Two different people asked me about musical keys this week.
A key is a collection of notes in a particular pattern. If you start singing a song on one note & then sing the same song but begin it on a different note, it’s still the same song but is in a different key.You’ll also have to play different chords to make it sound right.
Here are two different versions of The Kinks’ Lola – one on Ukulele Boogaloo & one from Richard G’s Songbook. You’ll notice the difference when you play them – you might find the chords easier to play in one version or that you can sing along better on one. Read the rest of this entry »
After discussions at recent club nights from Chris & Paul about movable chords & different chord fingerings, here’s another article to help those with little or no music theory background learn about major chords.
I’ve been enjoying the BBC Two series Howard Goodall’s Story Of Music – in six parts, covering the origins of music from the Stone Age until the Digital Age. It’s being shown on Saturday nights until 23 Feb (with episodes available on the BBC iPlayer for around a month after broadcast). It’s a good way to put the theory into context with different types of music you hear & play. Read the rest of this entry »
EarMaster is another interactive music theory site, with a useful page for learning how to recognise the interval (ie musical gap) between two notes. You can listen to ascending & descending intervals and play a daily quiz, Plus there is a long list of songs that start with each interval: choose the ones you know to make a customised reference chart as an aide-mémoire.
Woman listening to Music (Photo credit: RelaxingMusic)
Here’s a free on-line ear trainer from Rick, who writes the I Was Doing All Right blog. There are full instructions on the page & it has several different customisable options for you to identify note intervals, chords & melodies, so you can make it as hard or easy as you wish.
You’ll need Java running (answer any prompts you receive on-screen & scroll down to the bottom of the page for troubleshooting if you encounter any problems).
Rick’s article also describes other hints & tips for ear training & gives his song mnemonics for learning intervals (you may want to use your own – it;s easier to pick tunes you know well if you use this method).
The ear trainer is also available for free download if you want to use it off-line.
Reading Music Mnemonics – Treble Clef from http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-read-music2 Notes on the lines are E – G – B – D – F = Every Good Boy Deserves Football Notes in the spaces spell F – A – C – E
Another interesting learning resource site I found this week is memrise. Its main section is on-line language courses, with novel ways of getting you to learn the vocabulary (along with mnemonics, submitted by fellow learners, which may or may not seem useful to you!) but it covers a lot more under Other Topics..
It’s a free sign-up. You do short, timed tests to build your knowledge & can return as often or infrequently as you wish to practice. There is a reasonable Musical Notation section with all manner of items to help your music theory knowledge, such as:
In this article I shall attempt to lay out the very basis of how music works in a straightforward, easily understood fashion. Please, if you’re a beginner, don’t be put off by the idea of learning and understanding anything about music. The basic stuff is really easy to grasp and will enhance your playing and following of what’s going on when you play with others. If you’re already into music this isn’t for you, it’s for those with no understanding at all.
Musical Notes – The Octave & Chromatic Scale
If you play a note and then double the frequency (ie the number of times a string vibrates in one second) you get the same note but higher. This is called an octave and can be heard on a ukulele if you play an open string and then count 12 frets up the fingerboard and play that note. It’s the same note an octave higher.
Ear Training: Loud music warning campaign (Photo credit: .m for matthijs)
Theta Music Trainer has a huge variety of different music training games on their site. You can sign in for free & play the first few levels of all their ear training games without paying for a subscription, which gives you access to the higher levels.
Topics include Scales, Intervals, Melody, Chords, Chord Progressions, Theory & Notation, Rhythm, Tuning & Pitch and Sound. If you have a microphone, you can even test your singing! Just playing regularly for a few minutes at a time will help improve your listening skills.
To help in playing chord progressions more smoothly, Doctor Uke has two simple PDFs with the most common progressions for three- & four- chord songs in all the main keys: I – IV – V7 & I – I7 – IV – V7. If you take these nice & slowly at first, paying attention to getting a good clean sound, then increase your speed gradually, you will build up good muscle memory of how to play these chords.
Also useful is the Ukulele For DummiesChord Families sheet, which shows the basic chords for the main keys.
These three items make a nice warm-up at the start of your practice & can be varied by you changing the order of the chords or visiting the Doctor Uke’s Music Theory page, where he gives a number of songs in different keys for you to try.
Alternatively, you can add in practicing different strumming patterns whilst working through the chord progressions, with or without a metronome, to help you keep in time.
