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Author Archives: Francesco L'Erario

Chords in minor Keys – we learn to build and use them in an effective way (part 1)

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Building chords in minor keys

Up to now we have only talked about major keys.
Now, to look at harmony more in depth, we also consider minor keys and as you can see in this way we will discover a new world.

In fact we will learn to build chords at the piano using minor scales.

But the problem is:

Which minor scale should we use to build chords?

Today we will answer this question and learn to use chords in a minor key which will give us many new opportunities.
To understand how important this topic is, I want to point out that in pop music we often use chords of minor keys.

Since this topic is very important, I have divided this lesson into 2 parts, in order to understand it more in depth.

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Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	31 mins
Intro	2m 40s
1. Building chords in a minor key	7m 10s
2. How to build chords using the harmonic and melodic minor scale	10m 08s
3. How to use all these chords in a very effective way	11m 18s

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The first exercise to start developing your hands independence

Start developing your hands independence

Today we are going to introduce a very important exercise to start developing your hands independence.

As you see, it will be very easy, since our starting point is the first essential exercise we learned in the previous lessons.

So, in this way, thanks to some variations, we’ll obtain some new versions of the exercise, allowing you to start developing your hands independence.

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Learning material of this lesson

2 videos	13 mins
1. Introduction	2m 29s
2. The exercise to start developing your hands independence	10m 52s

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Why are there three types of minor scales and how to find all the notes (Part 1)

The minor scales

Up to now we have only discussed major scales. Of course, scales aren’t limited to major scales, there are minor scales too. Minor scales are often a hard obstacle for those starting out in the study of music.

There is a very precise reason for this: while there is only one type of major scale, there are three types of minor scales.
And this often creates great confusion. It’s difficult to understand how this can happen.

In today’s lesson I will show you why there is the need for three minor scales instead of one. Through a logical path I will try to explain how these scales are created.
You’ll see, by the end of the lesson everything will be more clear and I hope, more interesting.

That’s because musical theory, if studied to understand the reasons that are behind the origin of all these rules, which are sometimes overlooked and made to study by heart, can be a very interesting and captivating subject.

Also, I believe that studying theory in depth may allow to have the tools to approach the subject of harmony and composition more easily, other than allow you to play a piece on the piano or the instrument you play with more ease and simplicity.

Now I don’t want to lose myself in all talk. I’ll leave you to the video lesson.

It all begins when we introduce the concept of a “relative minor”…

… but what is this relative minor?

Relative to what??

Have a nice vision!

Learning material of this lesson

3 videos	32 mins
1. The relative minor scale	10m 21s
2. The natural minor scale and the harmonic minor scale	9m 35s
3. The melodic minor scale	12m 15s

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Piano, let’s learn to play a piece (part 1)

How to play a piece at the piano

Today we start the journey that will finally take us to play the first piece at the piano!
As I have already told you in the presentation of this lesson cycle, this is only one of the many things you’ll be learning.

The first thing we will focus on today will be studying the sheet music of the piece we want to play quite deeply.
A sheet music indeed contains a lot of info that are essential to play the piece in the best of ways.
First off we must understand how to read the notes with their correct duration and pitch.
And then we must know the meaning of all the symbols that the sheet music holds.

How to read the sheet music

After the first video, then, in which I will explain the intricacies of how this lesson cycle will be carried out, we will step into the music and we will learn to read the sheet music so that we understand every symbol and sign that it holds.
We will also be seeing the first of the study method that I will be teaching in these video lessons that will also come useful when trying to play any other song in the future.
It doesn’t end here!

An ineractive learning method

In fact, starting today, we will use a new teaching and learning method to make these lessons even more interactive: thanks to this new method you’ll be able to play the keyboard or the piano during the video lesson, so that you can play live what I’ll be showing you from time to time.
Before saying goodbye, let me remind you that you can find the sheet music of the piece which we will study in a pdf format.

To better understand this and the following lessons I recommend you watch this lesson first:

The duration of sound: the bar and its’ beats, the first notes, rests

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	37 mins
1. How to learn to play a piece at the piano. Introduction to the video lessons	9m 54s
2. The first step of our study method: analyzing the sheet music	9m 56s
3. How to read the dynamics	8m 49s
4. Slurs and fingering	7m 54s
+ 1 pdf files

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Writing a melody, two secrets to achieve a greater variety

How to write a melody

Do you believe that creating a melody is really difficult? After today’s lesson you will have to change your mind.
That’s because today we will learn how to put into actual use the knowledge gained in the previous lessons about the passing tones.

Specifically, I will let you in on two simple improvements, really simple but quite effective when creating melodies.
You’ll see that thanks to this advice, you’ll be able to start writing some melodic frames, already pleasant enough, only using chord tones and passing tones.

Remember that music has to be simple, and it’s from this notion that we have to start the path that will one day let you write something more complex and interesting.
Also, we will be seeing how by using alterations we will have a wider array of passing tones to use.

And lastly, in the third video I will show you some actual exercises that will let you practice what we are learning today, so that you can immediately start to create some short melodies on the piano!

For a better understanding of today’s lesson, my advice, if you haven’t yet, is to watch the video of the following lesson;

Musical alterations (part one)

Learning material of this lesson

3 videos	35 mins
1. How to use chromatisms to achieve a wider assortment in passing tones	8m 57s
2. Two secrets to have a wider variety	11m 01s
3. Learn to create a short melody	14m 31s

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Reading notes, today I’ll be explaining the first essential concepts you must know

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Reading notes

One word you probably heard uttered hundreds of times is rhythm.
But what is rhythm exactly?
Rhythm is that aspect of music that deals with the duration of sound through time.

The duration of sound is the first property of sound that we want to depict graphically.
This is the first thing we have to learn to understand how to read and write music.
In today’s lesson, starting from a series of intuitive and common concepts, we will be able to understand how to represent the various sounds and their duration through time.

How can we graphically respresent the silence?

And it won’t end there: music is also made up of silence, the alternating presence of silence and sound.
But since silence has a duration too, we have to understand how it can be graphically depicted.

After today’s lesson you’ll have seen the basic knowledge necessary to begin reading (and writing) notes, among others;

What a bar is in music, and its’ beats
What notes are and how to distinguish them by their duration
What we mean when talking about crotchet, minime and semibreve
What rests are and how to graphically depict them on paper

But you’ll especially have taken the first step into learning to read music, which is the first step to being able to play it on piano or any other instrument from the music sheet.

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Learning material of this lesson

3 videos	27 mins
1. What does it mean to keep time and what is a bar?	8m 27s
2. The first graphical symbol to represent sound: a quarter note	8m 07s
3. Other notes of different durations and musical rests	10m 39s

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Major and minor chords, how to find all the notes at any time

How to find the notes of all the triads

Have you ever encountered chords of which you didn’t remember the notes? Especially with those chords with lots of sharps or flats, like Bb minor, C# major, G# minor…
Sometimes you don’t remember them and have to look the notes up on the charts.

In today’s lesson I will teach you two simple methods that will allow you to find, in a few seconds, all the notes of all the major and minor triads. You’ll only need to have followed the lesson on major scales and thank to today’s videos, and a little practice, you will only need a few seconds to find all three-note chords at the piano, without the need of charts.

Specifically, the second method is based on four simple steps that will only employ a few seconds to find the notes of any minor or major triad.
And in the last video I’ve wanted to show you with some examples how this method works perfectly even with chords that might “look” difficult on paper.

