Musicarta's piano lessons online blog

Jun 19, Keyboard Chord Generator

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:59:51 -0400

The Musicarta Keyboard Chord Generator is a new chord dictionary which groups chords according to how they look. This helps fast-track you to ‘seeing’ the chords you need right there in the keyboard.

Jun 18, MIDI Piano Music

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:51:23 -0400

Download MidiPiano and you can play the free MIDI piano music files accompanying Musicarta’s flagship Pyramids Variations lesson series. Small, safe and simple, MidiPiano will double your progress.

Jun 6, New Look ‘Mariaan’ Hits The Catwalk!

Thu, 6 Jun 2013 16:35:19 -0400

All about ‘Mariaan 2.0’ piano solo - the make-over. All solos undergo a certain amount of evolution. ‘Mariaan’ is essentially a chord sequence ‘realised’ (as the technical word puts it) with a broken-chord-plus-left-hand-over-note texture. (See ‘Bye-bye, Blue’ for another example.) When you add a melody, however, ‘tweaking’ becomes inevitable. Some chord tones you just can’t play because there’s a melody note in that ‘slot’; some chord tones need moving around to balance the harmony, and so on. Then there are the genuinely artistic developments – a developed bass line for the second chorus and some other slight variations to sweeten the repetition, a coda (extended ending), a bit of your very own fancy finger work and the like. It all adds up to ‘Mariaan 2.0’. ‘Mariaan’ (original) has been left in place for comparison. Which do you prefer? Mister Musicarta has obviously opted for the ‘tweaked’ version! ‘Mariaan’ will shortly be released as a stand-alone Musicarta teach-yourself digital download. There are three ways you can be sure not to miss the launch: Get the site site RSS feed. Bookmark the blog page and check in regularly. Subscribe to the Musicarta News for quarterly round-ups and specials. Musicarta home-study downloads show you what to practice and how, to make playing attractive popular-music keyboard textures second nature. Don’t miss the chance to get this new stand-alone solo into your repertoire! Mariaan’s new address again: ‘Mariaan 2.0’ piano solo. Pop round and say hello! Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

May 1, Key chords, left hand over - Mariaan's got it all!

Wed, 1 May 2013 10:03:55 -0400

A May Day Mister Musicarta YouTube performance: ‘Mariaan,’ a piano solo by Musicarta. The I - vi - IV - V chord progression (e.g. C, Am, F, G) is often considered a musical cliché, but, re-ordered and slightly tweaked, these four chords continue to generate hit after hit. See the mini play list on this Musicarta Key Chords sample page. As soon as you drop chord ii into the mix (here, E minor), circle of fifths constructions become a possibility - if not inevitable! Chords ii - V - I is circle of fifths construction, as are the vi - ii - V and iii - VI - ii - V - I sections in 'Mariaan'. See if you can hear how they roll you along! Musicarta’s Pyramid Variations home-study download introduces the circle of fifths – there’s a brief reference on this Pyramids Variations sample page . Circle of fifths is advanced work - a solid foundation of basics is a must! 'Mariaan' was improvised while still under the influence of the‘Bye-bye, Blue’ look-and-feel - there are lots of left-hand-over notes in 'Mariaan' too! A MidiPiano how-to version will hit Mister Musicarta YouTube in a little while - subscribe to the channel to be sure you catch it!. Get the Musicarta site RSS feed to stay up to date with development at Musicarta, or visit the blog page regularly to see what's new. Subscribe to the Musicarta News for quarterly round-ups and specials. Mariaan’s address again: ‘Mariaan,’ piano solo by Musicarta. Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Apr 29, Bye-bye Blue – on video

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 04:38:13 -0400

For some inexplicable reason, Mister Musicarta failed to blog the first YouTube appearance of ‘Bye-bye, Blue’, the originating cause of the flurry of left-hand-over textures here at Musicarta. ‘Bye-bye, Blue’ sprang from encounters in the teaching room with a young man who steadfastly refused to look at music manuscript. Nothing daunted, our resourceful teacher drew up a few pages of blank keyboard illustrations and proceeded regardless. Chord tones became melody notes, and the resulting chord study became an object lesson in playing a melody and accompaniment at the same time – something any self-respecting modern keyboard stylist wants to get to grips with sooner or later. ‘Bye-bye, Blue’ is in development as a Musicarta digital home-study pack. It will be more video-oriented than previous volumes (and shorter!), and you can see a sample of how it will work over in the ‘Bye-bye Blue’ How-to Video 1 – also hosted on the BBB web page. The video has also joined the Mister Musicarta YouTube Left-hand-over playlist. The left-hand-over trick looks good and adds a nice harmonic dimension – worth getting down. Stay posted with the Musicarta site RSS feed, or sign up for the Musicarta News for a quarterly round-up. Subscribe to the Mister Musicarta YouTube channel using the any of the buttons on the site pages and the YouTube channel. Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Apr 27, Canon goes left-hand over!

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 13:05:31 -0400

The advantage of knowing a chord sequence ‘inside out’ is that you can practice keyboard textures without having to think too hard about which notes to use. The Canon Diaries LH-over study applies Musicarta’s newly-popular left-hand-over note technique to the chord sequence of Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D, one of the best-loved chord sequences ever penned and the basis of many, many pop music hits. (Incidentally, Musicarta’s Canon Project digital home study download teaches this ‘mother-lode’ chord sequence, together with a host of practical keyboard chord skills, in an exciting, pain-free way. Check it out…) This Canon study is accompaniment-only. Sing your own melody or lyric over it as you play, or improvise over the performance on any instrument. Note that this arrangement has a Musicarta-generated ‘B strain’ to build an extended AABA performance. The current Musicarta fashion for LH-over textures was sparked by the revival of ‘Bye-bye, Blue’, a dot-free creative keyboard lesson-stream from Mister Musicarta’s distant past. Click through to the ‘Bye-bye, Blue’ Musicarta web page here. A Mister Musicarta YouTube Left-hand-over playlist has been started – expect further entries daily! Subscribe to Mister Musicarta YouTube for instant notifications. Enhanced audio of this Canon arrangement as a backing track, along with the MS and MIDI files, will be included in the forthcoming ‘Bye-bye, Blue’ Musicarta digital home study download (available mid-May 2013). Get the Musicarta site RSS feed for hassle-free updates, or sign up for the Musicarta News for a quarterly round-up. Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Apr 5, KCD Suspensions 'pad' arrangement video

Fri, 5 Apr 2013 09:18:09 -0400

A video of the new chords-in-the-left-hand arrangement of the Key Chords Suspensions riff has been uploaded to Mister Musicarta YouTube. As per previous blog entry, Mister Musicarta is starting to realise that his ten-finger solo piano style isn’t quite the latest thing and will be serving up more combo-style arrangements in future. The soft whooshy oooh-aaah voices on a DAW synth are called ‘pad’ voices, apparently. Hopefully, Musicarta’s ability to find voices above and beyond the current Casio-tone lead will improve, but please, always remember Musicarta is how-to, not hi-fi. Here’s the link again. Please bolster M’s self-worth with a view or two! Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Apr 4, Suspensions goes DAW

Thu, 4 Apr 2013 05:59:00 -0400

The KCD Suspensions chord study has a new arrangement, which might cast it in a new light for you. Audio only so far, on the KCD Suspensions page. For those of you who don’t know, DAW stands for digital audio workstation, where electronic music is built and honed to perfection. While Mister Musicarta realises he’s no sequencer he does realise that his ten-finger solo piano style isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. So Mister M will be working up more combo-style arrangements in future. Hopefully, his sequencing will improve, but please remember, Musicarta is how-to, not hi-fi! Have a listen on site, and watch out for the YouTube version, coming soon. Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Apr 2, Key Chords Suspensions teaching notes on site

