This is the second installation of my year long weekly posting of songs as part of my #RandomSongsILike series.  This song has resonated with me for several years.  Taken from the Andrew Lippa off-Broadway musical “The Wild Party”, ...

The Transposenator 3000TM is a brand-new high tech low tech device designed to make transposition easy and fun.  Use this to help you transpose notes and chords.  Makes a great teaching tool too!  (Perfect for a distance Download The ...

   Treat daily music practice as self-care:  With all the stress and uncertainty of pandemic life, we all need to be practicing more self care.  Yes, this includes drinking enough water and getting enough sleep, but why not treat your daily ...

Here is the first installment of my #RandomSongsILike project, where I will post a video of myself performing every week in 2021.  I outlined my plan for this in my recent blog post Resparking the Creative in 2021: An Invitation. I was reminded of ...

Does the prospect of transposing a melody or chords fill you with panic and dread?  I keep wishing someone would build a capo that would work on the piano, but my piano tuner says that wouldn’t quite work.  Sigh. In the meantime, I have created ...

Happy New Year!  As we tiptoe into this new year, I wanted to take a moment to reach out and share what’s on my mind. Honesty time:  2020 did not allow me much time or space to make much music.  I started out all guns blazing in January ...

2020 brought about many unexpected new realities and for my family, choosing to take our son out of school to homeschool him, was ours. As I wrote in another blog post The Unexpected Homeschooler, distance learning was super stressful for our 8- ...

Calling all jazzers (or aspiring jazzers)!  This awesome video is going to teach you how to walk a bass line on any jazz standard.  It is super easy and straight ahead and I will take you step-by-step into how to walk and authentic jazz bass. ...

If you are working on scales, chords, technical drills or chord progressions, you should be practicing them in 12 keys! This video will give you some great ideas on how to practice in different ways, to achieve mastery quicker and without relying ...

Singers! Free Download:  Three Cool Vamps for Bossa Novas **Make sure to subscribe to my YouTube Channel and leave a Like!**   Want to learn jazz piano?  Check out my online course Jazz Piano Accompaniment, which teaches you everything I ...

Every singer and instrumentalist should have an arsenal of great introductions at the ready. In this video, I will show you how to play 9 of the best introductions, which are perfect for instrumental or vocal jazz! **Make sure to subscribe to my ...

Every singer and instrumentalist should have an arsenal of great introductions at the ready. In this video, I will show you how to play 9 of the best introductions, which are perfect for instrumental or vocal jazz! **Make sure to subscribe to my ...

**This article is not meant to provide medical advice.  Please see your doctor for medical treatment.** As a professional singer I can say that one of the most frequently discussed topics amidst my singer friends is something many of us suffer: ...

This video is designed to teach you how to play 3 cool vamps that sound great on Bossa Novas. Taught by performer/educator Brenda Earle Stokes, the video shows chord progressions, gorgeous piano voicings and even the scales that you need to sound ...

Covid-19 has made an unprecedented change in our lives. For those of us who are parenting during this difficult time, we have also had the immense task of juggling childcare and remote learning to deal with. Our family, like many families, had a ...

Welcome to the courses!  Here is a quick-and-dirty tutorial on how to utilize the Teachable Platform.  Teachable is such a user-friendly and intuitive platform, which is why I chose it as the home of my entire suite on online courses!  Check out ...

Welcome to the courses!  Here is a quick-and-dirty tutorial on how to utilize the Teachable Platform.  Teachable is such a user-friendly and intuitive platform, which is why I chose it as the home of my entire suite on online courses!  Check out ...

Now that there are FOUR courses live at Piano And Voice With Brenda, I have been getting a lot of questions about which course to choose.  This quick little list should help you get started choosing the perfect course to help you get secure at the ...

In June 2019, I recorded my first ever solo album.  We recorded the entire album in just 4 hours in my hometown of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada.  Just me, my voice, a couple of microphones and a gorgeous Steinway piano.  Engineered by my old friend ...

Improvisation is not just for jazz musicians! Improvisation is an incredible tool to build and expand your skills at the piano, while exploring your own creative voice.   Want to learn to improvise?  Check out my new online course Piano ...

Playing jazz piano is one of those scary mysteries that can keep people from exploring and excelling.  Whether you are a classically trained pianist who is “jazz curious”, a jazz vocalist who wants to develop some useful keyboard skills or an ...

