How the Keyboard is Organized

Let your hands wander around the keyboard for a moment, without pushing any keys down. Now choose any note and play it. See if you can find the same note elsewhere on the keyboard.

Once you have done this, find all of those notes on the piano.

Although there are many keys on your piano, there are only 12 actual notes, and each of them repeat as you move up the keyboard, but I'll discuss this point later on...

The notes sound higher as you move your hands to the right of the keyboard... And lower as you move to the left.

Take some time now to let your hands explore the entire keyboard. don't worry about which notes you play. Simply have fun discovering the sound of the instrument.

Tones, Semitones, Sharps and Flats

The black keys also have names. But before I teach them to you, let's discuss whole-tones and semitones.

A whole-tone is a combination of 2 semitones. For instance, the sound of C to D is called a whole-tone, or just tone for short.

The sound of C to the black key just above C is called a semitone.

Now play it own your keyboard. Did you hear the difference?

When you raise a note up by one semitone, it becomes sharp, so the black key just above C is called C#. When you lower a note by one semitone, it becomes flat. Therefore the key just below C is called C-flat. It's also called B, of course. All keys on the piano can be called by more than one name. These are called enharmonics, which literally means " the same note."

When you play up or down the keyboard one semitone at a time, you are playing a chromatic scale.

If you play up or down in whole tones, you are playing a whole-tone scale.

Now play each note up in semitones, starting on C.

After you have done this, try playing a whole-tone scale, starting on C, then afterwards, starting on E.

Learning The Black Keys!

As I mentioned before, when you raise the middle C up 1 semitone, it becomes C#. C# is the first of the 2 black keys. When D is raised, it becomes D#, the second of the 2 black keys.

If you drop D down by just one semitone, it becomes D-flat, which is the same key as C#. Same key, 2 different names. That's part of the fun of learning the piano!

By raising F up 1 semitone, we have F#. This is the first of the 3 black keys.

Above F# is G#, and above G# is A#.

As you now see, the 5 black keys can either be called Sharps or Flats. F# is also called G-flat. A-flat is also called G#.

As with the white notes, practice finding and naming all of the black notes.

You should have fun playing just the black keys because they were already setup as a beautiful sounding scale, which is called a "Pentatonic" scale.

As the saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words." So a video is worth, well you get the picture :-) To review this lesson using the video tutorial, go to: http://www.mrronsmusic.com/images.html

[[firstname]], try inventing something by just playing the black keys! You might just surprise yourself.

How To Build 7th Chords

For the beginner, the easiest way to start learning how to build 7th chords is to practice their constructions in the key C Major. You're just playing all white keys.

If you are an intermediate student, simply build 7th chords using the notes of the remaining 11 keys!

Make sure you review the follow-up to this lesson at: http://www.mrronsmusic.com/images.html

You will learn how easy it is to build 7th chords in C major. Hint: All you have to do is play every other white key to build the C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G7, A minor, B half-diminished 7th chords!

Special Tip for Intermediate and Advanced Players

How To Improvise

There's something irresistible about a real melody. If you can convince the listener that they're hearing a melody when you improvise, they will stay riveted to every note.

Well, you can - and it's not really that difficult. The one element that is common to almost all good melodies is: repetition.

Repetition. Repetition and more repetition. I'm referring specifically to the repetition of ideas (motifs, as they are often called). Sometimes the idea is repeated exactly as it occurred the first time, as in the Holiday tune "Jingle Bells."

More often, the motif occurs higher or lower than it did originally. The notes are different but the rhythm and the shape of the line remain intact, as in "Happy Birthday." This type of repetition can be defined as "pitch-shifting."

What I'm describing here is a process often called motivic development: the spinning out of ideas through the use of repetition, pitch-shifting, and extension.

So that's it: if you want your improvisations or solos to sound like a melody, you need to use a lot of repetition. Ironically many musicians avoid using repetition for fear of sounding repetitious, i.e., boring. You bore a listener if you try to elicit the same emotional reaction from him/her two or three times in a row, but that's not what you're doing when you repeat an idea.

When you first introduce an idea, it's new. The listener waits with open anticipation to hear how the idea spins itself out. But when you repeat the idea, their reaction is very different. Now they can gain a certain sense of control, by connecting what they're hearing to what went before.

I look forward to our next lesson together. I will share some practice exercises to help enhance your improvisation and solo skills. Don't forget to visit my Message Board at: http://members5.boardhost.com/MrRonsMusic/. You will be able to post questions and read responses to questions. It's a great place to learn from one another.

http://www.mrronsmusic.com

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