1. art and entertainment
2. music
3. music reference
4. music composition and theory

The Piano Encyclopedia’s Music Fundamentals Report: Piano Lesson Report I
Music
Fundamentals
An Introduction to Composing and Improvising on the Piano
¾ Understand Music: Intervals & Chords & Scales Explained!
¾ Master the relationship between Chords & Intervals
¾ Take your Piano Skills to the Next Level
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Copyright © 2005‐2010 by Rodrigo Schejtman (PianoEncyclopedia.com) Music Fundamentals The Piano Encyclopedia ISBN 978‐987‐25216‐2‐2
All rights reserved. This book is protected by copyright laws and international treatises. Permission must be obtained in writing from its publisher ‐Rodrigo Schejtman‐ for the use of any original text, graphics or illustration. Permission must also be obtained in writing from its publisher for the reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. Neither this book nor any part may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this book, or any parts of this book, including any images, and illustrations, may result in severe civil and criminal penalties Reservado todos los derechos. No se permite reproducción parcial o total, el almacenamiento, el alquiler, la transmisión o la transformación de esta obra, en cualquier forma o por cualquier medio, sea electrónico o mecánica, mediante fotocopias, digitalización, u otros métodos, sin el permiso previo y escrito de los editores. Su infracción está penada por las leyes 11723, 25446, y tratados internacionales. Edición argentina. Queda hecho el depósito que previene la ley 11723. Schejtman, Rodrigo Music fundamentals. ‐ 1a ed. ‐ Buenos Aires : The Piano Encyclopedia, 2009. E‐Book. ISBN 978‐987‐25216‐2‐2 1. Enseñanza de Música. I. Título CDD 780.7
PianoEncyclopedia.com Musicians are not born, they are made Introduction Welcome to The Piano Encyclopedia’s Piano eBook: Music Fundamentals. I am confident to say that you are about to experience a revolutionary learning approach –not found anywhere else‐ which will radically change the way you play piano and reveal you how music works – in a practical way. I can make this claim without any hesitation whatsoever, as this is the second edition of our Music Fundamentals eBook: our book has been read by more than twenty thousand people up to this date, and we have received (and keep receiving) hundreds of emails and blog comments from people like you, telling us their success stories and how much this book has helped them: PianoEncyclopedia.com Musicians are not born, they are made You might wonder what is inside this book and why it has this kind of impact on many of its readers. With our Music Fundamentals book you will learn how music works, and by doing so, you will discover the fundamentals to playing the piano with freedom, improvising, creating your own music and playing by ear. Our teaching methods are different from everything else, because ‐different to the conventional learning methods‐ you won’t need to depend on memorization or rules. Our method is based on pure logic and understanding, and with simple concepts that anyone can comprehend, you will be able to play by ear, improvise, and even compose your own music, all by understanding how music works – in a practical way. Now you might be wondering if this book is appropriate for your level. Music improvisation, composition, and playing by ear may sound complicated for starters. However I can tell you that even if you are just starting to play piano, I assure you that this approach will prove to be most useful and save you years of frustration (I wished I had learned all this when I started playing the piano). On the other hand, if you have been playing for years and you consider yourself an intermediate or advanced student, but no one ever taught you how to improvise, compose your own music, or play without depending on sheet music, I give you my word that after reading this eBook PianoEncyclopedia.com Musicians are not born, they are made you will see music in a whole new way that will radically improve your piano and music skills. My claims are backed up by comments from people like you, who found our site and read our eBook, and I hope that once you finish reading it, you will too share your success story with us. This book is for all levels, from absolute beginner to advanced: PianoEncyclopedia.com Musicians are not born, they are made We will start the lessons from the very basics, teaching you what are intervals, chords, and scales – so that even beginners can follow this course without any problems – and then reveal to you the relationship that exists between chords, scales, and music intervals. Even if you consider yourself an advanced student, we highly recommend that you don’t skip these initial chapters and read the whole book, as we use a different approach for teaching the basics that will help you to understand the more advanced concepts that follow. Using this methodology, you’ll be able to see songs from a new perspective and advance quite quickly, as we move rapidly into the world of playing the piano with freedom, composing, improvising, and truly understanding music! Why are we giving this Book for free? Many people ask us why don’t we sell this book, especially given the fact that it took us a tremendous effort to write, edit, and publish this book. It involved the collaboration of a team of editors and graphic designers (more than 300 illustrations are found on this book) during many months. Still, we have decided to give it for free, for two reasons: The first one is because we want to spread this new way of teaching music – a method based on logic and understanding‐ in order to help those that have struggled with the frustration caused by conventional piano learning methods, which are based on memorization and rules. And I don´t say this just from we but also on a personal level, as I have experienced that frustration too. I am a piano player myself, and I have been playing the piano for more than fifteen years up to this date, and during my first ten years of taking piano lessons, even I managed to play concert level pieces very well… if you had asked me to play without sheet music, improvise, compose, or jam with some friends at that time, I would have simply either ignored your request and played a piece from my repertoire, or have told you that I simply didn’t know how to do that. I was an ‘interpreter’. Only an interpreter. But it was not my fault. Believe me, I wanted to be more, and I used to spend lots of hours every day studying and practicing the lessons that my teachers gave me. My problem was that I never had a teacher that could teach me all that I PianoEncyclopedia.com Musicians are not born, they are made learned years after, which did convert me into the pianist, musician, and composer I am today – not just an interpreter. Today, I can sit at a piano without any sheet music, improvise music on the fly, create my own piano pieces, and play by ear. I hope you can do all this too, and that’s the main reason why I have created this book: so you don’t have to go through the same frustrating path, many of us already have. After the success we had this book, we decided to create a Digital Home‐Study Course to help those that wanted a step‐by‐step course on how to apply all these knowledge and use this revolutionary music learning method. Our followers – literally thousands ‐ encouraged us to think big as we started posting development news on our blog. We started by creating an a in‐depth lessons book that covered from how to play basic songs up to how to improvise and compose a piano piece step‐by‐step with interactive animations and sound. Then we added practice booklets, reference booklets, and even interactive music training games. And we thought, what if we could add an online community that would be integrated into the course itself, where all our students could interact, ask questions, enjoy piano video galleries, and even participate in music contests by uploading their improvisations and compositions? We wanted to create the best piano learning experience on top of our unique teaching method. And after a total of three years, the collaboration of more than fifty people from all the corners of the world – writers, editors, graphic designers, developers, musicians, pianists‐ our dream finally became a reality. Today our Digital Home‐Study Course –coined “The Logic Behind Music”‐ comprises more than a thousand pages of interactive learning content, which span 12 multimedia books (lessons, reference books, practice booklets), and contain more than 3000 interactive examples with on‐screen piano‐
keyboards that show our students how to play the piano with freedom, improvise, and compose music. The community also become a reality and is now bundled with our course, and we are proud to say that our students today enjoy using a community that shares many features similar to big social networks such as Facebook and Youtube, including user profiles, wall comments, private messages, forums, news feeds, and a piano gallery with over a 1000 piano videos and hundreds of master classes from the greatest pianists of our century. PianoEncyclopedia.com Musicians are not born, they are made All this was possible to the enthusiasm and support of our followers, and I want to use this opportunity to ‐once again‐ publically give my thanks to everyone who supported us, and thank them for all the emails, blog comments, and words of support we have received during the development years Even though that giving away this book made us become the first (and only) piano site to ever give away a book with more than hundred pages (and over 300 high quality illustrations) for free (when we could be selling it), and even our Digital Home‐Study Course is finished, we think it is still a good idea to keep it for free. We hope that once you finish reading this book that you have a new vision of how music works, and that the concepts you learn trigger your interest in getting to know more about our unique piano learning method and about using our revolutionary Digital Home‐Study Course “The Logic Behind Music”, as many of our students do. I suggest you read this book next to your piano so that you can enjoy all the provided examples as you follow along. Get your trusty highlighter, grab a tasty beverage… and dive right in! After you're finished with your first review of Music Fundamentals, I'd like to know what you think. So, join the conversation on our blog and leave your comments or questions for me there: Click here to Join the Conversation with me and other Pianists You may also find some very interesting comments and questions from other pianists that have also read this book. PianoEncyclopedia.com Musicians are not born, they are made Before you go on to the next page, I want you to think and ask yourself: do you want to be just an interpreter? (Would you be satisfied by learning only how to play piano from sheet music or by rote?) Or would you like to become something more? If so, you can ‐ and I encourage you to get started‐ since all the success stories that we have collected from our students tell us one thing: “Musicians are not born – they are made.” Enjoy! All the best, Rod Schejtman, _________________________________ CEO & Founder of The Piano Encyclopedia www.PianoEncyclopedia.com [email protected] PianoEncyclopedia.com Musicians are not born, they are made More Testimonials from our Students
Let me share with you more comments from our students – about this book that you are about to start to reading. I highly recommend you read this book from head to toes, as reading separate chapters will not help you understand the fundamentals of how music works, so I hope that these testimonials give you enough reasons. :‐) Below you will find a selection of just a few testimonials from our students, taken directly from our blog. To see the complete list of hundreds of testimonials please click on the following link, and once you finish Reading this eBook let us know what you think by leaving your own testimonial: Click here to Read all Testimonials or To Post a Comment PianoEncyclopedia.com Musicians are not born, they are made PianoEncyclopedia.com Musicians are not born, they are made PianoEncyclopedia.com Musicians are not born, they are made PianoEncyclopedia.com Musicians are not born, they are made PianoEncyclopedia.com Musicians are not born, they are made PianoEncyclopedia.com Musicians are not born, they are made Inside Music
Fundamentals
Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1
More Testimonials from our Students ............................................................................ 5
What we’ll cover with our Music Fundamentals Book .................................................. 17
P ART 1: C OMPOSING , I MPROVISING , AND R EALLY U NDERSTANDING T HE K EY E LEMENTS OF M USIC ............................................................ 8
Required Knowledge........................................................................................... 19
The Important Elements of Music ...................................................................... 21
Why Should You Learn Scales and Chords? ........................................................ 25
My Personal Experience & Overcoming Frustration ........................................... 27
Should You Memorize All The Zillion Of Scales and Chords That Exist Out There?
