Q. Hi, I've been playing piano for the last couple months (without all the lessons and formal crap but just making songs by ear and I'd say I'm pretty fluent in both hands and basic harmonic notes).
Well one song I had a hard time getting my right hand notes in harmony with my left hand notes so I googled the song sheet but theres all that junk about minor this and major that and chords.
So the reason I'm writing right here is to ask:
- In simple terms, what is a chord? is it like a harmony note (F1,C,F2) (D1,G,D2) -- I dont know how to describe them. its like the most common left hand notes I play; ex.) F1>C>F2>C>G>C>H>C?
- Im tring to learn piano sheet language but its so confusing with all the sharps and 'b's and changing sign thingys (the C with the : and wierd looking F) for the bottom row. any useful tips or link?
- What are majors and minors? like canon in blank major blah blah blah
Thanks in advance
A. A chord is a harmonization of different notes. Major and Minor triads are the most common. Such As, C4, E4, and G4 (a C major triad), or A4, C5, and E5 (an A minor triad). If you were wondering, the number's at the ends of the notes are the different pitch classes, these tell you the frequency of the octave of the note: A4 = 440hz, A5 = 880hz, etc; the different pitch classes tells you what octave your on on the note your playing. In simpler terms, a major triad chord is 3 notes made up of certain note intervals. The major triad comes from a major scale. Lets take the C major scale for example. The notes of the C major scale are C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. Each note has a different scale degree assigned to it: C would be the 1st scale degree, D would be the second, E would be the third, and so on. The distance between two notes in the scale can be labeled with an interval. From C to C would be a perfect unison, or P1 (perfect first), from C to D would be a M2 (major 2nd), C to E would be a M3 (major 3rd), C to F would be a P4 (perfect fourth) C to G would be a P5 (perfect fifth), C to A would be a M6 (major 6th), C to B would be a M7 (major 7), and C4 to C5 would be a P8 (perfect 8th, this is also called an octave). So as you can see, a basic C major triad, C, E, and G, is based off of the 1st, 3rd, and 5th scale degrees. There are 12 different types of major keys: C, G, D, A, E, B, F#/Gb, C#/Db, Ab, Eb, Bb, F. They all consist of whole steps and half steps. A whole step consists of two consecutive half steps. A half step is the smallest interval between two notes (from A to A# is a half step, from A to Ab is a half step, from C to B is a half step, from G to G# is a half step, etc). All major keys rely on the same order of whole and half steps: W W H W W W H (from C to D is a whole step, from D to E is a whole step, from E to F is a half step, from F to G is a whole step, from G to A is a whole step, from A to B is a whole step, and from B to C is a half step). A G major scale goes like this: G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G (G to A is a whole step, A to B is a whole step, B to C is a half step, C to D is a whole step, D to E is a whole step, E to F# is a whole step, F# to G is a half step). A D major Scale goes like this: D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D. Minor scales are a little different. In a minor scale, the order of the whole and half steps changes to: WHWWHWW. A C minor scale would be like this: C, D, Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb, C (C to D is a whole step, D to Eb is a half step, Eb to F is a whole step, F to G is a whole step, G to Ab, is a half step, Ab to Bb is a whole step, and Bb to C is a whole step). A G minor scale would be this: G, A, Bb, C, D, Eb, F, G. Also, a C minor triad, since it is still based off of the 1st, 3rd, and 5th scale degrees, would be C, Eb, and G (the difference between a minor chord and a major chord is the minor third interval, in this case, it is Eb). The difference in sound between a major key and a minor key is that a minor key sounds sounds somber and a major key sounds happy. All because of the way the notes are formed. Also, by the way, there is no H note, the notes are based off the first seven letters of the alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.
Go to musictheory.net, or emusictheory.com, those websites would really work well if you wanted to learn music theory.
calling all piano players?
Q. im just starting to take piano lessons so i can move along more easily with my saxophone. heres the question. how do you play chords in major minor dimentive and augmentive with all 12 keys. i dont even know if i said that right, can someone help ? or give me an example?
A. I have a couple of questions for you:
1. Why is a beginning piano player trying to play chords in all 12 keys? That seems pretty advanced.
2. Why is a saxophone player worried about piano chords when a saxophone only plays single notes?
Here is partial answer to your question:
C Major Chord: C E G
c minor chord: C Eflat G
c diminished chord: C Eflat Gflat
C augmented chord: C E G sharp
2 Piano Chords?
Q. what are these 2 piano chords? They are played on the white keys.
1. A D F
2. G C E
One finger on each letter - it forms a whole chord for all 3 notes.
A. Hmmm, the smart one isn't that smart ;-)
A D F is d minor, NOT F major. in deed in the 2nd inversion.
'Normal' chords are build lke this.
Rootnote --- Thirth --- fifth.
So from 'd' that gives us:
d -------------- f ----- a
(rootnote)(thirth)(fifth)
Now you cantake these note's and have any note in the bass. It could be:
d-f-a
---f-a--d
-----a--d-f
Same notes, same chord, but not the same function. In classical harmony, the second inversion is considered to be instable. It is progressive, wants to move on, not like the Rootposition, that one is (more or less) stable.
Look at wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chord_(music) ) for further information. As a matter of fact these two chords are given as an example there.
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