I’ve had requests for piano notation covering the blues licks in my course, A Study in Blues Piano.
That course is video-based, and teaches from a chord-based improvisation point of view.
I sometimes resist providing notation for improvisation-focused courses, because it can almost promote blind imitation, rather than creative playing.
That said, I’ve had a couple of convincing requests lately from students who wanted to have sheet music to supplement this class. As a result, I’ve decided to provided some helpful notation for each of the licks. Ain’t no thing man, I feel you. (Wah?)
After I finish the notation for all twelve licks, I plan to come back and add tutorial text to support the process of playing from each of these sheets.
Below is printable easy to play piano sheet music for the timeless songs Greensleeves and “What Child Is This.”
Both of these songs share the same melody, but each has an entirely different story and words.
Exactly as we humans should share a common melody, our own humanity, and then set that one melody to each of our stories.
I still hope that we as human beings can always share some kind of common melody, a melody where the composer doesn’t matter, and each new chorus is just another big human story,
and where no human story is in conflict with any other,
for the bonding reason that each embraces this common melody. Not sure what to call such a melody. But ya dig it?
EDITOR’S COUSIN’S NOTE: Pretty dang heavy stuff that wuz just said, up thar above. Sorry bout that on beehalf of us.
Today's video lesson was created especially for my new course, "Piano Chords 108." In this lecture, students will learn how to visualize and play half-steps, whole-steps, minor thirds, and major thirds on the piano.
What's in the video lesson below?
Intervals...
Half-steps and whole-steps are the two intervals that we use here to define minor and major thirds (which are also intervals). It's the all-important thirds that we are especially focused on here, and we will construct them easily today, using just half-steps and whole-steps.
...Leading to Chords
In our chord speed-learning class called Piano Chords 108, you will achieve impressive memorization skills for chords by using the music theory concept of "stacking thirds."
As prerequisite knowledge for that class, this lecture is basically the stuff you gotta know.
After this Lesson:
Before moving on from this lesson, please be sure you can play (or visualize) both a minor and a major third on piano, starting on any given note, without stopping to think. Even in the middle of a car chase, or a toddler's birthday party at that pizza-and-games place, this should be something you can do without thinking.
The remaining content of this post is for supporting members. Your monthly membership is extremely affordable, and makes it possible for us to work full-time on the task of creating FREE educational content, plus additional premium content, for members like you. This is a fast-growing site, and we really need your support as an "All Access" premium member to keep this site alive. (After signing up, you may need to refresh this page to open all the content.)
This post below is the Course Introduction (just text for now).
COURSE INTRODUCTION
Welcome to Piano Chords 108!
Kent Smith here, your instructor.
This course provides a simple system for memorizing the “108 Essential Piano Chords.”
See the chord symbol, or hear the chord name, and you will know all the notes, with certainty!
Altered and Extended Chords
You’ll also acquire enough knowledge in this class to alter or extend any of those 108 chords. (Jazz students will need this additional skill, for sure.)
In the end, you’ll be able to determine the unique set of notes that define any one of HUNDREDS of chords, on the spot. This impressive accomplishment requires zero rote memorization of any chord. (What?)
Because of the above, my focus on “108” as being the number of chords you will acquire is an understatement. One can see (in the second, more optional part of this course) that the rest of the “standard chord universe” opens right up — as soon as you know how to alter and extend any member of the “Big 108” group.
When it comes to these 108 chords — by far the most common and useful chords in both popular and classical music — you will never again need a chord catalog, chord poster, or web search.
Even though this course has the goal of weaning students off chord catalogs, so to speak, I will definitely include a downloadable picture-based catalog for these 108 chords. Such a reference will no doubt prove useful for checking your understanding of this system. But ultimately, I don’t want you to need any such piano chord reference…
…Because that’s the whole theme and purpose of Piano Chords 108: Lose the catalog (so to speak)!
Important: Today’s post is the 3rd movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata 14 (“Moonlight”) in C# Minor (below).
If you’re looking (instead) for the most famous movement of this sonata, the slow, sort of haunting first movement, that sheet is right here: Moonlight Sonata 1st Movement.
Hello again, Beethoven fans!
Here’s a brand new sheet music offering. This one is another custom job for keyboard players who read music “a little bit,” but who may have trouble remembering the details about key signatures, or may sometimes be unsure about which piano key belongs to which line or space on the staff. Perhaps you’re an adult who had lessons many years ago, for example.