............................................................................................................................ 33
Part 2: Mastering the Elements of Music & Understanding
the Relationsip betweeen chords, scales, and intervals .... 37
The Building Blocks ............................................................................................. 38
The Balance Between Tension and Relief ........................................................... 41
The Octave Interval ............................................................................................. 47
PianoEncyclopedia.com Musicians are not born, they are made The Perfect Fifth Interval .................................................................................... 50
The Major and Minor Third Intervals.................................................................. 55
The Relationship Between intervals and chords ................................................ 63
Building the Major and Minor Triad Chords ....................................................... 65
The Relationship Between Intervals and More Complex Chords ....................... 73
The Relationship Between Scales and Intervals ................................................. 77
Mastering the Major and Minor Triad hords ...................................................... 81
Part 3: Mastering Intervals and Chords ......................... 85
Get Familiar with the Rest of the Music Intervals .............................................. 86
The Second Intervals ........................................................................................... 89
The Seventh Intervals ......................................................................................... 91
The Tritone Interval............................................................................................. 94
Combining Tense Intervals into Chords .............................................................. 95
Creating Your Own Chords .................................................................................. 97
Part 4: Summary of Music Fundamentals ......................... 98
Lesson Summary ................................................................................................. 99
How To Practice On Your Piano......................................................................... 101
Creating Cheerful and Melancholic Moods With Chords ................................. 103
The Next Piano Lesson Report… ....................................................................... 107
Time To Join The Conversation! Ask Questions & Leave Us Feedback ............. 104
What we’ll cover with our Music Fundamentals Book As I don't know your piano level, I have decided to start this lesson with the basics, before going straight into topics such as learning how to harmonize a scale, and master techniques of improvisation and composition. Even if you already know the basic chords and intervals, I am sure that you’ll be able to get a great value out of this lesson. I want to let you know that it took me several years to find someone to teach me chords the way I am going to show you in this book‐ understanding the relationship between intervals and chords. So if this approach is new to you, I am sure you'll really enjoy it and I hope that it will open a new vision to you of how music works, as you discover the important role that music intervals play. This approach will help you for grasping harmony concepts more easily in the near future, which are needed for composing and improvising. I hope you enjoy our Music Fundamentals eBook: the beginning to chords, intervals, and to understanding how music works – in a practical way. I suggest you read it in a calm place, or even best, read it next to your piano so that you can enjoy all the provided examples as you follow along. Page 17 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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PART 1 Taking your piano Skills
to the next level.
COMPOSING, IMPROVISING, AND REALLY UNDERSTANDING THE KEY ELEMENTS OF MUSIC Page 18 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Required Knowledge This book is for all piano levels –from absolute beginners to advanced. It is both for
those that are just starting as well as for those that have been playing for years
(intermediate / advanced), but never had the chance to learn how to improvise, how to
create their own music, or how to play the piano without depending on sheet music or
memorization. The lessons start right from the beginning with a review of all the basic elements of music ‐so you will do great if you’re a beginner‐ and then continue with more advanced topics about how music works, which will let you take your piano skills to the next level. I began playing more than 15 years ago, and until a few years ago not one teacher had taught me anything about music theory. I reached the point where I was playing concert pieces, without learning the basics. In this way, no teacher offered to teach me the basics and I was really too ashamed to ask. Not many years ago, my new teacher imposed me to study everything again from the very beginning. We advanced quickly, and I was actually really grateful as I began to understand how everything worked. Composing and improvising on the piano changed from being a distant dream, to something I was able to accomplish in just a few months. So even if you’re an advanced piano player and are already playing complex pieces, I am sure this overview of the fundamentals will help you in grasping the next lessons much easier, and once we get to chord progressions and how harmonize a scale, you’ll be able master the fundamentals of composing and improvising right away. Page 19 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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If you’re a beginner, I assure you that you’re in the right path to quickly understanding music. I wish that I had learned this right from the beginning to save years of frustration. Page 20 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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The Important Elements of Music In this first lesson report we'll start with the very basics and the most important elements of music:  Intervals  Chords  Scales Q: What are intervals, chords, and scales? An interval is usually described as the distance between two notes. Let’s look at some examples of music intervals: Page 21 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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A chord is usually defined as 3 or more notes played simultaneously. Now, let’s see some chords: A scale is defined as a series of notes that are played one after another – usually 7 to make up a specific sound, or serve as the starting point for any piece of music or composition. Page 22 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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And finally, let’s see some examples of scales: If you read the definition of music intervals –the distance between two notes‐ you’ll notice that intervals can be considered as the elemental building blocks of chords and scales. In this way, you will notice that music intervals are very important in determining if a chord or scale sounds like a particular music style: jazz, blues, classical, Arabic, Spanish, Indian, or any style you can think of. So how does this work? 
In Chords: The distance of the notes used in a chord, that is the music intervals that will be combined to create a particular chord, will define the chord’s sound. 
