A KEY TO THE KEYS: Part II – B Major and G# Minor, Harry Farjeon

There are three major scales that call for all the pianoforte black keys and each of these scales has two names, B and C flat, F sharp and G flat, C sharp and D flat. They are not really identical, though they have to be expressed in the same way on the piano. Looked at from the piano point of view, there are just the three scales, and in these some of you will have found this special difficulty; to remember  which are the white keys – not the black ones, for these are all used.

Remembering the Black Keys

Now, how are we to remember which are the white keys in the scales of B, F# and Db? Each of these scales has 5 blacks and 2 whites, and it is easy to get confused.

B Major. The black notes are in groups of 2 and 3. As soon as each group is over play the semitone above; the next white key. After D#, E; after A#, B.

Db Major. For this, do the opposite. Before each black group play the semitone below. Before Gb, F; before Db, C.

F# Major. For this scale, concentrate upon the group of 3 black keys. When approaching and leaving each black group play the semitone. Before F#, E#; after A#, B.

Trying Prescriptions

We are now almost ready, but not quite, to tackle our exercises. I want to first point out to you a curious fact, or rather, I want to lead you to notice it for yourselves. Play a major and a minor Common Chord on every one of the twelve piano keys – the twelve making an octave. (It is from these chords, of course, that we get our ordinary arpeggios). Play them simply in three-note form: C. E. G; then C, Eb, G; C#, E#, G#, and so on, each major followed by its Tonic Minor. That will make twenty-four chords altogether’ twelve major and twelve minor.

Now notice where the black keys come, and where the white. White, white, white; white, black, white; black, white, black – here are the prescriptions for the first three.

C Major: White, white, white; yes, we have it again, often: G major, A minor – lots of them. C Minor: White, black, white; like F minor and others. C# Major: Black, white, black; at once we get it again in C# minor. In fact we….. but try them all yourself! J

…… And we find that the only ones that are quite by themselves, each standing alone and not being repeated, are all the B’s: B major, B minor, Bb major and Bb minor.

The Music Examples

Example 1. I begin once more with a scale, and I have put it in that rare and delightful time 9/8. This scale is rather less attractive, I regret to say, but at least it is not common. Remember that it is well to play each new kind of scale in all the old keys.

The chords at the end are our good old friends Subdominant, Tonic and Dominant, but with different notes in the Treble.

Example 2. is in the style of one of the exercises I gave in Part I, the right hand having all the black keys and then all the whites. Only two white ones left.

Example 3. Arpeggios, tossed about from hand to hand, as it were. This example brings in the five chief chords in the key, and is therefore a very useful one to transpose. Next in importance to the Tonic, Dominant and Subdominant come the Submediant and Supertonic, and you will find these all here. Really, I strongly urge you to transpose this, both as it stands and as plain chords without arpeggio.

Example 4. This, and the next two are more in the nature of pieces. 3/2 is another rather unusual time.

Example 5. I put this one in to show you what terrific accidentals there can be among the chromatic notes of B major. :-D

Example 6. Just one in G# minor, for completeness’ sake. I’m really not going to bother much about the worst ruffians among the minor keys - they are so seldom admitted to any sort of society. A# minor and D# minor I intend to simply ignore, unless my heart softens to them (or hardens to you). But this one bit in G# minor we may have, just to get used to Fx (F double sharp), which is the least villainous of all the double sharps. :-)

Cages or Signals? :-D

A glance at the dictionary will show you many meanings of the word “bar.” How we think of things matters very much, both in life and in music, and few things are more misunderstood than the simple upright bar-line.

Those people whose playing is dull and lifeless, without the swing and go which is the essence of music, think of bar-lines as the bars of a cage, made to prevent the notes of one bar getting out and fighting those in the next cage. But if you who want to play or sing well, like an intelligent being, think of yourself as an engine driver, and your bar-line as a signal saying, “All clear: strong accent near.” Then full steam ahead, drive your train of musical thought gaily on to the accents, and good rhythm will be yours.

A KEY TO THE KEYS – Harry Farjeon: PART I - E Major & C# Mino

E MAJOR: 4 SHARPS

The new sharp is D sharp. Take a good look at it. Is it any worse than the others? Is it any blacker, or any bigger? “No,” says Somebody; “not that, but I call it E flat.”

