Introducing the Playing Music For Fun Membership Program with Greg Dixon

I have launched the Playing Music For Fun Membership Program.

You can learn more and join at https://playingmusicforfun.com/membership/, including the video version of this podcast.

The Playing Music For Fun Membership Program is for anyone who wants to enjoy a lifetime of exploring music.

I believe we were all born musical with innate human musical abilities.

If you always wanted to make music, but were discouraged, stuck, or were told you have no musical talent — this is for you!

If you have ever wondered how musicians of all levels can play together without learning or reading each song, this is for you!

I will provide the encouragement, insights, and resources to enable you to play music for a lifetime at whatever level you want.

You will never run out of places to play and learn.

See https://playingmusicforfun.com/membership/

Come learn more about Shared Visions Unlimited at https://sharedvisions.com/

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:02

Well, happy Tuesday, everyone. It's Greg Dixon, your fun music enabler. And uh today I'm uh I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about the Playing Music for Fun membership program. Uh some of you may have seen the um Plain Music for Fun website, and um I'm just gonna put this this on there. And uh the membership program is there, plainmusicforfun.com. Membership is a place where you can you can join and sign up. But I'm gonna tell you a little bit about what I've I've been doing here. So I've I've been a musician pretty much all of my life, haven't always been playing, but right now I'm playing drums and bass and then working on some keyboard and piano and that kind of thing. And um so I I come across people who uh who say something along the lines of, I've always wanted to play music, but I have no talent, or I don't know where to start, or I wanted to sing, but people told me not to, not to just to mouth the words. So it's anyway, I come from the belief that everybody was born musical. We have a lot of abilities. There may be a few exceptions, but very rare, but more or less as part of the human condition to have innate music abilities, and uh, and so I think everybody can sing, everybody can play, everybody can tap, do something with whatever. Um, and and it's just part of the human experience. So I'm mostly my main mission is to people get people inspired to to go and do things. And then the other thing is I used to say, uh, what uh people would say, how can you play drums or how can you play bass when you don't know the other musicians particularly well and you don't know what they're going to play next? Well, there are a couple of tricks and there are a couple of things about music that you probably already know. And if you once you get over the mechanics of playing, you can you can you can play. And so part of what I'm going to do in the membership program is is uh it's for one, inspire you to play, and the other is to um help you help you get going, help you get over your insecurities. So uh I'm gonna just I'm gonna show you. Um I have some grand plans for the for the playing music for fun, and I've made pretty good progress since I started this about a month ago. I have lots to lots to do. I my plan is to write, uh probably add um a piece of content to the membership program about every every two days, every two or three days. So three three or four times a week, I'm going to add things. And uh so I'm gonna just jump in here to to the landing page and we'll take a look at what the plans were. So here's um here's the basically an introduction, more or less what I've what I've told you there. Uh I'm offering this as a ridiculously low $1 for the first month and $7 a month after that. So, you know, um you got a dollar, try it out, see see how it works for you. And uh yeah, and it's all it's all good stuff. Um, so here's what I what I have uh have in mind for this thing here. For one, as I mentioned, I want to create inspirational content. I want to just be a cheerleader for you, get you to go out and and play, even if you don't do anything other than play in your own living room or sing in the shower or whatever. I just want you to go out and enjoy music. And then the other thing is how music works. There's some um, I think sometimes there are a lot of material out for learning piano and learning guitar and learning things. And sometimes the the essentials get skipped over from you know getting getting people to try to read music and try to play things too soon without really knowing what's behind it. So what I'm aiming to do is is want to find a provide a bridge, like just give you enough insight so you can start tinkering on the piano or start playing on it on playing a drum or playing um guitar, whatever it is, just start with something really simple, maybe single notes at a time, add notes. But I'm also I'm also going to illustrate part of what you're gonna learn is how how what what what's the idea behind the music? Like how do intervals work, how do chords work, how do how do scales work, all that kind of thing in a way that that you learn a little bit and then and and then just simply play. And um I do have a plan. There are a number of people uh that uh uh along those categories as if I always wanted to play music, but I don't know where to start or I don't have any talent. I'm gonna do some music with workshops here. I'm gonna start uh some free ones in the merit area, and I'm gonna do some things online. I've got the StreamYard, I got the tools to do live interactive uh workshops and going to see how that goes. And uh eventually I want to uh put together a package that I can tour with and go, you know, go to senior centers or go to arts councils and do do fun workshops for them. Um I also am I you know I'm going to uh bring in as much as possible, recommend and bring in my mentors, people I've learned a lot from, do reviews if possible, do interviews with them. I did an interview with Bill Ullman last night, his camera didn't work, so it's going to be more of a podcast with uh material to go with it than uh first intended, but that's the way it goes sometimes. And uh also reviews and recommendations. Um, there are tons of resources available. Uh 