In Scales: Similarly, the distance used between each note of a scale, that is the music intervals that will be combined to create a particular scale, will also define the scale’s sound. Page 23 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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OK, so these definitions are indeed interesting and we can see that intervals are really important to understanding chords and scales; however, the question is‐ why should you learn chords and scales anyway? Page 24 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Why should you learn Scales and Chords? Let me give you the big picture: chords and scales are the skeleton of any music piece, from Classical, Jazz, Blues, Bebop, Rock, Pop, to almost any music style you can think of. So you should learn them really well and understand them, and especially, know how to use them. You have to understand that once you master these two, discover how they work together, and understand the relation between both, then you will be able to play any song or music piece you like. After this, you’ll be able to start improvising, composing your own works, and you will be able to see music in a whole new way. Even if you play Classical or Pop music and don't want to learn improvising or composing, you'll discover that you'll be able to understand what you're playing: notes and chords will stop being just notes and chords, and you'll start seeing the structure behind the music, the chord progressions behind the score, and start seeing the harmony behind any song or music piece. You'll even be able to transpose any song to any key you would like, and in some cases even predict what chords come next. As you can see, mastering chords and scales is something very important and is practically the base of everything. Most students are introduced to chords when playing their first songs –however many do not really understand why the combination of those chords sound *good* when played in that order. There is actually a skeleton behind each song and each music piece, which is related to the progressions of chords used, while the melody or tune of the song is actually based on different combinations of scales. Moreover, the reason why some chords sound good one after another, or why some scales play smoothly when used with certain chords, is strongly related to the type of music intervals that make them up Page 25 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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and how they interact together: both by producing tension and resolving it, and thus producing pleasure to the listener. I’ll tell you more about that in the following sections, but what I want you to take from this chapter is that everything is strongly related: intervals, chords, and scales. While this process may seem complicated at first, the magic begins with allowing you to use simple, but very powerful concepts that make everything easy to understand. Part of what I am going to teach you in this first report lesson, and in the upcoming ones, are things that I wished I had learned before, simple but very powerful concepts that took me many years to discover, but that changed my piano life completely. Page 26 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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My Personal Experience & Overcoming Frustration I actually had decided to tell you about me later in the report, but I think that by reading the following, you’ll understand how all these concepts had an important and deep impact on me. I hope that step‐by‐step, I’ll help you discover how to see music in a whole new way throughout the piano reports and The Piano Encyclopedia’s Core Lessons. So… Let me share with you my personal story… I started playing piano more than fourteen years ago, which seems to me like a long time, but to tell you the truth, I can’t say all of them were easy and enjoyable. In fact, I went through many teachers, and I got frustrated many times. So frustrated, that I even quit my piano lessons several times, but luckily to always try again and trust that the next piano teacher or the next piano lessons I would have, would give me what I was really looking forward to. If you’ve taken lessons for several years, you probably might have had the same feeling. Piano classes that seem to take you no where, with no certain goals defined, and lots of effort that doesn’t seem to pay off, especially if you’re with the wrong teacher. Well for me it was like that for several years. Years passed, and yes I could learn new popular songs, but I wasn’t feeling that my piano playing skills were greatly improving, and most of the time I felt I was going nowhere, so I quit and started again many times. Then about six or seven years ago… I decided to give it another try. I started on my own with classical music. I even set myself the challenge of learning how to read scores on my own… and started with Bach. Page 27 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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I don’t know why, but I wanted to learn the hard way and wanted to advance at a fast pace. So I managed to play the easy Minuets and then went quickly off to play even a short three voice Fugue, which was actually over‐complicated for my level. Then I decided it was time to get a classical teacher and started playing the Bach Inventions. At that time, I considered the pieces to be impossible (especially Invention no. 8), but I wanted to play badly enough, that I managed to read and play them, so I was very happy. Eventually I began playing harder pieces I love. Chopin, Beethoven as well as Bach are quite a few of my favorites. I actually became quite good, and could play the pieces at a good speed, with technique and dynamics, and I was getting quite a lot of attention from family and friends. Then, as I started to have more responsibilities I began having less time and I couldn’t practice the pieces any more. Some pieces took me several weeks and sometimes months to prepare, so to have time to practice I began taking classes every 2 weeks… then every month… and then I quit. I was really frustrated, as for example, I had managed to play an English Suite from Bach, a very difficult but lovely piece, in which I had spent more than two months to fully prepare. I had almost practiced it to ‘perfection’ playing it with the correct dynamics, transmitting the desired emotions and giving an expression to each of the separate voices correctly, with all the music details to make it sound like a concert recording. I knew it so well; I literally played it sometimes with my eyes closed. But that summer, I went on vacation and didn't have a piano for one month. And when I came back… I had lost all my skills…. I couldn’t play the piece any more… There is even this quote said by a famous historic composer: “One day without practice, I can tell the difference. Two days… and the orchestra can tell the difference. Three days… and the audience can tell the difference.”… Page 28 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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I was actually surprised by this quote when I heard it for the first time and even asked myself: then imagine a month! Haha. Sadly… even I could play the notes… all my technique, dynamic details, and everything I had meticulously practiced for months… was definitely lost. So I was so frustrated… I felt that more than three months of continuous effort in preparing that piece had been thrown in the garbage… Frustration had reached my maximum level. But I didn’t want to quit the piano... but since I couldn’t prepare for classes, I decided to end them. My teacher kept telling me that I was very good and that I should continue with the lessons. Everything had such a deep impact on me that I even thought about quitting my engineering career and dedicating my full time as a concert pianist! Crazy as it sounds it all was very real, hard and intense. Now comes the interesting part. That year passed off, and I kept playing without any lessons. But then, unexpectedly, I met a friend of my brother who told me that he was studying with a piano teacher that knew a lot about music theory and that he taught it in a really interesting way. Then I realized that with all the pieces I had played, I had actually never known what was going on! And so… that’s why I was always stuck. I was just reading notes from a score and playing them without really knowing the actual ‘meaning’ of those notes. In this way every new piece was as difficult as the previous, as I couldn’t find out what was common between each piece, nor could I predict what was going to happen while I was playing. Actually, I realized that songs and scores had been like a set of instructions and that I actually did not really understand them. Page 29 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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So I decided to learn music theory so that if I didn’t have time to practice, at least the concepts would stay in my head and wouldn’t leave me as my piano technique had done. …And so I met this teacher and told him that I wanted to have classes every 2 weeks since I didn’t have enough time. And he told me that he wouldn’t give me classes every two weeks, that I had to go every week, or he wouldn’t give me classes at all, but that if I didn’t have time we would prepare on the class. And so I did start classes with him, and he first changed my piano lessons to something I could enjoy more and not stress out about. The interesting part is that he knew both about classical music ‐ he had studied seven years in a music conservatory‐ and also was a Jazz player. He knew the best of both worlds. I began learning simple things that completely changed my piano life, such as how to harmonize a scale, find chord types and ways to build relationships between various harmonies. I discovered the relation between chords and scales and how they produce harmony through creating more tension or a release, and how you can predict how scales and chords are going to sound by applying this basic concept. There are many other interesting and simple concepts that I am going to be sharing with you. For me it was an incredible change. From then on, I began composing my own pieces –something that I considered a ‘distant dream’ and that I thought would forever be out of my reach! And every time I was busy because I had to study or work, I would just sit on the piano and freely improvise. It was so rewarding... and ‐it is so rewarding! Page 30 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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I changed from ‘interpreting’ music to being able to transmit my own… and that for me was such a difference. It really gives me a chill when I think back to all of this. The real beauty and the possibilities of music began to be seen. I used to love Chopin, so I even got one of the old Chopin Waltz' that I used to play. By analyzing the harmony, I could try to play it in another tune, and I was even able to improvise parts of the melody and change it on the fly. And pop, rock, or even jazz songs, which were actually hard for me, as I didn’t know how to follow the chords and how to play them, are now much easier as I can recognize the chord structure and harmony behind them. Now learning to play songs is much faster and much more enjoyable. So … for me, music changed completely in the last years. I can tell you –and many musicians would agree‐ that there is nothing in the whole universe that can compare once you see that level of music. Luckily, I have been able to find many talented people that share this vision of music and are working with us together, pursuing this same dream. Unfortunately, it took me almost ten years to discover these concepts for the first time. Most of the time when I discuss these concepts with other musicians and ask them how come so few music players (not just pianists) know these simple but powerful concepts, I get the following response: “Because the way it’s taught, Rod. Most of the teachers in my experience, never reached the point we have been discussing today”. So I want to transmit to you these simple but powerful concepts that changed everything for me. Page 31 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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I’ll be sharing with you everything I learned through this book and also through our Digital Home‐Study course “The Logic Behind Music”. In the latter, you’ll enjoy interactive multimedia content that combines all of our experiences together, and the concepts that made each of the members of our team reach a new level of music understanding. The