keyboard
Key Signatures
Major Triads
Major Triads II
musictheory.net
Scales
The Grand Staff: Part II
Theory Supplement for Beginning Pianists
Overview
This set of theory lessons is designed as a supplement for beginning pianists. It is self-paced, and includes study materials, guided practice, and assessments for each lesson.
Lesson 1: The Grand Staff
This six-part unit of related online lessons can be used to supplement beginning piano lessons at any age, though it is designed with middle school and high school students in mind.
***All of these assignments can be done independently, at the student's own pace. Additionally, the free website resource is available around the clock, is free to use, and works well on a smart phone if the student does not have access to a laptop. That makes it ideal if, say, you find yourself suddenly becoming an online instructor due to a pandemic, and running Zoom or self-recorded lessons is impractical or unavailable as an option.
The course was designed with the Canvas LMS in mind, but as you will see, it will work easily with any LMS, or can be done simply by email. You may make them available one at a time or as a unit, and the website where I constructed these exercises has a simple and free editing option if you would like to change any of the requirements, scoring, or the exercises themselves - which then become a persistent link avaialable for reuse.
Reading music is an integral part of lessons, and the work you do here will make playing the piano that much easier in the long run.
Grand Staff, Part I
- Go to musictheory.net There is a link provided below.
- Review clefs and staffs under Lessons, then go to the Exercises page and remind yourself of the notes of the Grand Staff. When you are ready, go to the link below and do the challenge that is set up for you there.
- Take a screenshot or a photo of the score you get and send it to me. The score you get is not important this time around, just that you did the review and took the challenge.
- I will let you do these assignments whenever it works for you, they only need to get done before the end of classes. If you have time to do multiple ones sooner, that would be fine.
Lesson 2: The Grand Staff, Part II
As before, review and practice as desired, and work towards the required score. When you achieve it, take a picture or make a screenshot and send it to me.
Complete the exercise with a perfect 100% score of at least 50/50
Lesson 3: Key Signatures
Go to Musictheory.net and read about Key Signatures under the Lessons tab.
You may use their mnemonic device for remembering the order of sharps and flats and keys, but I'm going to suggest trying the one I give you here. It's extremely versatile, and a little simpler, I feel. I'll also add a great shortcut at the end.
Basically, memorize this: BEADGCF Bead + Greatest Common Factor
Here's how to use it:
- Read it left to right, and you get the order of the flats as they appear in every key signature: Bb is always first, Eb comes next, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb, and Fb follow. They will never be in any other order...for example, an Eb will never be found without a Bb before it, nor will Ab appear without both Bb and Eb preceding it.
- Read it right to left FCGDAEB and you get the order of the sharps as they appear in the key signature. The same rule applies...a C# only appears with an F# preceding it; if there is a B# in the key signature, there must be all six of the other sharps in front of it. *Special note. The key of C has no sharps or no flats.
- Now, for the real power of BEADGCF, start at C and read to the right, wrapping around, and it gives you the scales that have flats in them in order from zero flats to seven: C=0 F=1 Bb=2 Eb=3 Ab=4 Db=5 Gb=6 Cb =7 You put the flat sign after all but F because of the rule found in number one above...if Bb Major has two flats, one of those flats HAS to be Bb, so it would not make sense to call a scale that has Bb in it just plain "B"
- Lastly, start with C and read BEADGCF from right to left this time; that gives you the order of the scales that have sharps in them, from one to seven. Again, several scales will have a # sign after them, for the same reason that was given in number three above. Thus, C=0 G=1 D=2 A=3 E=4 B=5 F#=6 C#=7
And the super-easy shortcut? It works like this:
If there are sharps, go to the sharp furthest to the right, name it, then go up one half step. This is easiest to see on the piano keyboard. On the piano, a half step is the next nearest key, white or black. And that key is the name of the scale. For example: if the last sharp on the right is D#, the a half-step up is the next key up, E, and that's the name of the scale.