Learning to play on the blues is a lot of fun and is a wonderful gateway into jazz improvisation. The Blues is a style of African American music that came into popularity in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Some important figures are Ma Rainey, ...

Drumroll please….I am excited to announce the launch of my brand new online course called Piano Improvisation for Everyone! Piano Improvisation for Everyone! is a course designed to get you improvising satisfying music at the piano. In this ...

It is easy to get bogged down with lists of things you have to do, but before that you need to identify your “why”. Why do you want to learn piano? Leave your comments below… Want to know more about my work?  Check out my suite of unique ...

Here are tips and solutions to the “how the heck am I supposed to practice” problem. As a longtime teacher, I have 25+ years of helping people to achieve their musical goals and gain much-needed piano skills. Make sure to check out my mom-hack ...

My 8 year old practices the piano every single day without fail and (almost) without tears.  How did I get him to do that?  How will this help YOU to practice regularly?  Watch the video to find out!  Make sure to hit subscribe and leave a ...

            I have had several friends and colleagues tell me that they are amazed by my ability to juggle so many different balls at the same time.  I take is as a huge compliment and also am quick to point out that for the past ...

Practicing technique at the piano is often boring and requires a lot of scale running and Hanon playing.  Over the years, I teach less and less rote technical work and spend more time teaching people to improvise.  NO – there is nothing wrong ...

This is the fourth video in a new series called “Quickies” – short, info-packed tutorials designed to give you great information you can use TODAY. In this tutorial, I show you how to explore improvisation using a left hand ...

I have had so many people asking me questions about my popular online classes, that I thought it was time to write a blog post answering some of these questions!  I hope this is helpful! When do the courses start and finish? They start immediately ...

I have had so many people asking me questions about my popular online courses, that I thought it was time to write a blog post answering some of these questions.  I hope this is helpful! When do the courses start and finish? They start immediately ...

***This article contains links to my favorite keyboards, but they are not affiliate links and I am not being compensated for writing this article.***. (Just being a helper!) As a performing pianist and piano teacher, I am frequently asked by about ...

The art of faking is all about approximating an accompaniment part.  We do this by using our knowledge of the harmony and we use rhythms to estimate the basic gist of the piano part.  There are several compelling reasons while this is the most ...

The hardest part of learning something new (like learning piano!) is getting started.  In this video, you’ll see my ingenious plan to get you singing and playing today!   ...

Now that there are FOUR courses live at Piano Skills for Singers, I have been getting a lot of questions about which course to choose.  This quick little list should help you get started choosing the perfect course to help you get secure at the ...

...

As a follow up to my blog post “How does piano training fail singers?”, I wanted to make a clear list of the actual skills that singers need in order to be successful.   Let’s face it:  many of us are going to need to be employed in a ...

This video is pulled directly from my online course Jazz Piano Accompaniment, which was released in December 2019.  This is the final video, where I wrap up what we learned and also shared some insight about my teaching philosophy and motivation ...

After many years of teaching piano and voice in New York City and all over the world, I have finally created a website that houses all of my services in one home. When I was putting together this site, I asked some of my current students how they ...

I am a singer who has the great advantage of being a pianist.  Piano is my first instrument and I was lucky enough to obtain quality instruction from the age of four.  When I entered the professional world, I realized what a huge asset my piano ...

I am a big proponent of practicing with the metronome and force encourage all of my students to practice with it all day long as often as possible.   If you’re like me, you are probably keen on finding fun ways to make developing strong ...

Tell me a little about who you are and what you do. My name is Hayley Wilson, I am a singer/songwriter from Brisbane, Australia and in 2017 I released my debut album and since then I have been writing and preparing for my next release by traveling ...

This is the first in a new series called “Quickies” – short, info-packed tutorials designed to give you great information you can use TODAY.  In this video, I take you through a simple way to get started singing and playing. ...

Here is a quick tutorial on practicing with the metronome in jazz. Brenda Earle Stokes, creator of online courses Piano Skills for Singers, shows you how to get used to using the metronome for practicing – something you should be doing every ...

I know I’m not alone when I say that there are a lot of things in business and life that I have zero affinity for.  I’m not a tech person, my administrative skills are so-so at best and I am not a naturally organized person.  At the start of ...

