1. hobbies and interests
2. guitar

ENJOY MORE
PLAYING PIANO
Learn to play piano
better
faster
more creatively
more logically
Richard Järnefelt
Järnefelt-instituutti ry
Helsinki
Introduction
This book is a sum of many promises. My first educational book ”Lyhyt opastus luovempaan
soittamiseen pianolla” (A short quidance to play piano more creatively) was published 1990. It was
a concise presentation of the new method I applied on my teaching. My students gave an important
contribution to this method which I began to develop as early as 1985. This book proceeds on from
”Lyhyt opastus luovempaan soittamiseen pianolla” which has been widely read and quoted.
Unfortunately I have found many quatations without a mention of the origin.
Even the Sibelius Academy uses the very same methods of free accompaniment I introduce in my
book. They will hardly ever admit where this information comes from, but I find it very interesting
that Academy ends teaching chords at the same point I finish my book! (I refer f.ex. Lector Esa
Helasvuo/interview/Rondo 1999). The book in your hand shall tell how to proceed from that point.
I am only happy if the knowledge I present is regarded to be useful and this information expands.
Piano players have too long suffered from bare note playing and exhausting theory lessons.
The notes too, of course, are important and theory can be an attractive playground in the mind but
there is much more what comes to the playing. This book is here to help you to find that and to give
you tools to take over your own playing and the world of music.
This book is also an addition to the article collection by Ari Anttila (1996): Intuition – our forgotten
strength (Intuitiot – unohdettu voimavaramme). This article collection lightens the philosophy of
the method.
All mentioned material gave a more or less direct promise to tell about the development of the
method as well as update the knowledge for interested people . I am sorry it took so long to keep
this promise.
This is due to my pedagogic line which I introduce to you later on. In all creative work intuition has
a great relevance. One Friday evening I finally got the intuition of this book and started to write it
immediately.
Progress and development has occured ever since the birth of previous books and it will occur from
this on too. That is why this presentation is inevitably merely a story about the stage where the
method is in 2004. However, I believe we have found the guide lines which enable everybody to
develop oneself further. ”Lyhyt opastus luovempaan soittamiseen pianolla” is still a very functional
book but nowadays the method is more tolerant and wide minded what comes to the metodological
questions of notes, and the teaching of chords has also took a step further.
***
It has not always been easy to offer divergent views of the art pedagogy in Finland. The financial
support as well as the institutional authority have always promoted the traditional education. The
more pertinent my criticism has been the more aggressive has the opposite side become.
The praise of hundreds of my students and seamless understanding of the representatives of other
sciences have incited me, and my own success as a pianist around the world has raised a question:
How is it possible I can do what I can do? After all, I still am the most known product of my
method.
If your playing feels dull, your own expression is lost, offered song selection is boring, playing is
lifeless strumming, music theory is exhausting, you have lost the ability to play by ear or would
like to learn it or free accompaniment with same pumping rhythm sounds stupid applied to every
song – in these cases and many others – you should read this book and try this method.
***
In 1993 one music critic wrote a television review since my friend Peter Launo had my method as
one of his items in his program series Heijastuksia (Reflections). I was interviewed with my student
and good friend Antti Kauhanen who at the time was a young boy.
Me and Antti praised method plentifully and explained it as well as we could in a short television
programme. Peter asked us very difficult and critical questions, we really had to think before
answering them. The music critic said, however, that Järnefelt´s method will - at most - produce
good music makers. I suppose that aimed to crush the show in order no “serious” musician would
watch this poor piece of junk and take any kind of ideas to his or her own playing. But I felt those
words were the best commend my method ever received!
If this method really produces good music makers, ie. persons who enjoy playing, who play to
entertain themselves and are able to express themselves, I am more than proud of this method and
think it has fully reached its goal!
Music is not created.
It must be found.
An important slide shown at my lecture (Power Point slides by Heidi Järnefelt, 1997).
These so-called serious musicians and teachers have recently realised that they should expand their
views. I wish this book will bring to them joy too.
***
One thing worth of research would be the relation of this method and music therapy. I have noticed
that my playing, as well as the playing of my students, can be ice breaking with such groups as
people suffering dementia. We really are able to activate these people and this is due to the intuitive
character of the playing. At the moment we do not alone have the resources to study this but
perhaps co-operating with someone in the field will elevate our method to be used with music
therapy.