For flats, go to the next to last flat, almost but not quite the furthest one to the right. Name it, and that's the scale. For example, if there are four flats in the key signature, the next to last one will be Ab, and that's the name of the scale it is, Ab. The only exception is the key of F, which has only one flat. You just have to memorize that one.
Ok, that sounds harder than it is going to be. Go to the Exercises tab and then to Key Signature Recognition, and practice. Maybe do only sharp keys for a while, then only flat ones, until you get the hang of it. When you are pretty comfortable, follow the link below to a custom-made exercise. Your goal is to get 19 out of 20 in 3 minutes. As before, take a screenshot, and send it to me here. .
Lesson 4: Scales
This theory exercise will help you learn to recognize and construct all the primary scales, in every key signature. To start with, go to the musictheory.net site.
Work your way through the Lesson on the four primary types of scales, then come back here and I'll summarize. It will be very helpful for this assignment if you have at least a picture of a piano keyboard in front of you; I have included a link to one below if you need it.
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Ok, welcome back! Scales look complicated - especially when they have a lot of accidentals - but like so much of music, its just a little math.
- There are four scales we're dealing with here, the major scale, and three forms of the minor scale. There are three minors because each makes the scale a little more interesting or easier to sing, but the exact reasons aren't important for now.
- Scales are just patterns of whole and half steps. Recall that the piano keyboard consists entirely of half steps; from any key to the one right next to it - whether it is black or white - is a half step. Two half-steps makes one whole step.
- The other thing to remember is that in a scale, every new note changes names. In other words, you will never find two of the same-named note until you reach the end, where the scale starts over again. For example, a scale with an F in it will not have an F# or Fb. If there is an F# in the scale, then it won't have an F or Fb .
- The rest is just recreating the patterns - this is easiest to see on a piano keyboard, so have one handy, or at least a picture of one.
- Major scales have a half step between the 3rd and 4th notes, and also between the 7th and 8th notes. All the rest of the intervals are whole steps. If you look at the keyboard and play only white notes from C to C, counting the first C as "1" the pattern is clear...there is a half step between E-F and again between B-C.
- Minor scales shift the pattern slightly. Here's a chart of where the half steps are in all the scales that should make it easier to see:
Major 3-4 7-8
Natural minor 2-3 5-6
Harmonic minor* 2-3 5-6 7-8
Melodic minor** 2-3 7-8
*In the Harmonic minor, having two half steps so close together like that creates the interval of 1.5 steps between the 6-7. This is the only place that happens.
**In the melodic minor, when you play back down the scale, it reverts to the form of the natural minor. This is just something to know; the assignment doesn't show the scales going back down.
Assignment: Get 10/10 on this challenge page. It's not timed, and you may use the chart and keyboard to help you out.
Lesson 5: Major Triads
If you know scales, it is not hard to figure out major chords. The chords you will be working with are called triads, and they consist of three notes stacked vertically, each note a third away from the one below it.
A nice thing about our system of notation is that triads will always be three consecutive lines, or three consecutive spaces. There may be accidentals involved, and in more advanced lessons the triads will have to be rearranged to make that happen, but don't worry about that for now.
For this introductory exercise, follow these steps:
- Identify the lowest note of the triad (make sure you pay attention to the clef)
- This note determines the major scale you will use.
- You know how to construct a major scale (review the last assignment if you need to) so using a keyboard or a picture of one, play the first five notes of that scale and see if the triad in the exercise matches the first, third and fifth note you played.
- If it does, it's a major triad. If it doesn't, it's a minor one. (Well, that's not necessarily true, but we'll talk about the other possibilities in later exercises; for now, that's the only option the exercise will give you.)
For this assignment, go to the link below, and take the challenge. Your goal is to get 18/20. There is no time limit. Take a screenshot or photo of your results and send it to me.
Lesson 6: Major Triads II
This is additional practice for recognizing major triads. The ranges are wider, and the number of accidentals is increased.
As before, follow the link below, get 18/20 or better on the exercise, and send me a screenshot of your results.