Q. I am finding it extremely difficult to do so for even the easiest songs. Do you have to have a sound knowledge of music theory (if so, how much? what grade in AMEB if you live in Australia?). How do you develop relative pitch, or even perfect pitch?
A. Hi.
From personal experience, here is how you do it.
I will use the popular "Happy Birthday" tune (Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you; happy birthday dear <whoever>, happy birthday to you ) for illustration.
For simplicity, we will use the Key of C Major for illustrations.
First and foremost, listen to the bass; the bass plays the root note upon which the chord is built.
Secondly, listen to the melody; as in, what note is the singer singing at that precise point ?
When you combine the two, you have the root note, and another note, which could be the third, fifth, sixth, seventh, major seventh, suspended fourth, etc.
Having got two notes, then, listening to the song as a whole, and having some rough idea of what the chord is (based on the root note) then you can figure out the rest of the notes in the chord.
Back to our song: " Happy Birthday" . At the basic level (without adding any jazz flavours, substitute chords etc, just the basic level) the bass notes (in brackets) would be,
(C)Happy Birthday to (G)youuuuu, Happy (G) biiiirthday to (C) youuuuuu
And the melody notes (in brackets), are
(G)Ha (G)ppy (A)Birth (G)day (C)to (B)you, (G)Ha (G)ppy (A)birth (G)day (D)to (C) you
Now, let's take the "Happy" part. We have the bass note of C and teh melody of G. On the Keyboard, C and G would be the root and fifth of the C major chord, so the other note must be an E. Thus, play the C major chord for the "Ha ppy" part.
Next, the "Birth day " part; you notice that the bass note of C stays sustained even on the "Birth day" part; however, the melody changes to an A. Hmm; What chord would have a C as the root, and an A played on the right hand (if you are playing the piano ) ? What chord has an A in it ? An F chord. Thus, you play, Right hand - F major, Left hand C major, for a brief period. You also realise that the other components of the Fmajor chord, the F and C, go in sync with the A that is the melody --- it sounds right.
Thus, so far, you have a Cmajor, F/C (brief) that resolves immediately to a C. (F/C means, right hand Fmajor chord, left hand C note ). The F/C is brief and resolves back to the C major chord, just in time for the melody, "day" in "Birth-day".
The "to" part is still a C major chord, inverted. Instead of playing C E G, you will play E G C. This is to bring out the melody, C. If you played it as CEG, it would be right but you would lose the melody; that would be significant if you are playing as the lead instrument; if you are simply backing, then it doesn't matter.
At the "You" part, you realise the bass changes to G. What's the melody ? The melody is at B. Hmmm; what chord, has a G and a B in it ? G major, = GBD.
And so on and so forth. With time and practice, you will be in a position to fathom other chords, such as suspendeds, minors dimisheds etc.
If you have more questions, feel free to email me, frankly747@yahoo.com
Good luck and good day.
what are the keyboard notes for nursery rhymes?
Q. My 7 year old sister wants to learn how to play piano/keyboard, she practices on her toy keyboard, but because no one in the family can ready sheet music it's hard to find the notes/chords on they're own, can anyone give me a list of notes for the different nursery rhymes please? I would be very grateful :) we already have Happy Birthday and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
the keys have been labelled, yeah sorry forgot to mention that, I just need the order of the chords :)
A. Well the way your question is phrased, there are unlimited amounts of notes for any particular song, believe it or not.
If your toy keyboard has the keys labelled, then I could gladly tell you a few notes to play, but it would be somewhat hard to explain to you the notes on the keyboard, as they all look the same to someone who is unaffiliated with the piano.
What are songs that utilize a guitar and piano?(perferablly for beginners)?
Q. I'm learning to play piano and my friend is learning guitar. We want to play together! So song suggestions pleaseeee :D
A. Heeeey i'm a begginer aswell in keyboard. I think the easiest are: twinkle twinkle little star, jingle bells, mary had a little lamb, happy birthday & away in a manger :D I'm not sure wether you can play all of them on the guitar but im sure you can!
There are a couple of ways to go about doing this. I would recommend getting music books to start with. You can look for music books that say on the front piano/guitar/vocal or you can get books that are for one specific instrument and have the other person play the melody line for the vocal. You can get books for guitar and have the guitar play the chords and have the piano play notes from the chords - arpeggiation or even learn how to play chord melody.
Make sure you pick music you like. If you have a hard time picking music you both like then compromise by playing one song one person likes and then switch. It is not necessary to pick music from bands that have both guitar and keyboard as you will often find books that provide music for all instruments. If you are looking for free music try Guitar Noise or look up the term "chord melody" to see what is available.
Make sure you give each other the patience when playing together as you might not gel immediately. Also make sure you practice and most of the time use a metronome when practicing alone so you are able to keep time. It can be very frustrating to play with others when somebody is not in time with the others. You might even want to practice with a metronome when playing together. The keyboard should have this availalbe.
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