There is a world of piano styles out there to discover. Jazz piano is a great style of piano that is a lot of fun to play. There are many fundamental differences between jazz piano and classical piano styles. Below I summarize some of these differences in the rhythmic styles.
Swing: swing rhythms are quite popular in jazz music. In swing rhythms, a series of eighth notes is played with the first eighth note having a slightly longer time value. The second note has a slightly shorter duration.
Syncopation: Jazz rhythms use a lot of syncopation. Syncopation occurs when one accents a ‘normally’ weak beat. Another word for this style could be ‘off-beat’.
Polyphony: In the post, “Musical Texture”, I discuss different types of musical texture including polyphony. Polyphony (also called counterpoint) occurs when more than one melody exists at the same time in a piece of music. This is very common in jazz music, often with several instruments improvising around different melodies.
Well, that’s just a taste of jazz! We’ll have to discuss it more later – it’s a really wonderful style of music!
I grew up with a fluorescent green book full of a wonderful world of finger exercises by a man called Charles-Louis Hanon. This book had several redeeming qualities: It glowed in the dark, and it entertained me for hours and hours upon end. OK, so maybe it wasn’t so entertaining… and it didn’t actually glow in the dark. But little did I know, as I was hammering away at my Hanon exercises, a raging debate was taking place about whether these exercises were helpful, or … dun dun duuuuuun….. harmful! to your technique.
There are several arguments for Hanon:
Hanon-the-Good
Hanon develops finger strength and dexterity. I can’t argue with this one. Hanon is equivalent to running on the treadmill: It takes you nowhere, but you can certainly feel the burn!
Hanon develops finger independence. I think this could be true, except for that in my experience most Hanon exercises are the same in the right and left hand. But don’t take my word for it – I haven’t used Hanon in quite some time.
You can let out your anger with Hanon. It certainly is satisfying to bang out a quick Hanon (pardon the ahem, innuendo). You can play it loud, you can play it ugly
You can annoy your neighbors with Hanon. Yeah. I find these exercises very annoying. This might belong under the Hanon-the-Bad category. But sometimes it can be useful to annoy your neighbors.
You can train your fingers to find intervals with Hanon. In my opinion, this is one of the major strengths of playing Hanon. It’s all about learning where the notes are and training your fingers where to find them.
Hanon-the-bad
Hanon gives you wrist problems? Some say that the repetitive nature of Hanon exercises can give you wrist problems? I’m not saying it’s not true. I’m just skeptical.
Hanon does not increase musicality. Hanon is repetitive. Hanon is boring. So by extension, Hanon cannot be musically engaging and increase your musical ability. Again, I tend to disagree (not about the repetitive and boring part), because I think that an increase in control can help your musical expression. Hanon does help with control if played correctly. Hanon exercises are not intended to stimulate your creativity.
Hanon exercises were developed like a million years ago… how could it be applicable today? Argue this one yourself. Or don’t.
OK, that’s it. So it’s pretty obvious that I’m biased. Hanon is boring, Hanon is repetitive, but in my opinion it IS useful for strength and dexterity if practiced correctly. My verdict: Hanon is OK!
Check out the new book. Its not bright green, and it doesn’t glow in the dark, but its still Hanon.
So I’m playing the piano for a wedding in May, so today I dusted off the old “Canon in D” by Pachelbel. While I do love that song, I can summarize it for you in 8 letters. D, A, Bm, F#m, G, D, G, A. Yes, that’s all. Just play these notes over and over again, and you’ve got Canon in D.
Of course, I exaggerate. But if you haven’t seen this guy, you should:
Now that we know all about key signatures, we really need to know more about playing music with a key signature. Remember that a key signature consists of 1 or more sharps or flats. This group of sharps or flats is located at the beginning of the music. And what does this group mean? Well, it means the notes located in the key signature are ALWAYS played sharp or ALWAYS played flat. Or are they….. *insert eerie music here *….
