How to Choose Beginner Piano Lessons

Many people want to learn how to play the piano but do not know how to get started. If you are one of these folks, you are now closer to becoming a pianist.

This is with the help of free piano lessons online.
Read on to know how to choose the right piano class. Some pianists and would-be pianists play "by ear.

" They do not use music sheets but play music just by listening to it.

They can easily learn to play the piano even without formal training.
This is not always the case and playing "by ear" can be challenging.

If you want to be good at it, you must have enough training and background of music reading. How do you choose the right piano lesson? Perhaps the better question would be, "What makes great free piano lessons online?" An excellent piano class uses a combination of exercises and selection to develop your skills.
It should include basic theories on chord structure, tempo marking, and key and time signatures. According to experts, an effective piano lesson lets students enhance their skills to play be ear and sight read. Fortunately, you can find many websites providing free and paid piano lessons. Skill Level Your skill is one of the most important considerations when choosing your piano lessons.

You fall under the "beginner" category when you have little to no experience with the piano. In this case, beginner piano lessons are the best choice.
These lessons provide the necessary information for starters.
They may include a short history and description of the instrument.

Lessons for beginners may also have basic exercises.
Most users fall under the "intermediate" category.
These people can play simple music and have some knowledge on reading music sheets.
It is also easy to find lessons for these types of students. Other online free videos for learning focus to those who are in the "late intermediate" and "advanced" categories.

These are for those who can read music and play some songs already.
Such lessons aim to hone the skills of the pianist and introduce expert skills.

Free or Paid? Choose free lessons first. In most cases, you can learn as many skills from such classes as you would from fee-based lessons.
As long as you choose lessons that suit your skill level, you can successfully learn the art.

For beginners, go for lessons that are easy to understand.

You may encounter a number of terminologies, which piano professors and online channels should explain for your benefit.
The last thing you want to happen is getting lost in the middle of the lesson due to words you don't clearly understand.

Most free beginner piano lessons value the learning of the students by providing comprehensive step-by-step lessons. Start searching online for the right beginner piano professor.
Compare your choices wisely.
Playing the piano is a worthwhile activity and using free online lessons can be the start of learning it.

An Agile Leap of Faith

For me the hardest part of moving from a waterfall to an Agile environment has been the "What are they doing in there, anyway?" factor.

In a waterfall environment I received requirements documents that I translated into technical documentation that were in turn translated into time estimates.
There were meetings.
Lots of meetings.

Everyone signed off on everything after reviewing the documentation. Only after that process, which sometimes spanned months, did we start coding anything. After the code was written, it was reviewed and then shipped off to a QA division for testing. I recall this process taking well over 6 months on more than one occasion before a single line of code was written.

In Agile, most of that takes place in a span of about ten working days.

That span is called a Sprint. The design work is largely done during an all-day Sprint Planning session on the first day of the Sprint.
The customer drives the product through Sprint Reviews ten days later where they have the opportunity to actually use working software and tell you if you got it right. Nothing is presented to the customer until it meets the teams Sprint Definition of Done; no smoke and mirrors allowed. Documentation is still important but the emphasis is very much on working software.

All of the requirements documentation, technical specifications, code reviews, testing and high performance means absolutely nothing if your code isn't what the customer wants.
Consequently the Agile team works directly with the customer in two week increments to help ensure they're programming something with a high ROI. So. I said all of that to write about the "leap of faith" in the title post.
There's pride-of-ownership that develops on an Agile team that I've never seen form between people in a waterfall environment. I've worked with many, many talented developers who very much take pride in what they're working on (and come up with some of the greatest ideas I've seen) but they might be working next to someone who doesn't care-and in the end they both suffer the consequences vis-a-vis the product performance in the market place.
In Agile, everyone on a team is responsible for the code the team produces and it shows.

The trick is taking that leap of faith and letting the team work through issues themselves and help foster pride-of-ownership.

How? Don't direct the team to solve an issue a particular way because you become the person who's blamed when your way causes the project to fail.

Conversely, if the project succeeds the team can't take credit for actually solving a problem because you told them how to do it.
You lose either way.

You have to learn not to care so much about how they're doing something, only that the team is producing working software in a volume you, and more importantly the customer, is happy with. All Agile teams will get to things done a different way.

Sure, they're all going to be following the basic rules-standups, storyboards, sprint reviews, etc.

but each team will develop it's own culture; what works for one team won't work for all of them.
Give the team the tools they need to get the job done and get out of the way.

After-Prom Ideas For Conservative Teens

If you are a conservative or religious teen you may be wondering what you can do after prom.
As you already know, prom-night is notorious for hotel parties with plenty of alcohol and drugs.

Some prior planning can make a huge difference in your after-prom fun level.
Here are some ideas we've come up with: Dinner: If your prom isn't serving dinner then you should probably go out to dinner.

