Exercise 1.

15
First practise

this scale of C major hands separately,

then together. Combining

hands is harder in the same direction than in opposite directions, because different
fingers are playing at the same time.

Opposite directions:
under!

-.
3

tJ
tJ

~
\

-.

-.
1

under!

-.
I

-.
...
,.~,. over!

,.~

.. ~,.

-.

Same direction:
under!

over!

-.
1

-.

under!

over!

over!

TRIADS
Pythagoras on musical theory

If we play the l sr, 3rd and 5rh notes of rhe scale all ar once we ger a rich and

Triads provide the basis for harmony in European

satisfying sound, called a triad.

music. They were discovered by the Greek

mathematician Pythagoras, who worked out that

Exercise 1.16

scales could be constructed by dividing a vibrating

srring at different points. He concluded that the

First play the triad of C major, letting the hand (and the weight of the arm} sink

ratios used to work out those points were

into the keys. Can you make all three notes sound exactly together, and equally

fundamental ro the construction of rhe universe.

clearly? A good trick is to closeyoztt"eyes and feel those fingers touching the keys, then

His cosmology was wrong, but his experiments

depress them all as a single movement.

with strings srill form the basis of musical theory.

Try to

=. the

band in this shape, so that

when you move the hand around the keyboard it still plays triads wherever it lands.
Keep the wrist loose. Then try the same with the the other hand.

~~
5

52

Gee