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Here is a video of a young man named AIdan playing "Day Tripper" by the Beatles. 

The thing about Aidan is that has only recently turned nine years old. He had been taking lessons for only seven months when this video was made. (The holidays prevented me posting it earlier.) This young man deserves all the credit for his ability to perform this, with no sheet music by the way, because he did all the work. I showed him how and encouraged him, but lessons are only thirty minutes long. It's the work in between the lessons that made him able to do this.

I often tell my students, "There are wishers and wanters. The wishers go around wishing they could do a certain thing, but the wanters work at it."

That's what Aidan did. That's what any student can do. It's an attitude, rather than an apptitude. People ask me how I was able to progress when I was learning. The answer is three simple words: one more time. I knew if I could do it one more time, I could get it closer to the way I wanted it. I never watched the clock to see how long I had worked on soimething. I was often surprised when I would hear my Mom call me to dinner, because I started at four o'clock!

I also tell my students that I never practiced, I played. It didn't sound very good at first, but the more I played, the better it sounded. I would really like to help you learn to play guitar, piano, bass, or banjo. Just give me a call at 469-855-6865 or visit my website, http://www.ellismusiclessons.com.

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Lake Highlands music teacher, Mike Ellis, received an email from Robert Strauss, composer, musical director, producer, songwriter, and owner of Wax Recording Studio in London about Mike's Chordmaster Chord Theory for Keyboard course.

Robert said, "It was a break through bit of insight into the world of music mechanics. You're a truly principled, lovely and gifted fellow. You're teaching has opened the universe for me to truly access the theory I had been intimidated by my whole career. I learned, self taught upon taking your course, to really play piano (which I still do everyday)."

Robert's latest album is entitled "Morning Light" and can be purchased at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Morning-Light-Personal-Life/dp/B00D2Y3HU6, but first, let me tell you more about Mr. Strauss.

To date Robert's artistic output includes six singles, two solo albums and the debut album from Personal Life. Robert's own creative output is primarily within the Soul, Jazz &Funk genres. As producer / engineer his work is far and wide ranging in genre from Classical to Hip Hop, Country, Reggae, Metal and so on. Robert's music thus far has been primarily released on UK & European labels including: Expansion Records, Tokyo Dawn Records, BBE, Freerange, and Yoruba Records / Souljazz Records. His production work had also been featured on over 100 commercial releases such as Expansion Records: Soul Togetherness & Luxury Soul 2013 & 2014 Compilations, Dimitri From Paris's Return To Playboy Mansion, Kenny Dope & Karisma's Soul Heaven, Louie Vega's Mad Styles & Crazy Visions 2, Joey Negro's Lust and Soul and Osunlade's Cinco Anos Despue (Five Years On).

He has worked with names such as Amy Winehouse’s fade to black band, Paul Jackson (Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters), Antonio Sanchez (Pat Metheny Trio), Ian Thomas (Michael Jackson, Dire Straits, Bob Dylan), Swing Out Sister, Alexander O’Neal, Jimmy Norden (Alice Russell, Beth Rowley), Max Cliverd (Tom Odell), Kelli Leigh (Adelle), Alex Bonfanti (Jessie Ware), Xantone Blacq (Nigel Kennedy, Laura Mvula), Max Grunhard (Prince, Ibibio Sound Machine) plus many very talented independent artists.

On his website, http://www.robertstrauss.com, he says, "As an Artist / Musician, Producer & Engineer (as well as scoring for Film & Television), with over 500 tracks commercially released, I have had the honour and joy of working in so many genres. Hip-Hop, Classical & Orchestral, Jazz & Fusion, Electronic Dance Music, Modern & Old School Blues, Hard Rock, Country. Indigenous Folk, Brazilian & Latino to South American sounds. African meets Jamaica, Eastern, Klezmer & Celtic traditions. It’s all one music, it’s all one people…A true privilege to be included in so many creative circles, and one that I wouldn’t trade for the world."

If you would like to advance your piano playing, visit Mike Ellis Music Instruction at 9450 Skillman, Suite 101, Dallas, TX 75238 or call Mike at 469-855-6865. You can also buy the book Robert used by going to Amazon.com. There are more reviews there, too.

Thanks again to Robert and best wishes to all of you.

