Tag Archives: practice piano

"Gotta get to my study room!"

AC #28: Piano Starts Here! Learn The Piano Key Names!

Learning piano key names is among the very first things I have my beginner students do. 

However, many times, during the preliminary stages of working with non-beginner students at varying levels of development, I discovered significant gaps and breaches in such fundamental things as knowing the names of the piano keys and/or the lines and spaces of the grand staff. 

The focus of AC #29 will be about learning the grand staff. The focus of this post is exclusively on learning the names of the piano keys! So, if you are an absolute beginner or someone who may need to go back to the very beginning to review, for whatever reason, this post is for you.

Use the four utilities on this page in their numerical order of presentation to help you drill and thoroughly learn the piano key names starting with the white keys first.

White keys and natural keys are synonymous and, as illustrated in AC #10, white keys were the only keys present on the world’s first piano keyboards. That said, you should earnestly study the natural keys first before moving on to the next step of learning the names of the black keys.

Each red-note question may be answered by using your mouse or qwerty keyboard commands in conjunction with the up & down arrow keys when answering questions on sharps and flats,  i.e. if C# is the question, press/hold the up arrow key first, then answer it with the qwerty C key. If Db is the question, press/hold the down arrow key first, then answer with the qwerty D key. Mouse-click once anywhere in the applet before using the “qwerty” keys to enter your answers.

Since each exercise utility is never-ending and presents questions indefinitely, you’ll want to set  some type of completion benchmark such as answering 100 questions correctly or you might use the clock timer, located at the top of each utility, to set a time limit, such as 5 to 10 minutes. If you use the timer method, be sure to click the Reset Score button when you start each utility. In either case, keep working until you have a success rate that’s between 90% and 100%.

Practice well!

Art

Name The Natural Keys (White Keys)
Keyboard Note Identification #1: Your first mission is to learn the names of the white keys.

Name The Black-Key Sharps
Keyboard Note Identification #2: Your second mission is to learn the black-key sharp names.

Name The Black-Key Flats
Keyboard Note Identification #3: Your third mission is to learn the black-key flat names.

Name All of The Keys Quickly
Keyboard Note Identification #4: Your fourth mission is to name them all quickly!

"Gotta get to my study room!"

AC #27: “T” it up!

 ATTN: All Instrumentalists and Vocalists! This post applies to you!

As you’re listening to some music and you hear a melody, a phrase, a motif, or an arrangement that draws your attention because it “speaks” to you and you really like it, you should “T-it-up”! What do I mean by that? You should transcribe it! You’ll benefit whether you “T” all of it, or only a fractional part of it! Just get in there and “T” something up!

I borrowed the title phrase for this post from the world of golf. I’ve been a fan of Tiger Woods for a long time. Through his actions on the golf course and his interviews, Tiger has always demonstrated that he possess a deep knowledge of golf on many levels. He has frequently spoken about the high regard and respect he has for golf’s “elder statesmen” like Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicholas. He’s spoken specifically about the fact that he’s watched many videos of them and studied them.

In the world of music, you’ll find many musicians, including myself, who have the same kind of high-regard and respect for music’s “elder statesmen”. For instance, whenever someone asked The Beatles and Eric Clapton questions like “who most influenced you?”, they’d always name Chuck Berry first as they spoke about their high regard and respect they had for him.  Whenever Chuck Berry was asked that same question, as he addressed it in his autobiography, he’d immediately credit his local peers, the great boogie-woogie pianists and the great Nat “King” Cole as he spoke about the high regard and respect he has for them all!

So, I was particularly delighted when one of my students, bass player Nicholas Gendron, originally an ear training student who by the time he signed on with me had already done complete James Jamerson transcriptions on his own by ear, spoke to me about the high regard and respect he has for many of the same great jazz bassists for whom I share the same feelings. When Nick expressed his interest in expanding his ear training studies to include having me work with him on “strengthening-up” his walking bass lines, I immediately suggested that he start right away on transcribing some of the great jazz bassists. I agreed to get right in there with him and do some of my own transcriptions of some of the bass veterans also to share with him in his lessons. So for this post, I decided to give you  the complete transcription I did for Nick of what the great Israel Crosby played on “But Not For Me” from one of Ahmad Jamal’s classic albums.  You can view the video and download this PDF too!

