MCSNUP TEACHES PIANOFORTE

ORIENTATION.

"... It's easy to play any musical instruments: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself..." - J. S Bach

Welcome...


You should have at least a dummy keyboard to get the best of these sessions. A dummy keyboard may be constructed with a sheet of paper, a card board or any suitable platform for drawing the piano keys... Also, you should decide to commit at least 20 minutes daily to practice the lessons and exercises that would be assigned you in this forum...

You're permitted to ask questions at any point in time, however as much as possible keep the questions relevant to the topic/lesson in discussion...

Peradventure... You desire to request or ask questions related to other musical areas/instruments, send a private message to 08037302976, for inclusion into other MCSNUP TEACHES series such as: MCSNUP TEACHES VOCALS, MCSNUP TEACHES LYRICOLOGY, MCSNUP TEACHES GUITARS, etc...

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Mcsnup Teaches Pianoforte.

LESSON 1.1

ANATOMY OF PIANO KEYS.
There are twelve(12) keys in all music, these keys are further classified into two folds(types):

1. The Natural keys.
2. The Sharp/Flat keys.

This keys' classification is not the same as the classification into Major & Minor keys(according to Major/Minor keys' classification, there are 15 Major keys & 15 Minor keys, that'll be discussed much later). Now in Pianoforte Natural keys, Sharps/Flat keys, are all defined by their "colours", the Natural keys are the white keys of the keyboard. The Sharp as well as flat keys are the black Keys on the keyboard...

Up Next...

*The Natural keys
*Sharp & Flats
*Accidentals
*What is a keyboard?
*What is the difference between a keyboard and a piano?

## lessons continues in a while...


#Mcsnup Teaches Pianoforte#

The Natural keys.

In Pianoforte all white keys are referred to as NATURAL KEYS. Remember there are 12 keys in music, and of these 7 are Natural keys, that is "7 white keys".

Nomenclature.

The Natural keys(also musical notes) are named after the first seven letters of the English Alphabets: A B C D E F G.

Up next: nomenclature of Natural keys.

A NOTE BY:

The piano keys are divided into White & Black Keys. There are 7 white (Natura keys) & 5 Black (Sharp/Flat) keys. The Black Keys are divided into two groups:

1. Group of two's
2. Group of three's

Nomenclature of the Natural keys...

The Natural keys are: A B C D E F G.

To Be cont'd...

NOMENCLATURE OF THE NATURAL KEYS...

Again the Natural keys are A B C D E F G. They are represented by the WHITE KEYS of the keyboard. We'll define the landmark keys first, that is the keys of 'special' reference.

1. Key C.

This is often erroneously described as the first key on the piano keyboard. As true as it is sometimes, it isn't. A more appropriate description would be, any white key before the group of two blacks is Key C. For some keyboards, C is the first key on the instrument, but this is not a musical convention. So, whenever you see a "white key" before the group of two blacks, then that "white key" that just precedes the two blacks is C...

Still on Key C...

Key C is arguably the most "important" key on the keyboard, for a number of reasons. The most important being the "magical" middle C. We'll disect the middle C much more later in the MTP series. The middle C is musically defined as the C that is just above the A440Hz. Well don't worry about that... Just sit on the keyboard, at the center of the keyboard, the C key just facing you, is very much most likely, the middle C...

2. Key F.
Simply the white key that is just before the group of three blacks.

Nice work u are doing bro. I am a beginner in this. And I learned a lot already. I pray God gives u d wisdom to see this through to the end

From the above "reference keys" other pianoforte keys follow... Just follow your English language alphabetical order, for instance from C... D E F G.

CAUTION!

THERE'S NO "H"...

A B before C...

You'd have noticed the absence of the first two letters of the English Alphabets, A B, don't worry.. They're a part of the mix. Remember that musical keys are named after the first 7 letters of the English Alphabets... Beginning from A... And closing on G. Now A and B comes before C, so they're placed just before C, or to use a more musical term "below C"...

Note we've been describing the Natural keys of pianoforte...

SHARPS, FLATS...

In music as we ascend up, moving from left to right keys ascend, and increase in pitch, any increase thus by any key to the key just above it is said to be the sharpening of the key of origin. For instance C is the key just above B, with B as the key of origin (reference) a movement from B to C, is a sharpening of B, therefore we say that C is B sharp... Similarly, as we descend from "right to left" keys descend in pitch, and are said to be "flattened". The key just below the reference key becomes the flat of the reference, for instance, moving from C backwards, we descend in pitch to B, the key just below C... Thus B is now referred to as C flat...

In Pianoforte however, the idea of sharps and flats are usually used to speak of increased or decreased pitch from a white (natural key) to a black Key [sharp(increased)/flat(decreased)]. Thus the black key just above C is referred to as C sharp... And that just below D as D flat....

