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Keys of the piano – lesson 3

The black and white things you might call buttons on your piano are called “keys”. On some keyboards, they might be 61, 76 or 88; but they are just a re-occurrence of twelve particular keys.
See the illustration below:
keys of the piano
repeat keys of the piano
Lool; that’s from my old piano that I bought from Alaba international market oo.
So We are concentrating on 5 black keys and 7 white keys. In total they become 12. So the notes I told you about in lesson one:
C  D  E  F  G  A  B  C
Are the white keys. I remember I told you that those notes above have some friends that they are hiding in their rooms, those friends are the black keys.
What are the names of those black keys?  Together they are called “Enharmonics”. Because they have the same sound but different names.
What are their individual names?
Before I tell you, let me first introduce you to sharps(#) and Flats(b).
For now, let me define a sharp as a note forward
And a flat as a note backwards.
Look at this picture below again:
There are five black keys;
the first one is called C# because we are moving a note forward from C,
It can also be called Db because we are moving a note backward from D.
The second black key is called D# because we are moving a note forward from D,
It can also be called Eb because we are moving a note backward from E.
The third black key is called F# because we are moving a note forward from F,
It can also be called called Gb because we are moving a note backward from G
The fourth black key is called G# because we are moving a note forward from G,
It can also be called Ab because we are moving a note backward from A
The fifth black key is called A# because we are moving a note forward from ,
It can also be called Bb because we are moving a note backward from B.
Tip: sharp goes forward by one note, flat goes backward by one note too.
I hope you now understand the way the black keys are named.

Now that we know the names of all the keys, lets move on. Please don’t forget these names because you would need them every single time you would be playing.

You might be asked, on what key are you playing on? You should be able to tell them whether it is C#(which is my favorite key) or any other key.

Next – Lesson 4: Singing and playing on different keys

Lesson 5: Intervals
Lesson 6: Chromatic Scale
Lesson 8: Key Signature
Lesson 13: Chord inversions

Brief Introduction to music – Lesson 2

In English language we have alphabets A-Z
In music we have alphabets A-G too; please don’t ask me why, because that’s how I met it in this world
Also In English, these alphabets are called letters

brief introduction to music
In music they are called notes; I hope you are following me oo, I’m trying to make a point here
A  B  C  D  E  F  G  A
The letters above are the notes that we have in music, but all these notes have some notes they are hiding in their rooms, I would come back to that later. Let me continue to make you understand my previous point.
In English a combination of letters form words. In music a combination of notes form “Chords”.
When you are in church and you hear the more than two or three notes at the same time, that thing he played is called a chord; or maybe when you are listening to a guitarist singing and playing at the same time, the sound that comes for the when he strikes three or more or even all the strings at the same time is called a chord.
Now let us combine notes together to form a chord.
C E G
That is a chord, remember that in English language, you don’t just pick random letters and join them together and say you’ve formed a word, the word might not exist because there are rules guiding it.
That is exactly how it is when we are talking about chords, there are rules guiding the way we form our chords, we would come back to them later.
Now if we combine correct words in English language, we would have a sentence. But in music if we combine chords we would have a “Chord progression”.
Look at this illustration below:
The    guitar    is     mine   =    sentence
What we have above is a combination of words to give us a sentence.
A C E        F A D          C E G        G B D     =    chord progression (it can work for Asa’s jailer)
LAh           fah              doh          soh
Now the combination of the chords above gave us a chord progression, as it goes on and on like that.
That chord progression can work for Asa’s song “Jailer”.
s  l  l
l  f  f
f  d  d
d  s  s
Now for a little diversion, so you would understand the last section well, the letters
A  B  C  D  E  F  G  A
l   t    d   r  m  f  s   l
the “ l t d r m f s l “ are called solfa notations, they are used to sing the notes of music.
Tonic solfa is a technique for sightsinging, It is a system of naming notes of a musical scale by syllables which are the sounds the notes will produced if they are played on a musical instrument.
 They are normally arranged as
 “ d r m f s l t d”.
The notes and solfas are numbered 1-8 like this:
C             D             E              F              G             A             B             C
D             r              m             f                 s              l               t              d
1              2              3              4              5              6              7              8
 So the illustration is there for those that want to sing it or for those that prefer to learn with the use of solfas, especially Nigerians; we like the use of solfas too oo, I’m also guilty of that too. We would learn more about solfa notations in later lessons.
 