***
I have often fell into discussions with the representatives (teachers and students) of the traditional
teaching method. Characteristic to these discussions is the deep lack of mutual understanding. I
gave a lot of thoughts about this and came to the conclusion that our way of teaching music and
attitude in creativity is distinguishly aiming at different goals than the traditional teaching.
In our teaching the most important point of aim is to create a language, an instrument of self
expression in order to be able to express ones feelings and personality. This is a therapeutic process.
The traditional teaching says there is a pen trace of the great masters and players are contesting of
the best repetition of the master piece, if slightly critically expressed.
We think that the interpretation means to dig into the same intuition that the composer, player and
listeners completely share. The traditional side tries to reach only comporser´s idea, own mind or
the people listening are not important.
I believe our way of approaching serves children and young people much better than music
education nowadays.
Very few players want to become a concert pianist, almost everyone wants to have a social skill
giving joy and way to support the development of ones ego. Still sometimes, at its best, that skill
allows one to perform as a pianist.
I think the traditional music education is unable to teach this skill and course exams etc. are - from
the very beginning - the wrong way signs. The self expression is destroyed and we hear
explanations about how the system actually ment to educate a good audience. Something much
more awful has happened.
When talking about our method with any other university level people than those with music
education I always hear : “That is so true”. The truth cannot be that a few Academy graduated are
absolutely right and hundreds families of engineers, doctors, priests and lawyers are wrong. There is
something wrong in this music education system, whether admitted or not.
***
Then, as usual, dedications: I dedicate this book to my late relatives who I owe a great debt of
gratitude for hearing so much music by singing as a child. This is why my musical ear developed
and I reached a Guinness record for the largest repertoire played from memory.
Many thanks for my mother Sirpa, my father Gösta and to my mother´s parents Hertta and Veikko.
May your singing sound as beautiful somewhere there as it does in my mind. Besides singing Sirpa
played guitar and Veikko mandolin. Warm thanks to my spouse Heidi who has always been good
and loving support to me and who also is my former student.
Guinness World Records Certificate: “Richard Järnefelt of Helsinki, Finland has a world record
piano repertoire of 3000 songs that he can play from memory.” Nowadays the number of songs is
about 4000.
I wish to dedicate this book also to all my students who have ever been in my guidance. They gave
a big contribution to my method. Thank you for all the good questions and forgive me if I did not
know all the answer at the beginning. I surely don´t know them even now, but I know enough to be
sure this method works.
Wellcome to the journey to learn play piano more creatively and to get to know the world of
intuitive science and art ideas, my dear readers. I wish after reading this book you will be able to
enjoy more of your piano playing!
Espoo, 20the December, 2004
Richard Järnefelt
Entertainment pianist & piano-pedagogue
Creativity is a gift we all have.
Only the theoretical
conception of the world has
shut it down.
Some background
“You either can or cannot play by ear – that is beyond teaching.”
The father of this strange sentence is a highly appreciated pedagogue whom I discussed over a
decade ago.
Surprisingly many still share this view which is a huge misfortune. A group of many thousands of
individuals are denied to find their musical self and truly learn to express themselves through music
by judging impossible something I have been teaching nearly twenty years with good results.
I claim this misclonclusion was made by analyzing the playing by ear to death.
My musical education is quite incomplete and this can be seen in my text, no doubt. My
uneducational background is a blessing for most of the readers since I will not use terms they
needed to read a couple of books to understand. This is a harm only to those readers who would like
me to explain my method by telling about counterpoint, dissonance, consonant intervals etc. The
whole history of music flashes in my method even though I do not use terms they feel familiar. I
strongly believe in the ideas of C. G. Jung about the archetypes and images and the collective
subconscious. The musical progress of an individual is, in my opinion, like a miniature of the
musical progress of the mankind. Here I must remind I disagree many music researchers and
visionary historians about the direction we now are heading to.
The uneducational background gives another benefit, the biggest, to the reader: if I had gone
through the traditional Finnish path of the music education (music institute, conservatoire, Sibelius
Academy) I would no longer be able to write this book.
I do not wish to critisize too much the Finnish system of the music education which has in many
respect shown its quality and ability. But I dare to say it is problematic because of the darwinistic
ideas of the music history and progress – i.e. there will always be supposedly greater and greater
composers and insights. If a person with a composer education would today do same kind of
melodic lyricism than Ludwig van Beethoven he would be regarded as a total zero since all this is
already done. Despite the public would devour these beautiful pieces and ignore all kind of modern
experimental music which is hardly recognized music…
Some personal history
I started to play piano when I was four years old. I might have started it even earlier since I was
very precocious child, maybe a little child genius who read and wrote fairly at the age of two. But at
that moment by chance my father got a small inheritance from Sweden and my childhood family
was able to buy a piano.
