When a song is in a minor key, but is then ended in a major key, it is termed a “picardy 3rd.” The old tune Greensleeves is an excellent example of the use of a picardy 3rd.

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The ability to hear musical sounds and make sense out of them is of crucial importance to any musician. Your ear can be improved by drilling on various musical sounds until you remember them without thinking. On this short video we will drill briefly on intervals — 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, etc.

When the subject of piano practice comes up it is usually greeted with a groan, like some disease that needs to be avoided at all cost. That is probably because practice has traditionally been equated with boring drills and scales and endless exercises.

It doesn’t have to be that way.  Instead of viewing practice as a chore that needs to be done, view it as an opportunity to have fun rehearsing songs and pieces you enjoy playing just for the joy of it, or to entertain family or friends. Start by playing your very favorite piece and getting yourself in a positive mood, then gradually work in the rehearsals of chords, scale fragments, theory, and so on. And make sure you UNDERSTAND what you are playing in terms of chord progressions and form. Otherwise you are just playing from rote, and nothing can be more boring than that. If you DON’T understand, take a course in music theory or chords so that you will understand — it makes all the difference in the world!

Don’t do it all in one sitting, either. Break it up in bite-sized segments so you don’t get tired or bored. It is far better to practice 4 sessions of 15 minutes than only one session of an hour. Why? Because the mind can only concentrate for so long at a time without wandering, and the seat gets restless too.

Turn your short practice sessions into fun, and you’ll progress just that much faster.

Adults often come to the point in their lives when they want to explore new hobbies. One of the most common hobbies adults pursue is learning to play the piano. It may be the first time they play or a return to a childhood pleasure. Whether you’re an adult sitting down to learn the instrument for the first time or you want to brush up on your skills, keep in mind some basic rules of piano practice.

Posture is very important. Make sure that the piano bench is high enough. Your shoulders should hang freely, while your forearms are parallel to the floor. This allows the greatest freedom of movement and keeps your body from feeling constricted. While your hands are directly in front of you on the keyboard, your elbows should be just slightly forward of the center of your body. Sit forward on the bench so that your body is relaxed.

Create a regular piano practice schedule. Start with short sessions of 15 minutes. Increase the time as your skill progresses and your hands start to feel more limber. You may not have time for piano practices longer than half an hour, but that’s enough to increase your skill and flexibility. Just try not to miss too many days in a row. Time of day is important. Pick a time when you’ll be least distracted by the worries of life.

Practice books are extremely helpful for both beginners and experienced players. These contain exercises and tips that improve your technique. Many also teach musical theory, providing detailed explanations of scales, chords, modes and relative tonality. This is great for expanding your musical palette and understanding how melodies and harmonies work in the context of a piece.

Piano practice books also contain musical pieces adjusted to your skill level. At the end of each chapter you’ll often find a piece that demonstrates techniques that you learned in the preceding pages. It may take a while to coordinate both of your hands, so don’t expect to play at full speed right away. Practice each hand separately, at a moderate speed, before combining the two parts. You’ll be less discouraged and find that your playing is more accurate.

Remember, piano practice isn’t a competition. Even if you are a highly driven individual, take your time and be patient when learning the piano. You’ll avoid frustration and possible injury if you avoid pushing yourself too hard. It’s supposed to be enjoyable.

A metronome is an invaluable tool for piano practice. A metronome is a device that keeps perfect time, providing an audible beat set to an exacting tempo. Metronomes are adjustable from very slow to very fast, well within the limits of pieces you’ll be practicing. Even if you feel that you have a great sense of timing, invest in this handy little tool for your piano practice sessions. You’ll be amazed how often you change tempos slightly while running through exercises.

Whatever amount of time and dedication you are able to invest in the piano, it’s a great instrument for adults to learn. The piano is a few hundred years old, and people are still exploring its musical possibilities. Join their ranks and make music that you’ll love for the rest of your life.

Rock and roll piano springs from many different styles. On the surface the early styles just seemed to be blues playing at a high speed, but a closer look reveals a lot more under the surface. Rock and roll piano is an amalgam of many styles as is jazz or classical playing.