[gview file=”http://www.artmatthewsonlinepianolessons.com/wp-content/uploads/But-Not-For-Me-Ahmad-Jamal-AM.pdf”]


The information you can get from studying transcriptions is invaluable, and by all means, I strongly suggest that you, and all serious students of improvised music, should do a lot of your own transcription work! Don’t get me wrong. It’s definitely ok to draw information from the transcriptions of other people, however, the benefits of doing your own transcription work will pay bigger dividends because, in doing so, the information you derive gets planted deeper into your musical soul by the nature of the do-it-yourself process.

Whether you do one-chorus, multiple choruses, single phrase, multiple phrases, right-hand only, left-hand only, both hands, partial heads, full heads, partial arrangements, or full arrangements… you’ll be doing something that’s good for your musicianship!

The focus of your transcriptions are determined, of course, by whatever your objective may be at any given time. For instance, you might limit the focus of your transcription to getting the actual musical notes only! Or, you may want to exclude the actual notes and focus on obtaining chord progressions only, as in getting the chord changes of some particular song or tune. Perhaps you want everything… actual notes, chord changes, articulations, and dynamics too! Ear training makes it all available to you.

You can write your transcription work down on manuscript paper using standard music notation, or you might write it down in some other form on unlined or lined notebook paper for that matter! If you have a good memory, you can even skip the writing-it-down process altogether and simply keep it all in your head, as Nick did with his James Jamerson transcriptions. If you can do it, I recommend you do some of both because it’s all good!

At the time of this post, Nick is in Aruba! He’ll be starting his own page within my site soon after he returns so if you’d like to follow Nick on his page, check back in a few weeks and just type or paste his name into any search box on my site.

Remember that although your teacher or coach can point you in the direction of what work you need to do, it is YOU that has to DO the work by practicing!

Do some listening and “T” something up!

Practice well!

"Gotta get to my study room!"

AC #26 – Three Piano Technique Practice Tips (Part-3 of 3)

3: “FIGURE 8” EXERCISES: What are they? How do they apply to piano?

I borrowed the term “Figure-8” from the world of Olympic figure skating. If you aren’t familiar with figure skating, a little background and demonstration on that subject might be helpful.

Please note that I address both questions in the second half of this post. So if you’d like to skip past the “FIGURE 8s” IN OLYMPIC SKATING background/demonstration section that follows next, you can go directly to the “FIGURE 8s” in Piano and Music section by clicking here.

There was a period of time when Olympic ice skating competitors were required to participate in the Compulsory Figures Competition. They had to skate a certain number of compulsory figures into the ice and then re-skate or trace-over the figures. All of the figures were based on or derivatives of the number “eight”, thus the term “Figure 8” skating. At first there were twelve figures but over the years, the number was gradually reduced and by 1973, only three compulsory figures remained. Skaters were scored on how well each figure was initially etched or engraved, and on how well they traced-over each original skating.

Compulsory figures were eliminated entirely from international competition after 1990, so videos and rebroadcasts are perhaps your main avenue of seeing what I hope doesn’t become a lost art form! If you haven’t seen Olympic figure skating in live broadcasts or taped reruns, I’d like to have you take a look at the next several clips from that world because seeing the skaters create and then trace the figures will help me draw a picture of the parallels I see.

When I first watched the introductory commentary clip just below, I smiled when the comparisons of skating fundamentals and the musical scales of a pianist was made because I completely agree with what was said.

The Paragraph Loop figure, with its sub-loop variation within each of its two circles, seemed to be the most challenging of the three remaining figures to skate and trace. This was my favorite event to watch because of the discipline, skill, control, grace, precision, stamina, mental toughness, and strength it took to pull it off. Check out the following really short video clips on “Figure 8” skating before returning your focus to the music world.

“FIGURE 8s” IN OLYMPIC SKATING

Commentary on Compulsory Figures – “They are really basically like the scales for a pianist.”