At first I was taught by the aunt from neighbour, Virpi Alenius, who had studied music. I like to
thank her by name here. Aunt Virpi was very traditional teacher who knew the notes and taught
from the notes but said nothing about using ear. Her merit was that she spurred me on rather
demanding tasks and did not hold on to the thought that nobody should play anything over his or
her own level. Hard challenges made me develop faster and at seven years old I could already play
Mozart's Turkish march at a contest and at nine years old Brahms´ Hungarian dance n:o 5. I won
both these competitions clearly. I was becoming a good classical pianist.
All that time I was aunt Virpi´s student I played by ear other music, both entertainment and classical
and folk music etc. I do not remember if my teacher knew about my hobby. I did not think this was
significant, apparently I thought one plays from notes at the class but can do other things too. I
thought my own teacher would, too, play all sort of music by ear immediately I closed the door after
class.
When my family moved from Helsinki to Vantaa 1974 the long distance made necessary to change
the teacher. I believed I was very fortunate when we found a foreign diploma pianist from next
door. He was sure to be qualified and skilled in his field and played from notes very handily. Still
something in his teaching style made me hate piano playing. He had strong views about sitting
positions or how to hold a hand or which precise finger orders to use. I found those instructions
very far from actual playing. Many players have probably met this kind of teachers.
Fortunately or not, I had a chance to hear him trying to play by ear when I was fourteen. It was not
very pleasant, actually it was totally pitiable. Only then I realized that the ability to play by ear does
not naturally belong to everyone. When I became older I found the way to teach this but that time I
had a special gift my skillful teacher did not possess.
He kept on pressuring me to hold the right positions and use the right fingers. I soon made a teen
age determined decision: I do not any longer have to learn his way if he could not do it my way. I
ended the guided learning that time and did not have any teaching after that. It was a shame since a
pedagogically immature teacher made me give up a promising classical pianist career and I begun
to hate classical music (for some time). Many players have experienced this. Now afterwards one
could say this person should be thanked for my method. Without him I would have never started to
think how things really are but would have nicely gone trough the path from a music institution to
another.
I think one should ask why my previously mentioned teacher could not master playing by ear. He
surely had the inclination as a child. There was some reason that got him enthusiastic about music
and playing. He must have been an idealistic little boy imaging to do great compositions and
perform at big stages. But without the ability to hear those great compositions do not appear, the
playing lacks a thing or two, and those big stages remain unreached.
After finishing the guided studying I really started to benefit my ear-know-how and performed
publicly at the Ravintola Katajanokan Kasino (Casino) in Helsinki. The family keeping this
restaurant, Salonen, was my biggest customer and the greatest inspirer, my late thanks to them. I
played at the Casino rather often, like the lunch times of festival seasons, reserved occasions etc.
My music selection grow wider all the time due to wishes of the customers as well as the singing of
my family. Already at that time I begun to keep a list of the songs I could play and later on this list
became known as the Guinness World Record.
When I was 19 my parents divorced. This was to me a big emotional shock as well as a financial
stroke. I stayed with my sickly mother and our living was time to time very tight. We thought this
over with my mother and she had the idea I could teach piano playing since I could play so well,
and this would bring some more money to the family. I immediately started to gather students. Soon
the amount was 50 which is quite a lot to a private teacher (I never used group lessons).
For some reason I did not give deeper thoughts to teaching at the time. Although I played in a
different way I only knew how I was once teached and dig up the old books of Aaron and
Thompson to my students, not to forget C.L. Hanon and Karl Czerny.
Very soon I had to answer difficult question: why must this be done this way? Beside I puzzled my
students by playing some popular music by ear and this obviously caused questions: how do you do
that? For the first time I had to think “how” since I wanted to teach this to my students too.
As I told in the introduction this is where my method started to develop. A lot of good questions, a
few cautious answer and again many good questions. This is how I during the years found the
process in my mind how to become the kind of player I self was. I was not teached but had to
comprehend myself the using of ear and chords in a more creative way. During those years the
greatest lesson was given to me by my students.
