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Author Archives: Francesco L'Erario

Reading notes practice (part 1)

How can we read notes with the right rhythm?

In the previous lessons we learnt the most important symbols to represent the duration of sound.

Now we have to put into practice what we have learnt.

So how do we read notes? When we find a series of notes of different duration, how do we read them with the right rhythm? Today, through a series of exercises, we will learn to read of one or more bars while keeping time.

You will also learn other fundamental notions including:

how to read and play written notes, starting immediately with a right and precise “tempo” (speed)
how to find the right “tempo” to practice and perform.

Learning material of this lesson

5 videos	32 mins
Intro	2m 48s
1. Basic practice 1 (crotchets, minimes, semibreves)	7m 15s
2. Basic practice 2 (quavers and semiquavers)	3m 32s
3. How to find the right “tempo” to practice and perform	8m 47s
4. Practice with other rhythmic figures	9m 27s

Intro

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Triad inversions, the secret to have more variety in harmony

Why is the inversion so important in harmony?

Have you ever heard of triad inversions? First of all, I would like to say that inversions are NOT the different positions in which you can play the chords, as many people believe.
It is rather a very important topic which we will see in today’s lesson. Furhermore, the introductions of inversions is a fundamental step in our course of harmony and chords.

Thanks to the concepts that I will explain today, after this lesson, we will have a much wider view of what we have learned about chords up to now. We will also introduce different chord inversions which you will be able to put into practice in any moment.

Before defining clearly the inversion we have to introduce another important element which up to now has been left out … Moreover, in order to understand today’s lesson better, I will explain in detail the ‘overtones theory‘.

For the moment I prefer not to use many words as the videos will show you in detail.

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	26 mins
Intro	1m 48s
1. We introduce a new and crucial element	4m 02s
2. The overtones theory and its importance in harmony	6m 29s
3. Triad inversions	5m 49s
4. How inversions allow us to have many new tools	7m 50s

Intro

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Piano, let’s learn to play a piece (part 4)

How can we change fingering?

After this lesson you will be able to play a complete piano piece with all its notes! We will in fact study the piece first hands separate and then hands together.

However this is not the only thing we will do! You will learn lots of things in this lesson and I would like to list some of these:

interpret fingering
change fingering in order to be able to perform the piece in a confident and effective way
study the piece hands separate and then gradually hands together
a much more effective way to study the more difficult passages hands together
etc.

At this point you will be able to play the whole piece.
In order to transform this first performance in real music and make it more musical and pleasant to listen to, we will have to take the next crucial step.

It is what we will learn in the next and last lesson of this cycle.

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	37 mins
Intro	1m 49s
1. How to find the correct fingering	13m 42s
2. Play the piece hands separate	7m 50s
3. How to study the most difficult passes when you play hands together	13m 13s

Intro

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Musical intervals, how to properly name them (second part)

Major and perfect intervals

In today’s lesson we will start to learn the specific name of intervals.
In fact it is not enough to know that an inteval is fourth or seventh but we have to add other information in order to have a complete name.

All this is really important to be able to enter the world of chords and harmony. We will speak of diminished seventh chords, augmented sixth, dominant seventh and diminished fifth.
It is crucial for you to be able to recognize the intervals which are part of the chords so you will have to know how to identify both the general and specific name.

In this lesson, I will teach a very simple method which allows you to identify quickly on the piano any type of interval, even the most complexed ones.
Furthermore you will find a printable pdf table which will help you follow these lessons and in the future be able to identify the specific name of an interval.

To understand as much as possible in these lessons, I suggest you first attend the following lessons:

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	26 mins
Intro	2m 24s
1. The specific name of an interval	5m 33s
2. Major intervals	7m 55s
3. Perfect intervals	9m 42s

Intro

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Piano, let’s learn to play a piece (part 3)

How to read notes in bass clef

Today’s lesson is really very important! First of all we will learn to read notes in bass clef, something that is always rather tricky and difficult for those who are starting to play the piano.

I will show you a very simple way to identify the corresponding note to middle C and from this find all the other written notes in bass clef. At this point , once that you are able to read all notes in treble clef and bass clef, we will go onto identify the notes of the music piece which we have to play.

We will try to read them with the right rhythm. In this way, every detail written on the sheet music will be perfectly clear and so we will then be able to bring all this knowledge to the piano.

We start playing our piano piece

We are now ready to play our music piece. To do this, we still need to learn one thing: how do we identify middle C on a piano? I will therefore teach you different ways to identify middle C both on the classic piano and on a five octaves keyboards.

In this way, you will be able to start playing a music piece on any type of keyboard or piano. For any other music piece you want to play, there will not be any doubt on how to refer to your fundamental note (nota fondamentale di riferimento): the Middle C.
From now on we are able to start from middle C, identifying all the notes of the music piece on the keyboard. This is exactly what we will do in the last part of the lesson!