Ah, but you mustn’t, Miss Somebody, when you meet it in the sharp keys. You don’t want a scale like this:

Scales and Arpeggios

Example  1. About this scale you will notice that it does not begin on the first beat of the bar. You should learn to play your scales in all manner of ways, as you will have to play them in your pieces – not just in the same old way, probably arrived at by chance and not thought about at all. Different times, different accents, different louds and softs, different cresces and dims. and different kinds of tone quality.

Remember, you are not supposed to play each scale only in the key in which I present it. Every scale should be dressed out in as many keys as you can manage – every scale and every passage, too; transposition is one of the chief qualities of good musicianship, and the more keys a scale, or anything else, can dress up in, the more use it will be in the world.

The chords at the end of Example 1 are the principle chords in the key. It used to be a good custom of the good old times to finish up every scale in this good old way, and a jolly good old thing, too! It helps one get used to the bones of a key. A useful variation is to play F sharp in the Treble of the first chord instead of E.  If you can bring off these two varieties successfully in all the keys you know, and later in all the keys you are going to know, you can face the world with a calm heart and a contented mind.

Example  2. This is just arpeggios of the same three chords. Again you can substitute F sharp for E in the chord of A. This turns it from the Root Position of the Subdominant into the First Inversion of the Supertonic, and it is well to remember that these two chords lead up naturally to Cadence points – being, indeed, good before all Cadences except the Plagal.

Example  3. This is set to make you concentrate upon the black keys. You will see that these are all given together alternately with all the white ones. This exercise is not to be transposed, as the special notes pointed out have no particular significance in other keys. By the way, all the exercises should be played four times over, without stopping. A single run through will not impress them on your memory.

Example  4. This consists of scale passages built upon the three chief chords of the key. By now you should be growing familiar with these chords. :-)

C SHARP MINOR

Example  5. Now we come to C sharp minor. Begin by transposing Ex. 1 into this key, playing the scale in two ways (Harmonic and Melodic Minor) but the chords in one way only (Harmonic). Then tackle Ex. 4, and “realize” by hard thinking, the same three Primary Triads on which it is formed.

Example  6. This is a little nearer to being a “piece.” It begins in E major, modulates to C sharp minor, and comes back again.

Example  7. Bigger chords and more varied harmony, for larger hands and wider experience. The only chromatic note I have used at all comes in this example.

Having played all these four times over, and having repeated this task three times during the day for shall we say a fortnight? – you will begin to dream of E Major, or better still, you will consider it so ordinary that it will not be worth dreaming about :-D

A PRIZE - Harry Farjeon, October 1933

There are three ways of winning prizes by merit. I don't mean the various ways there are of winning by luck, such as sweepstakes and the shilling in the Christmas pudding.

Of course, even the  merit may have a good deal of luck mixed up with it; on the day of the examination you may draw a horse in the shape of a special amount of good health and vitality, while Molly Mope, who really plays better than you, may be prostrated by one of her sleepless nights. Or you may find one of those Christmas-shilling examiners who put everybody at their ease and give them lots of marks to spend; while Molly, at another centre, may have one of the plain-pudding stingy kind, with neither shilling nor plums, who likes to keep all the marks to himself.

Three Ways of Winning

Now what are the three ways of winning prizes by merit?

No. 1 By competition. Lots of people try to be the best, and one of them is best.

No. 2 By individual candidature. One person tries to reach a certain standard, and is passed or failed.

No. 3 By selection without examination - without entering for the prize, or perhaps even knowing that it exists.

The most famous prizes in all history in Class No. 1 are the wreaths given to the victors in Ancient Greece at the Olympic Games. In Class No. 2 I don't know that history can show anything to beat the Matric., and the Associated Board (ABRSM) exams; while in Class No. 3 the Nobel Prizes hold pride of place.

Prizes are Nice

Of course, it is always nice to win a prize. Even a present is nice, but with a prize there is the pleasure of being something as well as that of having something. 

Sport is Not Enough

In England we love competitions; more than in other countries are they loved here, because of our feeling for sport. This is all very well, so long as we realize that, in Art, as in life, sport is not enough. And in art sport must be supplemented by work. In both, too, sport and work must be supplemented by play - play of the fancy in art, just as in games, indoor and outdoor, there must be play of the brain and the body.

Above all, if you wish to succeed without swank, feel that you are working for something outside yourself. For your teacher, for your team, for your school - and, above all, for your art.

:-D VITAMINS FROM VIVALDI ~ SOME PRACTICAL EXERCISES FOR VIOLINISTS :-)

1.       Silent Crossing of Strings – Play this exercise as much as possible in the first position, and it will give you some good practice in crossing strings.

