Keyboard Master. Word

7/29/2019 Keyboard Master. Word

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Contentspage

Parts one to ten

1)Introduction

2) How to find chords and scalesusingsimpleformulas.

3) Why playchords when one fingerwill do?

4) How to work out the keys.

5)Now f o rthe scales.

6) Finding chords from scales.

7) Chord chart with formulas.

8) Augmentedand diminishedchords.

9) Keysand scaleschart

10) Formulasmentioned.


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How to learn chords, scales and keys in hours not months.

For keyboard and chord-piano players.

Introduction.

If you are a beginningkeyboard playeryou will probablybe a littleworriedas to

how you are going to be able to remember masses of chords, scalesand keys

withouthavingto constantlyreferto charts and diagrams. Well, I haveput

together the information in this instructionbooklet to make your life much easier.

You will learn in minuteswhat it takes somepeoplemonths to learn.Dontdoubt

thisbecause it reallyworks and it is so simple.Once you understand the formulas

youllbe able toplaymost chords you will ever need, learnhow to play the scale in

every key and be able to instantlyrecognizewhich key any piece of music is in.And

whatsmore, you will no longerbe frightened of sharps and flats.

If you are taking up a new challenge then you are a layman. Therefore, ifyou

are like me, you would like to learn it in the leasttechnicalway possible. This is

what I have triedto do w i t h this instructionbookon learningtoplaya keyboard in

the shortestpossibletime. I will assume nothing,except your desiretoplaythe

keyboard to the best of yourability. These instructionsare not meant for those of

you who want to become an accomplishedpianist.They are designedprimarily for

players of keyboards withbuilt in chord accompaniment.However, they shouldbe

ofbenefitand interesttopianists.

Is ithard to learntoplaya keyboard? Well,that depends on you. It has been

saidthat everything is hard before itbecomes easy. Manykeyboard players take it

up bec aus e they struggle to get to gripswithplaying thepiano to a good standard

- I know that I certainlydid, but t h e y still have a desire to produce good music

for theirown pleasure of for others.


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If this is the c a s e with you t h e n there is only one thingyou have to do -

Practice!This, of course, is once you kn o w the necessary techniques,and they are

easy to learn.

This manual is for those who want to playfrom Chord music. Also known as Fa k e

music or Leadsheets. This means that you only get the Treble clef with all the

necessary chords shown above the staff. Base clef isomitted in most cases.

The great thingabout modern keyboards is that they produce a reallygood

accompaniment to your melody,and thiscan be done by us ing only one fingerto

play the chords. However, it is better to learnhow to play full chords - Illexplain

why later. Theseare easy to learn by usingsimplemathematicalformulas.Dont let

that put you off. The o n l y maths you will need is the ability to count up to seven.

Youllsee what I mean lateron in thisbook. There are hundreds of chords which

would take you ages to learn by heart so thissystem will teach you all the chords

you need within a couple of days- really!

Thereare severalthings you w i l l need to know before you can hope to become

a good keyboard player:

1) Be able to name all the notes on a keyboard.

2) Be able to read the melody line from a piece of sheet music.

3) Be able to understand what that other stuff is written on the musicsheet.

4) Be prepared to practice.

If you cannot read the melody line on a leadsheet go to your local libraryand

borrow a bookon music theory. Music theorywill not be taught in thisbook - well,

maybe a little.Theory is important.The more you u n d e r s t a n d the theory of music

the easier it will become for you to put everythingtogether and become a more

accomplishedplayer.Afterall, you w o u l d n t expect to becomea pilot without

learning the theory of flight.


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G

F

B

A

E

Thereare thousands, if not m i l l i o ns , of articles on th e internetdealingwithmusical

theory. Why not d o a search and you may be v e r y surprisedat some of the useful

Information you come across. So l e ts get on with it.

