5 Minute Piano Lessons: How to Play Chords

Photo by Mike Hulsebus

Remember, chords are made of intervals stacked on top of each other.  Most beautiful chords are intervals of thirds.  Last lesson we learned of what makes a C Major chord.  Now we will learn how to play it properly.

Pesky little 4 finger

Unless you’ve been practicing the C Major scale quite frequently, your 4 finger (ring finger) is still quite weak.  It must be strengthened in order to play your piano well!  Do not get in the habit of avoiding this now.  Practice your scales, strengthen all your fingers.  In order to play a C Major chord you will need to have the 4 finger strong enough so that it doesn’t get in the way.

The C Major chord uses fingers, 1, 3, and 5.  When playing the 5, your 4 finger will want to join in.  Be firm with it now.  You are the boss of your hands!

Perfect fifths

We already discussed how the C Major chord is made of thirds stacked on top of each other (C/E on top of E/G).  The interval that surrounds this chord is called a perfect fifth.  With your right hand in C position play and count up from C to G (C is number one).  Now play C and G at the same time using your 1 and 5 finger.  This is the perfect fifth that surrounds the C Major chord, named such because it is five notes apart.

Exercise 1

Play and hold the C/G perfect fifth (using your 1 and 5 finger) for two slow seconds.  Now add in the 3 finger and hold it out for another two slow seconds. Congratulations you’ve just played a C Major chord.

Play this with both hands in C position.  First do it with your left hand (be sure the 5 finger, pinky, is on C) and than your right (thumb on C), then play both hands together.

C/G held for two seconds, add the 3 finger for another two seconds.

After you have this down, play all three fingers of the chord (1,3,5) on your right hand, then your left (5,3,1).  Now play both C Major chords at the same time.

If you are still having trouble playing the C Major chord don’t fret, move on to exercise 2.  It will be easier to play.

Exercise 2

We are now going to learn the C suspended chord.  It sounds harder than it is… trust me.

With your R.H. in C position play all three of these notes at the same time: C, D, and G.  Check your fingering!  It should be 1,2, and 5.

You have just played what is called the Csus2 chord or the C2 chord (C suspended 2).  The 2 stands for the distance between C and D, which is the interval of a second.

With your L.H. in C position, pinky on C, play all three of these notes at the same time: C, F, and G.  Check your fingering!  It should be 5,2, and 1.

You have just played the Csus4 chord or the C4 chord (C suspended 4).  My, is that explosive!  The 4 stands for the distance between the C and F (fingering is 5 and 2) which is the interval of a fourth.

The sus chords are easier to play than it is to explain.

For practice

Play exercises 1 and 2 for the next five days.  You will be amazed at how well you can play exercise 1 by the end!  Practice makes everything easier!

Other piano lessons to peruse at your leisure

Happy piano playing!

The Last Book I Read?

The last real book I read was Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Protagonist, Guy Montag, fights against a dystopian world gone mad: firemen using flamethrowers, robot dogs chasing the innocent, and books burnt to a crisp by an ignorant public going the way of underrated film, Idiocracy.

A chilling look into Idiocracy‘s dumbstopian future.

Bradbury’s story takes on a more somber tone, painting a vivid, prophetic world where literature is banned by the public.  People spend their time bombarded with media, ear-buds spouting their ludicrous tales, television sets spanning the walls of a living room… sound kind of familiar?

For a book about literature’s importance, this one is quite small (only 165 pages in the paperback version).  It’s all the better for it.  Bradbury is frugal and choosy with his words, allowing your imagination to fill in the rest.  I loved the story and the characters; the warnings of life without Shakespeare and Milton were simply chilling.  Give it a try at your local bookstore or Amazon server.  You won’t find it anywhere on an electronic file.

This brings me to the real reason for the post.  Fahrenheit 451 is the last hard copy of literature I read before buying a nook, Barnes and Nobel’s critically acclaimed eBook.

Now I download my books

Have you caught the irony here?  After reading about burning literature, I bought an eReader that is making those same hardcopy books, relics of a bygone age.

We are shifting away from the trees, and not only with books.  Touch sensitive iPads, iphones, and Droids, are making paper itself obsolete.  The tree-hugger’s dream is about to be realized!  Guilt trips had nothing to do with it now.  We’re moving from wood to bytes, all in the name of convenience.

The same thing happened in the late 90s with the upraising of cell phones.  I’m 28-years-old and I don’t know anyone my age that owns a personal land line.

Remember those rotary dial telephones?

Today’s young children will grow up never touching a book.

This isn’t a bad thing by the way.  Books aren’t being burned, their being upgraded.  And it’s about time.  Movies and television can already be viewed electronically using Netflix, Amazon, or Hulu.  Music made the move years ago, from CDs to downloadable files on your iPod.  You can now even download triple A video games on your PC via Steam, Impulse, or Direct to Drive.  One of the oldest art mediums of all has finally caught up with the rest.

