billkeis.com

Dear Bill, 

The book is great. Got me thinking that anyone can learn music 

and you really can use drills and practice to hone any level 

of innate talent you might have. 

Thanks, Matt

Triads are three note chords. Even though they are the most basic chords, they are very important to learn because there are many songs that use only triads. Other more complex chords would be inappropriate. Additionally, triads are the building blocks of larger more complex chords.

There are six different triads; major, minor, augmented and diminished, suspended 4 and suspended 2.  Examples in C:

major C E G

minor C E flat G

augmented C E G sharp

diminished C E flat G flat

suspended 4  C F G

suspended 2 C D G

Root

The “home tone” of a chord is called the root. For example, in a C major triad, C is the root, in an F minor triad, F is the root, etc. This is similar to the first note of a scale which is called the tonic. The tonic is the “home tone” of a scale.

So, triads are made up of a root and two other notes which determine the type of chord (major, minor, etc)

The root of a chord is probably the most important note. It is most often played by bass players, in the left hand by piano players, as well as other applications.

Of course, the root is often played in the right hand on a piano, with the other two notes of the triad.

Practice Procedure

Beginner piano players should practice all the triad exercises on a piano or keyboard with right hand chords and left hand roots (one note). Advanced piano players should also practice with both hands playing chords.

Of course, these chords should be practiced from each of the 12 roots (in other words – all keys).

For more information see my eBook “The Basics of Harmony”

Of the three main ways to play the piano, solo piano is probably the most difficult. The reason is because you only have two hands, but you need to play all 3 elements (melody, chords, and bass notes). There are many ways to do this, which can be mixed and matched.

The best way to approach solo piano is to become very proficient with all the basic tools of music; scales, arpeggios, chords, rhythms, reading, etc., and then practice making up arrangements from melody and chord symbols with:

1. R.H.melody L.H.chords and then 2. R.H.chords L.H.bass 3. Then you’ll be ready to work on solo piano.

If you’re a beginner, you should learn several solo piano pieces before trying to make up your own arrangements. There is a vast amount of sheet music available with full grand staff arrangements for piano which will give you ideas that you can use for your own arrangements.

The basic idea is have the melody in your right hand be the highest note, and fill in notes from the chords under that. The left hand would commonly play roots in octaves or roots & 5ths or broken chords (1-5-10) or roots and 7ths.  The left hand could also play walking bass or other bass parts, depending on the style of music.

It is common to practice one hand at a time and then both hands together.

Once you’ve got the basic tune, the next step would be to add fills and then practice improvising the melody line (take a solo).

The end goal is to be able to look at piece of music that has only the melody and chord symbols and be able to instantly make up an appropriate arrangement. Of course an arrangement can further develop over time.

For more information see my eBook “For Piano & Keyboard Players Only”

If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that!

I’ve been a piano teacher for over 25 years and I’ve heard countless people say, “I love the piano, I wish I could play,” or “oh, you teach piano, I used to play piano,” or “we had a piano when I was a kid,” or “I wish my mother had forced me to practice,” or “I never learned to read music, I always memorized what my teacher played. When she found out, I was in trouble!”

Of course studying music is a wonderful activity for a child. Whether he/she goes on to a career in music or not, it is still highly recommended. Numerous studies have concluded that children who study music do better in school. In general the world needs more art and music and even if one wasn’t interested in becoming a professional musician or making a living at it, playing music is a good thing!

The main point is, however, you can learn how to play music anytime. You don’t have to be a child to learn. I’ve taught countless people to play who never played as a child. In fact, often adults learn faster than children!

One can get many hours of enjoyment from the music. It really doesn’t take that long to get some satisfaction. Anyone can learn to play a song fairly quickly. Anyone can even learn to improvise (play by ear)! Whether you like Classical or Jazz, Rock or Pop, you can learn to play.

It has been said that the piano is the most important of all musical instruments. It is certainly the most versatile. I do think that it is a good idea to learn some skills on a keyboard even if you play sax or you are a vocalist.

The main point here is that it has been proven to me countless times with firsthand experience that anyone can learn to play well enough to have fun making music.

Good News!

Music: [< Old French musique, from Latin m?sica < Greek mousik téchn? art of the Muses < Moûsa Muse < Greek Mythology, oneoftheninegoddessesofthefinearts and sciences]

(1) MUSIC is a language. (2) AESTHETIC communication that uses SOUND as its medium1. (3) an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental and/or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner. (4) MUSIC can be divided into three parts: MELODY, HARMONY, RHYTHM. (5) any rhythmic, melodic, or harmonic grouping of sounds that is specifically composed and that forms a unity so as to convey a message, to communicate, or to entertain. 2

Musician: a person who creates MUSIC. Someone who plays, performs, composes, arranges, records MUSIC.

Musicianship: skill in creating music: His musicianship increased markedly after studying full-time for 6 months.

Musicology: the academic study of MUSIC and its history.

