What would a week of practice do for you? I mean if you stuck to your plan and played music everyday.

Well, you would be on your way to a good routine and you’d most likely have a new piece of music under your belt. If you’re expecting anything more I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed.

Music, like most fine motor skills, requires about 10,000 hours of dedicated practice in order for you to become proficient at whatever skill you are trying to master. The Beatles played for hundreds of hours at German night clubs before creating a chart topping song.

What makes it tough is many musicians like to tell people they only practice a short amount of time. However, when we probe deeper we find that the expert has practiced far more hours than they have led us to believe.

So, have you put in your 10,000 hours?

When a musician says they are playing in the key of something it seems to be some sort of hidden code. Well, it is and I’m going to show you what it means right now.

In Western music, musicians use the key to mean a note in which a piece of music is based on. This also helps musicians to establish notes that are also available in that key. What this means is that only certain notes will sound good within a key.

For example, if you hear that a song is in the key of C you’ll know that C is the note in which the song is based on. You’ll also know that D, E, F, G, A and B are also part of the key based on the major scale. A major scale is a specific set of notes that make up what is known as a tonality. Most scales you will hear are either major or minor. All scales of a similar type, major or minor, follow the same pattern of intervals (a distance between two notes).

A quick note about naming: If a key is major you’ll see either the key of C or the key of C major. In minor you will see the key of c minor. The word minor will always follow the key letter and should also be in lower case.

The basic formula is to find the key center (the letter name of the key) and then figure out the other notes (from the major or minor scale). I’ll cover minor scales in the future so check back for that.

A couple of weeks ago I have the chance to work with some researchers from Ryerson university and their Center for Learning Technology (CLT). The CLT research work involves creating assistive technology that allows everyone to participate in specific activities such as music. The researchers have done a fantastic job in creating inclusive technologies including SignLinks and the Emoti-Chair.

The Emoti-Chair was the piece of technology I had the pleasure of working with for an entire weekend. Essentially the Emoti-Chair tries to simulate the human ear through a series of voice coils attached to a chair. In doing this they allow people to feel vibrations that in turn allow communication to the deaf and hard of hearing.

That being said we spent our time creating new ideas for uses of the chair and on how we can create a new art form. One of the things I learned from this experience is that when forging new ground there are no rules. New thought structures need to be created. We, as researchers, needed to try ideas and fail at them a few times before we could progress.

This is important to remember that you should always look for new ways of doing things. Look for new methods and push boundaries. It will allow you to break new records and achieve more in your personal and professional life.

For more info about the CLT at Ryerson university visit http://www.ryerson.ca/clt/.

Have you been to the music stores lately? You might think everyone is getting in the game of making a guitar.

Today I just want to give you a few quick tips on how to buy a guitar. I’ll even point you to a few of my favourite stores.

Alright, first thing you need to decide is what type of guitar do you want. Acoustic? Electric? or classical? The playing style for each of these is slightly different but the playing techniques are similar. The big difference comes from the tension of the strings and the size of the frets. Most people should start with an electric because it’s easier to play.

After you’ve decided on the type of guitar now is the fun part. You need to visit you’re local guitar shop and try some of the many brands. When you go and try out guitars all you are looking/listening for is do you like the sound and do you like the feel of the guitar. Give lots of brands a try. You might just be surprised.

You’ll want to have an idea of your budget before you go, but remember that cheap can also mean poorly designed. If you are on a budget keep an eye out for used guitars. It’s also a good idea to check out the knock off versions as well.

Quick tip: If you are looking at an electric guitar play it without an amp. If you like the sound sans amp you’ll like it even better with the amp cranked!

There isn’t much else to it. Most guitars are built to last a long time and if you properly maintain your guitar it will last a life time.

Here are a few of my favourite guitar shops: (no, I’m not being paid for this)

• http://www.stevesmusic.com/
• http://www.tomleemusic.ca/
• http://www.bellonesmusic.com/

If you have any guitar purchasing questions leave them in the comments section and I’ll answer them for you.