Well, in fact, you can change the note back to it’s original or NATURAL state IN the music. How, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you! With a NATURAL sign. Nice and intuitive, right? In case you haven’t guessed already, a natural sign looks like the symbol on the left. OK, so how does this work? Lets say you have a key signature that contains an F# and a C# (Like the music below). In the music below, in the second measure the first C is marked as a natural. These means it should not be played sharp, but in it’s natural state: on the white key. In FACT, and this is an interesting and important tidbit to know, when a note is marked natural, it remains natural for the rest of the measure! So, in the piece of music below, BOTH of the C’s in the second measure should be played natural. Similarly, in the 3rd measure. In the 4th measure, the first C should be played sharp, and the second C should be played natural.
OK folks, well thats how naturals work with a key signature. Check out the worksheets section for downloads of practice sheets.
Key signatures are a very important topic, but difficult for some to grasp. The key signature tells you what notes (sharps or flats) will be played consistently during the piece of music. The key signature is denoted by a group of sharps or a group of flats positioned after the clefs and before the time signature. Key signatures will never mix sharps or flats. Whats more, the sharps or flats in a key signature are always presented in the same order! That is, the first sharp is always F#, the second sharp is always C#.. and on and on. Never will you have a key signature with only a C#. F# ALWAYS has to precede it. These are the rules – take ‘em or leave ‘em. But if you leave them, you would be wrong. Actually, not wrong – just not conforming to the standards of Western music.
So how do you remember the order of sharps and flats in a key signature? Well, like we always do – with a little saying! The saying to remember the order of sharps is: Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle. Isn’t it nice? Well, the saying to remember flats is a little morbid, even though it is the same words but backwards: BattleEndsAndDown GoesCharles’ Father . So when you write a flat key signature, B flat always come first, followed by E, A, and so on.
These are the basics of key signatures. Remember: the key signature is there to tell you to play certain sharps and flats every time you see the note in the piece of music. So if your key signature has an F# in it, every time you see an F in the piece of music, you should imagine that there is a sharp sign in front of it, and play it sharp.
I’ll be posting a key signature worksheet in the next little while. So check the worksheets section for some practice!
Teaching piano to children has its own set of challenges and rewards. In a previous post I talked about how to know whether your child is ready to play the piano. The next thing you need to know is the types of challenges that you will face… such as… how do you make practice fun? how do you know that your child is learning? how do you ensure that your child gets the most out of their music lesson?
Children generally have shorter attention spans than adults, so it is important to break up the lesson into fun, manageable activities. For children ages 4-6 I would recommend a lesson from 15 minutes up to 1/2 hour long – depending on the attention span of the child. Each child is different.
So how do you make practice fun? Well, take a lesson from modern early childhood education. I love talking with my teacher friends and finding out all about the fun activities that they plan for their classrooms. Have a repetoire of activities that you can practice with your child. This can include flash cards, note recognition games, clap-back games, and more! Fire up your creative juices! (Or take a page from my book and take advantage of google.)
Apparently I have a short attention span too. We’ll continue this thread later – until next time!
Sometimes I wish I could achieve things by thinking about them really really hard. I’ve tried, and it doesn’t work. No matter what the books tell you. It often takes hard work and dedication to achieve things that are important to you. Whether that be playing the piano, running a marathon, or losing those last 10 pounds. Nothing is easy. There are a lot of factors that will contribute to your ultimate success or failure. The biggest one? Motivation! Oh, it is such a fickle thing – here one day and gone the next. I haven’t yet mastered the art of keeping motivation. If I did, I would probably be at the gym right now, and I would post on this blog a hell of a lot more. I might also be a virtuoso pianist, entrepreneur, marathoner, and accomplished artist. But back to real life. Motivation. Yes.
Well, since motivation will have a huge impact on how often you practice the piano, and how dedicated you are to your lessons, you should find a way to keep your motivation high. My favorite method is to set a goal date where you will play in public (in church, at a retirement home, in front of friends, at a recital, etc). That way you are publicly committed to keeping up your practice. What motivates you to practice? How do you keep yourself going when you don’t feel like practicing?
Posted on March 19th, 2009 by sharlene
No Comments