Posts Tagged ‘sheet music’

Reading Sheet Music AND Reading Chord Symbols - The Best of all Worlds! - Watch video

Sunday, October 12th, 2008


Chord symbols (for example, Cmaj7 or G6) are a type of notation used frequently in jazz and other areas of modern music to notate chord progressions and changes. This type of notation differs from that of classical music in that chord symbols don’t show the function of a chord the way the Roman numeral notation does. Chord symbols, for modern music with lots of changes, are much easier to read. They function as a sort of shorthand for change-heavy music and are written with four chord parts in mind: the root, the quality, the extension, and the alterations.

The first part in chord symbols, the root, tells the musician which note is the root of the chord. In an E6 chord, for instance, the E serves as the root. Chord symbols also allow for inverted chords, or chords with a root other than the bass note. These chord symbols express that by showing the bass note with a diagonal slash under the original symbol.

Quality, the second part in chord symbols, denotes whether the chord is major, minor, diminished, or augmented. In a Cmaj7, the maj tells us that the C chord is major. The abbreviations for this area in chord symbols are maj, min, dim, and aug, respectively.

The extension in chord symbols, written after the quality, shows the musician if the chord differs from a triad (a third chord), such as an eleventh or seventh. This part of chord symbols is not always shown; if there is no indication of an extension, the musician is to assume that the chord is a triad.

The last part in chord symbols, the alteration, is usually but not always expressed. Think of this part as the “notes” section in chord symbols; it gives the musician any specific (and sometimes irregular) instructions for playing the chord and is always written in parentheses after the extension (or the quality, if no extension exists). For instance, (no fifth) would tell the musician that the chord is to be played with the fifth tone left out. Sus – short for “suspension”, would mean to play the 4th scale note instead of the 3rd. A minus sign would mean to lower (flat) a chord tone, such as C-9 which would mean to flat the 9th of the chord. Conversely, a plus sign would mean to raise (sharp) a particular chord tone.

Reading music using chord symbols allows a person to use written music as a map, rather than a note-for-note approach. By just reading the melody note and the chord symbols, musicians can improvise to their hearts content and create their own sounds on the keyboard.

The best of all worlds, however, is to be able to read music as it is written in a sheet music score, but also be able to read the chord symbols. Then the musician is free to choose which is best – the written part, or an improvised part. The sky is the limit for musicians who can do both.


 Chord symbols & reading the melody in sheet music

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How To Start Playing Piano Again as an Adult

Monday, September 29th, 2008

- Many, many adults today learned to play the piano when they were young, but gave it up at some point. Although some of these people don’t miss it, there are others that secretly desire to play piano again.

Some have no interest, but many have a hidden goal to someday start playing the piano again. And when they do start taking up lessons again, they’d prefer it to be with a modern teacher who knows the difference between Bach and the Beatles. Also, it’s difficult to add regular lessons to their schedules which are already full.

How do you do this, then?

There are two linked circumstances present in today’s world that give adults a new chance to learn to play piano in a way that was never possible before. Today, we have the Internet, a continually growing treasure trove of information. Until around year 2000, aspiring pianists usually took lessons from teachers who were of practical distance from their residences. That’s no longer the case. Many piano teachers even give online lessons using the cyber world. There are also DVDs and CDs that have been produced to assist the learner during all stages of piano playing, from the beginner to the advanced. Also, they are simple to find. Searching for such phrases as “piano lessons for adults” or “piano playing for adults” on a site such as Google will bring forth many possibilities for those looking to learn. (Give it a try and find out for yourself)

The other step has always been around, but often hasn’t been described well enough for people to understand. To put it simply, there are three ways to learn how to play the piano, and adults may choose to use one, two, or all three in any combination, and will learn far better than if they used only one method.

The three ways are:
First) Reading music from the score which is printed. The majority of piano lessons require the ability to read sheet music and make your fingers do what your mind tells them to do. The customary way to teach piano was with repeated technical exercises and drills, and reading music pieces starting from the very simplest piece engaging only the thumbs, gradually working one’s way up to complex classical works like the “Moonlight Sonata” by Beethoven or the challenging “Prelude in C# minor” by Rachmaninoff. You can find an online instructor to teach you how to read musical scores. Some search terms you can try to find these people include “learn to read music” and “classical piano lessons online.”

