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Public relations is a skill that not only applies to the media, it applies to social situations?especially at networking events where your image is everything.I attended a local networking event a few nights ago and, like every other entrepreneur, I went there to mix, mingle, find leads, make sales, and create new money. Effective PR is the driving force behind every successful entrepreneur or business owner. The quicker you master these skills, the faster your business grows.Roughly 150 people were at this NYC event. I’ve been to hundreds of journalism and PR mixers, but this business crowd was different. Unlike journalism conventions?where reporters sit back and observe?this Chamber of Commerce mixer was packed with Type-A personalities. Every man and woman was focused and self-aware. No one waited for the right moment. Eve guitar chords ryone seized even the smallest of openings.But the longer I mingled with the city’s entrepreneurs, the more I realized how image matters in business?and not just on TV or in the papers.As a former executive producer with WNBC and senior producer with CBS, I have more than a decade of experience working with publicists from all over the country. But you don’t need a lofty title to understand how some publicists get it, while others need a new career. Every journalist will tell you a good publicist makes his job easier. A bad publicist turns every interview into a laborious task.It was no different at this Chamber of Commerce networking event. The best entrepreneurs made the art of networking seem easy. The more awkward leaders made the event painful.It got me to thinking: Public relations skills also apply to networking events.

Because of the technical virtuosity and skill of famous jazz, blues, and classical improvisers, many beginning pianists mistakenly assume that improvisation is to be learned in the distant future, when one’s piano abilities are more developed. On the contrary, though, most contemporary piano teachers feel that improvisation is a huge part of playing piano at all skill levels, not just for experts. In fact, with the influence of jazz on modern pianists and tutors, improvisation is now considered to be a huge part of learning how to play piano. It hones the beginning pianist’s feel for her instrument, and it strongly reinforces what the student has learned about music theory, keys, and scales. The best advice for a beginning improviser is to just start playing — and to have fun with it. However, for students looking for guitar chords a little more guidance, here is a brief tutorial on piano improvisation. Three Points: 1) Learn and practice your keys, chords, modes, and scales. Outside of certain advanced jazz music forms, most improvisations work within a pre-decided key. For practical reasons, C Major is the first key most beginning pianists learn, because it includes all of the piano’s white keys, and no black keys. Even if C Major is the only key you’ve learned so far, you can use it to improvise for hours. Meanwhile, for a moodier improvisation, the pianist who can play in C Major can play just as easily in A Minor. To do so, simply shift the focal point of the improvisation from the C chord to the A- chord. After the student begins to learn keys that incorporate more sharps and flats, improvisation is a great way to internalize those keys.