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....
Showing posts with label scales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scales. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Sunday, October 4, 2009
*Groan* This is going to hurt!
Having watched that spoken word bit of Rumi that Madonna did about 100 times now, I had to get on to something else. As was inevitable, I did a search on Tori Amos.
What I was hoping to find was "little Eartquakes". What I did find was "Crucify", another great song. I've never really played or written anything I can remember in D-Flat major, which nis apparently the key she wrote it in. This would be a good exercise for me. Besides, I like the way she writes, learning "Crucify" may let me see more of how she tends to structure things as a composer. Having found this tutorial I feel obligated to set my laptop on my keyboard and turn the amplifier on. I may find myself soaking my fingers later, if I really try to get the first piano lick down.
If you like Tori Amos and are working with a piano or keyboard, or want to see why I'm wincing a little, click here:
What I was hoping to find was "little Eartquakes". What I did find was "Crucify", another great song. I've never really played or written anything I can remember in D-Flat major, which nis apparently the key she wrote it in. This would be a good exercise for me. Besides, I like the way she writes, learning "Crucify" may let me see more of how she tends to structure things as a composer. Having found this tutorial I feel obligated to set my laptop on my keyboard and turn the amplifier on. I may find myself soaking my fingers later, if I really try to get the first piano lick down.
If you like Tori Amos and are working with a piano or keyboard, or want to see why I'm wincing a little, click here:
Friday, September 18, 2009
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.
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.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
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.
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.
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.
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.
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