Second) Playing something by only hearing it first. Not many people could play the piano entirely through auditory perception and these people no longer need piano lessons because they can play any piece of any style they want. Playing by ear can be taught to some extent, but anyone who thinks they can end up playing like Ray Charles is kidding himself or herself. But in reality, most people can acquire the skills of recognizing a tune by ear, and by adding a couple of chords to the melody, can have a lot of fun entertaining their family and friends.

Third) Using chord symbols to play with. “Fake books” are popular with professional pianists, especially those who specialize in jazz. Fake books are song collections in a format known as “lead sheet”, meaning that the melody is written in addition to the chord symbols needed to harmonize with the melody. This method requires merely learning some simple chords found in the songs you intend to learn; and reading the melody in the treble clef, which is considerably easier than learning to read dense clusters of musical notes in both clefs.

Most people have no idea that this kind of playing exists, or if they do, they mistakenly believe it is only for the professionals. Not true. The process is simple and will produce results fairly quickly. You might be amazing your friends in weeks instead of years with these quick results.

Any of these ways will work and are available online. Incorporating aspects of all three methods brings the best results; the combination of reading sheet music, playing by ear, and learning chords and their proper progression can help a person learn the most efficiently.

It doesn’t matter which method you pick, just pick one and start. You’ll find its great fun and boosts your self confidence.

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Sheet Music Past & Present

Sunday, September 14th, 2008

Sheet music

Most modern musicians take sheet music for granted. Sheet music abounds in printed form and can even be downloaded from the Internet. It’s a far cry from the days of oral tradition. Centuries ago, there were few ways to pass on music other than to “hum a few bars” until the listener caught on. The available manuscripts had to be painstakingly marked out by a transcriptionist and were limited in number. In fact, while many songs were known on a wide scale, they were likely spread about by travelling minstrels and troubadours. They were certainly not available in printed form at the local music shop.

Prior to the invention of the printing press in the mid 15th century, very few private citizens owned or had access to sheet music. The ones in existence were owned by a few wealthy noblemen. Because the only way to publish written music was to copy it by hand, it’s little wonder that sheet music was scarce. The process took long hours and careful copying skills, plus access to the right materials. Before the printing press, the only songs available in written score were sacred songs. Most of these were chants used in liturgical services. Virtually no secular music scores existed prior to the 15th century.

The invention of the printing press in 1439 changed the history of sheet music. This is in spite of the fact that the earliest methods of reproducing musical scores were almost as painstaking as copying music by hand. Italian printer Ottaviano Petrucci may be considered the “father of sheet music.” He developed the first method for reproducing sheet music. He was also granted an exclusive patent for his work, giving him an early monopoly on the business for several years. His method involved three stages. The paper was pressed three times. First, the staff was printed. On the second impression, the words were added. The final impression laid down the notes.

The downside to the process was that it was time-consuming and expensive. This made it relatively impractical for the average citizen to own sheet music. However, technology evolved over the years. Eventually, better and more efficient methods of printing were developed.

Most of the earliest music that was published was sacred music. In fact, the printing, distribution and publication of music were largely controlled by the church for several centuries. Eventually this changed, and soon music companies found themselves in the thriving business of music publishing. The retail distribution of sheet music took off in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This was in spite of the fact that there was no means for promoting particular songs or artists, like radio or television.

The popularity of sheet music prompted many governments around the world to examine the issue of copyright and pass their own laws in that regard. With copyright becoming a worldwide issue, the Berne Convention of 1886 established a universal principle regarding copyright. Today, approximately 76 countries around the world adhere to this standard.

Of course, technology continues to evolve. Radio, television and the Internet have posed new challenges to the ability of governments to enforce copyright laws. Sheet music can now be downloaded straight from the Internet, often illegally. Notwithstanding this, the annual sale of sheet music ranges in the tens of thousands today. Music-publishing software has brought the printing of music full circle from the days when stolid monks sat writing music with a quill by candlelight.

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Changing Keys In a Song: What is transposition, and how can I do it?