P.S. Christmas is coming soon! :-)

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Mike Ellis Music Instruction 469.855.6865

            This question is one parents face with all their children. It is most important when both parents work, but it relates to all parents. Is it best to get your child into sports like soccer, baseball, basketball, football, tennis? Is it better for them to be into music lessons like piano, guitar, trumpet or others? Maybe it should be after-school programs, if your area offers them.

            The desire is always at least two-fold. As parents, we know that the old adage has been around for so many years because “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop” is true. So the first reason we want extra-curricular activities for our children is to keep them busy and therefore out of trouble. But the second and more important reason is to provide them with learning and growth opportunities, offering them a more rounded lifestyle and activities that help them discover just who they really are going to be.

            So do we enroll them in sports activities? Of course that is an option that provides not only exercise, but teamwork, cooperation, the value of following authority, competition, and other aspects that promote self-esteem and strength of character. We know that only the very few become millionaire sports stars, and that is never our motivation for choosing sports, but often sports participants are respected by their peers in school, providing even more motivational drive to excel in other areas.

            How about providing lessons on a musical instrument? Is that what we should offer them? There are many articles that show that learning an instrument increases IQ, benefits language development, improves test scores, is very goal oriented, increases memory, and provides a multitude of other positive influences. So should they be enrolled in band in school? Should they be encouraged to play in a rock band?

            As is true with either sports or music, the instructor/coach plays a very important role. However, the most important role in a child’s life is always you. You can offer these opportunities to your children, but keep a watchful eye and an open, encouraging heart. I have had a couple guitar students over the years tell me that they have to learn because their parents paid a lot of money for their guitar and lessons.

My response is always, “Don’t even consider the money. Your parents love you more than you know and they want you to be happy. If the guitar is not making you as happy as trumpet or football, or something else, tell them. They will not be angry. They love you and they want more than anything for you to be happy.”

So my advice as to which extra-curricular activities are best for your child are the ones that they can’t wait to do, the ones that light up their eyes and put the smile on their face. You may have to try several of the options mentioned and some I didn’t include. Be creative, but always watch their faces and try to find “that smile” they get when the activity is right for them. Who knows? They might want to ride a unicycle on the high wire in the circus.

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My name is Mike Ellis. I teach guitar, piano, bass, and banjo in my teaching studio in Lake Highlands. I tell all of my students that I never practiced, I played. It sounded terrible at first, but the more I played, the better it sounded. The reason kids want to play an instrument varies, but they all want to have fun and they all love music. I advise them to play with their instrument (their new toy) twice per day, no matter how long each time.

There is a famous guitarist named Jose Feliciano who wanted to perform the Christmas song, "The Little Drummer Boy" for Christmas and he wanted to get the sound of a snare drum on his guitar. He finally achieved this by twisting the two top strings on his guitar and pressing them down together, then picking them both. Voila! It sounded like a snare drum. He used this to introduce the song. You have to realize that Mr. Feliciano did not achieve this sound by practicing. He achieved it by experimenting and playing with his guitar. I should also point out that this famous guitarist is blind. I encourage my students to "goof around" with their guitars, see what kind of sounds they can make. Although I couldn't find the version of "The Little Drummer Boy" on YouTube, I did find an example. Go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnT-QGIMrZE and fast forward to 2:37 to see him make the drum sound.

On the first lesson for guitar, I tell the students that just sitting with their guitar is "practicing." Just being with your instrument, holding it, getting used to it and how it feels, is the first step in getting comfortable with it. And parents, please nurture your child's interest, instead of forcing them to practice. You'll find out soon enough if they are really interested in playing music. Sure it takes work and I did plenty of that, but I was always working on trying to be able to play a certain thing. They go and play with their friends, they play video games. Encourage them to play with their instrument.

Mike Ellis Music Instruction

469-855-6865

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Why do most piano teachers not teach the names of all the notes from the very start? When you or your children are first introduced to the piano, you are usually shown that the white notes are named the letters of the alphabet from A through G and then start over on A again, repeating as you move from left to right. For some reason, almost all methods apparently believe that you should not teach beginners the names of all the notes, including the names of the black notes, from the first lesson. Why should you NOT teach the names of all the notes on the first lesson?

