Perfect And Major Piano Intervals
Intervals
An INTERVAL in music is the distance in pitch between two notes. The interval is counted from the lower note to the higher one, with the lower counted as 1.
Intervals are named by the number of the upper note (2nds, 3rds, etc.) with two exceptions: The interval between notes that are identical is called UNISON) also called a PRIME INTERVAL); the interval of an 8th is called an OCTAVE. The intervals below are all shown with C as the lower note:
Melodic and Harmonic Intervals
Intervals are called MELODIC INTERVALS when they are sounded separately and HARMONIC INTERVALS when they are sounded together. Because we are studying chords, we will be dealing with HARMONIC INTERVALS. When melodies are played, this involves the study of MELODIC INTERVALS.
Mary had a little lamb = E – D – C – D – E – E – E (Melodic Intervals)
C major Chord = C + E + G (played together, Harmonic Interval)
Side Note: As you will learn later, 3rd and 5th intervals make up the major chord. A lowered 3rd interval (minor interval) and 5th interval make up the minor chord.
Perfect And Major Intervals
The interval between the keynote of a major scale and the unison, 4th, 5th, or octave of that scale is called a PERFECT INTERVAL.
For example, the difference from C to G (in a C major scale) is called a Perfect 5th. The difference from C to F is called a Perfect 4th. The 8th note of the scale is referred to as the Perfect Octave. The difference between the same note is called the Perfect Unison.
The interval between the keynote of a major scale and the 2nd, 3rd, 6th or 7th of that scale is called a MAJOR INTERVAL.
For example, the difference from C to D (in a C major scale) is called a Major 2nd. The difference from C to E is called a Major 3rd. The difference from C to A is called a Major 6th and the difference from C to B is called a Major 7th.
This lesson is not even half of what the Hear and Play course covers on intervals! To see how you can learn intervals with tons of written and interactive exercises, along with 19 other lessons, please visit the link below:
http://www.hearandplay.com/go/?p=a479147&w=300pg
Time after time, I have come across pianists who cannot read music well and rely on memorization to save them. Do you admire pianists who can just pick up any piece of sheet music and play without stumbling? If you want to take your sight reading to the next level then check out the piano course "Mastering The Art Of Piano Sight Reading!"
How to Tell The Key of a Song
UPDATE: My good friend Jermaine Griggs has put together an awesome 34-minute long video lesson on finding the key of any song. It has a ton a great tips and is free to watch so I suggest that you go Check it out now…
One key or another is always assigned to each and every music piece. It may be in the key of Bb or maybe even the key of E. The beginning of the score is used to determine the key signature that will be used throughout the piece, like if there are flats or sharps that will be used and which scale it is to be played or sung in.
There is a key signature in all pieces of music. It is signified just after the clef (the staff) and includes symbols for flats (b) and sharps (#). When you take a careful look at the start of each of the lines in the music you will surely recognize a grouping of flats or sharps (never both at once). They appear either on a space or on a line of the music staff and are put there to signify the notes that will be affected by them. Read more
Automatic Control of Piano Chords
* This is a guest post by Ron Worthy! If you would like to submit a guest post for consideration of publication to our site, please contact us.
CORRECT PRACTICE IS INDISPENSABLE!
Your success or failure at the keyboard may well hinge on how quickly and accurately you can memorize a new chord. To be really efficient at this you must use your eyes, your ears, and the muscles of your hands. You must learn a chord so that you can recognize and play that chord the next day without hesitation. Let me explain how to practice to gain this three-way control.
VISUAL CONTROL – After playing a chord, take your hands off the keyboard. Then return to the chord remembering visually where the fingers were positioned. Notice particularly the pattern that was formed by the black and white keys and the location of the melody and root notes. (No two chords look exactly alike.)
Repeat this procedure at least four or five times to learn a chord visually. And, as you are playing the chord, say its name OUT LOUD. You must associate the name of the chord with the actual notes you are playing, if the chord symbol is to have any real meaning later on.
TACTILE CONTROL – As you are playing the chord, try to feel it muscularly. Play each note of the chord, one note at a time, so that you use the muscles of the hand. You will develop a muscular memory for chords.