2.       Melody – This is a typical Vivaldi tune. Play it with a full silky tone, and see how imperceptible you can make the changes from down bow to up bow, and vice versa.

3.       Trills – Practice this in both first and third positions, making your trills as quick and neat as possible. It is the opening subject of one of Vivaldi’s concertos.

4.       Double-Stopping – Here is a specimen of Vivaldi’s double-stopping. Use only the lower half of the bow, with plenty of wrist movement, and try to touch your two strings exactly together.

5.       Passage Work – Vivaldi’s concertos are full of passages of this sort. See that your bow and the fingers of your left hand work well together, and watch your intonation.

6.       Syncopation – An early eighteenth century specimen. Use a short up bow for the beginning of each phrase, and play with clean, crisp accents.

ON EASY PIECES

Most students come to a stage (from 13 years of age upwards) when they ask whether they may learn Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C# minor. After they have played it they gain a certain standing among their school fellows. (Oh, Mary’s a splendid player. She can play Rachmaninoff’s Prelude toppingly!”)

Mary’s teacher perhaps offers for her next piece Macdowell’s “To a Wild Rose.” Mary receives it with barely disguised scorn. At her next music lesson: “Please, Miss/Sir,” she says, “that piece was too easy for me. I read it straight off. Shall I play it now?” She does so!!

The poor wild rose! Before many bars are over it has begun to droop and fade; one by one she tears the petals off, and when the end is reached it is lying in the mud, trampled underfoot – quite dead.

“Yes, you’re quite right, Mary,” says the teacher; “it’s too easy for you. It needs a real artist to play easy music. Yes, I’ll give you something more difficult.”

Someone once said that “the difficulty of Mozart is that he’s so easy.”

A difficult piece, especially if you make enough noise, will usually carry itself off, but in an easy piece there is only its own beauty, and if you can’t bring that out, it is nothing.

I would give Rachmaninoff’s Prelude to 10 or 20 pupils for one to whom I would entrust “To a wild rose.”

So don’t feel insulted if your teacher doesn't give you what you consider “hard” enough pieces. When the great violinist, Kreisler played little things which sounded so easy that you could almost (or quite) play them yourself, do you think he did so because he couldn't play the harder ones? No, we all know that he could astonish with fireworks and gymnastics if he chose.

The great Cortot was not ashamed to play Schumann’s “Children’s Pieces” at a public concert. So why should we think them too easy?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUynuh-tgRk

Can You Transpose? :-)

Here is "The Doxology." Learn it :-)

When you can play it without the music, read the section on Transposing below, and after studying it, try transposing this tune :-)

Can You Transpose?
CAN you transpose music? A boy I knew who could play the piano pretty well was suddenly asked to play a hymn at a service, as the regular player had failed. When he got there he found the hymns chosen were far too high for the old people, and evidently the singers felt it a great strain to struggle up to the top notes. He wished he could put the notes down lower, but he couldn't transpose.

He determined to learn. When he got home he went to the hymn-book and opened it at one of the hymns he had to play. It was the well-known "Rock of Ages." His piano master had given him hints in transposing, but he had never practised, because he had had no use for it till now. Still, he knew how to begin. "The tune's in E," he said. "Very well. I'll put it down a tone and play it in D." He played over the bass part only, in the original key and afterwards in the key of D. Then he put the bass and treble together without much trouble. So far, so good. But when he tried to add the inner parts and read the four lines in a different key he came to grief.

Then a bright idea struck him. The chords were all simple ones - common chords, inversions or dominant seventh. He had been taught to play these chords in any key. Why not apply his knowledge and read from chords and not from four parts? So he started.

Now I'm going to tell you how he worked out that tune using 'The Doxology' (printed above).
He tried to put it a semitone higher. "Chord of G becomes chord of A flat," he began. "Key note in bass and treble. Next chord same. Next, dominant chord of Key G, the third at the top becomes dominant of A flat - E flat, with G at top. Chord of E minor becomes F minor. Chord of B minor, third at top, becomes C minor, E flat at top," and so he went on till he had transposed the whole tune - slowly, but correctly. He didn't always get the inner parts quite as they were printed, but he always played the right chord.

(The Useful Corner - Music and Youth, 1925)

Note, Key and Sound :-)

hmmm...

When you talk of a “note” what do you mean? Even if you speak of a musical note you may mean three things. You may mean (1) the printed note on the music, (2) the piano key which you press, (3) the sound you hear when a key is pressed, or when a singer sings or a player plays, or someone whistles. But you are only really correct when you talk of notes and mean those signs in printed manuscript music which we call notes and which are part of our system of notation. The Latin word nota, “written or noted down,” gives the sense.

