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About Preludio

 Preludio is the Italian word for prelude. The word originates from the latin praeludium. A 'preludio' is often the beginning of a longer musical piece in which the composer may introduce music themes and motifs that will appear throughout the full composition. Perhaps my favorite "preludio" is the ouverture to Howard Shore's composition for "The Lord of the Rings" movie. When you hear it, you can sense the ominous tone that establishes the tenor of the story that is about to unfold. As the music continues, Hobbits are introduced. The optimistic and thoughtful nature of the hobbits is evident in the lilting melody. There are many more themes and throughout the composition, themes are weaved together to enhance the story. Take time listen to the complete composition if you're curious. Close your eyes and imagine the various settings. Here's a link to a version on YouTube. A preludio doesn't have to be a long piece; sometimes it can be as short as four or eight bars in a contemporary piece of music. Take Olivia Rodrigo's "Traitor" as another example. The simple descending line in the intro sets the stage for the words and melody that follow. It's the preludio that draws us in initially and makes us want to hear and learn more.

Preludio Music Lessons was started with the vision of providing a starting place for anyone who is interested in learning to play music.

Preludio Music Lessons provides the following:

  • Learning songs and music that's important to you and that you want to play.
  • Learning to read music.. admittedly we start with the basics but being able to read music is an important and useful skill.
  • Learning to play in-time and on-time. Working with a metronome is really important. This sounds like a drag and most people initially dislike it. But working with the metronome allows you to setup a groove and find the rhythmic pocket of the music. 
  • Ear training is essential for new musicians. Ear training allows you to transcribe songs, sing melodies and harmony, and create your own parts.
  • Learn the basics of music theory. The fundamentals of music theory help with song writing and music transcription. Knowing the basics allows you to know all of the chords in a given key leaving nothing to guesswork. 


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Preludio Music Lessons

Music has been a long time passion for me, and nothing brings more joy than seeing an aspiring musician achieve success. I provide beginning music lessons for people of all ages on acoustic guitar, electric bass, double bass and ukulele. My goal is to share music and music theory to help the student easily learn, play and memorize music. Let's connect for a free first lesson. Contact Info: Chris Dugmore Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justbassbeat Email: justbassbeat@gmail.com Text or VM: 703-996-9290 About Teaching Your success and enjoyment in music is my goal. The first lesson is free and is an hour long. This is for us to get to know each other, develop an understanding of  your long-term goals and  your current ability. For lessons to be successful, I'd like three songs from you that you want to learn before we meet. Together we’ll break the songs down into its parts - chorus, verse, bridge - to understand the chords and musical structure and rhythms. We’ll also...

The Metronome

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  Chord Reaching Chords are a huge part of the tools you learn how to use when you start playing guitar. Because you going to spend so much time playing chords, you need to develop good practices for placing your fingers on the fretboard. Most players learn by watching where your fingers go on each string and start with the index finger, then the middle finger and finally the ring and pinky fingers last. THIS method is backwards and you should be doing the exact opposite. Try this - close your eyes. Now reach up to the lowest string with your ring finger. Feel each string and count them 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... now go in reverse with just your ring finger. Once you've got a sense of the strings, please your ring finger in the 3 fret and close (make a note) the string. Repeat this on each string from lowest to highest and back again. This is reaching. You may have noticed that each time you closed the string, your middle and index fingers curled in behind the ring finger. Reaching makes ...