Rarely is a chord played with its tones contained in a single octave, root on bottom, third in middle, and fifth on top.

Usually chords are "voiced!"

This basically means that positions of a chord's tones are scattered over keyboard. The tones may be altered, doubled, added to, missing, and so forth.

There are a great variety of possibilities available in voicing chords. Voicing chords properly is an art within itself. Using correct voicing techniques in your playing will give your improvisation a "hip," mature and full sound. Chords played in root position just does not seem to do job when playing Jazz, Rock, Pop, Blues, Gospel and "Smooth Jazz" piano.

Learning and mastering good voice leading techniques in your playing is not difficult if you just follow some simple rules.

It has been said that 60-80% of New Year’s resolutions will be broken within first two weeks. In other words, a lot of people have a hard time making changes in their life they want to make. So you are not alone. Personally, I am not a huge advocate of New Year’s resolutions because I believe in setting and achieving personal goals all year around. That being said, I wanted to share with you top ten ways to increase likelihood for success with achieving your goals.

1. Stick to 1 or 2 important goals. Having a laundry list of all things you would like to change in your life can be overwhelming. Your chances for success are much higher if you stick to 1 or 2 of your most important goals. This allows you to concentrate all your energy and focus on these goals. Once you achieve those goals, you can always set 1 or 2 more.

2. Be realistic. It’s okay to think big and want best, but it is more important to succeed, so be realistic. Ask yourself whether or not your goals are reasonable and possible. It is probably not realistic to set goal of never yelling at your kids again. How will you feel about your resolution when your children test you on a very bad day and you yell? Certainly one can cut back on yelling and work to find alternative ways to deal with misbehavior, but an all or nothing attitude may set you up for failure, and feeling like you’ve failed can set you up for more failure. Instead, accept and honor your humanness.

3. Be specific. Be as specific as possible when determining goals. Articulate how you will measure success and exactly what you are trying to achieve. Setting a goal to lose weight is too general. A better choice would be to set a specific and manageable goal. For example say, "I will lose 25 pounds by June 30, 2005." Be specific when answering what, when and how.

4. Connect to your motivation for achieving your goal. Why do you want to achieve this goal? Why now? Make sure your motivation comes from your heart, and not from your head. In other words, your goal should be something you really desire, and not something you know you SHOULD do. Really connect to why this is so important to you. Pay attention to whether or not you are being driven by fear or love. Beware of setting goals based on what someone else in your life thinks you should do. Your resolutions should come from your authentic self.