Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Achievement of the week - what got you excited?

Achievement today:

Finally I learned the last bit of nocturne c-sharp minor.

I made a chord map with colors to hopefully understand more about chord progression and chord modulation (I dont understand much right now).

Made my first post in the photo gallery forum and now I'm testing it:



Ok, it works.

Gorgeous! What do the colours mean?

A few corrections in the minor chart:

II should be ii°, with diminished chords.

The final column should either be VII (major) built on the seventh note of the natural minor scale: Bb in C minor, B in C# minor, etc. Or it should be vii° (diminished) built on the seventh note of the harmonic minor scale: Bdim in C minor, B#dim in C# minor, etc.

Check some of the triads against notes in the key to verify this.

In minor keys, the v chord is frequently replaced with V, using the raised leading tone from the harmonic minor scale.

(Colours in image: each color represent a chord, so you can see how a chord is represented in a different key. For instance key C major dominant chord is the same as key G major tonic chord.)

Thank you for corrections pianostudent! I'll have to study your answer though. It's at the rim of my understanding right now.

I'm aware its still full of errors, but hopefully when I correct them all and double check them, I will understand more about chord modulation, heh.

Paperclip - what a great way to see patterns! Very neat.

Cathy

And is very pretty! But what does it tell us? That a diatonic triad built on D occurs in many keys? Sorry to throw cold water, but what do you understand after making this chart that you didn't understand before?

Well done on the Nocturne though!

Thanks!

Well, it's sort of a mind map. Correcting all the errors in it, will result in at least a correct mindmap. In that way it's a practise thingy.

But I would also like to compose a chord progression and modulation by myself. The colors let me easily find to which key I could modulate. Then find the next chord and modulate again.

So in key of C major: I-IV-V-I, I could make it longer like:

I(key C major) - IV(key C major)=I(key F major) - V(key F major)..........V(key C major) - I(key C major)

Then I could play it on the piano and hear how it sounds. The colors let me make and find new combinations and try them out. I think I need to hear and experiment chord progression and modulation to understand what it does to my ears.

Now I can explore that, before I figure out how the circle of fifths works. I just need sound. Sort of a cheat sheet, heh.

PaperClip... I like your grid there.

Check out "The Chord Wheel", which is both a book and an iPhone app, but you can get a lot out of it just by looking at an image from a Google search. It's based on the Circle of Fifths, and shows what you are trying to get at but in a more spatially oriented fashion.

For instance, in your example above, the V of F is just C anyway, so you haven't modulated off of C. I'm sure it's just a dashed off example, so I don't mean that as a critique, but The Chord Wheel will let you see at a glance which chords are in the same general neighborhood and their function in each key. It's great for analyzing chord progressions of songs/pieces as well.

I do like your color system better though... it lets you see the commonalities more readily.

EW - as with all such visualizations, there is no new data, but a new way to access and grasp the data. Of course most of us know Dmaj triad is in many keys... but which ones? I'd venture to say that most of us don't know this off the top of our heads.

Lemme try to work it out with Cmaj triad, away from the piano and not looking above... C, G, F? I'm not really sure without looking.

Thanks for the tip, tallguy!

I downloaded the chord wheel image. It seems a good idea to have a lot of perspectives. The coin may eventually fall.

The coin is a bit sticky due bubblegum, so my head probably needs some more jamming against the wall before my lightbulb is switched on.

I like the colors and the chart, too. The circle of fifths was an early eye-opener for me, but I've taught (not piano) a long time and there are people for whom the colors would make a lot more sense. It was always amazing to me the way the light turned on for different people, and fascinating to watch them sort things out in their own ways. And just the process of sorting it out in their own way, in addition to trying to figure out the way somebody else sorted it, helped all of us to understand it better. So I think this is a super chart

Cathy

I'm back here again looking at the chart, admiring it and thinking about the relationships it shows. I agree with jotur that figuring out things in your own way, and thinking about them in multiple ways, are great activities.

I think this is worthy of its own thread. Really.

Would you mind posting a PDF or some other full size file? I tried to print it but this small image didn't come out so well.

I agree with Cathy and Pianostudent. Playing with concepts adds to the learning process and it's fun to do. Hence the word playing.

I've put a link to a pdf file: here

After I correct the errors, I will put it in a own topic.

I missed writing in last week. What I was thrilled about then was to figure out how to record myself on the disklavier . I found an old recording , at least two years ago, of my son playing.He' a music grad and still performs round the Boulder CO area. It was wonderful to know that music gene continues through the generations and he does a whole lot better than me!
I heard how much I hesitate so will work on being more consistent with timing. It really is a 'reality' check to listen to yourself! I will admit to having a war with the metronome and always listen to the one in my head instead.
This week so far I am thrilled with myself for playing Bach #2 book1 of WTC through not just 5, or 7 times but 10 - consecutively correctly! I feel as if I have tamed the beast!

Question - what do the little piano symbols indicate after people's signatures?

A medal indicates participation in a Quarterly ABF recital. A little piano indcates performing in a recital in ones real life.

Not piano related (well, not completely) but my teacher has asked me to write a letter of recommendation for her as part of her Greencard application under the "person of extraordinary ability" rules. Kind of nice!

On the actually playing side, I have added a new piece to my learning list. It's another Bach Invention - number 14 in Bb. I still need to "finish" the E major one ... and by finish I mean get a recording for an ABF recital of course!!

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing.

Finally finished my first recording to my acceptance, albeit with a few mistakes.

when are we going to hear/see it Barnie?

I became so obsessed with making this week's piece really good beause I had been so lazy with it all lately... That now I can literally play it with my eyes closed. I don't have a lesson for another 2 weeks though, so I'm just going to carry on doing stuff on my own.