Lesson 7 Contents. Overview of Lesson 7 1. F Chord Variation. G7 Chord Variation

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1 Lesson 7 Contents Use this table of contents to make sure your book pages are in correct order. You will need highlighters and/or colored pencils and a pencil or pen. If you have internet access, you can view video clips and audio clips at: Overview of Lesson 7 1 Chord Variation 1a G7 Chord Variation 1b F Chord Variation 1c Chord Variation: Mix 1d Twinkle Twinkle 1e Rock the Boat 1d About Chords and Variations 2 Chord Variation 2 2a Gentle Lullaby 2b Ties 2c New Notes and Fingering 2d Cross Over Fingering 2e Climbing the Rockies 2f On Top of Old Smokey 2g Patterns and Practice Tips 3 Frolicking 3a This Old Man 3b Joy to the World 3c Intervals 4 Trumpet Fanfare 4a Spanish Dance 4b New Notes: C Scale 5 Daffodil Waltz 5a Bass Note Practice 5b Alligator Alley 5c Bingo 5d Dear Student 6

2 Lesson 7 Overview You will be learning and/or improving in the following areas: Chord Patterns Common fingering maneuvers C Scale (New Notes) Ties Repeats Intervals The material in this lesson is advanced beginner level. Your songs will include more complicated rhythm, more notes and chord patterns. If you have internet access, you can use the video and audio clips for additional clarification of lessons taught. The video and audio clips are not necessary for your success and are not considered part of your lesson purchase. They are offered as a free source of additional support. 1

3 About Chords and Variations Chords set the tone of your songs. There are many different ways to express a song by changing the way you play your chords. Chords can be broken down into single note patterns or double note patterns. They can be played soft and sweet, fast and fun, slow and sad etc. By the end of lesson 7 you will be familiar with some basic chord variations. I think you will enjoy moving your fingers around and creating different sounds with the notes that you are already playing. As you proceed through this lesson, pay attention to how the chords patterns/variations affect the sound of a song. 2

4 Patterns and Practice Tips Practice tips: Always look at an entire measure as you are playing it. Avoid looking at each note as a single note. When you are reading, do you look at each letter of a word or do you see all the letters at once and then say the word? Now that you are getting very familiar with reading notes, you need to start looking at several notes at a time and be able to play them without the time consuming beginners chore of having to read each one individually. When you were a beginner reader, you had to take time to sound out every letter in your words, and when you were a beginner musician you had to really concentrate on each note. Now that you are well past the beginner stage of playing music, you should be able to start reading ahead, if you are not already doing so. Another practice tip is to look for patterns or groups of notes that repeat more than once throughout a song. The bass staff is where you will find most of your repeat patterns. The chord variations that you are learning are patterns that repeat several times throughout a song. Once you know a pattern, you can play it more readily than having to read it by individual note. (Kind of like reading a word) If you have different colored highlighters, I would suggest that you find a pattern and highlight that pattern wherever it is in the song. Then, find another pattern, find them all and highlight them a different color. Be careful not to make a mistake, you can t erase highlighters! 3

5 Intervals The term interval refers to distance. When reading music, it is the distance between two notes. There are two different kinds of intervals. The kind you will be learning about in this lesson is harmonic intervals. Harmonic intervals are two notes played simultaneously. The distance between two notes is based on how many keys are included between them. For instance, Middle C and D, which sit right next to each other on the piano, is called a 2 nd interval because there are two keys in the interval. Middle C and E would be a 3 rd interval because there are three notes in the interval, C, D and E. When you count the keys in the interval, you always count the two keys that you are playing. So, in the example of C and E, you are playing two notes, with 1 in between them, therefore there are three notes total, making it a 3 rd interval. More work on intervals will be presented in other lessons. The next two songs will include playing intervals in the bass staff. (In your first chord variation, you played 2 nd and 3 rd intervals when you broke your chord into two part the pinky part and then the two notes together. The two notes together are harmonic intervals.) Section 5 of this lesson will include playing intervals in the treble clef. 4

6 New Notes: C Scale The three new notes A-B-C completes the C scale in the bass staff. Middle C CD E F G ABC A scale is a series of 8 consecutive tones and is named by it s first note. A scale is made up of a pattern of whole and half steps. Scales will be discussed in more depth is later lessons. Notice that one of the new notes is Middle C. It is the same Middle C on the piano and is played by the left hand when written in the bass staff. A B Middle C C NOTE: A is not actually a new note. A is the note that you played with your thumb when playing an F chord. I am showing it as a new note because you have not used it outside of using it in an F chord or F chord variation. 5

7 Dear Student Lesson 7 covered a lot of material. However, if you took your time and had patience with yourself, you should be reading this page with a feeling of success. If you feel frustrated, that s OK, you can learn to adjust your attitude and keep practicing. It is natural to feel frustrated when learning new things, you just need to learn to not let it affect your desire to learn. Even with a live teacher, there are many more students who quit piano as it gets harder than there is that stay with it and work through the harder songs. Each song should be treated as a new skill. Learning piano does not mean that once you learned how to read music you can sit down and play a song flawlessly without first having to practice it. You can liken training a horse to training yourself to play piano. Each horse has a different personality, therefore, each horse that you train will be like starting over, much like learning each new song. When training a horse, the horse needs his own time frame to learn what you are teaching him, constant patience, unlimited repetition and a calm attitude. Since each horse is different, like each song, you cannot put a time limit on how long it will take to learn a new trick or in your case, a new song. The key word in constant patience is constant. When you lose your patience, you lose your concentration. You lose a horse s concentration when you are impatient with him. Repetition is essential to learning something new, you have to repeat it as many times as it needs. Do not limit repetition. Finally, a calm attitude.. I train horses and I know a frustrated attitude will get you absolutely no where with a horse or with learning a new song. My advise to you as you continue your piano education is to be calm, stay patient, do not limit repetition and give yourself as much time as you need for each song. Happy learning! 6