What do you get when you drop a piano on an army base?
A Flat Major
I've always wanted to learn how to play piano better because I know it will help me with my singing, but I've never really attempted to learn the basics. So, I decided to take this opportunity to further my piano playing skills, and hopefully become better at sight reading not only for piano but also for vocal purposes. I know quite a bit about music in general, I can look at a piece of music and decipher notes, and I can generally show you were they are on a piano. I know my solfeggio's and I can play a few songs on the piano. The purpose of this blog though is to further understand music theory and become more confident in my abilities.
I decided to learn how to play "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" This song would most definitely be considered a beginner's song, but for the purpose of this blog I chose to start with the very basics.
The first thing I knew I needed to learn about was playing a chord accompaniment/ chord accompaniments. A chord is a combination of three or more keys played at the same time. This song only uses the C chord. And the picture below shows where to play it on the keyboard.
Today's popular sheet music and books also show "chord symbols" above the melody. This letter is a form of short hand that indicates what to play. "Most musicians look at just chord symbols and, from experience, know which notes to play" (Leonard 13).
While I was learning the song, I discovered how much easier it was to play chords, "by putting my pointer on G, middle finger on E, and thumb on C" (Leonard 14). Once I did it with the fingerings the book said to use I found the chord sounded much better.
I also discovered that if I learned to play the melody and the chords separately it was much easier to put them together in the end.
In the end, I learned a lot more than I was expecting to. This book definitely helped me understand the basics and with this foundation it will be easier to build on my own skills. And hopefully by the next blog I will be able to learn a much more difficult song, and in the meantime I will work on perfecting the techniques I learned today.
Do you think that even if you know how to plunk notes on a piano, you should learn the basics before continuing forwards? Explain.
Easy Adult Piano. N.p.: Hal Leonard, n.d. Print.
I think that you should always start with the basics of anything you do. Having a strong structured knowledge of what's the easiest to do will make it a lot easier to continue to expand on that knowledge. No matter how great you think you are everyone should start at the beginning. Keep up the playing :)
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree! You can compare it to the building of a house. If you have a strong foundation then the house will be easier to build and stay up longer!
DeleteI believe that knowing the basics is very important. The fundamentals of piano is basically the notes and scales, and also chords. Knowing how to play notes on a piano is great, but you cannot get very far with that. When you want to learn a song, the most common way is to find sheet music and play off of that. In order to do that, you must know how to read sheet music and also know where the notes on the piano are. You also need to know the time signature so you know when to play what keys.
ReplyDeleteThat is very true, and you bring up a great point Kara! I believe that the scales are the foundation but knowing how to read and understand music is what helps you to actually play songs.
DeleteHi Fern! I think that learning the basics of any task whether music or art is always a key to being successful at the activity. To advance forward and learn new concepts its always necessary to know the basics. I'm so happy that you are learning new songs on the piano and expanding your knowledge on playing! I can't wait to hear you play songs on the piano with your amazing voice soon!
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