A BC

F

CD

G

DE

ABC

Above is the treble clef showing all the notes from A to C. Most pop songs, played on a keyboard using

the built in accompaniment, will normally be in the above range. If you have problems figuring out the two

lines below and above the staff including the space - just remember they are A, B, C, below and above.

Middle C refers to the middle note between the treble and bass clef, not the middle of the keyboard. The

A at the bottom is the top line of the Bass Clef.

*Above are the notes referred to in the treble clef picture as played on a keyboard .*

As you can see above there are only seven actual notes in musicA,B,C,D,E,F, and G.They are repeated over and over all the way down the keyboard. All the black notes are sharps or flats.

Middle C

View my Youtube video on how to learn the treble clef. Search for: maurellis


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Here is how it works:

Before we begin with chord structures lets look at a few simple facts about music.

Firstly, there are only three types of note playable in any piece of music. They are a Natural, a Sharp

and a Flat. Every note we play has to be one of these threeno matter what instrument we use.

You will know which is which by looking at the beginning of the music sheet.

With the above you can see that there are 3 sharps. F, C and G. This tells us the music is written in

the key of A. (More about keys later).

The above has 2 flatsB and E. Which tells us it is in the key of B flat.

The piece of music on the next page has no sharps or flats so it is in the key of C.

But, as in all things, there are exceptions to these rules. I will explain.

Have a look at the next image.


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You may be playing in the key of C when you suddenly notice a flat or sharp sign in front of a

note.

These are called accidentals. The composer has decided that particular not sounds better when

raised or lowered a semitone. Which means it would have to be played on a black noteon the

keyboard. You play that note and any other of the same kind within that bar only, and then revert to

normal. The third note above has a Natural sign in front of it. This means you do not flatten or

sharpen it no matter what key you are playing in.

Above is an example of something else you will come acrossbut rarely in Pop music. The first

note, C, has an accidental sharp sign in front of it but the second note has something entirely different.

This sign means you have to play the note as a Double sharp, or flat. So, instead of playing C sharp,

we raise the note one more semitone taking us to D natural. Sometimes there will be 2 sharps (##) or

flats (bb)

In front of the note instead of the above symbol which means exactly the same.

I could go on with theory but this book is about learning chord formulas. Go visit your library and get

yourself a book on basic, music theory.


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Tip!

If you are a beginnerat playing the ke yboa rd you would be betteroffpracticing with

familiar songs. Choose songs you know really well, such as Silent night, Love me

tender etc. This way you wont struggle too much with the melody and youll beable to concentrate more on the chords.

How to find chords and scales using simple formulas.

The only musicalknowledge you need is the ability to read the melody line and

how to find the notes on a keyboard. If you can do t h a t playingkeyboard is easy.

Did you know that a keyboard can be pl a yed usingmathematical formulas? Well, it

canbut some people find it difficult to get t o grips with maths. However, with this

system you only need to be able to count up to seven. Now,there are very simple

formulasto help us f i nd a l l the i m p o r t a n t chords, keys and scales.

Here are the formulas. Explanation follows.

2212221:Diatonic Scales.

2122122:Minor sc a le s .

4 + 3: Dominant chords. = Triad (3-note chord)

4 + 3 + 4: Major7th

chords.

4 + 3 + 3: 7th. Chords (4-note chord).

4 + 6: 7th. Chords (3-note chord).*

*This is easiertoplaybut I recommend you go f o r the full,4-note 7thchord, Using inversions.

3+4+3. Minor 7th Chords. (4 note chord).

3+3: Diminishedchord.

4+4: Augmentedchords.

2 + 5: Suspended 2nd chord.

4 + 5: Suspended 4th

chord.


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3 + 4. Minor ch o r ds . Triad (3-note chord).

And thatsall there is to it.Who needs chord charts? Just learn the formulas

aboveand you will be able to find all the scales and all the most widely used

chords on a keyboard. And the great thingabout thissystem is that you don't

actually

have to remember loads of scalesand chords because, withthese formulas,

you alreadyknow them all!