Piano Encyclopedia’s Digital Home‐Study Course “The Logic Behind Music” is an interactive learning software that shows all the concepts I’ve told you about ‐ the relation between chords, scales, intervals, harmony, and everything ‐ through multimedia lessons, interactive books, images, animations, and sound recordings. This Digital Home‐Study Course was the result of three years of work, inspired by the success we had with this book and the support of our followers. We look forward to changing the way people learn piano worldwide, and with our Digital Home‐Study Course, we look forward to making this dream true. This is the reason why we have worked so hard throughout all these years, and keep working, in helping as much people as we can, reach their music goals. Thanks for reading about my personal story, now yes, I hope you truly enjoy this book and that it makes you see music in a different way. Thank you. Page 32 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Should you Memorize All the Zillion of Scales and Chords that Exist out There? From the story I’ve told you, you may now realize that chords and scales are fundamental to your learning; however, you might have seen that there appear to be dozens of scales and trillions of different chords in different positions and different keys. At first sight, it seems impossible to learn them all and seems like a huge task, right? Even more, there are many sites that say, yes I am going to teach you 7000+ chords, and then you see these complex chord charts with multiple combinations that are impossible to use, and then you see yourself looking back at each chord chart, for every chord that you see in a song. Chord and Scale charts are extremely useful and have been one of the most valuable things that have made me reach my actual piano level. However, it’s important to know how to use them. They are the greatest thing that can happen to you to make you speed up your learning, compliment and enrich your music, and give you new ideas and resources to apply to your musical creations‐ but they should not be something you should depend upon for every song you play. Throughout the lessons, I’ll provide you with chords, intervals, and scale charts, and teach you how you can use them as tools to power up your learning and understand the relationship between all the musical elements. Even worse… terrible things happen with some of the ‘chord dictionaries’ out there in the market. Not long ago, I went back to one of my favorite music stores to buy some music sheet I was looking for, and I was surprised by one of these brand new important “Chord Books” that had ‘just arrived’, full of color illustrations showing all the possible key combinations, and juicy graphics. Chord books can be very useful, not only for playing songs, but also for composing and improvising, and they are really handy and easy to use. Page 33 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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However, when I looked more carefully I noticed that there were several hundredth‐
pages thick different chord books – all with different titles ‐ one after the other. Such a terrible thing! Well you might say, why is that bad? They had the “Jazz Chord Book”, the “Blues Chord Book”, and the “Rock Chord Book”, and so on for several music styles… Each worth a couple of big bucks each. So by now you must either be thinking… “hey it must be great to have all those chord books at home and play the different styles”… or: “I can’t believe I’ll have to spend so much time studying all those books and memorizing all those different chords to master all those styles”. And second “I can’t believe I’ll actually have to buy all of them and spend so much money…” Well, from that point of view it actually sounds a bit crazy, but I have good news for you: I couldn’t resist, so I took all the chord books out of the shelf, laid them out on a table of the store, and started comparing the index of each of the books! Guess what I found out? Obviously – of course – 90% (yes, Ninety‐percent) of the included chord types were the same in ALL books: Jazz, Blues, Rock, everything. So as you can see, this was a really awful thing. Any person who wouldn’t have compared the indexes, and had bought them all, would have been ‘tricked’ into buying lots of repeated information – a real waste of money, time, and a cause to loose motivation for any piano student... Sadly enough, this is not an uncommon way to approach chord and method books. But WHY did they share 90% of the content? Were they wrong? Not really. The truth is that many music styles share many similar chord types. And sometimes, there are just a couple of chord types that give each music style it’s unique flavor, while others are shared in common, from Classical to Jazz, although used less frequently depending on the style. Page 34 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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So that’s really the good news: if you wanted to learn all styles you would have to learn just the characteristic chord types that are used in each style‐ and not the whole collection of chord books. In that way, understanding how chord types are shared between different music styles will give you a deeper understanding of what makes each musical style different. The same is true with scales, and understanding the distinctive characteristics between styles, and combining both the appropriate chords and scales, while helping you to master each of the music styles. So it’s not just learning chords or scales from a particular style, but knowing how to combine both. Just an aside‐ this idea is what really took us to create one of the most important features of the Piano Encyclopedia’s Chord Dictionary. We decided to have ALL the existent piano chords in one single book, and to categorize each chord type by every music style where they are used. In this way the user can not only filter them by ANY particular music style, but also compare several music styles and see which chords they have in common. By comparing several music styles, it’s possible to get to know the characteristic chords of each style. We’re following the same idea with the Piano Encyclopedia’ Scale Dictionary, and the best part is that both dictionaries are closely integrated, so you’ll also be able to look up what chords should be used with each scale and vice‐versa. The idea is to provide you with a deeper understanding of how everything really works – and not just some fancy titles as “Jazz Chord Book”, “Rock Chord Book”, “Exotic Scales Book”, etc. Well, back to the music store, the second good news is that even with a single chord book, the hundreds of pages contain the same chord types transposed in all keys, and just in different positions or inversions. Inversions are just interesting and different ways of playing the same chord to give it a unique sound‐ and we’ll see more about them in the next lessons. But what I am trying to tell you is that once you understand how to create a certain chord type in one key, you’ll be able to do it in all the rest of the keys, without any further memorization. There is no need to memorize every single note of every chord and every scale: every chord and scale type follows a certain pattern. Also once you understand how certain inversions work, you’ll be able to apply them to any chord, without learning anything by heart. Page 35 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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So I want you to really understand chords and scales, and learn how these 7000+ chords can be reduced to just a few chords. By knowing some simple concepts you’ll be able to create all those combinations yourself. Also with the method I am going to show in this one and the upcoming lessons, not only will you be able to play any chord or scale in any key, but also can create your own chords, and even be able to predict how a chord will sound before you play it. Same with scales. So let's get to the actual stuff, and let me tell you that the secret to all this is to understand the following: all the chords and scales are made up of different combinations of music intervals. These music intervals are like the building blocks of chords and scales, and if you know them wisely, you'll also be able to determine how a chord will sound even before playing it. I hope that this introduction opens your eyes as to the importance of learning music intervals, chords, and scales, and that you enjoy what’s coming up next! Page 36 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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PART 2 Discovering the relationship between chords,
scales, and intervals
MASTERING THE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC & UNDERSTANDING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN EACH OTHER Page 37 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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The Building Blocks So by now you might be wondering, if music intervals are like the building blocks of chords and scales… Q: What are music intervals exactly? A musical interval is usually defined as the distance between two notes. These two notes can be played apart such as when playing a melody or a scale, or can be played simultaneously, such as when the interval forms a part of a chord Let me give you several examples of different music intervals: Page 38 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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So as you see, the distance between the first note and the second note determines the name of the musical interval and the sound it carries. These are just a few of all the music intervals that exist, so by now you might be thinking: Q: Which intervals should I learn and why? Well, my first objective for this lesson is a practical one, and I would like for you to be able to quickly build the Major and Minor Triad chords in any key. Minor and Major triads are the basis of most music pieces, and they will be really useful for playing your first songs and creating your first compositions. To learn these we’ll need to master:  The Perfect Fifth Interval  The Major Third Interval  The Minor Third Interval As we’ll see shortly, combining these intervals will let us build the chords on any key without the need to memorize the individual notes of each of the major and minor triads. Page 39 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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My second objective, is more profound, and is for you to understand why the major and minor chords sound like they do, and to understand the nature of intervals in order for you to start building your own chords, and to be able to predict how a chord will sound even before you play it, right from the beginning. In order to accomplish the latest, I want to tell you about a very simple but powerful concept that will guide us throughout the whole lessons: “Music is the balance between creating tension and relief” Page 40 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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The Balance Between Tension and Relief In the first class I had with my current teacher, he said one phrase that I remember every time I play, which summarizes all the most important music concepts I’ve learned with him throughout the past years: “Music is the balance between creating Tension and Relief” Yes… this is the powerful but simple concept that I’ve told you about in the last chapter. Q: What do you mean by tension and relief? I think it would be better for you to experiment it: go get any of your favorite songs or music pieces, no matter what style they are, and click on play. Ready? Click on play and follow along with the next paragraphs. If you listen carefully you’ll discover that there are moments in the music where tension is building up and then finally finding release or a resolution. You may identify this effect many times throughout the music, some resolutions being stronger, and others weaker. In the last passage of the music piece or song that you’re playing, you’ll probably feel the strongest sensation of tension and most definitive resolution, remarking the ending of the music. This balance between tension and relief is common to almost all music. However, it will be very clear for you to recognize it on most classical music, as it’s usually built of basic chords, but you may also perceive it on Pop or Jazz music pieces or songs, if you’re able to get through the more complex chord formations. Page 41 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Now imagine a music piece that had too much tension and only clashing sounds, but no