1000 MEY BORD IDEAS1,000 KEYBOARD IDEAS From The Editors Of Sheet Music Magazine Keyboard Classics Magazine & The Piano Stylist Edited by Ronald Herder © Copyright 1990 Ekay Music, Inc. 333 Adams Steet, Bedford Hil, NY 10807How To Use 1000 KEYBOARD IDEAS ‘Welcome to the greatest single source of keyboard ideas you'll ever find! In the following pages there are sections on Basic Theory, Harmonic Tricks, Rhythm, Arranging Skills, Melodic Tricks, Keyboard Style, Jazz Improvisation, Technique, Organ and much, much more! If you are a voracious keyboard lover, just browse at your heart's content. It is not necessary to follow a particular order (though the articles within each section are arranged to lead logically from one idea to the next) If you need information on a particular subject, just check the table of contents and turn to the article that supplies you with just the right tip or explanation. Being a keyboardist has never been more exciting. Happy reading ... and — more importantly — happy playing!Table of Contents Section 1 BASIC MUSIC THEORY AT aoe pee Guide to Music Notation....... “NISIK/": Understanding Intervals. Ask For an Interval . Major and Minor Triads Constructing Simple Chords The Three Primary Chords... The Dominant 7th Chord. More 7ths The Half-Diminished 7th.. The Minor 7th... Symbol Simon Says . More Chord Symbols Take These 7ths Please. Slash Chords... Sixths and Ninths Elevenths .. Thirteenths . ‘An End to the Suspense Voicing Your Chords... Striking a Common Chord. Cadences Modulation... The Numbers Game for Key Signatures... The Numbers Game for Key Signatures: The Flat Keys. Chord Char. . a A Chart of 7th Chords ... AA Dictionary of Sth Chords 11 Section 2 HARMONIC TRICKS OF THE ee Finding Thirteenth Chords on the Keyboard Freshen Up Your Chord Playing : Enhancing Harmony with Passing Tones... Want to Learn About Pop Progressions? Ask Bach! Pop Chord Progressions... The New Chord Symbols: Slash Chords... The Chord Next Door. The Two-Sided Tritone and Other Puzzles Keyboard Qualites.... Chord Substitution/Circle of 5ths.. Substitute Changes/Helpful Hints Variations on a Triad: Suspended Chords Old Pants and New Suspenders . Sus and Phrygian Chords From Triads to Fourth Chords... Quartal Chords... Scriabin's Mystic ChorExploring the Sixth Diminished Scale vesee:BO Contemporary Left-Hand Chording 83 Figured Bass. . 84 Section 3 THE RHYTHM WORKSHOP The Songwriter's Guide to Rhythmic Notation 87 The Case of the Restless Rest. 100 Using the Metronome Pop Rhythms Unraveled .... Rolled Eighths How to Play Compound Time. Creating an Improvised Line .. ‘Advanced Cuban Rhythms Latin Montunos. Montunos and Mambos: More Latin Rhythmic Devices The Charleston and The Clave . . Latin Rhythm Guide Polymeters Swing It! Section 4 ARRANGING SKILLS An Introduction to Keyboard Arrangement Harmonizing a Melody. ‘A Funky Voicing Christmas Carol Creations Down and Dirty The Art of the Intro Intros and Endings Endings... More Endings....... Finish Your Songs with Flair... Happy Endings. Stock Endings... Section 5 RUNNING WILD!: MELODIC TRICKS OF THE TRADE Ornaments ... Fancy Runs to Spruce Up an Endin Breaking Up is Easy to Do Filter Upt: Musical Hooks. The Three-Two-One Romp Runs and Fills For the Right Hand Jazz Runs For the Right Hand ...o.cse ‘A Lick for Dominant Chords Diminished Scales and Runs Two Hands Are Better Than One...... Three-Fingered Runs With a Little Help From Chopin .Section 6 HOW TO STYLE YOUR eos SOUNDS ‘Sounds of the 50's. “Rock and Roll is Here to Stay Country Style at the Keyboard... Country Piano-Picking.. . Blues Sounds for Pianists ... Do | Hear A Waltz? ‘A Polish Bossa Nova. Slidin’ and Strigin’ . “| Found A New Baby’ In Stride Fit For A King... ~ Walkin’ the Left Hand ... ‘Swingin’ the Melody i “Hey, Mac, Give us a 4 Bar Intro!” Mastering Stride Piano... Stride and Rhythm sve at the Keyboard Ragtime Rifts. Boogie Woogie... ‘The Sound of Soft Rock... Playing Rock A Happy Marriage Section 7 JAZZ TION Playing Jazz d Improvising with Jazz Rhythms. Jazz Improvisation: Melody and Rhythm: An Outline of Jazz Techniques... Jazz