Bare Essential Keys To Harmony

Bare essential keys to harmony
- An unconventional approach to learning piano By Coen Modder - Piano Couture
Bare Essential Keys to Harmony 2
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Bare essential keys to harmony - Intro and Basic knowledge
Contents
Intro. p.4 - First and Foremost. p.8 - The Effective Dose and superuousnesses. p.10 Part 1. Basic knowledge - Pianos bare essential abcs
1.1

Basic knowledge: Theory. p.17
1.2.1
Basic knowledge: Technique, ngering. p.24 1.2.2
Basic knowledge: Technique, posture and the instrument. p.27 Part 2. Chords - An introduction to Pop-Pianos what
2.1
2.2

Chords: Triads, major and minor chords. p.33 Chords: 7 common major and minor triads. p.38
Intro.
This is not your average piano-method. This is a book, course, that will make you see music, feel music, understand music by hacking the piano; hacking music, if you will. It will teach you Pop-Piano, enabling you to play along with-, accompany- and even compose any song you like in the shortest amount of time possible.
What is Pop-Piano and why is it different from classical, conventional piano?

Many people (including teachers) still see piano as a classical instrument and therefore think that its best (read: necessary) to learn how to play it, teach and be taught the classical way. Nonsense. If you want to play classical music, you should go practice classical music. If however, you want to play pop-music (or any of its many sub-genres), theres no need to practice any form of classical music whatsoever. That is the conventional way and unfortunately, still the commonly accepted way. This is the unconventional way, which -as youll start to see very soon- just happens to be the easy and fast way too. And in fact, not just for learning Pop-Piano, but for learning to understand and play music and the piano in any style. Its the extraction of exactly that what is most effective, efcient; relevant and useful. It consists of that - and ONLY that- what is actually necessary to learn how to PLAY. This is a peek into my mind (and that of every other Pop-Pianist). How we think about music. How we approach music and the piano. How we see music. In a logical, easy-to-grasp way. The best metaphor I can think of to illustrate the difference in approach even better: The Pop-approach to playing piano, music is to think, build and speak sentences, where the classical approach tends to focus on reading and spelling letters. Were you able to speak before you could read; before you could spell? I bet you were. In my mind thats a sorta more logical way of approach, a more logical place to start; what do you think? You can always get to writing, reading and spelling later on, if you want. But rst, lets learn how to speak. Lets PLAY. If youll follow along my ride, Ill hand you the chunks, words, sentences thatll make you speak in no time. There are a few things to note and keep in mind before taking off, though...
Piano Couture
Effectiveness is at the heart of this course.Youve picked up this book because you want to learn to play the piano. Maybe youre looking to be entertained. Well, playing the piano certainly is entertaining! In fact its great fun and its very entertaining. The fact that youve picked up this book means that youve dared to take the rst big step towards starting a new hobby and thereby, youve taken a step in the direction of signicantly increasing your own entertainment too, so I hope youll appreciate the odd joke, the anecdotes, the background-stories and -information. Everything that Ive written is meant to contribute something to the whole; either to your entertainment or to the effectiveness. Hopefully to both. At the start of this adventure, you need to realise that in the end, life often proceeds more comfortably and even quicker- when you choose a path which might at rst seems to be the long way around. Are you going to wait for your car to be xed or are you going to walk? Might depend on how far you have to travel, of course. All the background stories in this book are aimed at supporting my personal approach, broadening your general understanding and giving you a glimpse into my mind. Into how I think about the piano, learning and playing. If you read them, your understanding of my teaching method and my approach to playing the piano will deepen in such a way that the rest of the course will be easier to follow, sink in better and progress a lot faster in the end. If you prefer to get going right away (and choose to start walking), thats also possible. In that case, you should tackle only those chapters which are marked at the beginning with the following underlined headings: Terms and Knowledge, Style and Level. These chapters contain the theory, exercises and techniques necessary to achieving the fastest and most effective learning-curve. The titles of these chapters are in bold type. In the background stories I have tried to explain the underlying ideas in a light, easygoing manner but when it comes to what you absolutely need to learn (the chapters with titles in bold type), I have tried to present everything in the most effective way and in brief. At least as briey as possible. After all, Rome wasnt built in a day. This course is designed to maintain the highest possible level of efciency in learning and practising so that you can reach your musical goal as quickly as possible. By focusing solely on what is really relevant and, just as important, on what is broadly usable, and by ignoring whatever is superuous, Ill teach you how to lay a rm foundation for your piano playing in the shortest possible time. Based on this foundation, you will experience playing the piano as something completely logical and yes -believe it or not- even really easy. The fact that each new bit of theory and each new technique youll learn will not only enable you to play one particular song (as is the case with conventional methods), but will immediately be applicable to any and every other song, means that all of your playing will benet. This way, every bit of theory and every exercise contributes to your growth as a complete pianist. Effective. Efcient. As you grasp the logic of the approach, your ability to recognise, assimilate, see, recognise and create constructions and coherence will increase and the learning process will get steadily easier. I hope you decide to wait for your car Have fun! Coen
Piano?
Playing the piano can be done in countless different ways and many different styles. If, for example, youd compare Alicia Keys, Chris Martin (Coldplay), Stevie Wonder, Wibi Soerjadi, Paul McCartney (The Beatles), Dr. John, Art Tatum, Tori Amos, Jamie Cullum, Elton John, Sergio Mendez, Jordan Rudess and Herbie Hancock, youd hear how all these world-famous musicians play the same instrument (yes, piano), yet seem to make it sound beautiful in their very own, unique way. All gifted pianists do have one major thing in common, though: Theyunderstandboth their instrument and music in general. This gives them the freedom to play whatever they feel like, whenever they feel like it, and truly express their emotions through their music. This 'fundamental skill' is exactly what I'm going to teach you. With just 10 minutes of super-effective rehearsal time per day, this will enable you to (select any one or more): - Learn to play any one of your favorite songs, using chord-knowledge, your own musicality and ears and without having to ever 'read' a single note (more on this later). - Learn how to play by ear. - Create your own (cover) piano-version of any song in the world, wether the original version has- or HASN'T got a piano in it. - Learn to be creative with the piano, by truly understanding both the instrument and music itself. - Learn how to accompany any singer, including yourself. - Learn how to be the keyboardist in a rock-/soul-/funk-/singer-songwriter or any other pop-band. - Improvise. - Use the piano to write your own songs, in the same way all famous (and lesser famous) pop-musicians do. - It's incredibly easy and suitable for anybody, regardless of any previous experience with piano or music in general. Whatever your musical goal is, I'll show you how to get there asap.
(Take it) easy. My side of the story.

When thinking about learning how to play the piano, it's important to realize that its actually quite an easy instrument. Ask any random person to press a key and the sound will be the same with anybody youd ask. This in great contrast to, for example a trumpet, where virtually no one will be able to produce a solid tone at their rst try or a singer who should rst learn how to control the voice to be able to produce the right intonation (sing in tune). To play a non solid or 'out of tune' note on a piano is impossible, you can -at worst- hit a key you didn't intend to hit which, as we'll see later on, isn't as bad as it may seem to you now. Then why does learning to play the piano seem so damn hard? Don't you have to learn difcult theories, ngerings and music notation rst? Well.. it is exactly these 'conventional' approaches and methods, that makes learning how to play the piano and even playing the piano after you've mastered the basics- unnecessarily difcult. Sight-reading and musical notation make a song look way harder than it actually is. 'Translating' these musical notes from a sheet to the exact keys on the piano is something that takes years to master and even after that, will limit your abilities to play freely enormously.
At age 17, I taught myself how to play the piano. Four years and exactly zero piano-lessons after I rst (re)touched the instrument (get to that in a sec), I was accepted into the Amsterdam Conservatory of Music (Pop-Piano), which I nished in four-and-a-half years (some personal problems caused a half-year delay) without EVER needing the skill of sight-reading. Not once. Am I that talented? No. Sure, I suppose I am what you might call a 'musical' person, and yes, I might even have some amount of talent (it might get a little tricky getting accepted into a Music BA if you don't have the slightest bit of talent), but mostly I blame it on the fact that I gured how to 'hack' the piano. And music in general, for that matter. I saw the logic. Understood it's 'construction'. Really understood it. And saw that it was actually quite easy. To play pop-music, whether on the piano, or any other instrument, you don't need sheet music or sightreading skills. If youll let me, and are really motivated to do this, to learn how to play real music yourself, I'll show you exactly how it's done.
First and foremost.

