A Taste of the Life and Music of Singer Melody Gardot– From Near Death to Stardom

Playing piano in bars in Philadelphia since age 17, at 19 years old, the now famous singer Melody Gardot, was hit by a car while bike riding.  She was a “vegetable” by her own description, for over a year. By now most of you know the story of how the music itself worked therapeutically, brought back her brain functioning.  She explains the accident left her with disconnected neural pathways, unable to speak.  Her music reconnected the neural pathways to regain not only her speech, but to begin writing songs and learning to play guitar.

Her first recording “Some Lessons – The Bedroom Sessions” was done for her own therapeutic purposes. But when it begin circulating on line and a local radio DJ heard it, it got considerable air play.

Melody says the music business is not like the horror stories you hear, of drugs, all night parties and grueling schedules.  She had initially let her managers know that she could only do half the typical number of tour dates, in order to account for the ongoing physical limitations from her injuries.

She says the hardest part about touring is when she comes home and does everyday stuff ; She noticed as she did her laundry after touring, there she was washing dirty socks when a week ago she was playing the prestigious London Jazz Festival, recording at the iconic Abby Road with Jazz great Herbie Hancock.

Here’s a sample of the lyrics of singer Melody Garot. She writes most all the songs she records.

Sweet Memory
Talking bout a sweet memory
It goes round and round in my head
Pretty soon I`ll want the real thing instead
But for now I got this sweet memory
Sunny day Sunny day
Not a cloud crosses the sky
Not a tear comes to my eye
On this sunny day
Sweet Memory
Talking bout a sweet memory
It goes round and round in my head
Pretty soon I`ll want the real thing instead
But for now I got this sweet memory
Sweet Memory
Sweet Memory

Carefree, whimsical, romantic, unaffected, simple yet poignant.  Compared with Norah Jones for the languid, soft sound, almost ultra feminine and sweet but with a pinch of bluesy grit added. She sites one musical influence as Janis Joplin after all.

Her band mate describes Melody’s music not as blues or jazz, noting that without the bass and drums it would mostly resemble folk music, but with a bossa nova feel.

She’s been asked how she arrived at the unique style so far from what  20 something’s (she’s now 24) would have on their iPods.  She says there was no plan to create a distinct style.  It came naturally; she created the songs for therapy purposes.  They needed to be soft because the accident left her hypersensitive to percussive sounds.  And it needed to be slow because she was in “turtle” mode as far as her level of functioning, trying to regain normal thought processes after the brain injury.

Interesting how she first started playing piano in bars at age 17.  She was driving with a friend, ran out of gas and had no money.  She said “how can we get some cash for gas” so they just walked down the street and went in a bar, there was a piano and she asked if she could play it.  The owner said he just had the player quit on him a day ago, so sure.

After she played 45 minutes, he liked it and said he’d pay her 100.00 a night to play every Saturday for four hours, and if the people liked her she could play there continually.  She said ok, but what about the 45 minutes I just played?  So he gave her twenty bucks.

Now this lovely, and widely loved singer Melody Gardot has 2 acclaimed CDs out, Baby I’m A Fool and Worrisome Heart.  She enjoys looking at a map, thinking, “where in the world do I want to go next?” Then she includes those places in her touring schedule.  Wow, that’s the life!

An ear trainer not only teaches you to hear what tone or chord is being played, but to notate the time signature, and the duration of each note, i.e. an eighth note, quarter note, and so on. It simply enhances your musical ability so you can:

Hear a song once and play or sing it without anyone telling you the changes.

Lead your own group and be adept at creating harmonies for singers.

Quiet your mind and have an above average ability to focus, not only on music, but on anything you wish to achieve. You see, music, as has long been known, generates higher intelligence. In study after study its been shown that students who take a music class or play an instrument do better in math.

Music is somewhat derived from math, in fact. If you notice; we identify a time signature with numbers, the length of each note as a fraction. This may seem esoteric, but it points to why people improve in math when they also study music.

In the days before the Internet, an ear trainer was on a cassette tape or you had to work in person with a teacher who would play the intervals for you. This could be very expensive. Now there is ear trainer software, or you can get ear trainer in CD format. You can obtain different packages based on your skill level and which part of ear training you want to focus on. For instance, some software has arpeggios, in which you identify each note in the chord. Some trainers have a feature that allows you to hear a mistake, so if you are continually mistaking an augmented chord for a diminished, for example, you will be able to correct it.

