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Vidas: Let’s start Episode 53 of #AskVidasAndAusra podcast. And today’s question was sent by Morton, and he writes that he’s struggling with playing pieces which have many sharps. He writes, “My struggle is with playing pieces in many sharps. I don't have trouble with playing pieces written in many flats - don't ask me why... For example, David German's Trumpet Tune changes keys in the latter portion... If he had written that portion in flats I would be able to manage, but I haven't been able to manage that portion which he wrote in sharps... I have put that aside for now...
I'm also working on polishing up an arrangement of Brahms' How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place - I was elated when I came across this arrangement in Choral Classics Arranged for the Organ published by Morning Star. To me this would be a very suitable selection to play either before, during, or after a funeral… Thank you very much for being willing to include transcripts of your future podcasts.” So this is an interesting question, Ausra, that Morton has trouble with sharps, not with flats. Ausra: Well, that’s a strange thing, actually, to hear, because usually people struggle the more accidentals the piece has. But here, my best guess would be that probably back in time, he had practiced more pieces written in flats, not in sharps, and that might cause the problem. Vidas: I don’t know if this is the case, but sometimes, players of wind instruments feel more comfortable with the pieces in flats, because trumpet is in flats, and clarinet is in flats, and saxophone is tuned in flats...So maybe, Morton has experience with some wind instruments. Ausra: Could be. Definitely not with the violin and other string instruments, because I know that string instruments prefer sharps. Vidas: Exactly. So, as you say, whatever the case might be, probably Morton has played more pieces written in flats than in sharps, right? Ausra: That’s my guess. And in general, I would suggest him to practice more of keyboard harmony. To play more sequences. That might help, too--to be able to play very easily and to feel comfortable in any key, in any given key, never mind it’s flats or sharps. Vidas: I think it’s self-explanatory why he’s struggling with sharps, because if he’s challenged by sharps, he obviously tends to lean more on flats, and practices what is easier for him, most of the time, I would guess. So after a while, the skills of playing sharps will deteriorate, and flats will become easier and easier for him. Ausra: Yes, I think so. Vidas: So he has to overcompensate now, and go back to sharps. Ausra: I think yes, he has to try to play at the beginning easy keys, like one or two or three sharps, and then later just make it harder. Start with G Major and D Major; later go to A Major, and so on and so forth; until you will finish up maybe playing in C-Sharp Major! Vidas: A good exercise is to transpose, right? Ausra: Yes. Vidas: For example, take a piece or excerpt of a piece in C Major or a minor (either way, it has zero accidentals). And then, as Ausra says, go through the circle of fifths. First it will be through the sharp side of the circle of fifths, and then going back to the flat side of the circle of fifths. That may help, right? Ausra: Sure. Vidas: Or, another system is like, transposing to the key which has one sharp, and then one flat; and then again, two sharps--two flats. Three sharps--three flats. And so on, until you reach six or seven flats or sharps. Ausra: Definitely that will help, I think. Anyway, I believe it’s just a matter of time and practice. Then he will get more experience, then he will stop avoiding sharps, and everything will be just fine. Vidas: Another suggestion would be for him to sight-read. Ausra: Sure. Vidas: Because when he sight-reads pieces that he doesn’t know, probably he will encounter a lot of pieces with flats and a lot of pieces with sharps, too. Ausra: Well, you can take, also, a hymnal, for example, and let’s say, practice all the hymns written in the sharp keys. That’s a possibility, too. Vidas: Exactly. So I hope this advice has been useful to you--to Morton and to others as well, because this is a rather common problem, right? For people to be challenged by accidentals in general, right? Ausra: Yes. Vidas: Other people might feel uncomfortable with flats, too. Ausra: Sure. Vidas: D-flat Major, or b-flat minor, or even G-flat Major--it’s a tricky key. Ausra: Or C-flat Major! Vidas: Oh, yes, C-flat Major! Ausra: That’s a horrible key! Vidas: Don’t even start here! Okay guys. Practice, sight-read, transpose: these are the best solutions you have. Wonderful. And send us more of your questions, and you can do that by subscribing to our blog at www.organduo.lt, if you haven’t done so already, and then simply by replying to any of our messages that you will get, as a subscriber. We will be very glad to help you out to grow as an organist. Thanks, guys! This was Vidas. Ausra: And Ausra. Vidas: And remember, when you practice… Ausra: Miracles happen. #AskVidasAndAusra 40 - Identification of sounds to the appropriate chords is a problem for me8/1/2017
Vidas: Let's start Episode 40 of #AskVidasAndAusra podcast. And today's question was sent by Parvoe who writes, “identification of sounds to the appropriate chords is a problem for me”. Could you explain how do you understand this question Ausra?
