I’m sure that you have had the experience sometime in your piano-playing life when someone asks you to play a song — but in a different key than in which it is written. It might be a singer wanting you to lower the song a step so he/she doesn’t screech. It might be a song leader wanting you to play a song in a more comfortable keys for a congregation or group. It might be a trumpet player looking over your shoulder and wanting to play along with you — but when he/she plays the same note you are playing, it sure doesn’t sound the same!

So….it’s your job, as pianist, to get that song moved to a different key — changing key on the piano. That’s transposition — playing or writing a song in a different key than in which it was originally written.

Modulation is similar but different — modulation means the process of getting from the old key to the new key. In other words, if I’m playing in the key of C, and then want to play in the key of Eb, I have to learn to modulate — move smoothly from one key to another without being too abrupt and jarring.

There are basically 3 ways to transpose:

1. by intervals

2. by scale degrees

3. by solfege — the moveable “do” system.

But since solfege applies mostly to singers, we will ignore that possibility and just take up the first two:

1. Transposing using intervals: If the new key is an interval of a minor 3rd above the old key, then all notes in the song will also be an interval of a minor 3rd higher. In other words, if you are transposing from the key of C to the key of Eb, which is a minor 3rd higher (or major 6th lower — whichever way you want to look at it), then all melody notes will also be a minor 3rd higher:

“G” in the key of C would become “Bb” in the key of Eb.
“E” in the key of C would become “:G” in the new key of Eb.
“A” would become “C”, “B” would become “D”, and so on.
All chords would also move a minor 3rd higher.
The “C chord” would become the “Eb chord”, the “F chord” would become the “Ab chord”, and so on.

2. Transposing using scale degrees: Each key you play in has it’s own scale degrees. In the key of C the scale degrees are: C=1, D=2, E=3, F=4, G=5, A=6, B=7, C=8. In the key of Eb, however, Eb=1, F=2, G=3, Ab=4, Bb=5, C=6, D=7, Eb=8. So if I want to transpose Silent Night, for example, from the key of C to the key of Eb, I need to notice what scale degrees I am using in the key of C, and then use those same scale degrees in the key of Eb.

For example, Silent Night starts on the 5th degree of the scale, goes up to the 6th, back to the 5th, then down to the 3rd. In the key of C that is: G-A-G-E. But in the key of Eb it is Bb-C-Bb-G. Why? Because the scale degrees 5-6-5-3 are constant — we just need to apply them in each key. What about chords? Same idea. If the chord progression on Silent Night is the I chord followed by the V chord, followed by the I chord, followed by the IV chord, etc. — then in the key of C that means C-G-C-F-etc., but in the key of Eb it means Eb-Bb-Eb-Ab-etc.

Modulation means getting between keys, so let’s say you are playing in the key of C, but you want to get to the key of Eb smoothly, without jarring the nerves of the listeners. There are lots of ways to do it, but the main point is that you have to get to the V7 chord of the new key. So from the key of C to the key of Eb, that means getting to Bb7. How do we do that smoothly? We look for chords with common notes. Since the V of the V of the new key would be Fm7, we have C as a common note. So we hold the C in the C chord, and move the rest of the C chord to Fm7, then Bb7, then Eb, and presto — we are there! I realize that may be a bit hard to follow with just printed words to follow, but if you saw it happen (like on a video) you would understand it instantly, I think.

Hope this has helped you understand both the process and the difference between transposing and modulating but words alone can be confusing, so if you want to SEE it done and clearly see HOW it is done, check out “How To Transpose & Modulate” Then it will become crystal clear for you.

Several people have asked me if guitar chords are the same as piano chords.

The answer is yes and no.

No — because they are fingered entirely different, and of course the tone color of the sound is different.

Yes — because the notes that both instruments use to form the chords are exactly the same: the G7 chord, for example, is ALWAYS G, B, D, and F, no matter what instrument plays it.

Guitar chords, chords played specifically on a guitar, differ only from other types of chords by virtue of instrument; they’re simply a series of three or more notes played together. These notes don’t necessarily have to be played simultaneously, however. Broken chords (also referred to as arpeggios) are three or more notes that aren’t played at the same time but closely enough to still be heard as a group or whole. And even the three-note rule is open to the occasional exception; some guitar chords consist of only two notes, but they still function as chords because they work diatonically in the same way that a major or minor chord would.

