Primary chords are the most-used chords in any key, and they are all major chords. The I chord is the most-used, followed by the IV and the V chord. In this video we explore the primary chords in all 12 keys:

The key of G major has one sharp in the key signature - F# - and the primary chords are G, C, and D. A very easy key to learn.

The key of F major is based on the major scale of F and has only one flat in the key signature — Bb. The primary chords are F, Bb, and C (or C7).

The key of Eb has 3 flats — Eb, Ab, and Bb. The primary chords are also Eb, Ab, and Bb, making it easy to remember. The secondary chords are Fm, Gm, and Cm, with a distant D dim. Watch this short video on the key of Eb:

An arpeggio is simply a chord broken up into it’s individual notes. Simple arpeggios are root, 3rd, 5th, but there are many other types as well…Alberti bass, open-voiced arps, hand-over arps, 2-1 breakups, 3-1 breakups, straddles, rapid-fire runs, etc. Watch this short video to see several varieties:

In addition to naming intervals by their distance apart, such as a 3rd, 6th, etc, intervals can be major, minor, perfect, augmented and diminished. Watch this short video:

An interval is the distance between any two notes, such as the distance between B and C. Intervals are named simply by the distance between the two notes, so B and C above it is called a 2nd. B and the D above it would be a 3rd, B and the E above it would be a 4th, and so on.

3rds and 6ths are called “consonant intervals”, while 2nds and 7ths are “dissonant intervals.” If you play them, you will understand why. Intervals of 4ths and 5ths are usually considered harmonic intervals too — technically they are called “perfect intervals” because each note of the interval is in each other’s scale. For example, the distance between F and C above it is a perfect 5th — notice that F is in the scale of C, and C is in the scale of F. Perfect 5ths inverted become perfect 4ths, and perfect 4ths inverted become perfect 5ths.

An interval of a 3rd inverted becomes a 6th, while a 6th inverted becomes a 3rd. Try playing these intervals on your piano, and it will become clear to you.
More about major, minor, and perfect intervals in the next post.

Happy new year! Here are a couple ways you can take an old tune such as “Auld Lang Syne” and add some new flavor to it by re-harmonizing it:

Lots of people, both kids and adults, wonder how long they should practice to get the most out of their piano playing. While there is no cut-and-dried answer to that question, here are a couple things you might consider:

1. What are your goals in piano playing? For most people piano playing is one of several things in their life they want to do. They may also want to play basketball, learn some craft, get advanced degrees, and so on. For the average person to practice long periods of time is unrealistic. Those who want to make piano playing their primary goal may want to practice several hours each day — many of the famous composers and pianists down through history did. But for the average adult, if you can get in an hour a day, you can certainly accomplish something worthwhile in that time period. For the youg child 20 minutes might be realistic, while older kids might practice 45 or 60 minutes per day.

2. Whatever time period you decide on, consider breaking it up into two or more practice sessions. If you practice an hour a day, how about breaking that up into 3 sessions of 20 minutes each? It is much easier to concentrate on something for 20 minutes than it is for an hour. If you can get in 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes in the afternoon, and 20 minutes in the evening, your results should be better because your concentration will be better. Besides that, it’s hard to sit in one spot for an hour without getting fidgity.

Each key you play in has a “feel” and a sound of it’s own. Beginners usually play in the keys of C, G, and F. But as you advance in your piano playing, you should get to know some keys that aren’t as familiar. Watch this short video about the key of Db:

The word “enharmonic” means more than one name for the same reality, such as F# and Gb, etc. But chords can be enharmonic as well as notes. Watch this short video to see how:

    
"Joy To The World" by Handel uses just the 8 notes of the diatonic scale
descending, and can be played with just the 3 primary chords. It was
written in the key of D, but to make it easier to understand, I
demonstrate it in the key of C using some simple rhythm.

Lots of people who play the piano have trouble finding time to practice. They are involved in work, family activities, and a million and one things that take up their time, and by the time they think about getting to their piano practice, they are exhausted and fall in the sack. I can sympathize — we’re all in the same boat. Life is busy with the normal activities of life — sometimes far more busy than we ever planned to be.

