Welcome to Winter 2010! Week 2

Hi y'all! Welcome to VP Key III, Part Deux. I'm going to put the handout for this quarter here. Right-click (PC) or control-click (Mac) to download.

This quarter will find us focusing on chord chart reading, learning how to do takedowns by ear, and expanding on the voicings and techniques we learned last quarter. This includes the concept of "Less Is More" - that you can actually sound better by playing fewer notes - it's all a matter of the notes you pick.

We'll continue to work on strengthening our rhythm and time - by practicing with a metronome, by playing with a track, and finally by playing for another person, which will be our Final Project.

We will continue to work on our finger coordination and independence with our scales and exercises.

We will touch on the role that different keyboard sounds play in achieving your musical objectives, and learn how to get around on a modern keyboard - how to find and use different patches on a pro keyboard such as a Triton or Motif or similar.

And we will continue to familiarize ourselves with the basic toolkit of voicings that will enable us to feel at home in any musical situation, and be able to write and accompany ourselves independently, without having to rely on other people to do this for us.

Knowledge is power!

Week 6 - Scales D, E, A - Blues - Start "Good Times"

This week, we will start our new scales - D, E and A. You can print this out to use. We will also finish playing our blues changes from last week.


Our assignment for next week will be the "Good Times" riff, which we will be playing along with the track. You can download or listen to the tracks here, and the original is on the sidebar.

Good Times track - with piano
Good Times track - drums and bass only

Week 5 - Scales; Start on "Good Times"

This week we will have our scale quiz and play our blues changes. Next week we will begin work on "Good Times". The original tune and the chart are on the sidebar. More to come...

Week 4 - The Blues

This week we will be working on the blues, using standard 12-bar changes. We will be using what's called a "quick change", where the second bar goes to the 4 and then right back to the 1, instead of having the first four bars stay on the 1 as in a basic 12-bar progression.

The first exercise uses the 3-7 shells for the left hand when playing with a bass player. You can start by just using your left hand to play with the track, then later on you can add your right hand to play more chord tones for comping (playing rhythm) or for playing solo lines. This is what your scales will help you out with.

The second exercise is a basic 2-handed shuffle pattern. Practice it straight, with a shuffle, or rocking your left hand (I will demonstrate).

The third exercise is a more complicated 2-handed voicing for comping. Those who are up to the challenge shoud try these.

The handout with the exercises and the track to practice with are on the sidebar.

You can play or download the track as an mp3 to put on your iPod or computer here.

Week 3 - New Arrangement for "When A Man Loves A Woman"

Hi y'all -

Here is the revised arrangement for playing "When A Man Loves A Woman" in class.

1. First 8 bars: Ignore repeat.
2. Second 8 bars: Ignore repeat and 1st ending, take 2nd ending to the bridge
3. Play bridge, take the D.S. to the beginning
4. On the D.S. play the repeat, and take the Coda on the second time through the repeat - in other words, jump from the 4th bar on the repeat to the Coda (3rd measure from the end.)

Be prepared to play this song in class with the track - that means use a metronome for practicing so you can stay with the track. I can change it to any tempo that works for you, so have an idea of what tempo you can comfortably play.

Advanced players - think about using chords in the left hand and melody or improvisation in the right - melody in octaves works well for this style.

Remember - bring me your practice log to sign at the beginning of the class!

See you Wednesday :-)

Welcome to Fall 09!

Hi y'all - welcome to Keyboard Accompaniment III. Your handout is available as a download here, if you didn't get one last week, or need another one.

Every week, before we get started, bring your Practice Log up for me to sign.

This week, we're working on When A Man Loves A Woman, available here - click on the image to open in another page to print:

Week 8 - New Exercises, Real-Life Voicings

The handouts this week are Real-Life Voicings and Chord Finger Exercises. Click on the links to download and print, or save the images and print from there.

Real-Life Voicings: These voicings are the voicings that a real piano player would use if they saw the chord symbols written on a chart. I have written these voicings in C - I would like you to try them in other keys. Try using some of these on the charts in the Key II book you're using to sight-read.



Chord Finger Exercises:

On Ex. 2, notice how the Fmin7 voicing is the same as the Ab in the right hand - that only the bass note changes. Same with the Gmin7 and Bb. This is something I'd like you to pay attention to - that the voicing for a minor 7th chord in the right hand is a major triad starting on the minor 3rd from your root. In other words, the voicing for a C minor 7th is an Eb triad; the voicing for a Gb minor 7th is an A triad, etc. You can invert it any way you like. That's the standard way to play a minor 7th, so when you look at a chart that calls for a minor 7th, until you have it automatically in your fingers, use that reminder to find your voicing.