I wish they received something from me even at the beginning of my method and I am very glad if
this book ends up in their hands and they understand things I could not at those days tell them.
More background
I have met many, specially in Finland, musicians who have a high education and who should be the
best of musicians but whose ear is actually dead. Only very few in the top have both ear and
analytic understanding like myself. Those people have the ability of ear, it is developed and
preserved despite of the education, not because of it.
When almost all the children have this ability I must dare to ask: what is it that shuts the ear down?
My humble view is that there are many reasons but they are of same origin. First the reason might
be the western culture which tends to explain all the phenomena analytically and theoretically. This
need is specially strong in so-called young cultures such as Finnish. I do not say this would not have
got us far for instance in the technics, but I do not think this will suit art. This is where we approach
the idea of intuition which I later on tell more.
In my opinion the biggest mistake in the development of music is the overmuch will to draw
everything with notes and do things theoretically. Eventually this killed musicians ability to use
their ear. Creative working has been chained when composing was to become teached. Can it be
teached? I think not. Surely you can teach the register of a violin or cello etc., but how to create a
pleasant melody with harmony is only due to everyone’s own intuition.
If you get to know the history of music you notice, excluding a few exceptional researcher, the
whole history is presented like it was some kind of mystic legend of hero. It really is totally
darwinistic development history where the previous phase is followed by the next heroic phase.
And if the previous genius was celebrated the next will be celebrated even more. The development
of music is said to be continuous rising line. There is first a single tone, then two tones, then melody
and contra melody, after that homophony and polyphony etc. All the time the line is forward and
the next phase is again something new and inexperienced.
I believe these two things, too much analytical thinking and clearly wrong expectations toward the
next composer generations, have destroyed playing by ear in the western world.
Now when the great masters (Mozart, Bach, van Beethoven and many others) have created their
music there is even a bigger question mark left: what shall come after them? Between them and the
present there are innumerable composers who have totally abandoned all the things the listener
finds enjoyable and fall to try the most peculiar experiments based on the music theory. If the next
generations aim to do even more peculiar music the contact between so-called serious music and the
listeners will definitely break.
It would be very interesting to see how the music historians in the future (if they still believe in the
darwinistic development) will explain the 1900’s, during which all kind on entertaining music
conquered the world and more serious music was followed only by a few people. It would be
logical to explain these composers behind Abba, Beatles etc. are the next heroic phase. The conflict
lies in the fact that all these compositions have the characters from previous centuries and these
characters the audience is used to find agreeable.
Does a concert hall somewhere cache some experimental composer able to make such a weird and
new music that he has the honour to be the next phase? How should we explain if he is not
celebrated and praised by his contemporaries and is listened only by a few over educated music
critics and a changing girlfriend? This is mean, I admit, but I do not believe the next phase occurs.
The development of music is cyclic, not a line. When this is realized we are in a more advantageous
circumstances to play by ear.
Piano pedagogy before us
I shall start this chapter as I believe a majority of the music teachers in music schools would like me
to start it:
The piano teaching in Finland is good.
After all, people have been thinking about the problems in piano teaching for centuries. Many
masters have left their marks in the pedagogic field. There have been various ideas of playing and
interpretations of music. The note playing have been thought over, surprisingly lot.
Even though I hated piano drills by C.L. Hanon and Karl Czerny (whereas I loved the Clement´s
sonatas!) as a child, those notebooks had tremendous amount of insight. Some of the drills
enhanced one kind of skill and others another kind of skill and I am sure they were useful for me
too in order to become a skilful pianist.
An unpleasant memory to many of us.
Michael Aaron, John Thompson and many others before and after them must have thought about
their teaching. They have really put effort into inventing methods to tempt children, as easily as
possible, to play in a bearable way and still learn a few basic things about theory.
Many later pedagogues have followed their guide lines and developed all kind of methods which
playfully (with colours etc.) try to get the children become acquainted with the musical knowledge.
Also the method of Japanese Shinichi Suzuki – well known in Finland – has its sense. It is very
Japanese way of learning, a direct copy of the earlier Japan: send a Japanese young man to visit a
western car factory, let him walk around the factory with a perceptive mind and come home to build
a precisely same kind of factory. This is what the Suzuki method teaches: dexterous imitation.
When talking about the notes, playing and reading, some kind of basic techniques and theory
knowledge we can sincerely say all this have been widely studied and the piano teaching in Finland
is quite good.
Still, all these previously mentioned methods share common features which cause the problems that
our method was developed to solve.