Tue, 2 Apr 2013 12:10:58 -0400

Following the new policy recently announced, teaching notes for the Key Chords Suspensions video are now appearing on site. Most of us keyboard players are capable of learning more and faster if we approach the task methodically, and the expanded teaching notes are an attempt to help the player wanting to get a Musicarta solo into his/her repertoire. The other thread in the teaching notes is ‘theory that works’. Understanding the mechanics of something like suspensions puts a lot more harmonic material right under your fingertips, but it looks like so much more ‘theory’ and it’s not always easy for young pop-oriented players to see how much it can help them. Hopefully, these video-linked single-piece pages (see also the home Suspensions page) will tip the scales in a case or too! Pop along to the KCD Suspensions riff teaching notes page, and see if it does the trick for you. Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Mar 28, Suspensions and Scales

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 11:34:59 -0400

There isn’t much by way of formatting or functionality in a YouTube video description, and Mr Musicarta wondered if casual YouTube visitors wouldn’t find it easier to read the notes to the various YouTube ‘theme’ videos on-site. The new model is being trialled with the all-new site Suspensions page, which he cordially invites you to visit. Lessons here in Cape Town have had a distinct suspensions theme recently, and have spawned a number of mini-riffs. We’ve been impressed by what good value a little suspension-resolution (sus-res) back-room capacity is. Think about it – for every chord you know, you get 2-1 and 4-3 potential too! That’s triple your mileage! And if your melody is going to hit an accented non-chord tone (there I go again), you’re going to want to know how to make room for it. If this is gobbledy-gook to you, pop along and tackle it head on. For your convenience, a YouTube Suspensions playlist has also been put together. Have a listen through and you’ll soon recognise the powerful sus-res sound. There are more suspensions mini-riff videos in the pipeline, so subscribe to Mister Musicarta YouTube to stay posted. Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion P.S. If you want to learn your scales watching a man with very long fingers play them, get along to this ABRSM Scales video page. Do not try to make your hands look like this! I’m sure the player is a very fine pianist, but your average pianist should be cultivating a more hand-holding-a-ball look! You might find these videos helpful in conjunction with the Musicarta Key-specific Keyboards for cultivating your ability to ‘see the keys in the keyboard’. Then check your understanding – and get seriously practical – by seeing if you can play the Triad Shapes Drill in the key of your choice. Now we’re talking!

Mar 25, Vote Alberti for chord mileage

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:22:58 -0400

The ‘Alberti bass’ – after the Italian composer who first popularised it – is a great way to get some yardage out of your triads, as the latest Pyramids Diaries YouTube video demonstrates. The left hand covers any triad and ‘waggles’ it bottom, top, middle, top. You can do it all day! The left hand has to be in the middle-ish of the keyboard, of course – it gets muddy even at C-below-middle-C. The more Pyramids (Diary) Variations I write, the more the chords seem to do their own thing. They really mix it up here – borrowing from other parts of the sequence, going chromatic here, contriving a little extension there… The version presented here is literally one of a dozen I could have settled on. I wrote Pyramids as a teaching vehicle with a quite deliberately regular pattern – only later did it become apparent that a little mediant substitution in the bass turns the chord sequence into pure circle-of-fifths. Nowadays, I have to haul it back from the brink all the time – otherwise, we’d be forever playing Pet Shop Boys ‘It’s A Sin’! Because the Alberti left hand effectively plays on every quaver, the syncopation is a little easier to get; that is, your off-beat right hand notes are always coming with a left hand note, and not dropping into thin air. Ideally, there would be practice notes with build-up of syncopation. Hopefully, you create those exercises for yourself. And, hopefully, you squash each of the Alberti broken-chord triads back into vertical all-notes-at-once and learn them as a string having reference to the chord symbols. Musicarta is about levelling-up. Yes, we do need to just drill in some repertoire, but, in the end, playing the notes is just start. So please, latest check out the video. The self-respecting graduate Pyramideer will naturally look-and-listen to the first eight bars (tops!) and go off and complete their own version of the variation, as with the three ‘seed’ versions on the surviving Pyramids skeleton ‘Continuation Page’. So I won’t keep you! Yours in harmony
Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Mar 21, Snake Dance, Round Two

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:03:59 -0400

The ‘Snake Dance’ is a great place to do some focused syncopation training, and the second YouTube Snake Dance Syncopation Challenge video is now showing on a screen near you. This concludes the Snake Dance challenge. Mister Musicarta has a bundle of further complications in a drawer somewhere, clearly labelled ‘Extremely Nasty’, and doesn’t intending risking hopefully cordial relations by imposing them on you. Visit the Musicarta Beat & Rhythm home page for additional beat-and-rhythm boot camp stuff. Quick TOC: Challenge Video One, Challenge Video Two, Beat & Rhythm home, download the basic music. Keep at it – Rome wasn’t built in a day! One day, you just CAN – which is, all said and done, just a critical mass of single repeated efforts. Yours in syncopation
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Mar 19, Mad March Syncopation Challenge

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:26:28 -0400

The ‘Snake Dance’, (aka The Streets Of Cairo, Poor Little Country Maid, There’s A Place In France) is an evergreen beginners’ novelty piece. It’s also a great place to do some fun-but-focused syncopation training. Mister Musicarta challenges you to see how far YOU can get with Part One of the Musicarta ‘Snake Dance’ Syncopation Challenge! Here’s the YouTube video - also embedded on the Musicarta Beat & Rhythm home page, where you will find links to other similar beat-and-rhythm boot camp stuff. You can download the ‘theme’ music here, but try to ‘get it’ from the video first. Learning and playing by ear and from memory are where it’s at, in the end! The hands stay in D minor Basic Music-making Position (BMP) with the LH thumb making an optional one-semitone excursion to B flat for variety (bars 10 and 11). Once you’ve got your starting positions, it’s just try, try, and try again, but you’d be wise, when the going gets tough, to stop and figure out the together, left, right (TLR) which-hand-plays-when ‘events’. One section of the manuscript has the TLR analysis between the staves, but learn to do it for yourself – it’s the efficient way of working. The right-hand-under is an extra, for novelty (and showing off), but it certainly focuses your attention on which hand is doing what! Try to get to the final ‘LH rolling, with-gap/RH-under’ benchmark performance (and well done you!) – and stay posted for trickier stuff to come. Quick recap: YouTube video, Beat & Rhythm home, download the music. Yours in syncopation
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Mar 16, Is it World Suspensions Week?

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 18:48:58 -0400

First the Key Chords vi-IV-V-I material (twice!) - and now the Pyramids Variations chord sequence gets the suspensions treatment. Musicarta never tires of batting on about how suspensions are a great way to get more out of your chords. They’re also a great game to play with your chords. You can ‘suspend’ (haul up) any chord tone – try it and see! You can also push the chord tones down a scale-step and let them spring back up into place, but you’ve got to have your chords secure before you start pulling chord tones hither and thither, or you’ll get heck-of-a confused. That’s the benefit of studying Pyramids, for example. Knowing a chord sequence inside out frees you up to play with it. Something like this versions is to be found in the final ‘Further Variations’ section of the Pyramids Variations workbook. The video tells you what chord tone is being affected (1, 3 or 5 - 1 being the root or name-note of the chord), hence 6–5, 4–3, 2–1 etc. So brush up your Pyramids basic music-making position performance, then check the video and see what you can do. TIP – don’t try to go straight for the finished product. Sketch the outline first – the chords, the suspensions… The rhythm ‘fancy’ is the icing on the cake – you do that last! Have fun! Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Mar 15, Pyramids - still alive and kicking!

