keyboard accompaniment

7/30/2019 Keyboard Accompaniment

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KeyboardAccompanimentIII-A

Also available online at http://aliciaskeys2keys.blogspot.com

Alicias hours this quarter are:

Tuesday 3-4 in Room #263

Wednesday 3-4 in Room #270Email with questions [email protected]


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TableofContents

KeyboardAccompanimentforSingers 3LevelIII 3

TheLanguageBarrier 6KnowledgeIsPower,orChainofFood 7

KeyboardAccompanimentLevelIII-AFAQ 10KeyboardAccompanimentLevelIII-ASyllabus 13

Week1 13Week2 13Week3 13Week4 14Week5 14Week6 14Week7 15Week8 15Week9 15Week10 16Week11 16

TheBasics 17Why Scales? 17Elements of Scale Work 18Fingering 19Metronome 19GettingStarted 20PracticingGuidelinesandTips 22

TheNextLevel:MakingMusicOutOfChordChanges 23KeyboardAccompanimentLevelIII-A 23

Scales-C,F,G 28

FirstSongVoiceLeading 29

PracticeLog 31


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KeyboardAccompanimentforSingersAlicia's Keys - A Guide To Help Singers Become Keyboard Players, Win Friends, andInfluence Musicians (or, Musicians Are From Mars, Singers Are From Venus, and Club

Owners Are From Uranus!)

Why do I need to play keyboards?

Im a singer. Im already good at what I do. Im never going to be a professional

keyboard player; I can always hire somebody who is better than Ill ever be. Ill never be

any good, so why should I bother? Plus, I already play acoustic guitar. Its too hard, andI dont want to waste my time learning keyboards when I could be learning somethingthat will make me a better singer something that I can really use.

Guess what? Playing keyboards willmake you a better singer, and its not only

something you can use, its something you cant afford to do without.

In this course, my goal is to turn you from a singer into a musician.

Why do I need to be a musician? Whats wrong with being a singer?

If youre taking this class, youve been singing for a while now. You may have noticed

that singers and players dont always see eye-to-eye.

Have you ever felt as if players dont respect you?

I thought so.

Since time immemorial, there have been singers. And there have been musicians.

Occasionally their orbits cross, but all too often, they find themselves floating onopposite sides of the galaxy, unable to communicate because they don't speak the same

language.

(Please note that what I'm about to say is a very broad generalization. There aremusicians who understand and appreciate singers, and vice versa, but I would be very

surprised if any of you have not noticed this in your own experience at some time oranother.)

Musicians and singers have many misconceptions about each other. Often, musicians see

singers as non-musicians, as people who haven't done the work they've done to learn theirinstrument. Many musicians are frustrated by what they see as an unfair advantage that


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singers seem to have, in that they often are paid more because they are dressed up and outfront while the musicians do the heavy lifting, both physically and musically. They do all

the work, and the singers get all the attention. And when it comes to humping equipment,the singer is nowhere to be found while the musicians are setting up and tearing down.

Often the singers know little or nothing about sound equipment, or even what kind of

cord they should use to hook up their mic. Another area of difficulty is when singershave little or no education about the music they sing, such as keys, tempos, timesignatures, chord changes, intros, outros, tags, vamps - the language of working

musicians. I'm not talking a classical education - just the nuts and bolts of musicalcommunication. It is a language musicians share, and if you don't speak that language,

you will be marginalized to some extent.

Musicians who are not singers also think that singing is really easy. Now, let me state thatthere is a difference between someone who sings and a singer. If your guitar player can

squawk out "Old Time Rock & Roll", he doesn't see what the big deal is about singing.My definition of a singer is someone who takes their instrument seriously, and has done

the work to develop their voice. A real singer has put just as much work into their axe asany instrumentalist - scales, lessons, hours of practice.

What is more, the voice is the one instrument that cannot be replaced. A guitar player

can go down to Guitar Center and get new speakers if he or she blows out a Marshallstack, but a singer cannot buy a new voice. Musicians have a hard time understanding

why a singer can't just sing over the band, and they interpret any requests to turn down as'diva' attitude. I have learned through hard experience that the bandmates who want you

to scream your guts out for them are not going to be there for you when you lose yourvoice. They'll simply fire you and hire someone else whose voice is not blown out. That

'take it for the team' crap is just that - crap. Are they are prepared to support you whenyour livelihood is taken away? I didn't think so. So they have no right to ask you to injure

yourself so they can play as loud as they want to.