And so days and then weeks go by and the good intentions to practice the piano give way to computers, TV, sports, eating and no time is made for playing music. We mean well, but life just happens too fast.

I would like to suggest an easy remedy: Dedicate yourself to playing one song each day. Only one song. And play it once. That should take just a few minutes depending on how advanced you are. If you’re a relative beginner, let’s say a song takes 3 minutes to play though. Determine that no day will pass without playing that 3 minute song.

Easy enough? Sure.

But here’s what will probably happen: once you are sitting at the piano and playing, chances are you’ll feel like playing the song through twice or three times. You don’t HAVE to — all you have required of yourself is 3 minutes — but once you’re there on the piano bench, you’ll probably play much longer and several more songs than you required of yourself. It’s called “momentum”, and like a rolling ball, it has a life of it’s own.

This is for ADULTS ONLY, and adults who do NOT have a piano teacher. KIds need to keep their practice time required by their teacher. And for adults who have a teacher, the same principle applies.

But for those adults who simply play for their own enjoyment, this is an excellent way to make sure you get at least some playing time every day.

There are several things you can do to make any song more interesting, not counting runs and fills and improvisations. Some of them include passing tones, substitute chords, half step slides, color tones, and so on. This short video using O Little Town Of Bethlehem as an example illustrates some of these things.

Non-harmonic tones are simply melody notes that are not part of the chord in force at the moment. For example, if the chord is C7, the chord notes are C, E, G, and Bb. Any other note in the melody which is not one of those 4 notes is said to be non-harmonic — in other words, not a member of the C7 chord.

Sometimes non-harmonic tones can be quite dissonant; such as an F# in the melody while a C chord is in force. Usually the non-harmonic tone resolves to a chordal tone, hence resolving the dissonance into consonance. A good example of this is the 2nd note of the melody of “Maria” in West Side Story. There is a flat 5th juxtaposed against the tonic chord, but then resolved up 1/2 step to the 5th, creating a beautiful resolution.

One of the wonderful benefits of knowing music theory well (including chords) is the choice you have in key selection. You’re not limited to playing a song in just one key — you can use several if you wish. Take a look at the video below on Adeste Fidelis:

The text to the Carol O Come All Ye Faithful was originally written in Latin (Adeste Fideles) and was intended to be a hymn, which it is, but has also come to be one of our beloved Christmas Carols about our Lord.

O Come All Ye Faithful
Joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him,
Born the King of Angels;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

O Sing, choirs of angels,
Sing in exultation,
Sing all that hear in heaven God’s holy word.
Give to our Father glory in the Highest;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

All Hail! Lord, we greet Thee,
Born this happy morning,
O Jesus! for evermore be Thy name adored.
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

The Story of “Silent Night”

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night” Luke 2:8

In 1818, a group of actors were performing in many little towns throughout the Austrian Alps. On December 23 they came to the tiny village of Oberndorf, where they planned to perform the story of Christ’s birth.
Sadly, the church’s organ wasn’t working and could not be repaired in time for the show. The actors ended up presenting their show in a private home. Their presentation touched the church’s assistant pastor, Josef Mohr. So, that night, instead of going straight home, Mohr instead went up to a hill overlooking the village.
At the peak of the hill, he gazed down on beautiful snowy village below. His thoughts kept drifting back to the Christmas play he had just encountered. He remembered a poem he had written years earlier, it was a reflection back on the night when Christ was born.
Mohr thought the lyrics could make a nice carol for his church to sing the following at the Christmas eve service, but he didn’t have a tune to sing it to. So, Mohr went to see the church organist, Franz Xaver Gruber. Using his guitar he composed a melody to attach the poem to.
On Christmas Eve, Gruber and Mohr sang the song to their small congregation.
Weeks later, a well-known organ builder Karl Mauracher came to repair the church’s organ. When he completed the task, Gruber tested the instrument by playing the song he had written for Mohr’s poem. Mauracher was very impressed and took “Silent Night” back to his own Alpine village, Kapfing. There, two well-known families of singers, the Rainers and the Strassers, heard the song. Enthralled by it, both groups added “Silent Night” to their Christmas season repertoire.