release. The music piece will probably not be very appealing to most, as it will feel quite unpleasant and disturbing, since the tension builds up and never resolves. Now imagine the exact opposite, a piece without any clashing sounds, and no tension at all whatsoever. The music piece will probably sound pleasant to the ear, but will most likely be extremely boring to listen to. For a listener, pleasure is produced each time tension is resolved, so a piece without any tension usually results in a boring composition. In this way, one of the biggest secrets of music and what makes a music piece interesting and pleasant to the ear is: Finding the correct balance between creating tension and relief. This concept will guide us through all of our lessons, will let you discover more about the music you’re already playing, while opening your path into improvising and composing. However this is not a mathematical formula, there is no formula which will tell you what combination of chords or melody is used to produce the exact needed amount of tension or release. Creativity plays a very important role in composing and improvising; nevertheless, it’s important to have the right resources, the right tools and information to help you make composing and improvising an easier task, and thus let your creativity flow by using the right knowledge. In this way, if you get to know which chords or notes in a melody will produce tension or relief, you’ll be much closer to finally playing on the piano with what was initially on your mind. Page 42 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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That is what we are going to learn on the following chapters. We’re first going to learn how to build the major and minor chords with intervals, and then head off to analyze the different intervals to see if they more likely produce tension or relief. As you already know, intervals form chords and scales, so understanding the nature of intervals, will also let you predict which chords will most likely produce tension or relief, and the same with your melody line. It’s important to stress that the concept of tension or relief is also relative to the context of the sound. In this way, if you play a very tense chord, and then play a less‐
tense chord, you will still feel a sensation of relief, even though the second chord is still causing some tension and has not yet completely resolved. Let me show you exactly what I am talking about. Let’s play a very simple progression of chords. Play the following chords in order: Page 43 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Don’t worry about the chord names yet and just play it and feel the sound. As you can listen, the first chord seems to contain no tension, then the tension seems to build up with the second chord, and it’s finally resolved in the last chord, producing a sensation of relief. So in this case it’s the distinction between the second while the first and last chords are pretty clear, with the middle chord having the strongest tension. However, let’s see another example where we actually have different degrees of tension, and tension builds up and then slowly resolves, each time producing a new sensation of relief to the listener. Page 44 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Play the following chords on your piano: In this case, you actually feel that the second chord produces the most tension, and then it resolves to the third chord, lowering the tension level and thus producing a release. However, the third chord is the same one that was producing the tension on the first example, and is now causing a sensation of relief as it produces less tension than the previous one. Finally, the last chord resolves all the tension into a state of complete release. Page 45 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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If we could picture the tension‐level across time, we would have a graph that would start off at zero, then get to a high peak, and then slowly get back to zero. Actually, you could do that with every song you listen to –not just these three or four chords‐ and you’ll discover that usually, once the tension level reaches it’s highest point, you’ll be reaching the climax of the song or music piece. In this way, you can see how this concept plays an important role in all music. With these examples, I hope you have also noticed that the division is not black & white, but that the different intervals and chords produce different levels of tension and relief. In this way the overall sensation of each of the sections of your song or music piece will vary depending on how smoothly and quickly the tension is built up and how smoothly the tension is resolved, to produce a release. Thinking about the concepts of tension and release will help you understand much better what you’re playing, and will help you to get started with composing and improvising, To make things easier and practical we’re just going to divide the intervals into: ‘tension‐producing’ and ‘non‐tension producing’ intervals for the most common cases. On the upcoming lessons, we’ll see that this can be studied in a deeper way using terms such as consonant, dissonant, unstable, ambiguous, and many other classifications and considerations. However, I would first want you to get all the practical data, so you can start applying this on your piano, before getting technical. Now it’s time to take a look at some intervals and see all this in action as we learn how to master the major and minor triad chords. Page 46 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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The Octave Interval You might already know this interval, even if you don’t know its name. This one is actually one of the easiest ones to learn, as it’s just the same note repeated in a higher pitch, which is called an octave higher. The Octave interval is not really necessary to build the major and minor triads, but it’s useful to know as it is one of the most fundamental intervals of music, and it’s very easy to master. Let’s see how it looks in all keys before moving on. Please take a look at the next page. Page 47 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Play this interval on any key, for example on Key of C: You may notice that this interval does not produce a tense sound, but produces a quite comfortable sound. However, let’s move on to one of the most important musical intervals that will help you as the basis for building many chords: The Fifth Interval. Page 49 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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The Perfect Fifth Interval Not only is this interval present in almost all of the chords and scales of conventional harmony, and we’ll help us build our minor and major triads, but also plays an important role in composition and harmony. This interval is also related to something called "The Circle of Fifths", which we'll see in the upcoming lessons, and will help us for creating chord progressions that will define the underlying harmony of our compositions. In this way, you should definitely master this interval. Now the question is... Q: How can we build up a Fifth Interval? Page 50 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Let’s see some examples of what the Perfect Fifth Interval looks like: You won’t have to memorize all of the individual notes of each one. If you count the notes by key, including both the black and white keys, you'll notice that there are 7 keys‐ not counting the key that you are on‐ from the first to the last key of ANY Fifth interval. In music terms, the 7 keys are referred to as half tones‐ where a key distance determines each “Half‐Tone”. You might also see the music term “Whole‐Tone” in some texts, which represents 2 half tones. Throughout the lessons we’re going to be naming distances only using half tones, as they are easier to count. Back to our explanation, the good thing to know, is that the distance from the first to the last note is 7 keys (not including the first key that you play), which means that you're now ready to build the Fifth interval on ANY key! Page 51 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Let's do an example; if you wanted build a D Fifth Interval, you would play the D note: …and then you would count up 7 Half‐tones starting from D. In this way you would be able to build the D Fifth Interval by playing both simultaneously: I have created a chart for you, with all the Fifth Intervals in all 12 tonalities, so you can master the Perfect Fifth interval in all keys. Please take a look at this chart on the next page. Page 52 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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If you play any Fifth interval, no matter what key you play it in, you’ll notice that the Fifth interval produces a comfortable sound and apparently no tension. In this way, you can be sure that if a Fifth interval is part of a chord, it will not add tension to that chord. While the formal name of this interval is “Perfect Fifth”, I have actually named this interval as “Perfect Fifth” and “Fifth” indistinctly, and the latter is widely used informally. The reason why the “Perfect” is added to the name is because, as we will see on the following lessons, there are other types of ‘Fifth intervals”, where the spacing changes by a half tone. These are also sometimes referred to as augmented and diminished fifth intervals, and so the word “Perfect” usually enforces that we’re talking about the interval with the seven half tones that we have presented. Page 54 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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The Major and Minor Third Intervals Now that you understand the Fifth Interval, we can advance faster, and I can show you the types of third Intervals so that you can start building complete triad chords. There are two types of third intervals, which work with the perfect fifth to make a complete triad. However, before I show you how, let me first show you how the two types of third intervals look like in the key of C: Let’s look at another example in the key of F: Page 55 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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As you see, they are very similar, with the difference being in a lowered note of a half tone. The difference is one chord has a raised Third, while the other has a lowered Third. Again, you won’t need to memorize the notes of every Third interval in all keys. All intervals follow a certain pattern, and if you count the number of notes from the first to last note, in both the interval examples, respectively, you should notice they are the same. The two types of intervals that are used for Thirds are the “Major” and “Minor” intervals. Just by knowing how the Major and Minor Intervals that are defined, you should be able to master them on all keys. Q: How are the major and minor third intervals defined? If we define these intervals, we would have: 
Major Third Interval: 4 Half Tones from the first to second note 
Minor Third Interval: 3 Half Tones from the first to second note Page 56 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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I have also prepared for you two interval charts to show you the Major and Minor‐
Third Interval on all keys so that you can practice. Let’s first take a look at the Major Third Intervals on all keys. Please go to the Major intervals chart on the following page. Page 57 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Remember that you can get to a minor third from a major third by lowering the second note one half‐tone. In this way, take a look at the Minor Thirds Intervals on all keys. Please take a look at the Minor Third Interval chart on the following page. Page 59 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Before moving down to triad chords, I want you to tell me if you think that the minor and major third intervals cause tension or not. Go ahead and play the D Major Third Interval, for example: You’ll notice that the sound is quite pleasant with no sign of tension. You may try playing the same interval type on different keys. Even when pitch changes, the sound texture will feel the same, which should still feel pleasant or un‐disturbing. Now, let’s experiment with the Minor Third Intervals. Go ahead and play an E Minor Third Interval, for example: Page 61 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Although you’ll notice a change in the sound texture, quite more sad or melancholic, you’ll still feel that the sound is pleasant or un‐disturbing. Again, that will be same, no matter what key you play it in. So for now, we could say that the Perfect Fifth, Major Third, and Minor Third Intervals are intervals that do not cause tension and that usually sound pleasant or un‐
