Easy Rock Piano Songs by Coldplay: Clocks and The Scientist

Clocks tops our list as one of the best easy rock piano songs as it employs easy left hand structure, and basic repetitive patterns in the right hand. The single notes in the left hand can be converted to octaves or evens root-fifths to give more advanced players a stiffer challenge. Although the song itself does use quite a few sections (Intro, verse, chorus, bridge, outro), overall, the majority of the sections are variants making this a top choice for someone looking to learn an easy rock piano song.

The Scientist, a much slower and more interactive song, is a bit harder, but once again, for beginners find ways to make the song sound the same, yet easier to play. A general rule of thumb is to eliminate fine details that the majority of your audience won’t hear anyways. Of course, once you’ve improved you can always add these details back in, but you have to start somewhere.

Easy Rock Piano Songs by Adele: Hometown Glory and Someone Like You

What’s not to love about Adele? Of course, the real intro can be quite a bit intimidating, but truthfully, when’s the last time you actually heard the real intro on the radio anyways? Stick with the main melody, and you’ll find yourself playing one part the entire time. Boring? I think not. Good musicians know how to keep things interesting by being creative and improv’ing where necessary to spice it up.

Someone Like You is difficult on the right hand, but not exceptionally so, and the left hand is easy enough to qualify for our easy piano rock songs list. For kids, it’s always nice to hear the melody so who cares if they play the right hand melody with both hands, while you help out with left hand in a duet? Really, the goal is just to get kids reading music, having fun, and develop the mechanics of motion on piano.

Back to Black by Amy Winehouse

Any Winehouse knew how to rock a piano. Back to Black, a breakout hit for Winehouse is built around a single section, with the bridge being a simple variant.  Because of this, I’d rate this easy piano song as suitable for all ages 8 and up. Just change the lyrics.

First a note about guitar picks. Guitar picks come in all different shapes, thicknesses, materials, and sizes. How do you know what’s right for you? You experiment. You can buy a variety of picks, steal them from your friends, or borrow your buddy’s guitar pick. Once you find something you like, it’s important to stick to that pick for a while – try to use that brand and style for a while to get the best feel of it. Picks are kind of like driving cars, every new car you drive takes you a few minutes to adjust to handling, brake and gas sensitivity, and steering. If you constantly switch guitar picks, you’ll never adjust and become aware of your pick’s limitations, and have an even harder time discovering the best guitar picks for you.

Best Guitar Picks for Beginners

As a general rule, one of the best guitar picks for beginners are tried and true Jim Dunlop Nylon Grey .73mm guitar picks. Why? For several reasons. Nylon is sort of an everlasting material. It tends to outlast other picks. It has has built in knurling in the grip area making it easy to hold onto your guitar pick. As for thickness, .73 is middle of the road med gauge, which is perfect for beginners who haven’t discovered their picking and playing style yet. The pick is forgiving, and easy to hold.

If you have a tendancy to drop guitar picks, the best guitar picks for you might be ones with holes or grip built into them. If you playing style leads you to start playing more pinch harmonics, you might decide the best guitar picks for you would be smaller, tear-dropped shaped picks.  It’s all a matter of opinion as to what the best guitar picks really are, but it’s up to every guitarist to decide.

Best Guitar Picks for Advanced Players

For more advanced players, you’ll hopefully have discovered your style by now, and will have chosen a pick that reflects that. Usually, faster playing requires heavier gauge pick for accuracy, while a lot of acoustic players prefer medium gauge picks to get softer, and more subtle tones out of their acoustic guitars. Advanced players should also keep their eyes peeled for something a little better than what they have. In other words, by the time you discover the best guitar picks for you, your playing style has probably evolved, and so will your picking needs. As such, the hunt for the best guitar pick never ends.

First off, make sure you distinguish between acoustic guitar strings, and electric guitar strings. Acoustic guitars are large, wooden, hollow guitars, and use very different strings than electric guitars. Electric guitars are usually a solid chunk of painted wood. Acoustic-electric guitars are simply acoustic guitars with options to transmit your signal electronically, and they use standard acoustic guitar strings as well.

