i'm trying to figure out how to play keyboard using sheet music.. what i don't understand is that there are F, C, Dm, Dm7, etc above the treble clef notes when there are bass clef notes (left hand?) already written. what do they mean? are they chords? i thought chords are only used for bass clef notes? no? how would i play with the F/A, Csus, etc above the treble clef notes when both clef notes are already written? please forgive my ignorance on this subject.
Anyone know how to play keyboard looking at the sheet music?
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Yes, that's pretty much it. To play the piece the way it is "composed" or "arranged" just follow the notes written in the master stave and ignore the chord symbols. To "fake" it, you would play the chords listed above and then just play the melodic line in one hand over the chords.
If you have seen a Fake book (jazz std.'s are published in several versions of fake books) they actually only have the melody written out, and chord names above the staff. This is to allow any musician to play along and improvise according to the chord symbols and melody.
If you have seen a Fake book (jazz std.'s are published in several versions of fake books) they actually only have the melody written out, and chord names above the staff. This is to allow any musician to play along and improvise according to the chord symbols and melody.
fraserhutch
Flypaper for freaks
This is not quite correct. We play the melody interspersed with chord voicings in the right hand. The left hand can be walking the bass, playing the chord shell, or any other number of ways.hampy said:
Often times, you will not be playing the melody at all, but rather providing an accompaniment.
The chords are listed because more often than not, the piano part is far too simplistic to be used in performance, and was just provided so that grandma could play a little piano Sunday evening after dinner. So they provide the harmonic content and structure in a lead sheet (basically, just the melody and the changes (chords), and let us do the rest.
Also, a paino part is useless for a guitar player, who is really just interested in the chords anyways.
That's called a lead sheet.
fraserhutch
Flypaper for freaks
Doesn't that hurt?Carter said:Yeah I cant read sheet music either, I play by ear
Joking, you are more correct in the description above.Reading sheet music is handy.... takes a while and alot of practice to be able to sight read a piece tho, I read music well, but most of the time am unable to read at the same speed as the playing... so it sounds like Im meandering through the peice...
All in all, a handy skill to learn if you take the time to practice
Theros
All in all, a handy skill to learn if you take the time to practice
Theros
At any moment in time (put a vertical ruler on the musical score and move it from left to right) every note sounding in a piece of "western" music from Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to heaven" to Beethoven's "Fifth" is part of a chord with the progression of the highest pitch notes being perceived by the audience as melody(s) and the lower pitched notes as the harmonizing accompaniment of the current chord being sounded. It's *all* a chord progression. "Sheet" music simply spells out the position of every note played at every given moment. As a keyboard player you will need to learn to play chords in various positions and inversions just as you do as an electric guitar player. Once you can do that you can play a "song" from just a melody line and the chord names. How good you will sound will depend upon how many different ways you have mastered to produce the chords rhythmically (left hand) and to embellish the melody notes (right hand).
The piano can sound the full range of notes in "western" music. The F and G staffs of piano notation are a continuous representation of all the notes on the keyboard from the lowest (F staff - left hand) to the highest (G staff - right hand) with one free floating note line between them representing C4 (middle C).
If you are looking at "Sheet" music for, say, Star Wars "March of the Emperor" you will see one staff per instrument either F or G depending on the pitch range of the instrument. For a 100 piece orchestra this could be a large document. But, never the less, it's still just a "simple" progression of chords and when it isn't even the so called "tone deaf" will complain about the quality of the music.
1) Learn the names of the keys.(there are only 7 to learn.)
2) Get a graphical book of piano chords and learn to produce them in both hands and in various patterns.
3) Download Harmony or Melody Assistant (the demo is free with no time restriction) and look at the structure of every midi on the web that interests you. It will calculate up to 4 chords per measure for you. This program makes "sheet" music out of midi files and midi files out of "sheet" music.
. . . or not :}
The piano can sound the full range of notes in "western" music. The F and G staffs of piano notation are a continuous representation of all the notes on the keyboard from the lowest (F staff - left hand) to the highest (G staff - right hand) with one free floating note line between them representing C4 (middle C).
If you are looking at "Sheet" music for, say, Star Wars "March of the Emperor" you will see one staff per instrument either F or G depending on the pitch range of the instrument. For a 100 piece orchestra this could be a large document. But, never the less, it's still just a "simple" progression of chords and when it isn't even the so called "tone deaf" will complain about the quality of the music.
1) Learn the names of the keys.(there are only 7 to learn.)
2) Get a graphical book of piano chords and learn to produce them in both hands and in various patterns.