There is also and I hate to say it sometimes a (ahem!) gender issue. Ladies, youknow what Im talking about. Things have certainly improved from the way things were

30 years ago, but even today there is a preconception that female singers are lessintelligent, less knowledgeable and less professional than male musicians. When youre a

female singer, its very likely that you are the only woman in the band, and are treateddifferently than everyone else. Sometimes its special treatment, but more often youre

isolated in a way from the rest of the band youre not one of the guys. Its really easyto get a chip on your shoulder when youre constantly confronted with that attitude from

the musicians you work with even if youre a player yourself. I carried that chip aroundfor many years, and as a female musician competing in a mans world, you get really

tired of being condescended to especially when youre as competent or even better thanthe guys you play with. When I was starting out there were very, very few high-profile

female musicians, and very few working female musicians in general, so I had to trytwice as hard to find my place and my respect among the musicians I worked with.

Things have come a long way since then, thankfully, and now there are great femaleplayers everywhere, but theres still an assumption that, when you get up on the stage


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with people that dont know you, if youre female, youre expected to be not as good as aguy. Then when you deliver the goods, everyone amazed which is gratifying, but at the

same time, it shouldnt be a big deal! It should be expected. Today I dont have that chipon my shoulder, railing at the unfairness of it all I just do my thing and enjoy what I do

without caring whether people have high or low expectations of me, and I have a great

time playing no matter what. But even male singers can face this issue, too, if they dontplay an instrument.

Anyhow, as you can see, this can lead to a somewhat uncomfortable musical experience,with the 'musicians' on one side and the 'singer' on the other. Even if it's your band, if you

haven't learned to think like an instrumentalist, it can be lonely and frustrating. If you areperceived as a 'diva' (or 'divo'), the band will not go out of its way to be helpful to you.

There will be eye-rolling, whispering behind the hand, laughter followed by suddensilence when they notice you're standing there. This is not enjoyable. At least, not for the

singer.

The good news? With just a little bit of work, you can change condescension intoacceptance and respect. All you have to do is learn to think like a musician. When you

do that, a whole new world will open up for you. Players will go the 'extra mile' for you,and actually make your musical experience easier and more fun.

Plus, if you can play, you are that much more in control and in charge. You don't have to

be at anyone's mercy. You don't have to be dependent on other people to make music.You can work with others, but if need be you can do it yourself. If no one knows the

changes to your song, you can play them and have them follow you. It opens up yourpossibilities. I don't know about you, but I really hate having to depend on other people to

do what I want to do. Whether it's recording, or playing live, I like to be in charge of myart.

Now, a lot of singers don't think that they should be or even can be musicians. But I

believe that if you're a real singer, you already are a musician inside - you just haven'tlearned the language. The question is only whether you are willing to do the work. That,

of course, is up to you.

If you are taking my class, you have played keyboards for a few quarters. Some of youare already comfortable with keyboards and have been accompanying yourselves for a

while, and some of you have never played before coming to MI. But all of you have thepotential to play well enough, not only to accompany yourself, but to play with other

people, and even for other people - a great experience in itself. There is a feeling you getwhen you are part of a rhythm section that you don't necessarily experience as a front

person. Being part of a groove, locking in with other players, listening and responding towhat they play, is very satisfying. It doesn't have to be complicated at all - often the

simplest parts are the best. And it's also nice to be able to let go of the things youconcentrate on as a front person - what you look like, how you're moving, how your

voice is sounding, is the audience with you - and simply immerse yourself into the musicwithout worrying about anything else.


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As an MI student, in a school filled with people from all around the world, you are no

doubt aware of what a challenge it is to communicate with people who dont speak yourlanguage. So what is the solution?

There are three options if you want to communicate with someone who doesnt

understand you:

1. Get that person to learn your language2. Find a translator3. Learn the other persons language

The first option is not very workable. If you insist on only using your own language, or

think that hollering at the top of your lungs is going to make the other person understandyou better, youre in for a rude awakening. You wont do anything but make two peopleangry and frustrated you and the person youre trying to communicate with and

nobody wins.

The second option is a little more workable, and is, in fact, what most singers do. Havinga translator will get you by having someone, either in your band or outside it,

communicate with your musicians for you. Some singers do that their whole lives, and itdoes work for the most part. But there are drawbacks to this approach. The most obvious

drawback is that you are at someone elses mercy. What if that person cant always bethere? What if you and that person disagree on how and what you should do, or the band

should do? What if you yourself dont know what you want? What if your translatormisunderstands you? But I think the main drawback is that you are not in charge of yourown music. The band will be communicating with your translator, not you. This naturally

creates a divide between you and the people you are playing with. It puts you on theoutside looking in. This is a limitation.

The third option is the best option learn the language yourself. Let me tell you why.