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 15:26:43 -0400

Musicarta’s all for his pupil’s getting more bang for their buck. Hence this Pyramids ‘segue’ performance, put together for a pupil’s forthcoming eisteddfod. (A ‘segue’ – pronounced segway – is a smooth, uninterrupted transition.) In fact, it’s easy to build quite extended performances from relatively little material – and get away with it! Most listeners don't object to repetitions if they’re even only slightly different. The old classical sets of variations would often start with a ‘statement of the theme’, and that’s what this Pyramids performance does. You can read about the various sections of the segue in the video titles. A1A2 and AABA are types of song form – all explained in the Pyramids Variations workbook and surviving website contents pages. The Pyramids Variations is the ideal place to learn to start playing (and playing around with!) chords at the keyboard – and to pick up some useful music theory along the way. Available as a digital home study pack from Musicarta – follow the link in the site page right hand columns. You can be playing like this in no time at all! Yours in harmony
Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Mar 13, MEPS Revisited - new YouTube offering

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 07:37:41 -0400

Following a particularly delightful lesson the other day, Mister Musicarta took his head out of the Key Chords filing cabinet to dash off a quick MEPS instalment. (Musicarta Easy Piano Style (MEPS) aims to get beginners and near-beginners playing the keyboard as quickly as guitarists get round to strumming out chords. Regular readers will be familiar with this green streak in Musicarta’s make-up.) The MEPS ‘Add 9’ improvisation starts from the Basic Music-making Position (BMP) and dresses it up just a bit by ‘adding 9’. ‘9’ is the most-likely added tone in general non-jazz improvisations. ‘9’ is also ‘2’, of course, and you’ll sometimes see ‘add 2’ instead of ‘add 9’ in chord symbols. After that, it’s a simple matter of riffling through the six notes of the pattern following a chord sequence, which for this improvisation is: G F G F G (extended)
Em D Em D
G F G F G (extended ending) The way you ‘join up the top notes’ to make a melody is up to you. There’s only room for two or three notes between top finger 3 last note of the pattern and the chord tone of the next chord – which you must choose and get to on time! No matter. If you ‘just copy’ and throw yourself into it, you’re sure to come away with something. Prioritise the rhythm. Play nonsense connecting notes at the top, but keep going at all costs. Art emerges out of mess – you can’t demand guarantees in advance when it comes to creativity. And work with what you’ve got! “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” Here’s the link again. Yours in harmony
Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Mar 12, Key Chords YouTube playlist

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 10:56:14 -0400

A Key Chords YouTube playlist has been organised. Here’s the link.

For that matter, here are the other major Musicarta YouTube playlists:

Enya Studies (Musicarta Easy Piano)

The Canon Project

The Pyramids Variations

Hope that saves some time scratching around. For a bit of play-by-ear practice, load up a playlist and see how you go!
Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Mar 12, Key Chords performance video posted

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 04:56:45 -0400

A new Musicarta Key Chords video has been posted on Mister Musicarta YouTube. It’s a slightly extended performance of the B flat riff material in Module Nine of the Key Chords digital home study pack. By Module Nine of the workbook, you’re pretty comfortable with the four (I, IV, V and vi) key chords covered in Volume One – and branching out of simple all-white-key C into ‘sample keys’ D and B flat major. To back-track just a fraction: If you want to get your hands round chords, I, IV, V and vi (in any key) are the ones you should start with. And if you get this feed, you probably know that the Musicarta Key Chords Volume 1 keyboard creativity home study digital download, now available at only $14.95, is the most effective way to get on with the job. So I won’t bang on about it. The video again – more soon! Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Mar 10, New MM performance on YouTube.

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 13:21:22 -0400

The performance video of KCD vi-IV-V-I Suspensions – with scrolling manuscript – is now up on Mister Musicarta YouTube. This is the ‘live’ version of the KCD four-tier Suspensions MidiPiano extravaganza posted the other day. The scrolling manuscript gives details of the suspensions - (6—5), (4—3), (2—1) etc. 5, 3 and 1 are the chord tones - 1 is the root, or name-note of the chord. In suspensions, the chord tones are hauled up a scale step (‘suspended’), then allowed to slip back. Suspensions are an easy way to lots more out of your chords. If you want to get your hands round chords, I, IV, V and vi (in any key) are the ones you should start with. They’re the ones most likely to crop up in a pop song, for sure. There are no other chords in the Suspensions KCD, but you’d hardly notice. And if you get the musicarta.com feed, you probably know they’re the four chords covered in the Musicarta Key Chords Volume 1 keyboard creativity home study digital download, now available at only $14.95. So I won’t harp on about it. More coming soon! Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Mar 9, Another Key Chords Diaries video

Sat, 9 Mar 2013 12:59:53 -0500

I-vi-IV-V (or in this case vi-IV-V-I) really is the biz. There are no other chords, and no other chord sequence, in the latest Key Chords Diaries ‘Suspensions’ Mister Musicarta YouTube video, but I’ll wager not one person in a thousand balks at the repetition. It just is that satisfying a set of chords – that good an for-starters package. Well, I exaggerate slightly. All the chords are dressed up with suspensions, the F chord drifts into F6 territory momentarily and there’s a major seventh melody note in there somewhere (gasp!) – but again I say, for an all-you-need starter pack, I-vi-IV-V is your man. Which means the Musicarta Key Chords Volume 1 keyboard creativity home study digital download, now available at only $14.95, is also your man. Link through and check it out. Second week of March, already – know what I mean? A note re the video. The top keyboard shows the RH chords without suspensions; the next one down shows the suspensions; the second keyboard up shows the actual performance, and the bottom one shows the LH source code. But you’d have worked that out. Practice-wise, work from the outsides in. Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Mar 8, Final Key Chords sample page uploaded

Fri, 8 Mar 2013 14:58:04 -0500

The final Key Chords sample page is now on the web. It’s quite skinny – by this stage in the programme, the material needs proper preparation if it’s not to appear intimidating. The page addresses ‘formalising’ your knowledge with text-book three- and four-chord demonstration riffs, all suitably ‘riffed-up’ with your by-now well-rehearsed keyboard textures and syncopations. It (the Key Chords study programme, rather) then goes on to tackle playing in more difficult keys – ones with key signatures, and black keys as part of the scale. Getting to grips with the keys is not easy – it’s where a lot of self-taught musicians start losing the plot – but with the right learning teaching material and commitment it’s ‘do-able’…! That concludes the site Key Chords sample pages. Mister Musicarta’s gaze now turns to YouTube – expect news of shop-window performance videos hourly - but please take a peek at the last sample page on your way! Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Mar 8, Key Chords sample Lesson Four

Fri, 8 Mar 2013 02:08:33 -0500

The Key Chords sample Lesson Four is now on the web. It covers the arrival of vi (‘Six’) – the submediant or relative minor chord, and the one that, with our ‘Big Three’ I-IV-V chords, completes the Volume One key chords set. This set of four chords – particularly with the new minor chord for variety – is enough to play most of most chart hits. If you’ve got these chords at your fingertips – the rest is practically ‘mopping up’! And with Musicarta, it’s not hard – every angle is covered. You’ve got text, ‘proper’ music, illustrations (galore!), audio and audio-visual and a host of tried-and-tested practical tricks to get the smarts in. Mister Musicarta is pleased to see the page go up for personal reasons, too – it showcases a couple of performances he’s rather fond of. Just examples of what ‘messing round with chords’ – an activity which features majorly on his CV – can produce. Pop along and see what you think! Our friend Six also spawned the first Key Chords Diaries YouTube spin-off, btw, which foreshadows the final Key Chords sample lesson (in preparation) – playing your complete Key Chords set in other keys. Watch this space! Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Mar 6, Musicarta is pleased to announce…