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

Changing keys in a song

Transposition is changing the key of a piece of music, or changing the notes without changing their relationship. This is often done to make the piece of music easier to play or sing. It’s a common practice in bands that don’t perform their own material; the singer may wish to cover a song with vocals that are far out of his or her range. Transposition can correct that problem by shifting the key into a range that is comfortable for him or her. Transposition is also used with instruments. Some instruments (called transposing instruments) are not tuned to the same note; for instance, a Bb clarinet is tuned to a B flat and an alto clarinet to an E flat. Transposition of the sheet music for these instruments ensures that they won’t sound discordant when playing with the rest of the orchestra or band.
Transposition may be a simple concept, but it take lots of practice to achieve. The easiest sort of transposition — and technically it is not transposition at all, since it remains in the same key - is done by octave — simply moving the piece of music up or down eight steps. This sort of transposition may work for a male singer wishing to sing a female’s part, but it does little for transposing instruments or other areas of vocal work. In these cases, it’s best to use transposition by either scale degree or harmonic interval.
Transposition by scale degree uses the scale degrees of a piece of music to determine the relationship between the notes. Each note in a piece is assigned a scale degree (tonic, dominant, subdominant, mediant, submediant, etc.) and the same scale degrees are used for the new key. This type of transposition is potentially simple, as the relationship between the notes will always remain the same, regardless of the key.
Transposition by harmonic interval uses intervals as a guide for the transposition. By finding the interval between the dominant notes in the two keys, one can deduce the interval between the all the notes. If the difference between the notes is a major third, then transposition of all the notes will be done by a major third. This type of transposition is also potentially simple but calls for an added carefulness when dealing with accidentals that aren’t expressed in the key signature.
The very best way to transpose is to learn to think in more than one key. Most beginners start learning in the key of C, so after awhile they can think in that key — they know where the notes in that key are, and their fingers can get to them easily. Since every key a person can play in is mathematically the same as every other key, by learning to play in a 2nd key one can learn to think in that key, just as they did in the key of C.
Keys are like languages: if you don’t know Spanish, you certainly can’t think in Spanish, and when you learn to speak it, you will have to rack your brain for the right word for quite awhile before you begin to think in Spanish. Its the same in music — there are only 12 major keys in which you can play (in contract to languages, where there are hundreds) — so if you can eventually learn to think in all those 12 major keys, there is no key left that you couldn’t transpose in to.
Practically speaking, however, most people don’t need to know all 12 keys — just the keys in which most songs are written: C, F, G, D, A, Bb, and Eb. If you can learn the other six too, that’s fabulous, but you can certainly get by with just those 6 keys, or perhaps even less — and least C, F, and G — the “big 3” when it comes to keys.

To learn more about transposing, go to How To Transpose & Modulate
and How To Think In The Key

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How to Read Piano Notes

Saturday, August 16th, 2008

How to Read Piano Notes

How To Read Piano NotesHow to Read Piano Notes

Reading piano notes may seem daunting at first, but it really isn’t if you ground yourself in the basics. The first step is learning the names of the notes. The great thing is that you only have seven to memorize.
All music is the result of combinations of these seven. These notes, named after letters in the alphabet, are A, B, C, D, E, F and G. Specific keys on the piano, associated with these notes, comprise your piano playing toolkit.

These seven notes sit on lines and spaces, called a music staff. Piano music consists of two staffs or staves: the Treble Clef and the Bass Clef. The notes from the upper portion of the piano keyboard sit on the Treble Clef. The notes from the lower portion of the keyboard sit on the Bass Clef.

Usually, the right hand plays the notes in the Treble Clef, while the left hand plays notes in the Bass Clef. The key to reading piano notes is in knowing what key relates to what note on the sheet music.

The note A on a piano is a white key. The A on the music staff corresponds to where the A note is on the keyboard. The notes on a keyboard repeat themselves:

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A

Each of these notes is a key on the piano. It’s that simple, all along the keyboard.

The first A sits on one point of the music staff. As you play along the keyboard, the second A you play sits further up the music staff. As your fingers run up to the upper portions of the keyboard, the higher the notes sit on the Treble Clef. The further down you play on the piano keyboard, the further down the notes sit on the music staff, running into the Bass Clef.

You can group notes together on a music staff vertically. These vertical grouping are chords. A chord is a group of three or more notes played simultaneously. If you play the C, E and G keys at the same time on the keyboard, you play a chord known as a triad. On a piece of sheet music, you will see these three notes as such:

G
E
C …piled on top of one another so-to-speak.

If the composer wants these notes played separately, he would write them out horizontally on the music staff as such:

C E G …moves along the music staff.

Of course, these letters do not appear on the music staff; instead oval notes replace the letters.
When you first begin to read piano sheet music, locate the reference point note of each staff. This allows you to determine the rest of the notes on the staff.

