Understanding Musician Injuries

Musician injuries - we've all had them but we rarely address them until they become debilitating.

I'm writing a series on understanding musician injuries and injury prevention for Suite101.com, a comprehensive online magazine to address this important issue. The first two articles are up:

Understanding Musician Injuries
Face and Neck Stretches for Musicians

(c) 2009 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Be Prepared for Any Impromptu Music Situation by Learning these Golden Chord Progressions

My brother and colleague shared this youtube video called "4 chords, 36 songs" by Axis of Awesome with me. I laughed so hard I just HAD to show my intermediate and senior students. Here's a live performance of it:



The way I see it, if one were to memorize this chord progression, in addition to the Canon in D and Heart & Soul progressions, in every key; one could improvise, fake and impress everyone the next time s/he is coerced (er, asked) to play and has nothing else performance ready.

If you could also throw in snippets of any of the songs from the video every few minutes, you'd have the audience eating from the palm of your hand. You might as well turn this into a practical ear training exercise and try and pick out the notes to some of the tunes by ear. That way, you'll never forget the notes.

Plus, if you ever start up a band, you'd be set. After all, these three progressions are in...well, as Axis of Awesome says, they're in every pop hit.

Don't believe me? Check out Pachelbel Rant:



And finally, Heart & Soul Chords in other songs:



By the way, these chords are sometimes called the "50s chord progression".

If you're itching to try this, here are the chords:

The Four Chords: |: I V vi IV :| V(7) I ||
Canon in D: |: I V vi iii IV I IV V :| I ||
Heart & Soul: |: I vi ii V :| I ||

For those that need to see the chords with the jazz or pop/rock symbols, they are (in the key of C):

The Four Chords: |: C G Am F :| G(7) C ||
Canon in D: |: D A Bm F#m G D G A :| D ||
Heart & Soul: |: C Am Dm G :| C ||

Happy jamming!

(c) 2009 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Russian Wins the Honens International Piano Competition

Congratulations to Russian Georgy Tchaidze (21) of Russia who clinched the First Laureate title at the Honens International Piano Competition.

Kudos also to his compatriot Evgeny Starodubtsev (27) and Swiss pianist Gilles Vonsattel (28) who won Second and Third Laureate respectively.

All three receive a three-year career development program in addition to prize money. We can all look forward to hearing more from these three promising stars. Check out their quarterfinal and semifinal performances on www.honens.com . CBC Radio will air the finals sometime in the future.

Here's a short video clip of Georgy Tchaidze, the First Laureate.

(c) 2009 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Honens Piano Competition Finals November 5 & 6

The Honens International Piano Competition seeks to find the "complete artist". Competitors perform solo recitals as well as ensemble recitals. Five finalists: Evgeny Starodubtsev, Natacha Kudritskaya, Gilles Vonsattel, Kirill Zwegintsov and Georgy Tchaidze shall perform with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Christoph Campestrini.

Both performances are at 7:30 pm at the Jack Singer Concert Hall. Limited tickets are available at www.honens.com .

(c) 2009 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Listen to World Class Playing Online at Esther 2.0

My inbox greeted me with an announcement of the finalists to perform at the Honens International Piano Competition, held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to catch any of the it, save for one community concert. I am grateful that Honens and its generous sponsors have made audio recordings of each performance available online for the second competition in a row through Esther 2.0.

I was just listening to our lone Canadian competitor, Daniel Wnukowski. Beautiful playing.

The Honens International Piano Competition is unique in that there is a collaborative pianist component built in as well as career and professional development assistants for the laureates.

(c) 2009 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.