Ive written and produced this book, course, to teach anybody, despite age, musical knowledge of experience with any instrument whatsoever, how to understand and play the piano. All information, exercises, tips, tricks and examples are carefully crafted in a way so that you, the reader, can reach this goal in the fastest, most efcient way possible. In spite of the fact that -if the whole course and all its instructions are accurately followed and completedyou will also be able to play 'classical' pieces, the emphasis here lies on learning how to play POP-music: your favorite song, the tune everybody knows, that song she sings so beautifully. Learning how to play in the 'conventional' way, would mean rst learning how to sight-read (read classical musical notation) by working your way through Piano for beginners-books 1 to 10, lled with obligatory, often boring and unknown pieces, before youd -nally- learn to play anything you actually want to play. Most people following this path give up before even reaching 'book 2'. Ai... What a shame. And very recognizable. The exact same thing happened to me. Fortunately, 14 years after my 'crash and burn' piano-adventure as a kid, there came a day when I couldn't resist the temptation to go and sit at the piano that was still standing in the living room of my parents home, to gure out the instrument all over again. The signicant difference, besides my age, increased love for music and level of persistence, was the fact that this time, I taught myself how to truly tame both the piano and music in general. Unfortunately, the lessons from my early childhood had been totally erased from my memory. Well... unfortunately? Maybe exactly because they had, because I had to start all over again, stubborn as I am, I forced myself into nding a way outside of the ordinary paths, leading me into this musical journey that became such a totally different, mighty experience. All the relevant ndings of my 11 years of playing- and piano experiences, a journey that has taken me from absolute beginner to my Bachelor of Music from the Amsterdam Conservatory, professional music-teacher, (session-)musician, keyboardist, producer, composer, piano player and singer-songwriter are captured in this book. All the mistakes, the irrelevancies and superuousnesses to learn how to actually play, that I myself have made, found, done and waisted my time on, are left out, to prevent you from doing the same; from doing shit you dont want to.You dont have to. This way, out the chaos of music theories, piano-methods, opinions of many different of my fellow-musiciancolleagues and -teachers and of course my own experience, I ltered only the essence. The most relevant and 'Effective Dose' of piano to create this course. A course for learning how to play real music. A course for learning Pop-Piano. I am a Pop-Pianist. I never practiced songs I didnt like and did not want to play. I never needed any sheet music. To learn how to to play like a pop-musician, you need to learn to approach music and your instrument like a pop-musician. Have you ever seen your favorite artist or idol look at sheet music while playing? Exactly. It is possible to play brilliantly without ever having to read a single note. Without ever having to play pieces you don't actually want to play and without learning 'dusty', boring theory. Let's play what you want to play.
'Practice', the rst of a few nal notes.

If you follow the instructions and tips in this course strictly and precise, Ill guarantee you'll reach both your musical goal and desired level in the least time possible. There are a few upfront warnings though, that need to be taken into account before taking off and kept in mind during your journey. The rst of those (or actually, second, if you count the above jibber-jabber about not needing sheet music and sight-reading skills) is that this course is meant for the 99.99999% of the population that can call themselves 'musical mortal': ranging from the absolute beginner to the more advanced musician and everybody in between. If however, at age 4 you were already capable of making Beethoven jealous of your piano-skills: cherish your talent, crush all those major concert halls, leave every spectator in shear amazement and never forget: enjoy the shit out of it. This course is not for you. Apart from this 0.00001% of the population that sees piano as a second nature though, everybody, without exception, will have to practice to reach his or her desired level. To be fair actually, even those prodigys needed their fair share of practice to get that good... On a lighter note, take the small part that I'll be describing as exercises, study and 'practicing' seriously, but at the same time try to take it easy and dont create a mountain out of what really is just a little molehill. 'Practicing' in this course, actually comes down to 'playing' in a way that is both fun and educational. Fun and effectiveness are the 'core values' of this course, so to speak. Always remember that nobody can play the piano 'all of a sudden'. Even the 'Mozarts' and all other before mentioned famous pianist, needed their fair share of effective practice to actually start playing 'good'. When any of them sat down at the piano for the very rst time, he/she too couldn't play. Its very simple: The better youll practice, the better youll get. Never let anything get-, or anyone talk you down.You too, can learn how to play the piano.
The 'Effective Dose' and superuousnesses.

My method(s) (including this very book; course, its exercises and suggested way of practicing) are built around and upon the Effective Dose -> learn as much as possible in as little time possible. This is done by yes, you guessed it- being EFFECTIVE (and efcient). This implies: 1. Less is more, to start with a nice clich. In other words: dont overdo it. Do EXACTLY that which triggers what I like to call the spark: The exact moment of maximum growth; and then quit. Ill show you when and where to nd it later on. 2. Faster is NOT better. Sure, youd like to go fast. Lightning fast. Id also like to be able to lift 200 kilograms (440lbs) but if Id do that tomorrow, Ill brake my back. Picture someone skimming though a highly educational, 200-page book -for which he or she has an exam the next day- in one hour and call that study. Id bet my money on him/her failing the test. In practicing music, we want to go exactly at the pace and the tempo, that separates doable from undoable. 99% of the exercises Ill hand you, work best when performed SLOWLY. Because we are going to VISUALIZE a lot, remembering forms, patterns, constructions and distances (called intervals in music). Theyll just sink in better that way; slowly. This will probably be the hardest point to stick to. Everybody wants to go to fast. Control yourself on this one and youll have an almost unfair advantage over 99% of your fellow students. 3. PRACTICE implies you are trying to LEARN something (wether a completely new skill, or the improvement of an already owned skill) and you can only learn something that you CANNOT yet do / do not yet know. Playing a song that you can already play perfectly ne for a full two hours, means youve practiced exactly 0 minutes. FIRST do that what is referred to as the Effective Dose of study-material in the Effective Dose of set study time (starting with as little as 10 minutes a day) and only then, AFTERWARDS, play your favorite songs and ddle around the keys. 4. Every repetition counts. This means that MISTAKES are BAD.Ya, duh! No, Im kidding. The thing is, youll indeed learn from your mistakes. Make the mistake. Learn from it. BUT... NEVER repeat it. Repeating mistakes will make them sink in, make them your own, a habit, e.g. will teach you the mistake, just as repeating a good thing will make you master the good thing (which of course, in the case of a good thing, is exactly what you want). Unlearning mistakes costs time and is no fun. Trust me. Fix the mistake right after youve made it. 5. Were learning building blocks. Chunks. In stead of learning just one specic tune (which is the case with classical and conventional pianotraining), were always focussing on learning things that can be (re-)used in ANY and EVERY song. Were trying to build a strong foundation. A grab bag of skills that you can use in any song, to play any song, however you want to. To be free on the piano. The maximum amount of results is acquired by doing exercises that build a strong 'foundation'; learning in chunks and thereby creating a wide 'vocabulary'. Think of learning a language, where every new word can be (re-)used in many different sentences. The more words you know, the faster you can build different sentences, which then become the chunks youll be focussing on. The more sentences you know the faster they will help you build conversations. Its about logic, context, coherence, relationships and connections. Youll learn a broad musical vocabulary. And youll speak. Oh will you speak. 6. I wont teach you everything and Ill simplify things to make them easier to grasp. As said, this method is meant to make you truly understand how music works and how to be able to throw out your emotions using the piano, playing anything you want. This doesnt mean you need to know how to decompose a Fuga and it also means that youll be ne with just knowing one of the 10
different names for a specic musical term or just the one way to gure something out whilst there may be 20 different roads that lead to the same goal. To make a decent dish, you dont need to know the Latin name of every herb, how to grow every green or the best way to catch the sh youre about to prepare. Im going to show you how to cook the dish and enjoy it. Youll know everything you need. If the above points sound like jibber-jabber to you now, dont worry, it will all follow itself. Practicing in the most efcient way means practicing exactly that, which is most relevant for you at a specic time. This implies doing (an) exercise(s) that will raise your overall level as a pianist and will make you play everything a little better. Nothing less, but also certainly nothing more. Playing the piano should be seen as exercising, just like in sports. Practicing the piano should therefore be seen as nothing less than serious training, both physically and mentally. Like with training in sports, it's not very wise to immediately start with that which is your end goal (for instance running 26 miles, lifting 400 pounds or whatever your goal might be). To get the best and fastest results and prevent injury it's best to steadily head towards your goal with easyto-manage, small steps. Often this is contrary to what one might feel or believe, so try and remind yourself of this fact every now and then. Do what is suggested and then stop. Don't ever skip it, always nish it, but equally important: don't exceed it, don't over-do it. Both the physical 'over-training' of your hands and ngers, which can (and probably will) cause injuries, as well as the 'information overload' in your brain, that will interfere with optimal remembrance, will stagnate your growth, in stead of speed it up. Injuries, wether physical or in your brain, will force you to pause your 'training' to rehabilitate, and will slow down the learning curve. On top of that, of course, nobody is keen on getting injured in any way, right? The information in this course, that will be saved into your (muscle-)memory, will stick way better when it is 'consumed' and practiced in small, accessible 'bites' and at a slow pace. Slow pace' here stands for a tempo (of a song) that is barely low enough for you to manage when really putting in some effort. We're looking for the dividing line in tempo, between 'difcult but doable' and 'to fast', where the latter would be the tempo causing you to constantly 'crash' (make mistakes). A very important extra note to this tempo advice is this: everything you rehearse, will be remembered and become a 'habit'. In other words: if you try and learn a new skill, and practice (repeat) it correctly, you'll learn how to do it that way: correct. This 'correct' way will be saved as being your 'habit'. Mistakes, however, when being made over and over again (even a few times), will also be 'saved' and become bad 'habits'. I probably don't have to tell you that changing a bad habit is a tedious process, that is rather to be avoided by not creating it in the rst place. So, always try to repeat the correct thing and avoid repeating mistakes too often. Try to nd this ne line between 'difcult' (where you manage to play it correctly when truly putting in your effort) or 'too difcult', but never cross it! Sticking to this advice may prove to be the most difcult, yet most valuable part of this course.
Effective Dose of Time.