Now for the breakdown:

Finding the scales.

Let'sstart where everybody starts from - Middle C.

Every note which we start with, for our formula, is always the 'Rootnote and is

zero-rated. In other words it is never counted. See below:

C: Diatonic scale.C is zero rated because it is the root note.

C D E F G A B C

0 2 2 1 2 2 2 1

If you start at C and count every note from there - including the blacknotes -

usingthe above formula, you will play the C scale.C is the root note, now count 2

and we hit the D. Now c o u n t 2 againand we hit the E,now count 1 and we hit F,

and so on. No matter which note you start on - as the root note - you will always

end up playing the correct scale. Try it out for yourselfrightnow. Easy, isn't it?In

about two minutesyou have learnedhow to playevery scale you will need.


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Look at the scale of Bb below:

Bb C D Eb F G A Bb The Bb scaleusing the formulaunderneath it.

0 2 2 1 2 2 2 1It works every timeand takes a minute or so to remember.

Try finding any scalepicking any note to start with.

Minor scales:Use the above rules and the following formula to find all the

minorscales:02122122.

Now for the best part!

How to play all the most importantchords withouthavingto remember how

to play them all. And remember, count all the notes including the blackonesbut

not the Root note.

Majorchords

Majorchords are alwayswritten like this:C, D, Bb, and E.They are not writtenas

Cmajoretc.

Let'sstart withC again: Formula:4 + 3

The name of the chord is always the Rootnote.

Alwayscount up the keyboard to the right/highernotes and not down.

C is the root note. Count 4 which takes us to the E, then count 3 which takes us to

the G. So C + E + G is the C chord.

Now t r y Eb.

Eb is the Root note. Count 4 which takes us to the G. Now 3 which takes us to the

Bb.

So - Eb + G + Bb - is the Eb chord. And there you have it.


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7thChords.

Formula:4 + 3 + 3. (4-note 7th. chord). (Majorchord formula+ 3).

C7:Root note C + 4 is E + 3 is G + 3 is Bb. (C + E + + G + Bb) 4-note chord.

D7:Root note D + 4 = F#+ 3 is A + 3 is C (D + F#+ A + C)

So, withthe Majorand Minor chords just add 3 to the count to get a 7th Chord.

Usually writtenC7 and Cmin7

There is another 7th. Chord you will often come across. It is the Major7th.

E.G. CM7 CMaj7

This is a normalchord but you need to add 4 instead of 3 to get a Majorseventh.

E.G. C7 = C + E + G + Bb. C Major7= C + E + G + B. And the same appliesto

all MajorSeventh chords.4 + 3 + 4

Minorchords. F#min

Formula:3 + 4.

Let'sstart withF#minor.

F# is Home note: Plus 3 is A + 4 is C#.(F#+ A + C#)

Ab minor. Ab is the Root note. Plus 3 is B + 4 is Eb. (Ab + B + Eb)

N.B:Majorand minorchords are usuallyalwaystriads- 3-note chords. Seventh

chords shouldalways be 4-note chords to give them depth.

To change a dominantchord intoa minorjust lowerthe second note - within the

formula- one halfstep. (Semitone).

C = C + E + G. The second note is E so lower ita halfstep to Eb.


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To get a Diminished or Augmented7th

. Just add 3, o radd 4 to get Major7th.

C minor= C+Eb+F.

G = G + B + D. The second note is B so one halfstep back takes it to Bb.

G minor= G+Bb+D.

Minor 7th.

Formula:3+4+3. (Minorformula+ 3).

D minor7th. Dmin7

D is the root note: Plus 3 is F + 4 is A +3 is C. (D + F + A +C).(The inversionof

CDFA may be easierfor you to playasbelow).

Mostsongs can be playedusingonly the major, minorand seventh chords.

There is alsoa minorMajor7.Cmin/Maj7

Use the same rules as before. Minor chord formula:3 + 4. Now add 4 and you get a

minor/Major7th.