This Beethoven piano sheet music was prepared by me, and was very carefully cross-checked for accuracy by doing note-for-note comparisons against three other “standard format” publications of this sonata. All references used are from reputable sources.
I highly recomend that you also have access to a “conventional” copy of this piece (one that has no letter-names added), because it will likely contain many standard markings that I deliberately left out, due to the additional clutter created by adding all those letters! Important markings left out by me, in this lettered version, include phrasing and dynamics symbols, which are essential information for studying and playing any piece like this.
About Marking Note Names (letters, plus #’s and b’s) on Sheet Music
The sheet music below has each note’s letter-name marked in (such as E, F#, Ab, G). There are many situations where this reading aid, the adding of letter-names, can be really useful. Beware, some teachers get extremely upset about this kind of alphabetic behavior, declaring it to be pretty much a horrible thing under any circumstances. I’m not exaggerating. But I have used this aid in many successful ways, with students who all ended up being good music readers, and good players. That said, I guess I also should say: If you are a formal student of piano, who intends to read music really well, please be careful about decisions regarding the marking in of letter-names, and maybe just be guided by your teacher, when it comes that. Myself, when I choose to use this letter-note aid with a private student, the letter-notes have to come from me. That is, they are generally not allowed to mark in any note-names themselves.
Okay, there’s that!
Today’s selection is Beethoven’s famous “Moonlight Sonata,” entire 3rdmovement.
The minor pentatonic scale is a hyper-cool five-note scale. An extremely popular source of melodic and harmonic material in many cultures, this scale’s distinctive signature is heard “all the time” in improvisational genres like rock, pop, blues and jazz.
For those of you who like to put words to your music: The word “pentatonic” comes from the Greek word pente, meaning five, and tonic, meaning tone.
The purpose of today’s lesson is to give you an easy pattern to memorize, and to show you how to use that pattern to construct any minor pentatonic scale. By “construct,” I mean you will visualize the correct five notes for the minor pentatonic scale, starting on any given root note.
As a result you will have “memorized” all 12 minor pentatonics on the keyboard today.
Assuming that this one pattern is not forgotten (it won’t get forgotten, so long as you play any minor pentatonic scale now and then) , today will mark your permanent acquisition of all 12 of the minor pentatonics.
This lesson illustrates yet another example of how to avoid rote memorization of scales and chords. “Forget” that, I say! Discover and use their defining patterns instead. Patterns rule in music!
The remaining content of this post is for supporting members. Your monthly membership is extremely affordable, and makes it possible for us to work full-time on the task of creating FREE educational content, plus additional premium content, for members like you. This is a fast-growing site, and we really need your support as an "All Access" premium member to keep this site alive. (After signing up, you may need to refresh this page to open all the content.)
These three tutorials would fit somewhere near the center of the jazzy-rock genre spectrum, if there was one.
I guess there could possibly be a jazzy-rock genre officially defined somewhere, like in a big canvas binder at the Genres Office, or like that. Regardless of the possibility of this being regulated, I'm using the term freely here, maybe even whimsically, maybe even having some devil-may-care attitude going.
If I had a managing editor you would not have seen the previous paragraph. Don't worry, with your continued support, we will hire a managing editor.
Van Morrison's Moondance is the "jamming vehicle" we're using in this trio of lessons. Moondance is a catchy tune, and it serves really well as a straightforward case study in jazzish-rockish piano improvisation.
VIDEO LESSON:
The remaining content of this post is for supporting members. Your monthly membership is extremely affordable, and makes it possible for us to work full-time on the task of creating FREE educational content, plus additional premium content, for members like you. This is a fast-growing site, and we really need your support as an "All Access" premium member to keep this site alive. (After signing up, you may need to refresh this page to open all the content.)
Here’s a detailed tutorial on how to interpret slash chords on piano. This lesson includes insights into several ways that slash chords are used, such as indicating an inversion, implying a descending bass line, or a simply notating a fresh chordal sound.
Composers and songwriters can use the “slash chord idea” in their creative thinking. That is, the effect of playing any given chord over bass notes that are not the actual root of the chord opens up endless possibilities. Some of the thinking behind these possibilities is discussed in this lesson.
