Music Theory Guidebook for Keyboard

Transcription

1 Music Theory uidebook for Keyboard Understanding and connecting what you play to a few music theory concepts is your key to the most important piano & keyboard skills. Improvising Transposing Playing by ear hord ltering Here is how you can use this guidebook to develop these skills. or a demonstration of these skills, visit Page 1 - ircle of ourths Knowing scales is the most important part of your music theory foundation. The ircle of ourths framework is the shortcut to understanding all twelve major scales. Use the framework to play through all your scales. It s not about fast technique at first, just the mental connections. Start with major, then go around the circle for each scale. Page 2 - hord Reference Sheet learly identifying the key is the most important step when learning a new song. The process is part art, part science. Often, you will hear the song s home note. When it s less obvious, compare the chords of the song with this chart. The key that contains the highest number of the song s chords is likely the key of the song. Page 3 - pplying music theory to your playing How do you actually connect your knowledge of a song s key and scale to what you are playing? This page of this guidebook gives you some clear, concrete steps. Page 4 - Two types of knowledge Once you have the conceptual knowledge, you need to translate that knowledge to your muscles. On this page, we ll discuss what you need to make that happen.

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3 Major Key 1 hord 2 hord 3 hord 4 hord 5 hord 6 hord 7 hord (iminished) - - min -- min min -#- dim -#- - - min -- min -# min -- dim min -- min min -- dim -#- - - min -- min min -- dim min -- min min -- dim min -- min min -- dim min -- min min -- dim (or ) min -- min min -- dim min -- min min -- dim min - - min min -- dim min - - min min - - dim min - - min min - - dim min - - min min - - dim - - hord Reference Sheet

4 pplying music theory to your playing Improvising dding melodic passages in between your chords is a very expressive way to play keyboard. Knowing your scales is the best way to develop this skill. When you know your scales, you can start to understand the personalities of different scale notes. They always function the same regardless of the key. or example, the seventh scale note always creates a tension that wants to resolve to the first scale note. To get start improvising, try choosing just 2-3 notes from the song s scale (like the first, fifth, and seventh notes) and play them with simple rhythms in between chords. You will begin to know what the notes will sound like before you play them. Then, you will be ready to branch out and include other scale notes in your improvising. Transposing Sometimes, a chart isn t written in the key you need. Or perhaps, your vocalist needs to try two or three different keys to find the right range for her voice. This is when the ability to transpose is vital. The best way to transpose is to think of a song s chords not by names, but by numbers - the numbers of the scale notes they are built on. or example, an minor chord could be built on the sixth note of the major scale. When playing a song in major, you would think of minor as the 6-chord. Then, when you need to transpose the song, you would find the 6-chord in the new key. The better you know your scales, the easier transposing becomes. Playing by ear Thinking of notes and chords in terms of numbers is also the key to playing by ear. When you think this way, you will hear the relationships between notes and chords and innately know you are hearing, for example, the 4-chord, or a riff based on a pattern from the scale. When you ve attained that level, the only step is to find the song s key, then apply what you know from the scale to play the chord progression or riffs. hord ltering Often, to achieve the sound you hear from great players or recordings, you need to alter the chords on the page. The best ways to alter chords involve knowing the key and scale of the song you are playing. One method that almost always sounds great is to add in the 1st or 5th scale note from the song s key. or example, in the key of major, the 1st scale note is and the 5th is. When you need to play an chord in that song, add the adds a more solid sound to the chord. second method requires more care, but can add a lot more color: adding the 3rd or 7th scale notes. These notes aren t as fail-safe as the 1st and 5th, but the results can be more dramatic.

5 The difference between knowing and knowing I tell my students all the time that there is a difference between knowing (imagine me pointing to my head, as in mental understanding) and knowing (imagine me wiggling my fingers, as in transferring what I know to what I can play). The point is that we can understand a lot of sophisticated things about music. I know how to play light of the umblebee. That is to say, I understand how to go about playing a super fast, technical song. ut I don t know how to play it, because I have never practiced it. Understanding the concepts is vital but only gets you so far. What counts is putting in the practice and repetition to build the muscle and mental connections. Once you have done that kind of work with the right approach, playing keyboard is practically effortless. I have some courses to help you that build on these music theory concepts and help you develop the technique to execute them. or step-by-step instruction on building effortless chords, playing by ear, and altering them to make them sound great, check out luent Piano hords. or help in building the skills and musical vocabulary to express yourself through improvised melodies, check out luent Piano Melodic. These courses are available separately, together, or as part of OurWorshipSound ll ccess. I hope this guide has been helpful in applying your music theory knowledge. If I can be of further assistance, please don t hesitate to ask! peter@ourworshipsound.com opyright 2017 Peter Thompson/OurWorshipSound