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)