Guitar chords might very well be the most important element of guitar playing; after all, they’re the basis of what makes a song. Most people picking up a guitar for the first time figure out a few guitar chords before even going for their first lesson, and still more teach themselves guitar chords without any help from an instructor. Self-taught guitarists learn guitar chords in a number of ways. Some learn by listening to their favorite songs and slowly picking out the notes, a common yet often frustrating process. Others figure out guitar chords by learning to read guitar tab, a type of sheet music intended for fretted instruments that uses a graph-like chart to show where on the frets the fingers are placed. Both techniques are common among those learning guitar chords, though the number of self-taught guitarists who never learned to read tab is fairly high.

Just like any other instrument, the sheer number of possible guitar chords can often be overwhelming for a new guitarist. And even the frequently taught guitar chords are beginning to fall by the wayside, making room for a variety of guitar chords created by tuning the strings in almost innumerous ways. Though power chords (guitar chords using a base note, an octave note and the fifth) are still the most common type of guitar chords, new bands are increasingly experimenting with alternate tunings to create new sounds; alternative bands such as Sonic Youth have been toying with this way of playing interesting guitar chords for decades.

To understand chords better, click here.

I have had many people call or write me and ask me
something like this:

“I play by ear, or by chords, but lots of music doesn’t
have chord symbols written in — how do I know what chord
to play when?”

“Our hymn book doesn’t tell which chords to use — how can
I know what to play?”

“I read music but don’t have a clue what chords are being
used. How can I know what they are?”

If you want to play a song using chords instead of the
written sheet music notes, but the song doesn’t have any
chord symbols printed (such as Cm7, G13, B , D dim7, etc.)
then learn this important skill.

There’s a logic behind every note written in music, &
you can learn to understand that logic, and therefore
understand music.

If you can read music to some degree but don’t “see
through” the written music — don’t understand what you are
seeing — now you can put on your “chord glasses” that good
chord detectives wear to see through all that mass of black
printed notes on a white page of sheet music to quickly
understand what chords are being used and the “family
logic” behind it all.

The “family logic” is this: In every key there are
certain chords which are organic to that key — “family
members”, so to speak. For example, in the key of F the 3
most used chords are F, Bb and C. In the key of G the most
used chords are G, C, and D. In the key of Eb the most used
chords are Eb, Ab, and Bb. Do you see a pattern here?

Chords are based on scales, and the chords which are
used the most in any key are built on the 1st degree of the
scale, the 4th degree of the scale, and the 5th degree of
the scale. They are identified by using the Roman numerals
I, IV, and V.

So the most used chords in any key are the I chord,
the IV chord, and the V chord. They are the primary chords,
and they are all major. They occur way more than other
chords. The next most used chords are the ii chord, the vi
chord, and the iii chord — all minor chords.

Just knowing these simple facts gives a musician a
giant advantage when learning or playing a song. If he or
she knows the most likely chords that are going to occur in
a song, based on the key of the song, then they can scrape
together other evidence quickly to build an air-tight case
that they know the chords of that song.

For example, let’s take two musicians about to play
from a piece of sheet music. Both read music, but only one
knows chords and music theory. The first musician looks at
the notes and sees a Bb in the bass clef as the first note,
a Eb in the bass clef in the second measure, a Bb in the 3rd
measure, an F in the fourth measure, and so on. He can play
what he sees, but nothing else, because he doesn’t grasp
the fact that the first few measure have given away the
fact that the primary chords have been outlined.

The second musician looks at the same music, but with
“X-ray eyes”. He sees through the same notes into the chord
structure behind the scenes.

The first musician is tied to the written music and
limited to the notes printed on the sheet music, while the
second musician has the best of both worlds: he can read
the music and play it as it is written, but he can also add
chords and fills and come out with a much bigger, more
interesting arrangement than the first musician.