AURAL CONTROL – Listen to the chord. You’ll want to know its sound so you can instantly recognize and use it later on … “by ear“!
About The Author:
Ron Worthy is a Music Educator and Performer. His site offers online piano instruction for all ages. He specializes in Rock, Pop, Blues and Smooth Jazz Piano disciplines. Check Out Ron Worthy’s Website Now.
Am I Playing The Piano Fast Enough?
This seems to be the principal worry of many piano students. I do not, of course, dispute the fact that it is important to play certain pieces fast. Otherwise one cannot get the desired effects.
Still, it is a bad habit to try to play a new piece fast from the beginning. It only causes serious delays. Faults creep in that are not noticed and then are hard to eradicate. And worst of all, it ruins clearness, that virtue that perhaps more than anything else enables us to tell the artist from the novice.
Dear Students: when you take up the study of a new piece, do not worry about whether or not you are going to be able to play it fast enough. Play it slowly and correctly and let it work itself up. Remember what the great pianist, Harold Bauer, said, “If one catches the spirit of the music, it doesn’t make much difference whether or not it is played a few degrees faster or slower.”
Learning Beginner Piano Basics
Have you often dreamed of playing the piano, but feel it is a dream out of your reach? I was exactly like you before I stumbled upon some basic piano lessons which totally transformed my view. Not only did I learn to play the piano, but it had a true impact on my life.
Right from my very first lesson, the way I viewed the piano changed. I realized suddenly that the keys on the piano make a pattern and that pattern allows the keys to be separated into sections. When you break the piano down in such a manner it suddenly doesn’t seem so daunting or confusing. I never realized that the keys could be looked at individually rather than as a collective group.
It all started with simple lessons in material I already had before me. I realized that it was quite fun to try out the new ideas presented in each lesson and later on even tested myself to see how much I had improved. I learned to practice playing and writing notes, clapping rhythms, and eventually stringing together melodies. The more I practiced these things the more improvement I could hear. Read more
Learn Minor Piano Scales
Note: Please pay close attention to this lesson as you will need to know minor scales when forming minor chords.
Minor Piano Scales:
2 Steps to Playing a Minor Scale:
1. Find the relative major key of the minor scale that you want to play. (Either refer to the chart above or find what scale has the keynote of the minor scale you want to play as it’s 6th tone … since the minor scale is also the Aeolian mode of a scale.)
2. Play the relative major key starting and ending on the sixth degree. (The 6th degree of the relative major key should be the keynote of the minor scale that you want to play. You can also verify the relative major key by counting 3 half steps to the right. If it takes more or less than 3 half steps to get to the relative major key, then the relative major key you have chosen is not correct.)
Natural Minor Scales
If you haven’t read our article on “Learning to Play Absolutely Any Song by Ear in Virtually Minutes,” then visit the link below …
http://www.learningtoplaypiano.net/learn-to-play-piano-by-ear/
Play Piano Resources
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Fingerings For Major Piano Scales
Correct fingering is very important. The following fingerings are for the left and right hand only when playing major scales.
When playing a major scale, always put the 5 finger from your left hand on the first note of the scale. The same rule applies for the 1 finger with the right hand.
If you were playing a C major scale (with both hands) the above picture illustrates the correct position for each hand. That is, by starting with your 5 finger on your left hand and your 1 finger on your right hand.
Right-Handed Scale Fingerings For Major Keys:
Left-Handed Scale Fingerings For Major Keys:
How to Read the Finger Charts:
Example #1: If you wanted to play an F Major Scale with your right hand, you would start with your 1 finger ending with your 4 finger.
Example #2: If you wanted to play a B Major Scale with your left hand, you would start with your 4 finger ending with your 1 finger.
For even more in-depth training on correct piano fingerings, check out the impressive 300-page Hear and Play piano course at the link below…
Learn Major Piano Scales
Major scales play a major role in the principles and techniques that you are going to learn through your piano lessons. For example, one of my favorite techniques is to take a one-fingered melody and replace it with full-sounding chords.