Wed, 6 Mar 2013 15:33:35 -0500

Musicarta is pleased to announce that the third Key Chords sample page is now on show! The series home page provides a general introduction; sample Lesson One demonstrates the Key Chords learning method while sample Lesson Two moves gently into three-chord territory. (Key Chords aims to make this as easy and natural for the keyboard player as it is for the idly strumming guitarist – as Musicarta just loves to say.) The new Lesson Three takes it up a notch and moves into a full-on I-IV-V ‘La Bamba’-style riffing. It’s a showcase module, both of the solo styles you might build up to, and the painstaking, fail-proof Musicarta teaching material that will get you there. But – pop along and make up your own mind! A download consisting of a 150-page riff-packed PDF, the audio and MIDI files for all the examples and a virtual keyboard (Windows version) to play-and-watch the MIDI files, drum backing tracks and a folder of relevant flashcards for just $14.95 awaits. Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Mar 5, Key Chords Volume 1 update

Tue, 5 Mar 2013 08:19:55 -0500

As you know (we hope) Musicarta Key Chords Volume 1 – the third Musicarta keyboard creativity home study download – went live just recently. The Key Chords download aims to make playing chords as easy and natural for the keyboard player as it is for the popular styles guitarist by telling you which chords go together, and why, and which of those you should learn first, and how. And making it all tremendous fun, of course. It’s true! If you don’t believe me, get along to the revamped Key Chords sample lesson pages One and Two. You can hear the new riffs and all that, but Key Chords particularly goes the distance when it comes to building up the syncopation in a proven, effective way. Some of these build-ups have been posted on Musicarta YouTube, but they won’t be staying public for long, so don’t worry about paying for free stuff. The advantage is having the MIDI files to play on MidiPiano right off your own desktop, at your own chosen speed – practically fail-proof! The download, btw, consists of a 150-page illustration-rich PDF packed with riffs and all MS, audio and MIDI files for all examples, the MidiPiano virtual keyboard app (Windows version), drum backing tracks and a folder of relevant flashcards. It’s crazy good value – you could ‘learn to play the piano’ with this product alone, and for only $14.95. Check that out! A P.S.
Mister Musicarta is pleased to note that a good few of you have been using the discount code from the Musicarta News launch issue and would like to take this opportunity to brag about the newsletter's 33% open rate and 11% click rate – beating ANY industry sector average by a mile, a quick Google search reveals. So thanks for that!
Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Mar 2, First 'Key Chords' video of Spring

Sat, 2 Mar 2013 17:30:45 -0500

Key Chords Vol. 1 has spawned a YouTube video already - the catchilly titled 'I and vi in Three Places'. (It sounds better than it sounds, if you see what I mean.) Chord vi (Six) - the submediant chord, sometimes called the 'relative minor' - is the only minor chord in the four most-likely-to-find chords in popular music - the four chords covered in the new Musicarta 'Key Chords Volume 1' keyboard home study download. You'll recognize the I - vi sound right away - and it's an easy-to-find;chord too - only one note is different to the tonic (home chord) This little groove drills three One-and-Six pairs - C and A minor, D and B minor, and B flat and G minor. It's a restless little groove - because it's actually in three keys - but it's good practice, both playing and listening. Good for improvising over too - try humming or groaning over it, once you can play it. You should be able to get the riff if you walk through the MidiPiano demos and watch the hands. You can simplify the bass line lots and still not lose the feel. The riff plays at 92 bpm - for your keyboard rhythm box or sequencer. If you like this sort of riff and would like to take a structured approach to building your chord vocabulary this year (it's March already!), check out the Musicarta Key Chords Volume 1 keyboard creativity download via the Chords tab on the main site navbar. And please pop along to Mister Musicarta YouTube to greet the new arrival. Thanks!
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Mar 2, Oh Life! Oh I-V-vi-IV!

Sat, 2 Mar 2013 06:10:32 -0500

Having just launched the all-new Musicarta Key Chords Volume 1 keyboard home study pack, my ears are particularly attuned as I listen to the weekend golden oldies programme on the radio down here in Cape Town – when up pops Des’ree’s ‘Oh Life’. Now, one of the nice things about listening to chords is you don’t have to listen to lyrics (a great advantage in this case), and I realises instantly that ‘Oh Life’ is a classic I–V–vi–IV song. The YouTube video I found is in Db, so the chords are Db–Ab–Bbm–Gb. You can play along in C if you ‘transpose’ you keyboard up one semitone, in which case your I–V–vi–IV chords will be C–G–Am–F. I, IV, V and vi are the ‘most likely’ chords in popular music, and the four chords covered in ‘Key Chords Volume 1’. Get along to the main page and check it out – if you can play these four chords, you can play most of most popular songs, and the gaps practically fill themselves! Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Mar 1, Musicarta Key Chords Volume 1 launches

Fri, 1 Mar 2013 15:17:53 -0500

The third Musicarta keyboard creativity home study download has hit the servers – Musicarta Key Chords Volume 1 went live just a few days ago. The Key Chords download aims to make playing chords as easy and natural for the keyboard player as it is for the popular styles guitarist. It tells you which chords go together, and why – those would be the Key Chords, the six chords you can make out of the notes of a major scale. It tells you which of these chords you should learn first – which would be the major chords you find on the first, fourth and fifth scale degrees: the ‘Big Three’ – E, A and B, for example, or C, F and G (aka I, IV and V, or the tonic, subdominant and dominant chords). And it shows you the best way to learn them – methodically, in bite-sized pieces – and how to practice them – step by step, in respectably groovy practice riffs! (Check out the sampler pages on the site for examples.) The download consists of a 150-page illustration-rich PDF packed with riffs and all MS, audio and MIDI files for all examples, the MidiPiano virtual keyboard app (Windows version), drum backing tracks and a folder of relevant flashcards. The old Musicarta ‘Chord Progressions’ web pages (which the greatly improved Key Chords is based on) are being re-vamped as sampler pages so you can decide whether Key Chords is for you (work in progress – the first and second pages have been updated so far!) and Mister Musicarta YouTube will shortly be hosting a bunch of demo videos. Look at us – March already and a sixth of the year gone! How are you going to grow your keyboard chord skills this year? Get along and take a peek at Musicarta Key Chords Volume 1 – it’s progress on a plate! Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Feb 25, Activity at Musicarta – discount voucher pending

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 14:44:14 -0500

In a few days’ time Musicarta’s latest digital home study pack – ‘Key Chords Vol. 1’ – will go on sale. Key Chords takes a practical and methodical approach to learning the first four of those chords that go naturally together in the musical ‘keys’. ‘Keys’ organise our listening, our appreciation of music and our musical creating. The first four key chords alone account for a large part of all the popular music you hear. They are the songwriter’s first choice, the first stop for any player idly messing around at the keyboard and the most likely options when it comes to playing a song or piece by ear. If you have signed up for the Musicarta Newsletter – there are option boxes all over the site – you will shortly receive a Key Chords launch issue containing a description of the product and the discount voucher code giving you US$5.00 off the US$14.95 full price. The old ‘Chord Progressions’ pages at www.musicarta.com will become the main sales page plus sampler pages explaining why you should be interested in mastering the key chords and how this latest Musicarta keyboard creativity home-study download will make the task easy and rewarding for you. So, if you haven’t already done so, sign up for the newsletter in the next three days – launch is slated for 1st March. Thereafter, Mr Musicarta hopes to be able to lift his head briefly out of the minutiae of e-book preparation, only to bury it again forthwith adapting the old Chord Progressions pages and preparing MisterMusicarta YouTube promo videos. Verily, Ars longa vita brevis – or as Ol’ Fidel puts it, A luta continua! Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Dec 23, Triad shape drill web page

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 06:42:51 -0500

The new triad shape drill YouTube video now has its own Triad Drill web page! There are three simple triad shapes – root position, first inversion and second inversion. Bottom line: a good modern-styles musician, playing in a particular key, will be able to find these three shapes – using that key’s scale tones – either built on or hanging down from any of the key’s scale tones, ‘just like that’. The triad shapes drill is the kind of exercise you would use to make sure you can do that. The challenge, initially, is simply to keep going and getting it right, but when you come to play the drill in the sharp and flat keys, it becomes much more about knowing your keys, and getting to the notes whatever it takes. Anybody who aspires to ‘just sit down and play’ should work through this drill a few times. With enough work, you will hear the notes before you play them – the foundation of all playing by ear.