As you can see, apart from showing you how to play the music piece which we are studying, these video lessons progressively give you the necessary knowledge to be able to play other pieces

Learning material of this lesson

6 videos	30 mins
Intro	1m 17s
1. Learning read the notes in bass clef	5m 47s
2. now we can identify all the notes on our sheet music	8m 03s
3. Reading the notes of our music piece with the right rhythm, duration and pitch	8m 59s
4. How to identify Middle C on any keyboard and piano	2m 46s
5. Finding all the notes of the music piece on the piano	3m 09s

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Chords in minor Keys – we learn to build and use them in an effective way (part 2)

How to give our music piece an atmosphere that is effective

In the last lesson we learned to build chords in minor keys. Today we will look more closely at what we saw in the last lesson. We will see, depending on the ‘character’ we want to give our music piece, which chords need to be used. Do we want to give our music piece a strong tonal sense? Do we want to give a more ethereal and ambiguous atmosphere? In order to understand how to reach these atmospheres, we have to acquire the knowledge of the types of chords to use. .. This is what we will learn today among various things. Finally, thanks to a practical example, we will see how it is possible to mix different atmospheres in the same music piece. We are at last entering in the heart of the world of harmony!

Learning material of this lesson

5 videos	37 mins
Intro	2m 11s
1. Dominant chord and fifth degree chord	8m 22s
2. How to reach a strong tonal sense or a tonal ambiguity.	11m 32s
3. Mixing chords of different minor scales, practice 1	9m 58s
4. Mixing chords of different minor scales, practice 2	6m 00s

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Why are there three types of minor scales and how to find all the notes (Part 2)

How to find all the notes of the minor scales

Today I will show you a sure method which will enable you to find instantly the notes of all three types of minor scales.
As you will see, this will be very useful in all cases, not only in harmony and composition but also in playing scales at the piano or on other instruments … It will no longer be necessary to memorize the notes or find them on the music piece. In each moment you will be able to find them on your own.

The relations between musical scales

However I think this lesson is fundamental also for another reason: The introduction of three minor scales will open the door to another universe. Thanks to these minor scales, everything from harmony to composition will appear differently. The simple introduction of minor scales offers many new opportunities. So let’s start exploring this new universe…

Preview of this lesson

Learning material of this lesson

6 videos	48 mins
Intro	1m 15s
1. How to find all the notes of minor scales pt.1	8m 12s
2. How to find all the notes of minor scales pt.2	7m 30s
3. Two examples of applying this method	11m 22s
4. The minor keys	9m 00s
5. The relations between major and minor scales	12m 07s

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Piano, let’s learn to play a piece (part 2)

How can we read the pitch of the notes?

In today’s lesson we will see more depth our piano piece!
We will try to understand how to read notes on the sheet music before playing them on the piano.

As playing is often difficult, it is better, before sitting at the piano, to know exactly which notes to play. In this way we learn where to place the beats which are the basis of reading notes. Once we have placed the beats, it is very easy (thanks to what we learnt in the music reading lesson) to know how to read the notes with their correct duration.

Since to play our music piece we need to know the pitch of the notes, we will learn to read the same notes in treble clef, which are normally used to indicate the notes played by the right hand.

So after today’s lesson, you will have learnt something very important in order to play many music pieces at the piano.

Preview of this lesson:

Learning material of this lesson

5 videos	38 mins
Intro	3m 22s
1. The second step of our study method: simplify as much as possible the sheet music	3m 17s
2. How to place the beats	11m 51s
3. We determine the exact duration of the notes	10m 13
4. How to learn the exact pitch of the notes in treble clef.	10m 27s

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Non harmonic tones: today we are going to speak about Auxiliary tones

The Auxiliary tones

In the last lesson we spoke about the first type of non harmonic tones: Passing tones.
Thanks to these, we are able to give character to certain types of melody.

In this lesson we will speak about Auxiliary tones and see them more in depth.
The use of Auxiliary tones enables us to give a contrasting characteristic to the melody.

Thanks to this video lesson, other than learning exactly what Auxiliary tones are, you will also learn:

What auxiliary tones are
What distinguishes them from passing tones
What double aux. tones are
What chromatic aux. tones are
How to compose a melody using only passing and auxiliary tones

Preview of this lesson:

Learning material of this lesson

7 videos	52 mins
Intro	2m 50s
1. The auxiliary tones	11m 56s
2. The double aux. tones	5m 05s
3. The aux. chords	9m 10s
4. The chromatic aux. tones	9m 05s
5. How to compose a melody by using passing tone and aux. tones pt.1	7m 01s
6. How to compose a melody by using passing tone and aux. tones pt.2	6m 59s

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Reading notes: are you sure that you know quavers and semiquavers?

Quavers and semiquavers

Do you know the meaning of quaver? Do you know exactly what semiquavers are and how they are represented graphically?
They are two notes that need to be known perfectly in order to read music notes with their correct duration.

Today I will explain why quavers and semiquavers are introduced and how they are used. We will learn how to read these notes in a bar.
So after today’s lesson you will be able to recognize the principal symbols that express the duration of a sound, essential in learning to read a piano sheet music or of any other instrument.

In order to put into practice what we have learnt so far in these lessons, we will do many exercises by combining notes of different duration. Thanks to the new interactive didactic system, you will be able to practise on your own and later check your answers.

Just like a real lesson!

Preview of this video lesson

Learning material of this lesson

5 videos	35 mins
Introduction	2m 35s
1. What are quavers and how to read them	9m 54s
2. What are semiquavers and how to read them	8m 27s
3. Practice pt.1	8m 10s
4. Practice pt.2	7m 09s
+1 pdf file

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