Music Theory (Theory of Music): information about how MUSIC is put together, for example; the subject of music can be divided into three parts: Melody, Harmony, and Rhythm.

Melody: notes played or sung one at a time Harmony: two or more NOTES played together.

Rhythm: the temporal3 element of MUSIC relating to how sounds are made into patterns.

Note: (1) a SOUND of a definite PITCH. (2) a symbol that represents a musical SOUND.

Pitch: refers to the FREQUENCY (speed) of vibration which determines how high or low a SOUND is in relation to other sounds, pitch is one of the three elements of SOUND.

1 Medium: a method or means of doing something. 2 Def. #5 of Music: from Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary. http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/ 3 Temporal: of or relating to or having to do with time.

Years ago I was driving home from an early gig in my old pickup truck about 5 PM.  My friend (the bass player) and I had loaded up all our equipment and were heading south on the 101, back to LA.  We got to a long uphill and since I was going slow (about 50 mph) I moved over into the far right lane.  Cars were whizzing by us.

All of a sudden I noticed a car had slowed down and was going at my speed right alongside us.  Someone in that car was yelling something at me.  I said to my friend, “What the heck is he yelling about?”  I thought maybe he was mad that I was going so slow or just making fun of my old truck.  I keep driving, hoping they would stop yelling and drive on.

They continued yelling and after a few minutes I rolled down my window to give them a piece of my mind.  I heard them say, “YOU’RE TRUCK’S ON FIRE, YOU’RE TRUCK’S ON FIRE!”

I looked in my rear view mirror and sure enough there was a huge cloud of smoke coming from the back of my truck!  I let out some sort of yell and told my friend, “MY TRUCK’S ON FIRE, MY TRUCK’S ON FIRE!”   All I could think about was my equipment burning up.

I quickly pulled over off the freeway to the side and stopped.  We got out ran around to the back and discovered that the moving van blanket we had lined the bed of my truck with, and put all our heavy gear on, was on fire.  It is kinda weird that those blankets can smoke a lot but burn really slow and with virtually no flames.  We were frantic at first but gradually tried to think what would be the best way to handle this.  We didn’t want to take all our gear out of the truck.  Fortunately, my friend had a pocket knife which he pulled out and started cutting away the burning section.  It took a while, but he managed to do it and then we buried the burning section in the dirt.

We laughed all the way home and still laugh when I see him and one of us says, “YOU’RE TRUCK’S ON FIRE, YOU’RE TRUCK’S ON FIRE!”

In my 30-plus years of experience in the studio, I’ve worked with many producers.  I have also produced lots of recordings.  From all this, I evolved a concept of what makes a great producer.

For me, a producer is someone that takes the artist’s vision and gets it recorded and puts it onto the tape or the computer.  The producer enhances that recording through his wealth of knowledge of recording techniques (staying up-to-date on new technology), and experience with a wide variety of musical styles, as well as an ability to play various instruments.

A producer should be able to oversee the whole project from beginning to end including: pre-production (choosing songs, arranging, rehearsing, etc), tracking, mixing, and mastering.

He would decide if live musicians were needed or not, or if it could all be done just using keyboards, computers and  software.  If session musicians were needed, he would know how many and be able to call up different ones that could do a good job quickly, to add to the project as needed.

A good producer communicates with the artist and figures out how to accomplish the project within a person’s budget—I always keep that in mind while I’m producing.  Recording budgets can vary widely!  I will try to figure out the best way to get what an artist really wants, the product they’re looking for, within the amount of money they have to spend.

Even though I would perhaps know more than the artist or band I was producing, I’m not going to just take over and say, “Well, no, you can’t do this,” or “You can’t do that,” or “It has to be this way not that way.”  There are producers like that—they’re more like tyrants.  They take over and say, “No, it has to be this way.”

I don’t think that’s particularly the right approach in most cases.  Overall I want the client to be happy and comfortable, and feel creative and willing to express themselves.

I would say it’s extremely advantageous to have a producer who is musically trained, because they are able to get things done faster and easier.  You can get a great result with someone who is not trained—they could use their intuition or their artistic and creative instincts.  But you also run the risk of dabbling around with a lot more experimenting and having things take a lot longer.

A knowledge of various instruments, including keyboards and software is important.  And some degree of orchestration chops is a plus.  In other words, knowing what combinations of instruments with sound best for different styles is key in getting a good product.

A producer should also be someone who is well-trained in the technology of recording, and a pretty decent engineer.  Contained within that is a knowledge of what microphones to use and how to place them.  If you don’t mic a recording properly, you’re not going to get a sound into the computer that you can use.  Then, once you recorded it, there are countless ways to edit/mix including: cleaning up any unwanted noise, pitch &/or time correction, eq, compression, reverbs &/or delays, etc.

An example of someone who has all of these qualities is Quincy Jones who, among many other accomplishments, produced Michael Jackson’s biggest albums. He is highly trained musically, knows what session musicians to bring in when needed, and knows well the technology of recording.  He also keeps the artist’s vision firmly in mind the whole time and is always after a great product.  Another example that fits all of these categories is Beatles’ producer George Martin.