disturbing. Now if I told you that the Major and Minor Triad Chords are actually made up of a combination of these three intervals, would you be able to guess if the Major and Minor triad chords will produce tension or not? I know you already know the answer, but keep reading and we will go into that as soon as I show you how to create the major and minor triad chords in any key. Page 62 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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The Relationship Between Intervals and Chords Now we get to the interesting part. You already know that chords and intervals are closely related and that intervals are actually the building blocks. Even though intervals are usually stacked up to make chords, it’s useful to think about the relationship of each of the notes of the chord in respect to the Root of the Chord. The Root of the chord is simply the name for the first note of a chord. If we had a C Triad Major Chord, for example: The Root of C Major would be C. The same works in any other complex example, for example a B m9b5 chord: Still, B is the Root of B m9b5. Don’t worry about the chord naming, we’ll see those chords in future lessons, but the concept I want you to get is that the Root is just the first note of any chord, when the chord is in its ‘original’ position. So the point is that you can think of chord as adding up several intervals, and can predict how a chord will sound from this. This can be done with the intervals forming at the root of the chord, as we’ll see in a minute. Page 63 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Before going into that, let me tell you about a very important characteristic of the Minor and Major Third Intervals. These intervals are actually really important, and have a special characteristic that usually divides most scales and chords into two distinctive groups, in addition to the division we made regarding the tension / relief. If you listen to them on the piano, you'll perceive that while all of them sound pleasant and un‐disturbing, the Fifth interval sounds neutral, the Minor interval usually sounds a bit sad, melancholic, blue, or dark, while the major interval usually sounds happy, cheerful, or playful. As you already know, the above intervals don't produce tension and you might have already figured out that neither the Major nor minor triad will be tension producing chords. However, the last bit of information regarding the quality of the third will become more useful in predicting more about the chords’ sound, as you’ll see next. Page 64 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Building the Major and Minor Triad Chords So let's finally get into chords, and the two basic piano chords: Major and Minor Chords. Q: What is a chord? A chord is usually defined as at least three notes played simultaneously, which means that at least two intervals are played at the same time (with one note in common between both intervals). Before going to that explanation, let’s take a look at some examples of the Major and Minor triad Chords. Let’s see some major triad chords examples: And now some Minor triad chords examples: Page 65 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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As you can see both the Major and Minor chord triads are very similar. Again, you don’t need to memorize the notes of every major and minor chord in every key. By knowing the Perfect Fifth, Major Third, and Minor Third intervals, you’ll be able to build up any major or minor chord on ANY key. Let’s see how this works. Let’s see what would happen if I play a C Fifth Interval: …And then ADD a third from the Root (from the first note as we mentioned before): We would actually get a Major chord! Page 66 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Yes: + = Therefore you can see that by knowing intervals, creating chords is just as easy. The best part, is that not only will you be able to build any chord type on any key, using this method of relating the intervals to chords, but will also be able to predict how each chord will sound. Let’s take a look at this now by playing the past examples. Page 67 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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The major chord does not only sound pleasant, without producing tension, (as neither the major third nor perfect are tension producing), but it also sounds quite cheerful, happy, or playful, as it is composed by a major third interval, which has that nature. The same easy procedure can be applied to build up all the Minor chords in ANY key: Let’s play a C Fifth Interval: And then ADD a Minor Third Interval from the Root: And we actually get a Minor Chord! Page 68 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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That’s right: + = Page 69 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Again, this chord not only sounds pleasant and non‐tension producing (as it’s composed of a perfect fifth interval and a minor third), but also sounds quite sad, melancholic, or dark, as it is built up from a minor third interval, which has that nature. Therefore, the quality of the intervals of a chord, really determines the quality of the chord itself, and knowing more about the intervals, will let you become more creative into creating your own chords, adding more tension, building a more pleasant sound, or making a melancholic or happy mood. Before we continue, let’s take a look at all the Major and Minor Triad Chords in the following pages: Page 70 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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The Relationship Between Intervals and More Complex Chords Now that we’re done with the triad chords, let’s see what happens with more complex chords and intervals. The relationship between chords and intervals not only happens with 3 note chords. Actually almost any chord that has a minor third will have a sad or melancholic feel, and any chord that has a major third, will most likely have a more happy or upbeat feel. Complex chords are made up of more than three notes or may include different types of intervals. Just to give you an example, let me show you some more complex chords. Play and compare the two following more complex chords and feel their sound. Both are Seventh chords. This means that there is a fourth note that includes a Seventh interval from the root, thus the name “Seventh Chords”. But you’ll probably feel that the first one, that has a major third from the root, has a more upbeat sound, while the second has a more mellow or sad sound, as it has a minor third from the root. Page 73 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Now do the same with the following Ninth Chords, another type of chord concept that includes usually five notes. A ninth chord means that there will be an interval that is a ninth above the root note. Again, the only other difference between both chords is the chord’s third, which is major in the first one and minor in the second one. Even though these chords contain more notes than the previous, each still has a feeling of sadness/darkness or happiness/cheerfulness, and this is caused by the quality of the third of the chord. You’ll also feel both chords produce more tension, and are a bit more disturbing than the major and minor triads. Page 74 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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The reason is that they both have the Minor Seventh Interval, which is a tension‐
producing interval, while the second chord also has the Major Ninth Interval, which is also tension‐producing interval. Let’s see an example of the Minor Seventh Interval in C: Do you feel the tension? Can you experience the clashing sound between the two notes and an unpleasant sound? So as you can see, the different intervals add color and tension to the chord, to produce a different sound texture. The previous chord type is actually called “dominant” chords, as they produced an important amount of tension from the interval spacings, which ask for a resolution. The seventh chord is widely used in Classical Music, while the ninth chord is used in more Contemporary music such as Jazz and Blues. We’ll see how we can use these chord types to build up the tension in our songs in the next lessons. This division caused by the quality of the third interval is very important, and in this way, all chords that have a minor third from the root are usually included into the group of "Minor chords" and all the ones that have major thirds are included into the group of "Major chords" Page 75 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Adding more intervals to a chord gives more complex moods and more interesting chords. Page 76 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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The Relationship Between Intervals and Scales Intervals also have an important role in scales, and we can also divide them into “Major Scales” and “Minor Scales”. Similar to chords, if a scale has a major third interval from the root, then it’s usually categorized as a “Major Scale”. If the scale has a minor third interval from the root, then it’s usually categorized as a “Minor Scale”. So as you can see, practically the same rules that work with chords can be applied to scales. Even more, the third interval affects the mood or sound of the scale, in a similar fashion it does with chords. Let’s compare some examples: If you examine carefully both examples, you’ll notice that there is only one difference between them. The first one contains a major third interval from the root (colored), while the second one contains a minor third interval from the root (also colored). Page 77 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Now if you play these two scales from the first note to the last note, in order, you’ll notice that the first one has more cheerful or upbeat sound –as it’s a “Major Scale” (has a major third from the root) ‐ while the second one has a more sad, dark, or melancholic sound as it’s a “Minor Scale” (has a minor third from the root). So as you can see, changing the quality of the third interval also changes the mood or sound of the scale, in a similar way it works with chords. As an aside, you can appreciate from the image’s footer that the Jazz Minor is widely used in Jazz licks. So if you want to have some fun, you might as well give it a try . Now we’re going to look at another interesting example, but this time with a five‐note scale. We previously mentioned at our formal definition, that scales usually have seven notes. The reason we used the word usually is because there are some exceptions, and the following is one of them: This scale is named “Pentatonic Minor” scale (“Penta” = five, hence the name). However, it’s more widely known simply as the “Chinese” Scale. You might be wondering why is it called Chinese Scale? Believe me; it will be very easy for you to Page 78 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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figure it out once you play it on your piano. I suggest you go ahead and give it a try right now. The great thing about this scale is that it’s very easy to play; by just using the black keys of your keyboard you’ll get a real Oriental sound. Now take a look at the scale right below it, the Pentatonic Major Scale. Even though it’s on a different key, it really has the same structure as the previous scale, but has a minor third interval instead of a major third interval, from the root. You’ll appreciate that just that small ‘architectonic’ change produces a different mood on the scale. So it’s interesting to know, that independent of how many notes the scale has, the third interval always plays a very important role. Make sure that when you try out the different scales that you give some attention to where the scale begins, as usually the first note of the scale is the most important one. This first note is like the ‘home’ of the scale, usually named as the ‘root’ note of the scale. You’ll discover that if you play the same scale in ascending and then descending order, from a different starting point, then the scale will indeed sound different and have a different mood or characteristic depending on the note you choose to begin with. Regardless of that, that doesn’t mean you need to play all the scales in order, from beginning to end without changing anything‐ because that could be plain boring . But instead‐ try building up any melody your ear tells you, but for now try that by starting on the scale’s first note and finishing on the same note, while doing any movement you want in the middle. Highlighting the first note –the root note‐ in this way, and making it the concluding point, will give your ear a stronger feeling that you’re actually playing a melody based on that scale and key that you’re trying (and so Page 79 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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that you get familiar with more technical terms, this is also called ‘establishing tonality’). We’ll see more about that in the next lessons. Page 80 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Mastering the Major and Minor Triad Chords To start mastering all these music concepts, you should first be able to play the major and minor chords in all keys. I am sure that by now you already know how to build them on any key, by using the intervals formula, but it's also very important that you play them on the piano. Simple major and minor chords are almost 90% of many classical piano pieces and pop songs, so you should definitely know them well. For this purpose, now that you understand how intervals are related to chords, let’s review the two major and minor triad‐chord charts I’ve shown you previously. Please continue to the following page. Page 81 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Master Composing, Improvising, and take your Piano Skills to the Next Level