DiminishedChords. (o = dim).

Formula:3+3. Usually written G o, or Gdim

Gdim:G is the Root note + 3 = Bb + Db. (G + Bb + Db).

Augmentedchords. (aug) (Usually written+, oraug)

Formula:4 + 4.

B+:(aug)

B is the Root note + 4 = Eb + 4 = G. (B + Eb + G).


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To find a 6th chord such as Cmaj6 just add two semitones/steps instead of 3 as with a 7 th chord.

Suspended or Sustained chords.

A suspended (Sus), sometimescalleda Sustained, is a chord in which the third is

replaced by eithera perfect fourth or a major second, but the fourth is far more

common. This type of chord is more common in country music but still worth

knowingabout.

Sus2: 1st, 2nd and 5th notes of the scale.

Sus4: 1st, 4 th and 5th notes of the scale

Csus2 would be C + D + G.

Formula:Root + 2 + 5.

Csus4 wouldbe C + F + G.

Formula:Root + 5 + 2

Simply remember to play the first,second and fifth note within any scale to find a

Sus2, and the first, fourth and fifth note to find a Sus4.

Now yo u have formulas forjust about every chord you will need toplay on your

keyboard. There are other chords such as 9th, 13th etc, but you will rarelyneed

them whenplayingpopularmusic.However, witha littleexperimentation,you can

figure those out for yourself.

6TH Chords:


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Thereare, of course, inversions to all the chords which you can easilyworkout for

yourself. Any combinations of each chord will workon a keyboard. You simply

choose the one which works best for you, or is easierfor you to play.Sometimes

you will not be able toplayaparticular inversionas itmight gobeyond the 'Split'

point on your keyboard. For example, I cannot playBb7 on my keyboard in the first

mode as itgoes past my splitpointwhich is the Fbelow Middle C. So I playthe

inversion:F, Ab, Bb, D. The SplitPoint is the note which separates the melody

area from the chord area.

We are discussing here only the most widely used chords. The more

experiencedyou become withyourplaying the lessyou'llneed the formulas. But

heh! If these formulashelpyou remember your chords use them all the time.

Have you noticedthat the Major,Minor,7th, augmented and Diminishedchords

all have a formulacontainingcombinations of only two numbers? 3 and 4.

There is a print-out of all the formulas for you to use at the end of thisbooklet,and

there is also a Chord chart. Always includethe root note otherwise you will get the

wrong chord.

Why play full chords when one finger will do the same job?

This is a question that manypeople ask. With the likes of Casio and Yamahayou

can simplyplaya chordby using one fingerbut thiscan sometimesproduce

problems. With these keyboards you will get instructions on how to playa seventh

chord with two fingers.However, not all keyboards use the same method. So, if

you suddenlyhave to playa differentkeyboard you may be stumped.

Like most keyboardplayers there is alwaysa desiretoplaypiano. Now, you simply

cannot playchordpiano by u s i n g only singlenotes. It would not sound good at all.


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You will alwaysneed at least two, three or four notes in the accompaniment to make

your playingsound acceptable.Also,you cannot playarpeggios unless you know

chords. An Arpeggio is simplyplayingeach note of the chord one afterthe other.

Anothergood reason for not relying on one-fingerchords is that you cannot play

a minor,7th, diminished,augmented or major 7th

chord withjust one finger.

Built-in accompaniment is very cleverbut itcannot read yourmind. The keyboard

will alwaysseek out the correct chord relative to yourfingering. For example; if you

placeyourfingers on E + G + C it will play the C chord.

If you placeyourfingers on G + C + E it will still play the C chord. And the

same applies if you place yourfingers on just the G + C. However, if you place your

fingers on just the C + A it will play an A minor chord. To play any chord other than

a major you will have to use at least two notes.