Clip #1 – The Counter figure is Illustrated

Clip #2 – The Paragraph Bracket figure is Illustrated

Clip #3 – Debi Thomas Skates The Paragraph Bracket

Clip #4 – The Paragraph Loop figure is Illustrated

Clip #5 – Debi Thomas Skates The Paragraph Loop

 

Setting skating aside, does this illustration of the Counter remind you of anything?

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Which of the three answers below do you think would be the most chosen
in a David Letterman-like picture association skit or poll? (drum roll please…)

1. A snow man;
2. Three scoops of vanilla ice cream;
3. The notes of a musical triad;

A case could be made for #s 1 and 2 but I think the Letterman answer might be #3, a musical triad! Paul Shaffer might say “Yeah! Let’s run with that one!” as we shift our focus back to music.

Speaking of music… the tune you hear upon clicking the Counter graphic just above is is an original tune of mine titled, “The Counter” (©2013). The melody uses C-E-G only so that beginners and everyone can easily Jam along with it and improvise during the solo section! I invite you to post a video of yourself jamming and improvising to this little ditty on my YouTube “The Counter” post. If you like, right-click and save an mp3 of the music here.

FIGURE 8s” in Piano and Music

“Figure-8s”, as I use the term in piano lessons, are musical figures which, once played, must be repeated or “traced” two or more times and as smoothly as possible in a manner that is figuratively similar to the way tracing was done in the world of figure skating.  The length and complexity of the figures may vary but the object is to have your fingers remain in continuous contact with the piano keyboard while you’re executing and tracing so that the figure remains unbroken and true-to-form during the entire exercise. 

“Figure 8s” on a major triad

In the videos just below you’ll see me “figure 8” the notes of a C major triad which make my “target notes” C, E, and G.  To “figure 8” the notes, I use a 2-note ornament that starts with a scale step above the target note, passes through the target note to a half-step below the target note then returns to the target note so that the figure-8 ornamenting of each target note will consist of 4 tones being played. In short, I “hang” a two-note ornament on each of the three target notes.  The video starts with me “figure 8-ing” Middle C by practicing the 2-note ornament around that single note before I move on to practice the same ornament on the other two notes.  (See the major triad videos)



“Figure 8s” on a minor triad

In the videos just below you’ll see me “figure 8” the notes of a C minor triad which make my “target notes” C, Eb, and G.  To “figure-8” the notes, I use a 3-note ornament that starts with a half-step below the target note then moves directly to a whole step above the target note then makes a chromatic 2-note slide which ends directly on the target note so that the figure-8 ornamenting of each target note will consist of 4 tones being played. In short, I “hang” a 3-note ornament on each of the three target notes.  The video starts with me “figure 8-ing” Middle C by practicing the 3-note ornament around that single note only before I move on to practice the same ornament on the other two notes.  (See the minor triad videos)


In the context of piano technique, these “Figure 8” piano finger patterns and exercises require the same characteristics as those I mentioned near the top of this post in the ice skating context. As you work with these exercises, practice slowly and strive for evenness and accuracy. Speed will always come to you as a by-product of slow efficient practice!

I encourage you to come up with your own “Figure 8s” too. Your figures may vary in size from very short ornaments, like the ones I used in this post, to longer phrases, like the one in the interactive picture just below.

Get Adobe Flash player


With the use of rhythmic and pitch variation, the possibilities are virtually limitless!

Of course all of the exercises discussed and demonstrated in this three-post topic, as well as any  you may make or find elsewhere, won’t give you the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound or be faster than a speeding bullet! However, if you are persistent, patient, and do the exercises I recommended in this post in all 12 keys, your fingers will learn to do things and go places they’ve never gone before on the piano keyboard.
 
Practice well and have fun!

See you next post.

Art

 

"Gotta get to my study room!"

AC #25 – Three Piano Technique Practice Tips (Part-2 of 3)

2: TECHNICAL EXERCISES and RUDIMENTS:

Get yourself a technical exercise book and a book of piano rudiments. The books I specifically reference later in this post are mentioned mainly to let you know that those particular books are among the ones I have used for myself and that I still use them with some of my students.

