Courses - Individual Products and Special Bundles (at bottom)
SPECIAL PROMOTION UNTIL FEBRUARY 7, 2012!
When you purchase ANY product, you will receive the CHORDS TO GO CD absolutely FREE. This CD drills you on the Major and Minor Triads as well as the Dominant Seventh and Minor Seventh chords. You will really learn your chords which is, of course, the foundation of everything you are playing. Take advantage of this special opportunity!
Playing with Style
Book and 2 CD's $39
Listen to Easy Stride demonstration
Listen to technique for playing a ballad
"Debbie Gruber's approach to piano teaching is wonderful. Unlike intimidating classical approaches to piano, her method focuses on fun ways in which to learn to play right away. It has enabled me to stick with it and it's given me a sense of immediate progress and belief in my abilities. The books and cds are easy to follow and reveal the basic secrets of piano playing in a clear and extremely useful way. I recommend her materials to anyone."
Antje Duvekot - singer/songwriter and winner of three Boston Music Awards
Testimonial from Ray Atkins of Framingham, MA
Testimonial from Dalton of East Lansing, MI
Testimonial from Ron of Carmel, Indiana
"Playing with Style" is an intermediate level program that teaches students how to play in twelve different styles using accompaniment patterns. This is an accompaniment method of playing which does not include the melody. This is an excellent method for playing in a band or accompanying a singer.
It was written for the student who knows their chords pretty well and doesn't know what to do with them.
This unique system will show you many ways to break up your chords between both hands. You will provide the melody by singing it. Or if you are playing with other instrumentalists, they will play the melody.
By doing this, you are free to add a lot more embellishments and riffs in both hands to liven up your playing and add a sense of rhythm to your music. You will learn 21 different techniques for playing in many different styles.
Written by Debbie Gruber, B.M., M.M..
CHAPTERS OF THE BOOK,
Introduction - Major Chord Chart. A quick and pattern-centered approach to memorizing your chords. Learn the magic formulas that allow you to construct ANY Major, Minor and Seventh Chord.
Chapter One - Up-Tempo Broadway songs. Use the Easy Stride style. Learn how to use a very simple accompaniment pattern to play just about any Up-Tempo Broadway Song! Works for traditional songs too.
Chapter Two - Broadway Ballads. Learn how to turn a chord on it's head (called an inversion) to change the sound. Two beautiful Open Voicings. Then break up those voicings to create "filler" for your songs.
Chapter Three - Country-Western and Folk/Rock. - In this chapter you will learn the "Hammer On" technique which is a very effective way of achieving that country sound. Just a bit of dissonance goes a long way!
Chapter Four - Jazz Ballads. This is a really meaty chapter. You will learn how to play arpeggios, strumming, Full and Half Rolls and the Alternating Thumb technique. Great patterns for the left hand (everyone's weakness).
Chapter Five - Jazz Swing. Learn a simple version of the "Walking Bass" for the left hand that real jazzers use all the time. Then we add chord "punches" in the right hand to fill it out. All applied to "Take the "A" Train".
Chapter Six - Early Rhythm and Blues. In this chapter we explore what I call "pulsing". Then we add a little syncopated left hand to give the song some motion and rhythmic vitality.
Chapter Seven - Rock and Roll. Rock needs a hard-driving beat so we use another syncopated left hand pattern to make this happen. Called "Staccato Beat".
Chapter Eight - Folk or Children's Song. In this chapter, we break up the right hand and left hand chords in various ways. These are called "Simple Broken Chord" Techniques. Lots of cool and easy ways to break up your blocked chords. Sounds great on "Scarborough Fair".
Chapter Nine - Pop Ballad. In this Chapter, we get into more advanced ways of breaking up a chord for the right hand. Sounds awesome on "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"
Chapter Ten - The Blues. Learn two boogie-woogie patterns for the left hand and a right hand blues riff that will knock your socks off! You can put these patterns into any rock or R & B song.
Chapter Eleven - Latin Rhythm! Learn a Rhythm Pattern in the Right hand that will quickly add a latin flavor to your songs. It involves putting the chords of the song in a very syncopated rhythm. Once you learn this pattern, you apply it to lots of latin songs.
Chapter Twelve - Gospel. Learn the tricks of how to turn a regular old major chord into a gospel/churchy sound! You will learn the "Bass Third" and the "Amen" progression, plus a particular inversion that will change the sound of your chord.
The Piano EXPRESS
Book and CD $25
Debbie Gruber's 'The Piano Express' is a valuable addition to the literature of piano pedagogy because it appeals to different learning styles. Students learn the keyboard, treble clef notation, and helpful shapes and diagrams of black and white key patterns add a tactile element. Also, the method imparts basic music theory and chord hierarchic knowledge, a facet that many piano instruction methods lack."
-- Mark Shilansky, Jazz Pianist, Assistant Professor at Berklee College of Music, Lecturer in Jazz at University of New Hampshire and University of Southern Maine
This comprehensive 44-page Book and CD (20 tracks!) is ready to go! This beginner method for adults starts at the very basic level of learning right hand melody notes. Then it introduces the student to the Major, Minor, Dominant Seventh and Minor Seventh chords.