Click through here to the Musicarta page (recommended – text plus embedded YouTube video); or
Click through here straight to the YouTube video at Mister Musicarta YouTube.

Not glamorous, not particularly fun – merely quintessential. Yours festively
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Dec 22, New Triads shapes drill on Mister Musicarta

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 17:50:15 -0500

Know your keys, get to the chords! A ‘drill’ is by definition mechanical – but that doesn’t mean mindless. To keep going and keep getting it right requires attention. Only awareness in activity extracts maximum benefit. The new triad shapes drill has a simple formula – the three possible triad shapes (root position, first inversion and second inversion) built on eight scale tones ascending, and descending in mirror image. There are two ‘types’ – two arrangements (orders) of these three chords – plus a ‘mixed’ type. The challenge, ‘in C’ (i.e. on the white keys) at least, is simply to keep going and getting it right. But when you come to play the drill in D (two sharps) and B flat (two flats), it becomes much more about (i) knowing your keys, and (ii) doing what’s required to get the fingers onto the keys. This drill should be as much about ear as hand training. You should be able to hear what the next chord in the pattern is going to sound like, and particularly, to hear the ‘middle voice’ – the one that’s different between Types One and Two. In real playing, the chord you want in your right hand is probably one of these three. Playing through this drill over and over again will your accuracy when it comes to choosing which one. Try to use sensible fingering – don’t always be running out. Use RH2 for the middle note of a first inversion chord, and 1, 2, 4 for a root position chord when ascending. This is, admittedly, just a drill, but even if you only ever play it through once (with awareness) in, say, the keys up to four sharps/flats, you will be a better pianist – for ever. It’s worth obsessing over something once in a while – do it until you can play the new Musicarta triad shapes drill in your head! Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Dec 22, Two new YouTube playlists listed!

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 08:49:32 -0500

In the never-ending quest for efficient Mister Musicarta YouTube navigation, Mister Musicarta has arranged two new playlists:

Pyramids Variations

Canon Project

You’ll find the playlist ‘tab’ second in on the horizontal text navbar under the ‘Browse Videos’ link. If you click Play All (you don’t have to watch them all, of course!), the first one in the list kicks off, and all the others are in a scrollable list to the right od the video pane. The playlist links have also been added to the Musicarta YouTube links web page, so hunting around for a video to crib should bee a thing of the past. Note that these videos are all offered as springboards to your own compositions-cum-improvisations. Tune your antennae to that “Yes, yes, but I prefer…” frequency. Also, there’s something to be said for total immersion. If you listen to the Canon or Pyramids ‘Diaries’ subsets enough times, you WILL hear how they are all variations on / realisations of a chord sequence. From where it is but a short step – if a step at all – to hearing and playing your own variations. For your ultimate studying convenience, here are those links again:

The Pyramids Variations YouTube video playlist
The Canon Project YouTube video playlist.

Hope it helps!
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Dec 20, Musicarta YouTube playlists rolling off the presses!

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 04:35:11 -0500

Here’s another way of navigating Mister Musicarta YouTube. As well as the Musicarta YouTube links web page, Mister M’s Internet baby steps now encompass YouTube playlists. You can access these (a little birdie told him) via the text Playlists link – yes, really! – which is one in from Uploads under Browse Videos. His Harmoniousness will be getting round to listing all MMTV content in a useful and logical manner as preparations for year end allow, but for starters, here’s an Enya + Enya Studies playlist. You can click on the blue playlist title to expand it – and loads of other clever stuff still glimpsed through a mirror darkly, no doubt. You see the potential – looking for stuff does not count as practice time. Do try and get round to playing a little over the festive season! It will be good for you economically, if nothing else – shopping is known to be a major contributor to poverty. Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your chatty keyboard chum

Dec 19, Build-up of build-ups on Mister M TV

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 17:40:25 -0500

A second Musicarta Key Chords ‘build-up of syncopation’ video has been posted on Mister Musicarta YouTube. It shows how you can approach learning some tricky hand patterning for another riff in the Key Chords Module Four Afro-jazz improvisation. Musicians usually develop their syncopation skills by trial and error over a long period of time, but you can learn a great deal more quickly with the right learning material. Methodical, repeated ‘build-up of syncopation’ is recommended, speeded along with conscious attention to the counting and ‘together, left, right’ (TLR) analysis shown in the scrolling manuscript. The forthcoming Musicarta Key Chords keyboard creativity download includes all the written-out music shown scrolling in these YouTube Key Chords (KC) videos, plus the MIDI files, which you can play – and slow down – on the MidiPiano virtual keyboard app also included. The download also coaches you in using the counting and TLR analysis shown in the music to accelrate your learning. The most relevant current Musicarta web page is Chord Progressions Module Three. The riffs are new, but you can use the keyboard diagrams to drill the sets of closest inversions. More syncopation learning material will be trailed on Mister M TV prior to the product release. Subscribe to the Mister Musicarta YouTube channel to get automatic notice of postings! That’s my impartial advice anyway. Yours in tune
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Dec 19, Learning keyboard syncopation (relatively) painlessly

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 05:13:18 -0500

The next video from the forthcoming Musicarta ‘Key Chords’ keyboard creativity download is now trailing on Mister Musicarta YouTube. ’Syncopation build-up’ is the name, and it’s an example of how Musicarta sets about teaching tricky keyboard rhythms methodically and effectively. The most relevant current Musicarta web page is Chord Progressions Module Three - the riffs are all new, but you can use the keyboard diagrams to drill the sets of closest inversions. The forthcoming Key Chords download will of course include all the written-out music shown scrolling in the YouTube ‘KC’ videos, plus MIDI files which you can play – and slow down – on the MidiPiano virtual keyboard app included. Watch also for the coaching videos which show you how to use counting and TLR analysis to speed your learning. Yours in sync
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Dec 17, Cool Afro-jazz groove - Part Two

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:45:14 -0500

Here is the second sample of how the new, improved Chord Progressions series (soon to be known as ‘Key Chords’ and a forthcoming Musicarta keyboard creativity download) will make sure that have tons of fun stacking up a nice little store of keyboard grooves while you effortlessly absorb all the elements of ‘really useful’ music theory. Read the previous December 17th blog entry for details. Key Chords 4: Afro-jazz riff video 2 shows a simple broken-chord technique fitting in with anticipated chords across two sets of nearest inversions – and it sounds nice too. Watch out for further samples coming soon. Chord Progressions Module Three is the current home of this video - click through for the relevant keyboard diagrams. Yours in harmony (and rhythm)
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Dec 17, Cool Afro-jazz groove on Mister Musicarta TV

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 10:12:46 -0500

A new video on Mister Musicarta YouTube is a sample of the new, improved Chord Progressions series, currently being edited into ‘Key Chords’, the next Musicarta keyboard creativity download slated for release. The Chord Progressions/Key Chords series of lessons teaches practical keyboard harmony – the basis for that delightful pastime known as ‘messing around with chords’ – by introducing in stages the six chords which form the major key, but with a parallel focus on building syncopation skills efficiently and effectively. By this stage in the Key Chords series, you have learnt the nearest inversion pairs of the I (C in key C) and IV (F) chords and the I and V (G) chords, and the module riff – an Afro-jazz groove – visits each in turn. Building syncopation methodically (as opposed to just hacking through over and over in the hope that something sticks) requires paying attention to counting and TLR (together, right, left) analysis. The snappily titled Key Chords 4: Afro-jazz riff video 1 shows the relevant mark-up in the scrolling manuscript. The Key Chords download will include voice-over tutorial versions to guarantee effectiveness. Watch out for further samples coming soon. Visit the relevant Chord Progressions module and see if the video can’t inspire you to another run-through! Your in harmony (and rhythm)
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Dec 7, Musicarta Pyramids material – big web tidy-up!