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Master Composing, Improvising, and take your Piano Skills to the Next Level
The good thing about this is that once you now understand where the chords come from and how they work, you don't need to memorize them. Page 84 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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PART 3 Mastering Intervals and Chords
DISCOVER THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTERVALS AND CHORDS AND TO BE ABLE TO PREDICT HOW A CHORD WILL SOUND BEFORE EVEN PLAYING IT. Page 85 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Get Familiar with the Rest of the Music Intervals Once you have the basics of intervals down, you can begin to find other intervals that carry more tension or offer more release. Knowing what these alternatives are can help you to build more on the pieces you are learning and can help you to hear music differently. Take a look at all the common Intervals in C Page 86 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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…Continues on the next page…
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Master Composing, Improvising, and take your Piano Skills to the Next Level
…Continued from the previous page…
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Master Composing, Improvising, and take your Piano Skills to the Next Level
Following are the most common intervals that are used to build tension. We have already seen the basic intervals; however without getting any deeper yet, it would be a good idea for you to get familiar with the rest of the common intervals. We’ll study each of these intervals in the depth as we move along! :) Page 88 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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The Second Intervals There are two 2nd intervals, major and minor. The minor is the same as a half tone and the major 2nd is the same as a whole tone. This interval is known as one of the most tense intervals and can be used repeatedly in order to build suspense. I think you’ll completely agree that this interval sounds like Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” movie, right on the shower scene, when the actress is about to get killed by the evil murderer. Play the following on your piano: How does it sound? Play it repeatedly on the upper octaves of your piano. Do it many times. You might also want to feel the same interval type on a different key. You’ll experience the same sound type, but on a different pitch: Page 89 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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I am sure you’ve had enough of that sound, and I think you’ll completely agree that the Minor Second interval can really produce some terrifying and disturbing tension. Nevertheless, if you were to make a complete song or music piece by just playing this interval type, even if you changed keys, I am sure neither you nor your listeners would appreciate it. A sound that is not as tense, but still holds a similar build up of tension is the major 2nd. Page 90 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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The Seventh Intervals Let’s see some more examples of other intervals type that produce tension: the 7th Interval. This interval is a 7th from the root note, with either 10 half tones or 11 half tones moving up from the root, depending if it is minor or major. Like the 2nd interval, the 7th is used for the clashes, anticipations and builds of tension. You can expect the Major Seventh interval to stay as disturbing as the Hitchcock interval. You might feel that the two notes audibly clash with each other, and that the sound seems restless or uncomfortable. Try the same interval type on other keys: You might be wondering how do we know it’s the same interval type, even if it’s on a different key? Easy, same as we did with the rest previous intervals, count the number Page 91 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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of notes from the first to the last note, in each of the three examples. You’ll notice it’s the same for all three examples, thus defining the Major Seventh Interval type. In this way, when you play the same interval type in different keys, you’ll get the same sound color but on a different pitch. Now let’s move into other ‘tension‐producing’ Intervals that are less ‘stressful’ or have more release: the Minor Seventh Intervals. Even you still feel tension and a restless or uncomfortable sound; you’ll notice that the Minor Seventh Intervals actually holds less tension than the Major Seventh Intervals: Let’s play the Minor Seventh and Major Seventh Intervals and compare them: You may still feel them uncomfortable or stressful, but I hope you’ll agree that while both are tension‐producing intervals, the Minor Seventh Intervals sounds a bit more pleasant than the latest. Page 92 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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So as you can see there are different levels of creating tension. Page 93 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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The Tritone Interval The Tritone is one of the most important tension‐producing intervals, and is considered to be one of the most crucial elements in music from Classical to Jazz because of the amount of tension it uses. Let’s listen to its sound: This interval still produces a restless, uncomfortable, or unstable sound, and constitutes one of the main ways of creating tension in the Classical era, while widely used in Jazz and Blues. Understanding how this interval creates tension will actually let you understand how many music passages work as it’s widely used in Classical music and also on most contemporary music styles, such as Jazz or Blues. Mastering it, will let you get into applying advanced composing tricks in the upcoming lessons. Page 94 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Combining Tense Intervals into Chords I am sure you have had enough of tension producing intervals, and you probably be wondering: why is he making me play these interval types, if I am not planning to learn composing for a horror movie? Well, as you have seen in the past chapters, the truth is that these intervals are usually not played alone, but played combined with other notes, thus forming chords. These additional notes soften their tension‐ producing quality and combine it with their own colors to produce different sound textures that can be very pleasant to the ear. In this way, the intervals that produce tension are usually softened by their context and thus all these intervals I showed you are used in many music styles, being the more dissonant ones used especially in contemporary music. Let me show you how this works by playing the C7 chord, which contains the Minor Seventh Interval: You’ll notice that even though the Minor Seventh Interval alone sounds clashing and disturbing, once it’s played along the other non‐tense interval types, the overall result is much more pleasant and smoothing, while still adding some tension into the music. Following these lines, and knowing now that chords are made of intervals of different characteristics, it’s easier to figure out which chords produce tension and which ones produce release. As you can see, the mixtures of intervals that are put together create the sound that is needed to drive the music forward, through both suspense and romance. Page 95 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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In about a minute, we’ll use all these information to create our own chords… Page 96 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Creating Your Own Chords Now that you know the fundamentals of how chords are built, you can build your own chords out of the intervals that you have learned. When you begin putting together your own chords, you can do it just like you are putting together a recipe with the different intervals. This gives you a way to see how the intervals can fit together to make a perfect mix. Begin with deciding on whether you will choose a major or minor third. If you aren't sure, decide whether you want the chord to be melancholic or cheerful. This will give you the basis of your new chords. After deciding this, you can decide if you want the chord to have tension or if you want it have a more pleasant sound. As you go, you will learn which intervals have more tension and which have a more pleasant sound. As long as you use the interval chart as a reference, with the common intervals in place, you should be able to find which sounds fit better into different places. When you do this, let your ear decide on what the best movements are between the intervals. If you want to replace the fifth interval and have one that creates more tension, try moving up or down a whole tone or half tone in order to change the feel. You can also add in more notes, such as the sixth or the seventh intervals, so that you can create even more tension with the song. But never forget; allow the ear some release by the end of your piece. Page 97 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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PART 4 Summary of Music Fundamentals
