First let’s talk about why you should want to study the basics of music. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to teach algebra to someone who has no desire to learn basic math facts such as times tables or even simple addition and subtraction facts. Or how about teaching someone to read who refuses to learn the sounds of the individual vowels and consonants or how to sound out words. It is possible but it would be extremely difficult and probably infuriating at times. Music is no different and, with the exception of the rare genius or prodigy, trying to climb too steep a learning gradient to soon will only cause you to burn out and quit before you reach any real level of proficiency on your instrument. There are no shortcuts and virtually every great musician you know has spent many long hours grinding away at their instrument even if they say different in fact, if there is anything that could shorten the amount of time it takes to be great it would be spending more hours per day practising and studying. In the next post, we will get into basic abc’s and 123’s of music and listen when I tell you that if you honestly and truthfully yearn to play then you should also yearn to learn, study and, practice.
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The BASICS/THEORY section of this site will not be derived from any one particular book but I will recommend books that have all of the information you will see here and in an easily accessible, reader friendly format.
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HERE’S THE OUTLINE
The most logical way to begin a study of music is to break it down into its smallest recognizable pieces and study each piece individually. Then, when you are sure you have understood all the individual pieces and have committed them to memory, you can begin to learn how these individual pieces are put together to form music in general and then finally various styles of music such as Blues, Jazz, Gospel, Pop or whatever it is you want to play.
And so, using the piano keyboard for our frame of reference, we will go in this order:
- NOTES
- INTERVALS
- SCALES
- MODES
- CHORDS
- PROGRESSIONS
After which we will go into the basics of how these are put together to create music but we will do this apart from any particular style of music. In this way, you will be able to see the actual musical framework or matrix upon which all popular styles of music are built upon.
AND THEN
This blog will split into two distinct methods of teaching which are:
- PLAYING BY EAR AND FROM A LEAD SHEET
- PLAYING FROM GRADUATED METHOD BOOKS AND ULTIMATELY FULL SHEET MUSIC
AND FINALLY
The knowledge gained from both of these methods will be applied and expanded into three styles of music:
- POPULAR PIANO
- BLUES and GOSPEL
- JAZZ
Of course this is only a sketch onto which we will build more detail as we go along. It is put here so that hopefully you can get an overall grasp of this blogs goals and intentions…so you can get the Big picture.
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WHY ASK WHY?
If there is any point in this journey where I might say to you “don’t try to understand why, just do what I tell ya” it would probably be here at the beginning. You should simply look at this study of notes, scales, chords, ect…as vitally important yet generic information that you must commit to permanent memory if you are going to learn how to play. Once you get a sure hold of this info and graduate to the level of putting the pieces together to make music then you will “see” why and the “lightbulb” will come on. Just trust me on this.
And now, let’s begin at the beginning.
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OLIVER IAN CROSS 