One of the pioneers of rock and roll piano is Little Richard. Little Richard was a fiery pianist, combining boogie-woogie, rhythm and blues and gospel music into his own unique blend. In fact, his introduction to music was in a highly energetic church environment. Combined with his highly suggestive singing, Little Richard formed the basics of rock and roll. He emphasize the back beat in his music to give it wild momentum, unlike many of his peers. James Brown once said that Little Richard “put the funk in the rock and roll beat.”

Jerry Lee Lewis is also a founder of rock and roll piano. His poor family mortgaged their farm in order to buy a piano, and he learned from playing with his cousins. His style combined similar elements as Little Richard’s, but with the inclusion of country piano. One of his early influences was country boogie player Moon Mullican, whose piano style was a precursor to rock and roll. Lewis developed his style at a young age,  but he transformed traditional gospel numbers into boogie songs.

Before these two performers, there was a man named Fats Domino. In 1949, he released a record entitled “The Fat Man,” which became the first rock and roll record to sell a million copies. During the most successful part of his career, he had many Top 40 hits until the tastes of the record buying public changed. Without his contribution to rock and roll piano, we may have never have heard Lady Madonna by the Beatles.

Both Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis treated the piano not only as an instrument, but as a prop as well. They would play standing up. They would kick the bench out from under them. They would dance on top of the piano while the band continued to play. Rock and roll piano was an untamed beast. Even today Elton John and Billy Joel, artists who are considered very mainstream, adopt some of these wild antics Rock and roll piano lives on in a different form today. There are revivalists, traditionalists and copycat artists all around the world. Popular artists from each subsequent musical generation have mined the style, updating it and adding to their own stew. There are always new avenues to explore in rock and roll.

Last time we talked about how musicians improvise on the 12 bar blues. The other standard form on which improvisation takes place is the popular song. Each popular song has its own distinctive chord progression, plus its own unique melody. In the 12-bar blues form there was only the chord progression structure — no melody.

Most popular songs fall itno one of thress categories:

ABA form — in other words, theme A, theme B, and theme A repeated

AABA form - theme A, theme A repeated, theme B, theme A

ABAC form - theme A, theme B, theme a, theme C

The largest percentage of popular songs fall into the AABA category, the usual length of the song being 32 bars:

A - 8 bars

A - 8 bars

B - 8 bars

A - 8 bars

Musicians improvise from the chord structure of the popular song, often making reference to the individual melody in their improvised creations.

There are other forms, of course, such as verse-chorus, and you find this form typically in folk songs and hymns, as well as in some pop songs.

Nobody knows exactly how the musicians around the turn of the century came to settle on a  format for the blues, but at least by shortly after 1900 it was obvious that the blues were generally performed in a 12 measure format which came to be referred to as simply “the blues.” It’s possible to have “blue notes” (flat 3rds, 5ths, 7ths) in any popular song, but when jazz musicians speak of the blues, they usually mean the 12-bar format.

Here is the structure of the 12-bar blues:

*4 bars of the I chord (the root chord of whatever key you’re playing in)
*2 bars of the IV chord (often with the 7th)
*2 bars of the I chord
*2 bars of the V chord (almost always with the 7th) or 1 bar of the V chord followed by 1 bar of the IV chord.
*2 bars of the I chord

Then repeat for as many times as desired.

Over this chord structure the musicians improvised a melody based on the given chords and scales of those chords. He or she is free to play whatever they want to play, consistent with his ability and taste. Typically the blues is performed by a small group, often made up of a piano, bass, drums, and 1 or 3 solo instruments such as a sax or trumpet.

Most improvisation is done in one of two basic frameworks:

1. The 12-bar blues.

2. The popular song.

There are other forms, particularly in contemporary improvisation, such as an agreement that improvisation will take place for 16 bars in the Dorian mode, 8 bars in the Lydian mode, then 8 bars in the Dorian Mode again. There is even a “free” form, where musicians just start playing and see what happens. But far and away the two main forms cover virtually all of improvised music today. Tomorrow we’ll take a look at the 12-bar blues form.