The software or CD can be selected to cover the type of music you make. A jazz based ear trainer would contain jazz sounds, a basic ear trainer would be used by perhaps a rock or country music artist.

There is another type of ear trainer program: A program for recording engineers and producers. Yepp, this is what I´ve been using a lot! Doing ear drills on the bus on my way home from work, with ear phones or while driving my car, or waiting in my studio! I´m not wasting any time;)

These programs train you how to mix music with ease, because they train your ear what to listen for. If you are recording a band with 3 singers, and 5 or 6 instruments, it enables you to easily hear what should be changed in the balance, or “in the mix”.
This will also be highly beneficial if you are a “sound man”, or want to learn to be one. You know, the guy or gal at the concert who is in the back at that big panel with the knobs and levers. The sound person balances everyone on stage so the blend is just right from the first note of the concert to the last.

Ear trainer has lots of uses and you can research various programs on line to find the one or ones that exactly suit your needs, whether singing, playing an instrument, doing the recording or mixing sound live.

You remember when you were a little kid and you learned the primary colors? Red, blue, green, yellow, purple, and so on…

That learning process you experienced to learn the colors is the same learning process you will need to use if you want to learn to hear musical tones and be able to identify them.

It is abstract in a sense, but so are the colors if you think about it. They were given names eons ago and that is what they are called – Period.

Perfect pitch means you can hear one note alone, and say the name of the note. You don’t need to relate it to another note, as you do with relative pitch.

Many successful musicians don’t have perfect pitch. If you were not born with perfect pitch you can absolutely learn it, through a process called ear training. It is done by listening to notes through headphones, along with a teacher’s instructions, which will give you some tricks and tips to distinguish the various tones, i.e. musical notes.

Ear training requires daily repetition, just as you needed daily drills to learn to read and write. With a short daily session, you will experience a metamorphosis in your ability to hear. You will be so delighted, if you love music like we do, that you can hear a single note and say, “that is a B flat” or whatever the note is.

Hearing individual notes is only part of the world of learning perfect pitch. You will be able to hear a band or singer and say “They are in the key of F”, or whatever the key is.

You will be able to hear if a singer is slightly sharp or flat, by ¼ or ½ step. If you are a singer, you will be able to sing on key because of your trained ear.

You will be able to sight read a sheet of music when you have mastered perfect or absolute pitch. You could be handed a piece of sheet music with notes and chords, and hear it in your head by looking at the paper, even though you have never heard the piece of music ever in your life.

People who can sight read are thought to be brilliants, and you will be if you decide to dedicate time every day to learn perfect pitch.

As a songwriter it will help you to easily play a new song that you just heard in your head. Say, a melody that is new to you pops into your head. Then you can write it down on a sheet of music paper, and play it on your instrument.

Not only is perfect pitch beneficial for playing and singing, but it improves your hearing, and ability to remember what you hear. This makes it easier if you want to learn a foreign language, or remember what the professor said in your biology class, so you can get a better test score. If learning to hear perfect pitch is what you need to advance in your music career or if you want to learn it for the sheer joy of it, we encourage you to sign up for a training program. You will be proud of your newfound musical abilities.

With that said, perfect pitch is great, but as a musician it migth be more useful to learn relative pitch.



You can learn relative pitch by learning the sounds of the various intervals. To do this you can select a song whose first 2 notes represent a certain interval. Take for instace “Here comes the bride”. There´s 5 half notes between “Here” and “comes”. Then if you need to recall the sound of that interval, just sing to yourself the first 2 notes of that song. This is called ear training.

Each note in music is defined, i.e. it never changes. C is always C, D is always D, and so on. If you use an electronic tuner to tune your guitar, for instance, it will enable you to tune to perfect pitch, which will match all other instruments in an orchestra or band. If they weren’t all tuned to this predetermined note, the sound would be a mess and no one could stand to hear it.

In this way a musical note is similar to the temperature. Seventy degrees is 70 degrees no matter where you are in the world, and no matter the time of day or year.

