such as 7#9 etc. (I'm not trying to recognize the absolute pitch…
Andre Holzner
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3 answers

What are some common jazz chord progressions?

What are some common progressions for Jazz improvisation? I have been playing with ii-V-I and variations -- what are some others? Is the answer here just to really dig through standards until I've 'internalised' this stuff a little better?
Joseph Weissman
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9 answers

Why are conductors required at orchestra performances?

I am not a music expert and I have always wondered why orchestra performances require a conductor to play. The musicians are presumably professionals who have had much practice at this point, so why do they still need direction? Other musical groups…
David says Reinstate Monica
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5 answers

Why do we need note names like B♭, D♭ etc.? Why not use only A♯, C♯ and so on?

The very same sharp/flat tones can be written in two ways: C♯ is the same as D♭ D♯ is the same as E♭ …and so on This is so confusing. What is the reason for it? Wouldn't it be easier to use only X♯ or only X♭?
Silver Light
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4 answers

How do I become better at "playing outside"?

One can spend an enormous amount of time playing melodies "in" the tonic. For example if you are in A major, you might favor A major or A lydian. However, there is a term called "playing outside" in jazz which means you play notes "outside" of the…
piofusco
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8 answers

Every time I press 'record' I forget how to play and sing!

I have a very simple home setup with a 4-channel USB interface, into which I plug my electro-acoustic guitar and a decent mic (SM58). Purely for fun/learning/curiosity what I sound like, I will often try recording myself playing and singing a song I…
Mr. Boy
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9 answers

Fast Chord Identification

How would someone go about identifying chords quickly and efficiently? While sight reading, I would often come up to some strange chord and try to decipher it. It normally takes me (what feels like) ages to figure out what chord it is. I have seen…
Dasaru
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12 answers

Learning to create melodies

I've researched my question on Google before and came across a few threads which I've read a couple of times. So far I've got into music theory and understand scales, how chords are formed, I know what intervals are in terms of half steps apart…
MJohnson52
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