40 years ago, if somebody wanted to learn how to play guitar, uh you know, you more or less had to, you know, pick up a guitar, play with it, maybe take lessons from somebody, uh listen to records, go to concerts and watch what people were playing and watch, you know, try to figure it out. Now there's tons of resources, and again, I'm gonna make some recommendations depending on what you want to do. I've got some uh recommendations if you want to sing. I've got recommendations for piano, uh, guitar, mandolin, any of those things. And um, yeah, uh all good. I'm working on a book. A lot of this content is I'm gonna put in a book. For one thing, when it's a bit in a book, you can get a very wide distribution, get out there, and maybe they'll be they'll help open the door for me to do presentations. I'm preparing some formal presentations and I'm available to do podcasts about anything really. Uh, but uh I hope to do presentations live. I'm doing one on Thursday for the Grand Connection, and uh and uh maybe there'll be sort of um uh oh yeah, anyway, some more formal thing on a stage to do at senior centers or live events. So I'm working on that. So it's a fairly big ambitious plan. Um the other thing I just want to mention here, there are two things is if you want to be an affiliate, um uh I'm offering 50% of whatever the sale price is. Right now, it's it's seven dollars. It may never ever change, but maybe there'll be something more later. You know, it's it doesn't hurt if you're if you think this is a good idea and you want to recommend it. This is especially good if you have me on your show as a podcast guest and and we want to talk about it, and you can send a link to somebody to sign up for the program and you can earn some money on this. And then I'm also looking for sponsors. And uh what I want the money for is if I'm doing the workshops, I want to put together a collection of instruments so that people can come and try different instruments when they come to the workshop. Uh, I might do some touring, social travel expenses, might do a tour, like to do a tour for the book launch as well. All that takes money. Uh, you know, of course, the natural ones would be um uh music stores. Like I I have I've I asked how much money I spent uh at Long and McQuaid over the years. It's quite a lot. There's uh you know, a number of Tom Lee music uh down in the States is the Guitar Center, um a number of other other places, but almost anywhere that wants to support community music, I think could be a good sponsor, you know, banks, uh insurance companies, uh senior living organizations, and you know, whatever your company does. So if you just want to sponsor it, I think some of the people I'm gonna recommend for their services might all actually be good sponsors too. So if you end up being a sponsor, there'll be uh you know mentions in the book, links on the website, all that the usual stuff. And if you just want to sponsor today, um sign up for a membership. You know, commit a dollar for the month and seven dollars for the next while, and it helps with everything. And uh, I've got a button there to make an uh an appointment if you want to go. So the the membership portal is really less than a week old, but I've been I've been adding stuff to it. So let's let's take a look. Let's see, there we go. Okay, so this is where it would ask you for your username and password, and I'm already logged in, so here I am. So this is uh this is a Kartra membership site, and um and here there's the the first introduction. This video I'm making now will probably show up right there. And uh the way the way this works is there's a series of menus here. You can let's see, uh inspiration, introduction, playing for fun, recommendations, places to stay. The the the platform itself allows a lot of different media. You can embed images, um uh video, download links, uh, you can have some surveys uh and and then buttons to other things. So I've I'm just trying to change things. The first thing, this is a definitely an inspirational cheerleader thing, is an article about how we're all born musical and uh you know, maybe what goes wrong. And then, you know, this is a lot, this is the basically the theme of why I'm doing all of this here. Uh, this one here, this is kind of a fun thing, and uh really um I've learned I I had some trouble wanting to singing, and I uh spent uh a couple of thousand miles on the road working on my vocals till I can at least hear myself. And uh anyway, so there's um and and a lot of professional musicians they can get up and play with other people because they've heard things, and chances are they've heard it listened to the radio in the car, or they deliberately put on CDs or studied things, and uh yeah. And here are some of the the challenging things that I that I needed to listen to a lot in order to be able to play on the drums. And uh those are just some examples. And here is this is this is just fun. This is the you know, the Wayne's world, the Bohemian rhapsody uh playing in the car. So all that kind of fun. So this is you know, I I'm going to look for fun things. Um, and then here in the in the how music works, I these are the main things that will be put in here over over time. And uh and then the the first article I put in here is is using Odejoy. Most beginning piano uh books use O to Joy, the melody, the simplified melody of the the final section. Um, and it's it's they do that because it's easy to easy to most people know the melody, and it uh it only uses five fingers on your hand. So I go through that. There's a video of of me demonstrating this, and then I've created a couple little keys about on the keyboard. I I a lot of my examples will use the keyboard, um, uh the piano is just because it's visual. You can see all the major keys or all the white keys, um, and then uh it's like basically laid out in the way music with the intervals work, and uh it's the best place to learn. I I also think I kind of wish I had learned to play the piano when I was younger, it would have made it easier, way easier for me to move on to the bass and guitar, just it's a really good foundation. And and here I've got a notation here to just to play the finger numbers, right? And I'm only looking at the right hand here, one to five, and