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Traditionally, singers (especially women) have been at the mercy of everyone else in the

musical food chain. When you are dependent upon other people for every aspect of yourmusical career, it is easy to be taken advantage of by unscrupulous people. Youve heardthe horror stories; you may know someone whos been screwed over in the music

business; you may have even been screwed over yourself. (I know hard to believe inthis friendly, honest, trustworthy business!) Singers who only sing are dependent upon

musicians, songwriters, producers, engineers, agents, managers, investors, recordcompanies, accountants and lawyers any one of whom can take you for all youre

worth. The more you know about these aspects of the business, the better chance youhave ofnotbeing taken advantage of. The more of this you can do for yourself, the more

power you have. Singers as a rule have had very little power or control over their ownmusic and careers because of this dependency on others. But its the twenty-first century,

and things are changing.

Thanks to the innovations in technology, a singer can now be in charge of his or her ownartistry. It doesnt take hundreds of thousands of dollars in a huge studio to realize your

musical vision. Back in the day, all most singers could do was sing the songs picked forthem by the record company, in the style the label decided would be the most

marketable and let the label mold their image into something that some suit up the ladderdecided would make the most money for the record company. Then, except for a lucky

(or smart) few, the resultant profits would get divided up between everyone else higherup on the food chain, and the artist would get what was left over, or sometimes nothing at

all, or maybe even go into debt, while everyone else who was feeding off of the artists

talent got rich.

Now, you can make a master-quality recording on your own computer, and you can

decide what you want it to sound like. If your vision is a commercial pop style, you cango that route, but if you have a different style and direction, you can stay true to that and

make the record you want to make, and let your sound find its own audience. There aremore possibilities for you to be in charge of your music, and not at the mercy of other

people who may not have your best interests at heart.

But in order to do this, you need to have the skills, and this is where keyboards come in.

Learning keyboards can help you:

Be a better sight-reader, and have a better understanding of what you alreadyknow as a singer.

Be a better songwriter putting together and expanding your tool kit. The moreyou know keyboard-wise, the more choices you have in your songwriting, and the

more options you have whether writing alone or collaborating.


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Be able to get what you want out of your band, by knowing how to explain youridea and ask for it in a way they understand

Do your own work in finding keys, transposing, writing charts, understanding andcommunicating tempos and grooves, so that you arent asking someone else to do

that work for you.

If you want something from the band that theyre not giving you, you can showthem by playing it. Get the support and cooperation of the musicians you work with youll be on

the same team, not opposite teams. And, of course, you can play for yourself if you want to or need to, without

worrying that someone else might not be there for you.

All this can be summed up in one word: R-E-S-P-E-C-T, as the Queen of Soul would say.Speaking of Aretha Franklin - not everyone may be aware of this, but she is a great piano

player and played on many of her records. Yes, Aretha is a great keyboard player as wellas one of the most gifted and influential singers ever.

When you get your keyboard skills together, you will experience something that may be

new to you youll be treated as one of the band even if youre not actually playingin the band. Theres a camaraderie among players that singers are often left out of,

because theyre outsiders and dont understand the language of music. Playingkeyboards, even more than guitar, will enable you to understand how music is put

together from the ground up, and put you on the same footing as everybody else. Youwill get the respect you deserve not only because you can play, but because you are

speaking to them in the language they understand. Singers who do not play may be justas musically proficient and talented even more so as the band, but theplayers do not

understand it! They dont speak your language - the language of placement anddiaphragm control and vowels. They dont understand what goes into doing what you do.

They dont get why its so important to hear yourself, or that you can damage your voicepermanently by trying to sing over a band thats too loud a voice that you cant replace.

But if you can speak their language the language of chord changes, and solos, and

measures, of sixteenth-notes and modulations and time-changes, of arpeggios and vamps,then you will belong to the club, and youll find that you will be able to get them to

understand your vocal issues better as well.

Its all about respect. And the more you bring to the table, the more respect you will getfrom the people you work with. A lot of the time, the things that bug players about

singers (and vice-versa) are valid. The stereotypes are there for a reason, for both playersand singers. There are many singers who know nothing about music, who dont even

know how to plug in their own microphone, who cant tell you what key their song is in,who cant count, who are basically like little children who expect to have everything

done for them. This gives all singers a bad name, and this is something that the rest of ushave to work to overcome. If we want respect from the people we work with, we have to

earn it. But if you show up with your charts together, knowing your stuff inside and out,being able to set the EQ for your own mic, being able to communicate musically with


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your band members and treating them with respect as well you will have peoplefalling all over themselves for the opportunity to play with you, and write with you, and

go out of their way to help you. You will understand them better as well. Its like whenyou go to a foreign country if you dont even attempt to learn the language, people can

be very rude and pretend that they cant understand you even if they do; but when you

really try to speak the language, people do their best to welcome you and help you out. Itis a matter of respect. This is what playing keyboards will give you.Another benefit of playing keyboards is improving your own singing and musicianship.

