Playing Piano By Chord Symbols vs Reading Sheet Music

                     Good morning. This is Duane, and I’d like to ask you a question. What makes music tick? Have you ever thought about that? What are the guts of music? What makes music work? Like when you see a car drive down the road, you know that there’s a motor of some sort in it, some method of propulsion. When you see an airplane, you know there’s a jet motor there, or something that propels it, right? Well, what is it that propels music? What is it that makes music tick? Well, the answer’s very simple and very complex at the same time. The answer is called music theory, but that’s not a satisfying answer, because it doesn’t tell you what makes music tick, because there’s many, many areas of music theory. But what I want to get across to you today is that it’s so important to learn all the elements of music theory that you can. And I don’t think anybody can learn all of them, but learn the basics of music theory so that you can understand what’s going on in music when you play it or when you listen to it.

                    Let me give you an example. One element of music theory is called the circle of fifths, or the circle of fourths. It’s really the same circle, just if you go one way, it’s up a fourth, if you go another way it’s up a fifth and so on. It’s called the circle of fifths. We’ll talk about that a little bit later. But I want to show you how that works in a piece of sheet music. This is called ‘All the Things You Are’, from a movie called ‘Very Warm For May’, by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein. A great classic, old pop tune. And we’re in the key of A-flat here, and you can’t see the music, but I want you to watch the chord progression. Okay, the chord progression is F minor [starts to play piano], to B-flat minor, to E-flat, to A-flat,  to D-flat, G7 and then to C. Let’s just take it that far. F minor to B-flat minor, E-flat, to A-flat, to D-flat. One, two, three, four, five. Notice anything about that? If you noticed that each chord was a fourth higher, or a fifth lower, you’re absolutely right. In other words, the first chord was F. The next chord was four notes higher, B-flat. The next chord was four notes higher, E-flat. The next chord was four notes higher. The next chord was four notes higher, D-flat, okay? So we went from F to B-flat, to E-flat, to A-flat, to D-flat.

                      Without knowing music theory, you would say, “Ah, so what?” Well, the ‘what’ is, that chord progression goes right around the circle of fourths, or circle of fifths. We’re going up a fourth, or down a fifth, okay? And if you knew the circle of fourths, you would immediately recognize that that’s moving in that direction, okay? You’d immediately recognize that. And musicians that play the piano, and know music theory, or play any instrument and know music theory, would immediately recognize it, okay? That’s just one area of music theory. There’s many, many areas. Let’s take a look at that circle of fourths, or fifths. By the way, it doesn’t matter what you call it. Purists will say, “Hey, that’s the circle of fifths. It’s not the circle of fourths.” Well, you know, it depends which way you go. If you go clockwise, it’s one thing. If you go counter-clockwise, it’s the other thing. But the point is, all the points of the compass – there’s twelve major keys, of course, and that circle accounts for all twelve of the major keys. And it shows what chords are related to which chords, okay? In other words, the F chord is more closely related to the B-flat chord than it is to lots of other chords. The next chord, E-flat, is more closely related to A-flat, and A-flat’s related to D-flat, okay? So it moves around the circle. Just that, okay? Now, let’s look at the next page of ‘All the Things You Are.’ C-minor to F minor, B-flat seventh to E-flat, to A-flat, to D-flat. Okay, so we go around the circle again, but this time it starts on C, and goes to F, to B-flat, to A-flat. Okay, so there’s many, many examples in songs where the circle of fifths is in place. And if you don’t know music theory, you wouldn’t have a clue of what’s going on.

                    Now I know that sounds a little complex, but it’s necessary to know music theory if you really want to understand what makes music tick. So that’s my little sermon for today, so I advocate that you learn as much about music theory as you can. There’s lots of fine courses available on music theory. I have one, but lots of people have a good course on music theory, and of course you can go to a college, any college, and take a course in music theory. Even Music Theory 101 would be a huge help, because you’d learn the basics of music like that.

                       Okay, that’s it for today, and if you enjoyed these tips, come on over to www.PlayPiano.com and sign up for a free newsletter on chords and chord progressions. So we’ll see you there! Bye bye for now
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA7T79EWrsg
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