3) Download Harmony or Melody Assistant (the demo is free with no time restriction) and look at the structure of every midi on the web that interests you. It will calculate up to 4 chords per measure for you. This program makes "sheet" music out of midi files and midi files out of "sheet" music.
. . . or not :}
The man has only 7 names to learn to make chords from the chord names and pick notes from the score. Everything else is implied from that knowledge.
If you are completely blind, for example, you can find the repeating sets of two and three raised keys on any keyboard. There are only 7 keys that border and separate these raised groups. If you can apply a mnemonic to those two simple groups you've got *all* of the names. I always mention this to people whenever I see someone with the grease pencil marks of key names on all of the keys desperately struggling to memorize the "complex" and "difficult" keyboard.
Edit:
Let me also add that a suitable mnemonic with these same 7 key names works also for note reading from *any* musical score. You have to see *how* the 7 keys repeat on lines of the musical staff (just as they do on the keyboard) all the way from lowest line to the highest line and right next to them (at an offset) on the spaces.
I may not have painted the clearest verbal picture here but if you study it in that way and you have chosen an appropriate mnemonic for *you* to represent those 7 names, you will see a simple repeating pattern that can stick with you very quickly.
... or not :}
If you are completely blind, for example, you can find the repeating sets of two and three raised keys on any keyboard. There are only 7 keys that border and separate these raised groups. If you can apply a mnemonic to those two simple groups you've got *all* of the names. I always mention this to people whenever I see someone with the grease pencil marks of key names on all of the keys desperately struggling to memorize the "complex" and "difficult" keyboard.
Edit:
Let me also add that a suitable mnemonic with these same 7 key names works also for note reading from *any* musical score. You have to see *how* the 7 keys repeat on lines of the musical staff (just as they do on the keyboard) all the way from lowest line to the highest line and right next to them (at an offset) on the spaces.
I may not have painted the clearest verbal picture here but if you study it in that way and you have chosen an appropriate mnemonic for *you* to represent those 7 names, you will see a simple repeating pattern that can stick with you very quickly.
... or not :}
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Hi-What follows is just my opinion: What's being talked about here is "music theory." The study of music theory is quite envolved, but it's really all about what makes music sound the way it does. A "C" chord with an "E" in the bass evokes a totally different feeling than the "C" chord by itself. Bernstein, in "Tonight," starts with a "C" chord, then keeps the bass note, "C", in the next bar and plays a "D" major chord over it. To play simply a "D" chord without this added "C" bass note in this compostion would have it lose all of it's unique musical properties. Yes, for a quick read, you can leave out the added bass notes, but there really is a musical difference.
Bo
Bo
fraserhutch
Flypaper for freaks
That is simply notated as D/C.
TexRoadkill
Audio Bum
Yeah, if just the Chord is listed it's assumed the bass note is the root note. C for C, D for D etc. If there is another voicing it's listed afterwards. You could often see a descending bass line like C, C/B, C/A
I am taking piano lessons at the moment to read sheet music and play what is written.
I have been doing it for around 2 months and I have to say its like going back to the basics as far as playing is concerned.
I have been playing by ear since the early 80`s and can play very well by ear but being able to read music is like looking through the looking glass , I`d have to say it is giving me a much better understanding of music and composition than i would ever have had before.
The techniques I am being taught to play from sheet are helping my overall technique tremendously.
I will say however its takes an extreme amount of patience to be able to learn these skills , I dedicate about 2 hours everynight to scales and Practice at the moment and have almost reached grade one status in 7 weeks. I dont think most people would be able to dedicate this much time to it so i`m lucky.
I`m shooting for grade 3 before the end of the year but we`ll see how it goes.
I have been doing it for around 2 months and I have to say its like going back to the basics as far as playing is concerned.
I have been playing by ear since the early 80`s and can play very well by ear but being able to read music is like looking through the looking glass , I`d have to say it is giving me a much better understanding of music and composition than i would ever have had before.
The techniques I am being taught to play from sheet are helping my overall technique tremendously.
I will say however its takes an extreme amount of patience to be able to learn these skills , I dedicate about 2 hours everynight to scales and Practice at the moment and have almost reached grade one status in 7 weeks. I dont think most people would be able to dedicate this much time to it so i`m lucky.
I`m shooting for grade 3 before the end of the year but we`ll see how it goes.
fraserhutch
Flypaper for freaks
As if he didn't already have enough to do.....Jamous said:
Cortexx- get back to work!!!!!!!!!
Open your Hanon, NOW!