I advise to always start with practicing exactly that what's both highly relevant and effective: 'efcient practice' for 10 minutes a day. 10 minutes a day here is the 'Effective Dose' of study time. This short period of daily study time will both have the highest impact on your progress, limit the chance of failure (giving up) to the very least, as that it will eliminate the chance of getting injured. Even when -physically- you might be capable of practicing more than 10 minutes a day (maybe you have some previous experience playing the piano), I strongly advice to rst getting (back) into a 'rhythm' of 10 minutes daily, in stead of -for instance- practicing once a week for two hours straight.
This 'Effective Dose' of 10 daily minutes proves to be the most effective scheme to maximize the saving capacity of your (muscle-)memory, putting the speed of your progress in overdrive mode. I also like to treat this part of our Effective Dose as a 'psychological motivator': - 10 minutes a day is a very short period of time. Anybody that is truly looking to succeed in this task of learning Pop-Piano, should be able to free these few minutes, every day. If not, I don't think you're motivated enough.
Tips for freeing 10 minutes a day.

Get up 10 minutes earlier; go to bed 10 minutes later; skip one 'friendly' phone-call a day; don't watch that boring television show (this could possibly even save you about 3 hours+); 'practice' while traveling (more on this later); drink 1 less cup of coffee (or drink it behind the piano); take 10 minutes of your 'browsing the internet for fun or out of boredom' (for instance watch 1-3 fewer youtube video's, or stop checking Facebook every other minute); look at your daily scheme and nd some other unfullling thing you tend to do too often and either stop doing it (yes!) or do it for 10 minutes less.
- Because of the fact that it's a daily routine, to go and sit behind the piano will very soon start to feel like a smaller and smaller step to take. It will simply become one of those fullling AND fun things to do in your day. - When followed correctly and with the little amount of discipline required, the effect on your progress will be HUGE. This will cause the most important thing: the fun, pleasure and enjoyment of playing the piano, to grow as well. Fun and efciency. That's what its all about, remember? As you'll progress through the course, you'll notice that along with your increasing knowledge, technical skills and experience, you'll also be starting to get more enthusiasm, endurance and fun out of it and you'll be able to steadily increase your piano-study-time (without all the negative side-effects mentioned). When your motivation to learn more and get better is high and practicing for just 10 minutes a day seems short and easily sustainable after the rst week, this is my advised schedule to follow for increasing pianotime:
1 minute extra a week.

After 1 week: 11 minutes a day. After 2 weeks: 12 minutes a day. After 3 weeks: 13 minutes a day. etc. FIRST MAKE IT TO 10 MINUTES A DAY, EVERY DAY, FOR A WHOLE WEEK STRAIGHT! If you haven't made that happen, you're not ready to increase yet.
Structure: Practice traps and xes.

Maybe the most important part of the Effective Dose, is that 'Effective' here, stands for: FIRST do (practice) that what you cannot yet do. What you can NOT do is the thing you want to focus on learning, and that should always have your utmost priority when you want to get better at something.
Now this may sound quite logical to most of you, but in fact it appears to be one of the most difcult points to stick to, for almost every one of the many students I've taught over the years. Below, I indicate the most common mistakes, and how to prevent them step by step.
Minor upfront dont-worry-take-it-easy-caution regarding the following one-page lecture below:

Keep in mind that, below this warning, I'm talking about lling the Effective Dose-time of PRACTICE. 'Practice' in this matter, translates best into: Doing exactly that which will make your skills grow (make you better) as fast as possible. So when I tell you not to play anything else until you nished practicing the earlier step ('nished practicing' meaning 'learned -> being able to do the thing you could not do before'), take into account that I'm not saying youre never allowed to play anything else, Im saying to start with whats actually relevant to get better and use that in your 'Effective Dose' time of practice. If you want to hammer out some weird Jingle-Bell-improvisation afterwards, of course that's ne. Hammer away and play whatever you want, but do it AFTERWARDS!
Common mistakes and xes:
1. Starting with the thing you can already do.

Doing the thing you can already do, wether you feel like you still want to improve it, or just play it for fun, will NOT make you a better pianist in the most efcient way (of course every minute that you spend behind the piano will improve your playing, but not by the large steps we're aiming for here). Starting with the thing you can already play, is the number one mistake made in practice. First do what you need to do: that what you cannot yet do. If you choose to strictly stick to this advice alone, this will give you an advantage over 95% of people who are trying to learn piano (or any other instrument).
2. Thinking you can do something, that actually, you cannot (yet) do. Going (on) to fast.
You can play something, when you can play it in the tempo youre aiming for (either the actual tempo, or a slowed down version to t your current level), without hiccups, stops, hesitations (!!) and without mistakes. In other words: awless. I'll get back to you on this point, because it is very, very important, yet another way-too-often overlooked point in piano-practice. Dont go (too) fast(er), too soon. If you cant keep up and do make mistakes: go a little slower.
3. Ignoring the fact that you cannot (yet) do one thing, and continue with the next. Going on to fast by lack of discipline.
Wether you tend to go on doing something more difcult, playing faster or just something completely different, before actually being able to awlessly do the step before: try rst to focus on the thing you cannot do and have some patience to really learning that, before continuing. Dont give up too easily.
Important side note to point 2 and 3: Keep it fun.

If you start to hate the exercise that you just cant seem to ace (there wont be many, but): dont spend the next 4 weeks biting dust. Switch to another exercise, but do realize that hate is a big word. Try and put
some effort in before giving up to easily.
Side note 2:
There are things that are just too difcult to learn in a single session. Set aside time blocks (for instance 1 minute, 5 minutes, etc.) for these things that youre really struggling with and do them every day for that set block of time. Stop after the time block, even though you might not be able to play whatever youre practicing awlessly yet. Note that, on the other hand, there almost always IS a tempo in which you CAN play it. Stick to that tempo. Slowly. Dont make to many mistakes. Dont go too fast to soon.
4. The ip-side: Over-rehearsing and not realizing, that by learning a thing you cannot yet do, the things you can already do, get better as well.
There comes a point, when you can play something. It is very important that you learn to recognize this point. 'Can play' = being able to play without mistakes, in the original or desired tempo. If you can play it awless three times in a row but hiccup at the fourth try, this does not mean you cannot yet play it. People make mistakes. Don't sweat it. If you play it awless, but when you listen to a recoding of yourself you think that the 'feel' might be a bit off, the timing on that one note isn't perfect yet or you should have put more expression in that one accent: great, work on it some other time. All of these things and all of the things that you can already do, will improve too when you learn something new, something more difcult. In other words: this mistake no 4. actually comes down to making mistake 1. again: when you think you should practice something, that in fact you can already do, you'll actually be starting with the thing you can already do. It's a circle. Start with what needs to be done. Focus on it. Ace it. Make it awless. Don't over-do it. Keep it fun.
Superuousnesses - An upfront caution.

As I already told you, this is no regular piano-course. This is an unconventional piano-course. A Pop-Piano course. As 'fun / entertainment' and 'efciency' have top priority here, we are going to focus on: Gaining as much fun as possible to you, the reader. Fun here is -for one- achieved by ensuring the greatest possible steps are made in your learning-curve, while ensuring the highest level of entertainment. This works both ways, as the high level of entertainment will enlarge your commitment, that will in turn help in enlarging the big learning-steps taken. The fast progress in learning on its part, fuels the entertainment. Eliminating (or at least: reducing, to the very least possible time spent on**) the 'aches' and negative sides of learning: doing things that you don't actually want to do. This includes, but is not limited to: 'studying' in the conventional sense of the word, 'learning' in the conventional sense of the word, doing boring exercises and -most IMPORTANT- waisting time on learning stuff that you're never going to use anyway. A very great deal in constructing this book; course, in a way that it would t those two points described above like the glove that I liked it to, came by rst collecting. Collecting and then collecting some more. When I thought I couldn't collect more, I collected some extra's. Then came the moment of crafting all this
information into that what needed to become this high-fun, highly effective end-product: the moment of eliminating superuousnesses. The thing I'm going to warn you about now, is that I myself am the one who decided on what is, and what isn't superuous for learning how to play. On the other hand, I think my experience sorta gives me the right to say that I'm quite capable of deciding this. However, I feel obliged to give you this warning upfront, to prevent you from continuing and afterwards realizing this wasn't for you after all. I dont want to waist your time. When I started this project I was looking to fabricate a book / method, that would: - Teach any- and everybody that is interested enough (ranging from the complete piano nitwit, to those who can already actually play, but are interested in learning in WHAT exactly they are doing* to gain more freedom on the instrument) how the piano works. How music works. - Teach everything, no more and no less, that is necessary to truly understand and play pop-piano. - Do this in the fastest way possible. This meant that -and yes, here comes the actual warning- I had to leave out some stuff. The thing is, there's an awful lot of 'stuff' in the 'learning-music-journey, that is in fact superuous for actually PLAYING. When I rst started to play, I wasn't a music-theory expert. Not by a stretch. Nor did I particularly cared to be. Wanted to be. Because I could play. I knew what I had to know to play. In music, you can always learn more, but I decided to pick out what is best to learn rst. What is essential. What is necessary. In regard to this point, there might be musicians, teachers, music-theorists etc. that might respond to certain parts of this book, in some way similar to: "Well, that's an awfully easy way of putting it.", "That's not the whole story.", "That's theoretically not the 100% correct way of putting it.", "..but what about.", "..that's not how to ofcially call it!", "have you thought about this and that alternative?" and so on. Yes. I have thought about EVERY alternative. No. This is not a 'Complete Music-Theory'. There are plenty of those out there already.Yes, sometimes I simplied, because the simple version perfectly sufces and yes, there is more. In music, there's always more. That's one of the many beauties of it. However, this is ALL you actually need to start playing. Like a pro.Yes. A pro. Pro's see beyond theory. They use tricks. They use logic. They see. I extracted the best of my tricks, my logic, my mindset and vision out of my knowledge of music and the keys. It works. Like a charm. I know there's more than what I decided to put in this course (although, to be fair, were going to get pretty advanced in later chapters). I also know that to learn how to play like a pro, you won't ever actually NEED more than what is to be found right here at your ngertips, here in this very book. Once you're there, at a level of playing like a pro, you can contact me for a follow-up course. There's always more. Do you want to become a music-theory-analyst, or do you want to learn how to play the piano? These are the essentials. See ya in a year or 15.
Experience: Summary and nal instructions before take-off.