Fri, 7 Dec 2012 15:54:29 -0500

The nine web pages of online Pyramids Variations material are close to reaching their final form. They are now pared-down ‘table-of-contents’ pages only, so don’t hold back from buying because you think the material’s staying up there for free…! More to the point, the web-side Pyramids Variations material only covered the build-up to the Concert Performance. That’s a great confidence-builder and gets the building blocks of real-time keyboard music-making under your fingers, but in reality, it’s only the preamble. The Pyramids Variations then speeds you on, properly warmed up, to twenty or so variations which model creative keyboard skills you will be able to apply to any song or chord sequence you choose. One advantage of knowing the Pyramids chord sequence inside out, is that it makes this ‘messing around with chords’ easier. You know ‘what’ to play (vaguely!) so you’re freed up to experiment with ‘how’ to play it. Knowing a chord sequence really well also offers a great opportunity to practice your playing by ear, too. The newly cleaned-up Continuation page offers an unparalleled opportunity to practice both these wonderful skills. It’s a page of hints and invitations, of challenges and surprises. There must be quite a few people out there who can manage a Pyramids version of some description. Whether they’ve bought or not, the new Continuation page is for them! Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
You creative keyboard companion

Dec 4, Helpful new keyboard diagrams at Musicarta

Tue, 4 Dec 2012 02:10:18 -0500

Many, if not most, non-professional musicians are held back by a patchy knowledge of key and key signatures. The purpose of key signatures is to enable the musician to play in any key – that is, with any of the twelve semitone pitches as the home tone (tonic). On the piano keyboard, this involves progressively substituting black keys for white key to produce the notes of the (major) scale. Conventionally-trained musicians are introduced to key signatures in a logical, simple-to-complex order, but usually just by playing pieces in these keys and without any overall perspective on the build-up of accidentals in the key signatures. It is assumed that the logic of key signature progression will just 'sink in'. The position of self-taught musicians in even worse. Key signatures often remain a baffling mystery or even provoke a plain ‘switch-off’ response. A new Musicarta web page presents some of the theory of keys but is mainly given over to a series of ‘key-specific’ keyboard diagrams. When a well-schooled musician sees a key signature, he or she automatically 'filters' their view of the keyboard to match it. For example, if the key signature shows two sharps, the musician will automatically think “D major” (ignoring minor keys for now), and the white keys F and C will be provisionally 'erased' and replaced by the black keys F sharp and C sharp. The key-specific keyboard diagrams on this page represent what the resulting keyboard – containing just ‘the right notes’ – looks like. The second purpose of this page is to give an ‘aerial view’ of the build-up of key signatures by presenting in quick succession the key-specific keyboards of the cumulative sharp keys from C (no sharps) to F sharp major (six sharps), and similarly from C through the flat keys to six-flat G flat major. The actual rule governing the accumulation of accidentals (sharps and flats) is of course spelled out in detail and should be known, but valuable understanding of key signature can be absorbed by simply browsing and using the keyboards to guide a play-through of the progressive series of sharp and flat keys The official fingering of a sample octave major scale is also given. Musicarta recommends repeated whistle-stop tours of this material to sketch in an overview of ‘key’ while laying a solid foundation for the progressive mastery of keys at the keyboard itself. Visit the new ‘Key-specific keyboards’ web page at www.musicarta.com and see for yourself! Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Dec 1, Musicarta discount voucher code!

Sat, 1 Dec 2012 09:37:10 -0500

The third edition of Musicarta News has hit the inboxes, trumpeting mainly the launch of The Pyramids Variations, Musicarta Publications' second keyboard creativity home-study download. You may feel you've heard enough about this already, but I think it's worth pointing out that if you open your December 2012 Musicarta News you’ll find in there the voucher code for a whopping US$5.00 discount on the already amazing-value $14.95 price of this fantastic 140-page, 200-audio/MIDI file (with-the-app-to-play-them-on), 26-video cornucopia of keyboard creativity! AND if you buy The Pyramids Variations, we’ll send you a same-size discount voucher for the Musicarta Canon Project digital download – a potential $9.90 saving just for opening your mail! AND Mister Musicarta, in an excess of generosity, has sent Canon Project customers and email (from webmaster@musicarta.com) just to make sure they know what they’re eligible for! And to cap it all, Mister Musicarta has promised that Musicarta visitors who subscribe to the newsletter by year-end and might have just lucked out will get that voucher (by e-mail) anyway… How’s that for festive spirit? Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion.

Dec 1, That ‘living thing’ – the Pyramids Variations!

Sat, 1 Dec 2012 07:01:24 -0500

The latest TPV Diaries (30-11-12)video accompanies the Musicarta Pyramids Variations keyboard creativity project, now available as a home study digital download – see link in my Mister Musicarta YouTube video page RH column, or use the Pyramids tab on www.musicarta.com site navbar. The ‘Variations’ section of the Pyramids course of lessons was never presented on the Musicarta web-site as such, although in fact it is ‘the point’ to a large extent. (There are some audio files to try playing by ear on the web ‘Continuation page’ – pop over there and have a go!) As stated many times in the project blurb, the purpose of knowing a chord sequence as well as somebody who has worked through the Pyramids Variations study programme will know the Pyramids chord sequence, is to remove one ‘unknown’ from the creative process. Having ‘loaded’ the Pyramids chord sequence as a template, ‘messing around with chords’ – whether composing or playing by ear – is made much easier. The TPV Diary entries on MisterMusicarta YouTube are there to inspire and offer ‘play-by-ear’ source material. Musicians familiar with the Pyramids Variations will recognize the outlines of the Pyramids chord sequence in the piece, though liberties have crept in: the usual third chord (G major) has been squeezed out and the circle of fifths quite takes over in the B section. The Am/Dm extended ending from TPV 27-11-12 is in there too. One thing does stand out: the selected chord tones (the ‘melody’) are radically different from other Pyramids renditions. Mister M hopes you enjoy! Performance-wise, it’s © R A Chappell 2012 and “the author asserts his rights,” but do try some ‘educated guesswork’ and see what you come up with! Here’s the link again: TPV Diaries 30-11-12 Yours in harmony!
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Nov 27, New Pyramids Diary entry for your consideration!