Where are the piano players?
If things really are so well we should hear piano playing in nearly every home. When people got
together at home or restaurants someone would surely run to sit by the piano and play Mozart or
Scorpions or his or her own music, and then there would be another player who would play his or
her own interpretation of the same song, discussions would follow and again there would be
playing. People would sing together and someone present would accompany them. A piano and
piano playing would be an inseparable part of a lovely soirée.
When children got home from school they would hurry toward their beloved piano. Whenever a
student wished to relax between the examinations he would play out everything he has in his heart.
The piano would sound in every joy and sorrow in the family. Even at the old people’s home
dementia would be prevented and people activated by giving them do that once so precious and
strength giving thing: playing.
This is how things should be if we pay attention to that large amount of people receiving piano
education in Finland by the aunt next door, a student girl, different institutes, music schools,
conservatoires or the meritorious pedagogues in the Sibelius Academy. At least one person in every
family has had piano lessons in some part of his or her life. Why did these people stop playing?
Piano playing did not become a way to express their joys and sorrows. The piano is standing in the
corner of the living room but we cannot hear music. Why?
Playing piano is very simple. There are keys to be pressed in a proper order and rhythm. The notes
and chords are clear systems which are, despite their defects, fully explainable to every sensible
person. The problem is seldom that a student would not be able to understand things. I claim
everyone has also the ear for playing, and this I shall explain more closely later on.
Perhaps the problem is not the student but the teaching?
I claim
I claim this is exactly the case. If we look at little children we notice that nearly every child is able
to reproduce heard melodies and invent new, sometimes quite interesting ones.
In my opinion most of the methods developed to children mock the intelligence of a young person.
A child does not need yellow or green (or blue, red or orange!) balls to tell which key to press.
Instead he or she should be taught to hear tones and then choose a correct key. It is ridiculous that
these play-with-colours-methods are even considered as teaching methods and are awarded prizes
by second-rate pedagogues. This is how things are in Finland.
A child is able to understand things more widely. He or she does not benefit from the ideas that the
finger number one is always C, finger number two D, ecc. There is no such a ungifted child who
would not be curious enough to ask: what about these other keys?
We have mainly rejected the music theory in our method but this not mean that things should not be
understood. Quite the contrary, basic things must be understood extremely well. I emphasize: to
understand. When you understand that the essence and structure are very much alike in art and light
music the playing turns into what it always should be: easy and fun.
The traditional learning is continual stairs walked by the player. You should learn a bit more and
enter the next stair. Even the music exams follow this model, like the learning could be a precise
continuity to every person and it could be graded by authorities.
The public subsidies for the art teaching system are also based on this idea. The “primary art
teaching” in practice means a blind financial support for a system that destroys creativity and
flattens music teaching.
The old unpleasant way to learn
In our model there is only one big stair. At the lower stair the playing feels difficult and at the upper
stair – which is without doubt quite far away – it feels easy. Between these stairs there is a cable
that helps the player to climb: “the method of three tasks”.
When the player learns the basic about these tasks or sectors he or she will have the technical ability
to follow further instructions. After this playing really starts feeling easy.
Playing feels easy
Playing feels hard
So simple
The method of three tasks
The term “method of three tasks” arises from the idea of three different kind of music tasks: notes,
chords and play by ear –songs.
These three sectors are practised side by side, first separately until the pupil lears to apply the
models and then, quite soon actually, the sectors are allowed to communicate and influence each
other.
Hardly any player is ever “finished” with these tasks but he or she can be considered fairly skillful
when the sectors are unified in a way that the inner image of music (not just the notes) is
comprehended.
The piano playing is traditionally teached only with notes. Sometimes chords are mentioned but this
often means a “free accompaniment” which is just a tone-based rhythm. Piano is not a rhythm
instrument. The space between melody and bass sound should be filled up with the notes based on
thechord and let the rhythm strain through - we talk about this more later on.
The notes
The playing with merely notes is the main reason for inability to use ear and creativity. The “facts”
of the traditional teaching are only explaining without an explanation. There have been many little
means to help tiny players and lots of theory but nobody has given a thought to how this could
affect the ear.
Every time we learn something we will learn, not just the taught subject but the whole way of
thinking.
This is why I dare to say that a player needs theory only to understand generally used notations,
everything beyond this is unnecessary. Moreover, explanations may be simplified as I will show in
“The chords” –section.
