PATTERNS, PATTERNS, AND PATTERNS

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Clare Carter
5 years ago
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1 MINI-CLASS HANDOUT

Hey, Budi T here :) Thanks for downloading this handout, and you ll find this handout helpful for further grasping the layout of keyboards and the basic of chords.

2 Hey, Budi T here :) Thanks for downloading this handout, and you ll find this handout helpful for further grasping the layout of keyboards and the basic of chords. This is actually more than just a little handout Here in this handout, I m adding more nuance to what I have taught you in the Mini-Class, so that you have more context of how to navigate yourself on the keyboard AND how to figure out chords on the piano. So, let s get right to it! :) PATTERNS, PATTERNS, AND PATTERNS Nature is funny. Just look at the piano, and you will see why. Why are there repetitions on the keyboard, like how there are several Cs or Ds or Es on the piano? Because... physics. If you go from a C to the next C that is higher, the frequency - speed of vibration - doubled. From D to the next D? The frequency doubled. And so on. Simple as that. And somehow our ears picked up these doubling frequencies as (almost) the same pitches!

3 Without this principle (it s called resonance), there will be no music. No Bach, no Mozart, no Michael Jackson, no Amazing Grace, no The Beatles... No piano. Because of nature, there is PATTERN in music. That s why, if you want to play an instrument, you learn the patterns. Everything in music revolves around patterns. Good news is, for you to play a simple song on the piano, there are only a few patterns you need to know the first of which are the 12 pitches of music. THE LAYOUT OF THE KEYBOARD In music, there are only 12 different pitches (or notes), and the rest are all repetitions. It doesn t matter what you play piano, guitar, violin, flute... Well, maybe not drums. :) Some instruments just have less repetitions... our piano has the MOST number of repetitions: 7 of them, and 4 more! (That s why piano has 88 keys 7 repetitions of 12 keys, plus 4 more.) Just take a look at how these repetitions are arranged on the piano/keyboard.

4 Take note of how I numbered the 12 keys, because I m gonna come back to that. So, there are black keys and white keys, and there is no difference whatsoever between the two colors they are just pitches/notes. The black keys are there to make it easy on the eye to locate notes on the keyboard (can you imagine paying a keyboard with 88 white keys?) Now, even the black keys have pattern. They come in groups of 2 and groups of 3.

5 Let s use these groups black keys to good use to locate notes. Let s start with the white ones. First, let s find the note C on the keyboard: C is on the left of every group of 2 black keys.

Once you know that, the rest of the white keys are pretty much fill-in-the-blank. Note: We only use the first 7 letters of the alphabets A, B, C, D, E, F, G, so once we hit G, we go back to A.

6 Once you know that, the rest of the white keys are pretty much fill-in-the-blank. Note: We only use the first 7 letters of the alphabets A, B, C, D, E, F, G, so once we hit G, we go back to A. So, here s what we have: With that you know all the names of the white keys. Now, the black keys are named relative to the white keys adjacent to them. As an example, take a look at the following:

7 The black key right in between C and D have 2 names. The black key is on the right of C, so we call it a C sharp. (SHARP simply means on the RIGHT ). The black key is also on the left of D, so we call it a D flat. (FLAT means on the LEFT ) You can call it EITHER way. This goes for ALL black keys on the keyboard.

8 And those are the 12 pitches, and you just learned all of them. The rest of the keyboard is just repetitions of the same 12 keys. Which is why, like I said in the mini-class, once you learn the 12 keys, you know ALL 88 keys on the piano/keyboard. Now, before we go on to chords, remember this?

about the 12 pitches, you should know which is pitch is higher and which is lower.

9 Notice the order in which I number the keys? The way I number them is by going from the lowest pitch to the highest, and now that you know about the 12 pitches, you should know which is pitch is higher and which is lower. So, going from the lowest to highest: C C sharp D D sharp E F F sharp G G sharp A A sharp B Which forms the motion (black arrows) in the illustration below:

10 Each black arrow in the illustration above represents a half-step, which will be very important when you learn the formula of chords, so you need to familiarize yourself to this motion. I will save the discussion of half-step for another time. For now, just know that they re called halfsteps and let s move forward! :) CHORDS Here is another pattern in music that is so fundamental that music has been written around it for hundreds of years. Unless you re listening to percussive music or atonal music, most of the songs and pieces that you love your entire life are built on chords. Chord are basically when you play more than one note at the same time, and most chords have at least 3 notes. That s the simplistic definition. If you just go by the definition and play 3 notes on the keyboard randomly, you will get a messy blob of chord. Try it on the piano. Doesn t sound nice, right? Again, there are certain patterns that will make chords work.

11 Specifically, there are these 2 types of chord patterns that are the most common. So common are these two that ALL songs ever written use these two types of chords. Plus, a lot of fancier and more advanced chords are built on these two. They are MAJOR and MINOR chords. Learn these two, and you can already play the accompaniment to an ENORMOUS collection of songs. And there are simple formulas that will let you play ALL major and minor chords really easily. Let me show you. So, shall we? Let s start with MAJOR chord. Here s the formula: These numbers represent half-steps. (Remember?) For example: Let s say you want to play a C Major chord. First play the note C, then count 4 half-steps to the right, which is an E, then 3 more half-steps to the right, which is a G. C E G. That s C Major chord.

12 Note: The circles in the illustration above simply tells you the notes you should play. Now, let s do another one. E Major chord, for example. First play the note E, then count 4 half-steps to the right, which is a G sharp, then 3 more half-steps to the right, which is a B. E G sharp B. Pretty simple, right?

13 Again, the circles above simply represent what notes you play. Next, let s try MINOR chord. Here s the formula: Yes, it s the reverse of MAJOR chord! Now let s try two examples: C minor chord and E minor chord. Well, if you follow the same half-step motions, you should get the following: C minor: C E flat G,

14 ... and E minor: E G B. C minor E minor What s important here is you need to familiarize yourself with the half-step motions. Once you know this, just use formula for major chords, and formula for minor chords. These formulas work even if you re starting with black keys. Maybe you want to play F sharp major chord, or E flat minor chord. Just plug the same formula. Simple as that. I ll leave you to work those out on your own. :)

Seeing Sound Waves. sound waves in many different forms, and you get to have fun making a loud mess.

Seeing Sound Waves. sound waves in many different forms, and you get to have fun making a loud mess. Seeing Sound Waves Overview: This section is actually a collection of the experiments that build on each other. We ll be playing with sound waves in many different forms, and you get to have fun making