ADULT PIANO LESSONS

The Four-chord B Section

The four-chord version of the Pyramids adult piano lesson home study course is the basis of your Pyramids Concert Performance. The B section you learned in Lesson Six now needs to be expanded to four-chord status, ready for the Concert Performance.

Adult piano lessons – The 32-bar B section is Lesson Six of The Pyramids Variations, a graded series of free online piano lessons from Musicarta.com.

To benefit fully from the following material, you need to have completed the previous lessons in the series. Visit the series covering page for an overview and to get started.

To find more free piano lessons online from Musicarta.com, go to the Musicarta.com home page via the navigation bar on the left.

Here are the audio and MIDI files for the lesson performance:

The file named in the right hand cell of the table above is the MIDI file of the performance you will learn in this module. Played on MidiPiano, Musicarta's recommended 'virtual keyboard', it will look-and-sound like this:

If you download and install MidiPiano - it's quick, easy and safe! - you can see what to play and use the application's slow-down, repeat and zoom features to help you learn more quickly.

Expanding the B section

Note that:

• Even though the Fmaj7 and Emin7 chords have more complicated names, the hands still play basic root position triads (BMP chords). It is the new melody note which makes the chord symbol more complicated.

• You have already played F, G and E minor four-chord patterns in the previous four-chord versions.

• Bars 23 and 24 are a four-chord left-hand-over pattern in E major, which you have also played already.

So six bars of the four-chord B section are already familiar, leaving only the Am (A minor) and D sharp dim 7 bars to look at.

The four-chord A minor chord

The four-chord version of this bar (bar 20) has the overlap in exactly the same place. To make the four-chord version, you add identical left and right hand chords either side of the original pair:

The melody notes are not shown or played in the performance files. Both performance files play the two-chord version (top) twice, then the four-chord version (bottom) twice.

Here are the A minor chords for bar 20 shown on the keyboard. Only the chord tones are shown. The two middle chords are the two-chord version; the four-chord version uses all four chords as shown.

Use the keyboard diagram to make sure you can play along with the audio/MIDI performance clips for bar 20.

(If you want learn more about inversions, link through to Musicarta’s Inversions page here.)

The four-chord D sharp diminished 7 chord

The D sharp dim 7 chord is not so straightforward.

Here are the chord tones of the original, two-chord D sharp dim 7 chord:

Play a simple four-chord B section

Next, add a simple B section melody.

You already have a zigzag line diagram for the B section melody and chord roots (the bass line).

Here are the performance files for this build-up study:

Now play the four-chord B section with just the simple melody (one new note per bar)

Playing the developed melody over the four-chord B section

Here is the B section melody from the two-chord version on its own, without the chords.

For the four-chord version, you ‘stretch out’ the melody, an octave higher, over the expanded B section chords.

Hear the chords playing under this audio of the solo extended developed melody in your ‘inner ear’, then go ahead and play the four-chord Pyramids B section, with the developed melody.

You can download the music for the four-chord B section but even if you can play from the written-out music, go through this lesson thoroughly so that you understand how the music is being created out of building blocks you already know.

Play the full Pyramids four-chord AABA version

• You have already played a 16-bar A1A2 four-chord version with developed melody.

• You have just learned the developed-melody four-chord B section (this lesson).

• You only have to play these sections in the A1A1BA2 combination for an impressive Pyramids performance. Here are performance files and a chord chart:

This is the end of Lesson Seven of the Pyramids Variations series of free online piano lessons from Musicarta.com. You have in fact learned all the material you need for Lesson Eight - the Pyramids Concert Performance - click straight through it you're ready to proceed.

If you feel you should revise any of the lessons before going on to the Concert Performance, click through here:

Lesson One introduces the simple Basic Music-making Position piano chords and the basic chord sequence.

Lesson Two adds a left-hand-over note to make the two-bar piano chord pattern, adding variety to our 'First Performance'.

Lesson Three adds a melody to the chord progression.

Lesson Four expands the piano chord base into a Four-chord Version, taking the melody up an octave.

Lesson Five develops the melody with non-chord tones and a more complex rhythm.

Lesson Six adds eight bars of new music to make a 32-bar chord progression in the famous 'AABA' form of the jazz standards.

Otherwise. take a break and just enjoy playing your Pyramids performances so far, or browse the tabs on the Musicarta.com home page for more great adult piano lessons> to study at home, and at your own pace.

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