scales / chords - keyboard lessons

[jcrisman]

not oppused. its more so I understand at a broad level concepts such as parrel motion, disonet and so on and so forth. i understand a general concept how to do chord progressions and voice them. its like i get the concepts of what needs to be done but I do not have the note relationships in my head. so when i look at notes i do not instantly know is that a 1st, 3rd and 5th. is that a blank chord. like i cant visualize what i am looking at. i feel that i should be able to play basic chords and hammer out slowly in a step sequencer a simple boring melody. but i have no clue. its hard to explain, but its like I am missing some huge fundamental building block and its so simple that its hard to explain.

Here is a pretty good free PDF book (126 pages) that will help you visualize what you are looking at:

Changes: Chord/Scale Reference Manual
By Larry Ross Norred, ASCAP
http://www.changes98.com/New/Changes.pdf

As far as being able to hammer out chords and a basic melody on a keyboard, that is merely a matter of practicing. But then again some wonderful music, including piano music, has come from those who have to step enter their notes because their keyboard skills resemble someone attempting to play piano chords while wearing boxing gloves.

This link doesnt seem to work

That's odd. The link worked for me a moment ago. It is a 126 page PDF. Do you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer?

[soapform]

its like i get the concepts of what needs to be done but I do not have the note relationships in my head. so when i look at notes i do not instantly know is that a 1st, 3rd and 5th. is that a blank chord. like i cant visualize what i am looking at. i feel that i should be able to play basic chords and hammer out slowly in a step sequencer a simple boring melody. but i have no clue. its hard to explain, but its like I am missing some huge fundamental building block and its so simple that its hard to explain.

how to visualize triads:

so your "blank chord" looks like x.x.x on piano (the "x" are the notes, and the "." are the scale degrees in between), and the first note is the root. (1.3.5)

if a chord looks like x..x.x, the middle note is the root. (5..1.3)

if a chord looks like x.x..x, the right note is the root. (3.5..1)

or, the root of the triad is always preceded by two unused scale degrees (..).

or, you can think of a triad as a part of the infinite sequence of "x.x.x..x.x.x..x.x.x..x.x.x.." that's been chopped off from some place.