However, in order to successfully master this technique (quickly and efficiently), you will have to know all 12 keys. Keep in mind that this is not a matter of memorizing 12 different major scales, but understanding the theory in how major scales are created so that when necessary, you can quickly play any given scale.
We will be using a concept known as the “Circle of Fifths” to learn all 12 Major Scales.
Two Rules To Learning All 12 Major Scales!
As stated earlier, the goal of these lessons is to make every rule, technique, and principle as easy to understand as possible. Therefore, I have chosen to introduce to you a few rules that will simplify the process of learning all 12 major scales. I also encourage you to practice these scales often, as you will soon memorize them. (However, memorization is not required).
It is also important that you note the order in which we will learn each major scale.
We will be learning the scales in a counter-clockwise order. That is, from C to F to Bb, and so on … I find it much easier for students to learn the major scales using the chart counter clock-wise versus starting clockwise. Let’s get started!
Major Scale Techniques
To explain these two rules, we will start with the major scale that we already know …
The whole point of these two rules is to rely on one scale to form another. For example, the next scale to be learned on the Circle of Fifths charts is the F Major Scale …
So then, the problem is turning a C Major Scale into an F Major Scale. How do we do it? There are two steps which will enable us to perform this simple task:
Step #1:
Identify the seventh degree (note) of the current scale and lower it by one half step.
Step #2:
After lowering the 7th note of the scale one half step, change the starting and ending note to the next scale on the chart …
In this case, we have lowered the 7th note of a C Major Scale and wish to play an F Major Scale. Therefore, all we must do is start and end on F instead of C.
Explanation of Two Steps
By lowering the seventh note of the C major scale (or any scale from which you want to form the next scale), we are no longer playing a C major scale. In actuality, we are playing a C Mixolydian Scale (you will learn different modes of a scale later). In addition, when lowering the seventh degree of C major, we are playing the same exact notes of the F major scale. That is, the only note difference between C major and F major is the [B->Bb]. That is why they are neighboring keys on the “Circle of Fifths” chart. Keep in mind that simply lowering the seventh note does not complete the process of changing from one scale to another. The process is only complete when the scale is played starting and ending on the first note of the new scale.
Summarization
Step One
We started with a C Major Scale …
We identified the seventh note of the scale and lowered it one half step …
Step Two
We played the same scale (in step one) starting and ending on F (instead of C) …
F Major Scale
This concludes our lesson on major scales for today. This lesson doesn’t even include half the information that Hear and Play’s 300-page piano course covers on major scales. If you are serious about taking your piano playing to the next level than I highly recommend that you check it out … Click HERE Now For More Information.
Learn Piano Sharps & Flats
Now that you’ve had some experience with the white keys of the piano, we will introduce the black keys…
If you’ve had any music experience or have been around musicians, you’ve definitely heard the words, “sharp” or “flat.” These terms are the names given to the black keys of the piano.
Actually, each black key has two different names. However, only one name can be used at a time. So then, the question is: “How do I know when to call a black key a sharp or a flat?”
The answer is very simple: Sharp is the name given to the black key directly to the right of a white key while Flat is the name given to the black key directly to the left of a white key.
Below is an example of “sharps” and “flats” …
Notice the black key directly to the right of C: It can either be labeled as C Sharp (because it is to the right of C) or D Flat (because it is to the left of D).
To recap, if you are referring to the note directly to the right of C, you would use C Sharp … but if you are referring to the note directly to the left of D, you would use D Flat. (Please keep in mind that C Sharp and D Flat share the same key and sound exactly the same.)
Using “#” and “b“
Sharps are notated with the symbol, #, while Flats are noted with the symbol, b.
Note that the sharp names for the three-grouped black keys above are: F#, G#, and A#. Why? Because one key is directly to the right of F, one is directly to the right of G and one is directly to the right of A. Contrary, the flat names for the three-grouped black keys are: Gb, Ab, and Bb. This is because Gb is directly to the left of G, Ab is directly to the left of A, and Bb is directly to the left of B.
Here is a chart to help you understand the flat / sharp relationship:
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