Another way to define relative pitch: You use one note or chord as a musical foundation. From there, you can hear another, i.e. a certain interval, in your mind and sing it or play it on an instrument. Without the foundation and starting point from which you hear music, i.e. relative pitch, music is only a jumble of sounds. You still hear a song but you don’t hear the nuances, the depth of feeling.

Knowing relative pitch means your perception of the music is more refined, accurate. Relative pitch gives you the ability to hear what chord is being played. Each chord has a tone, which can be compared in the abstract to the colors. Each color has a feel or mood – i.e. Red is loud, blue serene and so on. It is the same with chords.

Minor chords sound mournful. Major chords sound bright. Augmented and diminished chords sound jazzy. You have to play each chord on an instrument or listen to the chord being played. Then, listen carefully to songs on the radio or on your iPod. Make a game of it, and see which chords you hear. You’ll be amazed by your skills. Once you hear, say, an augmented chord and are told, “This is an augmented chord”, you have the ability to identify it again when played within a song. People without musical training don’t know when they hear an augmented chord because they never sat down with someone saying, “listen to this sound. It is an augmented chord sound.”

Just like if you were never told the names of the colors as a child, you would not be able to point to something and say what color it is.

The point is, learning relative pitch is child’s play, so get a teacher or a program to work with and start learning those sounds! You’ll be a virtuoso in no time flat (no pun intended – flat – get it?).

Make sure you also check out the blogs about perfect pitch and playing the piano by ear!

Knowing the circle of fifths, you can write a collection of songs and produce a CD! How is that for a great music tool!!

It’s true. The circle of fifths shows you each key signature and then the chords that belong in that key. When you write a song you can refer to it to help you pick chord changes for your song. Here is the tool:

Here is how it works. The 12 major key names are placed around a circle, in a special order. The 12 o’clock position is C. It is the key with no sharps or flats. Then count 5 steps, C D E F G. You only need to know the alphabet to do it, it is just the same.

Except it starts on C, and only goes to G, before it starts over at A –

So you have C D E F G A B, and back to C, which is an octave above the first C.

Looking at the diagram above you can see these notes in the key of C. They correspond to the numbers 1 through 7, and are written outside of the circle. Now as you move clockwise you come to the next key – G, which is 5 steps above C:

C D E F G= 1 2 3 4 5


So we are starting with the fifth note in the key of C, to create the key of G.

G A B C D E F# G. G is the second key signature in the circle of fifths. Because the tool works by placing the keys around the circle in such an order as to add one sharp or flat as you progress clockwise, you know that G has one sharp. And you know which sharp it is if you have learned the order of sharps.

To learn the order of sharps, you can use this mnemonic device as follows:

F (Fat), C (cows), G (graze), D (daily), A (at), E (each), B (barn). If you want, you can make up a different sentence as long as it helps you remember. For example, Filthy cats growl daily at each bath.

Now count up 5 more letters from G – G A B C D – so next is the key of D. And you know it has 2 sharps because we add a sharp with each successive key. You know the 2 sharps are F and C, because you know the order of sharps by using the mnemonic device above.

And just keep going around the circle like that. So counting 5 letters from D, you have D E F G A – you know the next key is A, and it has 3 sharps. They are F, C and G (i.e. Fat cows graze).

It works in a similar way as you continue clockwise but it switches to flats. The order of flats is the same as sharps, but in reverse. Use the same mnemonic device but just say it backwards. Voila!

If you study the circle you will notice the order of sharps is inside the circle, starting with F# at the 3 o’clock position.

There are a few extra tips, which we’ll go into later, but one is that there is no such thing as E # (E sharp) because there is no black key on the piano between E and F, so we just call it F. And there is no such thing as B#, for the same reason — because there is no black key between B and C, so going up a half step (which is what is meant by a sharp), you simply have C.

Don’t worry if it doesn’t make perfect sense. The goal is to make music, and the tool is there to help you. The goal is not to learn about a tool. Study it and see how you can use it best. We will share more on the Circle of Fifths in future blogs, so keep reading!

You’ve probably heard that many successful musicians and performers know very little formal music — so you may wonder, why learn the essentials of music theory. Well there are some excellent reasons. The good news is you can learn it easily and you don’t need to learn everything, unless you are in classical music.