DISCOVER HOW TO CREATE MELANCHOLIC OR CHEERFUL MOODS WITH YOUR CHORDS AND HOW TO PRACTICE ON YOUR PIANO Page 98 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Lesson Summary Let’s get a summary of all we have learned throughout this lesson: Music is the balance between tension and release. When you know how tension builds on intervals, you can predict how a chord will sound before you play it. When you understand how to use intervals, you can create your own chords. The Octave = same note in a higher pitch. Perfect Fifth Interval = two notes separated by 7 Half‐tones. Major Third Interval = two notes separated by 4 Half‐tones. Minor Third Interval = two notes separated by 3 Half‐tones (or one note less than a Major Third Interval). Major Chord = Perfect Fifth + Major Third Interval. Minor Chord = Perfect Fifth + Minor Third Interval (or build up a Major chord and lower the third interval one note). Minor Third Interval usually sounds a bit sad, melancholic, blue, or dark while the Major Interval usually sounds happy, cheerful, or playful. Knowing this will help you to predict how a chord or scale, that contains any of these two intervals, will sound. Page 99 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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The qualities of the intervals of a chord, determine the mood of the chord itself. All chords that have a minor third from the root are included in the group "Minor chords" and all chords that have a major third from the root are included in the group "Major chords", independent of how many notes they have. All scales that have a minor third from the root are included in the group "Minor Scales" and all scales that have a major third from the root are included in the group "Major Scales", independent of how many notes they have. It's very important you practice these chords on the piano and know them well; they will be useful for our next lessons involving how to harmonize scales (that is useful for composing and improvising) as well for playing many songs. Page 100 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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How to Practice on Your piano Q: How to Practice? Print out the piano chord and interval charts that are in the appendix of this lesson, and practice on your piano by following routine with the piano charts in front of you: 1. Play all the Fifth Intervals chromatically (note by note) first in ascending order and then in descending order. This is the same as playing the perfect fifth intervals from the interval chart from left to right, and then in reverse order. 2. Play all the Third Major Intervals chromatically ascending and descending. Again, this is the same as playing the major third intervals from the interval chart from left to right, and then in reverse order. 3. Play all the Major Chords chromatically, first in ascending and then descending order. Do this by mentally joining the Fifth + Major Third interval together. Use the chord charts to practice. 4. Play all the Minor Third Intervals chromatically ascending and descending. Picture the major third interval and lower a half‐tone as you practice them. 5. Last Practice all the minor chords by playing them in ascending and then in descending order. Do this by mentally joining the Fifth + Minor Third intervals together. Use the chord chart to practice. 6. For all of these, try also playing them in a random order, to see if you can remember each of them without looking back on the chart. 7. Create your own chords. Without worrying about the chord names, try creating your own chords out of the intervals that you have learned. Page 101 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Make sure you know them well so that you are well prepared for our next lessons! Page 102 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Creating Cheerful and Melancholic Moods with Chords Ok, that's all for this lesson. I hope you enjoyed the lesson and you got a new perspective on how to build up chords, and their relationships with intervals, and that you have a better understanding of why they sound like they do. With this short knowledge, you already know that if you want to create a sad melancholic song you'll need to use minor chords, and that you would probably play your melody on a Minor Scale, while if you're looking for a cheerful song, your song will contain almost all major chords and you’ll probably be using a Major Scale to play your tunes. If you read this again, you’ll see that it’s quite a powerful and very simple concept that will help you for composing and improvising your first simple music pieces and songs. Real soon…. in the next lessons! Page 103 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Time to Join the Conversation! Ask Questions & Leave us Feedback …So tell me, what do you think of this book? We have spent several months working on this one‐hundred pages book for you, so I hope you’ll agree it was worth the read – and that you got great value out of it. So if you enjoyed this lesson and it helped you in any way, I would deeply appreciate if you let me know by leaving a message on our blog and I also encourage you to share it with other people. For me it’s very important to know that this lesson has been useful to you, and I would love to answer any questions of anything you’d like me to explain further. I’d appreciate knowing if you found this lesson too easy or too hard, so as to make adjustments for the upcoming lessons. If you benefited at all from this book, you can help us in two ways: 1. By going to our blog and posting your comments you can also help others understand how this report helped you. Just go to the following blog post now, and tell me and everyone else what you think of our book “Music Fundamentals”: Click here to Join the Conversation with and other Pianists! 2. Help us spread the word, and at the same time help your friends. Share our site with your beloved ones! Page 104 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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I am also looking forward to getting to know more about you as well. ;o) So if you’d like to leave a comment or question on our blog about this book, please join the conversation here: www.PianoEncyclopedia.com/members/MusicFundamentals‐Talk If you liked this book, let me tell you that this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you enjoyed learning from this book, wait once you get to try our Digital Home‐Study Course “The Logic Behind Music” with animations, sound, and piano recordings; the integrated Community that will let you interact with other students and share your recordings and compositions; and our interactive chord, scale, and interval piano charts with more than 1000 pages of learning content, and over 3000 piano animations with sound. All this content has been designed to teach you how to play the piano freedom: improvise, create your own music, and play by ear without depending on music sheet or memorization. The main difference between this book and our Digital Home‐Study Course “The Logic Behind Music”, is that our Digital Home‐Study Course is completely interactive and goes way beyond the content covered in this book. It starts with a review of everything you learned in this book ‐using more in‐depth examples‐ and then takes you step by step –with on‐screen interactive examples‐ from how to play simple songs up to how to improvise, create your own music, and play by ear. I invite you to check out the video‐tour: Click here to watch a video‐tour of our Digital Home Study Course Page 105 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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Thank you for reading this book, and in the name of the whole team, I deeply thank your support to The Piano Encyclopedia! Best Wishes, Rod Schejtman ________________________________________ CEO & Founder of The Piano Encyclopedia PianoEncyclopedia.com Email: [email protected] Page 106 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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The Next Lessons… With our Digital Home‐Study Course “The Logic Behind Music” we will start by first reviewing everything we learned on this book, but with more in‐depth examples, and using multimedia content: interactive piano animations, sound recordings, and animated piano‐charts. After learning to play several songs using chords, we will learn about the relationship between chords and scales, and how we can use this knowledge to harmonize any scale. By being able to harmonize any scale –on any key‐ we will understand how music works. With this new knowledge, we will review all the songs that we learned, and discover why those songs sound “good”, and why the composers choose those chords or melodies that we played before. We will have a new vision of how music works –in a practical way‐ and we will be able to understand how chord progressions are used in any music piece to create tension or relief. With these new skills, we will not only be able to analyze existing music pieces or songs, but also learn how to play by ear, improvise, and compose our own music pieces. After discovering how some songs ‘work’ we will be using this knowledge to create our own chord progressions. We will learn how to use different chords to create interesting chord progressions on any key, and we will be able to see, listen, and interact with examples taken from real‐world songs from famous composers. Once we have mastered how to combine chords together to create an interesting harmony, we will learn how to create our own melodies to go with our harmony. We will be finally create our first improvisations and compose our first musical pieces, guided by step by step animated interactive examples that include sound. After mastering the fundamental concepts learned, we will even learn to predict which notes will cause tension and which ones would cause release without even playing them, given a certain melody or harmony. In this way we would not only be able to Page 107 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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predict which parts of a song have more tension, but also which set of chords are a good match for any given melody –and vice versa‐ without even touching the piano keyboard. The most interesting part is that we will be able to do this not thanks to the use of rules, but because we will have a true understanding of the relationship that exists between chords and scales. This new knowledge will help us to develop “playing by ear” skills, as we will be able to determine which set of chords and notes would go well in a song, by just determining the scale that the song is in. This will help us to “pick up a song by ear”, as we will know beforehand, which chords will be a good match. Finally, we will learn more advanced techniques to improve our piano playing, and our ability to improvise, create our own music, and play without depending on sheet music. We will learn advanced chords and how we can use them, and we will even discover how to create our own chords – even four (or more) notes chords‐ by understanding the relationship between intervals and chords. After taking these lessons, you will not be afraid of any strange chord names that are usually found on lead sheets, and by understanding how intervals work (and which ones produce tension), you will be able to predict how chords sound, before you even play them (you will be able to predict if they will be tension‐generating or not, depending on the context). With this knowledge you will be able to enrich your chord progressions and create more interesting music. Last, but not least, you will learn about voicings, chord inversions, and how to use a smooth voice leading to add quality sound to your playing by making a soft transition between chords. This will improve your piano playing in a very radical way. We will see animated examples with sound that will show you how to use this new technique with the previous songs we covered, and also how you can apply it to your own improvisations and compositions. Page 108 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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At the end of the course we will review all the concepts and show you how to create your own composition through examples that combine all the techniques taught throughout the entire course. After each section of the course, you will also be given Interactive Practice Booklets, so you can practice on your piano, along with practice routines. In addition to that, you will also be provided with multimedia Reference Books that include all the fundamental chords, scales, and intervals on interactive piano‐charts with sound. Included with the course, you will also find The Piano Encyclopedia’s Ear Training Suite, which is a set of ear training games with more than twenty levels that will help you recognize chords, scales, and intervals by ear so you can improve or develop playing by ear skills; and The Piano Encyclopedia’s Sight Reading Suite, which is a set of music reading games that will help you instantly recognize chords, intervals, and notes, using on‐screen interactive exercises, so you can develop sight reading skills by playing interactive music reading games. To make the experience complete, you will also be able to use The Piano Encyclopedia’s Community, which is integrated into our course. With your membership, you will be able to interact with other students, ask questions, share your progress, enjoy a piano gallery with over 1000 videos, and even participate in music contests. If you liked this book, I invite you to check out a video where you will find more information about our Digital Home‐Study Course “The Logic Behind Music”, and I hope that you decide to continue your lessons with us: Click here to watch a video‐tour of our Digital Home Study Course I also invite you to read some of the comments we have received from students like you. Here I am posting actual screenshots of some of the messages we received through our blog, our community, and through email: Page 109 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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We have hundreds of testimonials from our students. You can read them all here: Click here to read more Testimonials … and make sure you watch the Video‐Tour of our Digital Home‐Study Course: Click here to watch the video‐tour of our Digital Home‐Study Course Page 112 PianoEncyclopedia.com
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