This is a great resource: Characteristics of Musical Keys (biteyourownelbow.com) From http://www.wmich.edu/mus-theo/courses/keys.html From Christian Schubart’s Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst (1806) translated by Rita Steblin in A History of Key Characteristics in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries. UMI Research Press (1983). C MajorCompletely Pure. Its character is: innocence, simplicity, naïvety, children’s talk. C MinorDeclaration of love …
Author Archives: Joseph Hong
Why I’m Against Teaching Western Classical Music
I like the song Never Enough from the movie The Greatest Showman a lot. In fact, it’s on my bucket list. Here’s me playing it. It’s not perfect. I learnt it mostly by ear. The melody by ear and the chords partly by guitar chord sheets. I like the song so much that it’s actually …
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Musicals Crossword Puzzle
Classical Music Composer Crossword Puzzle
No, you can’t talk unless you read a book
Imagine saying this to a child: “No, you can’t open your mouth and talk unless you are reading from a book.” This would be extremely odd, isn’t it? Surely a child or anyone should be able to open their mouth and say something – how they are feeling, describe the weather, objects, their lives, etc. …
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Carbon Fiber Violin Bow Sucks. Or Does it?
I bought a US$88 carbon fiber violin bow from an Ebay seller Yitamusic. I had for about a month or slightly less than that. For the weirdest reason to me, it makes a fuzzy, scratchy, buzzing sound when I use it on a violin that I also purchased from Yitamusic and my old student violin …
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He Didn’t Like Tennis When he First Started it
I was having a chat with a dad who’s training to be a tennis coach. He said that he had to ‘force’ his son to pick up tennis and his son didn’t like it at first. However, his son started to like the game when he developed some skill in it and started going for …
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Ravel’s Sonatine 3rd Movement Anime Bars 4 to 6
I was reading all about Casio PX S1100 or S1000 over the week as I was going to purchase one. There were huge critics against the action of the digital piano – namely, the pivotal length of the black keys are too short and it harms the technique of the pianist who plays on it. …
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Why I Say No to a Student
Sometimes a student asks to learn a certain piece and I would say no. Sometimes a student asks to perform a piece for a student concert and I would say no. Why? It is something like: a runner has completed a 5k and has never done more than 5k. Now s/he wants to run a …
How Much to Practise a Day?
I often get asked by parents how much should their child practise each day? This is obviously a very subjective question and you are likely to get different responses depending on who you ask. Here’s my response: it depends. If the student is motivated to practise the piano without having someone or something to urge …