Best Guitar Strings for Acoustics

Steel-stringed acoustic guitars typically come shipped with a set of twelve gauge strings (The industry standard). The best guitar strings for beginners though are usually lighter sets of strings that are much easier to play and learn on. Heavier gauge guitar strings hold more tension and are more difficult to hold down correctly, and more painful to hold. Often, new students have a hard time with keeping an interest or being motivated to practice when the guitar they’re playing is actually making it more difficult for them to learn. Although some might disagree with this, many beginners find they do much better with a set of acoustic 11′s on their guitar as opposed to 12′s. If you’re not familiar with the system of string gauges, don’t worry, just know that smaller numbers represent lighter, easier to play strings. Don’t let the numbers fool you though, just a single number drop in string size can reduce string tension considerably and make your guitar much more fun to play.

Some of the best guitar strings for acoustic guitar are D’addario, Ernie Ball, DR, and Martin. Although there are a ton of brands out there, keep in mind that most beginners won’t hear much of a difference in tone from brand to brand.

Best Guitar Strings for Electrics

For owners of electric guitars, you actually get the easy job. Most electric guitar are shipped with a set of 9 gauge guitar strings, which are on the light end of the spectrum. This means that from the start, your strings should play well. However, changing strings to a name brand means you can trust your strings to last longer and take more abuse. Since beginners often aren’t sure how hard to strum or attack a string, they tend to break more than experienced players. For beginners, it’s best to have an extra set of electric guitar strings around just in case you break one. If you do have a tendency to break strings, you might switch from electric 9′s to electric 10′s which are slightly heavier, and harder to break. Some of the best guitar strings for electric guitar are Ernie Ball, D’Dadarrio, and DR.

If you’re not sure which gauge of strings you have, but want to change strings to get a lighter or heavier gauge, your best bet isn’t to break out the calipers, it’s to take it to your local music teacher or guitar friend and have them tell you what you already have on it. Usually experienced guitar players can tell how heavy your strings are simply by feel.

Hope this helps you choose the best guitar strings for your acoustic guitar or electric guitar.

Blue Suede Shoes

Have You Ever Seen The Rain

Hotel California

Johnny B. Goode

La Grange

Message In A Bottle

Move It On Over

No Woman, No Cry

Paint It Black

Pretty Woman

Pride And Joy

Proud Mary

Wonderwall

How To Change Guitar Strings

Topping our list of what every guitarist should know, would be how to change guitar strings. If you’re ever have hopes of playing in front of screaming fans, you need to learn how to change guitar strings. Changing guitar strings is probably the single most important and common technical maintenance job you’ll perform. Strings always breaks at the most inopportune moments, so it’s a skill you’ll want to perfect so it can be done quickly under stress.

General Amp, Guitar and Effects Knowledge

Next on our list of what every guitarist should know, would be technical knowledge. Guitarists have their own language. We use phrases like “Man, using that TS-9 to push your front end really helps break up your head so much more.” If you didn’t understand that phrase, you’ll find it hard to really communicate and talk with other accomplished musicians. So where do you learn the lexicon of musicians? From other musicians, of course! Talk to them, and when they say something you don’t understand, make a mental note and go home and look it up.

Good PR Skills

We’ve all heard the expression it’s not who you know but – well, you get the idea. If you have any hopes of going anywhere in the music industry, get comfortable glad handing restaurant owners, club owners, managers at local merchant shops, other musicians, and other important figures. Be humble, but confident in your abilities. Confidence goes a long way, while ego just sends your demo straight to the circular file.

Get Paid For What You’re Already Doing

Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? Musicians need to learn to take a few free gigs to make their bones, and after, start asking for a fee, tips, or other forms of compensation. It’s not rude to say no to someone who really has nothing to offer you other than a time slot. You’re an artist and deserve to be paid for your hard work. Ask for compensation, free drinks, the rights to sell your CD’s or something. Just don’t leave empty handed.

