In my quest to keep improving my piano chord finders, I've created a new one on my Patternpiano.com website that allows you to preview eight chords at a time without having to click a button. My last piano chord finder I found required too many button clicks. Let me know what you think!
New Piano Chord Finder
Nate
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Musical Rhythm Counting
This is a video I did a while back that I thought would be fun to put up here.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Flossing
OK, so I know this isn't piano-chord-related, but I sometimes have these brilliant ideas. My girlfriend was pestering me about flossing, and I realized something:
In a relationship, one person's floss is the other person's gain.
In a relationship, one person's floss is the other person's gain.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Answer to Question on Tritones
Question from Michael Bell:
Thanks for the site it's proving to be very helpful to me. I am trying to find out some information tritones I've been researching and they are called diminished 5th's or augmented 4th's. I have been reading and reading about them and I understand the basic theory behind them but I don't know how to form chords with these. I have seen some very interesting videos on youtube and they really change how your music sounds. I would appreciate if you could forward me some info on these chords in like the key of c or c#. Thanks God bless you.
Michael,
There are two common kinds of chords that use tritones, dominant chords and diminished chords. So if you take a look at any of the dominant or diminished chords on this site, you'll see tritones in action. Or if you look at any sheet music and you see a dominant chord or diminished chord, you'll see tritones in action.
In a dominant chord, the tritone is formed between the major third of the chord and the minor seventh. For example, in a C7 chord, the major third is E and the minor 7th is Bb. This interval is a flat fifth (i.e., a tritone).
A diminished chord has a tritone between the root of the chord and the flat fifth.
A dominant seventh chord is made up entirely of minor thirds, and two minor thirds make up a tritone.
So a Cdim7 chord has a tritone between the root and fifth (C to Gb), the minor third and diminished 7th (Eb and A) And the inversions of those two, the flat fifth to the root, and the diminished 7th to the minor third (A to Eb).
But all of this theory about tritones is not particularly helpful to playing well. It's more helpful to just start memorizing chord shapes on the piano. That's where my books and my piano chords site come in handy. Once you've memorized the shapes, and trained your ear, you don't need to think about where the tritones are, you'll just know the right sound at the right time - sort of like vocabulary and speech.
One interesting thing with tritones is that they are a tense sound that wants to resolve. If you play a G7 chord:
G, B, F
and then resolve it to a C chord:
G, C, E
you can hear how the tritone between B and F is a tension-filled sound and it wants to resolve to the C chord.
Thanks for the site it's proving to be very helpful to me. I am trying to find out some information tritones I've been researching and they are called diminished 5th's or augmented 4th's. I have been reading and reading about them and I understand the basic theory behind them but I don't know how to form chords with these. I have seen some very interesting videos on youtube and they really change how your music sounds. I would appreciate if you could forward me some info on these chords in like the key of c or c#. Thanks God bless you.
Michael,
There are two common kinds of chords that use tritones, dominant chords and diminished chords. So if you take a look at any of the dominant or diminished chords on this site, you'll see tritones in action. Or if you look at any sheet music and you see a dominant chord or diminished chord, you'll see tritones in action.
In a dominant chord, the tritone is formed between the major third of the chord and the minor seventh. For example, in a C7 chord, the major third is E and the minor 7th is Bb. This interval is a flat fifth (i.e., a tritone).
A diminished chord has a tritone between the root of the chord and the flat fifth.
A dominant seventh chord is made up entirely of minor thirds, and two minor thirds make up a tritone.
So a Cdim7 chord has a tritone between the root and fifth (C to Gb), the minor third and diminished 7th (Eb and A) And the inversions of those two, the flat fifth to the root, and the diminished 7th to the minor third (A to Eb).
But all of this theory about tritones is not particularly helpful to playing well. It's more helpful to just start memorizing chord shapes on the piano. That's where my books and my piano chords site come in handy. Once you've memorized the shapes, and trained your ear, you don't need to think about where the tritones are, you'll just know the right sound at the right time - sort of like vocabulary and speech.
One interesting thing with tritones is that they are a tense sound that wants to resolve. If you play a G7 chord:
G, B, F
and then resolve it to a C chord:
G, C, E
you can hear how the tritone between B and F is a tension-filled sound and it wants to resolve to the C chord.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Coolest thing I've seen on YouTube in a while
This is a really awesome stop motion video with tons of creativity, a beautiful girl and some good music. Enjoy!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Sight Reading Game - Vertical "Chord-Style"
Another Piano Sight-Reading Game, this one broken down into 22 categories relating to different areas of the Grand Staff:
- Lines of the Treble Clef
- Lines of the Bass Clef
- Lines of both the Bass Clef and Treble
- Spaces of the Treble Clef
- Spaces of the Bass Clef
- Spaces of both the Treble And Bass Clef
- All Lines and Spaces of Both Clefs
- The Lines Above the Treble Clef
- The Lines Below the Treble Clef
- The Lines Above the Bass Clef
- The Lines Below the Bass Clef
- The Spaces Above the Treble Clef
- The Spaces Below the Treble Clef
- The Spaces Above the Bass Clef
- The Spaces Below the Bass Clef
- The Lines and Spaces Above the Treble Clef
- The Lines and Spaces Below the Treble Clef
- The Lines and Spaces Above the Bass Clef
- The Lines and Spaces Below the Bass Clef
- All Lines in the Quiz
- All Spaces in the Quiz
- All Available Notes
Sunday, January 25, 2009
New Sight Reading Game
Yet another sight-reading game.
This one allows for a more rapid-fire approach, for more advanced students. You simply type the note name of each note from top to bottom.
Here's the link:
Sight-Reading on the Grand Staff.
Or if you want to practice sight reading vertical notes (such as in a chord), you can do that here:
Notes in a Random Chord Sight Reading
This one allows for a more rapid-fire approach, for more advanced students. You simply type the note name of each note from top to bottom.
Here's the link:
Sight-Reading on the Grand Staff.
Or if you want to practice sight reading vertical notes (such as in a chord), you can do that here:
Notes in a Random Chord Sight Reading
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Test Your Knowledge of Piano Notes
Test You Knowledge of Piano Notes with this simple Quiz:
If you would like to find out more about my piano tutorials, check out:
http://www.patternpiano.com/
http://www.list-of-chords.com/
If you would like to find out more about my piano tutorials, check out:
http://www.patternpiano.com/
http://www.list-of-chords.com/
Monday, January 19, 2009
New Piano Chords Quiz
I created a new flash-based piano chords quiz tool, so that you can test yourself on piano chords. These quizzes are a companion tool to "How to Speed Read Piano Chord Symbols" and "How to Play from a Fake Book Without Gettin' the Blues".
You can test yourself by chords with a certain root here:
You can also test yourself on all 96 piano chords. There eight varieties of chords per root and twelve different roots, so that's 96 chords.
You can test yourself by chords with a certain root here:
- test your knowledge of C Piano Chords
- test your knowledge of Db Piano Chords
- test your knowledge of D Piano Chords
- test your knowledge of Eb Piano Chords
- test your knowledge of E Piano Chords
- test your knowledge of F Piano Chords
- test your knowledge of Gb Piano Chords
- test your knowledge of G Piano Chords
- test your knowledge of Ab Piano Chords
- test your knowledge of A Piano Chords
- test your knowledge of Bb Piano Chords
- test your knowledge of B Piano Chords
You can also test yourself on all 96 piano chords. There eight varieties of chords per root and twelve different roots, so that's 96 chords.
Friday, January 09, 2009
Sight Reading on the Piano - another flash tutorial
This flash tutorial focuses on the spaces of the staff in the treble and bass clef. The two mnemonic devices I use are "Fry All Canary Eggs" and "All Cows Eat Grass".
The Spaces of the Treble and Bass Clef
The Spaces of the Treble and Bass Clef
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
More Piano Sight Reading Help
Here's another Flash tutorial I created. This time, focusing on the lines of the treble clef, and the lines of the bass clef.
There isn't any feedback, this is just sort of a "move your mouse over and take a look" situation. I'll try to maybe turn it into an interactive game. :)
The Lines Of the Treble Clef and Bass Clef
There isn't any feedback, this is just sort of a "move your mouse over and take a look" situation. I'll try to maybe turn it into an interactive game. :)
The Lines Of the Treble Clef and Bass Clef
Friday, January 02, 2009
New Sight Reading Tutorial
I created a flash tutorial game that focuses exclusively on the lines above the staff and below the staff. It also teaches some "mnemonic" devices for memorizing the lines above and below the staff.
The lines above the staff in the treble clef:
- All Cows Eat Grass
The lines above the staff in the bass clef:
- Crying Elephants Gulp Beer
The lines below the staff in the treble clef:
- Dog Farts Are Criminal
The lines below the staff in the bass clef:
- French Artists Crowd England
If you have enjoyed this tutorial, check out my list of piano chords website.
The lines above the staff in the treble clef:
- All Cows Eat Grass
The lines above the staff in the bass clef:
- Crying Elephants Gulp Beer
The lines below the staff in the treble clef:
- Dog Farts Are Criminal
The lines below the staff in the bass clef:
- French Artists Crowd England
If you have enjoyed this tutorial, check out my list of piano chords website.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
How do you figure out what key a song is in?
This question comes from an e-mail:
The second question is more of a clarification on how you would recommend starting to recognize scale degrees, specifically the first note of a song. I see a few ways to approach this seemingly simple task:
- Presume that the first note starts on the first degree, since most songs start on the I chord.
I can then build a melody using scale degrees relative to this "do". I suspect this is not right and would possibly result in me unintentionally transposing the tune to some other key. This approach also doesn't get me to the same "answer", which you get to in many cases. For example, on page 14 of "Learn to Play by Ear", the first degree in your example for The First Noel is mi as opposed to do. So I ask myself, "How did he know it started on mi?"
The only real way to figure out the key is by analyzing every note in the song. This is because songs can seem to be in one key and then after a few chords it will seem to be in another. How do you decide which of the two keys is the correct key?
The only real way is through experience.
There are some general rules though.
1) If a song starts and ends in a particular key, then it's in that key.
2) If it spends most of the time in one key, but one section is in a different key, then it's in the first key.
Some songs move constantly. "All the Things You Are" starts and ends in one key, but moves through about seven key changes (I can't quite remember, but it's a lot).
How do you tell a song starts in a particular key? Because of the notes of the melody. If all of the notes of a melody are in a particular key, then you know it's in that key.
For example, there are two half-steps in every major key.
In the key of C, the half-steps are between B and C, and between E and F. If the melody starts with a half-step between the first two notes, you'll know almost immediately what key you are in, because you have a 50% change of being right. (There are exceptions, such as notes that go outside the key, but let's keep this simple)
I would say using half-steps is a great way to find out what key you are in. Also study songs that have half-steps prominently in the first few notes of the melody, such as "The Song is You".
The other way to easily tell what key you are common chord progressions. If a song starts with I vi, ii, V, you'll know within the first two measures what key you are in. Songs such as "The Way you look Tonight" use this common chord progression right at the beginning of the song, which makes it easy to tell what key you are in.
Some songs such as "Satin Doll" use the ii, V progression. So it doesn't start on the I chord, but after a few measures, it's obvious that this progression has to be ii, V. Study common chord progressions, memorize the chord changes to famous songs, and you'll start to be able to immediately figure out what key you are in.
It goes without saying that memorizing all 12 major keys is the first step.
OK, back to the question:
- Option 1: Look at some sheet music to see what note the song started on when the music is transposed to the key of C.
Yes, the key signature in sheet music is the right key 90% of the time. But watch out for relative minor. If the song is in the key of C, but the first chord is Am, it's probably in the relative minor of C, which is Am. Very rarely you'll also see modal songs, where the root chord doesn't match the relative major. The most common of these is the dorian mode -- but this is something kind of esoteric. I don't think you should worry about that. But do learn the relative minor for each key. It's basically the six chord, so if you know your chords in all 12 major keys, you'll know your relative minors as well.
Back to the question:
- Option 2: Listen to some music and aurally try to see if you can match the first note to one of the notes in the middle C scale.
When I play by ear, I just hit a piano key. If the melody note that I'm looking for is higher or lower, I move up or down respectively.
But as your musical knowledge grows, you make more sophisticated judgments. Was it up a minor third, or down a minor third (etc.) Once you can hear intervals, it's as easy as the alphabet. I'm sure you know your alphabet when you see it.
So usually the second note, or third note I play is the melody note. It didn't used to be that way.
They all of your musical knowledge comes into play. How is the melody behaving. There are so many cliches that can help you figure out where you are in the key.
You'll use:
key knowledge
common chord progression knowledge
relative pitch
The more you know about music, the more your musical GPS will "just know"
Back to the question:
- Option 3: Somehow you looked at the whole piece of music and saw that the song "settled" on some other note that was different than the first note and you worked backward to find the degree of the first note.
THAT'S IT! In a roundabout way. If I hear the first three notes of the song "summertime", I can tell you without going to the piano, that the song is in a minor key, and that the first two pitches are "mi" and "do". How do I know this? Did I figure it out just now? No. I just know, because I know the song so well. I may have learned it by ear, or I may have learned it from sheet music. But now, that will help me learn other songs that use those pitches, such as "Poor Wayfaring Stranger" (check out Eva Cassidy's version, very cool)
Back to the question:
- Option 4: Somehow you link the melody notes to the underlying chord progression, though that part isn't crystal clear yet since the melody note at the beginning of a phrase is often different than the chord at the beginning of the phrase.
This is definitely an important part of it, as mentioned above. Check out "list-of-chords.com". I cover the most basic chord progressions with examples. Also, just start to memorize as many tunes as possible. Each tune you memorize will make every similar tune easier to play by ear. Certain tunes, such as "Blue Moon" that use the I vi ii V progression will get you the most bang for your buck, so you may want to start there. But just start memorizing your favorite tunes, and it won't take long.
What really helped me was singing the melody on solfeggio.
Be sure to check out my list of piano chords website.
The second question is more of a clarification on how you would recommend starting to recognize scale degrees, specifically the first note of a song. I see a few ways to approach this seemingly simple task:
- Presume that the first note starts on the first degree, since most songs start on the I chord.
I can then build a melody using scale degrees relative to this "do". I suspect this is not right and would possibly result in me unintentionally transposing the tune to some other key. This approach also doesn't get me to the same "answer", which you get to in many cases. For example, on page 14 of "Learn to Play by Ear", the first degree in your example for The First Noel is mi as opposed to do. So I ask myself, "How did he know it started on mi?"
The only real way to figure out the key is by analyzing every note in the song. This is because songs can seem to be in one key and then after a few chords it will seem to be in another. How do you decide which of the two keys is the correct key?
The only real way is through experience.
There are some general rules though.
1) If a song starts and ends in a particular key, then it's in that key.
2) If it spends most of the time in one key, but one section is in a different key, then it's in the first key.
Some songs move constantly. "All the Things You Are" starts and ends in one key, but moves through about seven key changes (I can't quite remember, but it's a lot).
How do you tell a song starts in a particular key? Because of the notes of the melody. If all of the notes of a melody are in a particular key, then you know it's in that key.
For example, there are two half-steps in every major key.
In the key of C, the half-steps are between B and C, and between E and F. If the melody starts with a half-step between the first two notes, you'll know almost immediately what key you are in, because you have a 50% change of being right. (There are exceptions, such as notes that go outside the key, but let's keep this simple)
I would say using half-steps is a great way to find out what key you are in. Also study songs that have half-steps prominently in the first few notes of the melody, such as "The Song is You".
The other way to easily tell what key you are common chord progressions. If a song starts with I vi, ii, V, you'll know within the first two measures what key you are in. Songs such as "The Way you look Tonight" use this common chord progression right at the beginning of the song, which makes it easy to tell what key you are in.
Some songs such as "Satin Doll" use the ii, V progression. So it doesn't start on the I chord, but after a few measures, it's obvious that this progression has to be ii, V. Study common chord progressions, memorize the chord changes to famous songs, and you'll start to be able to immediately figure out what key you are in.
It goes without saying that memorizing all 12 major keys is the first step.
OK, back to the question:
- Option 1: Look at some sheet music to see what note the song started on when the music is transposed to the key of C.
Yes, the key signature in sheet music is the right key 90% of the time. But watch out for relative minor. If the song is in the key of C, but the first chord is Am, it's probably in the relative minor of C, which is Am. Very rarely you'll also see modal songs, where the root chord doesn't match the relative major. The most common of these is the dorian mode -- but this is something kind of esoteric. I don't think you should worry about that. But do learn the relative minor for each key. It's basically the six chord, so if you know your chords in all 12 major keys, you'll know your relative minors as well.
Back to the question:
- Option 2: Listen to some music and aurally try to see if you can match the first note to one of the notes in the middle C scale.
When I play by ear, I just hit a piano key. If the melody note that I'm looking for is higher or lower, I move up or down respectively.
