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Author Archives: Francesco L'Erario

The harmonic colour; what it is and how to change it with seventh chords

How to change harmonic colour through the use of seventh chords

Today we will conclude our journey in the world of seventh chords and this will be done in a more than one hour lesson, rich in content.
This is practically a double lesson!!

Indeed today we will speak of lots of topics including:

Major seventh chords
Minor major seventh chords and augmented major seventh chords
The passage seventh in secondary seventh chords
How the use of secondary chords has changed during the course of time
How to change harmonic colour through the use of seventh chords.
We learn to improve chord progressions with seventh chords.
How to represent seventh chords graphically in classical writing.
The notation of seventh chords in pop music.

As you can see, the material is very much, so let’s get down to the videos.

Have a good lesson!

Learning material of this lesson

7 videos	41 mins
1. Minor major seventh chords	8m 37s
2. Augmented major seventh chords	3m 54s
3. The passage seventh: a case in which ‘preparation’ is not necessary	3m 53s
4. Seventh chords, a way to obtain different harmonic colours	5m 08s
5. How to modify chord progressions thanks to the use of the seventh	4m 21s
6. How to represent graphically seventh chords	9m 04s
7. The notation of seventh chords in pop music	5m 44s

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How to build the harmonic structure of a piece (part 11)

How to differentiate the verse and the chorus of a piece

Today we finish the cycle of lessons that has allowed you to learn chord progressions in an in-depth way.
During the course of the lessons we have learned to understand the role of different chords inside different keys.
We have also learned the ability to use inversions – all of this both in major and minor keys.

We have also managed to find a method to build harmonic structure using the chords of the natural minor scale.
Many things have therefore been learned through more than 70 examples on the piano.

We have built harmonic progressions imagining our piece to be made up of one part.
As you may well know, in reality each music piece is often divided into different parts.
You only have to think of the verse and chorus of a song.

Today, among other things, you will be able to give something different to the verse and the chorus of a piece and obtain a good variety.

Have a good lesson!

Learning material of this lesson

5 videos	20 mins
1. How to differentiate harmony in the case of a piece divided into 2 parts	4m 12s
2. The first way to differentiate chord progressions	2m 53s
3. The second way	3m 41s
4. The third way	4m 51s
5. The fourth way and a look at future lessons	4m 21s

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Harmony, other secondary seventh chords

Half-diminished seventh chords

In the lesson of today, we will conclude the topic of minor seventh chords and we go on to see half-diminished seventh chords.
We will see in-depth these chords with an extremely evocative sound.
We will learn their preparation and successively their resolution.

But the most interesting thing consists in an artifice through which we will build a new secondary seventh chord on the second degree of the major scale.

Thanks to this we are able to obtain a very evocative harmonic effect!
At the end of the lesson you will find a video containing some advice for you to put into practice all that you have learned up to now.

Learning material of this lesson

5 videos	30 mins
1. Introduction to the lesson	1m 52s
2. Minor seventh chords in minor key	7m 40s
3. Half-diminished seventh chords	5m 27s
4. How to build half-diminished seventh chords in major scales	8m 04s
5. Practical exercises	7m 00s

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Harmony, the ‘preparation’ of secondary seventh chords

The preparation of secondary seventh chords

In the lesson today, we will see a very important topic:

The preparation of secondary seventh chords.

This is an extremely interesting concept which allows to understand how to get the most out of secondary seventh chords.
As we will see, there are three distinct phases in using chords of this type.

We will put all of this into practice, speaking of minor seventh chords.

Finally, we will see how from a balanced mix of all the chords we know (triad or inversions, seventh chords and their inversions) very important harmonic effects can be obtained.

Learning material of this lesson

5 videos	25 mins
1. Introduction to the lesson	2m 19s
2. The preparation of secondary seventh chords	7m 07s
3. The three phases of secondary seventh chords	3m 14s
4. Minor seventh chords	5m 57s
5. Application of minor seventh chords	7m 26s

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Piano, let’s learn to play the first scales (part 2)

The new scales in reverse motion

In the previous lesson, we learned to play the first scale of piano.

Today, we will go ahead and learn new scales, progressively using a higher number of black keys.

Therefore it is important to understand how to move along the keyboard when we have to alternate black and white keys.

In this way you will be able to carry out correctly the new scales which, as we have already said, make up one of the most important exercises in learning to play the piano.

Practice regulary, alternating all the scales you know and you will see that in this way, the technique will become more solid.

Have a good lesson!

Learning material of this lesson

6 videos	20 mins
1. Let’s start to differentiate the two hands (from symmetry to asymmetry).	4m 11s
2. How to move along the keyboard alternating black and white keys.	3m 18s
3. D major scale	3m 47s
4. A major scale	2m 45s
5. E major scale	2m 58s
6. The correct method to study scales	3m 27s

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Harmony: the secondary seventh chords

The secondary seventh chords

What are secondary (or artificial) seventh chords?
Why do they differentiate from natural seventh chords and what are natural seventh chords?

These are some of the questions which we will answer in the lesson today.