Somebody who has never touched a piano before, might of course require a little different information and exercises than those that already have some experience with playing. When you are not an absolute beginner, you dont necessarily need to start at chapter 1 and / or exactly follow along the order of the chapters. You can use this course as sort of a cookbook, extracting, reading, practicing and cooking the recipes you think are relevant to you: doing the exercises and reading the info that you feel youd benet from. Throughout the whole course, at the start of every chapter, is clearly indicated: the level of playing it is suited for, the subject of the chapter, what will be learnt and what knowledge / skills you should already have to tackle it. When you decide to skip a certain chapter, however easy it may seem to you, please do bear in mind that repeating valuable info has never hurt a soul. There might just be a something hidden in there that you didnt know yet, or had forgotten. The better you know the basics, the faster youll be able to become advanced. So, to summarize all the above: - Always remember the rules of the Effective Dose: more isnt better, learning is about acquiring something that you CANNOT yet do / know, forge a strong foundation by learning in chunks and building a wide, re-usable vocabulary. Oh, yeah, a tiny little bit of discipline might come in handy too ;). - Play slowly: never go to fast, to soon. - Always do it, never over-do it -> stick to 10 minutes of practice a day, which can be elevated by 1 minute a week. - FIRST do whats relevant. Save the keyboard-fooling-around for afterwards. Stick to the rules and this course will deliver its maximum results, as promised. Recovering from injuries, wether physical or mentally sucks, will waist days or even weeks to recovery and is the last thing we want to accomplish. 10 minutes a day. First that whats necessary, then the fooling around. Play slowly. The fun will be way bigger. In this book, course, the word Piano is being used to indicate the instrument were learning.When no additional remarks are made Piano here stands for: any keyboard instrument whatsoever (grand piano, wall piano, acoustic piano, electric piano, any kind of keyboard, organ, synthesizer, clavinet, harpsichord etc.), meaning you could use any keyboard instrument you please for following along this course. I chose the word piano for the sake of clarity and convenience, to avoid having to continuously name different kinds of keyboard instruments. When something is only relevant for a specic keyboard, it will be indicated. *most people that learned how to play in the conventional 'classical' way, are only able to 'regurgitate' written notes from sheet music (which often also means they can only play when they actually have these sheets), without understanding anything about the musical depth of the notes they are playing, their meaning, harmonic relationships etc.. They 'play' without having a clue what they are actually doing and can therefore never 'take an alternative route', improvise or play something a little different. **it remains important to realize that by starting this adventure, you in fact ARE trying to learn a new skill. Obviously, no new skill can be gained with no effort at all.You will need to practice.
Part 1. Basic Knowledge

1.1. Basic knowledge: Theory. The basics are the foundation of all that is advanced, so lets start at the beginning. Terms and knowledge: The keyboard, keys, notes, tones, names of the different keys and their corresponding tones, octave, harmony, melody. Style: All Level: Elementary
Keys and the keyboard.

When you look at the piano, youll see quite a lot of black and white, oblong objects. The blacks are shorter and higher, the whites are longer and lower. These black and white pieces are called the keys of the piano. In pop-music, when somebody plays the piano, he or she is therefore also referred to as the keyboardist or he/she who plays the keys. The structure of the keyboard is the same on every keyboard instrument*. All those keys together form what is called the keyboard. This name keyboard can both stand for the specic instrument called a keyboard as for the before mentioned row of keys on a keyboard instrument (for example a piano, a synthesizer, organ etc.). A regular piano (grand piano or acoustic/wall piano) has a keyboard with 88 keys, counting both white and black keys. In other keyboards (synthesizers, organs or other types of keyboards) this number can vary. 73, 61, 41 or 25 keys are common. When you take a close look at the keyboard, you might notice that there is a repeating pattern of groups of 3 black keys and then 2 blacks, alternating. This pattern is your visual reference on the keyboard -a thing that will be will be very important throughout this book/course- so its very important to take very close note of this fact.
EXERCISE 1
Take a close look at the keyboard and make sure that the structure of the keyboard: 3 blacks, 2 blacks, really sinks in. Take close note and store this recurring pattern in your mind.
Tones, names and sounds.

All the keys on the keyboard represent a specic tone* or note*. These two words will be used interchangeably. The further to the right side of the keyboard a key is pressed (e.g. a tone/note is played) the higher the tone thatll be produced will sound. The more to the left, the lower the note. So when, in music, were talking about playing higher, or going up thats to the right side of the keyboard. To go lower or down youll go left. As said, by pressing a key youre playing a note. Every note has its own specic sound.
EXERCISE 2 Play a few random notes (press a few random keys) and listen carefully how every key produces its very own, unique sound. Can you hear that, the more to the right you play, the higher the tones get? If this isnt obvious to you, try and sing the notes you are playing, while gradually going higher: moving to the right side of the keyboard. This way youll soon notice that singing along becomes quite difcult.
The white key that is positioned right below (to the left) of a group of 2 black keys (highlighted in red in the above image) is called c.
Moving to the next group of 2 black keys by either going up- or down 7 white keys youll nd a white key, looking exactly the same (because it is again positioned right below a group of 2 blacks). That white key is again called a c. In fact, all white keys positioned right below a group of two blacks, are called c.
The distance between two of the same notes -in this example, between two cs is called an octave (or scale), coming from the latin word octo, meaning eight. -> there are 8 notes in an octave. So, going up one octave means going up 7 steps from a specic key -> walking up until you reach that same key again. All cs also sound very similar all over the keyboard, only higher (more to the right) or lower (to the left). Its not just cs that repeat all over the keyboard. As the visual pattern on the keyboard repeats, the names of the notes repeat as well. This way, in stead of 88 different notes (the amount of keys on a regular- or grand piano) there are just 7 different names for white keys, which correspond with the rst seven letters from the alphabet: a, b, c, d, e, f and g. Ah. Logics and ease. Nice.
The names of the black keys are derived from the name of the white key they are next to. As black keys are in between two white keys, and thus next to two different white keys, they can also be named two different ways and in fact indeed have two names. In my method, either one is ne and will be used interchangeably.
First, the black keys can be named by adding a # (sharp) to the white key to their left (or, in other words, by going up / to the right from their white, left neighbor). This results in c#, pronounced c-sharp being the black key right above the c. D# is d-sharp, positioned right above the d, f# is f-sharp, positioned above the f, g-sharp (g#) is the black key above the g and a-sharp (a#) is found above the a. Secondly, the black keys can be named by adding a (or b; pronounced as at) to the note they are under (naming them after the note that is to their right / above them).
This way the black key right below the d is called db (d-at), the black key below (to the left of) the g is the gb (g-at), etc.
So, gb (g-at) is in fact THE SAME key as f# (f-sharp), db=c#, eb = d# etc. Theyre just names. If they confuse you right now, dont pay to much attention to them for now and just make sure you try and at least learn to remember the names of the white keys. As blacks are simply derived (same names with an addition) theyll follow accordingly.
Names of the keys, summarized.

