Easy Piano Lessons

Ah… the arpeggio. A miracle of cascading notes that produces a beautiful sound on the piano. To most it’s a mystery how it’s created. But to those who understand chords, it’s just a matter of practicing until the pattern is mastered.

Now, the arpeggio can be used either in the right or left hand (or both together) but it’s usually the left-hand that takes up this amazing technique. Let’s look at how one might use an extended arpeggio pattern to create an improvisation.

The first thing you need to know about most left-hand arpeggios is that they usually start below the middle of the keyboard. Most pianists begin their run below middle Cand there’s a good reason for this – bass notes!

Those thunderous resonant bass sounds that reverberate in the body are hit and the piano comes alive!

Now, you have to be careful here because if you hit too many bass notes together the effect can end up sounding “muddy.” That is, you won’t be able to differentiate the notes and you’ll end up having sonic sludge. But, if you spread out the first few notes this won’t happen. That’s why the open position chord is perfect to begin your left-hand arpeggio. For example, let’s say you want to play a C Major 9 arpeggio.

Of course, you’ll begin with the C note (which is also the root note.) Now, we could play the third (e) but if we do, chances are we’ll end up with that “muddy” effect. No, A better way is to play the fifth followed by either the octave or the seventh tone.

What I like to do is play a pattern that looks like this: 1-5-8-9-3 – which means I’m playing these notes: c-g-c-d-e. This pattern produces a beautiful “new age” sound and is used frequently in New Age piano playing.

For example, look at the lesson “Coming Home.” Here we play an extended arpeggio in the left hand and use over 2 octaves of the keyboard. It’s quite an exercise and is a good one to get your left hand moving!

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Visit www.quiescencemusic.com now and get a FREE piano lesson!

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Why is it important to know about dominant seventh chords? The Dominant 7 Chord is an extremely important chord because it defines “key”. Before we explore the function of this chord, let us see how it is constructed.

Construction

The notes, by number, in a dominant 7 chord are: 1 3 5 b7. If we plug in notes from the C Major scale, we get C E G Bb. Using the same formula, the D7 chord would contain the notes D F# A C.

Of course, if you are to be able to use this formula to construct dominant seventh chords in all 12 keys, you must be thoroughly familiar with key signatures. In fact, memorizing the key signatures for all twelve major keys is probably the most important first step toward a working knowledge of music theory.

The dominant seventh chord is the chord you want to use when you are told to play “C7″. Construct this chord by starting with the MAJOR TRIAD and adding the flatted seventh note in the scale.

Function

The Dominant 7 Chord functions as a “V” chord.

This means that in a chord progression, this is the chord that is built upon the fifth note in the scale. For example, a G7 chord is built on the 5th note of the C MAJOR scale and therefore is the V chord in the key of C.Let’s try another one: What is the V chord in the key of “D”? The fifth note in the “D” scale is “A”, so the V chord in the key of D is A7.

The V chord determines the key because it occurs only ONCE in each key. For example, if you see the chord “E7″, you KNOW you are in the Key of “A” because “E” is the fifth note of the “A” major scale.

What if you see the chord “B7″? If you said that you are in the key of “E”, you are absolutely right because “B” is the 5th note in the “E” scale.

Try another one–what key are you in if you see a “C7″ chord?

Of course, to apply this formula to all 12 keys, you again need to know the Key Signatures.

If you would like more detailed information about chord formulas and music theory, there are extensive free lessons in the theory section of my website:

http://www.may-studio-music-lessons.com/music-theory-basics.html

http://www.may-studio-music-lessons.com

Visit this site for free (really–no trial periods, no tricks–just FREE!) guitar, drum, piano, theory and composition lessons.

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