Playing By Numbers

I’m learning to transpose songs using numbers. Numbered chords (I, IV, ii7, V7, etc.) were already familiar to me, so that part of PWJ’s Transposing from a Lead Sheet course felt comfortable. But transposing the melody? That's a whole new ballgame. It’s not just “this is a I chord, this is a IV chord.” It’s assigning a number (the scale degree) to every note in the melody and memorizing them.

I know this is going to get easier. In fact, it already is. I’m starting to hear the melody and think, “that’s the 5,” or “that’s a sharp 4.” It’s taken a lot of focused work. A lot of “deep practice,” as they call it.

In this video, I’m playing the melody to "Makin’ Whoopee" in several different keys. My brain isn’t thinking of note names (Eb, F, etc.); it’s thinking in numbers. In Eb, G is 3, B natural is #5, and so on. I’m able to play through the melody relatively smoothly, even as the key changes.

I’ve been at my mom’s house in North Carolina for most of the past week. With a hurt left wrist and just a small keyboard to practice on, I did a lot of this kind of work. It was worth it. When I got home late last night and sat down at the piano this morning, I was able to play "My Heart Is Jumpin’" (by Jonny May, with a harmonic structure very similar to "Makin’ Whoopee") with both hands in several different keys. None of it was perfect, but the chords and melody came to me much faster than they would have without all that mental work.

My left wrist is feeling much better now, and I should be playing stride piano again soon. I’ve missed it, but I’m grateful for this brief break and the opportunity to sharpen my mental musical skills.

Comments

Eureka! Secondary Dominant!

I am such a nerd, and I love being a nerd! Today I was working on Section 5 of You Are My Sunshine, specifically on getting this section up to performance level. In other words, I was practicing being a performer , not an arranger . But then, of course, I came up with another idea. I had just played the delicate sixths and descending rag rolls of "when skies are gray" (I chord) and then moved to the parallel octaves of "you never know, dear" (leading to IV). The shift sounded abrupt to me. Harsh. It needed something. It needed musical WD-40. Something to ease the hinge between textures. And then I stumbled upon it! Right before moving to IV, I can slip in a V7/IV — a secondary dominant! So I tried it, and it sounded so good that I actually yelled "Secondary dominant!" out loud in my house like I was Archimedes discovering water displacement in the bathtub. It's such a small thing. One little chord. But it smooths that transition, leaning the harmony ...

The Amazing Practice Tracker 2.0: Leveling Up My Piano Game

(Apologies for the cheesy clip art. I needed to come up with something, or the Blogger template would show a fuzzy, overly-enlarged snippet of the first chart below.) When I showed my husband my piano practice tracker, he said I should market and sell it. Ha. It’s not for sale, but I’m excited to share how this tool has transformed my practice—and why it might inspire all three of my readers. Since my last post about the Amazing Practice Tracker, I’ve made it even better. Here’s a peek at how it works, using my June data. All The Pretty Colors, All the Pretty Winners My tracker now sparkles with color: darker shades for active pieces, lighter ones for maintenance, technique, and sight-reading. Each day, the piece I practice most gets a bright yellow highlight—a little “gold medal,” if you will. (Click image for a slightly larger view.) A leaderboard automatically shows the day’s top piece and time. And if that isn't enough, I keep track of the month's leaders--specifically, ho...

The Tyranny of the Dots

In the Billy Joel documentary And So It Goes , Billy talks about "reading the dots." He didn't want—or need—to "read the dots," meaning the music notes on the page. He had developed his own rock 'n' roll piano style and, after a few years of classical training, he left the dots behind. I didn't want to read the dots, either, once upon a time. As a little kid, I had a good ear and could quickly figure out just about any tune on the piano. But in first grade, I finally started piano lessons, thus beginning my life with the dots. The Wall of Dots Between Me and Music I hated the dots! I wanted to learn them, sure, but it was so hard. If my teacher played what was written, I could play it right back for him. But if he asked me to play it from the dots, I felt like I would pop a blood vessel in my brain. It was so frustrating for my six-year-old self to have the code to a simple tune sitting silently before my eyes and not be able to crack it and bring th...

Picking Up the Pieces: A Piano Practice Journal

Search This Blog