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 16:26:08 -0500

In fulfillment of Mister Musicarta’s signature ‘It’s a living thing!’ boast, here’s another Pyramids Variation ‘Diary’ entry – 27-11-12, to be precise – in support of the recently released Pyramids Variations home-study keyboard creativity pack. But first, a broad hint. Subscribe to the Musicarta Newsletter (forms liberally sprinkled across the site, quick-links in RH columns) and you could get a 33% discount on the Pyramids Variations! And be playing TPV 27-11-12 before you know it! Now those notes. This entry is a full-strength version of the much easier Further Variations FV7 on page 141 of the Pyramids Variations workbook. A few structural points:
1. The overall structure is AABAA – five strains instead of the usual 32-bar AABAA form.
2. None of the A strains are in fact the same. The difference is in the way the ‘melody’ (such as it is) moves between the top of one chord and the top note of the next. (The ear automatically appoints the top note the melody.)
3. The ending is extended by repeating the third- and second-last chords twice (making three times in all) before finally cadencing to the last chord – and then doing it again with a final i-iv pair as well. The 14-11-12 Diary video has a ‘schematic’ MidiPiano version showing the chords ‘beneath’ the musical texture of the actual notes. You should be trying to see these chords in this variation as you watch it. The variation is fussy, sound-wise, but note that the right hand particularly, moves very little. If you know the Pyramids chords, try playing along with just a half or a quarter the notes. If you catch on to a half-way-house pattern, break off and see if you can work up a version of your own. [Ends] Yours in harmony
Mister musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Nov 22, New MEPS 23-11-12 - vi IV I V

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 16:39:30 -0500

A riff a day keeps the doctor away - and makes you a hot, hot keyboard maven, so wrap your digits round MEPS 23-11-12 - vi IV I V prontissimo! A familiar set of chords – I vi IV V ( C Am F G) is the biggest cliché in the book – but if you make the vi chord (A minor) the tonic, it takes on a whole new look. In fact, the riff ends on I (C), so in the end, it’s a major riff toying with vi in an ‘interrupted cadence’(G – Am), but you could make a case for A Aeolian mode as the key. (As a key, the Aeolian uses the chords of a major key, but with vi – the relative minor – as the tonic chord.) [Note: An explanation of the Roman numeral method of naming chords can be found via the CHORDS tab on the musicarta.com site navbar. vi IV I V features strongly in Green Day’s ‘21 Guns’, but that’s in F (or D Aeolian) – chords Dm, B flat, F, C. Transpose the ] The riff qualifies for MEPS (old ‘Enya Study’) status since the left hand plays the root and the fifth, and the octave when it’s not in (RH) use, and the right hand plays the third, or the fifth with the third if not. There’s a ‘ladder’ to finish, too – you should be able to make out the left/right patterning from the MidiPiano performance. Musicarta Easy Piano Style is about the music that’s right there under your fingers. This isn’t hard music to play once you understand what you have to do – so that’s the thing you will want to learn first. As with TPV Diaries 14-11-12 (2), the second half of the MidiPiano performance shows the ‘target chords’ – the notes you head for and cover before any keyboard texture (aka finger waggling) is applied. These are the chords you would learn first if you were going to go about learning this riff in an efficient, methodical way. Then you’ll want to know how melody moves between the on-the-beat ‘anchor’ notes. Does it move up or down? By step or skip? You’ll also spend some serious time working out exactly what fingering lets you get to the notes. No dedicated page at Musicarta for this riff – but the whole site is basically about learning to play like this, so – dive right in! Links to the right on the Mister Musicarta YouTube home page.

Nov 22, Musicarta YouTube Enya Studies morphs into Musicarta Easy Piano Style (MEPS)- New MEP

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 06:26:44 -0500

What possible justification can Mister Musicarta have for burdening the world with yet another Musicarta Enya Study – even if it is called a Musicarta Easy Piano Style, er, thing? (‘MEPS - Six-eight, 21-11-12) Well, it’s in six-eight, so the dropped quavers in the left hand come differently, and there’s a kick in the rhythm which sort-of suggests a mediaeval jazz waltz (?). And that ‘Three Fourths’ material is back, but falling from A minor instead of E minor, so it’s like a transposing lesson as well. And it neatly demonstrates how you can get more out of material by playing it all and octave higher. And there’s that saying, isn’t there? “If you want to become a true master, dig one hole fifty feet deep, not fifty holes one foot deep!” That must be it! The Canon Project, the Pyramids Variations – everything Mr M is pleased to offer as a chargeable product, adheres to that principle. You take one thing – the Canon chord sequence, the Pyramids Basic Music-making Position or the Musicarta ‘Easy Piano Style’ texture – and you mine it, you absolutely MINE it for every ounce of precious metal it contains. You turn it over and over like a curious child. You take it apart and put it back together. You come back the next day and do it all over again. It plays in your head like a radio station you can tune into at any time, it’s there scrolling across your eyelids when you close your eyes… The French piano virtuoso/composer Camille Saint-Saëns said of piano playing, “An abundance of technique allows the heart to expand freely,” – which you should definitely write down and put up somewhere. But also, surely, a structure to play in that you DON’T have to think about. A chord sequence or keyboard texture that’s so ingrained it’s ‘just there’ when you sit down to play, waiting to come out in another guise, in another realisation it’s cooked up for itself overnight… Truly! Follow the method, and you’ll see! Play Musicarta Enya Studies back-to-back for a whole hour, get up, walk round the block then come back and sit at the keyboard and GET THEM WRONG. That’s improvising, composing… creating!

Nov 20, TPV Diaries 14-11-12 (2) - postscript

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 10:51:45 -0500

The TPV video Diary 14-11-12 entries demonstrate the joys of ‘messing around with chords’. The chords in question are those of the Musicarta Pyramids Variations – now available as a digital download from www.musicarta. com, see link in my video page right-hand pane. See the notes to the first (bare) posting of this entry on the benefits of knowing a chord sequence so well you can practically improvise arrangements on it. The separate MidiPiano videos for left and right hands which have been added in this TPV Diaries 14-11-12 (2) version are intended to show ‘the thinking’ that creates the arrangement. Pyramids has a regularly structured chord sequence, which means that if you decide on a pattern for the first pair of chords (Am and F), you can apply that keyboard texture to the second and third pairs and in effect ‘fill up’ three quarters of the 16-bar, A1A2 version at a stroke. The first half of the left and right hand MidiPiano performances in the new version of the video show the keyboard chords ‘behind’ the texture, before the chords are broken up into the broken chord patterns the hands actually play. These are the simplified chords the pianist/composer is ‘aiming for’ – they are ‘target chords’ or notes. Incidentally, these ‘before-they-get-broken’ chords are the exact notes the efficient keyboard player practices. It’s much more effective to drill the ‘underlying structures’ into memory before unpacking them into elaborate keyboard textures than to slog through all the notes in the hope that the structure will sink in and you’ll actually be able to play the piece. The link again: TPV Diaries 14-11-12 (2). If you’re intending applying yourself methodically to the goal of becoming a drop-of-the-hat can-do keyboard player, this is how you should be thinking (imho!). Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Nov 20, Pyramids Diaries - already!

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 05:35:20 -0500

"It's a living thing!" is Musicart's boast about the Canon Project, the Pyramids Variations - and anything else he asks you to part with money for. And here, only two days after the Pyramids Variations launch - is the living proof. (Actually, Mister Musicarta simply can't do so much project preparation and editing without being inexorably drawn into "just one more, then..." Beware - he wants you to get that way too!) Notes to the latest 'for now' TPV YouTube offering follow. TPV Diaries 14-11-12 on YouTube The great thing about knowing a chord sequence inside out is that you can 'just sit down and play' - by which Musicarta understands PRACTICE YOUR TEXTURES and STICK TO THE PLAN. You have one thing (the chord sequence) really nailed down - that frees you up to concentrate on getting the notes out. This TPV Diary entry is a quickie - a fuller version with MidiPiano 'skeleton' chords will follow within a day or two. It's based on the Pyramids Variation A1A2 chord sequence, with a couple of circle-of-fifths chords in the A2 stretch. (The Pyramids Variations chord sequence 'just happens' to adapt very well to circle-of-fifths treatment!) The actual notes – the ‘realisation’ (making real) of the chord sequence – follow a pattern. You generally start ‘just playing’ with a texture/pattern in mind – or make it up pretty smartly as you go along – and this is what produces the music. Then you go back and make some choices, tidy it up – and there’s your piece. There's a mistake, btw, in the left hand in the A1 strain of the repeat (G chord). Can you spot how it drops out of the pattern?