- The names of the white keys are: a, b, c, d, e, f and g. - All black keys have 2 names: - Seen from the white key to their left (the white key that is situated below the black key) theyre called # = sharp. For example, the black key thats situated to the right of (above) the f is called f# (f-sharp). - Seen from the white key situated to their right (the white key above the black key) theyre called = at. For example, the black key situated to the left (below) the g is called g (g-at) (this will also be notated as gb). - So, for instance, the f-sharp and g-at are in fact the SAME note. - The most important key to remember for this moment is the c: the key thats highlighted in red (the white key right below, to the left, of a group of two black keys). This will be our reference point to start remembering the rest of the keys.
EXERCISE 3 Play the c and say its name out loud. Next, play the white key above it (to the right) and say its name too (d), after that the e, then the f and the g (just like the alphabet). To the right of the g is the a, b and c etc. again. The most important thing is to play SLOWLY and look very thoroughly. Really try to soak it up.
Harmony, melody and the might of the chords.

In music we distinguish harmony* and melody*. The harmony can be dened as being the carpet or background that originate from multiple (two or more) notes sounding together. The melody is the succession of notes that form the foreground in a song. Simply put: in pop-music, the melody often is that what is sung (the vocal line) and the harmony that what is played by the instruments*. On the piano, we can of course play a succession of single notes to create a melody, but because its also possible to play multiple notes at the same time (strike multiple keys simultaneously) we as pianists, are also able to play harmonies all by ourselves. This in contrast to, for example a trumpet, on which only one note at a time can be played. So on its own this instrument could never play a harmony. On the piano, we can even play both harmony and melody simultaneously. Melodies originate from harmonies. How exactly this works and also, that this statement might be a little short sighted (yet illustrative enough for this moment), will become clearer along the way. Nevertheless, you could say that the harmony is the foundation supporting the construction of melodies.
In Hack the Piano I therefore decided not to start with single-note melodies, like is the approach in conventional methods. This often results in very limited- to no understanding at all, of cohesion and context of musical constructions, which in its part, results in your melodies, however dainty, being completely unfounded. Here well learn piano (and music) with a solid foundation as our base, starting with harmonies. On this solid foundation we can then safely start building beautiful constructions. Youll soon see that by starting with this harmony-approach, logics and contexts will start to become clear that will simplify playing the piano enormously. A chord are multiple notes, played and sounding together. In other words, a chord is a harmony. Because were tackling piano and music through a harmony-approach, these chords are going to be the rst building blocks well be using to lay our strong foundation for learning music. Chords are a really useful tool for learning pop-music theory, to gain insight in music and the piano, easily remember songs and for a lot more. Starting to build at the foundation also seems kinda... logic, right?
EXERCISE 4 - Simultaneously play the notes c, e and g* with your right hand, by using your thumb to play middle c (the c in the middle of the keyboard), your middle nger to play the e (two white keys above the c) and your pinky to play the g above that. This chord is called the C chord, or simply C.
- Now play the same notes, only one octave down, with your left hand. Notice that you are playing the same form only one octave lower on the keyboard. To play this same form with your left hand, use your pinky to play the c, your middle nger to play the e and your thumb to play the g. - Play this C chord with your left hand and hold it (keep the keys pressed down). Then, while holding this chord with your left hand, use your right hand to play the notes c, d, e, c, AFTER ONE ANOTHER. - Youve just played your very rst harmony + melody! (Frere Jaques / Brother John / Are you sleeping).
Summary
- The keyboard is the part of the piano that is used for playing. It consist of white and black keys. - The more to the right side of the keyboard youre playing, the higher the tones will sound. The more to the left, the lower theyll be. To the right is therefore called up, to the left is down. - There is a repeating visual pattern in the keyboard consisting of groups of black keys: 2 black keys alternated with 3 black keys. 2 blacks, 3 blacks, etc. - The names of the white keys are a, b, c, d, e, f and g, just like the alphabet. When youd start on the c and go up (to the right) youll get to the d, then the e, f, g, a, b and then youd get back to c again. - The black keys have 2 different names, for they can be named either after the white key the are situated above (adding a # or sharp) or from the white key they are below (adding a or at). This way the note d# (d-sharp) is the same note as the eb (e-at). - The distance between 2 of the same keys that are nearest apart is called an octave. After each octave, both the visual pattern of the keyboard and the names of the keys repeat over again. - The harmony is the base, the carpet or foundation of a song, which is created by two or more tones sounding simultaneously. In pop music, often this is that what is being played by the instruments* (bass, keys, guitar). - The melody is a succession of single notes that form the foreground, lead or main-line. In pop music this often is the singing line or the hook, the catchy tune that sticks in your mind.* - A chord is formed by multiple notes sounding together. In other words, a chord is a harmony. In the Theory part of Hack the Piano youll learn all about chords and how to use them to really get insight and understand how music works, to learn how to play Pop-Piano like a pro in an easy, fast and highly effective.
Terms and Concepts

*Acoustic = non-electric/non-amplied. Examples of acoustic instruments are: the regular-/wall-piano, acoustic guitar, double bass, trumpet, violin etc. *Grand Piano = that big at piano that has the shape of a harp. In classical- and jazz concerts there the standard. A few pop-musicians that usually use them on-stage, among many others: Alicia Keys, Elton John, Jamie Cullum, Billy Jol, Bruce Hornsby, Tori Amos, Freddy Mercury, Stevie Wonder, John Legend. *Tone/ note = the sound that is produced by pressing down a key. *Chord = multiple notes sounding simultaneously. Throughout Hack the Piano, chords will be indicated using a CAPITAL LETTER. *Harmony = more than one note sounding at the same time. The harmony is the carpet or background of a song. *Melody = a succession of single notes. The melody often forms the foreground or main line of a song. Throughout Hack the Piano, melodies (single notes) will be indicated using lower case letters. * Its certainly not always the case in pop-music that all the harmonies are being played by instruments and melodies are always sung. There are many exceptions to this statement. Harmonies, too, can be sung (imagine choirs) and of course, instruments can play melodies (think of a leadguitar a guitar- or piano-solo). For claritys sake at this moment, and to have an easy-to-grasp example, I decided to indicate what is common -> the melody sung, the harmony played by the instruments.
1.2.1. Basic knowledge: Technique, ngering. Terms and concepts: Fingering Style: All Level: Elementary Although Technique is in fact sort of an important aspect of playing the piano, it is also often over-rated. A good technique will follow accordingly, by practicing the theoretical things youve learnt. As long as you know the basics and stick to those, all will be ne. Never go to fast, to soon. Always play right at the tempo-limit of your capabilities of playing awlessly. The basics are vital. The rest will follow accordingly.
Numbers and efciency.

5 ngers x 2 hands. How to use em?
To simplify which nger were talking about at a specic moment, theyre numbered as shown in the image above. We start counting at the thumb (1) up to the pinky (5). Thumb = 1 Index nger = 2 Middle nger = 3 Ring nger = 4 Pinky = 5
This applies in the same way for both the left and the right hand!
At the start, playing the piano can often be quite a struggle with the ngers. Which nger are you supposed to use for which key? Actually, there are no strict rules here. More like guidelines. That said, when you try to stick to these guidelines as much as possible, youll soon start to notice that your playing will start to go easier, more uently, faster and due to of all of that -and most importantly- sound better. De main guideline well be trying to stick to -both for playing chords and single notes- is to try and place our ngers as efciently as possible. This implies moving your hands around as little as possible, by placing your ngers on keys that they (are going to) play, as soon as possible. Always try and position your hand in a way that allows you to play as many notes from the song as possible, without having to move your hand from that position. To accomplish this, you should always try and think ahead -> What key am I going to play next and is it possible to already place a nger on that key?. As an example, lets take another look at EXERCISE 4 from the previous chapter. In that exercise we were playing the tune Frere Jacques (also called Brother John or Are you sleeping in English), a French nursery song that, because of its simplicity, lends itself perfectly for clarication.
EXERCISE 1 Lets st take a look at the left hand. This was simultaneously playing the notes c, e and g (the C chord*).
When, as indicated here, the ngering for this chord is 5, 3, 1, this means: Play the c with your 5 (pinky) Play the e with your 3 (middle nger) Play the g with your 1 (thumb) Now, lets take a look at the right hand.
This was playing the notes c, d, e, c (are-you-slee-ping), after one another. Lets repeat this sequence 2x and then add e, f, g (bro-ther-John). So the complete the melody now is: c, d, e, c; c, d, e, c; e, f, g; (e, f, g). When wed start with our thumb (1) on the c and put a nger on every key well be playing above it (the index (1) on the d, the middle (3) on the e, the ring (4) on the f and the pinky (5) on the g) youll see that its actually really easy to stick to the following ngering, for there is already a nger on every correct key: 1, 2, 3, 1; 1, 2, 3, 1; 3, 4, 5; (3, 4, 5). This way you can play the entire tune, without moving your hand one bit!
NOTE:
For the stubborn among us.