Parts of Music
Rhythm: We can define rhythm as the beat of the songs that We dance to. The rhythm could be high-life, warror, hip-hop, juju music e.t.c
Melody: It is defined as the tune of a song that people hear and make them recognize the song, When you are in the church and the Hymn is about to be sang, the pianist will first play the hymn so the congregation will remember before everybody will sing along. What the pianist plays is the melody of the song.
Harmony: The Harmony is the combination of notes to form chords which will now accompany the rhythm and melody to form beautiful music.
So the left hand plays Harmony, the right hand plays the Melody, and the drummer gives us the rhythm.
Summary:
Notes of Music are
C  D  E F G A  B  C
Chords are a combination of notes
Chord progression are a combination of chords in a sequential order

Solfa notations are meant to sing notes of music

Next: Lesson – Lesson 3: Keys of the Piano

Lesson 5: Intervals
Lesson 6: Chromatic Scale
Lesson 8: Key Signature
Lesson 13: Chord inversions

Introduction to playing the piano – Lesson 1

 
A piano is a musical instrument that is meant to accompany a singer or a group of singers to bring forth pleasant music. A piano is made up of black and white keys, and a pedal to sustain the sound produced.

introduction to playing the piano

A piano is pretty expensive today; not everybody might be able to afford a piano today, that is why we have an alternative of the electronic piano keyboard that is powered by electricity. They perform the same functions, the electronic piano keyboard has many functions and added advantages. Even with all that the piano is still more expensive. Most of the time only rich men have it in their mansions, you don’t just see them anywhere except in very large congregations. They are big and heavy, that’s why in a particular episode of tom and Jerry, a piano fell on Tom and for the first time in that cartoon’s history Tom died and the story continues. Below is a picture of a Grand Piano.

In your church I’m very sure an electronic piano keyboard is what is used. Different brands of keyboards have different numbers of keys, some have 66, 88 or more; but those numbers do not matter. we are basically concerned with 12 keys on the piano, these 12 keys are repeated on the piano as many times as the producers want them to be. If the 12 keys are repeated 6 times, the keyboard is called a 6 octave keyboard. Below you would find a picture of my electronic keyboard that I used in learning to play. It’s a 5 octave keyboard that my choir master bought for me in Alaba international market. I payed him about 8,000 naira or so for it. It’s quite cheap and of a low quality and it is programmed in a language that I do not know; maybe Chinese or something, Alaba things naw. Lol.

 If it is 9, it would be called a 9 octave keyboard.  I hope that is noted. Lets go over to the next Lesson: Lesson 2: Brief Introduction to music

Lesson 5: Intervals
Lesson 6: Chromatic Scale
Lesson 8: Key Signature
Lesson 13: Chord inversions

Rudiments of chord progression

Are you having problems trying to discover the way chord progressions of songs work? Read this post to the end and I think you will discover a way of putting chord progressions under your feet:.
Lets get started:

rudiments of chord progression

There are two types of progressions:
1. Circle of fourths
2. Circle of fifths

Don’t allow all those vocabulary bore you. Let me explain.

Circle of fourths:

look at the illustration below:

C    D   E   F   G   A   B   C    D   E   F   G
1     2   3    4   5    6    7

starting from C let me begin to get the progression using the circle of fourths:

We have C to be 1, since we are dealing with the circle of fourths the next progression will be F because F is the number 4; after F we have B(i.e counting another 4 starting from F), after B we have E, after E we have A, after A we have D, after D we have G; and so on and so forth…

In conclusion we have: C   F   B   E   A   D   G  and  C
d    f    t     m    l    r     s          d

There a couple of songs that go with the circle of fourths, but how do we apply them in getting to reall play song progressions?

when you are singing a song, some stages into the song, it might go up and it might come down; I mean, the song might become high in some places and it might come down in some parts too; so if the song goes up you would be going higher in your circle of fourths and if it goes lower you would be going lower in your circle of fourths. The same principle applies to your circle of fifths. A video illustration is coming soon for better understanding.