But the great difficulty in using the word “note” for its correct meaning only, is that most people use it in wrong senses – a great many musicians among them! Use your observation and see if you can discover some examples of this wrong use. In the meantime there are some instances kindly provided for you below J

 

A Pedalling Test - Harry Farjeon

“How perfectly ripping it would be,” exclaimed Pamela, “to have an uncle who wasn’t always thinking about that old pedal.”

“And how awfully jolly, on the other hand,” murmured the uncle, “to have a nice that was.”

These remarks occurred after the music-lesson. You see, Pam arrived to find me hot with a New Idea. That’s the time pupils get cooked. There’s no escaping a man hot with a New Idea. He bastes you, roasts you, and serves you up.

Of course, we all know that the Sustaining Pedal – or do you call it the Loud Pedal? Well, get off the piano-stool and listen to it. Put your ear close to the metal tongue. Is it loud? However, to get back to the Idea: we all know that the Sustaining Pedal should be lowered after the notes have been struck, especially when there is a passage of chords which must sound legato. We know this, but are we sure we do it? How can we find a test? Here is one: the one that disgusted Pamela. Though I will say this for her: she wasn’t disgusted until she was caught.

Play this. Just an ordinary legato chord passage: -

Here there is no particular test. You are doing what you often have to do, and if you are careful enough it will come out right. But to test whether you have been careful enough, play it as it is given.

Now, if you have held on the pedal up to the moment of striking each new chord, and have immediately raised and lowered it, the effect will be the same as if you were still playing minims. Perfectly smooth; joined without the cracks showing. But there are two ways of doing it wrong.

If you take up the pedal before the new chord and lower again with it, you “hear the crack,” and don’t get your legato. That’s what Pamela did the first time. (“Uncle, I didn’t!”)

Or if you take up the pedal after the new chord and lower it still later, you not only blur the chord, but you don’t catch it at all with the lowered pedal. Then you hear a very big crack indeed, and that’s what Pamela did the second time. (“Going off, Pam? Good-bye.”)

Try both wrong ways, and then the right way. And finish up by playing the whole exercise in minims, right and both wrongs. Then I’ll be satisfied. :-)

The Lucky Carl :-)

Once there was a boy named Carl. He was only nine, but he was a pianist good enough to play with a musicianly violinist named Wenzel Krumpholz. Krumpholz played certain new compositions with Carl, and one glorious day said: “Carl, now that you can play fairly well you ought to have a good master. Would you like to meet my friend the composer? He might give you some lessons, but I cannot promise that.” Carl was delighted, played his best, and so pleased the composer, that he was accepted. Master and pupil became friends for life.

Not a very thrilling story? Wait! The composer was Ludwig van Beethoven. Now, who would not envy Carl?

Carl grew up and became one of the most able teachers of his time. He became the friend of Beethoven, was a modest, sincere man who was only too pleased when his pupils outshone him. He trained many marvelous players, but one was so wonderful that he has never been equaled yet. His name was Franz Liszt. It is pleasant to think that this mighty pianist at the age of ten was a grand-pupil of Beethoven.

Carl lived a happy, peaceful and very good life, and died on July 15, 1857. He published thousands of studies which have helped millions to play. It is safe to say that there is not a pianist who has never played at least some of the studies in his “School of Finger-Readiness,” “School of Velocity,” “School of Virtuosity,” or the popular “101 Exercises.” Now you will have guessed his surname. 

Everyone has heard of Czerny. But did you know that he spent most of his time composing symphonies, concertos, and all kinds of serious music? His large works have not lived, but his fame as teacher and composer of educational music will never die.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzE8YmCNahc

ON LISTENING TO MUSIC - A. Clutton-Brock, Music and Letters, 1926

I discovered many years ago that music to me is simply music, if it is anything at all, and that I cannot enjoy it in terms of anything else. Often I do not understand it; I hear great music which means nothing to me from beginning to end; but that is the penalty of ignorance...

The first piece of music I enjoyed very intensely was Beethoven's Violin Concerto, played at the Crystal Palace more than thirty years ago. Before then, I had thought of "classical music" as made for musicians and people who pretended to like it. I went to that concert out of politeness to a guest. Some other pieces were played which were just what I had expected them to be; and then suddenly, the second subject of the first movement of the concerto. It was a tune, and I had never heard one that seemed to me so beautiful. Through the whole movement I listened for the tune to return and it returned often.

