Matt's Music Class

In this episode we learn about Chords: the abstract packages of pitches that create (consonant or dissonant) Harmony when played at the same time. We also learn why the Triad is the most common type of chord and how to build one; and we play a couple triads together on our keyboards to harmonize a song.

I recommend having your keyboard handy and being familiar with Consonance and Dissonance from Lesson 8 to get the most out of this ...

In this lesson we look at the abstract mathematical form that defines the Major Scale (our familiar Do-Re-Mi sound), how it can be moved around to different starting (or Tonic) pitches on the keyboard, and how this knowledge of a scale can help us move “When the Saints Go Marching In” to a different starting pitch on the keyboard and keep it sounding like the same tune. We also dip our toes into the vast waters of Harmony (ie. two ...

Today’s bite-sized episode introduces the concept of Tonality. This is the first basic concept that undergirds the arcane world of Harmony. It may be a fancy sounding name, but the concept of tonality is already familiar to your brain’s automatic (subconscious) music processing system; so today’s lesson is just about learning to consciously recognize the pitch center of gravity for any melody you hear.

And, more good news, this less...

Since we’ve completed our first big batch of concepts (Beat, Rhythm, Meter, and Melody), I figured it’s time to have an episode that brings them all together and demonstrates how much we can now listen for in a song to start figuring out how and why it’s put together the way it is. So here’s a special Summary and Review Lesson, with a practical listening checklist you can use when you want to really listen to a song. Enjoy!

For more...

In this episode, we’ll learn a new simple melody on the keyboard (this time in the ‘ta-ki-de’ or skipping meter, but still with the classic ABA structure), and discover how complex a melody’s evolutionary growth can get by analyzing a Chinese folk song and listening to a Bach keyboard invention.

Key terms and definitions from this episode:

Repetition with variation - the most common process for generating a melody with clear, logical...

In this episode we learn:

- How the standard keyboard is arranged

- The seven pitch names of the 'white keys' (CDEFGABC), the 'major scale' (Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do), and why it starts again at Do (or C) after seven white keys

- Some new syncopated rhythms (along with how and why syncopation works)

- A couple beginner's melodies to play on your keyboard

- And the internal, microcosmic order of melodies built from m...

In this second episode, I do a quick review of topics from lesson 1 (beat and rhythm subdivisions), then we look at a sort of meta concept related to beat (meter), and finally we discover some new rhythm options by subdividing the beat by 3 instead of the regular 2.

Rhythm syllables from lesson 1:

Ta-a (lasts for 2 beats)

Ta (lasts 1 beat)

Ta-di (two syllables inside 1 beat)

Ta-ka-di-mi (four syllables inside 1 beat, so they need t...