The Treble Clef has the G note as its reference point. This note is on the second line from the bottom of the five line Treble Clef staff. The Bass Clef has the F notes as its reference point. This note is on the second line from the top of the five line Bass Clef staff. Every other note on either staff is easily located from these points.

Reading piano notes will be easier when you study the fundamentals. Learn the Treble and Bass Clefs and where the seven notes sit on them, and your reading skills will improve.

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Is It Really Possible To Play The Piano By Ear?

Monday, August 4th, 2008

Play piano by ear!

Playing piano by ear is the ability to play a piece of music (or, eventually, learn an instrument) by simply listening to it repeatedly. The majority of self-taught musicians began their education this way; they picked up their instrument and began playing an easy melody from a well-known song, slowly picking out the notes as they went along. And even after these musicians master their instruments or a particular song, playing by ear still plays a large role.

Many pop and rock bands don’t play or write their songs based on sheet music, they figure the songs out by playing by ear. It’s even common among non-musicians. Ever sit down a piano and mindlessly pick out the tune to “Mary Had a Little Lamb”? What about grabbing a guitar and suddenly finding yourself playing the opening licks to “Smoke on the Water”? That’s playing by ear. You’re able to play part of the song just because you’ve heard it so often.

Playing by ear is a valuable technique for many musicians; learning songs based solely on hearing them is a great way to understand song and chord structure. In fact, a great number of rock and pop musicians learned to play their instruments this way. Instead of picking up a book or taking lessons, they concentrated on figuring out the notes and rhythms to a song until it was mastered. Then they moved on to another song. And another. Gradually, they learned their instrument just by playing by ear — and in the process learned how to effectively structure a song in that particular genre.

Playing by ear is also beneficial in helping a musician develop his or her own style; sure, they’ll at first mimic the style of the song they’re imitating, but the amalgamation of the music that they’re playing by ear will help them create something distinctive, something indicative of them only.

Though classical musicians are generally educated based on tons of music theory and sight reading, some methods rely on playing by ear. The Suzuki method of musical training, for instance, claims that learning music is the same as learning a language; it’s acquired by years of hearing it, eventually coupled with formal training. Just like we pick up our language by listening to our parents and subsequently attending school, we can learn music by playing by ear and later taking formal lessons.

So can the average person ever hope to play their piano by ear? Maybe not to the degree that some extremely talented musicians do, but anyone can learn enough about the basics of playing by ear if they learn the following skills:

1.Being able to hear a tune and have a general sense of the contour of the melody — when the tune moves higher or lower as the song progresses.

2.Learning to chart that melody contour either on paper or in their memory.

3.Learning to match the melody to appropriate chords.

Playing by ear is really a combination of of three factors:

1. Using your tonal memory to recall music you have heard:

2. Using your ears and fingers to help you reproduce what you recall;

3. Using “melody contour” (the “shape” of the tune), “chord structure” (how to form the chords on the keyboard to match the tune), and “chord progressions” (the path chords take as they move through a song).

Obviously, the first 2 steps you can take more or less by yourself — you can mentally rehearse recalling a particular tune; you can sit at the piano for hours and through trial and error pick out tunes, chords, and rhythms. But the real key to playing by ear is learning how to chart the shape of a tune, learn how to construct chords, and then determine the likelihood of chord progressions — in other words, which chord comes next.

When you get an understanding of step three, you will be in a MUCH better position to understand and profit from steps one and two!

Click here: Is It Really Possible To Play The Piano By Ear?

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Guitar Players Can Learn To Play The Piano In No Time Flat

Saturday, August 2nd, 2008

Guitar players can learn piano fairly rapidly

If you’re a guitar player who desires to learn the piano, you’re already ahead of the game. You can transfer your knowledge of chords and chord patterns to the keyboard.

This means you could be playing a tune at the piano in no time. That’s because chords are chords, no matter what instrument they are played on.

The composition of chords is the same whether you apply them to a guitar or a piano. The only difference is where the application takes place. On a piano, you use black and

white keys on the keyboard to form different chords. It’s akin to pressing strings to form chords on the fret board of a guitar. You press certain strings at certain fret

positions to get a certain chord sound.

Guitarists can learn the piano rapidly because they already understand chord patterns. Some guitarists know chord patterns as written musical notation; others know these

patterns by sound. Some know both methods. A guitarist who can read chord patterns, written using proper music notation, will be able to read a chord pattern on sheet music

whether its for guitar or piano. All the guitarist has to do is learn the keys of the piano and then play the written music at the keys.