I have to admit reading on the nook felt awkward at first.  I kept wanting to tangibly turn the page.  I missed the feel and smell of paper.  All that quickly faded as I smelt the nook’s leather binder, quoting G.K. Chesterton: Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.  E Ink allows for words to show up on my nook as clearly as real ink on a page.  It all fits quite well in my hands.  This means no more awkward positions or reading half bent pages in bed.

The nook itself comes with a free copy of Dracula and Pride and Prejudice.  I decided to buy something a little more exciting.  Scott Westerfeld’s steam punk world of Leviathan has replaced Bradbury’s high-brow literature

What is more, I’m in the process of self-publishing an ebook of my own.

You might as well jump on the band wagon here.  Ten years from now, it will be the only way to read anything noteworthy, unless you wish to read something by Ray Bradbury.  He hates the internets…

Don’t cry Mr. Paper Man… we’re saving the trees!

5 Minute Piano Lessons: Composing Music

We have already learned the letter names of the white keys, what proper fingering is, and the C Major scale for the right and left hand.  Now it is time to put it all together and learn the basics of composition.

In order to play a piece of music, one must learn how it was made.

 

It’s important to note

Think of the white keys as little seeds in a garden.  Play one at random and you have the beginning to a million songs.  All great composers, Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Duke Ellington, Count Basie… all of them began to compose their music by playing the single seed of a note.  The difference between a masterpiece and say, a cat plunking at the keys, composers understand which notes to play and which to ignore.

Music isn’t some magical instinct only a few are born with.  It’s all very scientific. This means that any man, woman, and child can learn the concepts of Western composition to a certain level. Theoretically speaking, anyone can even compose a song, one just needs to learn the proper tools.  Truthfully speaking, not everyone can write a masterpiece.  This is where the brilliance of a composer comes in.

Think of it this way, anyone can build a log cabin, but only a few can build a cathedral.  Yet both use the same techniques and similar tools… its just that the cathedral is built from many complicated concepts, all of them interwoven and in harmony with one another.

Before you run off and start composing that symphony you’ve always wanted, let me teach you the basic tools of composition.  What you are able to do with them is yet to be discovered, and it all begins with playing that single seed of a note.

 

Coupling notes into intervals

Notes are not forever alone.  They sit very close to one another.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to explain this now.  The next thing a composer will do after plucking his first note is play another.  This is where it gets a bit complected.

Intervals are a coupling of two notes.  These notes can be played at the same time, or one after the other.

 

One after the other

Melody is built on a string of intervals all tied together. Think of the simple tune Merry had a Little Lamb.  In fact why don’t we play it.

Place your R. H. in C position.  Play the letter notes below.  Uppercase notes in bold need to be held twice as long.

e-d-c-d-e-e-E.. d-d-D.. e-g-G.. e-d-c-d-e-e-e-e-d-d-e-d-C..

Good job!  You’ve just played your first song! (as far as I know)

Play the first two notes e-d.  This is an interval.  The second and third note, d-c, is another interval.  All two notes side by side are intervals strung up together, one note played after the other.

Play E and D at the same time.  You have just played the second form of the interval.

 

At the same time

Keep your hands in C position throughout this lesson.

Chords are made from intervals stacked on top of each other, very much like pillars of sound.  This means playing more than one note at the same time.  Even cats can play a chord since, theoretically, any number of notes played at the same makes one.

I will be teaching you here about what makes a beautiful chord. Ugliness has its place now, as long as it is resolved into something beautiful.  It’s best to start with beauty though.  Too many notes played at once can be quite crass.

Most beautiful chords are made of three notes played at the same time.  Certain intervals sound prettier than others.

C and D played at the same time sound horrendous!

Play C and E at the same time now… that sounds lovely.  A good composer understands this… and now you do to.

C/D is an interval called a 2nd.

C/E is an interval called a 3rd.

(count the 3rd out yourself, C is the 1st note, skip the D which is the second note, and finally E has become the 3rd note.  Remember an interval is only 2 notes long.  So in this case, the C and E played at the same time is a 3rd.)

A beautifully stacked chord is two 3rds placed on top of each other.

Play C/E (using the 1 and 3 finger)

Now play E/G (using the 3 and 5 finger)

Now play both 3rds together C/E/G (using the 1, 3, and 5 finger).

This is called the C Major chord.

If you are having trouble playing the three notes above, never fear!  Our fingers always seem to be a few steps behind the mind.

Click on the next lesson below to learn how to play them.

 

How to Play Chords

Other piano lessons to peruse at your leisure

 

Happy piano playing!

“Greater Love Hath no Man…

“Greater Love hath no man than to give up his life for a friend.”  Jesus spoke this to his disciples in John 15:13, foretelling his death upon the cross.  The verse before is quite potent as well, “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”

Can anybody really love someone as much as Christ?  Peter thought he could.  He even went so far as to say in John 13:37, “Lord, why can I not follow you right now?  I will lay down my life for you.”