Decide on a restaurant with your date or a group.
Unless it's a fast-food joint you should probably make reservations a few weeks ahead of time.
Weekends are usually busy for restaurants but weekends during prom season are even more busy.
It's no fun to wait an hour for a table, so plan ahead.
  Since you're already dressed to turn heads it's fun to go to a fancy restaurant even if you can only afford to order an appetizer or dessert.
Activity: Some popular after-prom activities are playing miniature golf, going to a comedy club, playing pool, bowling, going to a movie, playing video games, or just going to the mall to parade around in your fancy clothes.

After-Party: A fun and inexpensive way to hang out with your date or group of friends after prom is a prom after-party.
Do any of your friends have a huge TV, game room, swimming pool or a jacuzzi? When you find a home, ask the parents if you can have exclusive use of the common areas for the night, meaning the grownups will be there but they won't compete with you for use of the facilities. More importantly, they'll keep younger children from bothering you and your date or group.
Make sure the parents know the party will go very late, and get them to agree to stay up the whole time.

If the parents will be there and be awake the whole time your friends' parents will be more likely to let them come.
Use these ideas as a springboard for planning your own after-prom fun. Who knows? You might have more fun after prom than you did at the prom!

Getting a Job As an IT Specialist

An information technology specialist job and a career in IT essentially demands you to be well conversant with how computers work and while at the same time you should enjoy helping others. Without these basics in place, you may not be a best fit for the job.

An IT specialist, who is also commonly known as a computer support specialist, is responsible for helping internal or external clients in resolution of problems in computer.

Generally, computer support specialists need to support their clients, which may include business houses, healthcare clinics or hospitals, schools, government offices, etc, over email, phone, or visiting the client home or office.

He or she may be expected to walk the client through with basic steps to resolve common computer problems.

It is common for clients to ask their support personnel to help them with common computer hardware, operating system, and programs.
Many a times an IT Specialist may need to work over nights, weekends, or be available on call.

In order to get a job as an IT Specialist the most obvious skills is none other than the customer services skills. These skills are to be coupled with computer skills specially ability to fix computer hardware and software problems, especially remotely.

Hence, you may be expected to have a great listening skill and be able to keep calm even with the difficult clients and difficult to resolve problems.

Having understood the behavioral skills, an IT specialist may also be required to have an associate degree as per the requirements laid out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, a bachelor's degree in computer engineering or computer science may be an expected or desired qualification by many employers.
Similarly, training in communication or psychology may be of great help.
Even though, there may be a preference given to an educationally qualified individual, it is not mandatory that you must have an associate or bachelor's degree. Even if you have done some of the certifications in hardware, networking, and Windows/Linux OS you are good to start your career as an IT or computer support specialist.
The candidates background in computer skills, behavioral factors, and experiences go a long way in deciding his or salary levels as a computer support professional. The IT specialist jobs are ever increasing in numbers. It is expected to multiply manifold in next few years. With advancement of complex work environment, ever-increasing number of applications and newer hardware the need for skilled IT specialists is expected to increase manifold.

Make Your Own Medusa Costume

We only have few days before the Halloween season.
You better think of a dashing outfit now that would make people want to be YOU in this event. One of the hardest characters or costume to dress this Halloween is the serpent-lady Medusa but here are some ways on how to make your own eye catching Medusa costume for this holiday.
Checklist: 1. Make-up 2. Serpent Hair 3. Dress 4. Shoes 5. Other Accessories Make-Up There is no need to buy face paint for your make-up. Your usual make-up kit would do as long as you have those green, gray and black colors.

It would take time for you to master the Medusa look but practice will always make it perfect.

Serpent Hair This is the most important part of the character.
You could actually don any gown as long as your hair has snakes.

It is would be hard to look for the hissing snake headdress even in Halloween costume stores.
Therefore, the best medusa hair is the home made stuff.
You could create a hair out of paper mache. Be patient and creative.
Creating a Medusa Headdress will just take a few research and practice.

Dress This is actually the easiest part of the whole ensemble. You could wear whatever outfit you like.

There is no such thing as "I don't have a Medusa dress". You could be a Greek Medusa or a modern Medusa.
You could wear tight fitting black dress or tights and look like the bad character in those cartoon hero movies.

Shoes You could actually just match any shoes with this costume as long as they match the dress.
The safest footwear though is the gladiator sandals that are currently in style. You will just have to be careful on the color combination with black as the safest-of course. Accessories Just be imaginative and wear those jewelries that you already have with you. There is no need to buy new set of bangles or earrings just to look like a serpent.
Like I have mentioned before, it is in the hair.
Accessories are just to make it more eye-catching.

Even green and black ribbons will do.