I have attached a picture of all the note names. The black notes on the piano each have two names. The note between A and B can be called A# (A sharp) or it can be called Bb (B flat).You could say that you moved UP from A to A# and call it that. You could say that you moved DOWN from B to Bb and call it that. There are certain rules that let you know when to call it A# and when to call it Bb, but those rules are usually taught well after the student has taken many lessons, usually reading notes from the staff line. Buit why should you not teach all of the note names from the very first lesson?

Is it because it is confusing? Is it because it is complicated? Is it too much for a beginner to understand? Look at the picture again. Granted, having two names for one note is not what we're used to seeing. That's like having a child named Emily Jane Smith and calling her Emily whenever she's in her room and calling her Jane when she is out of her room. Now that would be confusing. And just why are there two names for each black note? The reason goes back hundreds of years and that is another story, entirely.

But it is now 2014. There are  kids out there four and five years old with hand-held devices playing pretty complex games. There are youngsters with cell phones. We can stop underestimating our kids and each other. I teach my students the names of all the notes on the very first lesson and explain that the "hashtag" (#) is called sharp and means find the letter-named note and move up one note to the black note above it and that the "little b" (b) is called flat and means find the letter-named note and move down one note. They all just smile and say, "Okay."

Even if you don't use these black notes in reading notes from the staff line at first, there is no reason to not teach students all of the note names from the very first lesson. After all, will it ever hurt a student to know their instrument properly?

If you want to know more, visit www.mikeellismusicinstruction.com or www.ellismusiclessons.com. I'll be happy to help you learn your instrument, no matter which one you play, even sitar from India.

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Why did the Wright brothers build an airplane? They wanted to let men fly. Since the days of DaVinci, man had hoped to fly. These brothers followed what was later coined by Robert Kennedy, "I dream of things that never were and ask why not?"

There is always going to be something that is taken at face value as being "just the way it is." However, in the age of information we are now able to see and hear ideas coming from an incredible number of sources. I look around and see that most of the music instruction sites still present music in the traditional way. It is my utmost goal to help people play musical instruments as soon as possible. This means going in a new direction. Actually, it is a direction that so many people and groups started taking in the 1960's. This direction is learning in a direction that some would call backwards. In the old school, you played an instrument by learning how to read music as your first step. This is like teaching a baby the alphabet and grammatical rules before ever speaking to him. Of course you teach the child how to read and all the rules associated with the language, but far after you have taught him how to convey his feelings and ideas through speaking, first.

In today's world, and today's music that the average listener enjoys, the playing of single notes is almost always a very small part of the music. Accompaniment (chords in the background) constitutes the largest part of the sounds you hear in contemporary music. The second largest part is the vocal part or melody. No little tyke ever had to read notes to sing their A,B,C's. They played their "built-in" instrument, their voice, by repeating what they heard. I want to show people of all ages how to do this with their hands, whether it be on piano, guitar, bass guitar, or banjo. To play along with a song that has a vocal part, you don't want to play what the singer sings. You want to join the accompaniment section, which means playing chords. A sad fact is that for so many piano students and a large number of guitar students, they are taught to read notes on the staff line, first. This means it takes months, literally, to ever get to playing chords. I turn that around. My students play chords, first, and get to enjoy playing along with their favorite performers much sooner.

For guitar, bass guitar, and banjo, there is a method of transcribing music called tablature. This conveys not only the notes to be played, but also exactly where to play these notes. On these instruments, you can find the same note in more than one location. Showing an E note on the bottom line of the treble clef does not tell the student exactly which E note to play. Tablature takes care of this. For piano there have been a number of attempts at creating tablature, most of which are very complicated and many don't show how long a note or chord is supposed to last. I believe I have the solution and my method was selected to be presented on the Music Notation Project because according to them, "...it is certainly possible to solve problems in a different manner, as you have done with your carefully designed system, which is one reason why we want to maintain a link to your Web site on the MNP page. Another reason is that you've come up with a novel rhythmic notation, and rhythmic innovations are under-represented on the MNP Web site." My method is called NUME, an abbreviation for New Understanding of Musical Expression. Please check it out on the ellismusiclessons.com NUME page. There is no sign-up or charge. It is completely free to see, download, and to use to write your own music. Professional Music Instructor Dan Anderson sent the following comment about NUME, "Your NUME notation system is so sensible it makes me feel guilty for putting kids through our convoluted traditional system."

Tablature for stringed instruments was not created to replace conventional note reading, but to give students an alternative to it. NUME was created with the same intent. "I dream of things that never were and ask why not?"