The benefits of becoming a chord detective are many:

It allows a musician to immediately identify what key a
song is in…

It allows a musician to know POSITIVELY which chords are
most likely to occur in each song…

It allows a musician to look at the first measure and the
last measure and immediately know the harmonic form of any
song…

Plus:

It works in any key — major or minor…
It works with any kind of hymn or gospel song…
It works by releasing a musician from being “tied to the
written music”…
It works by allowing a musician to add chords of his or her
own…

The bottom line is this: knowing chords and music
theory allows a “chord detective” to develop “see through
eyes” that immediately perceive the structure of a song and
then allow that musician to use both the written score and
any fillers or improvisations he or she desires to add to a
song.

You’ll learn to “read” music like a map, by using
clues to figure out what chords are being used, then
playing by chords instead of the printed score.

Please go to “How To Become a Chord Detective”

Can You Become The Piano Player Of Your Dreams in 2008?7

Piano Playing Goals To Accomplish in 2008

As you begin this new year, here are seven goals for you to accomplish within one year — 2008. Of course you can have as many goals as you want, but these 7 goals will take you a long way toward being the piano player of your dreams.

Goal #1: Learn ALL the chords. Not just a few, but ALL the chords. No, it’s not impossible once you grasp the logic of it all. All The Chords In The Whole Wide World

Goal #2: Learn to read chord symbols such as Cm7, Eb9, G7sus, and so on. They are the shorthand of music and allow you to use the written music as a map rather than a straight jacket. Play More Notes Without Reading More Notes

Goal #3: Learn to play in all 12 major keys, not just your favorite keys. Since there are 12 months in the year, you can take one key per month and really master it. For example, in January play everything in the key of C. In February play every song in the key of Db, and so on throughout the year. Learn To Think In All 12 Keys

Goal #4: Learn how to improvise a new melody over the same chords. Improvise!

Goal #5: Learn Music Theory. Until you understand what makes music tick and how it all works, you’ll just be playing notes by rote. Music Theory

Goal #6. Learn how to arrange songs using a variety of styles instead of playing every song just as it is written in sheet music. Dress Up Naked Music

Goal #7: Learn specific techniques that the pros use. Do you know how to straddle? Do you know how to create a cascading waterfall? Do you know how to create an intro to a song with just two chords? Do you know how to create suspensions? Learn at least a few of these pro techniques in 2008. Pro Secrets

If you are a beginner, or a near-beginner, be sure to take the Crash Course, since it starts at square one and over the year covers some of all these subjects, but of course not in the depth you would get by focusing on those individual subjects.

Whatever you do, I wish you a wonderful 2008. Make it the best year ever!

Blessings,

Duane

Can Beginners Really Play Christmas Carols This Christmas?

If you are just starting out on your piano playing journey — learning to play the piano — you probably don’t think it is possible to abe able to play Christmas Carols this Christmas.

After all, more advanced pianists can add all kinds of arranging techniques to their Christmas Carols like bells and chimes and waterfalls and jazzy chords and runs and fills and re-harmonizations and all kinds of exciting things.

But if you’re just starting out, you might only know a few basic chords. So what can you do?

I have good news — no, make that GREAT news for you!

By using just 3 simple chords that anyone can learn in a few minutes you can actually play many of the great Christmas Carols including:

O Christmas Tree
Angels We Have Heard On High
Silent Night
Away In A Manger
Joy To The World
Deck The Halls
Go, Tell It On The Mountain
O Come, O Come Immanuel
Star Of The East
The First Noel
The Holly And The Ivy
While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day

So you can actually learn to play those Christmas Carols this Christmas if you know, or are willing to learn, three simple chords.

So what are these chords?

In any given key, there are 3 “family members” that are residents of that key — the I chord, the IV chord, and the V chord. They are far and away the most likely chords to occur in any given key.

For example, if I am playing in the Key of C, and the first chord is the C chord and I have to guess what the next chord is, I would guess that it would be either the F chord or the G chord. Why? Because those are the other “family members.” So we have narrowed the odds a great deal just by knowing who the members of the family are.

So how could I tell whether it should be F or G?

If the melody is a “B”, then the chord is probably a G chord. Why? Because “B” is in the G chord, but is not in the F chord.

