Q. I play my scales every day like I should but when it comes time to play music in other keys I have to literally mark each note on the page (circle it, underline, etc) or else ill play the natural note and make a mistake. Is there some type of mental pattern I need to learn? What exercises can I practice? Should I know the note is flat/sharp due to the sound (ear training?)? Is there somewhere on the web that has music sorted by key so I can practice one key at a time over several songs? Im good at transposing but I want to play songs as they are written..
A. Know what key you are in before you start the piece. It shouldn't be a matter of having to look back at the beginning of the line and see what flats/sharps there are. Do you have the circle of fifths memorized? Here is a picture of the circle of fifths: http://numbera.com/musictheory/theory/images/fifths2.gif
Memorize what keys have how many sharps/flats. I would try practicing some pieces in C major, then F (1 flat), then B-flat (2 flats), etc.
Here is a site that might help you with memorizing key signatures (if you don't have them memorized already). Just knowing them and being able to look at it and immediately know what key you're in will help you alot, I think.
http://www.musictheory.net/
This site has Trainers - Note, Key, Interval, and Triad, where it shows you a staff with a note, key signature, interval, or chord and will ask you what it is, and then there are the ear trainer where it plays a scale, interval, or type of chord and ask you what it is. You can set it to be pretty tricky - for example, on the Scale Ear Trainer, you can set it so it will play not only Major, minor, and harmonis minor, but also all of the modes, such as Dorian, Lydian, Mixolydian, etc. As for the key signature trainer (which will be the one which will help you with your "problem" the most), once you've mastered treble clef, you can move onto bass clef, and then there's tenor and alto clef, which I find very difficult to read.
Anyway, good luck with your piano playing! <3allie
im sick of these piano lessons?
Q. im always trying to learn new song on the piano, and it seems that EVERYONE thinks that EVERYONE ELSE has enough money to take lessons.well heres a newsflash, I DONT.like, no shit i SHOULD take lessons but that doesnt mean i can afford it.is there ANY OTHER WAY to learn song without taking lessons??????its too hard for me to listen and play it because im not that familiar with many chords.
A. While I normally suggest taking lessons, I know it can be hard to afford them. There are other ways you can learn to play, though. If you want to learn theory to understand what the chords are, you can go to http://www.musictheory.net/. Also, for ear training you can search for good-ear, and click ear trainer (sorry, I can't give a link that works). If you want to learn to read music, you can download Finale Notepad, and learn to read by listening to a note as you place it on the staff. For the note names, go to http://www.ehow.com and search for How to Read Piano Music, by pianistic. Click on the image next to Step 3 to see the note names on the staff, and click the image next to Step 5 to see the notes written out with the names underneath. That will give you names of notes and what they look like on the staff for almost three octaves.
As far as playing goes, you want to keep everything (wrists, arms, shoulders, back, neck) loose. If anything feels tight or tense, try to relax it. The best way to start doing that is to do it one arm at a time. Let your right arm hang limp at your side, and grab your wrist with your left hand. Lift your right hand over the piano keys, and let it fall into place. See how it feels, and try to get that feeling by putting your hand on the keys.
These are the best free lessons I can think of, and will help you learn to play. If you learn to read and want to find sheet music for a song, search for the song title's sheet music (example, search "Fur Elise sheet music" and you'll find a few sites that let you download it for free).
Help, I suck at piano ear tests?!?
Q. Ok, so I'm a 13 year old girl, and I'm currently in ARCT piano, and I SUCK AT EAR TESTS. Like seriously. The people from lower grades are better than me -__-". It's really embarrassing cause I had an aural class with two people from grade 10 and 9, cause the girl i usually take classes with didnt come and they were literally better than me. I know there's different levels of ear tests for each grade, but I REALLY need help in identifying intervals and chords. LIKE SERIOUS HELP. It seems I have have no sense of pitch at all, and can't tell notes apart!!! This is literally my WORST SECTION IN EVERY EXAM I DID. AND ARCT EAR TESTS ARE SO MUCH HARDER THAN GRADE TEN. I SAW THE CADENCES AND I WAS LIKE WTF???!!! SO PLEASE SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME I SERIOUSLY NEED HELP LIKE THIS IS SOOO EMBARRASSING FOR ME...
A. Sing! It really helps by increasing your sensitivity towards pitch intervals, especially if there's more than one part to the song. If there's a choral camp for teens before your exam during the summer, sign up! Or get a songbook with duets or trios (or whatever you want). Play them on the piano and hum along. You could also just play intervals on the piano, then hum each note from the interval. Do about 30 of these every day.
You can also use websites:
http://www.childrensmusicworkshop.com/musictheory/trainers/html/id90_en.html
http://www.musictheory.net/exercises/ear-interval
...or apps:
Music Theory (Brainscape) - free
I'd do about 100 of these each day, since they're pretty quick.
I'm also kinda panicking about my RCM exam coming up... I'm not so great at ear tests either! But I'm doing what I just suggested to you and I'm getting the hang of it now. Imagine if you did each of the exercises every day - so about 130 interval exercises - think about how much you'd improve by your exam! Have confidence in yourself. :) Good luck!
Powered by Yahoo! Answers
Title : I need help piano in keys other than C, F, and G. I play scales repeatedly but cant connect it to the music!!
Description : Q. I play my scales every day like I should but when it comes time to play music in other keys I have to literally mark each note on the pa...