After today’s lesson you will be able to find, in any moment, all major and minor chords and, believe me, that’s no small task!
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Learning material of this lesson

3 videos	38 mins
1. First method: chords built on major scales	13m 27s
2. Second method, four steps to find chords in a few seconds	11m 45s
3. Four examples to practice what we’ve learned	12m 37s

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Musical alterations (second part): you’ll know them well from today on

Double alterations

Before presenting the second part of the lesson regarding alterations, I want to highlight just how important knowing them is: this will allow you to completely understand the topics of harmony, chords, and composition in general.
Today we will dive deep: after having introduced, in the previous lesson, the most simple accidentals, today we will understand, for example, where the need for double alterations come from.

We will examine how to alter the degrees of the scale in any situation, at the piano.
In this way we will need to introduce more graphical symbols, that will allow us complete contro lover the alterations.

Aftert this part you’ll be able to understand:

the difference between temporary alterations and permanent alterations
how to cancel the effect of alterations that are already present
how, why and when to use double alterations

After this lesson, basically, musical alterations will not be a mistery for you anymore!

For a better under standing of today’s lesson, I’d reccomend, if you haven’t yet, to watch the first part of the lesson: Alterations (part one), here is a simple way to really understand them.
If you already watched the first part of the lesson, to help you keep up with today’s topics I added a video, the first, in which I summarized the content of the first lesson.

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Learning material of this lesson

3 videos	21 mins
1. Where did we leave off last time?	5m 10s
2. Temporary accidentals and permanent accidentals	6m 45s
3. What are double accidentals?	9m 11s

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Piano, here is the essential exercise to start playing hands-together

The first exercise to start playing hands-together

Thanks to today’s lesson and the next piano lessons, you will finally be able to start playing by using both hands from the beginning.

In fact, in this lesson I will show you in a very clear way the exercise that forms the basic of all piano technique: this exercise will let you learn, through practice, the shift of weight between one finger and the other, using both hands at the same time.

Thanks to today’s video lessons and the exercise shown within you’ll be able to;

Put into practice what you’ve learned up to today, finally playing the piano or keyboard.
Get the hands used to the weight shifts between one finger and the other (a technique essential to the playing of a succession of notes)
Develop a perfect coordination between the two hands from the start, since the exercise is done “hands-together”. (This is expecially important if up to now you have been playing with the right hand more than with the left hand, and you feel the latter to be weaker, this exercise will help you equalize the two hands’ technique)
Learn how to keep a steady tempo from the start, without picking up the pace or slowing down (tank to the way the exercise is carried out)

My advice is to do this exercise as often as possible, even for a few minutes every day.

Consistency and regular practice are fundamentals to developing any kind of musical technique: you’ll see that if you follow my advice, in a short time your hands will be set in the right position and ready to play the first songs at the piano.

And this will be an enormous satisfaction!

Learning material of this lesson

3 videos	31 mins
1. Two preparatory exercises	10m 24s
2. …the real exercise, finally!	12m 43s
3. Let’s make the exercise wholesome by adding all combinations	8m 00s

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The first step to start composing a melody: the passing tones

Non harmonic tones; the passing tones

Today we begin discussing in a more meaningful way the non harmonic tones (non chord tones) that will greatly help you in the act of composing melodies, as we were saying in previous lessons.

Also, as you will see further on, this knowledge will help you understand better some concepts tied to other subjects: in fact, it’d be difficult to learn how to play the keyboard or the the modern piano without having mastered the non harmonic tones.

But this is another issue and we will tackle it in due time.
In today’s lesson we will approach the first kind of non harmonic tones:

the passing tones

We will try to understand what they are and how they can be used.

How to compose melodic fragments

Some foreview: in the next lesson I will teach you to put into use what we learned today and I will reveal some small tricks and tweaks that by using the passing tones, will let you start composing some melodic fragments on the piano which will already be catchy and nice to hear!
But to be able to put into practical use all of this, it’s essential that you understand what the passing tones are, and for this very reason, today’s lesson is really important.

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Learning material of this lesson

3 videos	33 mins
1. What are the chord tones?	9m 35s
2. The passing tones	13m 19s
3. Let’s learn to use the passing tones	10m 21s

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