If the melody is a “A”, than I would guess that the chord is F. Why? Because “A” is in the F chord, but is not in the G chord.

You can also just match one of the three chords to the melody to see if it sounds right. If it doesn’t, try another of the 3 chords. It won’t take long before you get the knack of matching chords to the tune of a song.

Does that mean that there are always just 3 chords in a song? No, but there are literally hundreds of songs that are made of just these 3 chords.

Can you use other chords in these carols? Of course. And they will probably sound fuller if you do. But you can “get by” with just 3 chords — the family chords in whatever key you want to play them in.

Here are the primary chords (the family chords) of all the major keys (remember that the primary chords are the I chord, the IV chord, and the V chord based on the scale of that particular key):

Key of C: C, F, G
Key of G: G, C, D
Key of D: D, G, A
Key of A: A, D, E
Key of E: E, A, B
Key of B: B, E, F#
Key of F: F, Bb, C
Key of Bb: Bb, Eb, F
Key of Eb: Eb, Ab, Bb
Key of Ab: Ab, Db, Eb
Key of Db: Db, Gb, Ab
Key of Gb: Gb, Cb, Db

Do you have to know all these chords in all these keys?

No.

You can choose to play in just one key, or just a few keys.

But what you MUST know is the 3 chords in whatever key you want to play in! That means that the stark beginner can learn 3 chords in just a few minutes, and be able to play along with thousands of tunes, because most folk songs, hymns, country songs, and many rock songs just use the 3 basic chords. That’s why people who know zilch about music can pick up a guitar or sit down at a piano or keyboard, learn 3 chords, and chord along while singing everything from “Silent Night” to “Joy To The World” to……………………..well, you get the idea.

Go thou and do likewise. It’s not too late — Christmas comes every year right on schedule!

And the great thing about Carols is that once you learn them, you can play them year after year. And of course you’ll be getting better year after year, so each year you can play them fuller than the year before!

Merry Christmas!

For a great course for beginners, please go to “How to Play 12 Christmas Carols On The Piano — This Christmas!”

For more advanced courses, please go to “The Secret of Arranging Spectacularly Beautiful Christmas Carols!”

Not a single professional musician plays the music exactly as it appears on a piece of sheet music. Instead, they use the written music as a map, or an outline, and then proceed to do their own thing with it. They twist it, bend it, add to it, subtract from it, put fills in it, change the key, change the words, change some of the melody notes, and on and on.

So when you hear your favorite artist perform a piece of music, if you look at the written sheet music while they are performing it, you will see it is MUCH different and MUCH better than the plain old sheet music.

So how can the average piano player make her or his piano playing more exciting? There are many ways, but here are seven of my favorites:

1. Change the chords slightly by adding color tones. What are color tones? Color tones are notes added to the basic chord, usually expressed as 6ths, 7ths, 9ths, etc. For example, instead of playing just a straight C chord as it is written C, E, G try adding a color tone to it, such as a 6th (A) or a 7th (Bb) or a major 7th (B) or a 9th (D). In fact, try adding a couple together, like a 6th and a 9th. So instead of being a plain vanilla chord made up of C, E, and G, you’ve made it a tasty variation adding A and D to the equation.

2. During the pause between phrases, add a counter melody. How? Take the given melody notes and turn them upside down or inside out, or change the rhythm slightly so the tune is still recognizable, but different.

3. Add chord substitutions. Instead of always using the chords that are written, ask yourself this question: “Into what other chord will this melody note fit?” For example, if the melody is G and the chord is C, what other chords contain the note G in them? There are several answers to that question. G is not only in the C chord, but it is also in the Em chord, the Eb major chord, the G chord, the Gm chord, etc. Try one of those alternate chords until you like the sound combination, then use it instead of the C chord. It will add an originality and freshness to your playing almost immediately.

4. Add fills and runs between phrases. How do you do that? Simply break up the chord that is in force at the moment, and run it up the keyboard as a broken chord one note at a time. Or start at the top of the keyboard and come down. Or play with the chord a bit by playing 2 of the 3 notes instead of the entire 3 note chord.

5. Use melodic echos. After you have played the melody, echo it by playing it an octave higher, or two octaves higher, or an octave lower.