Unlike guitar, the piano is laid out in an organized and logical fashion right where youcan see everything. You can understand the relationships between keys, scales, chords

and intervals just by looking at the keyboard. You will be amazed at how your sight-singing and ear-training will improve without your even trying simply by being able to

play. This is a guarantee.

So, do yourself a favor become the ultimate singer by becoming a musician! Youll beglad you did.


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KeyboardAccompanimentLevelIII-AFAQ1. How do I practice?

Each week you will have a Practice Log which you must turn in at thebeginning of the next class. You will practice at least 30 minutes a day

10 minutes on scales, 10 minutes on whatever exercise assignment youhave, and 10 minutes on the song the class is currently working on. This is

the minimum amount of time you need to put in to progress. You can, ofcourse, practice longer.

2.What if I dont have time?If you cant find an entire half-hour, you can break up your practice timeinto 10 minute increments scattered through the day if you like. I know

theres a lot on your plate, but dont decide to just bail on practicingbecause you dont have a lot of time to put into it. You can always manage

to get 10 minutes somewhere.

3.Can I just do one or two long practicesinstead?

Thats not a good idea. Its much better to do a little bit every day than along marathon. It won t stick in your head or your fingers as well.

4.How do I play my scales?Read The Basics for complete instructions on scale work. Start slow.Only start using the metronome when you are sure of the right notes and

fingering. Then start only as fast as you can play correctly. When you canplay at a slow tempo correctly, bump up the tempo. If you make mistakes,

go back to the tempo that you played correctly.

5.What do I have to do for my mid-term?Play the 3 scales you have been assigned in class, with a metronome.

6.What do I have to do for my final?Your final is Week 11. You will be playing and singing a song in class. You cam

choose a song, but it must be approved by me according to what level you are playing


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at. If you are a strong player and choose a song thats too easy, Ill ask you to pick

something else. If you cant come up with something, Ill assign a song for you.

Bring your song in for approval by Week 5 at the latest. You can pick yoursong as early as you like the sooner you get started on it, the more timeyoull have to work on it.

Your song needs to be accompanied by a chart written by you. Make two

copies one for you and one for me. It is 10 points of your Final grade.

You will not be graded on the quality of your singing, only of yourplaying. You will be graded on level of difficulty as well as how well you

play, so aim high.

7.Can I leave class early to get to anotherclass?The class is a hour and a half long. The first hour is class instruction, and

its over by 11:50. You can leave then if you need to get to another class.The remaining time is lab or practice time. If anyone wants to stay and work on

something I will be there till 12:30 if you need help.

8.What is my grade based on?Your grade consists of attendance, participation and your final. Attendance is one-

third of your grade; each attendance day is 10 points. A tardy (after 5 minutes after) is

5 points; if you come in past 20 after, you are counted absent, but you may stay to

work. Your Practice Log is included with participation and is a third of your grade.

Your final is the remaining third.

Excused absences will not be deducted from your grade.


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Points are deducted for lack of required material, use of cell phones

(including texting), sleeping or working on homework for another class.

9.What if I dont have headphones?If by Week 3 you dont have headphones you will be counted absent and may not

play in class.


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KeyboardAccompanimentLevelIII-ASyllabusMaterials required at each class:

1. Damper pedal (check out of the Library)2. Headphones3. Manuscript paper

===========================================

This week we will be starting on The Basics.

Begin working on C, F and G scales

First song When A Man Loves a Woman Percy Sledge

Homework practice 30 minutes every day, 5 days a week:

1. 10 minutes a day on your scale work2. 20 minutes a day on Inversion Exercise (major) and song

Continue working on Man Loves a Woman discuss any questions or issues about the

song.Discuss slash chords, inversions, voice leading


1. 10 minutes a day on your scale work2. 20 minutes a day on Inversion Exercise (major) and song

Finish Man Loves a Woman random students will be asked to play, so be prepared.Look at chapter 5 inKeyboard Voicings - add minor triads to inversion work.



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1. 10 minutes a day on your scale work2. 20 minutes a day on Inversion Exercise (minor) and song

Begin new song Beautiful.Assign chapters 8 and 9 inKeyboard Voicings sus2 and sus4, exercise on pg. 45

Discuss playing melody and chords in right hand.

Homework - practice 30 minutes every day, 5 days a week:

1. 10 minutes a day on your scale work2. 20 minutes a day on Sus2 & Sus4 Inversion Exercises pg 45 and song

Finish Beautiful, be prepared to play in class.