If at this moment, this seems harder than when you do move your hand: trust me, this is a matter of a short period of getting used to using all of your ngers correctly. Very soon this way of ngering will make playing a lot easier and in its turn, make you a better player. Try and stick to these instructions strictly from the very start to start harvesting its fruits in the shortest amount of time possible. The ring nger (4) and pinky (5) are the weakest ngers. This goes for everybody. Because of their natural weakness, you might be inclined to avoid using them, while -in fact- using them as much as possible, will give them the strengthening they need to develop correctly. In short: try not to avoid them, try to use them as much as possible. Summary. - The ngers are numbered: 1 = thumb, 2 = index nger, 3 = middle nger, 4 = ring nger, 5 = pinky. This applies in the same way for both the left- and the right hand. - Always try and place your hand (ngers) in the most efcient way possible. This means choosing a hand position that allows you to play as many notes from the song, without having to move your hand. Key to achieving this is to think ahead: Which note(s) am I going to play next and could I already place a nger on one or more of those?. - In regard to the two points above: always try to use all of your ngers. This means, although they are weaker and might therefore feel a bit uncomfortable at rst, using your ring nger and pinky too. Because of their weakness they actually need more training than your other ngers, so therefore you should in fact use them as much as possible, in stead of avoiding them. On top of that: once they loose their backlog in strength and youll be able to use them just as easily as your other ngers, this will simplify and improve your playing signicantly. *for further explanation about chords, refer to the chordchapters from the Theory-part of Hack the Piano.
1.2.2. Basic knowledge: Technique, posture and the instrument. Terms and concepts: Touch (/touch), dynamics, sustain pedal, posture Style: All Level: Elementary Now that we know how the keyboard is structured, a few more technical know-hows about how the instrument functions and how to use them to your advantage.
Touch / Touch.
As I already mentioned, its virtually impossible to strike a key in the wrong way. At most, you can hit the wrong key, meaning a key you did not intend to hit. On the other hand, there are in fact a couple of different ways of pressing down the keys, that can make major differences in the way theyll sound. Use them correctly and your playing will start to really come alive.
Dynamics:
A key can be pressed, struck, hit, slammed or touched with many different velocities, from very hard to really soft and everything in between. The harder youll strike, the louder the tone will sound, but also, depending on the velocity that you strike the key with, the color or character of the tone changes. The harder you strike, the more open, clear and bright the tone will sound. Contrarily, the closer youll get to the soft end of the striking spectrum, the more mufed, round and warm the tone will be. Dynamics is the difference in velocity (affecting volume and color) of the different notes you play in a song. Next to which keys youre playing, this is the most important expression tool in playing the piano. Playing louder (striking harder) can easily cause an overwhelming, upset, harsh, intense, mad, climactic, fresh, open, bright, excited/ing etc. kind of feel. On the other hand, playing softer will cause your expression coming from the instrument to be more intimate, warm, mysterious, sweet, dreamy or comparable sort of emotions. Some keyboards dont have touch sensitivity and wont respond in the same way as a real piano does. With these keyboards, the tones will sound similarly loud and also, wont change character. If youre looking to play piano (as opposed to, for example organ or synthesizer) but due to space or budget limitation, cannot afford a real piano (acoustic-, wall-, or grand-piano), keep an eye out for keyboards that offer the feature of touch sensitivity.
Length of notes:
A key can be played, pressed down, anywhere from really short (named staccato) to very long (legato) and all thats in between. At the moment you release a key the note immediately stops. With all forms of acoustic pianos, this is caused by dampers that fall right back onto the string that was sounded by pressing the key. When keys are not pressed down, every string that resembles its own tone (every key makes a little hammer slam the designated string to produce the correct note) inside the piano has its own damper, muting the notes that are not played. Pressing a key causes two things to happen: the tiny hammer slams the string and at the same time the damper is lifted enabling the string to actually vibrate and produce the note. When the key is released, the damper falls back on its string and mutes the note. This way, youre able to control the length of the tones by keeping the key pressed down. As long as its down, the damper is lifted of the string which will keep vibrating and thus: sounding.
In short: as long as you keep the key pressed down, the tone will keep sounding, slowly dying out, releasing the key will cause the key to stop more suddenly. This is the same for (virtually) every keyboard instrument. The length of tones plays a great part in the character of the tones. Apart from the fact that longer tones can produce more drag, sloth, slow, tension, ow vs. short notes that are more stingy, intense, bouncy, funky, bite, jumpy etc.; another very important point is that both the point in (the start of the tone, the moment you press the key) AND -less obvious to most people- the point out (the moment of releasing the key, stopping the tone) are EQUALLY and VERY IMPORTANT for your timing. Timing is very,VERY important. Ill get back on this extensively at a later stage. Experiment with short and long notes to get a grasp of their difference in character.
The sustain pedal:

The sustain pedal, also called damper or just pedal, is the utmost right foot-pedal on acoustic pianos. On other types of keyboards or electric pianos, there usually is only one pedal, being this sustain pedal. The sustain pedal is used to -indeed- sustain tones: keep them sounding, without you having to keep the designated key pressed down. The tone will keep sounding in the exact same way had you in fact kept the key pressed down. Using the sustain pedal, you can move your hand to the next note or chord (keeping the efciency in ngering in mind) while the instrument sounds as if youre still holding down the previous tones(s). This is caused by the sustain pedal keeping the before mentioned dampers lifted of their corresponding string, enabling it to keep vibrating (sounding). When releasing the pedal the dampers are placed back on the strings, immediately muting them again. On different keyboard instruments, the pedal simulates this and works in the exact same way: pressing it down causes the notes played to keep sounding until the pedal is released again. As a general rule of thumb you can for now stick to this advice: when using the pedal, always try to let it breathe (release it) when playing a new chord / harmony to avoid muddiness caused by to many notes sounding at the same time. Using the pedal is like driving stick in a car: a coordination-skill that will take some practice to get used to. Once you have the feeling, though, it will go virtually automatically.
Posture
Correct posture behind the piano is important. Both for avoiding physical injuries as for improving ease of play and expressional ability. - Sit at the front end of your stool. - Make sure your stool is at a hight that allows your hands to rest comfortably on the keyboard when your elbows are next to- or just a little in front of your sides and bent in a 90-120 degree angle.Your wrists should be straight-slightly bent up while youre -of course- sitting up straight.
- The distance between your stool and the piano is ok when the posture described above can be accomplished in a relaxed way. When your elbows stick out behind your back, your stool is to close to the piano. If you have to reach out and your elbows are way in front of your body or you have to bend forward, youre to far away. - Then, to the posture of your hand: slightly bent ngers, like youre holding a baseball. Put your hand around one of your knees while sitting on your piano stool. Then remove your hand, but keeping that form, as if your hand is still around your knee and put your hand on the keys. When striking a key, imagine your different ngers acting like little hammers striking.
IMPORTANT. Relax, the correct technical mindset.

- To say that playing the piano is something you do with your ngers would be the same as to say that running is something you do with your feet - Thomas Mark, author of What every pianist needs to know about the body. Many beginners (and more advanced players too) think of pressing down the keys as something youd do with the downward muscle power of the ngers, where in fact, a much better way to approach this, is to make use of the gravity, pulling at the weight of your underarm. As gravity pulls your underarm, the sheer weight of it, would already be enough to press down (a) key(s). Youd have to do nothing but to let your arm rest while your ngers are on the correct key, supporting it back up (and thereby pressing down the key theyre on).
The major difference here is an effort when having to actually press down the keys vs. the relaxation of letting your arm rest on the correct nger (key). The more relaxation, the better. Being as relaxed as possible will reduce the chance of injuries and will increase your quality of accuracy, expression and playing in general. Try and start using this approach from the very beginning. Use the weight of your forearm by fully relaxing your arm (let it rest) while using the correct nger(s), placed on the correct keys, not so much to press these keys, but more to support the weight of your underarm. Fingers that shouldnt press any keys should also be fully relaxed, thereby automatically NOT pressing down any keys. Even when youve already played (a lot) of piano without this mindset of relaxation vs. effort and might therefore be used to using a wrong technique, its wise to start thinking about playing this way. It will help your playing. Trust me.
EXERCISE Using gravity. - Sit on the stool of your piano and move it back a few yards. - Extend your right arm straight in front of you (like pointing at something in front of you with all your ngers at the same time). - Next, relax all the muscles in your arm, causing your arm to fall on your right knee. If youre doing this correctly youll slap your right hand onto your right upper-leg causing a loud smack. Try to actually fully relax your arm, indeed causing it to smack, in stead of leading it down. - Repeat this three times, then do the same thing with your left arm. - Then, move your stool forward, sit back at the piano and play the melody of Brother John (c, d, e, c, c, d, e, c). Focus on relaxing your arm, using gravity and constantly switching to the nger to play the correct note, to support the weight of your arm, causing the correct keys to be pressed. - Fully concentrate on the feeling of relaxation and the gravity pulling down the weight of your arm while youre constantly using the correct nger (rst the 1 (thumb) positioned on the c, then the 2 (index), positioned on the d etc.) to support it and keep it from actually crashing. Keep your ngers bent like indicated on the previous page. This way constantly walk to the next nger, key, note.
Part 2. Chords - An introduction to Pop-Pianos what