Mike Ellis

Mike Ellis Music Instruction
9450 Skillman, #101
Dallas, TX 75243
469-855-6865

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This is young Ethan playing Penny Lane along with the Beatles. You can do this, too.

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What is the Magic Word for Learning Guitar?

I'm Mike Ellis, owner of Mike Ellis Music Instruction. At one time during my career, I had 100 students per week. I learned so much from my students. One of the most important things I gleaned from teaching all these students is the Magic Word for Guitar. Actually it works for all musical instruments. The Magic Word is YET.

I tell all of my students, "Don't ever say that you can't play something on the guitar without adding the Magic Word. You can say I can't play it, YET. You can play anything that your favorite artists can play, just not yet. Therefore, the only question is, 'WHEN will you be able to play that special something?' The answer to that question is that it depends solely on one thing. That one thing is how many times you have played it, correctly."

There are two ways to play it correctly. The first way is to get the correct sequence "into your hands." This means teaching your subconscious the order of the notes and/or chords. Which comes first, second, and so forth? This can be done without using proper timing or tempo because you are training the subconscious. I teach students that the subconscious controls the things you don't consciously think about, like breathing, heartbeat, blinking, and so many of the things you do every day without consciously thinking about them. For example, when you ride a bicycle do you conciously think "Lean left, lean right, lean left, lean right" like you did when you first learned how to ride? Of couse you don't. You trained your subconscious to take over for you. It's the same with throwing a ball. You couldn't hit your target at first. And now when you throw it, it's just automatic. Well, it isn't really automatic. You just trained your subconscious.

The subconscious is also where dreams are created. These happen during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and are often only a few seconds long. A dream that feels like it lasted all night really only lasted a very short time. So the subconscuious doesn't know how long or short something lasts. It does, however, know the order of things. Because of this , you can work on a piece with no hurry and no beat.The subconscious is trained by repetition. You have heard, "If you learn it wrong, you will have to start over and learn it again properly." That's true, because if you repeated it incorrectly several times, you programmed your subconscious to do it incorrectly. Therefore, forget beat and timing at first and just play the sequence of notes at any speed, with any necesary pauses for you to get to the right note, but don't let a mistake happen. No matter how slowly you have to go, don't let a mistake occur.

When you are absolutely certain of the sequence of the piece, you can then start trying to play it with the proper rhythm and timing, but remember to go slowly at first. There are so many tools like computer programs and apps that can slow a piece of music for you, without changing the pitch. This means that as it gets slower, it doesn't get deeper in sound and you will not have to change your tuning to go slower. With these tools, you can gradually speed up the piece as you play along with it. Pretty soon, you will be playing it perfectly. If you are reading notes on the staff lines, this method still works best.

And now, for the second way to play something correctly... INTRODUCING... Mike's 3-IN-A-ROW method! That's right, if you an play a section of a piece exactly right three times IN A ROW from memory, you are then ready to go to the next section. When you can play the second section three times in a row, you are then ready to try the both sections one after the other exactly right three times IN A ROW. If you stumble or make any mistake at all, you start counting your three times from the beginning again. I tell my students that I never practiced. I played. It's fun to go outside and play. I stayed inside and played. It didn't sound very good at first, but after I had trained my subconscious on a piece, it sounded just like the recording from the original artist. So I played and worked. I worked each section then put them together and it sounded great.

If you have any questions or would like to contact me, you can reach me at 469-855-6865 to talk with me or go to my Bubblelife page at http://bubly.us/1vNt.

Mike Ellis Music Instruction
9450 Skillman, #101
Dallas, TX 75243

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It is truly a time for change, not in what we do but in why we do it. We want our children to know how to play a musical instrument for many reasons. School age music students have higher grades, better attendance in school, and are more active in community affairs. These are documented by multiple studies from higher level institutions. Children and adults show improved concentration, coordination, perseverance, self-confidence and esteem. Study shows that studying a musical instrument strengthens cognitive skills as well as auditory memory. Music is a language that brings people together. Music uses communication, creativity, and cooperation to enrich lives.

However, starting with the British Invasion and the Information Age, the world of music has changed and it is time we consider changing with it. None of the Beatles could read notes and they became the most successful band of the twentieth century. Transcribing music gave way to sharing between students through recordings. There was no longer the same need to read notes that there used to be. Bands from abroad and here in the U.S. began popping up all over the place. These were bands of kids and adults who had no formal musical training.