Someone who does not know how to read music must first learn the written form. Then he or she must learn the keyboard keys before putting the two together to play. A

guitarist saves time by already knowing the written element.

What about guitarists who cannot read music, but play by ear? It is still easier for them to learn the piano because they have an ear for chord sounds. Those new to music

must tune their ear to the sound of chords. They cannot usually just sit at a piano and say, “I’m going to play a C Major Triad.” They must first understand what comprises

this triad. When they play it, they must know whether the sound is right.

Guitarists who understand chord construction and know a chord’s sound when they hear it are further ahead. When they locate the appropriate keys at the piano and play the

chord, they know by the sound whether they’ve played it correctly. This is because they’ve heard the chord many times before on the guitar. The chord will sound the same

only with the piano’s characteristic sound underpinning it.

Guitarists will also learn to experiment and improvise on a piano faster than one who has never played another instrument before. Guitarists constantly manipulate chords,

always trying new voicings and chord combinations. When they undertake piano study, they will do the same. Since they already know the theory and architecture of chords,

and the scale notes they are born of, they can begin manipulating them at the keyboard immediately. There is no need to learn the reasons behind what they are doing.

The guitar and the piano have much in common when it comes to playing chords. If you know guitar chords, you will not find the piano an intimidating instrument. You will

find it’s another vehicle for your musical creativity: one you already know something about.

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Beginning Piano Lessons Online: Useful, But Beware!

Friday, July 18th, 2008

Beginning Piano Lessons Online

When learning how to play piano, free opportunities present themselves all over the Internet. Most notably, many websites offer quick step-by-step lessons, as well as free online sheet music, which beginning pianists can use to learn how to play piano at no cost. Obviously, like any free service, these should be approached with caution, and many should be taken with a grain of salt.

After all, they are free for a reason. In spite of everything the Internet has to offer, most of the best ways to learn piano still involve paying money to a highly qualified professional instructor of some kind.

Whether you are learning how to play piano using free lessons, or you are using a pay service, any high-quality learning process begins with the fundamentals. It is one thing to show a few diagrams and to instruct the beginning pianist where to put her fingers; it is quite another thing to instill in the pianist’s mind a real understanding of the structures, systems, and theories that every great piano player must have internalized.

Thus, when learning how to play piano, free or through a pay service, make sure that the instructions use real musical terms, rather than downgraded proxy terms. That is, for example, an instruction shouldn’t refer to notes on the piano as numbers or as fingers; instead, the instruction should use the actual names of the notes — C, D, B flat, G sharp, and so on.

In other words, a beginning pianist wants to internalize the fundamentals of music as early as possible. If you feel like your ability to play music is proceeding faster than your actual knowledge of piano and music, then there is something wrong with your instruction. Both the skills and the knowledge should go hand in hand.

When starting out, the budding pianist can expect to be assigned a lot of repetitive tasks. She will have to play a lot of scales, arpeggios, and simple songs that are designed to help piano students master the complex methods of keyboard fingering. This is normal, and in fact, it is necessary. Any piano lesson program that doesn’t involve a lot of repetitive tasks is probably not the best way to learn how to play piano. Free lesson plans are often guilty of this.

This repetition is what leads a lot of beginning pianists to give up very early, but for the more persistent, things do get better. After a while, when you have internalized the fingering techniques that every pianist must master, songs will grow more complex, and then the repetition becomes a joy. For pianists who are a little further along in the learning process, there is nothing more pleasurable than opening a book to a seemingly incomprehensible notation and working at it until it becomes a beautiful piece of music.

For now, though, most of the songs played by beginners are relatively simple and straightforward, not involving a lot of sharps or flats, and not requiring the pianist to move her hands around a lot. In fact, most songs will be in the easiest key — C major — and won’t deviate from standard hand positions.

Of course, this will all change when you begin to learn about more complex chords, more difficult keys, and more convoluted melodic structures. Once the basics are learned, it won’t take long before these fun elements come into play.

In short, what I have been driving at is that starting to learn the piano rarely offers instant gratification. When learning how to play the piano, free services tend to offer unrealistic, quick goals. In reality, learning piano is a gradual process that involves lots of practice, lots of repetition, and a strong commitment on the part of the pianist.

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