Theory might sound a little boring. Scale, yuck thats precisely the reason for not choosing classical piano lessons in the rst place. Images of hour upon hour of endless repetition, streams of notes performed by over-talented kids who are apparently expected to play faster and faster and who make piano playing look like slave labour. Kids who are forced to become master concert pianists performing impossibly complicated classical pieces in huge concert halls lled with people dressed in suits who just seem to look cross, critical and uninterested rather than listening to the music and enjoying it.... No. What this section promises to deliver may just sound a lot scarier than it really is. Actually, when its consumed as recommended and when all the rules, tips and tricks are applied as instructed, it will turn out to be the most interesting, most educational and most amazing section of this entire course. Admittedly, you will have to read things, you will need to memorise and yes, there will be terminology which to begin with may momentarily vaguely conjure up the frightening images mentioned above. But dont worry. Were going to take a totally different approach here. Look, read, listen, practice and play. Allow yourself to take your time. Dont rush. Do your best to take it all in and you WILL be able to play the piano the way youve always wanted to. Remember to keep the notion of the Effective Dose, described in the Intro, in your mind at all times. The slower the pace, the more effective the learning.
Chords.Why?
When you watch pop musicians play the piano, youll notice that they seem to be playing freely. Theres no looking at sheet music, the sound is rich and the playing is beautiful, expressive and sometimes complex. It seems as though not everything is entirely xed beforehand; a few extra notes may be added unexpectedly here and there to heighten and strengthen the expressiveness even more. How does such a performer manage to memorise all those separate notes and play everything by heart? How is he or she able to play so freely and improvise music on the spot which really sounds good simply in response to what hes hearing and feeling at that moment? In this section youll learn the foundation that will make all of this clear to you and enable you to do the same. Say goodbye to complicated series of notes on paper and embrace the theory of chords.
Playing the piano like a guitarist

Of course we dont really want to play (or sound) like a guitarist; otherwise we would have chosen another instrument. But guitarists DO have a number of advantages over pianists since their instrument has certain characteristics that make it perfectly suitable for playing our Western music (pop, rock, soul, funk etc.) and even make it easy. Thats why its very instructive to take a look now and then at how guitarists approach their instrument. We can borrow some of their guitar techniques and translate them in a useful way to our own instrument, the piano. Therefore well refer to guitarists and their techniques a few more times throughout Hack the Piano. For now well start at the beginning which also just happens to be the beginning for many guitarists. Guitarists who have just started learning to play the guitar are often able to play a number of songs really nicely after just a few lessons. Picture a campre sing-along with everyone joining in.You know the kind of thing.
Why do beginner pianists often sound so boring, dull, unappealing and so much like, well, beginners. Why cant they also quickly learn to play a lot of songs? The simple answer is: they arent taught how. Even though it appears that 90% of those who want to learn piano would much rather be able to play their favourite song, accompany a singer or just play that well-known hit which everyone loves (round the campre for instance) than become a before mentioned classical concert pianist, as many as 95% (!) have nevertheless chosen the classical route (or been offered that by their teacher). What most dont know, is that just like on the guitar, piano can also be learnt through chords, enabling the student (indeed, just like beginner guitarists) to quickly and easily grasp the concepts of pop-music and play a lot of recognisable songs. The teaching method based on classical theory, classical exercises and musical notation is primarily aimed at training you to become a classical pianist. If your aim is to become a POP pianist, however, its logical to assume that this method, with classical music as the nal goal, will not lead you efciently to your intended goal. To learn how to play pop music, its also necessary to choose the route which leads to understanding pop music: the theory of chords.
From the what to the how

Hack the Piano is divided into 3 parts.You can regard the Chords/Theory section as the main section or guide of the course where you learn WHAT to play. In order to apply the knowledge you gain here in a more practical way and use it to create interesting and beautiful piano arrangements, youre advised to refer to the Patterns/Technique section on a regular basis. In that section you will learn HOW you can use the material from the Theory section in songs that youd like to play by using patterns*. The Theory and Technique sections are meant to be used side by side. In the rst section youll accumulate the knowledge which you will then learn to apply in practice in the Technique section as you go along. Theres a reminder at the end of each Theory chapter to help you remember to refer to the Technique section.
But for now, lets start at the beginning. Chords? Anyone?
2.1 Chords: Triads, Major chords and Minor chords Required knowledge: Part 1. Intro and Basic Knowledge. Piano keys, the keyboard, names of the keys, tones, notes, octave, harmony, melody, ngering New terms and knowledge: Major, Minor, Triad, Bass Style: All Level: Elementary
Triads, happy and sad

The word triad* means a group of three and in music it refers to 3 notes which are sounded together; in other words, a chord made up of 3 notes.You could say this is the basic structure of all chords. Apart from a few exceptions, all of the complicated chords are simply extensions of the triad. First well take a look at major* and minor* triads, their different sound and emotional value. Major is the name given to a particular kind of scale* and its corresponding chord.You could say that major scales and chords sound happy whilst the minor ones sound sad. Remember: Major = happy Minor = sad
EXERCISE 1
Major - With your right hand, play the notes c, e, g; in other words, the C major chord. The ngering is 1, 3, 5 - Start on middle c. Thats the c in the middle of the piano keyboard.
(thumb, middle nger, pinky).
- Now play the C chord with your left hand using the following ngering 5, 3, 1 (pinky, middle nger,
thumb).
- You have now learnt how to play the rst major chord with both hands. Minor - Now with your right hand, play the C major chord, c, e, g again. - Change the note e in the chord for the black key directly below, the eb (e-at), and play: c, eb, g. - The chord which you are now playing, c, eb, g is the C minor chord.
- Listen carefully to the way the sound of the chord changes from happy (c, e, g -> C major) to
sad (c, eb, g -> C minor). This way youll clearly hear the difference between major and minor.
Notation
A capital letter is used to write the name of a chord. C = the C chord (the notes c, e and g played together). C is called the chord symbol*. When you see small letters, these stand for single notes: c = just the note c. When only a capital letter is used and nothing else (as in C above), this refers to a major chord. For a minor chord, m or min is added to the chord symbol. Cm = the C minor chord (c, e-at, g) When we either write or talk about the C chord then we mean the major chord. If C minor is meant, this is always specically mentioned.
Bass
The bass in music refers to: the lowest note played. The bass in a band is often played by a bass guitar or a synthesiser. But if you are playing the piano by yourself, its possible to full the role of the bass yourself by playing the low bass notes with your left hand while you play the chords with your right hand.
EXERCISE 2
Bass, 3 new chords and the rst of many pop songs - Play the C chord with your right hand, with middle c as the lowest note. Now at the same time and
with your left hand, play the note c one octave below the c that youre playing with your right hand. Can you hear how the chord immediately sounds richer and fuller with this added bass note?
- Now were going to play a new chord: the G chord. With your right hand play: g, b, d with 1, 3, 5 as the - With your left hand, play the note g an octave lower.
ngering. The lowest note g is 3 white keys below middle c.
Take a good look at your ngers and the notes youre playing and notice that the structure of G actually looks very much like the structure of C -> you play 1 note, skip 1, play 1, skip the next, and play 1 again. But for the G chord, you start this structure on the g which in this case is 3 white keys below middle c.
- The next chord were going to play is Am or in other words A minor. The notes are: a, c, e, ngering 1,
3, 5. With the right hand, shift up all the notes from G by one. With the left hand, play the a an octave lower again as the bass note.
Isnt that the same structure again?
- The next chord: F. With the right hand: f, a, c. 2 steps below the Am you just played. Left hand - the f
an octave lower.
Theres that same structure again! The chord progression* above forms the beginning of the song Let it Be by The Beatles. Try practising these chords until you can play them smoothly one after the other. The golden tip: Make sure to look carefully and really listen to what youre doing and most importantly, play slowly so that you can really memorise what youre doing. Smoothly means playing all the chords at an even pace without any hesitations or mistakes. Dont go any faster until you can play them at that tempo really well and not for instance when you can play 3 in a row quite well but still need time to think about 1 of the 4 chords. If thats too difcult and youre not managing: play a bit slower. The MOST important thing to remember when practising is Dont play too fast too soon. Only when you continue to follow this advice (therell be a few more reminders) will your progress be as fast as promised. The biggest mistake most people make is playing too fast, too soon. For more information, review the explanation of the Effective Dose on page 7.
In exercise 2, we played the rst few chords of the song Let it Be by The Beatles, but at the same time we also collected baggage that we can use for playing a whole lot of pop songs. Many songs actually use the same chords; sometimes in a different sequence and sometimes in precisely the same sequence. Thats why its important to memorise all the chords you play really well so that when you come across them in another song, youll have them at your ngertips. For each new chord, try to immediately remember which notes make up the chord, what they look like, the position of your hands and how it feels. A C chord always has the same notes c, e, g, whether you play it in Let it be, No woman no cry, Frre Jacques or Fr Elise. This is also true for G = g, b, d ; F = f, a, c and so on for ALL chords. A specic chord always consists of the same notes in whatever song its used. So with each new chord you learn, you add to your baggage which is not only relevant and usable in the song youre currently learning but for all music.
EXERCISE 3
- Repeat the chords C, G, F and Am and also try to play them in another sequence that you think sounds
good. Youll discover that by using the chords youve learnt so far (C, G, Am and F), either in this or some other sequence, its already possible to play hundreds of pop songs.
Summary - A triad is a chord made up of three notes played simultaneously. - The sound of a Major triad is often described as happy. - The sound of a Minor triad is described as sad. - A chord is represented by a capital letter. C is the chord symbol for the chord of C major. - Individual notes are represented by small letters. For instance, c, d, e, c are the notes in the melody of - The chord symbol used to indicate a minor chord has an m (or min) after the capital letter. Cm means
C minor. - The bass is the lowest note played. If youre playing the piano by yourself, you often play the bass notes with your left hand. - Remember: Play SLOWLY when practising (it will often feel too slow) and LOOK and LISTEN carefully to what youre doing. Remember the Effective Dose. Frere Jacques.
Terms and concepts