Ausra: Well actually I think if I understand it right, that when he learning maybe a new music. It’s hard for him to tell by listening to those chords, if the notes are appropriate or not. So he is playing basically a correct chord, I think that's the problem. Vidas: So that's the hearing problem right? Ausra: Yes. Vidas: So imagine you are playing a piece, let's say by Bach Chorale Prelude, and in other words he cannot understand what does this sound, this note mean. Which chord would go with this sound, with this note? Does this make sense? Ausra: Well yes and no. The trouble might be, I see a double problem in this type of question. One thing might be that he does not know the keyboard harmony well enough and another thing that his harmonic pitch might not be developed enough yet. Because sometimes people can have a perfect pitch, and very good melodic hearing, but they cannot have like no harmonic pitch. That's different. Two type of different hearing of music. Vidas: Do you think that one is born with this pitch, harmonic pitch, or one can develop this over time? Ausra: Well, some people, of course we are born with that kind of pitch, but I think you can develop it and for people who play melodic instruments, like violin, flute, oboe and so on, usually they develop better melodic pitch. But people who play piano, organ, harpsichord, even choir conductors they develop harmonic pitch too. Vidas: Even guitar. Ausra: Even guitar, then you have sort of chordal structure, you can develop well the harmonic pitch. Vidas: So basically what you are saying, organ playing really helps to develop harmonic pitch. Ausra: Yes. But of course if that's trouble for you, if you cannot hear, if that note belongs to that particular chord, that means that you have to analyze music that you're playing. So just to study the harmonic progression. Play those chords separately. Maybe write the names down and that should help, I think. Vidas: Well exactly. What kind of chords are the most crucial in any tonal composition? What kind of type of chords? Ausra: Tonic, subdominant and dominant. Vidas: Three chords? Ausra: Yes and of course three versions and then all kind of other modifications of these chords. Vidas: Here is the thing guys; if you know the key of the piece that you are currently playing, and you know the circle of fifths, and you know those three types of chords as Ausra was mentioning earlier, tonic, subdominant and dominant, you can basically identify the meaning of any given chord. Not necessarily it will be very precise, you will not necessarily be able to identify diminished seventh chord and it's inversion or let's say six scale degree first inversion chord, but when you know tonic, subdominant and dominant, and you compare those three chords to any given chord that you are playing in your music, you will see that some notes will match. Am I right Ausra? Ausra: Sure. Definitely. Vidas: And then you can say, oh this is a tonic function, or this is dominant function, or this is the subdominant function. That's enough for starters don't you think? Ausra: Yes, that's definitely enough. And just be careful when you are learning a new piece of music because it’s very easy to learn it in incorrect way, the wrong notes, and then it will be very hard for you to correct it. So just be very careful at the beginning. Vidas: It's always very good to basically lead with your mind and not with your finger. Ausra: Sure. And in any given piece of music usually you start on one key and then the key switches, it can switch for a short time, but it can modulate for a longer time and then go back and travel through keys, so just know that tonal structure of your piece this will help you too. And write it down in the score, it will help you to learn the text correctly. Vidas: And to understand the meaning of the notes. Ausra: Sure. Vidas: And basically we will be thinking like this composer who created this masterpiece. Ausra: Yes, and after a while you will see some sort of tendencies like cadences, you will start to identify them and know infrastructure also help you to play music in the right manner, not to play like robot, but to play more musically. Vidas: Do we have any trainings that we could recommend for people to improve their harmony and analytical skills, Ausra? Ausra: Yes. We have some of them. Vidas: The one for example, Harmony for Organists, if you want to start from the beginning, Level 1. Or, Hymn Harmonization Workshop I think that would be helpful too. Or even Bach Chorale Analysis Workshop where you will learn to analyze four-part harmony found in Bach's chorales. Ausra: Yes, or you know you can on youtube just find my videos, with harmonic exercises which will be I think very helpful for you to try to play yourself some sequences or modulations. Vidas: Yes. Ausra: Or basic cadences. Vidas: Excellent. So guys please apply our tips in your practice and let us know for example, what was number one thing which was the most helpful thing to you this week and you applied it in your practical playing this week. This is really helpful. We would appreciate it and this of course will help us produce even more helpful podcasts for you. And please send us more questions that you might have, more challenges. We love helping you grow. The best way to do this is through subscription to our blog when you go to www.organduo.lt you enter your email address and you become a subscriber and you will receive this free ten-day organ playing mini course with our lessons on how to master any organ composition. This is very helpful in the long run. And then you can reply to our messages... ...Oh, you can hear our dog barking in the background. Ausra: Yes. Vidas: Somebody is coming. So, we better run to check. Okay. This was Vidas. Ausra: And Ausra. Vidas: Have fun practicing. By Vidas Pinkevicius (get free updates of new posts here)
