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Author Archives: Francesco L'Erario

Piano, a new piece to learn to play (part 1)

Let’s learn to play the second piano piece

Today we will start a new cycle of lessons in which you will learn to play the second piece at the piano.
Thanks to the study of this, we will put into practice many things that we have already learned

So let’s see which are the main new things. We will:

learn to play new figures such as the quavers
also use the black keys
get used to changes of rhythms of the melody
learn to develop a greater hands independence
introduce new graphic signs (the fermata..)
learn to use the metronome in the study of piano pieces

These are only some of the things that you will learn studying this new piece, other than the great satisfaction of playing a new piano piece

So I will stop talking and have a good lesson!

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	31 mins
1. Presentation of the piece	5m 39s
2. We analize the sheet music, learn to interpret the accidentals in key signature and other new things	4m 40s
3. Reading the notes with their correct duration	9m 42s
4. Now we are able to read the single parts	11m 20s
+ 1 pdf file

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Do you want to know how to make your melodies more interesting and agile? (Part 3)

How to compose melodies using escape tones and reaching tones

Today we will put into practice what we have learned so far from the previous lessons.
We will see how to compose melodies using the non harmonic notes we have just learned.
This will allow you, in one way to understand how to use these new resources in the best way and on the other hand, it will make you aware of the effectiveness that these notes can give to your melody.

Remember that sometimes it just takes a small touch to transform a discreet melody into a beautiful one.

It is this touch which we obtain through the use of the notes we are about to learn.

Firstly I wil show you how to widen the disjunct motions using some non harmonic notes which give some really impressing results

At the end of the video, you will find a printable sheet music in pdf containing the melodies we will study and which can help you study the lesson

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	39 mins
1. How to widen disjunct motions to make a melodic frame more pleasant	5m 51s
2. We learn to compose a melody using escape tones in all their combinations	10m 41s
3. Compose a melody with the reaching tones	11m 29s
4. We compose a melody using all the non harmonic tones we know	11m 06s
+ 1 pdf files

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Music reading: do you want to practice in a very effective way?

Music reading practice

Today we will introduce a new level of music reading practice.
It is a very important new type of exercise, which if done correctly will enable you to read any music sheet at first sight and play it immediately on your instrument.

In reality, despite music reading often being said to be boring and useless, it can be as interesting and exciting as playing the piano or guitar.

The important thing is to understand the basics from the start, combining them with the concepts we have learned up to now. In this lesson you will also learn a very important way to keep time in order to distinguish beats.

This will be very useful if you study music reading more in depth and most importantly of all if you want to write music on paper.

Moreover, before taking a look at all of these topics, we will finish what we started in the last lesson, that is learning to identify beats when the time signature is 3/4 or 2/4.

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	22 mins
1. How to identify beats in 3/4	5m 06s
2. How to identify beats in 2/4	3m 26s
3. How to keep time in order to distinguish beats	8m 48s
4. A new way to keep time and an exercise to learn how to do it	4m 35s
+ 1 pdf file

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Harmonic cadences, only give me one hour and I will explain what they are (part 2)

What is the interrupted cadence?

In the last lesson we introduced the concept of cadences and most importantly learned to understand its importance in a progression of chords.

We have studied the first four types of cadences.

Today the things that you will learn include:
– which are the other types of cadences (the interrupted cadence, the decepted cadence, the mixed cadence)
– when these cadences can be applied in the minor key
– which is the only cadence that can be used in the minor key
– How to identify cadences in the four songs that we have
analysed

As will be seen after the lesson of today, you will have made a great step ahead in understanding how to create a cadence.
Finally you will find a pdf table with the principal cadences

You will be able to apply immediately all of this in the moment you write your music!

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	23 mins
1. The interrupted cadence, the decepted cadence, the mixed cadence	6m 38s
2. The use of the first three cadences in minor keys	4m 11s
3. The use of the other cadences in minor keys and the phrygian cadence	6m 18s
4. We look for cadences in famous songs that we have already studied	5m 56s
+ 1 pdf files

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Part 1: The interrupted cadence, the decepted cadence, the mixed cadence

Part 2: The use of the first three cadences in minor keys

Part 3: The use of the other cadences in minor keys and the phrygian cadence

Part 4: We look for cadences in famous songs that we have already studied

Attachments:

Attachments-Table of cadences pdf (click here)

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What consonances and dissonances are and how to recognize them at any time.

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What are consonances and dissonances?

Music is made of continuous alternating between moments of tension and rest.
We have already mentioned how in the scale some notes have a dynamic role (dominant and leadin tone), while others have a function of rest (tonic). When overlapping sounds, we can create either a sensation of stability or of tension and thus create a harmonic interval.
Depending on the possible combinations, we are able to obtain very different sensations of hearing.