Musicians Are Flakes

Musicians bail out all the time for no good reason. For some reason there always seems to be a virulent lack of discipline among musicians. Stick with band members that are as dedicated as you are. In a sense, you’re in a committed relationship with these people. In one sense, you should ask yourself the question, “Could I marry him?”

 Musicians Are Prima Donnas

Musicians, and especially guitarists are some of the most prideful out of touch people I have met in my life. Most think they’re amazing, and it’s just a matter of time before things finally turn around for them. Somewhere in the pursuit of actually getting good, they forget that there is always someone better than them. They become loud, obnoxious players with attitudes. Don’t be that person, and more importantly, learn to share your time, compromise in your songs, and play well with others.

In essence, what every guitarist should know are the skills needed to survive the world of music. Of course there are tons of other tips that should have made it onto our “what every guitarist should know” list, but we couldn’t quite fit them all. Sharpen your skills and you’ll rise above. Good luck!

The Other Place
316 S. Euclid St.
Anaheim, CA
714-533-9900

Java Jean Bar
116 S Fairmont Blvd
Anaheim Hills, CA
714-685-0800

Shades Of Afrika
1001 E 4th St
Long Beach, CA
562-436-2210
http://www.shadesofafrika.com/

i-Candy Coffee
1708 E. Broadway
Long Beach, CA
562-437-3785
www.icandycoffee.com

It’s A Grind
247 Pine Ave
Long Beach, CA
562-495-7100
http://www.itsagrind.com/location/?c=56

Sipology Coffee
446 E. Broadway
Long Beach, CA
562-331-8834
http://www.sipologycoffee.com/

Viento y Agua Cafe & Gallery
4007 E 4th Street
Long Beach, CA
562-434-1182
http://www.vientoyaguacoffeehouse.com/

The Bean Counter
1218 Beryl St
Redondo Beach, CA
310-798-2326

Coffee Cartel
1820 S. Catalina Ave.
Redondo Beach, CA
310-316-65545

Obviously businesses come and go, so if you hear of a new place that offers an open mic in Long Beach, please let us know and we’ll add it to our list.

Piano Lessons

Ages 3 and up. Piano is by far one of the best instruments for kids because it’s easy to graduate to other instruments after taking piano lessons. Piano is easy to understand, and can be played with only one hand. Kids taking piano lessons will learn to read, write, count, do math, learn their left hand from their right hand, and recognize colors. Taking piano lessons is a great way to develop kids mentally, as it prepares them for school in a fun, musical way.

Ukulele Lessons

Ages 4 and up. Ukulele is definitely one of the best instruments for kids because it’s small and easy to hold, and requires minimal learning. It’s also a great instrument to learn before taking guitar lessons, bass lessons, or drum lessons to help get a strong music background from an early age. Also, for parents who want to be actively involved in their kids’ music lessons, then learning the ukulele is a snap for adults. Taking ukulele lessons helps create a strong bond between parents and children, and of course kids can never cheat on their homework when you’re taking ukulele lessons with them!

Guitar Lessons

Ages 6 and up. Guitar is great, but it’s also physically demanding. The strings agitate the fingers, the neck is hard to hold, and of course strumming requires a rhythm. Guitar lessons are usually best for kids 6 years old and up. If they have learned an instrument before such as piano or ukulele, you’ll notice a big difference in how fast they learn guitar. Also for young kids, you’ll want to get them a kids size guitar.

Drum Lessons

Ages 10 and up. Preferably way up. Drums are loud, expensive, heavy, difficult, annoying when they’re done right, and really annoying when they’re not. For this reason, I’d recommend drums to parents who have a separate garage, and to older more controlled kids. It’s possible to learn drums at younger ages, however, most kids start seeing their best at around ages 10 and up. Before then, most kids will just want to bang on them, which isn’t good for their ears, or yours. You can however, get an electronic drum set, but for young kids, I would recommend RockBand first, because it’s similar to playing on a simple electronic drum set.

If you’re a parent or teacher and learning about the best instruments for kids, first see what your kids are interested in. Then, choose something that’s not too difficult for their age. If your kids are young, have them start with something simple such as piano lessons or ukulele lessons, before they move onto guitar lessons or drum lessons.