There are hundreds of these types of books on the market and they are not all the same. I’ve seen and had students who’ve gone-it-alone and made ill-advised choices and purchases of music books of various types only to find out that the “water” they’d gotten themselves into was way too deep! And too hot! So watch out for that!

In choosing something that most closely fits your needs, your current level of musicianship and pianistic capabilities have to be considered!  In order to objectively assess that, you may need the opinion or advice of someone other than yourself to help make that determination.

In any case, once you’ve obtained the books, factor the exercises from of both of them into your practice routine so that you’re spending a “good” amount of time with the material during any given week. The “good amount of time” which you should spend will depend on your present level of development and the advice of your musical coach.

If you don’t already own any books of these types, check out the rest of this post and ask your teacher for recommendations because your teacher may wish to have you use a different publication from the two I reference here. So with all of that said, let’s move on!

Technical Exercise Books are usually focused on presenting you with many finger-strengthening exercises.  One of the books I used for myself was the “Ernst Von Dohnanyi: Essential Finger Exercises” book.  In any case, whichever book you use, you should follow your book’s prescribed practice instruction for each exercise, after which, you might then try some of your own experiments and variations.

I used to set up a rhythm track, or a metronome, and work each finger or group of fingers until the point of fatigue, then I’d stop!… Shake it off!… Then I’d do a few more reps… Then I’d stop again!. Before long, I noticed that my hands and fingers were starting to feel stronger at the piano keyboard. They even looked stronger and their “keyboard posture” felt more stable and more powerful than before. My execution was cleaner and a lot more articulate.

For an example of what I used to do, watch the next video to see how I practiced a technical exercise that uses all five fingers on a full diminished 7th chord. I encourage you to do the same thing or something similar if your fingers aren’t able to comfortably reach all five notes.

Notice how the inactive fingers keep their notes held down while the active fingers are engaged in the exercise.

This is the kind of thing you might do on any number of the exercises you’d find in this type of book.

I want to emphasize that you should not rush through this type of practice. Dedicate yourself to setting small goals of one or two exercises and thoroughly practicing those exercises for a while before moving on to another exercise.

Click here to search for and purchase your next “piano technical exercise book“. You might precede your search string with the word “beginner”, “intermediate”, or “advanced”, depending on your present level of musicianship.

When practicing “on-your-own”, feel free to be creative as you improvise your own rhythmic variations. It’s ok for the rhythmic composition of each rep to have some minor, or moderate, or even drastic differences! Just keep it in the groove!

Rudiment Books are usually focused on presenting you with material such as scales, arpeggios, I-IV-V-I chord progressions and resolutions, etc. Since this type of material is pretty much self-explanatory, I’m not going to say much here other than that this material is essential to your growth and development. If you have any questions, contact me.

Watch this video clip to see what Oscar Peterson said about his experience as a kid with a rudiment book and how his dad, mom, and family helped him get through it by insisting he practice!

One of the books my dad had me use from this category was the “Hanon Complete Edition” publication from the family of Charles-Louis Hanon finger exercise books.
Older Hanon Complete Cover Photo

Hanon finger exercises were first published in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France in 1873 and the first release of the Schirmer’s Edition was also over 100 years ago. The Hanon books have been in the “public domain” for some time now. This means that you can easily find them for sale from a number of publishers and distributors who’ve placed them in their catalogs, or you can easily obtain them as free downloads from many places on the Internet.

There are many published third party Hanon variations on the market. I put my own spin on Hanon Part 1 by creating a digital package that has on-board MIDI drum accompaniments.


If you’d like to play along with the “Music-Minus-One” version I made for you, click here or here.

The M.M.O. video’s on-screen notation is written in the treble staff only, starting from Middle-C. I used 8th notes instead of 16ths notes and the exercise is played twice-through per video play. The chord changes I used are also there so you can use the video for “comping” practice too!

I still use Hanon with my current students. I use their current level of development to determine which volume to recommend to them and/or the specific exercise(s) I assign. For example, one of my students may be working from the Hanon volume titled “Part I” which contains the first twenty scale preparatory exercises while another student who’s further advanced might be working from “Part III” which contains exercises #44 to 60 .

