Sunday, August 9, 2009
Clocks - Transcription Exercise
If you compare the transcription done recently in class against a recording of Coldplay's song Clocks, you'll hear a significant difference: the recorded song is in 4/4 time, but the grouping is 3 + 3 + 2 eighth notes. Furthermore, the Bbm chord in bar 2 is carried over into bar 3 and doesn't change to Db.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Online Ear Training Sites
Learn to Hear is an easy to navigate and use site that will enable you to hone your listening skills.
There are four sections (Intervals, Scales, Triads and Tetrads) each of which presents ear training games of varying difficulty. In the Intervals section, you'll see one they've called "Primo". This is just a regional variant of "Unison".
The Triads section contains ear training games to test your abilities to distinguish between Major and Minor.
In the Scales section you'll see this page:
Check the "Practice Isolated" box for "Ionian/Major". The exercises then ask you simply to be able to distinguish between Major scales and scales that aren't Major.
There are plenty of other more advanced ear training games at this site for you to play. They're the sorts of things you won't be examined on for the MUSI course but I encourage you to explore them once you're confident with the basics.
There are four sections (Intervals, Scales, Triads and Tetrads) each of which presents ear training games of varying difficulty. In the Intervals section, you'll see one they've called "Primo". This is just a regional variant of "Unison".
The Triads section contains ear training games to test your abilities to distinguish between Major and Minor.
In the Scales section you'll see this page:
Check the "Practice Isolated" box for "Ionian/Major". The exercises then ask you simply to be able to distinguish between Major scales and scales that aren't Major.
There are plenty of other more advanced ear training games at this site for you to play. They're the sorts of things you won't be examined on for the MUSI course but I encourage you to explore them once you're confident with the basics.
Intervals and the Major Scale
The ability to hear and identify musical intervals is the most useful skill you can learn! There are only 12 intervals - each with a unique, individual sound and a name. The names given to the intervals are all based on their relationship to the Major scale. This is why your knowledge of the Major scale is fundamentally important to learning everything else in music.
The term "Major scale" (Major scale - singular) is used deliberately to emphasise the fact that there may be 12 possible starting notes for it but that the pattern of interval steps is exactly the same, regardless of the starting note. Column I lists these 12 possibilities. Each row thus becomes the Major scale from C (C Major), the Major scale from F (F Major), from Bb (Bb Major), etc. and takes its name from the note in column I.
Some Music Theory Trivia
The Major scale rows for Gb Major and F# are separated from the rows above and below purely to highlight that the notes used in both are exactly the same. It is also done to draw attention to a common misconception - that sharps and flats are "the black keys". This is partly true but it's to your advantage to understand that sharps and flats perform a special function. They are symbols to indicate that a written note, whatever it's name, is to be "altered" - i.e., a sharp instructs the player to play the note a half-step higher than the one written; a flat says play the note that is a half-step lower than the one written.
For example, in the Gb Major scale, step IV is Cb. The flat sign here refers to a white key (B). So, why name it Cb and not B? Because in the (theoretical) construction of Major scales, the 7 note name letters can only be used once and the note name B is needed to name Bb (step III of Gb Major). The same is true for seemingly weird notes such as E#.
Major Scale Construction Formula
At first glance the Major scale might appear to be constructed of 8 notes, labelled using the Roman numerals of I through VIII and coloured pale blue in the illustration above. The pale yellow columns indicate where the notes not needed for each Major scale are located. The red column is used for a note not used in the Major scale which is located exactly half way between Step I and Step VIII. It should be visually apparent that the Major scale is actually created using two identical 4 note patterns - i.e., steps I, II, III and IV have the same pattern as steps V, VI, VII and VIII. More on this below.
The Relationship of Intervals to the Major Scale
The names of the intervals are listed in the second row of the illustration above. Each of them relates to the column in which they appear and they all take their name depending on their distance higher than the note (or sound) in column I. Because intervals occur between sounds, two notes are required in order to create an interval. The first of these is then used as a reference point and can be thought of as "Doh" where Doh is any of the notes in column I.
Naming the 12 Intervals
One note sound following another can only be one of three things:
When one sound follows another and it's the same, it's called a Unison.
If the second sound is higher than the first, the Interval is "ascending" and it can be located using the "Relationship to Major Scale" column and named using one of the "Interval Names (Ascending)"
If the second sound is lower than the first, the Interval is "descending" and it can be located using the "Inverse (Descending)" column and named using one of the "Inverse Interval Names".
For example, if the first note is C and the next note is an E that is higher than C, then C is I and E's relationship to it is III - i.e., E is a Major 3rd higher than C.
If the the first note is C and the next note is an E lower than C, then C is VIII and the lower E's relationship is still III, but the interval drop is a Minor 6th.