Improvisation: “Mary Had a Little Lamb” Modes of the Major Scale .. : Sound Approach to Modal Improvisation The Thumb Slide Creating an Improvised Line... More Practice for a Continuous Melodic Line Using Jazz Runs Birdlike Section 8 TECHNIQUE SESSIONS (PART 1) Classical Skills and Studies for the Keyboard A Sight-Reading Workshop... Playing Scales... Sparking Your Scales... The Secret Life of Dots and Slurs... ‘Shake On It!: Repeated Notes A Fair Shake: Steps to Better Trills pean eee Do Brahm’s Trilling Exercises ....cseorsnneen 264 Taking Turns. : cst 266 The Missing Link: How to Feel Triad inversions. 268 “Palm Springs’. 270Chopin's Tricky Filigree Liszt's High Flights The “Howl,” The “Clou and Other Super Pedals... Section 9 TECHNIQUE SESSIONS (PART 2) Pop/Jazz Skills & Studies for the Keyboard Fingering .. Finger Jaz: Jazzercises Lou Stein's Jazzercises A 5-Minute Workout... Helping Hanon ‘Swinging Syncopes... Boogie Your Way to Dexterity. Section 10 THE ORGAN ee Instrumental Sounds at the Organ Making Your Organ an Orchestra. Playing Like the “Real Thing” : How to Make Registration Changes. Section 11 SPECIAL FEATURES How to Play by Ear. Who's Afraid of an Audience? . : Piano Partners: A Practical Guide to Playing Duets You Can Accompany Yourself .. How to “Comp” for a Singer. Secrets of a Musical Collaborator .. How to Tape Yourself Seriously Getting Your Music PublishedContributing Editors Judy Carmichael Raphael Crystal Debbie Culbertson Gary De Sesa Michael Esterowitz Ronald Herder Bill Horn Bill Irwin Stuart Isacoff Mark Laub Becca Pulliam Samuel Sanders Ed Shanaphy Lou Stein Paulette WeissGuide To Music Notation treble clef def gabede f gab : pee idle bass cet 5 ; ' : Z ba fede ba ez . riteseais F =a sharp [7 how many beats in each measure "Loy ype of note which receives one beat (quarter, ighth, etc.) Name Rest Symbol Note Value Whole Half Quarter i Eighth * Thiny-second J J d owns gd 3 3 Sixty-fourth 4 "A note with a dot next to it has its normal duration increased by half again its value has the same duration as lL) tie: binds two values into ‘one combined duration Repeat the material enclosed by these signs: Afier pla 0 to the beginning; the second time around use ending number two phrase mark divides music into phrases ‘Stress Marks | 14 Dynamics very softly oo softly moderately soft decrescendo———— moderately loud loud Bs dard very loud a oe Fingering aA 2 234 5 5 a4 left hand right hand 12‘Semitones and Half Steps SSTERVAL means “space between” A MUSICAL INTER: WEL s tke space between any two pitches ‘Be measure this musical space by using a convenient, stan- unit of measure, just as we do when we measure space by figuring inches, feet, centimeters, and so on, Seemesic, our most convenient unit of measure is called the INE or HALF STEP. Sete tracitional chromatic scale, the semitone or half step “heyboardis the distance between any pitch andits closest either higher or lower: Wat is “ASK? US/K" is a new, easier system of measuring intervals, °X" stands for ALPHABET. “S” stands for STAFF. “K” stands for KEYBOARD. Why a new system: To tryto eliminate the confusion that often -serrounds the identification of intervals An example of the usual confusion happens when we try to ‘Ssinguish between two intervals that sound the same but are sexzten differently (which we cal “enharmonic intervals’) — for ‘sample, the chromatic half-step C-C# and the minor 2nd Db; Let's apply the “A/S/K” system to these two very similar fees. “ASIK" describes the Chromatic Half Step 8 (Alphabet) / We describe C-C# in terms of the musical “Cand CH have the same letter names.” co “S" (Staff) / We describe C-C# in terms of the position of Be= pitches on the music staff “Cand C# are on the same line or space of the staff AIS/K A New, Easier Way to Understand Musical Steps by Ronald Herder (Keyboard) / We describe C-C# in terms of the position of these pitches on the keyboard: “Cand Cé are one half-step apart on the keyboard.” “A/S/K" describes the Minor 2nd “" (Alphabet) / We describe C-Db in terms of the musical alphabet: "C and Db have different letter names.” eG, + Ro ae aD