The Hanon Finger Exercise Books:

Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist, Part I – Preparatory Exercises – #s 1 thru 20 only

Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist, Part II – Scales and Arpeggios – #s 21 thru 43 only

Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist, Part III – Scales and Arpeggios – #s 44 thru 60 only

Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist, Complete Edition – Approximately 120 pages

If you wish to have your copy of Hanon in a traditionally-bound book you might opt to purchase it. Click here then type or cut and paste your choice into the next page’s search box .

If you are a “do it yourselfer”and you wish to obtain your Hanon as a free PDF download, then click any of the following options, courtesy of the anonymous person who uploaded and shared these files.

Hanon Part I – Exercises 1 thru 20 only (20-page PDF)

Hanon Part II – Exercises 21 thru 43 only (50-page PDF)

Hanon Part III – Exercises 44 thru 60 only (46-page PDF)

Hanon Complete – Exercises 1 thru 60 (116-page PDF)

So, get busy!

Part-3 coming soon in AC #26…

 

 

"Gotta get to my study room!"

AC #24 – Three Piano Technique Practice Tips (Part-1 of 3)

It doesn’t matter how much you may already know or how much you may learn about the inner workings of music theory. If you are going to be a “player”, you need to have a minimum of at least an adequate technique to go along with your theoretical knowledge and know-how. With an inadequate technique, you will surely experience lots of difficulty in executing musical ideas and expressing yourself on the piano. If your fingers have not been trained, your brain telling your fingers exactly what to do will have no effect because your fingers just won’t cooperate! They will not be able to follow the orders issued by “headquarters”!

So, to help you build or maintain your piano technique, here is the 1st tip in this 3-part series.

1: SCALES: Start with the major scales. Practice them in the one-octave range and play them using the traditionally recommended fingering for each of the 12 scales. Try to make this practice, as well as your practice on all rudimentary items and drills, as fun and as musical as possible by practicing with some sort of accompaniment track or rhythm track. Find a tempo marking that allows you to play evenly and accurately, then incrementally increase the tempo. The video just below shows me playing three metaphorically named major scale variations in the key of C.

1 – The “Stagger Lee”: Mostly 16ths but the 8th notes on beats 1 and 3 yield a staggered  effect.

2 – The “Cloud Nine”: This extends into octave #2 to get the 9th scale degree from the “cloud”.

3 – The “Michael Phelps”: After descending each time, go “under water” to change direction.


After you’re comfortable with playing all 12 major scales, move on into the one-octave dominant 7th, dorian minor, half-diminished and diminished scales. I encourage you to play these one-octave scales using your own rhythmic and style variations! After that, you should expand this activity into some multi-octave ranges and include chords, inversions, and arpeggios. Whether you “swing it” or play it “straight”, be sure to keep everything in a groove and have fun!

Part-2 coming soon in AC #25…

"Gotta get to my study room!"

AC #23 How to learn the language of jazz? Speak Like a Child!

I don’t know about you but the first word I heard as a newborn baby was probably the word “NO!” Well, maybe it was “mom” or “dad”, but “NO!” was probably very high on the list of first-heard words.

My first physical experience was probably the doctor-administered “rear-end spank” that was customarily given to newborns. Do they still do that today? That spank hurt and it made me cry, and henceforth, my connection to “blues” music was immediately solidified! (Just kidding!)

Seriously though, I chose “Speak Like a Child” to be a part this post’s title because, for me, the phrase has a special figurative significance.

When a child learns to speak English or any other spoken language, a big part of the process is spending lots of time listening to and imitating the words, phrases, and sentences being spoken by the people around them–family members in most instances. The key words here are listening and imitating.

Likewise, one of the best ways for people to learn the language of jazz is to spend lots of time listening to and imitating and even transcribing the sounds of musical ideas and phrases being played in the music you hear or by the musicians around you. The key words here are also listening and imitating.

