keyboard players, help me out

[bassistpatrick]

Does anyone know of some good keyboard technique books that teach you the correct fingerings for scales and chords, and all that jazz. Or any good keyboard exercise books?

[gottawalk]

Hanon, the Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises Complete - Includes 4-octave Major, Harmonic and Melodic Minor scales, Chromatic scales in octaves, thirds, major & minor 6ths, contrary motion beginning on the octave, minor & major 3rd, Arpeggios of major and minor triads, diminished 7ths, Dominant 7ths

[Introvox]

hey bud...just go to my website....

http://www.murphynorth.ca

click on Student Resources

more coming soon

[geoffkhan]

Hmmm, Hanon is okay, I guess. Actually, an exercise that'll help a lot is just playing the first Hanon in all 12 keys, in legato, staccato, and all different velocities.

Another thing to remember is that a lot of the Hanon exercises rely on wrist and arm work, so don't think as much as moving your fingers.

Another route to go is just to learn as many Bach inventions and preludes as possible. They aren't very difficult at all--they're very sight-readable--but they'll give you a lot of practice on your technique, and you can really focus on details.

[AdlerAugen]

fingerings aren't as important as hitting the right notes at the right time, but they can help in that area.

Major Chord: the root, third (four halfsteps above root) and fifth (3 halfsteps above third). You can change the inversion or whether it is an 'open' or 'closed' chord by just moving one of the notes to a different octave and leaving the others down.

Minor: drop the major chord's third a half step, leaving the major's fifth in the EXACT same place.

diminished: drop the minor chord's fifth a half step

Dominant 7th: major chord, but with the 7th note of the scale played and flatted by one halfstep

diminished 7th: diminished chord with 7th note of the scale double flatted.

Major 7th: Major chord with 7th tone. no flat or sharp to it

Minor 7th: same as Major 7th but with a minor chord instead of major.

suspended: replace the third with either the 2nd or 4th tone of the scale. Sus4 is the 4th, Sus2 is the 2nd.

Augmented: raise the 5th a halfstep (I'm pretty sure the 3rd stays where it is)

W = wholestep
h = halfstep


Major scale: WWhWWWh
Minor: WhWWWWh (There are three forms of minor that I know of, the natural, harmonic and melodic. I'm pretty sure this is harmonic minor)

Natural minor: flat the third, 6th, and 7th on the way up and down. It'll sound like the minor third's major scale but you keep going to the end of the scale and it'll sound minor.

Wholetone: wholesteps the whole way up.

As for finger exercises I'd recommend this book called 'Fingerpower' it's actually a series, but I used it with my first piano teacher.


Also: don't underestimate the power of wrist and arm movement, it is absolutely essential to be able to do this in higher-level piano work, especially rachmaninoff, and anything anywhere remotely near that. I would be dead without wrist and arm works.

about modes: I don't really know enough about them. Chords are more my specialty.

[All_¥our_Bass]

^ Yeah, pianos/keyboards are what I like to use for experimentation with big, odd, and/or closely voiced chords.