Learning piano & music theory?
Barry G asked:
I am having the hardest time remembering all the keys and scales. Any shortcuts or do I just have to keep hammering the keys like my teacher says
4 Responses to “Learning piano & music theory?”
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June 12th, 2008 at 5:38 am
I had the same EXACT! problem when I was at your stage. Practice my friend! Keep practicing scales. After a while, I got the gang of it. If you keep doing a little thing like that, than you can build off of that. First its scales. Everyday you play scales. Name yourself every note in the scales. Once you get to the point where you know where all the keys are, you can learn chords. Don’t give up. Practice everyday of your life. Ive been playing for 6 years. Its a lot of fun. People say its very hard, but really once you get used to it its not at all. Hope your piano skills grow each day of your life. Im kind of at your stage with a different instrument. Ive been learning guitar for 7 months. Its a lot of fun. But i have to remember all of the chords. So im practicing scales. It helps with every instrument.
June 14th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
The easiest way is to just keep practicing, but there’s tricks, if you haven’t heard of them.
To find the name of a key signature, look for the second to last flat, or go one half step up from the last sharp.
To write a key signature or play it, remember the major pattern: whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half
The circle of fifths also helps: there are no flats in C major, 1 in F, 2 in Bb, 3 in Eb, 4 in Ab, 5flats/ 7sharps in Db/C#, 6 sharps/ 6 flats in F# or Gb, 5 sharps or 7 flats in B/Cb, 4 sharps in E,3 sharps in A, 2 sharps in D, one in G and zero in C
June 17th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
I read Patricks and quoibunis answers and agree with what they both said. To that I add, memorize the following:
BEADGCF
If you can do that, you’re 90% there. What you have memorized are the order of sharps and flats and also, the circle of forths and fifths.
Remember, the key of C Major has no sharps or flats right?
Check this out:
Write the order down several times in a row:
BEADGCFBEADGcFBEADGCFBEADGCF
Starting with the little ‘c’ and working to right we have
Flats
C(0) F(1) B(2) E(3) A(4) D(5) G(6) C(7)
Working the other way-
Sharps
C(0) G(1) D(2) A(3) E(4) B(5) F(6) C(7)
The order of flats is BEADGCF, the order of sharps is that backwards! FCGDAEB.
So the key of FM has 1 flat and that flat is B, working to the right we see that the next letter is B with two flats which are B and E flat, so therefore the key of B flat has 2 flats and so on.
Looking at the Sharps, the Key of GM has one sharp (F#) and you have to go all the way to 6 sharps before you find a Major key with a sharp in it’s name, again that’s F#M.
You may find keys that have more then seven accidentals, this occurs when modulating, changing keys during a piece of music, when this happens you get dbl flats and sharps, the chart above handles those as well.
For minor keys, it’s the same thing but everything shifts to the key of Am with no sharps or flats.
You always will right the key signature in the same order.
If you have questions about the more exotic scales, harmonic minor, egyptian minor, pentatonic, blues, etc… I have some shortcuts/tips for those too.
Your choosen instrument does coorellate physically with every music interval (distance between each note). You’ll learn those relationships and it will help out a lot. Most woodwind and brass instrumentalist are so lucky.
Hope I haven’t confused you too much…
June 19th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Hi everybody has its own hard time. Here is a link. I hope it will help you abit.
Give it a try. And play for the best. Nice Playing!!!