Here are some FREE articles on piano playing, chords, practice, improvisation, etc:

Some Great Practice Ideas I Learned From My Students!

     Sometimes the teacher learns more from the student than the student does from the teacher. Hopefully, not too often, but today I would like to share with you some great practicing ideas that have come from my students over the years:

1. A Colonel in Virginia that I taught for several years got up at 4AM every weekday morning and practiced on an electronic keyboard with headphones so he wouldn't disturb anyone at that time of the morning. "I love the early morning", he said, "because it's so quiet and peaceful and I'm fresh and raring to go. No phones are ringing, no people walking into the room, no disturbances at all. I practice for a half-hour, have breakfast, and then hit it for another half-hour -- all before I have to show up for work. When I get home in the evening, if I'm too tired to practice, I don't feel guilty because I've already got my licks in for the day. And if I'm up to practing some more -- well, it's a bonus!"

2. An elementary school teacher in Indiana told me she took each piece I assigned her and transposed it into all 12 keys -- not written out, but at the piano -- in her head. She said "It doesn't always sound so hot, but I find that if I keep at it day after day, I can at least get by in the most difficult keys, and it makes the easier keys seem real simple. And it gives me a perspective that I just wouldn't get it I just played it in one key -- the key it is written in. I've learned that each key has it's own "feel", and some keys are bright (like "D") and some keys are mellow (like "Db").

3. Another student with a similar idea, who was the Minister of Music in a Catholic church, said he took one whole month of the year and devoted it to mastering just one key. Since there are 12 months in the year and 12 Major keys, that works out perfectly. So in January he played everything he could find in the key of C, and transposed anything that wasn't in C into C. In February he went up 1/2 step to the key of C# (also known as Db enharmonicly) and played everything in Db and searched for pieces written in the key of Db, and so on. By the time the year was up, he had a pretty fair grasp on the 12 Major keys. I suggested that he devote the next year to the 12 minor keys, and the next year to the modes, and the next year to polytonality, etc., etc. -- but as I recall he decided to just recycle through the 12 major keys, since he used them so much more than the ones I suggested.

4. Still another student took an idea from me and twisted it a bit. I suggested that she play along with pieces she liked on tapes and CD's, so she would get a feel for the motion of the song. (I used to do that by the hour when I was a teen-ager, and it paid off big time for me!). She took the idea and tried it and liked it so much that she started getting videos of people playing the piano. She arranged her TV and video player so that she could be at her piano while the video was playing, and she would play along with the pianist on the screen, following her/his hand motions and arm motions and finger position and thereby getting a feeling for the flow of the music. (Patterning). Her creativity is paying off for her -- she is advancing rapidly. (And by the way, don't think she is "copying" the person she is watching -- not at all. It's the same principle as watching Michael Jordan moving toward the basket, or watching Sammy Sosa swing a bat -- it just gets you in the right groove before you apply your own style to it.)

5. A doctor I have taught for years makes a idea file of things he has learned about piano playing over the years. He notes where in a given book or tape or video I discuss such and such a topic, and files that alphabeticly. Then later when he needs to refer to that idea, he simply looks up the idea in his file, locates the video or cassette or book, and presto -- he can review that idea or concept almost instantly. It's like a card catalog in the library -- makes finding things so much faster than flipping through endless books trying to find that idea you saw long ago.

With the advent of the computer a person could store and categorize ideas such as this very quickly.

Hope this gives you some ideas of your own.

What Are The Basic Chords I Really Need To Know?

Lots of people know a few chords, but aren't sure just how many chords they need to know to cover the basics in an average song -- in other words, enough to "get along."

Sure, they would like to know how to play 9th chords and suspended 7th chords and chords built on the church modes, such as Dorian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian, and so forth, but they could live without ever knowing those -- they just want to know enough chords to get by in a playing situation, f rom accompanying a singer at a musical to playing with a worship group at church to playing for Girl Scouts.

Well, I have good news for them. There are only 12 major chords, 12 minor chords, 12 augmented chords, and 12 diminished chords. That makes 48. Then each one can be turned upside down (inverted) 3 times. Three times 48 is 144. These are the basic 12 dozen chords a person needs to know to get along. It would sure be helpful to know how to add a 7th to a chord, but not absolutely necessary (even though it's as simple as pie!).

The second part of the good news is that these 12 dozen chords can be learned much more quickly than most people suppose -- it shouldn't take over an hour of concentrated practice to get somewhat of a handle on these 144 chords. Here's why:

Once a person learns the 12 major chords, all there is to finding minor and augmented chords is to move just one note from the major chord! And all there is to finding diminished chords is to move 2 notes from the major chord.

Three of the major chords are a triad (a triad is a 3-note chord) made of all white keys:

C MAJOR CHORD is C E G

F MAJOR CHORD is F A C

G MAJOR CHORD is G B D

To make a minor chords out of these, all you do is lower the 3rd (the middle note of the triad) 1/2 step to the left. So:

C Minor chord is C Eb G

F Minor chord is F Ab C

G Minor chord is G Bb D

To make augmented chords out of the major chords, all you do is raise the 5th (the top note of the triad) 1/2 step to the right. So:

C Augmented chord is C E G#

F Augmented chord is F A C#

G Augmented chord is G B D#

To make diminished chords out of the major chords, all you do is lower both the 3rd and the 5th 1/2 step to the left. So:

C Diminished chord is C Eb Gb

F Diminished chord is F Ab Cb (Cb is the same key as B)

G Diminished chord is G Bb Db

There we have 12 chords already, and we've only spent maybe 2 minutes! Turn these 12 upside down and you suddenly have 36 chords at your disposal.

I urge you to go to your piano right now and try out what we've just done. If you would like some specific help as you do this, click on the link below and look for "Learn 144 Basic Chords In One Hour -- Honest!": http://www.playpiano.com/catalog/catalog01.htm

How do transposition and modulation relate? Are they the same? In this newsletter we're going to take a look at both of them and see what makes them tick.

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 songleader 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. 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 basicly 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. 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. 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. For those of you that would like to follow-up on this in depth, you can click on this link:

Hey man, how's your mode?

Back in the period between roughly 1150AD and 1400AD there developed scales called "modes". (Actually deriving from the Greeks some thousand years before.) And since music was centered in the church during that period (I'm sure there was plenty outside the church as well, but we don't have much in the way of records of that period) they came to be known as "church modes".

These modes haven't been used very much for about 500 years, but now many contemporary musicians are using them as a basis for their compositions or improvisations. Listen to any "fusion" musician, such as Donald Fagan or Dave Sanborn or Dave Grusin or Russ Freeeman of the Rippingtons, etc, etc., and you'll hear many of these ancient scales being used.

While these modes can be played in any key, you can get a feel for them by just playing the white keys on your piano at first, noting the relationship of half-steps and whole-steps and listening to the distinctive sound of each mode.

Here are the church modes and their intervals:

Dorian: WHWWWHW (like playing the C scale from D to D)

Phrygian: HWWWHWW (like playing the C scale from E to E)

Lydian: WWWHWWH (like playing the C scale from F to F)

Improvisation

(If you're interested in seeing and hearing more about how this all works, go to http://www.playpiano.com/catalog/catalog02.htm and scroll down to "Playing Blues, Boogie, & R&B".)