It was fun to play piano the other day...

I had a really fun musical moment a few days ago. You know, it's really great to just sit down and play, especially if you have a few minutes to play all by yourself with no one listening. It's usually during those moments that you find some little inspiration and dare to explore it.

I haven't gotten to play piano in a while, even though I technically own several. By "awhile" I mean a couple of years, at least on any regular basis. Although I do occasionally steal a piano whenever I see one. If you enjoy playing with piano or guitar, you may understand the deep need to grab an instrument and play it.

Wow. It just occurred to me that I almost never post about myself in this blog. In fact, I'm not sure I've even ever actually introduced myself in this little missive about music that I've been keeping. I post informative notes on some very rudimentary music theory; links to video tutorials, interviews with composers, and random bits of things that interest me.

Most of it has been about what I think might be useful or entertaining for other musicians, especially people just learning to write songs or play an instrument. Then again we're all 'just learning', every day, I hope. I enjoy writing a lot, and write in a few places about different things. Some of it is related. For instance, I wrote an article about the New Orleans Blues Musician, Coco Robicheaux on Associated Content. After I started writing there, I added a few of the basic music theory tutorials I posted here.

Why Scales Are Important if You Want To Learn Music is something I wrote to answer a question. Many people don't play an instrument, but want to. Many others actually do play something with no formal music training, and some of them quite well. They usually wonder why scales are important, and this is a simple explanation of how it's useful.

The other article I got out of a post that was written here was How a Musical Scale if Built . None of this is rocket science, it's really very simple. It is however useful to the random person who stumbles into a piano and wants to figure out how to play it. Or perhaps someone trying to understand how chords might work together in a song they're writing with a guitar.

But back to making music. I was sitting at my piano for the first time in years. It's been stored at my Grandmother's house, and I happened to stop by while she was out. I couldn't resist siting down and playing it for awhile. It's an antique, a very tall upright, and has a very rich and full sound. I was just playing around with what I remember of a song I wrote a long time ago. Almost by accident I discovered that my camera has a record button, and got myself playing around on tape. Err... recorded in digital, from a fifty dollar camera. heheh! I'm out of practice, but it's really not too bad considering I was just playing around with sound.

Anyway, Peace to whoever stumbles through here, more soon....

Love Your Lurkers Week

I've been looking through my music theory notes from back at OU* and found a lot of stuff I think would be useful to some of the folks stumbling through here. I'll be posting a lot of that this week and some more great rock tutorials I found on the net.

I noticed that there are actually a lot of people starting to check this page out, and I thought I'd be social and smile and wave through the Internet. I've been getting some nice notes, and I'm glad that some of what I'm posting is useful or entertaining to others with a lot of musical interests. My experiences are varied, and I like a lot of different styles of music, so I'm trying to reflect that in the different things I'm posting about. Making music, in whatever fashion you do, is a journey. Many different things influence it. An intelligent interview with a songwriter you respect will influence you in one way, the funny you tube video you watched 12 times will influence you in another, and discovering a chord progression you like will move you in other ways too. This page is a reflection of the idea that all those different experiences are useful, and may lead to enjoying or making great music.

If you happen to be reading this, I'm curious about the people checking out this blog- I'd like to know what kinds of things you'd like to see more of in a page like this. If you have a moment, please stop by in the comments here and say Hello.

Peace!
~ Nicolette


(* for musicians in Michigan, Oakland University in Rochester has an excellent program that I have a lot of good things to say about. It was the professor's there that really helped me learn how to translate the music I could imagine in my mind into actual notes on a piano or guitar. :-) )

Measure for Measure from N.Y. Times

I was looking around for some other great blogs and websites to talk about here, and found Measure for Measure. It's a N.Y. Times blog which is apparently on vacation momentarily; but holds a lot of interesting thoughts for visitors who like to make music. There are multiple contributors, including Suzanne Vega, who I've always thought of as very talented and creative in the wold of making music. Check it out:

MEASURE FOR MEASURE

Too Easy: Using the circle of fifths to determine chords

Wooooooh! I -real- music lesson- and this music teacher has a sense of humor! Useful information!!!! ( Ummm..yeah, if you're in the "beginner class" and haven't heard of the circle of fifths yet, we'll get there. Watch this anyway. )

Back to Basics: Reading Music

For the beginners, here's a very quick little video that talks a little bit about finding pitches in written music and how the length of a note is expressed.

12 Bar Blues

The 12 bar blues is one of the most common and well loved chord progressions. Knowing how it works lets you really work on playing the blues and making up your own songs very quickley.

The phrase 12 bar refers to the number of bars, or measures, that the repeatable pattern takes up. The twelve measures can be broken down into three four-bar segments.

The lyrics typically follow an AAB pattern, where the first two 4 bar stanza's are "A" and the third is "B". The first and second lines are usually repeated, and the third is a response to them, often with a twist.