6. Use half-step slides. If the chord progression is from D7 to G7, instead of going to G7 directly, “slide into it” by playing the chord that is one-half step above namely, Ab7, then quickly sliding off Ab7 to G7.

7. Use “blue notes.” Blue notes are created by sliding off a black key onto a white key quickly. For example, if the melody is E, slide off Eb to E quickly using the same finger.

This is just a tiny sampling of what you can do to make songs more exciting. There are literally hundreds of other techniques, from cascading waterfall runs to inside blues moves to deceptive cadences to tremolos to twangs to crunches to straddles to 3-1 breakups to walk-downs and walk-ups to jazz voicing chords and on and on.

By simply adding a few of these techniques to your playing you can easily double and triple the excitement created by your piano playing. People will notice it, and you will find it exciting and exhilerating to create your own arrangments right on the spot as you play.

If you need help in this regard, please go to www.pianoplaying.com

As a piano teacher for many years now, I have had countless students ask me some variation of this question: “What fingers should I use on such and such a note, or such and such a chord?”

And my answer never fails to surprise them. I tell them “Fingering is not written in stone. Moses did not hand down a commandment on fingering, and neither did Bach or Mozart or Billy Joel or Dave Brubeck”

That comes as a shock to many adults because they think back to their piano lesson days as children and recall their teacher telling them things like “Don’t use your thumb on that key!” and “Cross your 3rd finger over…” and so forth.

So while there are no absolutes when it comes to fingering, there are certainly general principles that pianists have discovered down through the years. So whenever possible, don’t re-invent the wheel. We all learn from experience, but it doesn’t have to be our experience we learn from: we can stand on the shoulders of the giants of the piano that have gone before us, and take advantage of what they have discovered.

So here are some general principles — the intrinsic logic of fingering:

1. If you see a passage in your sheet music move higher on the staff, use a low finger (fingers are numbered from the thumb outward, so your thumb is #1, your index finger is #2, your middle finger is #3, your ring finger is #4, and your little finger is #5) so you’ll have fingers available for higher notes.

And of course, exactly the opposite if you see a passage move lower on the staff.

2. Hold your hand up in front of you. The longest fingers are in the middle — right? Your thumb is far and away the shortest because it starts at a lower point on your hand. Now look at a piano keyboard. The black keys are the furthest away from you — correct? So which fingers can reach the black keys best? You got it — your middle fingers. Therefore, whenever possible play the black keys with your long fingers instead of your thumb. It’s just common sense.

3. The corollary to that is obvious: use your thumb and little finger on white keys whenever possible. (And it’s NOT always possible.)

4. A scale contains 8 keys. You have 5 fingers. So it’s logical to assume you will have to use some fingers more than once. On right hand scale passages ascending beginning on white keys, start on your thumb and then cross your thumb under your 3rd finger except when the 4th note of the scale is a black key. In that case, to avoid playing the black key with your thumb, cross your thumb under your 4th finger. (And just the reverse with your left hand, of course)

On scale passages beginning on black keys, start on a long finger — preferably your index finger (also called your “pointer finger”) and then cross your thumb under whenever the next white key occurs.

5. On chromatic passages, the best way I have found is to use just fingers #1 and #3 except where two white keys in a row occur — then use fingers #1 and #2.

6. Fingering on chords is largely dictated by the size of the chord; obviously if you are playing a 5-note chord, you will use all 5 fingers. Otherwise just follow the intrinsic logic in the general principles listed above.

If you still find it hard to believe that fingering is not written in stone, then watch any video of Art Tatum (available on YouTube.com), one of the great jazz pianists, who stunned classical musicians with his blazing speed while using extremely unorthodox fingering.

www.playpianocatalog.com

A harmony is a series of notes in combination, played simultaneously. Listen to your favorite songs, and pay close attention to the back-up vocals when they’re being sung along with the lead.

Can you hear how the two vocal melodies differ in pitch? That’s harmony, and it’s highly possible that those back-up vocalists were chosen because of their strong ability to harmonize. Singing a harmony, or rather picking one out on your own without written sheet music, is an almost inherent musical skill that many singers would die to possess.

