Single-finger chord functions

For some people, chords are difficult to learn and remember therefore making a hobby out of playing the piano hopeless. To solve this problem, the single-finger chord function is featured with every keyboard to give a helping hand to people who are having difficulties. This function allows the musician to assign major and minor chords to a single key to make playing the piano easy. For example, to play a C major chord, you would just have to press the C note, for a D major chord, press the D note and repeats for all the chords. Of course, this is a clever feature to help beginners, however, the single-chord function made its debut not on the keyboard, but on home organs.



Before digital keyboards were created, people who could afford it had their own home organs to practice on and play songs on them for a hobby but some find it difficult to use chords in songs which they found disappointing. However, some organ models such as the Hammond Chord Organs came with a series of buttons on the left hand side of them which allow musicians to play chords with just one finger. This made playing chords very easy for beginners to play songs instantly and learn the proper chords when they are ready. Today, most keyboards come with this feature and popular music programs also have the function built in such as Cubase, Reason and Logic.



Newcomers to playing piano are not the only people who use this function either. Some more experienced musicians use the function to speed up creating their own music and so they dont have to concentrate as much when playing. In conclusion, both beginners and experienced musicians use the single-finger chord function to their advantage as both a learning tool and as a simpler option to avoid confusion.    

Chords

Chords are essential in order to play the majority of songs that can be played on a piano and there are 12 chords to remember. the chords are split into 2 different groups which are slightly different but sounds completely different. These groups are known as the Major Scale and the Minor Scale and i will give a brief explanation about what sets them apart.

The Major Scale

The Major Scale chords are a set of 6 chords which are named simply from C Major to B Major. The best way to remember what are the right keys to press to find these chords is to remember the number 158. The way to use the number is to start from the letter of the chord you want to use, count up to 5 and that will be your next key, then count to 8 to find the last key to press and you should have the key you want to use. For example, to play the C Major chord, start with C as the 1st key, count to the 5th key along to reach E, then finally carry on counting to the 8th key to reach the G key and all of them keys together result in C Major.

The Minor Scale

The Minor Scale chords are another set of 6 chords which range from C Minor to B Minor. However, where the Major chords sound upbeat, the Minor chords have a darkish tone to them. The easiest way to remember these types of chords is the same way as remembering the Major chords except the number to remember is 148. for example, to play C Minor, start with C as the 1st key, then count to the 4th key along to get to D Sharp, then finally count to the 8th key along which is G and all of them together result in C Minor.

Practice Makes Perfect

The 2 numbers will help in knowing where the chords are but while playing a song, you wont want to pause in the middle of a song to count the keys so here are 3 small goals to do to keep all the keys within memory.

• Play all 12 chords in 30 seconds with your right hand.
• Play all 12 chords in 30 seconds with your left hand.
• Memorize all 12 chords

Piano Notes

The most important skill you will need to know are the notes on a piano and how to locate them while playing music. if you don't know where the notes are positioned, you wont be able to play anything on a piano. On a piano, there are 2 different types of notes you need to know about which are the white keys and the black keys. I will explain them both in detail and what makes them different.

The White Keys

The white keys on a piano are the most used keys on a piano. These keys are also referred to as natural keys because of how smooth they sound when played. Each key is assigned a letter from the alphabet in the order C - D - E - F - G - A - B and they cycle in that order across the piano. The easiest way to remember where the notes are is to remember the D note is always inbetween the 2 black keys on a piano. Remembering these notes is needed to play on a piano and once you remember where the notes are, you can move on to understanding the black keys.

The Black Keys

The black keys on a piano are the keys you use to give your song a bit more depth when played. These keys are also called accidentals which stand for the sharps and flats of a piano. There are 5 black keys every octave that can be either sharp or flat which can be easily distinguished from eachother. A sharp makes a note a half step higher in pitch and a flat makes a note a half step lower in pitch. The only way to remember where the sharps and flats are is that sharps are directly on the right of a white key whilst flats are directly on the left of a white key. Once you have remembered where the sharps and flats are, you are ready to start playing songs on a piano.

Test your memory

To make sure you really do know where all the notes are placed, i will give you two helpful tips keep you remembering:

• Identify the white keys individually. Practice naming them untill you can find each note without counting from C and remember that the D note is always between the two black notes. If you need help remembering this, just remember the phrase 'Dog in a kennel'.

• Its not important to remember each sharp or flat by name just yet, but remember how to locate the using the white natural keys.



Piano Posture

Playing piano is a lot of fun but you need to be sat in the correct position to be comftable. The first thing to do is to find the piano bench. The type of benches you should be looking for are the adjustable benches especially for growing children, people that share a piano and those getting comftable at the keyboard. Experiment with the bench by adjusting it untill you have achieved the right piano posture.

Remember To Adjust and Repeat!

If you have seen live piano music, you will have noticed how the pianists take a while adjusting their seat. Belive it or not, but this is acceptable so dont worry about being self-conscious if you find your self at a piano recital. When adjusting your bench, there are 4 things you will need to know in order to get the correct piano posture.

1. Feet should be able to touch the floor completely

If this cant be done or causes you to sit too low, place a sturdy object under your feet instead. Remember, your feet should provide more stability that the bench during play so make sure they don't wander off in a different direction.

2. Only sit on the front half of the piano bench

When your feet are on the floor, your hips are no longer the center of gravity so your back is free to flex and your torso can provide momentum for your upper body during strong dynamics and long octave spans.

3. Keep knees just under keyboard

Try to avoid sitting at the piano like your would at your office desk. The keyboard may cover your knees, but your thighs are not supposed to be under the instrument.

4. Find the right height at the keys

Sitting too high at the piano can cause pain in upper back and neck and sitting too low makes for poor playing postures and a reduced view of the keyboard so avoid these positions.

Keep in mind

If you feel that your posture isn't perfect yet, Im going to give you a few helpful tips to be the best results possible.

• Your height must allow to touch the keys with your forearms parallel to the floor.
• Your thighs are almost parallel; it's ok for your knees to be slightly lower than your hips.
• If you need a little extra height, sit on a firm pillow, stacked blankets or bath towels.
• Music sheets should be kept at eye level.