Not all blues songs follow this pattern, but it is the most well known and easy to understand format, which will help the listener to understand the musical framework used in the blues better.

Before we get into more about how to sit down with your piano or guitar and do it, listen to an example of a 12-bar blues song:

( And would also be a fabulous example of how you're allowed to go completely insane while playing the 12 bar blues. Sometimes insanity is fun ;-)~)

Playing the Blues

Here's a neat little tutorial I found that shows how to make 4 simple chords that will work for composing a blues song. Definately some great ideas you can experiment with.:-)

The Blues Scale- C Minor Pentatonic – Blues Scale in C

Before we can play the blues, we have to understand how the blues are built. The scale is a little different, including “bent” or “blue” notes.

On a piano you can hear the C minor pentatonic or C Blues scale by playing these six notes:

C – E flat- F- F sharp- G- B flat.

Like the other scales we’ve discussed, it has a particular pattern that can be moved to any root note by using the same structure of half steps and whole steps.

Respectively, the scale is built one, flat three, four, flat five, five, flat seven- but try just learning it in C first. I recommend playing up and down the scale until you are very comfortable with it, and then just noodling around with those notes. See what melodic phrases occur to you naturally and have fun.

Here's a video tutorial so you can see the scale being played.

Chord Theory I

Okay, go back to the C major scale, which you’ll remember is the white keys from C to C, and includes the notes C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C.

Your first triad, or three note chord, is the C major chord. It involves the first, third and fifth note of the C major scale- C-E-G. Play them at once, and you have a C major chord. In the c=scale f C it’s also called the Major First, and sometimes indicated with an upper case Roman numeral “ I “

Now, if you move each finger one note to the right in that scale, you’ll get a D minor chord. ( D-F-A). In the scale of C it’s also called the minor second (we’ll get to why later ) and sometimes indicated by a lower case roman numeral “ ii “.

By continuing up the scale moving each finger to the right by one key, you get seven chords based on the C Major Scale:

C-E-G = C Major= Major I
D-F-A = D minor= minor ii
E-G-B= E minor = minor iii
F-A-C= F Major = Major IV
G-B-D = G Major = Major V
A-C-E = A minor = minor vi
B-D-F= B diminished = minor vii diminished

The numbers represent the scale degrees within a scale, 1-7.

The Roman numeral is capitalized when the resulting chord is Major, and lower case when the resulting chord is minor.

It is possible that some of the same chords may exist in other scales, but they will be numbered differently based upon the key they are in. For instance, the same G Major Chord used in the C scale is used in the G major scale, but it’s the first chord in that key, so it would then be called a Major I.

If you are new to playing with chords on a piano, try playing each of the chords in a C major scale in succession, with each hand, and then with both hands together. Getting into chords is fun, it’s where the music starts to sound like music.

Also try playing each of the notes in a chord in succession, which is called and arpeggio. You can play the notes individually, or hold each note as you play the next for variations in sound. Try playing up and down the keyboard with variations on this theme. For instance, play each note of the C chord in your left hand holding each note as the next is played, and then in the right hand, making the six distinct notes come in at different times and end at the same time. Do the same thing for D-G-G, and so on. Try it, it sounds pretty! Come up with some of your own exercises to play around with involving the seven chords based in the key of C Major.

The notes for these chords are the same for a guitar, although I think the relation between the notes is visualized a little easier with the layout of a piano or keyboard. The basic theory however is the same, and can be applied to multiple instruments.

Instruments which can play more than one note at a time frequently make use of chords. Other instruments which sound one note at a time may use similar concepts such as the arpeggiated notes of a triad. They may also represent one note of a larger chord made by multiple instruments playing at once in a band, orchestra, or chorus.

The pattern for a natural minor scale

Much like you can find out what a major scale sounds like from playing the white keys from C to C on a piano, you can easily hear the sound of a minor scale by playing the white keys from A to A on a piano.

The pattern of half steps and whole steps in a minor scale is not the same as it is for a major scale, which is what gives it a different kind of sound.

A (whole step ) B (half step) C (Whole step) D (Whole Step) E (half step ) F (whole step ) G ( whole step ) A

In any natural minor scale the pattern will be whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole.

Try E minor, for instance. The notes in E natural minor are E-F#-G-A-B-C-D-E. The fingering for both A and d minor is the same as the scales previously worked with.

Take note that the notes in A minor are the same as the notes in C major, they just start on A instead of C. Likewise, the Notes in E minor are the same as the notes in G major. Thusly E is called the relative minor of G major, and A is called the relative minor of C major. Every major scale has a relative minor, and every minor scale has a relative major.

To find the relative minor of any major scale, count down 1 and 1/2 steps.

To find the relative major of any minor key, count up one and 1/2 steps.