But as your musical knowledge grows, you make more sophisticated judgments. Was it up a minor third, or down a minor third (etc.) Once you can hear intervals, it's as easy as the alphabet. I'm sure you know your alphabet when you see it.
So usually the second note, or third note I play is the melody note. It didn't used to be that way.
They all of your musical knowledge comes into play. How is the melody behaving. There are so many cliches that can help you figure out where you are in the key.
You'll use:
key knowledge
common chord progression knowledge
relative pitch
The more you know about music, the more your musical GPS will "just know"
Back to the question:
- Option 3: Somehow you looked at the whole piece of music and saw that the song "settled" on some other note that was different than the first note and you worked backward to find the degree of the first note.
THAT'S IT! In a roundabout way. If I hear the first three notes of the song "summertime", I can tell you without going to the piano, that the song is in a minor key, and that the first two pitches are "mi" and "do". How do I know this? Did I figure it out just now? No. I just know, because I know the song so well. I may have learned it by ear, or I may have learned it from sheet music. But now, that will help me learn other songs that use those pitches, such as "Poor Wayfaring Stranger" (check out Eva Cassidy's version, very cool)
Back to the question:
- Option 4: Somehow you link the melody notes to the underlying chord progression, though that part isn't crystal clear yet since the melody note at the beginning of a phrase is often different than the chord at the beginning of the phrase.
This is definitely an important part of it, as mentioned above. Check out "list-of-chords.com". I cover the most basic chord progressions with examples. Also, just start to memorize as many tunes as possible. Each tune you memorize will make every similar tune easier to play by ear. Certain tunes, such as "Blue Moon" that use the I vi ii V progression will get you the most bang for your buck, so you may want to start there. But just start memorizing your favorite tunes, and it won't take long.
What really helped me was singing the melody on solfeggio.
Be sure to check out my list of piano chords website.
Monday, December 22, 2008
New Piano Sight Reading Game created in Flash CS4
I'm my quest to improve my skills with object oriented programming in actionscript 3.0 and Flash CS4 I have created yet another sight reading trainer for the piano.
Flash CS4 rocks my world. The motion editor with the custom motions have made my flash stuff look amazing.
The coolest new feature that this sight reading trainer has that my previous versions didn't have is that you can select from twelve different areas on the grand staff to focus on. You can mix and match them all, so there are hundreds of possibilities. If you need to work on just the notes above the staff in the bass clef, you can do that. If you want to work on just the lines of the treble clef, you can do that.
Here's the link: my new sight reading trainer.
Flash CS4 rocks my world. The motion editor with the custom motions have made my flash stuff look amazing.
The coolest new feature that this sight reading trainer has that my previous versions didn't have is that you can select from twelve different areas on the grand staff to focus on. You can mix and match them all, so there are hundreds of possibilities. If you need to work on just the notes above the staff in the bass clef, you can do that. If you want to work on just the lines of the treble clef, you can do that.
Here's the link: my new sight reading trainer.
Friday, December 05, 2008
"Joy to the World" Christmas song tutorial
Free Christmas Tutorial
"Joy to the World"
Posted Dec. 5, 2008
Well, I've been wanting to create a Christmas book and I think I'm finally getting around to it. A little late for this year, but not so late that I can't give you this free 10 page tutorial over "Joy to the World".
I'm thinking I'm going to call the new book "Christmas Songs Without Music". If you take a look at the tutorial, I think you'll see why.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Crazy Conspiracy Thought
What if someone (or some group) had been manipulating oil prices, but once they saw Obama win, they decided to lay low for a while, because they don't want the American people to completely abandon oil?
What if John McCain had won and the oil prices would have stayed high because John McCain's policy was to invest in offshore drilling (i.e. more oil flowing) rather than clean energy technologies?
Just a crazy thought.
It is weird how the price of oil dropped since summer. It takes the wind out of people's anger against oil.
I kind of wish oil prices had stayed high because it would have kept people interested in solar and wind power.
:(
What if John McCain had won and the oil prices would have stayed high because John McCain's policy was to invest in offshore drilling (i.e. more oil flowing) rather than clean energy technologies?
Just a crazy thought.
It is weird how the price of oil dropped since summer. It takes the wind out of people's anger against oil.
I kind of wish oil prices had stayed high because it would have kept people interested in solar and wind power.
:(
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
