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

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

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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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Alterations (part one), here is a simple way to really understand them

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Musical alterations

Alterations, chromatisms, accidentals, sharps… how often have your heard these terms without really understanding them?
Yet the concept of musical alteration is extremely important to start understanding music and to be able to play the piano or any other instrument.

As with every other musical theory concept, alterations are born from essentially practical needs.
This is the path I will use to try to explain these concepts in depth, by explaining where and how these thoeries are born.

Since this lesson is pretty long and demanding, it has been split into two parts.
In today’s lesson we will try to understand the two main reasons why introducing musical alterations is an absolute necessity.

This way you will finally be able to completely understand the function of those graphical symbols that are calleds sharps and flats, and generally speaking of all the other “musical accidentals”.

Enjoy!

Learning material of this lesson

3 videos	12 mins
1. The accidentals (sharp and flat)	3m 17s
2. Diatonic half-tones and chromatic half-tones	2m 51s
3. The A major scale case	5m 44s

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You’re finding it difficult to write a melody? Here’s something that can help you!

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How to write a melody

Chords and harmony are an extremely important part of composition, but of course they’re aren’t everything!
Another important part is the melody, and it isn’t always easy to write a melody.
You might have found yourself from time to time, while playing the piano or the guitar, in the situation where you found a very interesting sequence of chords, and not being able to compose a vocal melody on which you could sing.

The “non-harmonic tones”

We will begin today with a series of video lessons that approach the so-called “non-harmonic tones”, which will help you a lot in composition and writing arrangements.

In today’s videos we will approach two themes in particular:

Why are “non-harmonic tones” so important when writing music?
What are non-harmonic tones?

Enjoy!

Learning material of this lesson

3 videos	15 mins
1. The relationship between harmony and melody	7m 18s
2. Composing a melody on a sequence of chords	3m 43s
3. The non-harmonic tones	3m 54s

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Harmony, how chords are built

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How can you build chords?

Chords, defined as the simultaneous sounding of at least 3 sounds, are the skeleton, the base on which you can write a song, more so in popular music.
We have already seen how chords are tied to the concepts of scale and tonality.

This kind of approach will allow us to answer the following questions today:

How can you build chords?
Is there a fool proof way to know all the chords relative to a certain tonality?

This method exists and today, in the three following videos, I will show it to you at the piano, applied specifically to major scales and tonalities.
I will also explain how to build chords, of any kind and of any complexity.

To achieve a better understanding of today’s lesson I personally advise, if you haven’t already, to wath the videos of the following lessons:

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

The major scales: how to remember every note at any time

Let’s start by answering the first question: How can chords be built?

Learning material of this lesson

7 videos	30 mins
1. How to build chords	6m 57s
2. The seven chords of a major scale	2m 33s
3. The features of these chords	4m 26s
4. Naming chords	1m 29s
5. Practice: chords in E major key	5m 26s
6. Composing an easy harmonic base in E major key	3m 15s
7. Building more complex chords	7m 44s

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

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The musical intervals

Have you ever heard or read terms such as “diminished fifth”, “minor seventh”, “augmented fourth”, and so on?

All these names, apparently obscure and cryptical, each define differenty types of musical intervals.
Today we deal with the way that the various intervals are called to be distinguished one from the other. And we will do this using a logical and clear ‘path‘ that will soon let you learn how to name each interval correctly.

Being able to define an interval with its’ proper name is essential, because it allows you to determine the relation that there is between two or more notes (in this case, relative to pitch).
After all, music is the art that allows us to put different sounds in relation with each other.
You will see that once these concpets are clear to you, you’ll be able to put them to use in various fields.

Among other things you will be able to:

start delving into the extremely vast world of harmony

understand how chords are built, of any type and of every degree of complexity

make the melodies that you are composing better, thanks to a precise use of musical intervals

Let’s start to discuss the musical interval more deeply.

Learning material of this lesson

3 videos	18 mins
1. Melodic intervals and harmonic intervals	3m 14s
2. How to determine the ‘generale name’ of an interval	6m 56s
3. How to find the ‘generale name’ in case of sharps or flats	8m 33s

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Arrangements, three different ways of working

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We can agree or not about the details of an arrangement, about the use of some instruments in place of others, but I believe that everyone can agree on one aspect:

the arrangement is an essential phase for the correct outcome of any musical piece.

A great arrangement has the magical ability to turn a very ordinary melodic fragment into an excellent track.
Since this topic is of great importance, let’s try to understand exactly what we’re talking about.

What is a musical arrangement?

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The major scales: how to remember every note at any time

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The major scales

It’s not an easy task to remember every musical scale of the tonal system by heart.
Sometimes, especially for the scale in tonalities far apart from the C, it’s difficult to remember if a note is either sharp or flat or if it’s natural.
There is a very simple system that lets you remember at any time every note of every scale.
Today we will be discussing major scales.

Interval, whole tone, half tone

This system is based on the concepts of musical interval, whole tone and half tone.
In the next videos I will try to explain these concepts in a simple fashion at the piano, which will empower you to do the following:

Find at any given time every note of every major scale (we will take into consideration minor scales later on in the course) without having to pull out manuals or charts.
Start to move the first steps in the world of harmony and chords, which are both based on the concept of musical interval.
Understand in depth the most important aspects of theory and musical practice.

So let’s start talking of major scales… of course in the next videos.

Learning material of this lesson

6 videos	23 mins
1. 1.What is a musical interval	3m 01s
2. The half tone and how to find it on a piano or guitar	3m 23s
3. The whole tone	3m 05s
4. How to find every note of every major scale	6m 05s
5. Practice 1: the G major scale	4m 21s
6. Practice 2: the E flat major scale	3m 26s

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Composing, a couple of tips for beginners

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Introduction to composing

When someone approaches composing for the first time or generally feels the desire to express their emotions through music, they often face the harsh reality of the difficulties of this activity, tied with the difficult part of not doing it very often.

Today I would like to answer two frequently asked questions:
1. Is writing music only tied to instinct and our irrational side?
2. Is there a method for writing music which is particularily efficient?

We tackle these topics in the following videos.

Enjoy!

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