When working with notes here are a few ideas one should pay attention to:











Do not respect the notes too much. Composers often have many versions of one song, they
choose one of these to be written. Therefore respect the idea of the song but don´t think you are
not supposed to arrange music. (However, there are different music scores too. If the note
pattern is carefully considered, you will hear this.)
Use pedals. Every hand/foot made effects are wellcome.
When you are familiar with the pedals, try to get the effect only with fingers, without using
pedals. You will see your sensibility to grow.
Take freely the length of the notes when playing modern or non-European music.
You don´t need to use the given finger order. Feel free to find your own way.
Do not think theoretically. Quint is a swear word! Always concentrate on how things sound, not
how they seem.
Play as much as you can and many different kind of music. Do not be afraid to play even those
“too hard to play” even they don´t go fluently right away.
Besides classical music play everything else from notes too. Just don´t play it like it was
classical music.
After you are able to perceive the chord structures without effort you can add tones suitable for
the structure on the right or left – or both.
Learn by heart all the melodically agreeable songs.
The interpretation of music is much more than piano and forte. Every change you are able to
explain and justify by the sound of it is allowed.





If you find it difficult at the beginning to make volume variations you can overdo piano and
forte first. The differences will go smoother after you know the song better.
Add ornaments even when they are not actually marked.
Try not to watch your hands. If this is hard start with easy songs running in a narrow area.
The only important thing is how does everything sound. Don´t concentrate on anyting
irrelevant. Don´t think about the position of your hand or sitting arrangements. After playing a
bit longer your body will tell you if you do something wrong. Make corrections if needed.
Even though we do not emphasize the theory of music it is important that there will be no
“black holes” either. Always find the answer to your question or figure it out by yourself.
These are the main ideas of playing in a more creative way. Ingrain them in your mind and start to
work. Be honest with yourself and always check how you really think.
At the very beginning we were ready to ban every music school book (Aaron, Thompson and
especially all the Finnish ones) but nowadays our students are free to study elsewhere and
supplement their education with us. This can cause problems if the teaching is very old fashioned
and narrow minded. It is up to oneself to avoid harmful way of thinking:








don´t overrate music theory
remember that music booklets give guidelines not unconditional orders
you play for yourself – not for your teacher or for your relatives
degrees don´t make a musician
any kind of teaching that brings down your freedom of choise is not good for you
sometimes one single note is only one of those possibilities the composer had in mind
playing by ear is a great gift and takes a lot more of ability than just repeating notes
chord structures exist and can be applied in classical music too
The chords
Even if you already know all the chords you shoud pay attention to our way of explaining them. We
really like to keep it simple, so all the unnecessary theory is thrown away. These patterns are
merely one episode of learning chords – eventually you will hear the chord sturctures by ear without
counting.
Down below you will see the chord patterns presented by numbers and examples. With these
patterns you will be able to find any chord you need!
Start with the key mentioned on the name of the chord (e.g. C). The first ball in the pattern means
this starting point where you put your “lowest” finger (usually the little finger of the left hand).
The number following the first ball means the amount of keys which you leave between (count
both, white and black ones). You always think “upward”, in other words to the right. This is where
you place other finger (usually the middle finger or which ever fits the best).
After the second ball there is a number and again a ball. So you put your finger to the ball and leave
the told amount of keys between. Simple, isn´t it?
For instance C6 – chord is C, E, G and A together and F7 – chord is F, A, C and E-flat.
The basic chord patterns
Major
Minor
o3o2o
o2o3o
e.g. C, Db, G# etc.
e.g. Cm, Fbm, A#m etc.
Major 6
Minor 6
o3o2o1o
o2o3o1o
e.g. C6, Gb6, B#6 etc.
e.g. Cm6, Fbm6 etc.
Major 7
Minor 7
o3o2o2o
o2o3o2o
e.g. C7, G#7 etc.
e.g. Cm7, Abm7 etc.
Major maj 7
Minor maj 7
o3o2o3o
o2o3o3o
e.g. Cmaj7, F#maj7 etc.
e.g.. Cm maj7, Dbm maj7 etc.
Study these patterns and see how close these chords are to each other. Then start operating with
them actively. It is amazingly easy to discover the chords. You don´t need any knowledge of quarts
and quints.