If you've been following along, we've now gone through the major scales starting on the keys of C, D, G, and A as well as the Minor scales A and D. If you are working on a poano, we have also discussed which fingers to use on which keys and how to progress from playing with each hand individually and then putting them together. More importantly, we've talked about how the patterns of half steps and whole steps work in each of these scales. If you understand that, you'll be able to figure out both major and minor scales starting on any key.

It should also be noted that there are several alternative forms of the minor scale; natural minor, melodic minor, and harmonic minor. I'll be explaining how to do that later after we have gotten through the primary basic scales.

Fun with your Printer

As you continue, it would be useful to have these things in front of you if you don't already know them.

Here is a printable pdf that shows the notes in the treble clef as written on staff paper, and how they correspond to the notes on a piano or keyboard.

http://www.musictechteacher.com/worksheets/worksheet_0001_treble_clef_notes.pdf

Here is another pdf for the notes in the bass clef.

http://www.musictechteacher.com/worksheets/worksheet_0002_bass_clef_notes.pdf

Here’s a simple worksheet to help you with identifying the notes:

http://www.musictechteacher.com/worksheets/worksheet_0004_identify_the_notes.pdf

Scales for Piano, D Major, A Major, A minor.

D major and A Major are played with identical fingering to C and G major, which I talked about earlier.

The Key of D major starts on the note "D", which is the white note in between any pairing of two plack keys on the piano. The notes in D major are: D- E- F #-G- A- B- C # -D. The right hand plays up the keys with the fingering 1-2-3, 1-2-3-4-5, and descends in reverse; 5-4-3-2-1,3-2-1. The Left hand ascends 5-4-3-2-1-, 3-2-1 and decends 1-2-3, 1-2-3-4-5.

( If you're just checking in now, a detailed explanation of how a major scale is built and what the fingering numbers mean is in the earlier posts. )

The key of A Major has three sharps, and they are F #, C # and G #. The A major scale starts on A and it's notes are A-B-C #-D-E-F #-G #-A. The fingering pattern for the left and the right hand are the same as above.

Try both of those, and then try A minor to hear how the sound of a major scale and a minor scale are different. If you can play a C scale, you can automatically play and A minor scale- you just might not have known it. Play only the white keys from A to the next A. ( A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A) The fingering for this scale is the same as the other scales we've gone through, so it should seem very natural. You'll notice that the A minor scale has a different kind of feeling than the other scales. The reason for that is that the pattern of half steps and whole steps in the scale is different than the pattern used for a major scale. I'll be getting into that more later.

If you're following along with a piano or keyboard and don't already know these scales, play around with them with your hands seperately, and then try playing them with both hands together.

Fingering for the keys of C, G, single octave.

Look at your left and right hand and imagine the fingers numbered like this:

Left hand: pinkey= 5, ring finger= 4, middle finger= 3, index finger= 2, thumb= 1.

Right Hand: Thumb= 1, index finger= 2, middle finger= 3, ring finger = 4, pinkey = 5.

To play a c scale properly with the right hand hit C with your thumb (1) D with your index finger (2), and E with your middle finger. Then cross your thumb (1) under and use it to play F, your index (2) for G, your middle finger (3) for a, your ring finger (4) for B, and your pinkey for the C an octave up from where you began.

Right Hand:

1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5
C D E F G A B C

For your left hand begin with the pinkey (5) on the C, then play D (4) E (3) F (2) G (1). Cross over your thumb with your middle finger and play A (3) B (2) C (1).

Left Hand:

5 4 3 2 1 3 2 1
C D E F G A B C

The G Scale uses the same fingering and is

Right Hand:

1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5
G A B C D E F G

The decending pattern for each hand is the same in reverse.

If you are new to this, it's easiest to learn by trying in first with each hand seperately, and then playing it with both hands together at once. The only tricky part is that when you play it with both hands, your fingers cross over at different times. After about five minutes of frustration it will probably feel quite natural, so just play with it until you get a knack for it.

The pattern for a Major Scale

The pattern for a major scale can easily be seen on any piano, by finding a “c” note, and playing all the white keys up to the next “c”. The pattern is of course the same for other instruments, it’s just very easy to understand visually when looking at a piano keyboard.

Even if you know relatively little about music, finding “c” is easy. Look at any keyboard and you will notice that there are groupings of two and three black keys. The white key too the left of any of the pairings of two black keys is a “c”. The one commonly referred to as “middle c” is roughly in the middle of the piano.

From one “C” to the next higher or lower “C” is a musical octave. It is called an octave because it is comprised of 8 notes. The eighth note is the last note of one octave and the first note of the next, which is why only 7 letter names are used. A "C major scale" uses the notes C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C, in order. Sometimes the referring to the notes in a scale like this is called the spelling of the scale.