Today’s lesson includes various things:

We will see in depth consonances and dissonances
We will introduce an important concept, the resolution of a dissonance.
We will learn to classify different intervals and when an interval is consonance or a dissonance

At the end of the videos you will find a pdf table classifying the consonance and dissonance intervals.

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	22 mins
1. What consonances and dissonances are	3m 46s
2. The way to classify intervals in consonances and dissonances	4m 56s
3. Practical examples of consonances and dissonances	6m 04s
4. What is ‘resolution’ and its important consequences in studying harmony	6m 50s
+ 1 pdf files

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Piano – here are the exercises to learn to play the black keys (part 2)

Learning to play the black keys

What are the risks of learning to play the piano from videos and without a master?

The only risk is the one of not doing the exercises learned correctly as there is no-one to check and correct you.

However if you know in advance which are the most common mistakes made in starting to study these exercises, you can avoid this by making sure you don’t make the same mistakes yourself!

The first thing that I will show you today is exactly which are the most common mistakes to avoid in begining to study the exercises which we learned the last time and how to correct them.

But this is only one of the several things you will learn today, including:

How to do the exercises studied in the last lesson as best as you can thanks to the use of different angles
How to do a new exercise with the black keys
How to organize as well as possible the study of all exercises when you have little time available.

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	24 mins
1. The most common mistakes: exercise on white keys	7m 33s
2. The most common mistakes: exercise on black keys	4m 51s
3. A very important variant of the black key exercise	6m 16s
4. How to do all exercises on pianoforte having little time available	5m 51s

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Do you want to know how to make your melodies more interesting and agile? (Part 2)

What is the secret in obtaining a good melody?

It is fundamental to have the right balance between the following:

conjunct motion

disjunct motion

After learning the first type of non harmonic tones which allow us to obtain disjunct motion, today we are going to learn two other types of notes with the same characteristic.

As you will see, these notes have a series of properties which can give a certain touch to your melodies

You are gradually learning many new tricks that you will help you express you full musical personality in writing music.

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	26 mins
1. Principal features of the two new non harmonic tones which allow disjunct motion	2m 50s
2. Escape tones: what they are and when to use them	5m 50s
3. We learn about escape tones in-depth and the advantages in using them	7m 20s
4. The reaching tone: how to skip to a non harmonic notes and obtain a very particular effect	9m 54s

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Here is how to read pitch and duration of notes at the same time

How to read pitch and duration of notes at the same time

In the last lesson we saw staf and clef which represent graphically the pitch of a sound and are very important.
If we put together both pitch and duration of notes, we are able to read written music perfectly.

Today we will see how to read pitch and duration of notes at the same time, firstly through theory and then with some practical examples.

After this lesson today, you will be able to make the big step which will bring you into the world of music reading.

Learning material of this lesson

5 videos	24 mins
1. How to read pitch and duration of notes together	1m 48s
2. How to find the beats on staff	4m 22s
3. Time signature: how to use it	2m 52s
4. Practical exercises for identifying beats 1	7m 06s
5. Practical exercises for identifying beats 2	8m 09s
+ 1 pdf files

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Harmonic cadences, only give me one hour and I will explain what they are (part 1)

What are the harmonic cadences?

Today we will introduce a fundamental concept which helps to understand the logic which makes up the base of harmonic structure of any music sheet.
I am speaking about harmonic cadences. In this lesson we will start to see the first types of cadences in order to understand their fundamental importance in musical discourse

The lesson of today is also important for another reason: we will conclude the study of harmonic analysis of the four music sheets by analysing the last song which distinguishes itself from the other three and has a very important feature:

Its chords are built using a minor scale

In this way we will start to see in practice which are the features that link the chords on the degrees of minor scales and the most used progressions.

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Piano – here are the exercises to learn to play the black keys (part 1)

How to play the black keys

Up to now, in our piano lessons we have used only white keys which correspond to natural notes (corresponding to C major scale).

Obviously we often have to play a written sheet music with some sharps or flats key signature. Even if these accidentals are not written in key, they may sometimes appear during the piece.

This happens very frequently.

It is necessary to begin to play the black keys immediately in order to make sure that in the future we don’t find ourselves not being able to play something in which the use of these is required.

As you will surely have noticed, the black keys are very different from the white ones. It is therefore necessary to understand how to use them and most importantly of all to have an exercise which applies the technique of using black keys

This is what we will learn in this lesson although it will not be the only topic.

I will in fact teach you another important exercise to be applied to the white keys and which will enable you to start playing more notes with the same hand and at the same time.
Moreover this excercise will allow you to avoid the main mistake which people make when starting to play the piano.

Learning material of this lesson

4 videos	17 mins
1. Two new exercises	3m 47s
2. The white key exercise to practice playing more notes with the same hand at the same time	4m 49s
3. The exercise to learn the correct technique of playing black keys	5m 00s
4. Some considerations on new exercises	3m 32s

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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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