Some extra patterns
o2o2o
o3o3o
o2o2o2o
o3o2o2o3o
o1o4o
o4o1o
markings e.g. Cm-5 or Cmb5 or Co or C dim
markings e.g. C+5 or C#5 or C+
markings e.g. C dim7 or Co or Co7
markings e.g. C9
markings e.g. Csus2
markings e.g. Csus4 or just Csus
As you can see the notations may vary and o-chord can mean two different chords.
Now you could play sequentially for instance Csus 2 (o1o4o), Cm (o2o3o), C (o3o2o) and Csus4
(o4o1o). You notice that only you middle finger changes its place, don´t you? The whole chord
system is full of this kind of logicalities which are easy to adopt without any extra music theory.
Compound chords are easy to find when you remember the right order. Take for instance
E7sus (which can be found in ”Yesterday”/the Beatles). First find the E7 by basic patterns (E, G#,
B and D), keep this position and search for Esus (which is the same as Esus4). Esus includes E, A
and B. Now you will place Esus to E7 and notice that Esus shall replace E7 with those notes they
have in common. The beginning of E7 = E, G# and B are replaced with the beginning of Esus = E,
A and B and the end of the new chord is the end of E7. So E7sus is E, A, B and D.
Another way of performing chords can be done by changing the order of the notes or placing an
extra note lowest – or elsewhere – in the chord. If you see C/G you must first find C Major (C, E
and G) but change the order so that you will start with G-note. The remaining notes take their
natural order upwards. So the new order is G, C and E.
What about C/D since we already know that C Major doesn´t include D? No problem. Find C Major
and place there an extra D as a starting point. The solution is D, E, G and C.
Yet you can come across other additions, for example C add F which of course means you put an
extra F to C Major. Now you don´t start with this additional note, just fit it to the most convenient
place: C, E, F and G.
Sometimes you can see + or – in exceptional places. These are not often used but simply mean
sharped (#) or flatted (b) note and the number involved is the one in that particular scale.
(If you should ever play old Italian music you need to know that C+ means major and C- minor).
All this so far is a good start and many players are happy to play without any mixing or changing in
the rhythm. Remember pedals with chords and trust your ear when using them. Most often the
sustain pedal is down as long as the chord is desired to echo; when the chord changes the notes in
the treble change too (in harmonic music) and pedal must be raised and pressed down again.
From this on the idea to create ”full music” follows this: after you have found the melody and the
chord structures you should fill the space between the melody and the lowest note of the chord (the
bass sound) with all the chord-notes as fully as you can. This produces a mass of sounds. You must
hear the rhythm in your mind and drop accompanying notes in mixed order so that these notes
support the beat in your mind. You don´t need to play the exact rhythm – quite the contrary – since
dull and regular beating is probably the worst thing to do.
Here is some advice to help you:









The most simple rhythm can be done by pushing first down the first note of the chord and then
the rest of the notes in a fast pace.
Waltz: the first note once and the rest of the notes twice.
Latin rhythm: play all the notes frequently but not too steady.
Many schlagers can be accompanied by playing the chord without the highest note and then
leaving the lowest note down while playing the upper notes in turn.
Try to listen a song (recorded) and simultaneously clap the rhythm with hands to knees. Then
shift the rhythm from your left hand to the lowest note and from right hand to upper notes.
If you find it hard to find the rhythm with sheet music, start by playing only the lowest note of
the chord (at the spot where the chord is written) and gradually play the rest of the notes before
the next chord is given.
You may extend chords upwards as much as your fingers allow you to, but always leave the
bass sound (the first letter) lowest.
It is possible to play part of the chord notes with right hand under the melody or change the
melody one octave upward if you need more space to your left hand.
One idea for accompaniment is to play the chord note by note - upward, downward. The lowest
and uppermost note are played only once.
This was only a piece of advice – be creative and feel free to use your imagination! The notes of the
chord may be used as richly as you like, just remember to keep the bass sound and melody
recognizable. All these ideas can be applied to playing by notes (sheet) or by ear too.
Where do these chords come from? Why do they sound harmonic to us? Too much analyzing is not
recommendable but for those interested further can be mentioned that the Gregorian chant of the
first millenium is worth exploring. This ancient western church music combined with the German
and British folk heritage is highly responsible for the chords we know today.
Although people don´t tend to believe it, playing with chords is actually the original way of playing
– instead of notes. If you are interested in history study ”Basso continuo” or ”basso generale”
-practice and you will be surprised how enormously the musicians needed creativity in old days. Let
us strive for the same!
