Minor Chord

In music theory, a minor chord is a chord having a root, a minor third, and a perfect fifth. When a chord has these three notes alone, it is called a minor triad. Some minor triads with additional notes, such as the minor seventh chord, may also be called minor chords.

A minor triad can also be described as a minor third interval with a major third interval on top or as a root note, a note 3 semitones higher than the root, and a note 7 semitones higher than the root. Hence it can be represented by the integer notation {0, 3, 7}.

A major chord differs from a minor chord in having a major third above the root instead of a minor third. It can also be described as a major third with a minor third on top, in contrast to a minor chord, which has a minor third with a major third on top.

Play The Piano by Ear...?

Playing by ear is the ability to play a piece of music (or, eventually, learn an instrument) by simply listening to it repeatedly. The majority of self-taught musicians began their education this way; they picked up their instrument and began playing an easy melody from a well-known song, slowly picking out the notes as they went along. And even after these musicians master their instruments or a particular song, playing by ear still plays a large role.

Many pop and rock bands don't play or write their songs based on sheet music, they figure the songs out by playing by ear. It's even common among non-musicians. Ever sit down a piano and mindlessly pick out the tune to "Mary Had a Little Lamb"? What about grabbing a guitar and suddenly finding yourself playing the opening licks to "Smoke on the Water"? That's playing by ear. You're able to play part of the song just because you've heard it so often. 

Playing by ear is a valuable technique for many musicians; learning songs based solely on hearing them is a great way to understand song and chord structure. In fact, a great number of rock and pop musicians learned to play their instruments this way. Instead of picking up a book or taking lessons, they concentrated on figuring out the notes and rhythms to a song until it was mastered. Then they moved on to another song. And another. Gradually, they learned their instrument just by playing by ear -- and in the process learned how to effectively structure a song in that particular genre. 

Playing by ear is also beneficial in helping a musician develop his or her own style; sure, they'll at first mimic the style of the song they're imitating, but the amalgamation of the music that they're playing by ear will help them create something distinctive, something indicative of them only.

What is Arpeggios?

An arpeggio is one of those terms in music that sounds very impressive. If you go to your friends and tell them that you played arpeggios in your piano lesson today, they are sure to be impressed. It sounds like something complicated and difficult and our first word of advice is to let you friends think that. You’ll impress a lot of people!

Now for the secret. We music types know that an arpeggio is not a difficult concept at all. In fact, the name contains the definition. Arpeggio is an Italian word meaning broken chord. Simply speaking, when we play an arpeggio, we split a chord in to its component notes and play them individually.Let’s look at an example.

Let’s say that we play a C Major chord. You probably remember from our chord article that a simple three note C Major chord is the 1st, 3rd, and 5th scale degree of a C Major scale. In this case, a C Major scale has the notes C-E-G and they are all played at the same time. When we play an arpeggio we simply play each of these notes separately. Maybe we play 1-3-5 up and down in quarter notes. In this case, we would play 1-3-5-3-1 broken up like we would play a melody.

7 Rules of Piano Fingering

Piano fingering is one of the most crucial aspects of learning the instrument, yet it is among the most overlooked. Here are seven of the most important rules for fingering, prefaced by an instruction to...

Rule #0: Finger it out for yourself!

Though hands have more in common than not, no two hands are exactly alike. What's comfortable for one person may be unplayable for the next, as in the case of large stretches unreachable by small hands

More importantly, our fingering determines our sound. Using different fingers changes dynamics and articulation in subtle and sometimes dramatic ways.

It's therefore essential to devise your own piano fingerings rather than rely exclusively on the editor's. (The exception is usually the composer's own fingering, though these are generally rare and, in the case of early 19th-century music and earlier, may apply to period instruments such as the fortepiano, harpsichord, or sometimes even the clavichord, more so than to the modern piano.) This is why I recommend many unfingered sheet music editions.

That said, it is important to play by the rules. Good piano fingering is based on the natural shape of the hand. Generally, what is most natural is most comfortable, and what is most comfortable sounds the best.

The Chromatic Scale

This scale divides the octave into twelve semi tones.Therefore the distance between each note of the scale and its neighbor would be half a step. Usually each scale could be transposed to all different keys, but since the scale contains only half steps it doesn't really matter where you start playing the scale. It all sounds the same. In other words there's only one chromatic scale.

The scale is often used in music to express drama. Moving from one semitone to other creates a dramatic effect. The leading tone is just a half tone under the tonic. It is named so since the semitone movement is very dominant. Now imagine a whole scale moving only in half steps.

The "flight of the Bumblebee", a famous orchestral interlude written by Nikoli Rimski-Korsakov is a wonderful piece which demonstrated the power of the chromatic movement.

Practice with Metronome

A metronome is a highly useful device that helps people to practice and play music. A metronome provides a strict pulsing beat that can help you control your music tempo (timing) and improve your musical rhythm. When you practice the piano, using a metronome can help you to learn your piece faster. It also provides a basic rhythmic guideline so that you can quickly learn to play your music smoothly and correctly.

Piano Scales

Piano scales are great if you know how to use them, you need to know what fingering to use, the best way to practice them, and how much time to put in to them. Below are a whole heap of scales to keep you going with different ways of practicing them, the fingering, and how you go about implementing them into your playing, but first a little bit more about piano scales.
Scales are best used to get comfortable with a new or unfamiliar key signature, if you’re reading music and you’re hitting wrong notes all over the place it can be a good idea to go back to playing the scale of that key signature a few times, so that you can reconfigure your brain to that key signature, then when you go back to reading the music you’ll be hitting more of the right notes simply because your fingers will be used to hitting them.

What is Chord?

Chord is same with cord or accord. It has the same meaning. It means accompaniment. Chord consist of 3 tones so the sounds more "wide". Generally we play chord with left hand and right hand for the melody.

Basically there are 2 ways to play a chord. The first is "Block chord". We play all the notes simultaneously.

The second is "Broken Chord". We play the chord separately, one by one. But we can develop ways to play chord with other styles such as pop, jazz, blues, and any more.

Basic Techniques of Playing Piano

There are 5 basic techniques in playing piano :

1. FINGERING (hand and finger forms, relaxation of arms & shoulders) Exercises for this fingering, intended to make, we as musicians, especially piano or keyboard player, finger and hand position when playing we are in the correct position.  Also to shape our fingers over the keys when playing piano or keyboard is in perfect position. Finger exercises include Ladder Tone and Cadence.
2. TOUCHING (touch of the pad, Legato, staccato, phrasing, dynamics and expression) Exercises for Touching is intended to make, we as musicians We understand our interpretation in playing music. Not play music, but music that should come out from our hearts. We know where we should be able to play loud or soft. Playing with no pressure or disconnected or broken and / or with the appropriate accent. There are dynamics, feeling and expression, especially piano or keyboard player.
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How to read Musical Notes

A lot of people say that read musical notes or piano sheets is hard and complicated. But in fact, read musical notes is very easy. If you have know how to read it, you will be accustomed to read it.

Each tone is represented with letters.