Music Lessons Help Kids in School

Music lessons help kids and teenagers improve school test scores. There are numerous studies which show kids who take music lessons improve on test scores relating to math, science, reasoning and more. Test score improvement has been seen in children as young as 5 years old. If knowing your kids are going to be bringing home straight A’s isn’t enough, the keep reading for more benefits of music lessons.

Music Lessons Raise Self Esteem

One of the best benefits of music lessons, is it raises self esteem in children, teenagers and adults. It takes a lot of dedication, time, and practice to correctly learn how to play songs from start to finish – no small feat. When our students achieve their goals they’re rewarded with praise, and more importantly, they’re given the opportunity to play in front of their friends and family at a Rock The House. Rock The House is a private concert in your own home that motivates kids to practice, helps them overcome stage fright, and gives them positive feedback from all their friends and family.

Music Lessons Improve Coordination

Another great benefit of music lessons is improved coordination. Children learn to synchronize their hands and fingers in a very intricate way. Hand-eye coordination is a great skill to have, and wouldn’t you rather have your kids have great hand-eye coordination from playing piano than from playing video games?

1. Ukulele is Easy to Learn

Ukulele only has 4 strings making it very easy to learn. Because ukulele is easy to learn, it’s also a great choice for kids who want to play guitar. Ukulele is guitar’s smaller and easier to play cousin. Once kids get the basics down on ukulele, it’s easy to graduate to guitar later on. Reading ukulele tab is the same as reading guitar tab, and ukulele can be played either with your thumb or with a guitar pick.

2. Playing the Ukulele Develops Coordination

One of the benefits of ukulele lessons is ukulele teaches kids hand eye coordination and improves their fine motor skills. Kids will learn how to independently move their fingers, coordinate rhythm, and read ukulele tab. These skills are vital to anyone interested in later taking on guitar or piano.

3. Ukulele Lessons are Great For Those Short on Time

As instruments go, ukulele is pretty simple. That’s not to say it’s easy, it’s just easier than guitar, piano, or drums. So if you’ve always wanted to pick up an instrument, but don’t feel you’ll have the time to dedicate to it, then ukulele lessons might be right for you.

4. Ukulele is Portable

Another benefit of ukulele lessons is the fact that it’s portable. Once you learn how to play, you can easily take your ukulele with you everywhere you go. It’s small enough to put in a truck, in a backpack, or take with you on a hiking trip. Ukulele is the ultimate traveler’s instrument.

String Discoloration

Your guitar strings will change from a bright silver, or bronze  color to greyish then eventually black. The darker the color, the closer you are to a string change. Alternatively, if you run a polish cloth underneath the strings and the polish cloth turns black it’s time to change guitar strings.

Gunk

Lightly run your finger underneath the fretboard side of your strings. It should feel smooth. If you feel bumps, build-up, or ridges then it’s definitely time to change guitar strings. You can lengthen the time between string changes by simply wiping down your guitar strings with a polish cloth after every time you’re done playing.

Ridges

If you look at your guitar strings, the portion that sits directly over the fret wire typically takes a harder beating causing guitar strings to break at those points. You’ll want to check for ridges on the string right over the fret wire, and missing “wraps” from your strings in the same spot. If any wraps are missing, and you can see the core, then string breakage is imminent, and you’ll want to be careful when you play so you don’t break strings while you play.

You’ll also want to change guitar strings if you’re doing anything important such as a gig, recital or recording session. There’s nothing worse than playing a great gig only to have a string break with no replacements handy. Also, make sure to replace all of your guitar strings each time and not just the ones that look bad. If you happen to break a single string right after replacing a set, don’t worry, you can just replace it individually, but if the whole set looks worn, just save yourself the trouble of more broken strings and change them all.

Lastly, if you’re brokestock, you can always try the Van Halen trick, and boil your old guitar strings. Boiling strings let’s you reuse them while getting rid of all the buildup previously left on them. Since you now know when to change guitar strings, do yourself a favor and buy an extra set of guitar strings. This way when you break a string, you won’t have to wait a week to finally get to the store and buy a new set of strings.