Trivia:
The sum of an ascending interval with its corresponding descending inverse adds up to 9. Furthermore, an ascending interval's quality is also inversed by its corresponding descending partner. Examples:
The term "Major scale" (Major scale - singular) is used deliberately to emphasise the fact that there may be 12 possible starting notes for it but that the pattern of interval steps is exactly the same, regardless of the starting note. Column I lists these 12 possibilities. Each row thus becomes the Major scale from C (C Major), the Major scale from F (F Major), from Bb (Bb Major), etc. and takes its name from the note in column I.
Some Music Theory Trivia
The Major scale rows for Gb Major and F# are separated from the rows above and below purely to highlight that the notes used in both are exactly the same. It is also done to draw attention to a common misconception - that sharps and flats are "the black keys". This is partly true but it's to your advantage to understand that sharps and flats perform a special function. They are symbols to indicate that a written note, whatever it's name, is to be "altered" - i.e., a sharp instructs the player to play the note a half-step higher than the one written; a flat says play the note that is a half-step lower than the one written.
For example, in the Gb Major scale, step IV is Cb. The flat sign here refers to a white key (B). So, why name it Cb and not B? Because in the (theoretical) construction of Major scales, the 7 note name letters can only be used once and the note name B is needed to name Bb (step III of Gb Major). The same is true for seemingly weird notes such as E#.
Major Scale Construction Formula
At first glance the Major scale might appear to be constructed of 8 notes, labelled using the Roman numerals of I through VIII and coloured pale blue in the illustration above. The pale yellow columns indicate where the notes not needed for each Major scale are located. The red column is used for a note not used in the Major scale which is located exactly half way between Step I and Step VIII. It should be visually apparent that the Major scale is actually created using two identical 4 note patterns - i.e., steps I, II, III and IV have the same pattern as steps V, VI, VII and VIII. More on this below.
The Relationship of Intervals to the Major Scale
The names of the intervals are listed in the second row of the illustration above. Each of them relates to the column in which they appear and they all take their name depending on their distance higher than the note (or sound) in column I. Because intervals occur between sounds, two notes are required in order to create an interval. The first of these is then used as a reference point and can be thought of as "Doh" where Doh is any of the notes in column I.
Naming the 12 Intervals
One note sound following another can only be one of three things:- the same sound
- higher in pitch, or
- lower in pitch
When one sound follows another and it's the same, it's called a Unison.
If the second sound is higher than the first, the Interval is "ascending" and it can be located using the "Relationship to Major Scale" column and named using one of the "Interval Names (Ascending)"
If the second sound is lower than the first, the Interval is "descending" and it can be located using the "Inverse (Descending)" column and named using one of the "Inverse Interval Names".
For example, if the first note is C and the next note is an E that is higher than C, then C is I and E's relationship to it is III - i.e., E is a Major 3rd higher than C.
If the the first note is C and the next note is an E lower than C, then C is VIII and the lower E's relationship is still III, but the interval drop is a Minor 6th.
Trivia:
The sum of an ascending interval with its corresponding descending inverse adds up to 9. Furthermore, an ascending interval's quality is also inversed by its corresponding descending partner. Examples:
- an ascending Major 3rd (C up to E) is the same note as a descending Minor 6th (C down to E)
- a descending Minor 7th (C down to D) is the same note as an ascending Major 2nd (C up to D)
- an ascending Perfect 4th (C up to F) is the same note as a descending Perfect 5th (C down to F)
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Lesson 2 - Transcription Basics - Chord Recognition
(This lesson refers to THIS RECORDING on YouTube)
Step One: The very first thing to do when beginning to transcribe any piece of music is to rule up a piece of manuscript paper with barlines, a time signature and then, for the purposes of giving your eye something to follow when listening to the song, "slash" symbols to mark off each beat - in this case, 4 beats per bar.
We will ignore the two bars played for the introduction and concentrate on an 8 bar verse section. Play the song again and follow the chart once the introduction has finished playing.
The next thing to mark on your chart is the positions where you hear a chord change. I've labelled them as "Chord 1", "Chord 2" etc. but it's enough to simply make some kind of indication (in pencil so you can later erase it) such as a dot or an "x" above the slash where the change occurs.
Tips:
Step Two: Now that you have a very rough "map" of a verse, it's time to define the chords with names. There are two main ways to do this and which you use depends on whether or not you're using a piano as a reference or working entirely by ear. For the purposes of this exercise it's assumed you'll be using a piano to assist your ear locate certain notes.
From this stage, transcribing music is a lot like doing a crossword puzzle. The very first chord you need to identify is (unsurprisingly) "Chord 1". How is this done?
Play the recording again and be ready to pause it exactly after the first chord is played. The note you need to identify by ear is the bass note because the chord you're searching for (most likely) is named from this bass note. In other words, this bass note is the root note of the chord to be identified.