If you are a singer, you may think, “I can hear a song a few times and its in my head– I just start singing it.”

That’s true, but even for singers, it is a great advantage to know at least the essentials of music theory, and better still if you can play an instrument. You may just learn enough on an instrument to use it as a tool, even if you don’t intend to perform with it. You can show other players how a song goes, or how the beat should sound.

Music theory is like short hand for band mates to communicate:
If you know what a whole note is, what the key of Ab is, and someone says, “the last note in that phrase should be a whole note”, or “this is in Ab”, it makes it easier to play well with each other.

In a band or recording session, the most important thing to know is what key a song is in, because if you are playing in different keys it sounds like a train wreck.

You don’t have to read sheet music to understand what key a song is in and play chords on a stringed instrument:

You can learn to play by reading the name of the chord and knowing were to position your fingers on the neck of the instrument. For instance, if you want to play a G augmented chord, you don’t need to know the name of each note in the chord, only where to place your fingers to form the chord. You can see where to place your fingers by looking at a “picture” or diagram of the chord. This is literally a picture of a neck of a guitar, with a dot for each place you need to press a string down.

And here is the coolest part — “mobile” chords:

When you use mobile chords, you can move your hand up or down one or more frets, in the exact same fingering position, and play the same chord, but in a different key.

For example if you are in G and you play the mobile version of a G chord, which is the 1 or root chord, you can move up 2 frets (each fret is a half step so you are moving up one whole step) and you will be playing A, or the 1 chord in the key of A.

Using music theory, you can learn a song faster:

You don’t have to play it over and over to figure out the chords. They are on the paper (or computer screen) — you just play what’s written. And if you don’t know how to play a certain chord, you can look it up on a chord chart. These charts are easy to find on musicians’ web sites.

So, you should be well motivated to expand your knowledge, knowing that theory will make it much easier to get along with band mates — avoiding fights about how to play a song. Stay turned for more tips on keeping a band together in upcoming blogs. And lots more essentials of music theory to make it easier to play great music.

You don’t have to give up your dream of making music, regardless of your age, work or family situation. The dream and the ability to reach it are limited only by your willingness to believe and to commit to it.

With commitment and the burning desire, nothing can stop you from making your music

Today we will look at a few key pieces to get you started, or re-started on that band you have been dreaming of.

1. What is your music? What will be the instrumentation?

Before you try to recruit members, decide what type of music, and then what instruments you need to make the sound you want. Then make a tentative song list. If it is bluegrass, you don’t need drums but if rock you must have drums. You probably knew that though. You don’t have to follow what other bands have, as long as you like the sound that is created by the blend of certain instruments. You can have a band (duo) with you and one other person, which is sometimes a great way to start. It is much easier to learn music and get it tight with only 2 people. Then you can add more after you two have learned the songs. For example, it could be you on vocals, and either a guitar or keyboard player.

2. Who’s in your band?

You can start a band with friends, or re-form a group you had in high school or college days. If you have one person with you, seek additional members on electronic bulletin boards or at music stores’ bulletin boards, as well as at clubs where bands perform. There is a lot of changing from one band to another. Even though that great drummer is already in a band, does not mean he or she would not want to join yours. Also, lots of good musicians are in several bands at the same time. As long as they are willing to learn your songs, don’t demand that they work only with you.

If you want to start a band all alone, think about people you knew in college, church friends, neighborhood friends, or else you can post a note on Craig’s list or use the “Meet Up” system. Meet up costs a bit of money, about 45.00 to have a sight for 3 months, but you can share the cost if you have 1 or more band mates to start with .If you do this, be very careful that you only take serious inquiries and not people looking for ulterior motives. And use the response option on the hunting site that does not require you to use your own email or phone.

3. Who is the leader? You or someone else?

If you dream of being in a band, then you may not need to be the leader. But if you dream of having a band, it sounds like you should be the leader. If you are, then you must determine the following:

What is the schedule of rehearsals and /or gigs? Target list of places for gigs?

What is the agenda of each scheduled meeting? List what songs will be the focus of each rehearsal. If you are trying people out, create an agenda of what will happen at the try out, questions you will ask, and how they will display their ability to play the music you need them to play.