The Strasser sisters exposed Northern Europe to the carol. In 1834, after their performance of “Silent Night” for King Frederick William IV of Prussia, he commanded his choir to sing it every Christmas eve.
The Rainers brought the song to the United States in 1839 where they sang it (in German) at the Alexander Hamilton Monument located outside New York City’s Trinity Church.
In 1863, almost fifty years after being writing in German, “Silent Night” was translated into English. Then in 1871 the English version was published in an American hymnal: Charles Hutchins’ Sunday School Hymnal.

Silent night! holy night!
All is calm, all is bright,
‘Round yon virgin mother and Child!
Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent night, holy night
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heav’nly hosts sing Alleluia
Christ the savior is born
Christ the savior is born

Silent night, holy night
Son of God, love’s pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus Lord, at thy birth
Jesus Lord, at thy birth

For a complete course on arranging beautiful Chrismas carols, please go to Christmas Carols On The Piano

Lots of students have asked me some variety of that question: “What’s the difference between arranging and improvising?”

Remembering that language is fluid and not everyone means the same thing with the same term, still there are some basic understandings about the difference between the two. Basically improvising indicates the creation of a melody which is significantly different than the written tune, while arranging keeps the same melody, but uses different stylistic devices to create a new sound or a new feel to the song.

Watch this short video and I think you’ll understand quickly.

For a course on arranging, look into How To Dress Up Naked Music. For a course on improvising, look into the Seven Month Course In Piano Improvising.

Musical form is simply how the musical composition is structured. As you can visually identify the structure of a building - for example the walls, the roof, the windows and so on - so you can also identify the different component themes that make up a piece of music. Think about any song you know, you will probably be able to quickly identify at least 2 themes, the verse and the chorus. In the music for the song the musical theme for the verse will differ from the chorus and the pattern is often repeated a number of times throughout the song.
In musical theory the different parts or themes are given a letter to identify them. To take the simple example of a song comprising a verse and chorus again, the verse could be identified as A, and the chorus B. When playing the music to this song the musical form, the structure, could be A, A, B, A, B, A, B, B - which means you would play the music to the verse, and then repeat this, followed by the music for the chorus, another verse, chorus, verse, chorus and finally a repeat of the chorus.
There are subtle variations that can be used such as if the music for subsequent verses are played with slight variations from the first time it’s played within the song, then these would be identified by the same letter plus an apostrophe symbol which represents the word “prime” - for example A’ means A prime. Should the final verse be slightly different from both the beginning and middle verses, then this part would be called A double prime and notated as A”. All theme variations in the music can be notated in this way so you could have an overall simple musical form of A, A, B, A’, B, A”, B, B’.
In classical music, especially if orchestrated, it is often more difficult to hear where a section ends and a new section occurs. If the sections appears unbroken then it could be a simple A all the way through. If there is a section where the rhythm changes, then you could be listening to an A/B section, whereas if the key, rhythm and tune seems completely different to the A section then it will most definitely be a B section. Should the composition then return to the first theme again, then you return to all and the musical form of the piece of music will be ABA. In some music, such as jazz, the B section can also be a bridge between chord progressions so although often sections are of similar lengths, the new section doesn’t always mean a long segment of music equal to that in another section.
As a pianist you should learn about musical form so that you can train your eyes and ears to pick out the musical references within a piece of music. Many themes are only 8 bars long, and this is repeated either as it is, or with a prime or double prime throughout most of the music. If your piece of classical music is 20 pages long, it seems like a lot of work to learn. But look closely at the manuscript, or listen closely to the music as it’s played. How many themes are there? 1, 2 maybe 3 - that’s only 3 lots of 8 bars you have to learn - doesn’t that seem more manageable than 20 pages? Of course some of the themes may be prime or double prime versions, but the basic theme will remain the same throughout all 20 pages. Identify and master that theme and you’ll soon be on your way to a great performance!
(Note: This is a guest article by Katie-Anne from Elance)