Paint Your Own Musical Landscapes!

I don't know why, but I find the idea of interpreting nature musically to be very appealing. Maybe it's because I'm attracted to nature's beauty, but the notion of communicating that beauty musically has always intrigued me.

Not being a very patient person, I wanted to find a way to capture a musical idea very quickly and sketch out an entire piece all at once. Visual artists do something called a thumbnail sketch and I wanted to do the same thing for music.

It then occured to me that if I just sketch out the first 8-bars of the piece, and write in the first 2-bars of melody, I could capture an idea that would be remembered weeks or even years later. It's amazing but this actually works! The secret is the melody.

If you can't read music and want to do this just do what I do. I write down the note values (quarter notes, half notes., etc.) and write the letter name of the note beside the note value. One of the most important things I've discovered over the years is that the note value (it's time length) is what really captures the idea. Just think of Beethoven's fifth symphony for a good example. Da Da Da Duh... These notes mark the whole composition.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music's online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

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Ticketmaster to Power Live Music Ticket Sales On Billboard.com - MarketWatch

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/0-0fd=Rurl=http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Ticketmaster-Power-Live-Music-Ticket/story.aspx%3Fguid%3D%257B18C9279F-F4C5-4D5C-B837-2AC78F1D79B3%257Dcid=1272317802ei=_JkkSdK5IoKSMqLSsLEBusg=AFQjCNHk0icXD22upU98BHIv53edRXxQOgTicketmaster to Power Live bMusic/b Ticket Sales On Billboard.com/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fMarketWatchnbsp;-/font nobr4 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1quot;Billboard is uniquely qualified to provide consumers with credible chart data, authoritative bmusic/b analysis and access to both popular and up-and-coming b.../b/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/0-1fd=Rurl=http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Ticketmaster-Opens-New-Ticket-Centers/story.aspx%3Fguid%3D%257BB3D33F8A-5EE3-4182-B212-C0C8A75B53DF%257Dcid=1272317802ei=_JkkSdK5IoKSMqLSsLEBusg=AFQjCNE_KtR2dWanUP2VZk0QqxRsVKqLkQTicketmaster Opens New Ticket Centers in Five Publix Supermarkets b.../b/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrMarketWatch/nobr/font/fontbrfont class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclientie=ISO-8859-1rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-22,GGLG:enncl=1272317802hl=ennobrall 14 news articles/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

Metacafe Invites Viewers to Get Their Groove On With New Music Channel - MarketWatch

Music Review | #39;Fugitives#39; Tracking Composers on the Run - New York Times

Sources: Apple, music labels talk DRM-free songs - CNET News

Nokia Music Store Italy: More Than 4 Million Songs - MarketWatch

He Can Bring the Wine and the Music - New York Times

Music Review: Chinese Democracy - Entertainment Weekly

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Music review: Usher, the family and ladies#39; man - San Francisco Chronicle

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/7-0fd=Rurl=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi%3Ff%3D/c/a/2008/11/19/DDH7147PDV.DTLcid=1272319411ei=_JkkSdK5IoKSMqLSsLEBusg=AFQjCNEW7Wdsd5chgPZx6NoqnqOaPJB1ZgbMusic/b review: Usher, the family and ladies#39; man/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fSan Francisco Chronicle,nbsp; USAnbsp;-/font nobr48 minutes ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1There were no special effects or elaborate props, not even an opening act Tuesday night at the Warfield - just two fast-paced hours of bmusic/b and movement by b.../b/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/7-1fd=Rurl=http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_11022732cid=1272319411ei=_JkkSdK5IoKSMqLSsLEBusg=AFQjCNFThldytk5HTwzLeX_X7ZRLqEzFTAReview: Usher woos ladies with #39;One Night Stand#39; show in SF/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrSan Jose Mercury News/nobr/font/fontbrfont class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclientie=ISO-8859-1rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-22,GGLG:enncl=1272319411hl=ennobrall 7 news articles/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

paidContent.org - Gaming Roundup: NatGeo; Music Mogul; Square Enix ... - Washington Post

Taylor Swift, David Archuleta lead US pop chart - Reuters

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Music - Google News

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