To playa C minoryou will have to placeyourfingers on C + Eb. To playa C7

you will have to placeyourfingers on C + Bb. To playany 7th or Major7

thchord

alwaysplay the root and lastnote of that chord. To find any Minor alwaysuse the

firstand second note of that chord

. Unfortunately the above rules do not applyto Augmented or Diminishedchords.

If you playedC + Eb you will get a C minorchord as these two notes are the first

two of the C minorchord and also the firsttwo notes of the C augmented. You will

have to use three notes toplay the diminishedand augmented chords. So, maybe

you now understand why playingchords withjust one fingeris not such a good

idea.Actually, you will probably find itmuch easiertoplay full chords, once you get

used to them, as itcan be easierto move from one chord to the other rather than

trying to get one fingerto fall onto the rightnote each timewhen you change from

chord to chord.


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How to work out which key the music is in.

Do you lookat apiece of musicand, when you see a few sharps or flats,have a

problemwithrememberingwhich key it is in? Well, there is a very easy way to

figure itout. Have a look at the sketchbelow.What key is it in?

Okay. This is how you figureout the key:

The firstsketch shows fourflats. Lookat the flatfurthestto the right. It is D flat.

Now, on your keyboard, count back from D flat five steps/semitones.Count all the

blackand whitekeys. You should be on Ab. And that is the key. It doesntmatter

how many flats there are itworks every time.Alwayscount back five steps from

the flatfurthestto the right on yourpiece of music.Method2: This is the easiest

way: find the flat furthestto the right, goback one flat and that is the key. One flat,

Bb, is in the key of F. Lookat thesketch below with six sharps.

The sharp furthestto the right is E sharp. This formula is easier.Count forward

only one step/semitonefrom the sharp furthestto the right, in thiscase E sharp,

and that will be the key. E sharp plusone step takes you to F sharp which is the

key. The same formulaapplies to any key withsharps in it.Just count one step

forward from the lastsharp to the right.

There is a chart at the end of thisbookshowing all the keys.


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Now for the scales.

Arescales important?Yesthey are. Until you know yourscales you will never

become an accomplishedmusician,and you will limit your own progress and

enjoyment. About98% of songs will use only the notes relative to the key it is

written in. So ifyou know the scale of aparticularpiece of music you will alsoknow

which notes you will beplaying in that song. Before attempting toplaya song, which

you are not familiarwith, it is a good ideatopractice the scalefirst. By doingso

you are actuallyplaying the notes to that song, but not necessarily in the right

order. Practicingscales will giveyourfingersdexterity and speed up your ability to

find the rightnotes in a song. Here is another good reason to know yourscales:If

you know the scale/key of aparticularsong you can find which chords to playusing

a simple formula.

Finding chords from scales.

You may come across a piece of musicwhich does not show which chords to

playpianomusic is normally like this, b ut youd like to play it on yourkeyboard.

So, how do you figure out which chords to play?Quitesimple,really. Thereare

three dominant chords in each scalebased on the 1st. 4th. and 5th. notes in that

scale. If you playedonly the three main chords in each song youllplayto an

acceptable level,but yourplayingwould sound a lotbetterif you alsoplayedminor

and seventh chords. Also, you shouldexperiment by inverting the chords to see if

you get a morepleasurablesound;althoughthisdoesntapplywhen playingbuilt-in

accompaniment. Majorchords alwayssound better when inverted and not in the

rootposition.Inversionsare simplyplaying the notes of the chord in a different

order. E.G:Bb7 = Bb + D + F + Ab. So you can invert itto F + Ab + Bb + D. Also,

this is easiertoplay.This, of course, reallyonly applieswhen you are playingpiano


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style.When counting the notes in a scale, for the 1st.4th.and 5th notes, the root

note is counted as 1. So, in the scale of C,the firstchord (Note 1) would be C

major, the second chord (Note 4) wouldbe F major and the thirdchord (Note 5)

wouldbe G major. As a beginnerI used to work out the Key (scale) I wouldbe

playing in (2212221) write itat the top of the page, and then I would write the

Formulaalongside it.

