Music Theory Piano Lessons

For more free piano lessons with pictures and illustrations, simply choose a free piano lesson below and fill out your e-mail address and first name ...

E-mail: First Name:

------------------------------
Hear and Play Music, Inc. Online!
http://www.hearandplay.com
FREE 10-DAY PIANO COURSE

Hi friend,

Welcome to music theory lesson #4! Congratulations on completing three lessons already:

Day 1: Major Scales
Day 2: Minor Scales / Blues Scale
Day 3: Whole Steps, Half Steps & Intervals

... but we still have 7 lessons to explore!

Day 4: Major Chords & Minor Chords
Day 5: Chord Inversions
Day 6: Seventh Chords
Day 7: Blues Chord Progression
Day 8: Scales & Chords
Day 9: Ear-Training
Day 10: Playing in every key

* All 10 lessons are taken right out our 300-pg workbook, "The Secrets to Playing Piano by Ear." While we provide thousands of musicians with the opportunity to learn the basics and fundamentals to playing the piano by ear for free (online), we cannot survive as a company without marketing our 300-pg workbook. Thus, you will read about it from time to time. However, if you are tremendously helped by these lessons, imagine what 300 pages will allow you to achieve? So... I recommend that you try out our free lessons and at any time, if you become more serious about learning to play the piano, visit: http://www.hearandplay.com/course

Enjoy the 10-day e-mail course!

* 60 more lessons are available online! Just log-in from our homepage with the username "piano" and password "piano"

Note: "piano" without the quotation marks ( " " )

-------------------------------------------
Lesson 4: Major Chords & Minor Chords
-------------------------------------------

Yesterday, you learned:

-how to construct the major Interval
-how to construct the perfect Interval

Major Third: Distance between root and (3) degree

Perfect Fifth Interval: Distance between root and 5th

---------------------
The Major Chord
---------------------

The (major chord) is created by combining the major third and perfect fifth intervals.

For example, in (C major), a major third interval is from (C) to (E). A perfect fifth interval is from (C) to (G)

Combining these two intervals looks like the following:

(C) to (E) and (C) to (G).

Since the root is used in both intervals and can only be played once, the (C major) chord is:

(C) + (E) + (G).

---------------------
The Minor Chord
---------------------

The (minor chord) is created just like the major chord. The only difference is that it utilizes a "minor third" interval instead of a "major third" interval (the perfect fifth remains the same).

If a major third is the difference between the root and (3) degree, what do you think a minor third is?

Minor Third: Difference between the root and lowered (3) degree.

The minor third is a major third interval "squeezed in" by a half step. For example, in (C major), the major third interval is from (C) to (E).

The minor third simply lowers the (E) a half step to (E flat). Thus a minor third is: (C) - (E flat).

Comparison:

Major Third = (C) - (E)
Minor Third = (C) - (E flat)
Perfect Fifth = (C) - (G)

Combining a Minor third and a Perfect fifth creates a minor chord:

(C) + (E flat) + (G)

---------------------------------------------------
Here are other ways of figuring out a major or minor chord:
---------------------------------------------------

Major Chord: Take the (1) (3) and (5) of the major scale and play them all together.

Minor Chord: Take the (1) (3) and (5) of the minor scale and play them all together.

******* Learning all your major and minor scales will allow you to know all of your major and minor chords!

--- In our 300-pg course, we take you step by step through each key and its major scale, major chord, minor chord, and more! Check out our 300-pg course by visiting:

http://www.hearandplay.com/course

Review
------------

C Major = (C) (E) (G)
C Minor = (C) (Eb) (G) b = notation for flat

Try learning the major and minor chords of all 12 keys! Just use the same exact pattern.

Good job! Until tomorrow!

Jermaine
P.S. - Call us if you have any questions (1-877-856-4187)
-----------------------------------------------------------

Lesson four was taken from our 300-pg workbook, "The Secrets to Playing Piano by Ear!" The technique taught here is just one of several different techniques taught in our 300-pg course.

Visit: http://www.hearandplay.com/course

... for more information on our 300-pg course (only if you're serious about playing the piano by ear).

This Lesson is brought to you by Hear and Play Music Online! http://www.hearandplay.com

The author of this course can be contacted at: webmaster@hearandplay.com or by visiting:

http://www.hearandplay.com/contact.html

No part of this course may be reproduced without the permission of the author. Please e-mail Jermaine Griggs if you would like to feature his course in your e-zine or newsletter.

(C) Hear and Play Music

For more free piano lessons with pictures and illustrations, simply choose a free piano lesson below and fill out your e-mail address and first name ...

E-mail: First Name: