Make Music

Keyboard instruments are a great starting point to discovery of magic within music. Harmonic chords, rhythmic beats, weaving melody. A white and black row of wonder and joy.

Its easy to get started if you follow some simple steps, particularly from an enthusiastic teacher like Scott Houston. As seen on TV there are four steps:

1. Think of a song you like (hopefully not to hard)
2. Find and learn the chords
3. Learn the melody
4. Play with both hands

I found a song that was simple yet had great meaning to me. It was not too hard finding the lyrics, but chords and melody are proving more difficult. Perhaps I should try another before getting too frustrated, but I have a plan now that I found the chords.

Here is a chord chart that helps me:

Piano Chord Chart

I have five chords in my song and have practiced switching and counting along with the words. It helped to write the pattern on a piece of lined paper with the chords stacked vertically. This way I can see how far to jump right, then left, and notice patterns. My chords are: C, Am, G7, and F. I practiced these until I was comfortable with the order, switching, and timings.

Next the melody. Since I do not have the music, but I know the song, my plan is to use the following scale chart:

Piano Scales

I will play with the scale notes that match the chord and when it sounds good write them on some lined paper in the treble cleft notation using the following keyboard-staff guide:

Keyboard Staff

So that’s the Hacker’s Guide to Piano. Many thanks for the inspiration of The Piano Guy to dust off the old Yamaha and enjoy the stress relief of making my own music.