Work on scales in preparation for mid-term Week 6 C, F and G scales, both hands, oneoctave, with metronome.

Submit song for approval for Week 11 Final Project.


1. 10 minutes a day on your scale work2. 20 minutes a day on Sus2 & Sus4 Inversion Exercises pg 46 and song

Mid-term play C, F and G scales, both hands, one octave, with metronome.Assignment begin D, E and A scales, both hands, one octave, with metronome.

Begin working on your Final Project when it has been approved.Begin new song Oh Darlin, look at chapter 10 (augmented triads) inKeyboard

VoicingsDiscuss how to practice 1-3-5 bass and triplets in the right hand.


1. 10 minutes a day on your scale work2. 20 minutes a day on your Final Project and class song


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Work on Oh Darlin. Work on new scales D, E and A

Assignment look at chapter 13 (dominant 7ths) inKeyboard VoicingsDiscuss tritone (3-7) shells and rootless voicings.



Be prepared to play Oh Darlin in class. Look at chapter 12 (minor 7ths) in KeyboardVoicings.

Assignment Isnt She Lovely. Discuss ii-V change voicings.



Work on Isnt She Lovely, work on Final Project and scales.


1. 10 minutes a day on your scale work2. 20 minutes a day on your Final song and class song


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Be prepared to play Isnt She Lovely.Test on scales D, E and A, one octave hands together, with metronome

Review for your Final Project

Each student will play their Final Project song for the class.Your Final Project must be accompanied by a chart written by you.


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TheBasicsWere going to start with the basics. If youre in this class, youve already been exposed

to scales. In this class, were going to emphasize them.

Why Scales?

Why do I have to learn scales? We learned them in Level One. Theyre boring and

difficult at first, then boring and easy after a while. I want to play songs, not exercises!

The reason I want to focus on scales in the advanced levels is because if you first startedplaying piano and studying theory and ear-training when you got to MI, you were pretty

much learning a whole bunch of different stuff at the same time you were beginningpiano. While you were learning to play a scale, you were also learning chords, intervals,

sight-singing and music theory thats a lot to process in a short time. But now youvebeen playing longer and have a better idea about what youre doing, so this is where we

take your playing to the next level.

Ask any serious keyboard player whether they like scales. Most of them will tell you theylove scales! And even if they dont love them, they appreciate them. The reason is that

scales can help you do anything you want to do on the keyboard. They help your fingersmove independently, they strengthen the muscles, and they make it possible to travel up

and down the entire length of the keyboard. And there is a big difference betweenlearning to recognize key signatures by eye or by figuring them out, and understanding

them at a deeper level in your fingers muscle memory.

Muscle memory is one of your most important tools as a player. If you have to thinkabout where every note is supposed to go, and how to play it, you are siphoning off brain-

power that can be better used on creativity while you play. You want to eliminate themechanical aspect of what youre doing so you can concentrate on the musical aspect.

That is one of the things that separates the players from the hacks. Muscle memory takescare of that for you. The more work your fingers can do for you without thinking, the

more free you are to concentrate on what really counts communicating emotion throughyour music.

Plus, scales can actually be very soothing and relaxing once you get them under your belt

and they become automatic. Like knitting, it can be a form of meditation to do somethingwith your hands that you dont have to think about.

We are going to concentrate on six major scales in this class C, D, E, F, G, and A. At

the end of the first quarter, you will be playing these scales one octave, hands together, toa metronome. At the end of the second quarter, you will be playing them two octaves,

hands together, to a metronome. (Piano teacher jargon - Hands together: H.T.; handsseparate: H.S.;right hand: R.H.; left hand: L.H.)


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Elements of Scale Work

When we do scale work, we are not only training our hands, but, more importantly, were

training our brains. Dont you hate it when you make a mistake when youre playing, andthen every time you play that song, you make the same mistake over and over? That is

because your brain doesnt know whether you played a right note or a wrong note. It justassumes that you played what you intended to play, so when it comes to the mistake, it

repeats that, too. Your brain is just trying to help! So we will use that to our advantage.

The first rule of practicing is: Dont play a mistake!

By that I mean, if youre not absolutely sure of the right note, stop yourselfbefore youplay it. That way, you will save yourself the extra work of having to un-learn the mistake

and then re-learn the correct part. In other words, you have to workthree times as hard

you have to learn the original part, then the mistake, then the original part again!

Whenever you play a note, you are making a neuro-chemical pathway or connection in

your brain. The more times you play the same note, the stronger you make that pathwayor groove. And when you play a wrong note, you have made a new pathway that your

brain thinks belongs there, which means you have to play it correctly at least ten times ina row to erase that pathway and build a new pathway that is deeper and easier to follow.

When you go from here to there, there may be a number of pathways, and your brainis going to choose the easiest one. If you think of it as a groove dug into the dirt, you

want to dig the correct groove deeper with your shovel, and shovel dirt into the wronggroove so that its not there any more. But if you dont dig the wrong groove to begin

with, all of your work can go to strengthening the right one instead of eliminating thewrong one.

So when you are practicing a scale (or anything, for that matter), if youre not sure

youre going to play the right note, just stop. Figure out slowly what youre supposed tobe playing and then try again.

The second rule of practicing is: Go as slow as you need to to get it right!

Thats really a corollary to the first rule. When you practice your scales, its moreimportant to be slow and correct than fast and incorrect. I dont care how slow you have

to go. You can always bump up to a faster tempo when youre sure of yourself at a slowtempo, but if you make mistakes at a fast tempo, youre assigning yourself three times the

work. When you practice something correctly enough times, you develop your musclememory, which is your goal. Muscle memory is your best friend as a player.


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Fingering

The third rule of practicing is: Use correct fingering!

I dont know about you, but one of the things I hated most when I was learning to play

was fingering. I didnt see the point in it. If I played the notes right, why did it matterwhat fingering I used?

Later on I found out why. If your fingering is wrong you run out of fingers! There you

are, playing along youre playing a beautiful melodic line when, all of a sudden, youveended up on your pinky finger. End of the road.

Again, when you play your scales with correct fingering, and it becomes grooved into

your muscle memory, you can go up and down the keyboard without having to thinkabout how youre going to get there. The point is to be able to hear something in your

head or read something that you want to play and be able to play it without having tofigure out the mechanics of it. If you have your E scale down cold, you dont have to

think about how many sharps are in the key of E and what they are. Your hands alreadyknow that, and theyll play the right notes without bothering you about it.

Metronome

The fourth rule of practicing is: Use a metronome!

Your metronome is one of the most important elements of effective, useful practice.Especially if you play just by yourself, and not as a member of a band, you can slow

down and speed up without knowing it. Singers (as a generalization) are not at theirstrongest when it comes to rhythm and tempo. Thats because theyre usually not

required to be! When a singer phrases, a lot of times they will weave in and out of thebeat, which is what theyre supposed to do much of the time. But players are forced to

keep a steady tempo in a way that singers are not. Thats where our BFF the metronomecomes in!

Using a metronome when you practice helps you on a number of things. For one, it keeps

you honest, and it gives you an idea of where you are starting and where you want to goto, and what your strengths and weaknesses are. When you start your scale work, after

working out your fingering and practicing without a metronome to make sure you knowwhere each note goes, you start at a tempo that you can play perfectly at. It doesnt matter

if its 40 BPM, or 30, or 10. What matters is that you play it right and in tempo. Whenyou can play your scale ten times without a mistake, then youre ready to take it up a

notch. That way you can see your progress in front of you, and have a goal to worktowards.


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It also helps you with your internal groove, or pocket. As a player, the ultimate

compliment is to be known as a having a great pocket. When your rhythm is off, as asinger you can get away with it. As a player you cant. When the groove is not there,

even people who dont know anything about music will know that somethings not right.

They may not be able to tell you why. It just doesnt feel good. Likewise, when thegroove is there, nothing feels better! And, yes, scales can groove and ought to.Anything can groove if you play it right. Your metronome work will get you into the

habit of playing in the pocket, whether youre playing by yourself or with othermusicians.

Getting Started

For the first half of the quarter, were going to start working on C, F and G. We will doone octave, hands together. Week 6 you will be tested on them.

There are a couple of different ways you can approach these scales. The first way is the

traditional way, which is to learn each hand separately and then put them together. This iseasiest at first. The other way is to practice hands together from the beginning. While it is

more difficult at first, youre getting the hard part out of the way at the beginning andtraining your mind to get used to pivoting your thumbs over at different times. Its up to

you whichever way makes sense for you. Normally, Id suggest hands separate, thenwhen each hand has developed muscle memory, go for hands together.

First start with your right hand. Look at the scale for fingering. Just put your fingers oneach note to make sure you know where they go. Then play the scale slowly, without themetronome. Remember the first rule if youre not sure of the right note,stop! At this

point, you dont have to start over; just pause, make sure of the right note, and then playit. Once youre sure of the notes, then get out the metronome and put it on a slow enough

setting to where youre comfortable. Again, it does not matter how slow you go. Whatmatters is that you can play it correctly along with the metronome.

Do this until youre completely comfortable with the scale in your right hand. Then, do

the same with your left hand.