Keep in mind there are only 12 possiblities this bass note could be. Immediately after you pause the recording, play a note in the bass register and listen for the quality of "sameness" with the recording. Two things can happen at this point: you could guess correctly (in which case move to the next step) or you will be incorrect (but at least you've eliminated one of the 12 possibilities and increased your odds of guessing correctly next time).
If you're incorrect it's because the note you're listening for is either higher or lower in sound than the note you guessed. It's important to decide in advance what your next guess will be. Each guess will either be correct or again it will be higher or lower. If you work slowly and methodically, using your ears to guide you higher or lower, you will find the correct note.
For example, let's say you chose a C as your first guess. Play the recording and compare your C with the first chord in the song. Is it the same? Answer: no - it sounds close but is too low.
If you choose D as your second guess you'll hear it's also close but this time it sounds too high to match the recording. A simple process of elimination here suggests the bass note has to be the sound between C and D. For the purposes of this exercise, call it C#.
Step 3: Now that you have identified the root note of Chord 1, the next step is to listen closely again to determine the quality of the chord: is it Major or Minor? (Note: There is a third possibility, but not in this song. This will be the subject of a future lesson).
In order to make a comparison between the recording and your decision, you'll first need to prepare yourself to play one or other of C# Major or C# Minor. The correct chord in this case is C# Minor. Take a moment to make the comparison yourself.
Step 4: Move on and repeat the previous two steps to identify Chord 2 and so on through to the end of the eight bars. When complete your chart should look like this following:
(The tempo indication medium bounce is purely a guide for performance. The names of the composers - Schwartz and Wyle - are included for the sake of completeness. On your own charts, you'd also note yourself as the arranger - Arr. Your Name
Tips & Tricks
Chord changes in most songs occur as patterns that repeat, often in groups of 2 bars, 4 bars, and 8 bars. Once you worked out that the chord in bar 3 was the same as the one in bar 1, you can start to make predictions that bars 3 and 4 will contain the same chords as bars 1 and 2. Similarly, bars 5 and 6 turn out to be the same again.
An interesting thing happens in bar 7. Aside from the fact there are two chords in this one bar, the A major chord also is notable. Had you predicted a C# minor chord to appear on beat 1 of bar 7, you'd almost have been correct. An A major chord is almost identical to C# minor in that both chords contain two notes the same: a C# and an E. It is possible to play a C# minor chord here instead of the A major with no real noticable difference in effect. The reasons as to why this is so will be explained in a future lesson about chord families.
Activities:
Before moving on to the next lesson, practice playing the chords of this song - slowly at first and then in time with the recorded version. It's only necessary at this stage to play and hold the chords for the duration of each chord change (4 beats each, except in bar 7 where they're 2 beats each)
A fully notated version of the chord chart of your activity above looks like this:
Step One: The very first thing to do when beginning to transcribe any piece of music is to rule up a piece of manuscript paper with barlines, a time signature and then, for the purposes of giving your eye something to follow when listening to the song, "slash" symbols to mark off each beat - in this case, 4 beats per bar.
We will ignore the two bars played for the introduction and concentrate on an 8 bar verse section. Play the song again and follow the chart once the introduction has finished playing.
The next thing to mark on your chart is the positions where you hear a chord change. I've labelled them as "Chord 1", "Chord 2" etc. but it's enough to simply make some kind of indication (in pencil so you can later erase it) such as a dot or an "x" above the slash where the change occurs.
Tips:- Chord changes usually occur on "strong" beats in the bars - i.e., beat 1; beat 1 and 3 (such as in bar 7)
Step Two: Now that you have a very rough "map" of a verse, it's time to define the chords with names. There are two main ways to do this and which you use depends on whether or not you're using a piano as a reference or working entirely by ear. For the purposes of this exercise it's assumed you'll be using a piano to assist your ear locate certain notes.
From this stage, transcribing music is a lot like doing a crossword puzzle. The very first chord you need to identify is (unsurprisingly) "Chord 1". How is this done?
Play the recording again and be ready to pause it exactly after the first chord is played. The note you need to identify by ear is the bass note because the chord you're searching for (most likely) is named from this bass note. In other words, this bass note is the root note of the chord to be identified.
Keep in mind there are only 12 possiblities this bass note could be. Immediately after you pause the recording, play a note in the bass register and listen for the quality of "sameness" with the recording. Two things can happen at this point: you could guess correctly (in which case move to the next step) or you will be incorrect (but at least you've eliminated one of the 12 possibilities and increased your odds of guessing correctly next time).
