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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!
Wow, that video is a tough listen! What a boring voice!
I was trying to find the pitch of that awful drum machine but there was background interference that sounded like, maybe a woman singing with a keyboard in an adjacent room?
I had to stop after five minutes but I think I got the idea. You hum one note that fits with the whole tune. And that you might get a third or a fifth - which you did.
Go back to the first minute and a half - if you can bear the dullness of his voice - and he says something along the lines of being able to finish a phrase on tonic.
That's it! That's what I do. It's like call and answer in the Blues (for when I'm improvising on guitar). I sing an improvised closing phrase and finish on the tonic with a perfect cadence.
Yes, we can pick out melodies with key. You only need the key for harmonising them so just work on melodies until they're easy for you.
What zrtf90 says -- "being able to finish a phrase on a tonic" -- is also what I do. I only learned I could do this when I was working out my own (sung) songs at the piano, and discovering that everything I made up ended on the tonic, corresponding to a feeling of being "done."
I didn't know Bluebird before this theead, so I'm starting by listening to it over and over until I learn the melody. Then I'll try to work the melody out just like any other melody I know, and in whatever range it falls into.
Then later I might listen and try to work out the bass line from the recording, not because I particularly care about getting the standard accompaniment/chords correct, but because listening to bass lines is something I would like to learn how to do.
What approaches are others trying to get started on this song?
It's a good thing it is a rain day today so I can get caught up. To be honest, I've lost track of what I'm supposed to be working on. Is Joy to the World still in the mix? Is that the Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog Joy to the world, or the other one?
For the Bluebird, I wasn't sure at first if we were going to include the long introduction, but every video I've seen of it does include it, so I think it is just known as part of the song. The thing is though, the intro is in a different key. Oh well, we're not worrying about keys anyway, for now.
The below is the audio I'm working from. By my estimation the intro is in G and then goes to the key of E for 1st verse. This is what I think, for anyone working on harmony. Knowing this, of course will surely help you for the melody too. Otherwise, why are we all of a sudden waste deep with black notes?
Edit: Sorry, you can ignore the above. It is perhaps just this video. Cole Porter (if you are working from that video) doesn't seem to change key and I think maybe F.
Actually does change key, and goes to D i think. The Cole Porter video, not this one. Sooner or later we get it right
Hi Greener, for Joy To The World, I was thinking of the Christmas Carol. But Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog is fun too. Shall we add that to the list? We seem to have mostly ignored Joy To The World, but do work/post on it if you'd like.
I'm sorry! I went searching for "Sing like a Bluebird" because I didn't know it, and then forgot about "Joy to the World". Let's do it next, please. I'll go check that version you are talking about, PianoStudent88.
Edit: I realize now Jeremiah was a Bullfrog is another song. I don't know it...I prefer "Joy to the World".
I think "Moon River" is good for a simple famous melody that we can work on without checking a source. And for those who want to work on it in depth, there are lots of tutorials and sheet music to compare with.
More possibilities:
You've Got a Friend/You Make me Feel Like a Natural Woman (Carole King) Yesterday/Imagine/Something (Beatles) Radio Ga Ga/ Too Much Love Will Kill you / The Great Pretender (Queen) Every Breath You Take / Roxanne (Police)
I am trying to think of songs most everybody knows. I personally know and like lots of American Oldies. Nursery Songs are not famous here, only the ones that are used in language learning, like Old MacDonald...or the Hokey Pokey! That could be one.
In place of Love Story which I already knew, I worked a little bit on Tubular Bells from the Exorcist. More like a version of it as I just did it from how I remembered it and haven't listened again. From what I remember there is not much harmony at all. But, a catchy little repeating melody phrase. Catchy enough that there have been sequels. It is a bit tricky as it has a little counter melody.
I've already done Moon River, but is good choice for you.
You've Got a Friend I like. Please don't make me do the Carole King one . All the Beatles and Queen are great ...
We can also have in mind some famous Christmas Carols like "White Christmas", "Silent Night", "All I want for Christmas is You" There must be some other.
You've Got a Friend I like. Please don't make me do the Carole King one
I don't think ours will sound like any particular singer... What do you mean with that anyhow? Is there some version you'd like to do or you simply dislike Carole King?
I've nothing against Carole King. It's the Feeling like a Natural Woman part I object to. Even on piano I'd just have a hard time getting into it, if you can understand.
Let me have another crack at this trying not to sound crazy!
Do you have a circle of fifths to hand or do you know the circle well enough?
This is the order: Fb Cb Gb Db Ab Eb Bb F C G D A E B F# C# G# D# A# E# B#
It's basically the notes F C G D A E and B all as flats, then as naturals, then as sharps. It's possible to add double flats to the left and double sharps to the right but let's not go there for now.
I have a second row, rather than an inner ring, offset three to the left (a minor third) so that the relative minor is underneath the relative major. I also have a third row offset the same.
Take the notes from your melody and eliminate duplicates, F G A D C E. In most songs you'll have six or seven notes. Find those notes, or most of them, as a contiguous block in the circle of fifths. Unless the piece has a lot of chromaticism, changes of key or is in a minor key, where rules such as the sharped 7th will be applied, the notes in the piece will be a single block.
In my case it's not a circle of fifths but a ribbon and the block of notes above appears as: F C G D A E B
The other two notes on the bottom row are unlikely to appear in many pieces. There are only seven notes in the block (and this is the shape of the block), any other notes are accidentals.
If it's in a major key the tonic will be the middle of the three top notes. In a diatonic minor key it's likely to be the middle of the second row. If any of the other notes feels like home it's probably in a mode. Top left is Lydian, top right is Mixolydian, middle left is Dorian, middle right is Phrygian and if that lone note on the bottom left feels like home it will be Locrian.
Finding the tonic depends on trying to see if any of these six or seven notes sounds like home. I may either make up a finishing phrase or I may step up and down from the end of a phrase until I feel I've reached home on one note below and its octave above.
Is that better or worse?
Worse.
I am learning intervals in my Bastien 2. I've read before about the Circle of Fifths but have not understood it...will watch a basic video now in a new attempt.
I'm just starting on theory for Circle of Fifths also. I like zrtf90's version in a straight line better with the offsets on the second and third row for the relative minors, but I haven't worked that part out in my head yet. I did realize something I was totally missing by looking at it in a circle rather than in a straight line, the order is the order in the key signature for sharps.
Right now I'm just trying to get the pattern down in my head: F to C is a fifth, C to G is a fifth, etc. And figuring out the sharps using the pattern on the tetrachords e.g.,
I don't know if this will help you Albunea, but for me just memorizing which keys have sharps is ok, but if I memorize the pattern, then I can figure any of them out:
1 octave = two tetra chords separated by whole step Each tetrachord pattern = whole step, whole step, half step
So to figure out A major sharps:
Tetrachord 1: A, B, C, D Tetrachord 2: E, F, G, A
Pattern tetrachord 1: A whole step to B, B whole step is C#, C# half step to D D to E is the whole step that separates the tetrachords Pattern tetrachord 2: E whole step to F#, F# whole step to G#, G# half step to A.
A major has three sharps: C, F, G
For me sitting at the piano going through the key signatures counting whole step, whole step, half step, helped ingrain it.
By the way what is the next song; I've been tied up at work all week and didn't get to do any of the previous ones.
Stacey
In progress: Working through First Lessons in Bach and Russian Music Book 1
Happy Birthday Old MacDonald Love Story Be Like the Blue Bird
All of the above complete. Catch up if you have the time and want to, or not is fine.
Joy To The World - Kind of got lost in the above group so I believe is what we are doing now. The Christmas version of Joy to the World. Not the Three Dog Night version.
SadieLady, some of us will be doing now "Joy to the World" and maybe others "Be Like the Bluebird". You can do them all I mean, just getting some notes from each is ok. This exercise is mostly a reminder to work a bit on relating sounds to piano keys for me, for example, and it is not a moment when I can spend lots of time on it...some day I might!
So I listened to that improvisation above to remember a bit how the song goes (I think I don't know the song perfectly well ), and I got my notes for the melody...a whole lot of 33 notes! Mine must be in the C Key because I started at C and finished at C, with no accidentals. Another interesting thing is an Octave jump somewhere.
I am not telling more or could be revealing some secrets.
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