When you feel secure in each hand, start on hands together. You will be starting at thebeginning again first, check the fingering; second, practice it slowly without

metronome, pausing if youre not sure which finger to use or which note to play. Thiswill be more challenging because you will be crossing over the thumb at two separate

places your right thumb will cross under first while your left thumb goes under yourfingers later. Go as slow as you need to.


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The good thing about getting through the first scale is that you will already have themotions down in your hands which are the same for many (not all) of the scales. Its

really all downhill after that. The hardest part is knowing when to cross with each hand.

The first scale well work on will be C. Some people think that C is the easiest scale of

all, because if you only play white notes you cant mess up. This is not true; it is thehardest scale of all for that exact same reason. Since you cant tell by the sound whetheryoure using the right fingering, its really easy to use the wrong fingers, and then end up

on your 5th

finger without ending up in the right place in the scale. Its easy to do a rightand left thumb-cross at the same time, when theyre supposed to be at different times. So

beware of C.

The next scale is F, which has its own challenges. There is a special fingering rule for anyscale that has a Bb (or an A#) in it and that is, in the right hand, the fourth finger is

always on Bb. In the left hand, it is the second finger that is always on Bb. With F, thatmeans that in the right hand, instead of crossing after the third finger like in most scales,

you cross after the fourth finger and then end up at the top of the scale (at the F) withyour fourth finger, not your fifth. You dont use your fifth finger at all in F but only in

the right hand! In your left hand, you use the same fingering as in the other white keys,because your second finger naturally falls on Bb that way. So its a little bit tricky.

Once you have C and F mastered, G is a piece of cake. Nothing to it.


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Practicing Guidelines and Tips

1. Spend at least10 minutes every day on your scale work. Use a timer or watch.2. Your left hand is usually your weakest hand; work on whichever is your weakest

hand first. Then the other hand will be no problem. Stay with the pace of your

weaker hand when you practice HT.3. Visualize! Did you know that you can get almost as much benefit by practicing

something in your head as you can by physically playing? It cannot substitute for

physical practice, but if you want to supplement your playing, play it in yourhead. Visualize your hands playing the notes; visualize which fingers are doing

what; think about what the chord changes are and how your hands would playthem. Youre doing the same thing in your brain creating a neuro-chemical

pathway. Try it and see. Remember were training the brain more than thefingers.

4. Its better to practice a short time every day that a long time every once in a while even five minutes is better than nothing. Dont avoid practice because you dont

have an hour to spend.5. Play on your fingertips, not on the flat part of your fingers. Keep your wrists level

and your fingers curved.6. If you have a problem area in your practicing, or a difficult part, take that part by

itself and slowly work the bugs out of it dont play the whole piece until youwork out the tricky parts.

7. If theres something that you dont understand, or doesnt make sense to you, oryou need help with something, dont hesitate to ask! Ask me, ask other people in

your class, go to an Open Counseling. My goal is to help you be the best musicianand player that you can be and Im always glad to explain or clarify; and if I

havent made something clear, I need to know so that I can help you better.

8. Be patient with yourself.9. Remember that you have to get through the sucky, boring part of The Basics in

order to get to the fun part of playing piano. Being able to play the piano is

incredibly satisfying and rewarding, but a lot of people just cant get beyond theboring part, and so never get to the fun part. And once the boring part is over

with, its over! Then the real magic happens. Give yourself the gift of piano!


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TheNextLevel:MakingMusicOutOfChordChanges

Keyboard Accompaniment Level III-A

Youve been playing for a while now. You know how chords are put together. You knowmajor, minor, dominant 7, minor 7, major7. You know sus2, sus4, augmented,

diminished, half-diminished you may know 9ths and 13ths. You understand the theory.Its now time to take it to the next level.

As you know, there are many different ways of playing the same chord or series of chordchanges. Some of them sound good, and some of them not so good. When people arebeginning to become players, often they will start out using the easiest way they know to

play chords the major triad. While there are some styles and some musical situationswhere this is appropriate, most of the time it just screams amateur! My goal in this

class is to show you ways to play the exact same chords and sound professional. Thegood news is, its no more difficult to use better voicings than it is to use basic, childish

ones. Its just a matter of finding out what they are, and applying them to your song.

Different voicings, different kinds of chords, are used in different styles of music. In jazz,

for instance, you often use chord extensions, such as #9th and b13th

chords, with all sorts

of alterations to give it a more complex and sophisticated sound. However, if you were touse jazz voicings in a country song, you wouldnt be hip youd be incorrect. A 6 ordominant 7 is about as complex as youd get. Country uses lots of sus2 and sus4s. More

extensions do not suit the country style. Its important to learn what kind of chords andchord voicings are appropriate to what style youre playing.