Songs used for demonstration are from the traditional, folk, pop, and show tune idioms. This is a non-traditional, non-classical method consisting of playing by ear and reading chords. Boring note-reading is over. Let music-making begin.
Students also learn basic techniques for accompaniment and how to transpose songs into their key for singing. All chords are diagramed on a keyboard "map" for ease in learning them. Every song and technique is demonstrated slowly and clearly on the accompanying CD.
Here are some great lessons you will learn from this program:
** Surprisingly simple method for learning all 12 Major Chords. This will help you immeasurably in memorizing your chords based on visual patterns rather than note-reading.
**How to finally be able to read from a fake book - We will de-mystify the process and show you just what those symbols mean
**Learn how to Accompany yourself singing! This is a pretty simple process based on solid musical concepts that you have learned in the book. Learn techniques for accompanying a slow ballad and an up-tempo tune.
**Learn three great formulas for constructing major, minor, and seventh chords.
**Stop buying costly arrangments. Develop your own arrangements. It's a much more creative approach to playing the piano! You design how you want to play a song. This program shows you how.
**Learn how to transpose any song into your key. Many people don't realize how easy this is to do and how much of a difference it can make when you are playing with others.
**Learn a very easy trick for figuring out what "key" you are playing in. Then learn the predictable chords that will go with that key. This really accelerates how fast you can learn a song.
**Tricks for reading a melody line easily with your right hand (even if you don't know all of the notes yet). Focus on the intervals and what that means to your right hand piano playing.
**No more bass clef! Everything is melody line and chord. Takes the pressure off all of that tedious note-reading.
So now for the cost of less than one 1/2 hour piano lesson, you will get 6 months worth of lessons that will take you from where you are now to sitting down at your piano or keyboard and playing the music you love to play.
The Piano Express
Booklet and CD - $25
The Piano EXPRESS
DVD $18.99
This companion DVD to the Piano EXPRESS book and CD shows you HOW to do everything you hear on the CD. All tracks from the CD are demonstrated so you know where to put your hands and what your chords and melodies will look like as they are played on the piano. Accelerate the learning process so you can pick up any song from a fake book and be able to read it!
Contains 10 tracks which coincide with the 10 chapters in The Piano EXPRESS. 1 hour and 10 minutes of lessons. Play on your computer, DVD player or ipod.
CHORDS TO GO
CD $15.99
This 70-minute CD is perfect for getting those chords "under your belt" whether driving to work, listening to it on your ipod while taking a walk, grocery shopping, or sitting at the piano.
All major, minor, dominant and minor seventh chords are covered in ALL inversions. This is a must-have if you are serious about learning your chords so you can embellish them! Here's how it works.
You will be asked to name notes in a chord, for example. There will be a pause for you to answer the question, then the answer will be sung and played so you can see how you did.
Part One - Naming the Notes in Chords
Part Two - Naming the Parts of a Chord(root, third, fifth, seventh)
Part Three - Inversions
Part Four - Inversion (mixed)
The chords you will learn inside and out are the twelve major triads, twelve minor triads, twelve dominant seventh chords and twelve minor seventh chords.
Most songs have six chords or less, so you should be able to play just about ANY pop song out there if you learn your chords! And this is a great CD for doing just that.
EXPRESSIONS -DVD
Pop/Jazz Piano Piano Techniques for the Left Hand
$18.99
Tired of playing the plain old chords in the left hand and melody with the right hand? Wanna learn how to change it up and make your music "pop" and come alive? Then this DVD is for you.
Expressions will give you thirteen different tricks and techniques for the left hand. Everything from the blues to contemporary jazz, you will learn how to embellish upon those familiar chords. Every topic is demonstrated slowly and clearly, then applied to a song. Topics include:
1. 4/4 Stride(one chord per measure)
2. 4/4 Stride (two chords per measure)
3. 3/4 Stride
4. Full Roll
5. Alternating Thumb
6. Half Roll and Variations
7. Syncopated Half Roll
8. Swing Walking Bass
9. Blues Boogie Bass
10.Barrelhouse Boogie Bass
11.Pulsing
12.Syncopated Bass and Chord Pulsing
13.Octave Leaps
AVAILABLE APRIL 25, 2011!!
The Piano Bundle #1
The Piano Bundle #1 includes The Piano Express program (book and CD), The Piano Express DVD, and the Chords To Go. If purchased separately, the cost is $59.98.
YOUR SPECIAL PRICE $47.00 (20% off)(plus shipping)
The Piano Bundle #2 - Intermediate Level
This includes:
Playing With Style - Book and two CD's
Chords To Go - CD
You're the Artist - Book and Play Along CD
Expressions - DVD
If purchased individually, the cost is $98.
YOUR SPECIAL PRICE - $79 plus shipping (20% Discount)
|