Then came the Internet. You have all heard of YouTube (or you live a very sheltered life). Kids and adults can watch all kinds of videos from the real artists performing, to a plethera of videos of people who say they can show you how to play a certain piece. Along with the Internet sites, there arose a new method of transcribing guitar music called tablature. Students can go online and Google a song name and put the word "tab" after it (like "Purple Haze tab") and see hundreds of sites that show you tablature of how to play the song. Tablature shows lines representing the six strings of the guitar and the lines have numbers on them to show you which frets to press to get the notes for the song. As far as when to play those notes, the student can listen to the song to hear when. With computers and apps for phones and tablets, you can slow down the speed of a song without changing the pitch, so you can understand better when to play the notes.

Transcribing music is not nearly as necessary as it was in the past and neither is the need for you or your children to spend the time required to learn the notes on the staff line, the time duration values of notes and rests, key signatures, and more. I recently had a student start lessons because, according to his mom, "He has been taking lessons for three years and just is not progressing." The student could play only one piece from memory and it was with single notes on a six string guitar.

You should know that the best way to learn anything is to have a mentor, a guide, someone who can sit with you and help you overcome obstacles and minimize errors for you. Music teaching in general is not the issue here. It is the way music is taught by so many teachers. They are not at fault. It is the way they were taught and therefore the way they believe it should be taught.

I believe I was very lucky for being self taught for eleven years through the sixties and early seventies, but even more fortunate to have been taken under the wing of a very knowledgable mentor named Terrill Gardner. He taught me for seven years and took me through note reading from "Mary Had A Little Lamb" through "Modern Method for Guitar" books I, II, and III from Berklee college in Boston. He wanted me to learn the conventional method to augment my real-world knowledge.

Most importantly, I learned that to communicate with music, there is a language you must learn. If I want a dreamy sound to a song, I can play major seventh and minor seventh chords behind the melody. You need to understand the language to know what a major seventh chord is. In so many cases, students spend months on reading single notes before they ever learn a chord. I teach every major chord on piano in one sentence. Try me. Guitar, however, is a much more complicated instrument, but I start students with chords because chords are being played behind the singer in all songs.

There is an interesting article entitled "Paul McCartney Can't Read Notes" on my Bubblelife site at http://bubly.us/1veL. You can click on the link in the article to hear what Paul, himself, says about it. You can also reach me at 469-855-6865 to talk with me or go to my Bubblelife page at http://bubly.us/1vNt.

Mike Ellis

Mike Ellis Music Instruction
9450 Skillman, #101
Dallas, TX 75243

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One of the greatest and most successful composers in history, Sir Paul McCartney, can't read notes off the staff line. This may come as a surprise to any of you who are taking lessons or are thinking about taking lessons on a musical instrument. Watch this video http://mikeellismusicinstruction.com/NewCmsT.html to see what Paul says about it.

Music comes from within. The conveyance of music used to be that you had to transcribe it (on the staff lines) to be able to distribute it to others so they could play it and enjoy it. That was before the days of modern technology. Now you can record your music and post it on sites like YouTube, Reverb Nation, and a host of other sites. Recording technology has become so easy to use that thousands of people are recording in their own homes on the computer and producing very professional quality recordings. I don't know how many each day are posting these recordings on the Internet, but you can bet it is a sizable number.

What about copyright concerns? It used to be that you would copyright your music by having it transcribed and submitting that to the copyright office. Now, you can just send a recording of your music, along with the proper forms and fees, to the copyright office. You don't need to be able to transcribe it or to pay somebody to transcribe it for you. Also, you can publish it by simply posting it on the Internet as proof of ownership. You see, the copyright office doesn't take every submission and cross-reference it to every other submission to see if it is a copyright infringement. They just hold the submission, sender information, and date of submission in case there is ever a dispute. The earliest submission is the owner. George Harrison of the Beatles lost the suit borught by the Chiffons for copying a large portion of their song "He's So Fine" in his hit "My Sweet Lord." Their proof was that they distributed theirs earlier.

So go ahead and play by ear, and publish your songs on the Internet. Also, you should probably take a look at my previous article "How We Learn" at http://bubly.us/1vNt.