CHORD PIANO

with the

Musicarta Pyramids Variations

Up until November 2012, the Musicarta Chord Piano page hosted Lesson Four of The Pyramids Variations, a graded series of free online piano lessons from www.musicarta.com.

The Musicarta Pyramids Variations series of keyboard creativity lessons has been released as an e-book digital download/data-CD. Click through to the Pyramids Variations home page to learn more, or jump right in and . . . BUY THE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD only $14.95 TAKE THE DATA-CD OPTION only $12.95 COMING SOON! These pared-down web pages have been left on the site to show you how the Pyramids Variations will give your repertoire and keyboard know-how a massive boost – explore them using the series navigation in the right hand column. Enjoy!

Now, the Musicarta Chord Piano page takes a look at where you are in the build-up to the Pyramids Concert Performance, then goes on to show how Musicarta generally can help you build your chord piano know-how.

The Pyramids Variations so far

The Pyramids Variations promo text makes a bold statement:

“Piano lessons should be more like guitar lessons!”

Almost from the first lesson, the guitar pupil plays chords, either from simple fretboard diagrams or by imitation. He or she strums rhythmic patterns with ease and learns the basics of popular music as a matter of course. The guitar pupil plays freely within his or her limits without needing to know the advanced systems of guitar notation.

By contrast, piano pupils are presented almost immediately with a daunting mountain of technique, and are limited in what they can play by the music they can read. Carefree self-expression without years of preparatory work appears unthinkable, and popular music and its characteristic keyboard skills are often looked down upon, if acknowledged at all.

The Musicarta Pyramids Variations teaches aspiring modern keyboard musicians to ‘mess about at the keyboard’ with the same ease that guitarists display on their instrument.

It does this by teaching a Basic Music-making Position which makes playing chords from a chord sequence chart a cinch, right in Lesson One:

The simple Lesson Two ‘left-hand-over’ trick turns this into something fast approaching a piece of music:

Adding just nine additional notes (and promoting a few chord tones) in Lesson Three gives the piece a melody:

By using a combination of unambiguous illustrations, audio files, video and MIDI support, the learner is able to progress next to this grand sounding Lesson Four four-chord version of the same chord sequence, with the melody on top.

If reading music had been the deciding factor, a performance of this sheer WIDTH would be Year Four, not Lesson Four, material, but Musicarta’s unique teaching material has you ‘strumming’ chords at the keyboard in no time at all!

The Basic Music-making Position makes big music from simple beginnings - and you don't have to read music at all. Here's a sample diagram:

As well as audio files, the Pyramids Variations comes with MIDI files you can play on the MidiPiano virtual keyboard app (Windows) included in the download.

The MidiPiano performance of the pattern above looks like this:

A lot of Musicarta material comes with MIDI file support. You can use the application's slow-down, repeat and zoom features to help you learn more quickly. Learn more about playing Musicarta MIDI files here.

You can see that the Pyramids Variations covers ALL the options in a methodical, progressive programme to fast-track your chord piano skills!

BUY THE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD only $14.95

TAKE THE DATA-CD OPTION only $12.95 (COMING SOON)

So feel free to continue your exploration of the Musicarta Pyramids Variations digital home study pack using the links in the series navigation table (right-hand column), or click up to the series home page for an overview and particulars of the download procedure.

Remember that the build-up to the Concert Performance is only Part One of the Pyramids Variations. Once you know the chords thoroughly, you go on to the Variations sections, where you learn to use what you know to create dozens of different variations on the Pyramids chord sequence – just as you would want to do with any song you’d play. Click through to the series Variations page if you're keen to get ahead.

Thanks for visiting Musicarta! Come again soon!