How to play suspended chords to your worship and praise songs on the piano

There are basically two types of suspended; they are:
 sus4 and sus2

The numbers beside the sus in the two types above refer to the numbers in the letters of music. Look at the illustration below:

suspended chords on the piano

C  D  E   F  G  A  B   C
1   2  3   4   5   6   7    8

Now, 4 represents F, while 2 represents D.

So how do the suspended chords work?

The suspended replaces the major third in a chord with either 4 or 2.

Let us take the doh chord on the key of C for example

C  E  G
d   m  s

Now to make this chord a sus2 chord, we would identify the major third in it. The major third is the E note(look at the first illustration above). So the E note will be replaced with the D note to suspend the chord and make it a sus2 chord(remember D is 2 in the illustration above).  so we would have

C  D  G
d   r   s

Likewise to make this same chord a sus3 chord, the major third which is E will be replaced with the fourth which is F(look at the illustration above to understand the third, second and fourths). So we would have

C  F  G
d   f    s

A chord without out a major third like C  G is called an “open fifth”.

So while you are playing suspended chords, it is necessary that you resolve back to a major chord.

A song that has the 1 4 5 1 progression, which is doh fah soh doh, can use suspended chords without having to move too far

doh        fah        soh        doh
d m s     d f s       d r s      d m s
C           Csus4    Csus2     C

Chord Progression/Solfa notation of “How great is our God”


 

 The guitar/piano chord progression solfa for “How great is our God“.

chord progression and solfa notation of songs

 

How great is our God
How great is our God
          Doh               doh
Sing with me
How great is our God
          lah
And all will see
How great, how great is our God
        Fah               soh        doh
Name above all names
Doh                      doh
Worthy of all praise
Lah  
My heart will sing
        fah
How great is our God
         soh                 doh

Chord Progression/Solfa notation of “I call you faithful”


The guitar/piano chord progression solfa for “I call you faithful“.

chord progression of I call you faithful

 

I call you faithful
I call you holy, your name is holy.
Doh          mi             fah           mi    
You are so holy to me.
Fah                      mi        fah   soh   lah  
I call you holy, your name is holy.
Doh          mi             fah           mi 
Holy you are and holy you’ll be.

Taw          lah              reh         doh

Chord Progression/Solfa notation of “Majesty”


The guitar/piano chord progression solfa for “Majesty“.
chord progression of majesty
Majesty
Singin’        Majesty,           Majesty
                    Doh  -ti           lah     fah
Your           grace has found me just as I am
                   Doh                                            ti                     
Empty handed but alive in Your hands
           Lah                                             fah  
We’re singing Majesty, we’re singing Majesty
                        Doh   ti                        lah     fah   
Forever, forever I am changed by Your love
      Doh                                                   soh                                
In the presence of Your Majesty

Chord Progression/Solfa notation of “God Will make a way”


The guitar/piano chord progression solfa for “God Will make a way“.

 

chord progression of God will make a way

 

God Will make a way
God will make a way
Doh                         ti
Where there seems to be no way
Lah                                               doh       
He works in ways we cannot see
Fah                                mi  
He will make a way for me
reh                         lah-soh
He will be my guide
Doh                    ti
Hold me closely to His side
Lah                                    doh
With love and strength for each new day
Fah                                           mi
He will make a way, He will make a way
Reh                 lah   soh                doh.

Chord Progression/Solfa notation of “Alleluyah, worthy is the lamb”


chord progression of Halleujah, worthy is the lamb

 

 The guitar/piano chord progression solfa for “Alleluyah, worthy is the lamb“.

 

Alleluyah, worthy is the lamb
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, For our Lord God Almighty Reign
Doh……………………………………..
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, For our Lord God Almighty Reign
Doh………………………………………
Hallelujah, Holy, Holy
Doh………doh…doh…
Are you Lord God Almighty
              Doh          ze-soh
Worthy is the Lamb
         Reh-mi fah
Worthy is the Lamb
         Reh-mi fah
You are Holy, Holy,
              Doh   doh
Are you Lord God Almighty?
              Doh          ze-soh
Worthy is the Lamb
         Reh-mi fah
Worthy is the Lamb

         Reh-mi fah