So the top of mypage would look like this:

Key = G. (G A B C D E F# G). Formula4 + 3. Main chords = G, B and C. If I missed

a chord I would simplyplayone of the three mainchords for that scaleand usually

got away with it,but not always.NB.You shouldalways try to playa chord which

has the melody note in it. But you do need to know yourscalesbefore you can

workthisout.

Practiceat leastone scaleeach time you sitat your keyboard. Firstwithyour

righthand, and then withyourleft. Try running up and down the keyboard. This is

a good warm-up exercise for your hands. This will alsospeed up your ability to

find the rightnotes when you are sight reading.


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Chordchart with formulas.

Major

Root note + 4 + 3

7th.

Root note + 4 + 3 + 3

Minor.

Root note +3 + 4

Major7th.

Root note + 4 + 3 + 4

Minor 7th.

Root note

+ 3 + 4 + 3

C

D

E

F

G

A

B

Ab

Bb

Eb

C#

F#

Theseare the most widely used chords. Some have been inverted for ease ofplaying.

The next chart contains the most widely used Augmentedand Diminished chords.


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Augmentedand diminished chords.

Augmented= Aug or +

Root note + 4 + 4Diminished = Dim or o

Root note + 3 + 3

Add three to the

count to make a 7th.

to Dim orAug

chord.

Some of the chords

have been inverted

for ease of playing.

C

D

E

F

G

A

B

Ab

Bb

Eb

C#

F#

Try inverting some of the chords.


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Keysand scales.

C D

E F

G A

B Cb

C# Db

Eb F#

Gb Ab

Bb

To find the Key when you see 'sharps'/# count one step/semitone up from the last sharp on the right.

To find the Key when you see 'flats'/b count back five steps/semitones to the left from the last flat on

the right. Alternatively, apart from one flatBbwhich is in the key of F, look at the flat immediately tothe left of the last flat to the right and that is the key. Practice at least one scale every day.


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Here are all the formulas mentioned.

Chords.

Major:Root note + 4 + 3

Minor:Root note + 3 + 4

Seventh:+ 3 to the two formulasabove.

Major7th: Root note +4 + 3 + 4

Minor 7th: Root note + 3 +4 + 3

Minor/Major7th

: Root note + 3 + 4 + 4

Augmented:Root note + 4 + 4*

Diminished:Root note + 3 + 3*

*Add + 3 for 7th

to the two formulasabove.

Suspended chords:Sus2 = Root + 2 + 5. Sus4 = Root + 5 + 2.

Scales formula.

Majorscale:Root note plus2212221

Minor scale:Root note plus2122122

Finding the key.

Keyswith sharps: Find the s h a r p furthest to the right and go up one step/semitone.

Keyswith flats:Find the f l a t furthest to the rightand gobackfive steps/semitones.

Alternatively, the flat immediatelyto the left of the last flat on the right is the k e y .


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Rememberthis!

Dontbe worriedabout sharps and flats.Mostsongs use only the notes to the

key/scale the song is written in.When you come across a song you haventplayed

before alwayswork out the key, and practice the scale of that key severaltimes

before you play the song.

Try to practiceat leastone scaleevery day for a couple of minutes.Youllbe

surprisedhow many timesyou can playa scale in two minutes.In the end youllbe

pleased you did.

Anothertip!With a song you are not familiarwith,study itbefore attemptingto

play.Find the key, practice the scaleandplayeach of the chords writtento

familiarizeyourselfwiththe song. So that, when youplay the song, it will be like

you alreadyknow it.

Well,thatsabout it. You now have enough informationto be able toprogress

rapidly on your keyboard. I hope you found all the formulasuseful.Good luck with

yourplayingand dontforget, keeppracticing.

Everything is hard before itbecomes easy.

Copyright2008: MauriceS. Ellis

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Keyboard Master. Word