All of the world’s best orators started off as kids learning the intricacies of speech by listening and echoing single words, short phrases, longer phrases, and sentences, etc. until eventually, the ability to compose and express their own thoughts finally took hold. The language of jazz has the same dynamic!  That is to say, all of the world’s best instrumentalists and improvisers started off as beginners who could barely make a sound on their respective instrument(s). But through the long process of listening, imitating, and learning to read in many cases, the art of self-expression finally developed and they became great players.

So if you’re not already doing it, I want to encourage you to “Speak Like a Child” and add this type of listen-and-imitate approach to your practice routine. Get in there and get started by learning to imitate some short phrases first before moving on to medium length and longer phrases. Melodies and fragments of melodies are good too! I’m going to ask a couple of my students to let me post some of their work along these lines on their student page in the near future. It really is a very effective way to learn the syntax of jazz language and to build a lexicon of phrases and vocabulary. Stay tuned.  

"Gotta get to my study room!"

AC #22: Block Chords: What are they? How to use them?

While recording “You’re My Everything” during a recording session on October 26, 1956, Miles Davis whistled during the song’s intro to stop the recording and said to Red Garland, his pianist, “Play some block chords Red… Alright Rudy?… Block chords Red”.

This instruction was left in the mix and can be heard on the commercially released recording. What did Miles mean when he said that? What did Miles want from his pianist?  The song’s intro starts at the video’s 19th second time code marker and as you’re listening, pay special attention to the difference in Red Garland’s playing before and after Miles’ instruction.

http://www.plosin.com/MilesAhead/Sessions.aspx?s=561026

“Block chords” is a harmonic device that calls for all harmony being played, during the spans-of-time that block chords are engaged, to be delivered within certain close-position voicings and rhythmic parameters.  When block chords are applied to melody and/or single-note improvisation lines, a more impactful, “phatter”, richer sound results! I’ve seen Phineas Newborn draw actual gasps-of-excitement from audiences with his highly skilled block chord use!

There are several types or variations of block chords but the one on which I’m going to focus in this workshop I’ve named “book ends”.  Book ends call for 5-note voicings with a numerical schematic that spells voices 1 through 5 the from top to bottom with the melody or lead always being note 1 or the top-most note. Note 5 always doubles note 1, one octave lower. Notes 2, 3, and 4 are harmony notes which must be placed in between or within the one-octave span of notes 1 and 5 (the “book ends”) at all times.

Since this is a tall order, I highly advise you to do yourself a favor before moving on to blocking melodies and improv lines. Do the prep work of  making sure that you can play all Major7, Dominant7, Minor7, Minor7b5 and Diminished7 chords in all four of their positions in the 5-note block chord style! It’ll make what follows much easier!!!

As I always say, don’t hesitate to contact me if you need some assistance. I’ll be glad to hear from you and glad to help. Let’s Skype!

Where did block chords come from? Who invented them?  

I recall having read somewhere in the past that pianist/organist Milt Buckner was given credit for starting or inventing block chords!

I’m not going to co-sign such an absolute statement but I will go along with acknowledging the fact that Milt Buckner is one of the first musicians to be widely noticed and recognized for bringing this style of playing to the “forefront”.  George Shearing credited Milt Buckner and the big band sounds of Glenn Miller as his two major influencers along the lines of his developing the block chord “George Shearing sound”.

http://www.jazzwax.com/2009/05/milt-buckner-block-chords-parade.html

Erroll Garner also credited the sounds of big bands as his main influence in the development of his signature style which uses block chords. There are many other musicians who cite Milt Buckner as a main influencing source along these lines but as to whether or not Milt Buckner actually invented block chords, I choose to remain a non signatory.

John Lennon once said that if you had to rename rock and roll, you’d have to call it “Chuck Berry!” However, in Chuck Berry’s autobiography, Chuck thanked J.L. for the statement but spoke up right away saying that the whole “Chuck Berry” concept and sound was not actually his! It came directly from his being influenced by his local peers, the great boogie-woogie players, and people like the great Nat “King” Cole!

I like to think that if Milt Buckner were around today, he might thank all of his fans and “influencees” before giving the same kind of cautionary statement the C.B. gave J.L.

