Where Piano Playing Retirees Get Information and Encouragement
I’ve read the statement countless times that you don’t need to learn theory if you know chords. So many online courses make this claim, but the claim is simply false because knowledge of chords and how to play them is indeed part of music theory. I get that it is a tempting claim and on … Read more
Years ago I joined a choir, just for a bit of fun and the choir that I joined was focused on quite a lot of jazz or jazz influenced music. One evening I was talking to the woman who helped run the choir and we were discussing a very specific point in one piece we … Read more
As I have mentioned in other articles, I get quite a bit of advertising for online piano courses and most of them are similar, not just in their methodology but also in their advertising blurbs. One claim that is common is that you don’t need to learn music theory in order to play the piano … Read more
can be somewhat confusing to remember what the abbreviations of chords are and what specifically goes into making each type of chord, so hopefully this chart will make things a bit clearer: NAME OF CHORD ABBREVIATIONS NUMBER OF NOTES INTERVALS Major maj or M 3 maj 3rd + min 3rd Minor Min or m 3 … Read more
The diagram that is often depicted for the Cycle of Fifths is: (This chart is courtesy of Grosse Pointe Music Academy) The above diagram is typically how we see the Cycle (or Circle) of Fifths (sometimes it is labeled as Fourths as well). To be honest, I don’t really like this common diagram as it … Read more
Once you have a sound understanding of tones (whole tones) and semitones (half tones), then you can work out what the various scales are. Major Scale – this scale has seven notes in it but when you play it on the piano you finish on the note you start just an octave higher. The pattern is … Read more
In order to understand chords and scales and how they are structured, you need to understand what an interval is. Quite simply an interval is the distance between any two notes. Semitones are also known as Half Tones in the US, which is really the same thing as the word semi literally means half. Semitones are … Read more