Playing by ear
Very often people are said to either have or totally lack ”the ear”. I disagree like mentioned earlier.
It is a bit difficult to teach this way, without listening and giving advice sitting next to the student.
On the other hand playing by ear is the easiest and the most creative and beautiful way of playing if
you do it well. If you already feel you pretty much know how to do it check still my views about the
topic.
First of all it is vital to listen all kind of music plenty. You should be able to, at least, tell if the
melody goes up or down. Some people actually can´t do this at the beginning but with practising it
will be possible.
The second thing may sound depressing but have faith! This all takes time, sometimes really much
time and effort. Some students needed over a year to process one simple song from the starting
point to the excellent end. Luckily the next time is easier since the method is familiar and brains
have adopted the channels of doing. So the next song takes perhaps only six months, the third only
three months and one day you shall be able to play instantly after hearing the song.
(If the first song takes one year, the secong half a year the process goes on like this: 3 months – 50
days – 25 days – 2 weeks – 1 week – 3 days – 36 hours – 18 hours – 9 hours – 270 minutes – 135
minutes – 1 hour – half hour – 15 minutes etc. If you count all this together it still takes less than
two years to become a good player by ear. And my students have proved this to be true!)
When the process is completed you will be able to repeat a song immediately when you remember
the melody. I have this skill and I am very proud of it. I believe this goal is reachable to everyone
ready to work sufficently – provided that there is no elements blocking the creativity in other parts
of learning.
Before giving the actual instructions I like to give a little hint. As soon as you have a completed
song start making a song list. Maintain these songs up to the point where playing through your list
is 8/9 of all your playing. This is fun, it develops fingering and before you notice you´ll have a
repertoire of your own!
Playing by ear should be started with listening and defining the main tone which usually in the
western music is the melody. Listen, check, if necessary sing along. When the melody is found
proceed with model number one or two.
Now you must not rush into adding chord tones under the melody! If you do you may end up using
too simple chords – unless your ear alrealy is well educated. I once knew a very talented student
who used only C Major in a song that had eight different chords! So take your time, don´t push the
solution by force.
You don´t have to use the original pitches if you don´t like but beeing loyal is not harmful either,
especially if this helps to avoid playing too ”easy” and using always C Major and A Minor.
I cannot recommend simultaneus playing and listening of the imitated song. Playing prevents
listening and listening should be done very carefully in order to know the song fully.
Model 1
Use only your right hand and start with the melody. Then add every now and then one tone under
the melody (to the left side of it) only with the distance you reach with one hand. Keep listening and
trying and add a second tone and third tone.
You can use all your five fingers but usually two or three is enough.
Model 2
Use your right hand to play the melody and place your left hand two octaves downwards. Then play
with your left hand the additional tones, one at a time while the right hand plays the melody.
This way you will find a bass sound which is likely to be different from the model 1. Keep this bass
sound pattern constant and complete your right hand like you did on the model 1.
The model 1 is more common and suits almost everything but occasionally the model 2 may be
more convenient. The most definitely foolish way is to start with both hands and place them too
close to each other. The model 1 is based to polyfonic singing and model 2 to finding first the bass
pattern. If the hands are, like they usually are, at one octave distance they are too far for ear to hear
the polyfonic sound and too close to filter the bass sound.
When you have finished the song with one of the model it alreay sounds pretty good. You can go
forward by finding ”the hiding” chords and place them fully under the melody (if you use model 2
the bass sound must be joined too).
If you feel, you can reduce tones in your right hand (they can be found in the chords) but this is not
necessary. From this on you can make use of the ideas presented in other parts of the three tasks. It
is a matter of an opinion how much the repeated song should resemble the original one. I
recommend personal style and arrangement! All experienced musicians have their own distinctive
style which is the very thing to make music rich and alive.
If you want to make compositions you can benefit from these ideas. And about practising I could
say that personal arangements develop with time and peace in your mind. You don´t need to
practise that, just let the process take its time. But in order to have tecnical ability to implement
your ideas you must do hard work with note and chord tasks.
The task diffculty level should be this: one must play music that needs a bit strugglening. The student in the picture
knows he can jump 1 meter easily. That is why the bar is on 1,10 meter. But playing should be fun too. The iceberg
shows that only 1 part of nine is visible and that is the amount of demanding work. Other 8 parts of nine should be
easygoing playing.