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KLAVARSCORE BEYER PIANO COURSE

Contents:

-  Scale in C-Major
-  Scale in D-Major
-  Scale in G-Major
-  Seconda Audio files for Lesson 63 and 64
-  Additional Song 1:  "Ring Around a Rosy - A Play time"
-  Additional Song 2:  "En el Patio de Juego - On the Playground"

Additional information and accompanying files for Lesson 60-69

For an explanation on how to use the Scrolling files as a valuable practice tool, see the Scrolling page

Music Vocabulary

Diminuendo (dim.)   Decreasing in loudness

 

Lesson 65 - Scales

Scale C Major

In Lesson 65 you will find the "C Major Scale". Musical scales are composed of a pattern of ascending and descending notes. An ascending C Major Scale is a pattern of notes of increasing pitch originating on C. Likewise, a descending C Major Scale is a pattern of notes of decreasing pitch returning to C. On keyboard instruments, the C Major Scale is played using only white keys. 

Scales are said to be the tonal basis of music. For the most part, music classified as "Western" is based upon "Major" or "minor" scales. (Note: Unlike the word  "Major", the word "minor" is generally not capitalised). Unlike the C Major scale (abbreviated C scale), the C minor scale (abbreviated "Cm scale") is not composed of only white notes but it also originates and ends on C. At this time, suffice it to say, there are many different kinds of scales all of which have different patterns of ascending and descending notes.

Look at the examples on the right and listen to them two times each. Example A is the first 4 measures of a well known children's song. Example B shows how it would sound if the notes were shifted to the right by one white note.
For these examples the sound of a flute is used.

Example A:

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Example B:

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At first glance, the only difference between the two appears to be that Example B is one white key higher than example A, but apart from the slightly higher pitched notes, they don't sound like exactly the same melody. Why does Example B sound like the melody is played slightly out of tune?

To help you understand why they sound like slightly different melodies, take a look at the keyboard and notice how some of the white keys have a black key in between them and some do not.

When you press ALL the keys, one after another (also the black ones) in order (ascending or descending), you can hear that the difference in pitch between every two keys is equal.

This difference is called "half-tone" (also commonly called a "half step" or "semitone"). The scale which uses all of the keys on the keyboard is called the "Chromatic scale".

But now take only the white keys:
We name the distance from B to C a half tone (H) because they are lying next to each other, but the distance between C and D is two half tones, or ONE whole tone (W) because there is a black note between them.

Look at the keyboard, beginning with the C and you will see that they are spaced as follows:

Note:        C       D       E       F       G       A       B       C
No.:           1        2       3       4        5       6        7       8 (=1)
Distance:     1    -   1   -   ½   -   1   -   1   -    1  -   ½ 
In Words:    w  -  w   -   h   -  w  -   w  -  w  -   h

This pattern of whole and half steps is characteristic of Major scales. The type of scale a piece of music is based on is called its "Key".  Knowing the pattern of whole and half steps in a given key enables you to transpose music in that key to any other key. For any given key, the first note of the scale (the note the key is named after) is called: "1", the second: "2", the third: "3" and so on. These numbers we assign to the different notes of the scale are called scale degrees.

We call the spacing from 1 (the first note of the scale) to each step of the scale "intervals" and the intervals are named accordingly, "unison" (from 1 to 1), "second" (from 1 to 2), "third" (from 1 to 3), "fourth" (from 1 to 4), "fifth" (from 1 to 5), "sixth" (from 1 to 6), "seventh" (from 1 to 7) and "octave" (from 1 to 8 or rather 1 to 1 of the scale an octave higher or lower). 

Scale in D Major

With this knowledge, we are now ready to transpose the above melody from C Major to D Major. Looking at the keyboard and measuring the notes with the Major scale pattern you get the following notes:

Note:        D       E       F#    G       A       B       C#      D
No.:           1        2        3       4       5       6        7         8 (=1)
Distance:     1    -   1    -   ½  -   1    -   1   -    1   -   ½ 
In Words:    w  -  w   -   h   -   w  -   w  -  w  -   h

As you can see, two black keys are required to play music in D Major (F# and C#).

Now, referring back to Example B above you can see the the mistake which made it sound like a different melody. The F should be an F# (F-sharp).

Listen and look again:

The original (example A) in C-Major:

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The transposed (example C) in D_Major:

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In Klavarscore a Major key is indicated by this sign on the first note of the scale:

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Scale of G Major

The scale of G major begins with the note "G". Using the Major scale pattern of whole and half steps given above, the G Major scale is built as follows: 

Note:       G       A       B        C       D      E       F#      G
No.:           1        2        3       4       5       6        7        8 (=1)
Distance:     1    -   1    -   ½  -   1    -   1   -    1   -   ½ 
In Words:    w  -  w   -   h   -   w  -   w  -  w  -   h

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Four Hands/Seconda Parts

You can listen to the accompanying Teacher's parts while you play from a printed score.

Lesson 63:

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Lesson 64:

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Additional Song 1:

"Ring Around a Rosy.  A Play Time  (J. Schmidt)"


Ring Around a Rosy: 

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To download this score in Tablet format click here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Additional Song 2:

"En el Patio de Juego - On the Playground"


No.2 from "Six short pieces for Recreation" in the Scharfenberg edition of the Beyer piano lessons, composed by the German pianist and composer Heirich Lichner (1829-1898).



Tempo 100 BPM
For practicing start the Video first, then the Audio:

To download this exercise in
Tablet format:                click here
Scrolling format:           click here
Audio file:                        click here
Right Hand Audio file:  click here
Left Hand Audio file:    click here

Because the Right Hand and the Left Hand do not begin at the same time, COUNTING IS VERY IMPORTANT!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The complete Song:

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This piece is in 2/4 measure, it begins with an upbeat of 1/8 measure: 3 ticks in advance.

Right Hand, you play the Left Hand:

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This piece is in 2/4 measure, the RH begins with an upbeat of 1/8 measure: 3 ticks in advance.

Left Hand, you play the Right Hand:

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This piece is in 2/4 measure, the LH begins  second 1/8 measure: 5 ticks of 1/8 measure in advance.

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