There are “producers” nowadays that just know how to run the equipment, and know how to use the computer programs, but don’t even know how to play the piano or guitar, or don’t know anything about music.  Some might be able to get results by putting samples together or splicing  things together—but that’s a whole different type of producer.  You wouldn’t want to get one of those guys to produce a country tune or a jazz tune or a classical piece or even a pop song.  They might do a great job in certain kind of genres like the hip-hop or trance electronica stuff, but for just about anything else they’re kind of limited, in my opinion.

It is true that a great recording does not necessarily require a state-of-the-art high end studio.  In fact, many of the recordings you hear today are done in a tiny little studio, because the technology has gotten to the point where you can do that.  But in such a situation you still need to have certain things in place—like really good software and someone who is competent and  knowledgeable about how to use it.  You will still have to have decent microphones.  And last but not least, you still need a knowledgeable producer.

Knowledge and skills along with the care factor, as outlined above, that’s what makes a producer great.

Choosing the right recording studio is an important decision in the making of an album, or even the recording of one song or a demo.

You can check out the gear (microphones, board, instruments, software, etc.) of a studio, if you know what to look for, along with the résumés of its engineers and personnel. But if you’re not experienced enough to understand all the technical ins and outs—and many aren’t—then there are some other ways you can judge whether or not a studio will be right for you.

First, you’ll want to look for studios within your price range. It used to be that there weren’t very many studios around, and people would have to go to a big studio and pay a lot more money, or  go in at 2 o’clock in the morning during downtime so that they could get a rate that they could afford. That is no longer true—now there are many small studios, so finding one in your price range should not be difficult.

Next, you’ll want to know if the studio can actually produce the product you really need. The quickest route I know of in finding this out is to cut straight to the chase: actually listen to  the overall quality of the sound of their products. Does it sound good, does it sound professional? If you don’t know what to listen for—which some people don’t—you could just compare the studio’s finished recordings to professional products that are already out on the market. Do they sound as good?

If you still need a further example of a professional versus a sub-par recording, you could listen to something like a karaoke track and realize that it sounds cheesy compared to listening to something that’s put out by a major studio or a major recording company. Then go back and compare the studio’s products to major recordings out there on the market.

It is important as you are going through this step to pay attention to the genre. See if the studio has recorded in your genre, and what those recordings sound like. There are various specific elements to watch for; as an example if you’re doing a classical recording, you’re going to want a real piano, not a digital piano (no matter how good the digital pianos are today). If you are recording rock and roll, you might want specific amplifiers or other gear, or at least the capability to obtain those sounds using software. But again, listening to the products the studio has produced should tell you much of what you need to know about their capabilities within a genre.

Once you find a studio that is producing high quality recordings in the genre you are working within, it is a good idea to go and look at the studio. Are the personnel knowledgeable and professional? Is the studio well-kept? Does it actually look like a professional recording studio? Even a home studio can provide a professional, competent atmosphere.

Another point is, does the studio create a comfortable atmosphere in which you will feel creative? Do the personnel put you at ease and make you feel confident in what you are doing? The last thing you want is to go into a studio to create an artistic product and feel stifled, belittled or pressured. Such factors will affect the final recording.

These guidelines should help you in choosing a studio in which to make your recording.

Sound Advice for Learning Music

by Bill Keis

1 Aug 11

If you want to ‘make music’, there are definite things that need to be learned. However, you don’t need to master all of them to have fun with music.  There are many examples of ‘famous’ musicians who have very little training.

Obviously, you don’t have to learn all the words of the English language before you have your first conversation.  Similarly, you can learn a few simple things and begin to make music in a just minutes. Then, depending on how far you want to take it, you can continue to learn more.

So, where do you draw the line?  How much should one study?

Well, you could take it to extremes and try to learn every possible combination of notes, which is a staggering number!

According to Nicolas Slonimsky1; there are 479,001,600 combinations of the 12 notes of music!  Learning all of them would of course take way too long.

Frederick Chopin2 said, “Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.” 

So, my advice is to keep in mind what you want to communicate with your music.  What style(s) do you like?  What songs?  Then proceed to learn enough to be able to play &/or sing that.

As you go along, you might find new songs or styles you like.  Then you can study more  to play those.

Whether you are just starting out or an old pro, my series of eBooks will give you a cornucopia3 of data and practice techniques you can use to improve your understanding and ability with the various elements of music.

If you want to improve your skill so you can play new things, check them out!

Good luck and happy musing4.

1 Nicolas Slonimsky: Russian-American musicologist; b. St Petersburg April 27, 1894, d. Los Angeles December 25, 1995 author of the book Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns (1947).

2 Frederick Chopin: Polish pianist and composer; b. Poland March 1, 1810, d. Paris October 17, 1849.

3 Cornucopia: an abundant, overflowing supply.

4 Musing: a made-up word meaning, playing music.