But harmony isn’t just the province of singers; it’s found in every single area of music. Any time a sound is layered on top of another sound and those sounds match each other in rhythm and melody (but not pitch), a harmony is created.

Harmony is made of intervals, and as such, it can be considered dissonant (scratchy, uncomfortable, like playing an E and an F at the same time) or consonant (pleasing or smooth). What makes a harmony pleasing or unpleasing, however, is somewhat relative. In medieval times, only octaves and perfect fifths were considered harmonious, and any harmony that deviated from that was generally frowned upon. In modern western music, though, nearly everything is considered to be harmonious by someone. Fifths are still very popular in modern harmony but are now used in the most unlikely of places; heavy metal music, for example, frequently uses perfect fifths in the vocal harmony to create an eerie effect when layered on top of the more dissonant instrumentation.

Harmony, in addition to being consonant or dissonant, can also be subordinate or coordinate. Subordinate harmony, the tonal harmony used most frequently today, is a series of harmonies that are based on each other. The harmony moves in such a way that a resolution is somewhat predictable; you can hear this type of harmony in modern pop music, musical parts that flow very easily into each other and don’t leave the listener baffled as to the turn the song has taken. On the other hand, coordinate harmony is a series of harmonies that operate independently of each other. They do have some common relation, of course, but don’t typically move toward a goal, or predictable resolution. Renaissance musicians often used this type of harmony, and it’s capable of producing rich and moving textures within a piece of music.

So what is a piano player to do to harmonize a tune with chords that sound good? In other words, how do we match a left hand chord to the melody at any given point in a song?

It sounds compliated, but it’s really not. You just need to know the “family chords” of the key you are playing in, and then ask yourself “into what other chord will this melody note fit?” You’ll come up with a few matching chords that will give a new flavor to an old song.

For a great downloadable course in harmonizing, check out “How To Harmonize Any Tune
With Beautiful Piano Chords!”

A musical tritone is an interval of three whole tones (whole steps) or six half tones (half steps). Simply put, a tritone is an augmented fourth or diminished fifth, depending on the key. A tritone is typically created by adding an accidental, but it’s found naturally on the fourth and seventh degrees of any scale. In a C major scale, for instance, the tritone would be found by playing the F and B simultaneously.

Tritones are significant because of their ability to create a heavy, uncomfortable dissonance. It’s so uncomfortable, in fact, that it has been referred to as the devil’s interval and was strongly discouraged during the Baroque period — a time when the pleasing sound of perfect fifths ruled the day. But despite its rather nasty stigma, the tritone has the power to be pleasing and even somewhat consonant when used correctly. Because it’s one of the most moody and easily personified intervals, the tritone is frequently used to foreshadow a heavy resolution.

Additionally, the tritone is helpful to jazz musicians who employ a technique called “tritone substitution.” This substitution is possible by playing a dominant seventh chord that uses a root a tritone away from the original dominant seventh. Because the interval pitches are the same, the chords become interchangeable, thus giving the musician a bit more freedom to explore possibly melodies and harmonies during an improvisation.

Jazz isn’t the only type of modern music to use the tritone, however. Though it was frowned upon in the early ages of western music, dissonance is far more acceptable today; in some cases, it’s even what draws an audience to a certain piece of music. The tritone can be found in nearly every area of modern rock and pop, but it’s exploited most often in heavy metal music that prides itself on sounding eerie or evil. Metallica and Black Sabbath have used the tritone to wondrous effect, and one of Jimi Hendrix’s most famous songs, “Purple Haze,” is based almost entirely around the dissonant chord. The well-known 17-minute song “Inna Gadda Di Vida,” by psychedelic rockers Iron Butterfly, also used the tritone during an extended keyboard solo as a way to break the glory of a series of perfect fifths.

I use it a lot in my playing because it provides a perfect “half-step slide” into the next chord if it is a 4th above or a 5th below the chord I’m playing.

When sight reading a piece of sheet music it is easy to lose your place in the score if you need to look down at your hands. Try to not look down, but if you must, don’t move your head — just do an eye-flip down at the keys and back up. That way your eye sockets stay pointed in the same direction, making it a lot easier to find your place in the score again.

But piano sight reading is more than a matter of the eyes; it’s a matter of understanding what you are seeing. If all you see is a mess of black notes on white paper, you’re in big trouble. But if you can see intervals, chords, scales, patterns and so forth, you’ll be much further down the road in piano sight reading.

Which is a good reason to get well grounded in music theory!

In previous posts we have discussed two of the elements that comprise what music is all about; namely melody and rhythm.

The 3rd element of music is harmony. Without these 3 elements working together, music is “bare-bones” and incomplete. Oh sure — you could sing just a melody without any harmony, but that melody follows some sort of rhythmic pattern, whether steady or syncopated or a combination of both.

But when you stir harmony into the music bowl, you have a complete musical meal.

Harmony is the tonal environment in which a melody lives — the underlying sounds that give it context and relevance.

That harmony can be expressed in intevals or chords, from simple to extremely complex. An interval is the distance between any two notes — such as a 3rd, or a 6th. Vocal duets often are harmonized by singing a 3rd or 6ths below the melody, with a sprinkling of other intervals from time to time.

Chords can range from 3-note triads to complex structures composed of all kinds of intervals (and therefore, overtones).

Next post we’ll look at the 4th element of music — tone color.

Once upon a time about the only way people learned to play the piano was through structured lessons in a piano teacher’s home or a studio in a music store. Of course lots of people picked up the piano by ear or by asking a friend to show them certain chords, but for the most part piano playing was learned by going to a piano teacher and progressing through a series of music books such as Schaum, Thompson, D’Auberge, Bastien, and many others.

But with the advent of the internet people are no longer totally dependent on a music store or the lady down the street to teach them to play the piano. There are many online courses sponsored by respected institutions such as the Berklee School of Music in Boston — the alma mater of countless jazz musicians and fusion artists. And for the person who just wants to play for their own enjoyment, there are courses galore in reading music, chords, music theory, as well as traditional piano playing.

The nice thing about it is that it is not an either-or situation; people can take formal lessons from a local teacher or music school and supplement those lessons through independent study of specific areas, such as rhythm problems, technique, chord formation, improvisation, and many other areas.

The days of do-it-yourself piano playing is upon us.

There are several basic ways to learn piano. The most-used method is to learn how to read music step by step, and gradually move from the middle C position outward in both directions until the entire staff is covered. This is usually accomplished using method books such as Schaum, Thompson, D’Auberge, Bastien, and many others. And of course this is the method taught by the vast majority of piano teachers.

While it is great to know how to read music, it is equally valuable to learn music theory and all it’s sub-divisions. Probably the most helpful of all in learning piano is a knowledge of music chords and how they are formed. This applies not only to piano, of course, but to all instruments, since almost all music uses chords of some type as a tonal background to the melody.

If you don’t already subscribe to the free email newsletter on piano chords, be sure and do that. Everything you can learn about musical chords will help you to learn piano better and become a better piano player.

Probably the most common question people who are beginners ask is “Where can I get a piano notes chart?”, or “I want to know how to play piano notes”.

There are many places to obtain a piano notes chart, like the “Magic Keyboard Chart” we publish that slips behind the keys on a piano and guides the beginner to any note, while at the same tim showing them what that note looks like on the musical staff. We give ours away to beginners who purchase either our “Crash Course in Exciting Piano Playing” or our “How To Play Chord Piano” course. But I know you can also buy something similar in music stores, particularly those with a piano teaching studio attached to the store.

Since the birth of the internet, piano tutorials are no longer limited to the hallowed halls of academia or the family room of a local piano teacher, but are now widely available on the net with just a click or two of a search engine button.

Here are a few musical tutorials:

9th chords

Diminished 7th chords

Key signatures: flats

Key signatures: sharps

And of course there are many, many more.

An individual in his or her home has access to countless musical tutorials on the web — all they have to do is search a bit.

Someone asked if there were downloadable piano lessons on chords. The answer is yes — several.

Here are a few:

http://www.musicalmindreader.com/

http://www.keyboardchords.com/

http://www.piano-music-lessons.com/

http://www.guitarpianochordchart.com/