Lesson 21 - 9th December 2016

In the first lesson after the holiday, you will be given a test on everything we have covered so far (including what we did before half term).

So you will need to revise:

• Pitches (ie. where notes are on the stave)
• Sharps and flats
• Major Scales (the pattern of tones and semitone and specifically the scales of C, G and F major).
• Minor Scales of A, E and D Minor (natural minor, harmonic minor and melodic minor)
• Note values (including rests, dotted notes, demi-semiquavers and triplets)
• Time signatures (including compound time signatures)
• Major and Minor triads
• Primary and Secondary Chords in the keys of C, G and F major (including inversions)
• Key signatures (how to find them on the circle of fifths and what they mean)
• Intervals (Major, minor and perfect intervals PLUS augmented 4th and Diminished 5th)

Use the labels to find information on all of these things.

Lesson 20 - Monday 5th December

Independent Learning...

In this lesson:

Those of you who I didn't hear on Friday (or who are being retested this coming Friday) can practise the keyboards.

If you haven't yet finished the written work (Critically Cubed: Deadline this Friday) you can work on that.

If you are still unsure about time signatures, try this link. Try clapping the rhythm and identifying the time signature. It will tell you if you're right or not and play the rhythm so you can check it. You can add more complexity to the rhythms when you are getting them all consistently right.

If you have completed all the above, practise playing Minor Scale (A, D and E Harmonic, Melodic and Natural Minors). In all cases, the fingering should be the same as C Major.

Lesson 19 - Friday 2nd December

We revised compound time signatures.

This link explains it very well.

Lesson 18 - 28th November 2016

We revised time signatures and note values, and particularly looked at demi-semiquavers.


We also looked briefly at triplets. This is where three notes are played in the time of two, as illustrated below:

This link explains triplets quite well.

Lesson 17 - 25th November 2016

Minor Keys

For every Major Key, there is a "relative minor".

It has the same key signature of the Major Key.

It can be found by looking for the 6th note of the major scale (or a minor 3rd down).

eg. The relative minor of G major is E Minor


The relative major is the 3rd note of the minor scale (minor 3rd).

eg. The relative major of F Minor is A Flat major.




Using this method will give you the Natural Minor (otherwise known as the Aeolian Mode). 
There are other Minors (and you will need to know the first two for Grade 5 theory).

Harmonic Minor: Raise the 7th note of the Natural Minor scale

Melodic Minor: Raise the 6th and 7th notes on the way up, on the way down it is the same as the Natural minor.

(Jazz Melodic: Raise the 6th and 7th on the way up and on the way down. (or you can just flatten the 3rd of a Major scale!))

Lesson 16 - Monday 21st November

You should start to work on the second part of Critically Cubed

Task sheet is here.

This should be completed by 2nd December

Reminder: Those of you doing the theory re-test: this will be this Friday (25th November). Make sure you have revised.

Inversions

This link explaings how inversions work.

Remember: a chord’s “inversion” only refers to which note is in the bass - the rest of the chord's voicing/spacing is irrelevant.

Lesson 15 - Friday 18th November 2016

Diatonic Harmony

In any particular key, if we use notes belonging to that key to build chords, then we call in diatonic harmony. If we use notes that don't belong to the key, we call it chromatic harmony.

eg. In C Major, the chord Eminor7 (E, G, B and D) would be diatonic as it only uses notes from C Major, whereas E7 (E, G#, B and D) would be chromatic as it includes a note from outside the key of C.

Primary and Secondary Chords in Major Keys

The Primary Chords are chords I, IV and V and are major
(ie. those built on the 1st, 4th and 5th scale degree in a particular key).

The Secondary Chords are chords ii, iii and vi and are minor

You will need to know at least 1 to 7 in roman numerals:
I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII (upper case)
i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, vii (lower case)


A triad is a three-note chord in a closed position with the root at the bottom.

Remember: a triad goes line, line, line or space, space, space.