Yesterday my 8th graders had a written part of the ear training exam in school. Among other things, they had to write a one-voice and a two-voice dictation, each 8 measures long. Both were in F major. At the beginning I played treble A and the tonic chord of F major key. The students were supposed to discover the key from this A by themselves and write Bb next to the clef. All of my students got the key right but one. He wrote G major with F# next to the clef. So G major or F major? What's the difference? Here's the thing: In F major tonic chord the note A is the middle note of the chord (FAC) whereas in G major tonic chord A is a whole tone apart from either G or B which are the chordal notes in this GBD chord. Does it make sense? Treble A: GBD vs FAC? Try it on the piano and listen to the difference. If you can't get it right, play A and then ANY major or minor tonic chord and practice for a while. You will get better with time. Doesn't matter if you get it right on the first try. Doesn't matter if you have a perfect pitch or not. Perfect pitch is a result of our memory: the more were are exposed to this treble A, the more likely it is you can remember how treble A sounds.  By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene (get free updates of new posts here)
On Monday during our harmony lesson, I taught Victoria the concept of secondary dominants. It's a trick we use in harmony to visit closely related keys for a very short period of time. It's not a modulation where we end a musical idea in a new key with a cadence. It's much much shorter - just 2 or 3 foreign chords. Imagine C major key for a moment. Here is the tonic chord from bass up (CEG). Now maybe D6 chord (BDG) and back to tonic (CEG). Now play BDEG#. That's D43 chord of A minor. A minor is the 6th scale degree chord. So that's D43 of vi. Now resolve it to A minor chord (ACEA). So BDEG# is a secondary dominant chord in this case. Then you can come back to C major by playing ii65 (FCDA), Cadential T64 (GCEG) and D7 (GDFB) and Tonic (CCEC). Try to play the whole cadence on the keyboard: CCEG-BDDG-CCEG-BDEG#-ACEA-FCDA-GCEG-GDFB-CCEC. You see how colorful your harmony with this G# already is? Victoria thought so too. Would you like to know more of the things I taught Victoria recently? If so, today I'm glad to share with you my Harmony Review for Beginners 3. It's the material from my last 4 lessons with her (over 3.5 hours of audio training). I will teach you the 2nd scale degree 7th chord and its inversions (ii7, ii65, ii43, ii42 and their multiple resolutions) as well as harmonic analysis of "Ich ruf zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ", BWV 639 by J.S. Bach. I'm including Vidas' PDF guidebook to mastering this piece with fingering and pedaling as a bonus. If you order until May 31, you'll get 50 % discount. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that this training is free for Total Organist students. Happy practicing! Let me know if you need help with anything or feel stuck. By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene (get free updates of new posts here)
Here were are talking about harmonization of a tune. It could be any kind of melody - a chorale, a hymn, a chant, a folk song, a popular song, even your national anthem (or mine). The first step is to decide what chords will you be comfortable of using? Tonic, subdominant and dominant? Their inversions? Dominant seventh chord? Its inversions? Other seventh chords? Or something entirely different? Then decide on the key. Look for key signatures and see if the melody stays in one key or modulates. Then look at the notes on the beats of the melody. Not all the notes but just the main beats. Think what chord could go with each note of the tune? Look at scale degrees of the tune and compare them with the scale degrees of each chord you know. My guess is that any kind of melody could be harmonized with just 3 simple chords - T, S, and D. Then you have to avoid parallel fifths and octaves simply by letting the bass go to the opposite direction than the soprano (sometimes alto or tenor). When possible keep the common notes of two chords stationary. Yes, it will be boring harmony. Yes, the bass will leap a lot. But that's a start. If you want to go fancy, add inversions. Then the bass will be smoother. Whatever you do, I really recommend transposition. Transpose all your exercises to various keys. It will have a compound effect on your skills sooner than you realize. Hope this helps. By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene (get free updates of new posts here)
An hour ago I was having a harmony review lesson online with Victoria who is my student from California. We were discussing things like harmonic progression between tonic and dominant and vice versa and tonic and subdominant and vice versa. We did the most simple keys, like C major and A minor. Victoria understood that she also needs to work on other more complex keys with more accidentals. So for this we refreshed the concept of the circle of fifths. At some point our discussion went to minor keys and how to find them from the major key with the same number of accidentals. You need only to take the first scale degree of the minor key and go 3 steps upward to find the parallel major (an interval of minor third). For example, F minor and Ab major or B minor and D major. Simple. It's opposite, if you want to find minor from major key. Go 3 steps down from the 1st scale degree of the major key (and interval of minor third). For example, F major and D minor or Db major and Bb minor. Hope this helps. [Thanks to Victoria]  By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene (get free updates of new posts here)
If you learned some music theory and/or harmony in school back in the days, did you enjoy it? Was it practicable, applicable to a real life of musician's profession? Were you inspired by your skills to apply them to the pieces you were studying at the time? Or better yet, did your newly gained knowledge propel you to create something of your own, instead of just analyzing pieces of others? Or was it some artificial system designed to flunk students as much as possible? These are crucial questions to answer, if you want to befriend music theory and harmony now, later in life, when your mind is mature, when you're no longer required to do what you're told. And you need it, if you want to be a more complete organist.  By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene (get free updates of new posts here)
Why do some people have easier time in playing chord progressions than others? I have been teaching Cadential 6/4 chord (Tonic second inversion chord used in cadences - G-C-E in C major) in harmony for 10th graders this week. There's a lot to think about here. How to connect it with the previous Subdominant chord and how to connect it with the next Dominant chord. And all these progressions can be harmonic, melodic or even with leaps of various sorts. Part of the assignments are written and part of them - played. They usually write harmonizations in 4 parts of melodies that are 8 measures long. At the same class they also have to play chord progressions and sequences. I've noticed that some of the students do better in writing and some - in playing. Why is it so? I guess 3 of the main deciding factors are: 1. Speed of mental processes 2. Facility with the keyboard instrument 3. Diligence in practice You need all 3 to work together in both types of assignments. But if you act more logically yet don't play a keyboard much - written assignments will be your strength. If you are used to the keyboard but sort of act more emotionally than logically - you will be able to play better than write. But for any of this to happen, you also need to be a hardworking person when it comes to practice. So, what comes easier for you in harmony - to write or to play spontaneously? By Vidas Pinkevicius (get free updates of new posts here) If you're reading this on a phone, you may want to click "Show images".    By Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene (get free updates of new posts here)
One of my students was once playing an invention in D major of J.S. Bach on the piano and I asked her what key was an episode she was currently playing. She had a difficult time discovering the key but after a long pause she decided it was B minor. True enough, it had two sharps and an additional G# and A# which are the signs of the melodic version of B minor. This answer wasn't enough for me and I decided to go even further with her. "Why do you think it's B minor here?", I asked. After this question, the student was lost. No evident reasoning was apparent to her so I explained my point of view: Since the original key of the Invention is D major, composers of the Baroque period tended to modulate to closely related keys (with some notable exceptions). Now B minor has the same number of accidentals as D major which shows it's a relative key. In any given piece you might find the tonic key and its relative, the dominant key and its relative, and the subdominant key and its relative. In the case of D major, it would be B minor, A major, F# minor, G major, and E minor. Do you think it's wise for organists to try to analyse their pieces they play or should this skill be left only for professional musicologists, music theoreticians and composers? |
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Drs. Vidas Pinkevicius and Ausra Motuzaite-Pinkeviciene Organists of Vilnius University , creators of Secrets of Organ Playing. 
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