As a freelance musician with an over twenty-year career, I am often asked for advice from younger musicians who are coming up.  My number one piece of career advice?  GET YOUR FINANCIAL HOUSE IN ORDER.  Why?  Because being a musician, an artist ...

We’re in the middle of summer here in the US and yet we’re already seeing signs of fall.  Back to school sales are in full swing in every store everywhere. Now that I’ve had a little time to rest and work on a few projects, I’m starting ...

One of my goals for 2019 has been to devote more of my time to reading.  This goes along with my digital detox, where I have chosen to spend less time mindlessly scrolling and bingewatching, and finally tackle the massive list of books I’ve been ...

When I was in high school, music teachers weren’t always sure what to do with me.  I knew a lot of theory and information, which meant that my teachers were constantly giving me new information about jazz theory and improvising techniques.  The ...

Summer is here and your Facebook feed is full of photos of colleagues and friends singing and smiling at the many workshops, conferences and institutes that are being offered at colleges and retreat spaces all over the world.  And you’re quietly ...

I was browsing at the library the other day and came across this booked called “Bored and Briliant  – How spacing out can unlock your most productive and creative self”.  I was completely intrigued. ...

You may have read my recent posts on both my artist Facebook page and the Facebook page for my course Piano Skills for Singers.  If  you missed it, here it is As I’m sure you’re all aware, I have been extremely active as a private ...

As singers and voice teachers, we spend a lot of time listening to sound, a lot of which can be loud. In this video I address the topic of hearing care as it relates to singing and teaching singing, but this is a good start for anyone in the music ...

...

If you are a voice teacher or choral conductor, you know all too well that sitting at the piano can lead you with an aching back (or neck, or hips…). In this video, Brenda Earle Stokes, creator of Piano Skills for Singers, shares tips and ...

Chances are, every time you sit down to play piano you are making mistakes at some point. Have you ever taken a moment to identify what those things are? Try this: the next time you are teaching a voice lesson, running a choral rehearsal or just ...

Everybody has hairy monsters in the life. You know them. The list of difficult tasks that you’ve been meaning to get to and have been avoiding for months or maybe even years. You know you need to do them. You know they are high value. But they ...

As a longtime teacher of music, and even longer student of music, I have had the opportunity to learn via trial and error many methods that have served me and my students. Since we’re getting ready for back to school, and I’m getting ready to ...

Now that summer is winding down and our minds are on the back to school crunch, I have been getting several questions on how to prepare to start up piano/voice lessons again after summer holidays, or really any holidays when you’ve been away from ...

I have been thinking and reading a lot about limiting beliefs and how our brains can be programmed to think something is impossible even if it isn’t.  These limiting beliefs hold us back from moving forward in our lives, our relationships ...

The Paperless Studio – How Getting Rid of the paper saved my sanity and saved me a ton of money! Paper is an often complained about component of adult life.  We are inundated with junk mail, catalogues and papers that pile up on all available ...

Movie Mondays: Here is a video compilation of cross genre singing. Shot at USQ in Toowoomba, Australia in January 2017. #alarynxisalarynx #svw   ...

By: Brenda Earle Stokes, BFA, M.Mus In 2016, after a bad bout of reflux, I noticed that my voice was getting hoarse.  Assuming that it was some combination of my allergies and fatigue from life in general, I did a little voice rest and drank extra ...

An Interview with SLP Leanne Goldberg MS, CCC-SLP By Brenda Earle Stokes, BFA, M.Mus. Leanne Goldberg is a Speech and Language Pathologist at the Grabscheid Voice and Swallowing Center at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Back in 2016, I was ...

Allergies be gone! An Interview with my allergist Dr. Michael Lewin Required listening…Allergies by Barenaked Ladies It’s April in NYC and just we’re getting excited to finally put away our heavy coats and observe the buds on the ...

Allergies are rampant these days, and can be especially debilitating for singers.  Allergies can cause stuffed nose, mucus in the throat, coughing, sneezing and even wheezing.  Left untreated, laryngitis and other vocal issues can rear their ugly ...

My first instrument is piano. Lessons starting at age 4, Royal Conservatory training until grade 9, when I quit to take up jazz piano full time. I spent the entire four years of university transcribing Bud Powell solos and practicing in the “ ...

I get asked this question all the time!!  “How do I get my kids to practice???”  Here are a few suggestions coming from a professional piano/voice teacher and piano mom (my son is now in lessons!) ...