). Count down 5 (our ‘magic number), to find out which note ‘gets flated, F-E-D-C-B o ® ® ® 6 ‘The B gets the fat. Key of F key signature: Now that we know that the key of F is ‘our first flat key, how dowe find our sec ‘ond flat key? Count down 5, of course, from F in the F scale. Fete Ee. Dich abu o 8 ® © 6 (Since the F scale has a Bb in it, that's, the Sth note we hit rather than the ). 36 there are in the key of A, but how can you figure ot which ones they are lumber you need to figure that out is "7," Some people prefer "=1" (minus one). To find out which note gets the new Sharp, count up seven (7), or down ‘one 1).'For example, going back to the key of G, count up seven notes for the new sharp thusly: G_A_B-C-D-E-F MAOH 6 F is the 7th note, and the one which gets the new sharp. The key signature for the key of Gis Fe es For the key of D, we keep the Fé and gad anew sharp by counting up seven Key ot D-E-Ft-G-A-B-C. He BW 6 OM ‘The Key signature for D is F# and Ce. Can you figure the new, sharp and key signature for the key of A? Remem ber to keep the sharps you have already established for the previous key, and just {30d one new one: ‘Now you should be able to figure the Signatures for three additional keys, Epage ‘What about fats? We'll look atthe flat keys next issue, So our second flat key is the key of Bb. How many flats does it have in the kkey signature? (Hint: The rule is: every time you ‘count down 5, add one flat.) If your answer is two flats, you are correct je Revers And which note gets the new flat {Count down 8 again from your ey Bo-A-G-F-E Yo ®@ & ® 6 E gets the fat. Key of Bb: | E flat. Toget your next flatkey, count do 5 again from Bb, inthe scale of Bb. Yo should arrive at... 0), (When you find it don't forget that y are playing the Bb scale and you mi have to puta fat in front of it.) ‘Can you continue on your own to fi three more flat keys and their kc signatures? Tt gets abit more difficult as you c tinue to add fats, but you will begin understand scales better, and you also memorize your key signatu sooner, too,of the you our ct. tat? ew You you ight find - into wl Chord Chart TRIADS Minor — [Ausmeni cm | SE ct] cém| cts pbm| “Db+ SEVENTHS: C7 | Gm | Cmat z ctr | ckm7 | clma7 +7 |_Dom7| Dbma7 Dea? Ebma7 Dominant [Minor [Major | Diniihed cain Str Ch din! De din Ddim?| Ep ain? Ema? Ema? Fim7| F#ma7 Ga? Edin? ad Fb din?) Gain?| Abma? | As im7 ‘Ama? Bb mal Bra? Adin | Bb dim Baim? 5 SIXTHS Tier Minor 6 Cm chs Db m6basic training A Chart of 7th Chords The chart on these two pages contains eight types of 7th chords, in all keys. ‘These include the major 7th; the major 7th with a raised 5th (+5); the dominant 7th; the dominant 7th with a flatied 5th (5); the minor 7th; the minortma- jor 7th; the half-diminished 7th; and the diminished 7th, sometimes renotated for easier reading. Although a few seldom-found chords are includ- ed, the chart omits chords that are either very rare or unusually awkward in notation. Below each chord type is a breakdown of its in- tervals, always calculated above the root. The domi- nant 7th, for instance, contains a root, major 3rd (M3) above the root, a perfect 5th (P5) above the root, and a minor 7th (m7) above the root. [RAD Ten] [MAT 7en] [bow 7eh] fom 7eh] [MIN 7eh] [HIN/HAJ) [HALF-DIM] [DIM 7th(alternay +5 =5 7th Tth__ | notat ior Ith N7 "7 o7 7 7 "7 a7 dim 7 P5 aug 5 P5 dim 5 P5 P50 dim5— dim 5 3. 43 M3 NB m3 m3 m3 m3 root root root root root root —root. root v cma] 7 cmaj 7(+5) ¢7 c7(-5) cm? cnmaj 7 (87 mK o7 4S pb7(-5) obma} 7 obras 7(45) 9b7 Pn? = maj 7 pmaj 7(+5) p7 p7(-5) ona) 7 of? gh Te om? 1 SS Sat gbmaj 7 cbmaj 7(+5) eb7 —«b7(-5) ebn? ena 7 gb#7? = phe7 —4 =[DIM 7th] (alternate MAS Teh] [MAJ 7th [MIN 7th] [HIN/MAJ] [HALF-DIM +5 7th Tth "7 7 m7 7 "7 M7 m7 PS aug 5 PS dim 5 PS PS, dims M3 NB. 43 M3: m3 m3 m3 root root root root root «root root notation) dim 7 dim 5 m3 root gmaj 7 gmaj 7(+5) g7 g7(-5) é £ = b. pnaj 7 pe) 7(+5)—b7 gp 7(-5) ——+ 5 an? abn) 7 ght? = 1 phe? — t : + gre 7 ant) 7005) 87 Bi-5) pa? ant) 7h? ge? ph ah cbmaj 7 chmaj 7(+5) b7 39 RH d