*Pattern = A pattern is HOW you play the given chords of a song. It involves rhythm, style, technique and a lot more that youll learn all about in the Technique section of Hack the Piano. *Triad = A chord, made up of 3 different notes. The basic form of a chord. *Major = Major means large. Major sounds happy. *Minor = Minor means small. Minor sounds sad. *Scale = A consecutive series of notes which belong together and/or sound good/natural together. do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do is how a major scale sounds. The scale of C major consists of the notes c, d, e, f, g, a, b (c). *Chord Symbol = The way a chord is notated. Cm for instance is the chord symbol for the chord of C minor. *Chord Progression = A consecutive series of several chords.
2.2 Chords: 7 common triads in major and minor Required knowledge: Triads, major and minor New terms and knowledge: The root (of a chord), major and minor triads for A, B, C, D, E, F and G Style: All Level: Elementary-Beginners
14 triads
In the previous chapter, youve learnt the chords of C, G, Am and F. The image below shows you how to play all major and minor chords that have a white key as their root*.

Major

Minor
As mentioned before, there are already a lot of songs that can be played with the chords of C, G, Am and F, either in precisely the same sequence or in another sequence. With the 10 extra chords displayed on the previous page added to those four chords you already knew from the previous chapter, your musical vocabulary now stands at a grand total of 14 chords. With these 14 chords you can already learn to play literally tens of thousands of songs. Learning to play is now just a matter of: Remembering which chords to play as well as remembering the correct order, rhythm / pattern and duration of each chord. So, by learning the chords in the diagram above by heart and having them at your ngertips, you already know how to play more than 80% of tens of thousands of songs.
EXERCISE 4
14 chords in major and minor, exemplied.

The example videos below, show how to play all the chords from the chart on the previous page, with the root note added in the bass (left hand). Copy and learn.
Major

Minor
Playing the piano like a guitarist 2

The information above provides the explanation for the campre phenomenon: the fact that so many beginner guitarists are already able to play quite a few songs for everyone to sing along to. This is precisely what nearly all guitarists are taught in their rst few lessons: a number of different chords and how to play them, e.g. what PATTERN to use. The Technique chapter is all about learning patterns. If you make sure that you really learn the material in this chapter (the 14 chords with a white key as the root) and get them into your ngers, then you too, as a beginner pianist, will quickly be able to play a lot of songs.
EXERCISE 5 Divide the following exercise into 10 minute sessions so that you dont exceed your Effective Dose. In this exercise youll learn chords based on the music you like personally by practising a song that youll choose yourself:
- Think of a song you really want to learn to play. For now, dont worry about things like whether its too
difcult, too fast or too slow, or not even originally written for piano. It can be any pop song whatsoever. (For the moment, jazz, classical and dance styles such as house, techno etc. are not recommended. Most dance styles are by nature minimalist making them less suitable for this exercise whilst jazz and classical
music often contain more complicated chords and more advanced techniques which we will only be learning later on). - Lets nd the chord progression for your song: - Google chords - your favourite song -. (For instance: chords Let it Be). - Theres a very high chance that a lot of sites that come up will seem to be specically for guitarists (guitar tabs, ultimate guitar etc.). This doesnt matter at all. For now, were taking the same route as beginner guitarists and well also use the same notation. The search result is suitable when: your song is found and the chord symbols above the lyrics can be found in the diagram above (A G, major/minor). - If the chord symbol is followed by a 7, 9, sus2, sus4 or some other extra, just ignore that for the time being. Read only the rst capital letter of the chord. For instance, if you see Gsus2 just read it as G. F7 = F etc. If you see a chord with a / such as C/E for example, just read it as C. - Are you unable to think of a song or are you unable to nd a suitable chord progression using the above method? Choose a song from the list under My Gifts - Song Tutorials on the site. - Print the chord progression or write out the chords of the verse* and the chorus* (possibly including the lyrics). The advantage of printing it out is that the chords are often placed above the word where they should be played. This makes it easier to know when to play which chord. If you write it out, you should try to do it this way too.
Example:
Title:

LET IT BE (Beatles)
C G Am F When I nd myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me C G F C/E Dm C Speaking words of wisdom, Let it be C G Am F And in my hour of darkness, she is standing right in front of me C G F C/E Dm C Speaking words of wisdom, Let it be Am Em/G F C Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be C G F C/E Dm C Whisper words of wisdom, Let it be
Now for the exercise:
- Lookup the chords from the song that you dont yet know by heart in the image on page 38 and look - Then slowly play each chord in the song separately, one after the other, with your right hand. Use the
ngering 1, 3, 5 for each chord. Listen carefully and look carefully at what your ngers are doing! - With your left hand play the bass notes by playing the root of each chord an octave below the lowest note in your right hand (just like exercise 2). - Press down the keys of the rst chord, hold it 10 seconds and take a good look at the position of your hand. Then the second chord, hold it 10 seconds and look at the position. Keep doing this until youve played all the chords in the song. - Now try to play all the chords one after another at a very slow tempo in the same order as they appear in the song. Sing, hum or say the lyrics out loud as you play the chords, making sure to play each chord at the right moment (the chord is written above the word where it should be played). Slowly means: a tempo that allows you to play the chords one after another smoothly. In other words, without any hesitations, pauses and/or mistakes. If youre not yet able to do this, play a bit slower. If you are able, then carefully at how you should play them.
play a bit faster and practise at that tempo until you can play that smoothly too. Only then should you step up the tempo and so on until you can play the song at the correct tempo. - When you feel that youre able to play the chords in the actual tempo of the original song: surf to YouTube and nd a (preferably original) version of your song. Play along with the original version. Playing along with the original version is the best and quickest way of learning a song. However, it is only possible when you are able (or almost able) to play it smoothly at this tempo! If you have the song on CD or as an MP3, you could of course also play along with that. - If youre able to do this: enjoy playing! - Repeat this exercise with as many other songs with different chords as possible so that you get to know all 14 chords from this chapter.
TAKE NOTE: Unfortunately, most of the sites that provide chord progressions are not ofcial and present progressions that have been made by non-professional or amateur musicians. Often theyre very good but sometimes youll nd that the chords dont sound quite right when you play along with the original. There could be 2 reasons for this:
1.The person who picked the chords didnt hear it correctly and/or wrote down the wrong chords. 2.The song has been notated in a different key* from the original song for the sake of ease of playing. In
chapter 2.4 this will be explained in greater detail and show you how you can turn these into the correct chords yourself. If this applies to your song, choose another song or else try to nd the chord progression on another website.
Terms and concepts

*The root (of a chord) = The root of a chord is the note on which the chord is built. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, this is also always the bass note. To illustrate: the chord is always named after its root, in other words: c is the root of the C chord and g is the root of the G chord. *Verse = The verse is the part of a song that is usually repeated a number of times with different lyrics each time. Its often a bit more calm than the chorus and thus acts as a kind of introduction for the chorus. *Chorus = The chorus is usually the really recognisable part of the song which keeps recurring, usually with the same lyrics. The chorus is often the so-called hook of the song: the bit that stays in your memory. *Key = The set of notes which sound right in a particular set of chords.
This manifesto consists of the rst few chapters to my full book, course: Hack the Piano. The full version can be found @ http://www.piano-couture.com This report is free and does not contain any afliate links. Share it with the world, or give out the following link to ensure the latest version will be enjoyed: http://www.piano-couture.com/?p=3231 Please share without altering, changing or in any way adapting the structure or contents of this .pdf le. 2013 Coen Modder, Piano Couture http://www.piano-couture.com

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- An unconventional approach to learning piano By Coen Modder - Piano Couture

Bare Essential Keys to Harmony 2

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Bare essential keys to harmony - Intro and Basic knowledge

Basic knowledge: Theory. p.17

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What is Pop-Piano and why is it different from classical, conventional piano?

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(Take it) easy. My side of the story.

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First and foremost.

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'Practice', the rst of a few nal notes.

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The 'Effective Dose' and superuousnesses.

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Effective Dose of Time.

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Tips for freeing 10 minutes a day.

1 minute extra a week.

Structure: Practice traps and xes.

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Minor upfront dont-worry-take-it-easy-caution regarding the following one-page lecture below:

Common mistakes and xes:

1. Starting with the thing you can already do.

Important side note to point 2 and 3: Keep it fun.

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some effort in before giving up to easily.

Superuousnesses - An upfront caution.

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Experience: Summary and nal instructions before take-off.

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Part 1. Basic Knowledge

Keys and the keyboard.

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Tones, names and sounds.

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Names of the keys, summarized.

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