After that I went to concerts where Beethoven was played, in the hope of hearing other tunes as beautiful. Sometimes I heard them and sometimes not; often I was bored and disappointed. Why, when Beethoven got hold of a beautiful tune, did he not make more of it? But still I went and listened... And gradually I discovered for myself that in music the tune is not everything, that between those parts which seemed to me tune, there were other parts to be enjoyed. I heard the concerto several times and enjoyed more of it each time, heard Richter conduct several symphonies by Beethoven more than once, and began to enjoy a movement as a movement and not merely to watch for tunes. 

From that time my enjoyment grew more secure. I no longer fretted for the bits I could recognise, but let the music flow by, sure that its effect would be cumulative, expecting delightfully that at each concert I should make friends with some movement as a whole. :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh0eMXNSPKo

THE CONDUCTOR - Helen Milne

When you play the piano, do you ever find it difficult to play your chords exactly together, not one hand before the other? Do you find it difficult to make all the notes sound evenly, if you want them so, instead of bumping out the thumb-note? Or do you find it difficult to make one note in a chord stand out if you want it like that, and be heard as part of a tune coming through all the rest of the harmony? It is difficult and you need perfect control over each one of your fingers in order to do it.

Now consider how much more difficult is the task of the Conductor. He has to have the perfect control, not only over members of his own body, but also over each of the members of the orchestra; and each member of the orchestra has to be so in touch with the conductor that it is as if there were invisible nerves stretched directly between the Conductor's brain and the fingers or lips of each player.

An Intricate Business

In the case of the Conductor and the orchestra a perfect marvel of intricacy takes place. Let us suppose that the Conductor already knows the score and does not need to read it. He has to think in his brain (1) what he wants the sound to be; (2) what to indicate to the band by his movements; and (3) what actions will best show his meaning. Next he has to despatch messages from his brain to his arms and hands to tell the muscles what to do. Finally his brain has also to receive messages from his eyes and his ears (especially his ears) which tell him what is actually happening in the orchestra as distinct from what he wishes to happen. In the new light of these messages his original ideas about the music have to be reconsidered. That is about all on his side.

The Players' Part

Each member of the orchestra has to receive messages into his brain - simultaneously three from his eyes and one from his ears - (1) what he sees the Conductor doing; (2) what he sees written on the copy; (3) what he sees the other players doing; and (4) what he hears the other players doing. His brain has to decide (1) the meaning of the Conductor's signals; (2) the meaning of the printed copy; and (3) what actions he must perform to carry out these instructions. Finally, just as the Conductor has to listen to what is actually happening, so the player has to listen to himself as well as to the other players, in order that he may reconsider and make any necessary adjustments to ensure that he is indeed producing just what he intended. 

It has taken you quite a while to read all this, but the time occupied in the travel of these messages, from the moment the thought is in the Conductor's mind to when the actual sounds are produced, is considerably less than a second!

Conductor's Chief Function

I spoke just now of synchronizing the two hands on the pianoforte and of adjusting the balance between the different notes in the chord. To deal with these two matters in the orchestra is the chief function of the Conductor. Primarily he has to beat time. That is to say, he has to assume absolute control over each individual will in that unruly mob - and whenever several human beings meet together they always exhibit more or less mob instincts - and actually dictate the precise instant of time at which every single note shall begin and end. And his own will must be so firm that he will not be deflected, against his will, from his original purpose by the mob will. But the good Conductor will always recognize the good musician in the orchestra and will be constantly on the alert to receive suggestions from the player and so play a sort of give-and-take game with the orchestra.

Balance and Style

The timing element makes or mars the music far more than most people recognize, but control of the pulsation is not the end of the Conductor's duties. He can also indicate partly, though not completely, the balance between the various instruments, the general style, and even tone-quality. These things he often indicates with his left hand, but he may use all sorts of devices: a nod or a glance at the player concerned is often enough. If any player has a long rest followed by an important entry he will generally receive some sort of lead from the Conductor to bring him in safely.

Among things which the Conductor cannot indicate by signs and can only control at rehearsal may be mentioned the rather important details of whether the players play the correct notes and rests and whether they play in tune. If also, there are "contrary expressions," going on simultaneously, then the players must go by their copies individually, and the same is the case with simultaneous diversity of style, when, say, there are two tunes at one, one legato (smooth) and the other staccato (detached).

Come and See!

Finally - go to a concert and see and hear the real, live orchestra. :-)