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The Pyramids Variations

Concert Performance

The Pyramids Concert Performance is Lesson Eight of the Pyramids Variations from Musicarta.com, where you can download piano lessons free and teach yourself popular music keyboard styles at your own pace.

To get the greatest benefit, work through the Pyramids series of free piano lessons online methodically. Visit the series covering page for an overview and to get started.

Here are the audio and MIDI files for the Pyramids Concert 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:

This text you don’t see

(Click on the full screen icon in the bottom right hand corner of the video player for a more useful view. Use the 'Esc' buton on your computer keyboard to return to normal view.)

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.

Learn more about playing Musicarta MIDI files here.

    The Concert Performance chord sequence

If you have completed lessons One to Seven in this series, you can already play all the music in the Pyramids Concert Performance.

The Concert Performance is made up of five eight-bar phrases in twelve-eight – the ‘four-chord version’ time signature.

First you play an Introduction – a four-chord A1 strain without any melody. (You learned this in Lesson Four.)

Then you play the 32-bar A1A1BA2 version from Lesson Seven. Here is a chord chart of the Concert Performance:

If you can remember what you learned in lessons One to Seven in this series, you should be able to play the Pyramids Concert Performance from the chord chart right away.

You can open and print the Concert Performance music using this link. (Note that the repeat of the A1 strain is indicated by repeat marks in the music.) But even if you can play the Concert Performance easily from the music, study the music and chord chart until you see how the chord chart represents the music, and then use the chord chart on its own for you performance.

    Make your performance expressive

The music does not have performance markings like tempo and ‘dynamics’ (loudness and softness indications). This is because the Musicarta method is designed to help you play less from written-out music and more from your own knowledge and artistic impulse. You must put those shadings in yourself. Of course, you will try to ‘bring the melody out’. It is also usual to try to make the B section slightly different, and to slow down and fade away at the end.

If you want a really musical performance, spend some time imagining what you yourself would like to hear. What orchestral instruments would you use if you could conduct an orchestra playing the Concert Performance? If the Pyramids music were a film soundtrack, what would be happening on screen? Imagine a concert pianist playing the Pyramids variations in the most outrageously ‘artistic’ manner possible – and aim for that performance. (Only a fraction of all that ‘artistry’ gets through.)

    A Variation-type performance

Make the most of the work you have put into learning Pyramids by playing the full Concert Version at the end of a build-up from the simpler versions.

For example, you could play:

  • Pyramids with LH-over Patterns (two-chord, 16-bar A1A2)

  • Two-chord AABA performance with developed melody

Segue into:

  • Pyramids Concert Performance

To finish, segue into:

  • Reprise: An eight-bar, two-chord A2 with simplest melody.

(In music, segue [seg-wey] means ‘transition without a break into the next piece’. For example, make the last note A of one version the first note A of the next. Listen to the segued performance at the end of Lesson Seven for ideas.)

Congratulations on achieving the Pyramids Concert Performance, and discovering a new chord-based way of building music at the keyboard.

To take your skills to the next level, go on to the Pyramids Variations Continuation Page, where you can explore ideas for more performances of the Pyramids chord sequence, using techniques you already know and others you will easily learn.

Or check out the tabs on the Musicarta home page where you can download piano lessons covering all the creative keyboard player's skills.

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