You will notice that when you hit “D”, the second note in a c major scale, that there is a black note in between the white keys. That note is sometimes called “C sharp” and other times called “D flat”. It is one half step up from "C", and from that black not in between it is another half step to "D". Skipping a tone like that is called a whole step. From "D" to "E" is also a whole step.

The first three notes in any major scale are all one whole step from each other.

----- "C" (whole step) "D" (Whole Step) "E"-----

There is no black key in between "E" and "F", which makes the interval there a half step.

----- "C" (whole step) "D" (Whole Step) "E" (half step ) "F" -----

Then we have a whole step between "F" and "G", another one between "G" and "A", and another one between "A" and "B". Finally from "B" to "C" we have another half step.

The pattern for a major scale, which can be built from any key, is:

1. (whole step)
2. (whole step)
3. (half step)
4. (whole step)
5. (whole step)
6. (whole step)
7. (half step)
8.

You just repeat the pattern to continue up to the next octave, or play back down in reverse.

The same pattern is used from different starting points to create other major keys, which will have flats or sharps in them to preserve the same pattern of intervals between the notes.

For instance, the key of "G major" starts on "G", and is played from "G" to another "G" an octave above or below, with one sharp. The sharped note is "F", it is the first black key in the grouping of three black keys. If you were to spell the scale it would be "G-A-B-C-D-E- F sharp – G". If you were to look at the patterns of half steps and whole steps involved you would see that it is also built the same way. (whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step)

Likewise, "F major" has one flat, which is "B flat". It is the last of the three black notes. It would be played "F-G-A- B flat – C- D- E- F".

If you have access to a piano or keyboard and are just learning, try to plunk out these different scales now. I will discuss the easiest fingering for those scales in my next post. If you are new to music, please don't be intimidated by the idea of playing scales- it's really all based on a pattern that is so simple a child that knows their alphabet and how to count could easily understand it and can be very useful to understanding how music can be written and played. If you have a more studied background, keep reading, we will continue to discuss more and more in depth material about playing, writing, and performing music.

Every Journey begins with a Single Step.....

( chineese proverb )

Scales

There are reasons that learning scales has traditionally been a part of learning to make music. With any instrument, practicing them regularly will increase fluidity of motion and connection with the instrument. Being able to move through different scales with little effort makes it much easier to pick up musical material in any key and play it. Understanding the idea of keys and how they are built makes it easier to transpose music, and allows an artist a sense of useful structure when trying to compose music.

There are different types of scales. Many of them our ears naturally recognize because most of us have been listening to music all of our lives. It’s around us in not only what we like to play when we’re flipping around on the radio, as well as in all of the other music we have experienced—because our parent played it, because we heard it in church, head banged to it with teenaged friends, danced to it in clubs. By the time we’re old enough to play with the radio ourselves I think most of us are aware that some songs sound “happy” and others sound “sad”. Each of those songs is based in a particular key and type of modality, even though we may not be aware of that or that it has a name when we are listening. Songs that scan as “happy” are usually major, others that sound “sad” or “wistful” are often one of the types of minor scales, and songs that seem to sound “kind of medieval” are usually written in one of the church modes.

Each type of scale is based on a particular pattern of half steps and whole steps.

This can be easily visualized or shown with a piano. From each piano key to the next black –or- white key is one half step. From any key skipping a tone to the next is one whole step.
When you can find “middle C ( which is a white key to the left of two black keys, roughly in the middle of a piano ) and know how to count in half and whole steps, you can learn a great deal about music in a short period of time. What at first may seem complex is actually elegantly simple.

Before we get into understanding scales and exactly how their patterns are built, we should know something about spelling and the musical alphabet. The only letter names used to name notes are A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. There are certainly more individual tones than that which range in pitch from “lower” tones to “higher” ones, but they are all referenced with the above seven letters and are sometimes raised or lowered by one half step and called a “sharp” or a “flat”.

If you are on a piano, the tones will all run in patterns that follow this alphabet circularly. For instance, if you play a c major scale it starts on “C” and the next higher tone is “D”. If you play from one “C” to the next, you will “spell” the pattern C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. Depending on what note you start on, and what type of patter you are playing, the spelling will start and end with different letters, but will always use those seven letters.

A minor, for instance is spelled:
A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A.

A major, based on a different pattern, is spelled:
A-B-C sharp-D-E-F sharp-G sharp-A.

Without considering the sharps and flats that may be used to create a particular type of sound, it can easily be noted that the alphabet is used in this way in every different key. For a beginner, it may be very useful to learn to say the alphabet in this new way.

A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A
B-C-D-E-F-G-A-B
C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C
E-F-G-A-B-C-D-E
F-G-A-B-C-D-E-F
G-A-B-C-D-E-F-G

Words and Concepts to remember:

Middle C, Musical Alphabet, Pitch, Note, Scale, Major Scale, Minor Scale, musical alphabet, sharp, flat.