Different kinds of chords induce different feelings in the listener, as well as other factors

such as register how high or low on the keyboard you play. Theres a big difference inemotional content between chords that are played below middle C, for instance, and the

exact same chords played 3 octaves higher. Theres an emotional difference between low,thick, close-together voicings and high, sparse, spread-apart voicings. Volume, intensity,

speed, even keyboard sounds, all elicit different emotions when you apply them to thesame chords.

Were going to explore many of the different things you can do to a basic chord or set ofchanges to take them from boring to musically and emotionally interesting. Heres an

overview of some ways to change basic chords around:


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Right Hand:

1. Using patterns: Alternating the notes in the chord Arpeggiating the notes in the chord

Using passing tones in arpeggios and alternating chord notes2. Voice leading between changes3. Playing melody at top of the chord

Left Hand:

4. Play octaves in left hand5. Play root and 5th6. Play root and 7th7. Arpeggiate the notes in the chord8. Walking bass, boogie-woogie bass

Both Hands:

9. Use dynamics for contrast or emotional impact10.Change style or groove11.Change octaves12.Change keyboard sound13.Change rhythm14.Use 2-handed voicing15.Open up voicings16.Close voicings17.Use extensions (7ths, 9ths, 11ths, 13ths) according to how they work within your

style.18.Combine all of the above!

Lets start with a basic C triad.Pretty basic, pretty boring. What

can you do with it?

You can use a pattern - alternate the notes of the chordin the right, with the root in the left hand:

You can use an inversion and alternate the notes:

You can arpeggiate:


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You can alternate between thirds,

and add a passing tone (D and F):

Or, suppose you want to go from C to F.

Often a new players first instinct is to play this:

Unless there is some pressing stylistic reason, its

much better to voice-lead than to move your handfrom root-position triad to root-position triad. Its

not precisely wrong,but its definitely cheesy.Sometimes cheesy is a choice, but most of the time

voice-leading gives you a much better and smoother sound, as well as being easier to playsince your hand stays in the same position rather than jumping all over the keyboard.

When you play chord changes, analyze for voice-leading and common tones. Pretty soonyoull be able to visualize and recognize all of the inversions of each chord, not just the

root position.

This will take you way beyond cheese-ball, and its the easiest thing you can do to growup your playing.

The next thing you can do to add interest is use extensions dominant 7ths, 9ths, 11s,

13ths major, minor, flatted, sharp, augmented, slash chords. You wont usually play allthe notes in the chord the root and 5

thcan be left out in the right hand (or left out

altogether if another instrument is covering the bass), leaving the notes that determine thetone color such as the 3

rdand 7

thand the other extensions.

Heres our C chord, but lets add some color and make it a dominant 7th:

Its still root position, with all four notes of the chord.

These are all ways to play a C7chord. You can switch it

around and play it any of these ways:


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The first measure uses all four notes; the second loses the root but keeps the 5th.

Here, we take away both the root and the 5

th

, leavingyou with the 3rd

and the 7th

. This is still all the

information we need to know that it is a C7. This type of

voicing is called a 3-7 shell.

Its often used in the left hand to indicate the chord typewhile the right hand is soloing or adding other color

tones. The interesting thing about 3-7 shells is that they can tell you a large amount ofinformation using only two notes. The 3

rdtells you whether its major or minor, and the

7th

tells you what the quality of the major or minor is. And if you voice-lead along with

using 3-7 shells, you can play all kinds of chord changes using only two fingers, and staywithin half an octave the whole time. Your hand stays put.

This is an example using simple blues changes:.

Here is another example, using the verse to the Norah Jones song Dont Know Why:

One way you can make simple changes more interesting is to play the melody in your

right hand along with other notes from the chord, while playing the root in your left, suchas in the intro to Christina Aguileras Beautiful:


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How about the left hand?

When youre accompanying yourself without a band, the usual use of the left hand is to

supply the root and maybe one other note, or to play a bass pattern (depending on whatkind of music youre doing.) Often octaves in the left hand are all you need while playing

chords, melodies or solos in the right.

One mistake that many new players make is to play triads in the left hand in the lowerregister. Triads in the left hand starting below C or D below middle C dont usually

sound good. I wont say its always wrong there are some players who choose thatthick, dark, muddy sound for dramatic emotional effect. In fact, I wont say that anything

is wrong all the time every rule is made to be broken, as far as Im concerned. But I willsay thatyou need to know the rules before you break them, so its a choice instead of a

mistake. Once you go below the C below middle C, your best bet is a two-note left hand octaves, root/fifth, root/sixth, and root/seventh.


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Scales-C,F,G


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FirstSongVoiceLeading


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PracticeLog

keyboard accompaniment

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