4. A Place To Rehearse.

Practice with acoustic instruments if possible or with amps on low volume, so you don’t need to have a rental practice room. Unless you can afford to rent a practice space or someone has a garage or house in the country, where the cops won’t be called for loud music blaring.

If you are going to be loud, practice at times least likely to bother neighbors, i.e. before 9pm, and not on Sundays when lots of people like some quiet time. And never too early in the morning.

The best time is during the week if possible when neighbors are mostly all at work.

So there you are! Get started. It will be fun, exciting, and put that zing back into your step. It is guaranteed, you will find that your spouse, kids and other family will enjoy your company a lot more when you are following your heart– to live the life you truly long for, with your music playing a major part.

It was serious, touch and go, for a while she could not even speak. The doctors tried physical therapy, drugs, all to no avail, until music therapy sounded the right chord with melody and her brain began to come alive again. The music helped her brain to form new neural pathways, enabling her powers of reasoning to realign.

She recorded her first songs lying on her back because of the pain in her leg and throughout her body preventing her from standing.

She started writing her own songs; as she describes them, they are not just jazz, they are what she feels – some blues, soul, jazz, folk. She seems not to want to be categorized. If you watch her videos on the Verve artists’ website that becomes obvious. She is definitely not trying to fit into a commercial niche, reflected in one comments on her site: “She is not a packaged Barbie doll like…”– take you pick, there are lots of Barbie-ish singers.

She was on David Letterman twice in 2009, receiving a warm response from the audience, Dave, and the band. “Wow”, said Dave “Melody Gardot”, and if you’ve watched David Letterman much, you can tell when he just goes through the motions and when he is truly impressed by a musical guest.

Melody Gardot is an inspiration to those of us who aspire to express our beliefs, feelings and thoughts through music, to do it regardless of set backs, and to do it in our own way. She says people who do things their own way inspire her, be it someone who chooses to be homeless or someone who overcomes financial adversity or any other hard knocks. As she puts it, she is a highly educated woman, graduated from “the school of hard knocks”. She describes when she was hit by the jeep, that she didn’t know what was happening, she heard weird sounds and thought “who is that?” then suddenly realized it was her, screaming.

On a January 2010 interview on the US television show Sunday Morning, Melody explained she is in continual pain because of injuries sustained in that accident, but when she’s on stage, she’s happy — the pain goes unnoticed. Music can do that… heal the sick, bring the almost-dead back to life. The first few times after the accident, discovering it was a pain reliever to perform her music, she was hooked. Now she tours full time all over the world.

Ms. Gardot walks with a cane at age 25, has to wear dark glasses because lights hurt her eyes, and cannot take loud noises very well. When asked how she works in close proximity to speakers projecting high decibel sound, she indicates it’s hard but it is just what she loves to do. That combined with the intense lighting as she sings onstage almost every night of her new life, as a double platinum selling singer in France, and rising quickly in the US.

The exposure of her music came about though her posting her songs on My Space. From that beginning, “word got around”. That was in 2006. Now it is 2010, 4 years later, and she is an international sensation.

This scenario goes on and on for a while. You all have a great time. But all of a sudden the guitar-player needs a break. His finger are sore and his back are hurting. At this point, you wish you could just pick up the guitar and keep on playing from here.

Well, I´ve been there done that… And one day i just decided that I wanted to learn the guitar. I will tell you about that too, but that´s an whole other story! Here´s just a sneak peek on the guitar course I started with

Please leave a comment and tell me one of your guitar memories!

There are no other musicians like you in the entire world!

You should breake your neck to become the musician you are ment to be. Don´t you ever try to be someone else.

Don´t you ever try to be comparable to your favourite musician or singer!

If somebody says “You sings just like Celine Dione, Madonna, Paul Pott”. That´s nothing to blow horns for!

Let Your music stand on it´s own!

Stand on your own musical feats, and you will not easely miss.

I have seen too many musicans and singer that are exact copys of their favourite artists. Sadly enough, eventhough these people are great performers, they´ll fall in the race.

The audience have seen and heard enough copycats!
We want to hear something new. We want to hear the true and unique You!