# details still coming...

*Remember you're free to ask your questions...

#MTP.

Before we explore the Sharp and Flats... Let's explore some Exercises on white(natural) keys...

There are 10 fingers of the hand, 5 on right and 5 on left. The right hand fingers we usually designate as RHF & the left as LHF. Now beginning with the thumb fingers whether RHF or LHF are assigned numbers....

Thumb=1
Fore finger =2
Middle finger =3
Ring finger =4
Small finger =5.

Further more in exercises for both hands fingers, whatever is assigned to any RHF is performed by a different LHF, thus we discuss finger correspondence... For example when RHF plays with 1, LHF plays with 5....

However, to understand this we have to remember that there are two main parts in the piano keyboard/music

1. The treble part
2. The Bass part

These parts are represented by the treble & bass clefs of pianoforte (explanations later). The division is from the MIDDLE C... That is, from middle C to the right forms the treble.... From middle C to the left forms the bass.... The bass is particularly the "region for the left hand" or say the left side.... While the treble is the right hand region...

Kudos! This is educative. As a beginner, I am learning fast.

Thus in the right hand region, where a RHF 1(thumb) is placed on C, the LHF will place a finger corresponding to the RHF 1 on C of the Bass...

Fingers and correspondence...
RHF 1=LHF 5 RHF 2=LHF 4 RHF 3=LHF 3 RHF 4=LHF 2 RHF 5=LHF 1.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BB0AZ6sFE5U/ (check out this demo)



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw6Qk9sVGfo.... Just a short piano Demo...

NOTE BY

Learning to use your fingers in correspondence is vital... And let me add do not require the PRESENCE OF A KEYBOARD... Whether you already play or not you should as much as possible always TRAIN YOUR FINGERS... The video I shared involves some bits of advanced techniques... But, the essence of the whole thing is to show the RHF & LHF CORRESPONDENCE... That is the ROOT FROM WHICH the so called advanced techniques in the video ORIGINATES...

Get to any surface, move your RHF starting with 1 2...5, then your LHF starting with 5, 4...1.

Repeat the process independently, at least for 30minutes... 10 minutes morning, 10 minutes afternoon and 10 minutes evening...

It could be more... But work at this independent exercises for say 3 days...

The goal is to prepare the fingers for synergy...


Next...

Practising effectively: use note values.

NOTE VALUES

Musical sounds are referred to as NOTES. Every musical note(sound) has a definite value(lasting duration of the sound). These "values" are measured by a time duration of 4. Thus count 1 2 3 4... Be careful don't be TOO FAST.

This diverse "durations" has been grouped into "seven" relevant kinds... Thus we refer to them as the KINDS OF NOTE VALUES...

1. Semibreve
2. Minim
3. Crotchet
4. Quaver
5. Semiquaver
6. Demisemiquaver
7. Hemidemisemiquaver

**there is the BREVE... but like we said.... There are 7 "relevant" ones.... So BREVE is.... Hmmmmm.... "irrelevant", especially in modern music...

For effective practising, you should work with note values, it helps your practice and ReHearsals to have defined directions... For instance, in the following fingering exercises you could play strictly on semibreve values...

RHF: 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1. (10times)

Remember the finger that corresponds to the various numbers...

** I deliberately decided not to include "keys", just numbers, because the first series of our exercises are to be performed away from the piano(keyboard)...

COUNTING SEMIBREVES

To play semibreve, you play one note in your duration of 4 counts...

Nice, Nice

RHF FINGERING EXERCISES(count semibreves)
RHF: 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1
RHF: 5 4 3 2 1 2 3 4 5
RHF: 1 2 3 4 5 2 3 4 5
RHF: 5 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1
RHF: 1 3 2 4 5 2 4 3 4
RHF: 4 2 1 5 3 2 4 3 5

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MORE EXCERPTS FROM MCSNUP TEACHES PIANOFORTE

INTRODUCING THE MAJOR (DIATONIC) SCALE

There are various major scales, the commonest which is the most important of all the musical scales however is the diatonic major scale. The diatonic scale is a scale of 7 degrees, some would argue that it's 8. However those who say 7, would insist on that with the reason being... That the 8th degree is just the 1st degree on a new/higher pitch...

THE NOTES OF THE MAJOR (DIATONIC) SCALE.
Sound Note Name doh d tonic re r supertonic mi m mediant fa f subdominant soh s dominant lah l submediant te t leading note doh' d' uppertonic

From top to bottom the notes are assigned degrees in the respective order...
1°=d 2°=r 3°=m 4°=f 5°=s 6°=l 7°=t 8°=d'