then uh um, and those are the numbers, so you can just read the numbers. I I just just to see what this really simplified arrangement looks like as sheet music, it's there. I've got a little explanation about you know how um a sheet music reading be able to read music is a useful skill, but it's not an essential skill. Uh many of the big session musicians, big bands, um either the people who made the music were did not read uh sheet music or were not good at it. It didn't hold them back. And uh and anyway, so that was that was the and here's a thing I'm always going to encourage you show you how to use those five notes, show you how to play um Ode to Joy, and then just just uh and just um just play whatever, you know, let your fingers go. There's a there was a study that said um if you take anybody who's never really even seen a piano, an adult, and sit them down and just have them play random notes, they have a finger speed um comparable to a concert pianist. You put a put a sheet of music in front of them and they can't play it at all. So so I'm trying to get you to get just to just realize that you can make music uh tinkering on the piano, make good stuff, and and um and without necessarily going through all the needing to read music. And and then one of the things I'm gonna ask you to do is is is is to see if you can make things that sound good to you, and then maybe things that that you can pick out a melody in your in your mind that and try to do it on the piano. So many of the child prodigies really started that they way. They were they had a piano in the house and they started playing it, they started making sounds, and then they tried started imitating, see if they can make it sound like something else, and and then um and then they're off to the races. Uh the the thing is is that virtually nobody has exhausted their learning. It you know, it's easy to start, but there's always something you need to learn. And then here's all the playing the notes on the C major, and this is a fingering that basically allows you to go up and down the keyboard with the right hand, and uh and then on the left hand, I this is a little bit controversial. There's a pattern that almost all the piano books use that I find is kind of awkward. I sort of say here it was like somebody thought it would they would try to make it difficult, sort of like they made the QRD keyboard when you're typing awkward, so to slow you down. Like I think that it doesn't necessarily make sense. So uh I I just I thought uh I did a thing where basically the thumb on the right hand and the thumb and the left hand always play the C and the F on the C major chord, and um uh I mean it goes goes you can go up and down that way. Turns out I I published an article on this years ago, and it turned out that that was the fingering that Beethoven. So I think I'm in good good hands. Me and Beethoven recommend this fingering. So yeah. Um, and then here this takes you back to the beginning. So I'm gonna go back to the menu here to show you some of the other stuff. Um, the fun stuff here, introduction. This is where I'm just gonna have you know, music adventure stories, interviews with musicians and mentors, fun musical activity, jams, uh you know, anything that seems like it's going to be fun will be in there. There's the recommendations, and I already have some programs I'm planning to recommend. And if possible, I'm gonna try to do an interview with the founders, like Brett Manning Manning's Singing Success, um, Simply Piano Quotify, Piano Note, Band in a Box, um, Stephen Ridley's Piano Academy. Um, I've got a big story about that too. Rick Beado's music bundle. That's that's not a beginning thing, but uh if you're serious about being a uh musician, that's something to consider. And I'm just now listening. I bought the book a while ago, and I'm now listening to the audiobook of Victor Wooten's The Music Lesson, and uh it's it's really just fabulous. And here um places to play. So I'm going to go through a lot of places. Uh I've played in a lot of these things. Um, so and I'm going to explore it in articles, maybe have links to places. Uh, there's some online places, and but many of them will be in your community, like open mics, jam sessions, church services, church choirs, community bands, community choirs, ukulele circles, bluegrass circles, house parties, kitchen parties, and busking. So you can just get out and play in the street if you want to go out and play in front of people. And um, I'm gonna say about many of these choirs, even if you're an instrumentalist, you know, churches often have drummers and bass players and guitarists and other pianists play along with the choir. So um even if the you want to play and not necessarily just sing, um, that's good. And if you just want to sing, it's that's all great too. So uh anyway, that's what I'm um probably all I'm going to say for now. Again, I um I'm gonna plan to see if I make myself full screen here. Yeah, so uh my my plan is to add some content, probably three pieces of information in there weekly. Uh you know, maybe try to do an interview with somebody else once a week, and uh it's going to grow over time. Uh tremendous value. So yeah, if you're interested, you want to go over this, uh, go to plain musicforfun.com slash membership. And I hope you join the community. Um and uh even if you don't want to ready to join there, there's a place to join up for the mailing list, and I'm gonna send you email, um, which also you will get if you're in the community. I'm gonna send you invitations and tips and things by email every couple of days to help with your journal. So you can go into the in into the portal or you can or most of it will be in your email inbox. Uh the one thing that's gonna be in the portal uh that's that's not gonna be available anywhere else is I'm gonna have download things. I have a little two-pager, which is almost everything you need to know about music, and uh I'll design it as a PDF that you can download and print and put in a binder. And so that that can help you. So I'm gonna have look for creating little downloadable and printable things that that'll be in the portal. So that's all I'm gonna say for now, and uh thank you very much, and hope to see you in uh in the membership program.