Nov 18, The Pyramids Variations launches as a Musicarta Publications digital download!

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 07:40:54 -0500

To enhance the home-study potential of this pioneering series of keyboard creativity lessons, the Musicarta Pyramids Variations has been released as a digital download and on data-CD. The Musicarta Pyramids Variations is a progressive series of creative keyboard lessons which first builds up to an impressive Concert Performance (watch it on Mister Musicarta YouTube), and then goes on to show the adventurous keyboard player how to play a series of variations on the Pyramids chord sequence, and ultimately, how to improvise and/or compose his or her own keyboard arrangements. The download includes a professionally formatted 150-page PDF file and all the audio and MIDI files for the 200-plus musical examples in the file, arranged and referenced for efficient studying. The audio files are in universal MP3 format, and a free Windows-platform ‘virtual keyboard’ called MidiPiano to play the MIDI files is included in the download. (Piano-style MIDI file players for other operating systems are readily available.) The combination of audio and MIDI files means that excellent progress can be made at the keyboard without being able to read music – watch this YouTube MidiPiano performance. Twenty-six videos showing all the main performances playing on the MidiPiano virtual keyboard with the written-out music scrolling across in sync are also included, making the Pyramids Variations an excellent way to learn to read music. (See this YouTube example.) As with the Canon Project, skeleton Pyramids Variations web pages have been left on the web to help you decide if this creative keyboard home study programme is for you. Click through to the new series home page for a fresh look at the Musicarta Pyramids Variations and use the right hand column series navigation table you’ll find there to browse the other series pages. Yours in harmony!
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Nov 13, Apologies - quick postscript

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 12:30:53 -0500

P.S. Musicarta Enya Studies - 10-11-12 is now linked on the Musicarta YouTube links page. Because the channeleer can’t sort and re-arrange the content a YouTube channel isn’t the easiest place to find what you want, so the Musicarta YouTube links page is a good bookmark to have! Yours in harmony
Musicarta

Nov 13, New Enya (turning MEPS) Study on Musicarta YouTube

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 10:11:15 -0500

A new Musicarta Easy Piano Style (MEPS) solo for you! Waggling the third about - pushing it either side to scale tones four and two - has appeared before in the Enya studies, but the Musicarta Enya Studies - 10-11-12 takes it to a whole new level! As you can see from the MidiPiano performance, the right hand takes two notes – tenth and fifth or octave and fifth, while the left hand plays the root and the waggling-about 4–3–2 figure. See the video notations (coming soon!) for more information. The study is in D Aeolian. The Aeolian ("Ay-ee-o-lian") is a MODE - a minor mode, in fact. Modes are pre-classical collections of chords - pre-modern keys, in effect. The Enya studies previously featured on Mister Musicarta YouTube and featuring A minor and G major chords - with or without the third chord, F major - are in 'A Aeolian'. (The Aeolian is a minor mode, so 'minor' is understood.) A Aeolian uses just the white piano keys to provide a minor chord (A minor), a major chord a whole tone below that (G major) and another major chord a whole tone below that - F major. In order to find the same chord grouping starting from D minor (D Aeolian), all-white-key chords D minor and C major easily present themselves, but we need B flat for the third (B flat major) chord. Once you've worked out how to play this study, shift the hand position up a fifth onto an A minor chord, and play the same finger pattern on chords A minor, G and F. As always, it doesn't matter if you get it slightly – er, different? - as long as you keep going and broaden your insight and repertoire of keyboard textures.

Nov 7, ‘Southern Comfort’ on YouTube

Wed, 7 Nov 2012 11:27:01 -0500

‘Southern Comfort’ is an invitation to kick back with a lolloping-along little number that sort-of springs from the Enya (aka Musicarta Easy Piano Style) hand position, except that the left hand plays mainly just the root and the fifth while the right hand supplies the traditional tenth. Indeed, if the makers of a certain alcoholic beverage pip Nora Jones to the post and get in touch with a cease-and-desist rather than a lucrative sponsorship offer (webmaster@musicarta.com should find me), I shall smartly rename this offering ‘Rolling Tenths’ or something similar. No dedicated page at musicarta.com (yet!), but the Enya Studies and Pyramids will definitely put you in this space. Watch the MidiPiano performance carefully and try to find the left hand root and fifth and the right hand tenth position for each chord – usually every four counts/bar. Then think yourself down the bayou and just waggle ’em. That’s what I did! Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion N.B. The ‘Browse videos’ button on the Musicarta YouTube channel gives a not-so-bad overview of the videos up there, but our very own Musicarta YouTube links page is a much easier way to find what you want. And – please subscribe to my YouTube channel! There are subscribe buttons everywhere, it’s easy and safe and those nice YouTube people aren’t too intrusive!

Nov 6, Musicarta Easy Piano Style?

Tue, 6 Nov 2012 03:45:05 -0500

Mister Musicarta got back from hols and straight to the keyboard to recover from the flight. The result is the seductively titled Musicarta Enya Studies – 4-11-12. We hope might agree that this little piece deserves a better name - the date is purely ‘working title’! Observant visitors might also notice that the video title frames have switched to Musicarta Easy Piano Style - Mister Musicarta is getting tired of giving Enya all the credit! The piece is a "You can do it too!" offering, really. It's an example of what you find under your fingers if you get the left hand playing root-fifth-octave and right hand playing tenth (third) style ingrained in your keyboard mind-set. Useful keyboard trick: When the top and bottom notes of this keyboard style (tenths) walk up or down in tandem, the left hand middle note (the fifth) sometimes stays the same - this produces the 'slash chords'. A link has been duly entered into the Enya Studies section of the Musicarta YouTube links page. Finding what you want on a YouTube page isn’t the easiest thing – rather bookmark the Musicarta page for easy navigation. Full written music for all the Enya studies - sorry, read Musicarta Easy Piano Style studies - will in due course be gathered together in an e-book download (with the full hands playing/MidiPiano/scrolling MS videos), but enjoy it for free in the meantime! Yours in harmony
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion

Oct 22, New Enya Studies on Mister Musicarta YouTube

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 07:07:47 -0400

Mister Musicarta is off on his travels and has thoughtfully left a stack of stuff for you to get on with. All fairly benign, really - three new Enya Studies on the Musicarta YouTube channel. It all started with Musicarta Enya Studies - 2 3 5 and 1 2 3 in the Right Hand. Repeating a three-note figure over a four-note accompaniment pattern is a tried and tested music-generating device. This little study plays with an added non-chord tone - the second - in our old stand-by I, vi, IV, V (C, Am, F, G) chord sequence. Well, you can't keep a good idea down, and overnight this little practice study spawned Musicarta Enya Studies: 2 3 5 - the next day..., which is a bit more tuneful, moves forward to the more sophisticated I, vi, ii, V sequence and has a 'middle bit'. Musicarta Enya Studies - A minor, G and F rounds off the set. It's a modal minor piece using mainly tones 1, 2, 3 in the right hand, and the left hand adds a root position triad (BMP) chord to usual root-fifth-octave set. Pretty much its own creature - that's how these things go! So - enjoy! Why not subscribe to the Musicarta YouTube channel for automatic notification of new postings? Thanks for visiting (Mister) Musicarta!
See you again soon!
Mister Musicarta
Your creative keyboard companion