If you're incorrect it's because the note you're listening for is either higher or lower in sound than the note you guessed. It's important to decide in advance what your next guess will be. Each guess will either be correct or again it will be higher or lower. If you work slowly and methodically, using your ears to guide you higher or lower, you will find the correct note.
For example, let's say you chose a C as your first guess. Play the recording and compare your C with the first chord in the song. Is it the same? Answer: no - it sounds close but is too low.
If you choose D as your second guess you'll hear it's also close but this time it sounds too high to match the recording. A simple process of elimination here suggests the bass note has to be the sound between C and D. For the purposes of this exercise, call it C#.
Step 3: Now that you have identified the root note of Chord 1, the next step is to listen closely again to determine the quality of the chord: is it Major or Minor? (Note: There is a third possibility, but not in this song. This will be the subject of a future lesson).
In order to make a comparison between the recording and your decision, you'll first need to prepare yourself to play one or other of C# Major or C# Minor. The correct chord in this case is C# Minor. Take a moment to make the comparison yourself.
Step 4: Move on and repeat the previous two steps to identify Chord 2 and so on through to the end of the eight bars. When complete your chart should look like this following:
(The tempo indication medium bounce is purely a guide for performance. The names of the composers - Schwartz and Wyle - are included for the sake of completeness. On your own charts, you'd also note yourself as the arranger - Arr. Your NameTips & Tricks
Chord changes in most songs occur as patterns that repeat, often in groups of 2 bars, 4 bars, and 8 bars. Once you worked out that the chord in bar 3 was the same as the one in bar 1, you can start to make predictions that bars 3 and 4 will contain the same chords as bars 1 and 2. Similarly, bars 5 and 6 turn out to be the same again.
An interesting thing happens in bar 7. Aside from the fact there are two chords in this one bar, the A major chord also is notable. Had you predicted a C# minor chord to appear on beat 1 of bar 7, you'd almost have been correct. An A major chord is almost identical to C# minor in that both chords contain two notes the same: a C# and an E. It is possible to play a C# minor chord here instead of the A major with no real noticable difference in effect. The reasons as to why this is so will be explained in a future lesson about chord families.
Activities:
Before moving on to the next lesson, practice playing the chords of this song - slowly at first and then in time with the recorded version. It's only necessary at this stage to play and hold the chords for the duration of each chord change (4 beats each, except in bar 7 where they're 2 beats each)
A fully notated version of the chord chart of your activity above looks like this:
(A key signature has been added to indicate this song is in the key of C# minor. The original basic chord chart is included above the piano stave for the sake of comparison.)
Audio Example (slow tempo) of the chart as it's written above:
Lesson 1 - How To Learn Songs
"What songs do you know?"
This is one of the first questions you'll be asked when people find out you're learning to play the piano. If you admit to knowing any at all (and you should!) the next thing you'll be asked is, "Can you play it for me?"
It's at this point that many adult beginners panic and invent excuses as to why it's not possible to play anything right there and then at that moment with the most common excuse being, "I don't have my music with me." One of the primary aims of this course is to empower you with confidence to be able to play the piano - with or without music in front of you!
Developing confidence is a step-by-step process that all too often is overlooked in traditional approaches to learning the piano. The approach you'll learn in this course will be one where you are shown how to begin with something very, very simple and then transform it with incremental complexity. The example that will be used initially to demonstrate this is the theme song from the old television show, Gilligan's Island.
Step One: Listen to a recording of the song you're planning to learn to play.
This is one of the first questions you'll be asked when people find out you're learning to play the piano. If you admit to knowing any at all (and you should!) the next thing you'll be asked is, "Can you play it for me?"
It's at this point that many adult beginners panic and invent excuses as to why it's not possible to play anything right there and then at that moment with the most common excuse being, "I don't have my music with me." One of the primary aims of this course is to empower you with confidence to be able to play the piano - with or without music in front of you!
Developing confidence is a step-by-step process that all too often is overlooked in traditional approaches to learning the piano. The approach you'll learn in this course will be one where you are shown how to begin with something very, very simple and then transform it with incremental complexity. The example that will be used initially to demonstrate this is the theme song from the old television show, Gilligan's Island.
Step One: Listen to a recording of the song you're planning to learn to play.
LINK TO YOUTUBE
Things to listen for:
- time signature (4/4)
- "form" - i.e., 2 bar introduction followed by a number of 8 bar verses
- chord changes - i.e., how often can you hear a different chord? (in the verses, there is one chord per bar except in bar 7 where there are 2 chords)
- chord qualities - i.e., the chord changes in the verses alternate between minor and major
Friday, July 31, 2009
Some Essential Background Knowledge
I encourage all those students in this class who didn't complete MUSI2002 with me to visit the MUSI2002 blog and familiarise yourself with the information contained in the first 7 lessons. In particular, you should ensure you understand the basics of reading chord charts.
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