From Izzy Edwards
I was absolutely shocked to see not just two, but five fully grown Barn Owls emerge from this tiny hole in the dirt. I have no idea how they all fit comfortably in there! Image taken well after sunset.
From Izzy Edwards
I was absolutely shocked to see not just two, but five fully grown Barn Owls emerge from this tiny hole in the dirt. I have no idea how they all fit comfortably in there! Image taken well after sunset.
For me, it’s mostly just life happening. Getting sick, working a lot, both at the same time. Plus I tend to sort by subscribed > new, and sometimes I miss stuff. Especially lately cause there are a lot more posts. I’ve been trying to come directly here to see what new stuff you’ve posted.
And sometimes I just fall down a rabbit hole. Lately, music theory. But I know what it’s like to put effort into something and not get feedback, and it’s just nice here, so I try to comment more than I would other places.
Oh I just saw I had missed this comment.
I have been feeling not so well all year myself. I appreciate when people comment here. It’s typically more pleasant that a lot of other Lemmy topics lately, and it keeps me motivated to post.
I’m learning music theory as well. I started taking piano lessons a little over a year ago and get a weekly assignment on that. It’s secondary dominants this week.
Funny, I was just learning about dominants. I think I get the idea of secondary dominants, but the technical language kind of makes my head spin.
I used to think I didn’t have a musical bone in me, but it turns out I do. It pretty much got started because a friend showed me his keyboard that felt almost exactly like a real piano. And let me fiddle with his electric guitar. It just sounded so cool.
I started years ago trying to teach myself guitar, but the layout of piano works better with my brain. It’s nicer to see things in a linear fashion. I like working with the they’re at the keyboard when I can to help translate the words to tones and feeling the associated hand positions.
I messed up, I have discussed secondary dominants with my teacher a few times for my practice pieces, but forming dominant sevenths was actually the lesson.
The secondary dominants are when you use the dominant of another note in your scale. If you were in the key of C, C (I) is the tonic and G (V) is the dominant. If you used a secondary dominant of that G, that is a D, making it the fifth of the original fifth, so it is notated V/V. Since that D chord will have an F# in it, it spices up your music by introducing borrowed notes, as the F# isn’t in the original key of C. It can also be used as a bridge to actually changing keys by gradually introducing notes of the new key so it isn’t jarring instead of just adding some surprise notes to one part of the song.
Ohhhh. That makes sense and answered one of my other questions too (how do you change keys). There’s probably a lot more to learn about that too, but for now I’m just happy that that clicked. Sometimes you just need the right explanation:)
I was going to write more, but I’ve been up way too long and I gotta go conk out.
The finding the way to make things click is always the hardest part, but also the most reqarding!
There are a number of ways to change keys. You can use a transitional chord that is in your current key and the one you want to change to, you can keep the same root note, but change modes, you can walk notes up or down to get to a new note in your target scale, or work a chord from the new key into the chord progression you’re in. There’s other ways, but these are all ones I’ve come across.
In the song I’m working on now, it changes keys a few times. The song is pretty much all arpeggio runs, but when it is getting ready to change keys, it will sharpen or flatten one or 2 notes in the current chord to ease into the new key. It’s easy to hear, but there’s no jarring because it’s not jumping to something completely random, they’re keys that just have one or 2 different notes, and they are brought in with a plan to slide from one to another. If you’re just listening and not reading the music, it happens before you even notice it happened, you’re just all “ooo where did these new notes come from?”
What song are you working on? I’d be curious to look for the sheet music on Musescore and try to look for the things you mentioned. It’s one thing to read about it, and another to sit down and try to read/play through it yourself. And then it’s usually easier to hear in other songs too.
Have you learned about this just from piano lessons, or are there other places (online or otherwise) that you go to learn or get inspiration?
Solfeggio in Cm: CPE Bach
My theory has pretty much come from lessons. In the past, is just try to learn something interesting and it never made much sense because I wasn’t learning it in any practical order.
This is the theory book series we’re using. I just do one lesson a week and my teacher points out anything I missed. We don’t really drill it, we just talk about stuff when it comes up in songs.
We had a tiny book of all the major and minor scales and cadences, and now I’ve got another book where we’re doing modes.
I’ll look for videos if I’m confused or curious of something outside of lessons, but anymore I find it’s hard to find an answer to my specific question and I have to sit through a bunch to maybe find an answer when I could just ask my teacher and get my exact answer in 5 minutes, and it’s explained to me but someone that knows my skill level so I don’t get beginner answers or expert answers. I didn’t know if I’ve found any good intermediate YouTube channels. They’re all either for beginners or people that have been taking theory for years.
Actually, I havent used his videos in a while, but if you’re self teaching they may help.
letsplaypianomethods
He’s gruff and a little off-putting at first, but he became endearing and funny after a while once I got used to him. He goes through so many course books. The videos start with a brief analysis of the songs, he goes over tricky parts, and then he teaches you slowly how to play it. Great audio and great view of his hands, and he counts out trickier timing. Really awesome, and I am watching one now and I forgot just how good these are.
If you have a course book like one of the Alfred or Faber series it’s perfect, or you can use it to find a book you’d like.
That’s an interesting piece, and what a tempo. I had forgotten that Bach (CPE anyway, I forget about JS and the others) wrote those really short piano pieces. Seems like they would take quite a bit of skill to play.
I like the style of the channel you linked. Direct, no fluff, lots of useful info. The kind of thing it’s getting harder and harder to find, unless you already know about it. I watched one of his videos on Für Elise. That’s one of the first songs I remember hearing on the piano, and the first one I tried to play.
I originally just wanted a cheap-ish keyboard so I could learn the pitches for singing. That’s really what I’d love to learn. But the piano is starting to win me over.