And so the story goes… Because of the influence factor, it’s usually inaccurate at best to try to trace and pinpoint something like a trend or a style in music down to one person. What is more important to me is finding out how to do it and how to use it in my playing.

With that said, let me draw your attention to the 7/22/13 update release of “Block Chording Short Scales” in my store.  It is a rudimentary block chord drill system that focuses on block chording 3-, 4-, and 5-note scales of the major and minor varieties and it has MIDI accompaniments to help your practice move right along. If you do the work, this updated package can be very helpful to you in getting block chords “together”.  Contact me if you need assistance.

See you next post.

Art

"Gotta get to my study room!"

AC #21 Attention Beginner Piano Students!! First Things First!

The first thing you want to do as a beginner piano student is to thoroughly learn the names of the white keys.  These names need to be so deeply imprinted and ingrained into your long-term memory and subconscious that identification and recognition of each key is instantaneous.

In the same way that your ID’ing and recognizing any member of our 16-letter alphabet takes less than a “billisecond”, your identification and recognition of the piano key names should be just as fast or faster! (:-)

The inevitable question of, “How to study and achieve this task of knowing the piano keys?”, is usually among the first questions asked by enquiring minds.  In this post, I’m going to recommend cue-cards as a method of study.

Cue-cards have been used in the movies and TV since the 30s and 40s but they were also used in many walks of education for years and years and more years upon years before that!. Like wire recorders pre-dated tape recorders, cue-cards pre-date all of the modern computer study methods like Flash and Java applets. However, using computer technology to recreate the old-fashioned card study method only enhances it and makes it more efficient and fun!

I’ve brought three ready-made cue-card helpers into the blog this week to help you get started with really getting to know the piano key names. This activity is mainly for beginners but if you’re further along and you need a refresher, or if you’re just curious, then, by all means, please visit this page as often as you like.

I suggest that you thoroughly work your way through each of the three itemized applets in numerical order. Of the four on-board study modes, I found the Flashcard and Scatter modes worked best. Have fun!

Piano Key Name Practice Item #1 (White Keys aka Natural Keys)

Piano Key Name Practice Item #2 (Keys named as Sharps and/or Flats)

Piano Key Name Practice Item #3 (All Piano Key Names)

 

"Gotta get to my study room!"

AC #19 Can Your Dog Learn to Play Piano? Read Music?

Click the links on the magazine cover to view the title story and other contents inside.

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Well if you are expecting your dog to play some jazz, blues, classical or pop music after a few sessions with a teacher, I’ll say that it will take more than a few lessons in most cases! (Smile!) However, if your dog seems to enjoy just doodling around on the keys, I’d say encourage it! I’ve known that many animals actually like music and will listen and respond to it in their own way.  

I used to have a cat named Tom-Two who loved to sit on the piano and listen to music while I practiced alone or rehearsed with a group that had drums, horns, singer(s), and everything! Tom absolutely loved it! He’d stay on the piano and listen and purr until I was done or the rehearsal was over.

Although Tom would sit still, stay present, and listen to may types of music, he couldn’t stand the sound of a marching band!  As soon as any parade would pass our home, he’d run under the bed or couch and stay there with flattened ears until it had passed and the drums and music were completely out of ear shot!

The idea of trying to teach Tom or any of my previous pets to play the piano never entered my mind but when I first saw what I’m about to share with you, I didn’t know what to think or make of it! But the more I thought about it, I said, “Why not?” 

Kanal von Schlauwauwau, who I feature in the virtual magazine’s title article links, makes very  serious efforts at teaching her dogs something about music. I agree with a point she made to one of her responders that “dogs really need new challenges like all intelligent creatures”. Her dogs have really taken to their lessons in ear training and note reading!  She also has some birds that seem to be interested in music too!

Speaking of birds, check out this parrot dancing to Gangnam-Style. It might do well at piano!

I think that Ms. Schlauwauwau, her dogs, and her birds are awesome!  Her work is very interesting to me and I’ll continue to follow her by visiting her YouTube channel.  I would love to see this kind of work done with dolphins and other animals known to possess exceptional intelligence. Personally, however, all of my teaching activities will remain focused on working with people of all ages.

See you next post.

Practice well!