Furthermore we will introduce a very important category of chords with a very impressive sound.
But this is not all!

Once we can distinguish these two categories of chords, we will learn a very important concept of harmony.

Have a nice lesson!

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	16 mins
1. Secondary seventh chords	2m 25s
2. Natural seventh chords and the overtones theory	5m 22s
3. Dominant ninth chord	3m 46s
4. Difference between natural and secondary seventh chords	4m 41s

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Piano, let’s learn to play the first scales (part 1) and music reading in bass clef 4

The first scales in reverse motion

In today’s lesson we will introduce a very important subject. Carrying out scales on the piano.

Firstly we will see how important scales are in learning piano techniques. Naturally, we will learn to play the first scales, in reverse motion, C major and G major scales.
In this way, you will have a very important new exercise and be able to put together all those technical aspects learned up to now.

In this lesson we will also conclude the series of music reading exercises in bass clef. Through these exercises you will be able to recognize a new note on the staff in bass clef – the F on the third line.
It is in this way, you will have a very important reference point and gain more confidence in bass clef music reading.

Finally, you will find 2 very important summary exercises which will help you put into practice everything learned in these lessons.

N.b: The introductive video with explanation of the music reading exercises in bas cleff can be found in the following link:

Introduction of music reading in bass clef

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	18 mins
1. The importance of scales in piano techniques	1m 58s
2. The scales in reverse motion	3m 36s
3. C major scale	5m 57s
4. G major scale	5m 45s
+ 1 pdf file
+ 8 audio files

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How to build the harmonic structure of a piece (part 10)

Music Architecture

What has music got to do with architecture?

Is it possible to compare the harmonic structure of a music piece to a building?

The answer is yes!

Music is in fact like a house, a building of variable dimensions.

The criteria of building a music piece is very similar to architectural criteria, for example the building of a skyscraper.

So why this premise?

Because in the lessons of today we will learn the general criteria which allow to build chord progressions of different lengths.

Today we will not go into every detail as we did in the preceding lessons, speaking of key, inversions and alternation of features.

Today on the other hand, we will look at the techniques which can be used to build the harmonic structure.

We will analyse 2 borderline cases and put them immediately into practice. Naturally this will be done through several examples on the piano, in major and minor key.

You have acquired a familiarity in creating the harmony of a music piece.

Learning material of this lesson

6 videos	28 mins
1. 1st case: we use very small ‘bricks’ to build chord progressions	4m 23s
2. A secret to make progressions more effective in this way …..	5m 34s
3. …with inversions which may modify them further	3m 21s
4. We try to use ‘bricks’ which are a little bigger	5m 56s
5. 2nd case: one big ‘brick’ to form the harmonic structure	7m 22s
6. How do we build the harmony if the music piece is divided into several parts?	1m 36s

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Piano, the thumb passage technique (part 3) and music reading in bass clef 3

Thumb passage, the 9 most common mistakes

In the last lesson we saw the first exercise to learn the technique of thumb passage.

In starting to learn a piano technique, people often make many mistakes.

It is very important to identify these errors as soon as possible, in order to avoid developing movements which are not correct.

Today we will see the 9 most common errors which are made in carrying out this piano exercise.

Therefore you will be able to see if you are making any mistakes in doing the exercise and immediately try to correct it. I will also show you a second and very important exercise to learn this technique.

Finally there will be some new music reading exercises in bass clef.
Let’s get started!

N.B: Please see link below for the introduction video containing the explanation of music reading exercises in bass clef:

Introduction of music reading in bass clef

Learning material of this lesson

6 videos	17 mins
1. Introduction of the lesson	1m 37s
2. Errors 1 and 2	2m 20s
3. Errors 3, 4 and 5	3m 23s
4. Errors 6 and 7	2m 27s
5. Errors 8 and 9	3m 28s
6. The second exercise to learn the thumb passage technique	4m 16s
+ 1 pdf file
+ 8 audio files

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How to build the harmonic structure of a piece (part 9)

How to mix chords of different minor scales

The lesson of today is very important! We will learn something really fundamental:

How to mix chords of different minor scales.

We have already mentioned during the harmony lessons, how effective it is from a musical point of view to use different minor scale chords.

However, one thing is theory and another thing is practice.

So today on the piano, we will face this very important topic.

Among many things, you will see how on the same degree we will be able to use two different chords, alternating them as we like in the music piece and obtaining a very particular effect.

Moreover we will start another very important subject which will be seen in-depth in the next lesson…

Have a good lesson!

Learning material of this lesson

6 videos	25 mins
1. How we can alternate the natural and augmented seventh degree	3m 02s
2. Introduce a major chord on the third degree of the extended key	2m 52s
3. Building new chord progressions using the extended key	7m 05s
4. Analyse a song which we know very well from a different point of view	5m 35s
5. How to avoid a very common mistake	3m 02s
6. Building the harmonic structure of a music piece: the two fundamental cases	2m 53s

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With a Free account you gain immediate access to 15 lessons of piano, theory, harmony, music reading and composition (36 videos).

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