piano / keyboard

Is there anybody here who can play the piano or keyboard? i have started learning the keyboard and am getting slightly confused with the chords?

i have started reading a book i borrowed from the library and have been following it through, i can now play jingle bells using my right hand without looking at the keyboard. yay

can anybody advise me more on chords? as im too tight as a student to pay over £10 an hour for a lesson. Im only learning for fun so home taught should be ok i spose

I can play random tunes and know where a C is but I tend to learn a tune by ear and play it over again and again till its stuck. I wouldn't say being able to play without having to look at the actual keyboard was the real aim of it, but it does make you feel better about it

I learnt to play guitar using a site on the net, there are some good ones about. However, I'm sure there are some experts on here to help you out

Chords

There are only four types, Major (the nice sounding ones), Minor (the sad sounding ones), Diminished (severe doom, not used in popular music) and Augmented (unsettled, instant film soundtrack music, not used in general music). I know there's all the extensions but don't think about that for now.

To make a Major chord play the first, third and fifth notes of the regular Major scale together (so for C major play C E and G.

To make C minor flatten the third one note (semitone), to make C Diminshed flatten the fifth note too. To make C Augmented start with the C major chord again and sharpen the fifth note. That's it! No tricks or complication, to get a different chord, just start with a different scale (G, F whatever - exactly the same principle).

That's the meat and potatoes of it, then there's all the added notes you add to make the flavour different like the seventh note of the scale (Maj7 chord - jazzy) the flattened 7th note (7th chord - a leading note chord like in a hymn to let you know it's changing). Each added or altered note gives a different flavour, there's about 35 in all. See link for them, there's instructions on the right for which notes of the cale to play to get each one.

http://jmdl.com/howard/music/quick_crd_ref.html

Good luck

cheers!

i guess il have to keep practicing. im going to print this page off

Originally Posted by arenalife

Chords

There are only four types, Major (the nice sounding ones), Minor (the sad sounding ones), Diminished (severe doom, not used in popular music) and Augmented (unsettled, instant film soundtrack music, not used in general music). I know there's all the extensions but don't think about that for now.

To make a Major chord play the first, third and fifth notes of the regular Major scale together (so for C major play C E and G.

To make C minor flatten the third one note (semitone), to make C Diminshed flatten the fifth note too. To make C Augmented start with the C major chord again and sharpen the fifth note. That's it! No tricks or complication, to get a different chord, just start with a different scale (G, F whatever - exactly the same principle).

That's the meat and potatoes of it, then there's all the added notes you add to make the flavour different like the seventh note of the scale (Maj7 chord - jazzy) the flattened 7th note (7th chord - a leading note chord like in a hymn to let you know it's changing). Each added or altered note gives a different flavour, there's about 35 in all. See link for them, there's instructions on the right for which notes of the cale to play to get each one.

http://jmdl.com/howard/music/quick_crd_ref.html

Good luck

Daughter has Grade 2 piano exam tomorrow. She has done lots of practice even on the boring scales and arpeggios. Am hoping for a really good pass. Violin Grade 3 soon too

[Viney]

Verna is a grade 5 but although she bought a piano she never plays as she thinks shes rubbish. She plays by ear 99.9% of the time and its funny watching her read music. She can also play the flute!

Me, i just thump about playing hooks and rifts with one finger!!

[Supervox]

Originally Posted by arenalife

Chords

There are only four types, Major (the nice sounding ones), Minor (the sad sounding ones), Diminished (severe doom, not used in popular music) and Augmented (unsettled, instant film soundtrack music, not used in general music). I know there's all the extensions but don't think about that for now.

To make a Major chord play the first, third and fifth notes of the regular Major scale together (so for C major play C E and G.

To make C minor flatten the third one note (semitone), to make C Diminshed flatten the fifth note too. To make C Augmented start with the C major chord again and sharpen the fifth note. That's it! No tricks or complication, to get a different chord, just start with a different scale (G, F whatever - exactly the same principle).

That's the meat and potatoes of it, then there's all the added notes you add to make the flavour different like the seventh note of the scale (Maj7 chord - jazzy) the flattened 7th note (7th chord - a leading note chord like in a hymn to let you know it's changing). Each added or altered note gives a different flavour, there's about 35 in all. See link for them, there's instructions on the right for which notes of the cale to play to get each one.

http://jmdl.com/howard/music/quick_crd_ref.html

Good luck

Nice description - but . . .

. . . I'm guessing that your definitions of 'Popular music' & 'General music' are somewhat different to mine as Dims & Augs frequently crop up in a lot of stuff that I (attempt) to play !!

Originally Posted by Supervox

Nice description - but . . .

. . . I'm guessing that your definitions of 'Popular music' & 'General music' are somewhat different to mine as Dims & Augs frequently crop up in a lot of stuff that I (attempt) to play !!

Agreed SV - I find I can apply alot of modal jazz chords/scales to different music genres

Originally Posted by sv_rory

Is there anybody here who can play the piano or keyboard? i have started learning the keyboard and am getting slightly confused with the chords?

i have started reading a book i borrowed from the library and have been following it through, i can now play jingle bells using my right hand without looking at the keyboard. yay

can anybody advise me more on chords? as im too tight as a student to pay over £10 an hour for a lesson. Im only learning for fun so home taught should be ok i spose

What is you are confused about? you wont be wanting anything more than to learn a few scales and arpegios in different keys at this stage so you can then apply it to some very simple music. Chords are just arpegios with the notes all played at once stacked on top of each other.

There are some "tune a day" type books that should get you started.

I wouldnt confuse yourself with anything as complex as aug and diminished yet - thats quite advanced stuff. hth

Originally Posted by Ed

Daughter has Grade 2 piano exam tomorrow. She has done lots of practice even on the boring scales and arpeggios. Am hoping for a really good pass. Violin Grade 3 soon too

Good luck Eds Daughter! (remember the boring scales and arps will make you a better player!)