Wrap them around your wrist or as extensions of your gladiators. Just be creative, anyway it is Halloween.

Painting With Children

Children love color and the best way to introduce color is by using and mixing paint. You may think painting with children sounds daunting, but it is possible to teach children to paint when given the right tools and directions. Expecting to produce a good painting with a cheap watercolor paint set is not the answer.
The brush is poor quality and much too small.
The paint color is too light. Tempera is a good alternative and the colors are thicker and richer. First you need to purchase: Flat brushes Round brushes (tear drop shapes) Tempera Paint in bottles of the primary colors, red, blue, yellow as well as white, brown, and black Paper plate to be used as a palette Plastic tub like a used plastic butter or yogurt carton for water,paper towels Start by covering the table with newspaper or plastic cloth.

Fill up the tub with water and squeeze out paint on to your paper plate. Teach the child how to use the brush.

Many children will swish the brush side to side when they first start to use it.
It takes showing them often to change this kind of brushing.

It will not produce good color and usually gives the painting a messy look. Show them how to wash the brush after using one color to keep the colors pure.
Have them dip into the paint, brush on to the paper and then wash the brush.

Illustrate that the brush should not be pushed down too hard on to any surface because it ruins the hairs.
After washing they are to dab slightly on to a paper towel to remove too much water.

Then pick up another color To mix colors, one of the primary mistakes is to add a light color to a darker color. For example, when mixing white and red to make a pink, do not start adding white to a large area of red.

It will take much more paint than is needed because of the intensity and darker nature of the red color. Put the white down on the palette and add a small amount of red to the paint a little at a time to achieve the color you want.
To mix the primary colors such as red with yellow, put your yellow down first (the lightest color in the mixture) and then add the red.

If you want to keep the red pure then wash the brush before mixing again.

These colors will produce orange and adding more or less of each will produce either a yellow orange or red orange.
At this point if you add any blue, your color will become more and more brown.
Tempera colors can become muddy if the mixture is not done properly so try to keep the children from mixing all the primaries together. Instead of trying to produce a "picture" of something, explore different lines and shapes while trying out the paint and brushes.
In this way, there is no frustration on the part of the child to produce something recognizable. It frees the child to experiment with color.

Begin a short session in painting and you will find your child truly enjoying not only the process but also the creative aspects of painting.
To further develop your children's painting, look for other articles about projects for painting with children.

Dungeons and Dragons Tactics - How to Play the Game to Win

If you are keen on learning more about dungeons and dragons, you likely do want to learn more about D&D tactics.
Through this informational article, you are provided with a look at D&D strategys that can serve you well and aid you in becoming a better player at this enjoyable and challenging game. When it comes to Dungeons and Dragons strategy, the first set of D&D tactics that you will want to make sure that you master are secrets. On so many levels, ultimate success in D&D strategys depends upon a complete and essential mastery of secrets.
Of course, in considering vital Dungeons and Dragons tactics, you also need to pay attention to the crucial and fundamental issue of character generation. The manner in which you generate, craft and then create your character is paramount to your overall ability to enjoy true and ultimate success in this challenging gaming endeavor. Spells and enhancements are also vital when it comes to developing your own set of Dungeons and Dragons tactics.

These can take practice and some time to better master.
The same actually holds true when it comes to your D&D strategys efforts at development of feats.

Beyond what has already been mentioned in regard to Dungeons and Dragons tactics, you also need to be able to refine and advance your abilities as the same pertain to combat strategy. In this regard, on some level, you will have the best success at advancing in combat strategy (and in regard to your overall D&D strategy efforts) through progression charts and through the grounded use of quest maps and related applications.

There are three primary books that guide the play of dungeons and dragons. Of course, when it comes to D&D tactics, it is important for a player to familiarize his or her self with these three books: The Player's Handbook, The Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual. In June, 2008, the fourth edition of dungeons and dragons will be introduced onto the market.

With this addition, it is anticipated that there will be more extensive online support for players of the game.

Through this enhanced online support that is anticipated in 2008, yet another resource for D&D tactics will be available to players the world over.
Finally, when it comes to dungeons and dragons tactics, there are some very practical resources available to a person beyond what has been discussed thus far in this article.
For example, at the present time that are quite a number of websites dedicated to the game up and running on the Net today.

One of the common features of these sites that are devoted to dungeons and dragons are forums and chat rooms. Through these forums and chat rooms avid fans of D&D come together and share strategies and tactics with each other.
In point of fact, when it comes to the matter of D&D strategys, these Internet forums and chat rooms really have become primary information exchanges for the ardent players of this extremely popular game.
(You need to understand that experts estimate that 5.

5 million people regularly play D&D today.
That number is expected to increase with the release of the fourth edition of the game later in 2008.)