Jesus’ response, “Will you lay down your life for Me?  Truly, truly I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.”

Peter denied Jesus outside the temple, again while warming himself by the fire… and still again right before the rooster crowed.  Turns out, Jesus was right all along… or was he?

Truth be told before the three denials, Peter was willing to give his life up to Jesus.  When soldiers came to take Jesus away at the garden, Peter drew his sword and cut off a slave’s right ear (John 10:18).  Jesus responds, “Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?”

Why was Peter chastised for wanting to fight and possibly die for Jesus, loving him enough to die for him?  Jesus answers this in chapter 14 and the first part of chapter 15, directly after predicting Peter would fail him.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.  My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.  Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.  Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.  And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

“If you love me, keep my commands.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.  On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.  Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

“All this I have spoken while still with you.  But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

“You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.  I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me,  but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me.

“Come now; let us leave.

Chapter 15

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.  You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.  If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.  My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

And so we have reached the crux of our question.  Peter was willing to lay down his life for Jesus.  Jesus kept this from happening and instead laid down his own life for Peter.

On the outside Peter’s actions at the garden seem noble, saving the savior from death.  But it was not Jesus’ will to be saved.  It was his will to save us.

What Jesus explained in chapter 14 and 15 are the keys to Christianity.  If we try, as Peter did, to love out of our own strength based upon our own will, than we will always fail.  If we instead choose to receive Jesus’ peace and joy, to not let our hearts be troubled, to abide in Jesus’ love so that Jesus and the Father can make their home within us… then and only then can we learn how to love one another as Christ loved us.  And even then we will need the Holy Spirit to teach and remind us of all of this.

In a nutshell, Christian love is not based upon your works, it is based on Jesus.  You cannot do enough good to love another.  True Christianity is based upon Christ’s work within us, loving us, keeping us, and making us more like him.

He commanded us to love one another as He loved us.  Before that he commanded us to abide in his love so that his joy may be with us and that our joy may be full.  Before that he said, “apart from me you can do nothing”.  Before that he promised to give us his peace, not as the world gives.  Before that he asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit to teach us and remind us of everything Jesus said.  Before that he reminded us not to let our hearts be troubled.… And before all of that, Peter promised Jesus he would lay down his own life by his own strength.

Jesus wants us to be full of him and not ourselves.  It is his work on the cross that saves us and not our own works of the flesh.  This is the true meaning of grace.  In John 15:14 Jesus continues:

You are my friends if you do what I command.  I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.  This is my command: Love each other.

Video Game Fanart to Die For

While surfing the web for some cool waves, I ran across a rather awesome thread on NeoGAF completely dedicated to video game fanart.  If you love great art and games, take the time and check it out.  Be prepared to drop your jaw.

Here are some of my favorites.

5 Minute Piano Lessons: C Major scale for the Left Hand

As a teacher of twenty five students, I highly recommend private lessons.  For those on the go, wishing to learn what they can, this is the place for you.

It takes years of study to play the piano correctly.  I will only be touching on the finer points here.  Feel free to post any questions pertaining to this lesson at the bottom.

This 5 minute lesson will be a bit shorter teaching wise, than the last 5 minutes lesson… or whatever.

Basically it all comes down to the one finger, again.  In our previous lesson we learned the right hand C Major scale.  The notes are still the same here (C, D, E, F, G,  A, B, C) you just use different fingering to play them.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about then go here to learn proper fingering, or here to learn where the notes are.

To review, the R.H. (right hand) fingering for the C Major scale is 1-2-3-1-2-3-4-5.  Doing it backwards from the higher C down to the lower C it is the same fingering in reverse: 5-4-3-2-1-3-2-1.

If you haven’t noticed by now your left hand is a mirror image of your right.  This mean that if you want to play the same notes as the right hand with the left, your fingering will be the opposite.

L.H. C major scale going up is 5-4-3-2-1-3-2-1.

Going down: 1-2-3-1-2-3-4-5.

Practice doing the L.H. now.

 

Remember

Cross the 3 finger over the thumb or the thumb under the 3 finger, at the appropriate place of course.

Keep those fingertips lined up with each other.  Be lenient with this. As long as your fingers are curved and aren’t flat on the keys your doing it right.

Be sure that you don’t lift the fingers off the keys while playing, unless it is necessary (with a thumb or three finger change).

And most importantly of all… have fun!

For practice

Play the R.H. C major scale up and then down.

Play the L.H. C major scale up and then down.

Play both hands at the same time SLOWLY.  Take your time with this.  If you find yourself messing up then take them one hand at a time again. You will not be able to do this right off the back now.  Healthy practice habits take time, but it makes everything easier to play and understand.

If your left hand isn’t ending on the 5 finger, or your right on the 1 finger (after going up and down the scale) than you are not using correct fingering.

It is imperative for our future lessons that you use correct fingering.

Other piano lessons to peruse at your leisure

Happy piano playing