Melodies can be played with close fingering or open fingering. Close fingering is easier for reading and playing tunes. It is also easier for children to play with their smaller hands. Open fingering is easier for playing tunes by ear, tunes you know and remember. You learn site-reading and playing by ear by practising.
The notes of a melody are usually the notes of the chords being played to accompany it. The notes of a chord are usually the first or root note, the third note, the fifth note and the seventh. So for example the notes of chord F7 are F, A, C and E.
Other notes, the second, fourth and sixth may sound bad, dissonant, discordant. The 6th note usually sound alright, like the 7th. The 4th note usually sound bad. The 2nd note sounds bad unless it is played in line with the 1st and 3rd notes. So for example when you play notes C, G, D, C in that order, the D sounds dissonant. Yet when you play C, D, E, G, the D blends in alright. The 4th note also blends in when it is played in alphabetical and numerical order, say E, F, G in chord C.
Tunes played without the second and fourth notes sounds more classical and music played with the second, fourth and sixth notes sounds more like jazz or blues.
While you are learning and practising from this book, do not play the 2nd, 4th of 6th notes.
Practise reading and playing a simple and familiar tune with only two or three chords in it.
Then practise playing that tune by ear. Tunes usually start on the root note and sometimes on the third note, and end on the root note. Start by playing the root note. Choose the following notes from the first, third and fifth of the current chord. With open fingering, your fingers are over the notes of the chord, ready to play which ever note you choose. End the tune on the root note.
Learning to read and play music by ear takes a lot of practice and time. Just keep practising. But do not over do it. Take breaks often and exercise the rest of your body, not just your fingers, to keep fit.
Practise playing by ear the right chords of a tune with the left hand as you sing or hum the melody.
Practise choosing the right chords for a song as you sing it without looking at sheet music.
Chord fingering with the left hand is taught in the another book called ‘Rhythm time’ which goes with this book.
This book covers playing chords with the right hand using finger pattern one or four and playing them one note at a time as a melody.
Each key has three main chords. These are the first, fourth and fifth chords. The first is the root chord, the chord the key is named after. For excample, chord C is the root in the key of C. The second main chord is four letters up alphabetically and the third chord is five, the next letter after the fourth. So the three main chords in the key of C and C, F and G. A piece of music begins and ends with the root chord.
Start practising by playing chord C with pattern four and with the thumb on key middle C. Here is how to move the right hand from chord C to F then G and back to C. Jump pattern four from F to G and back. Move from chord C to chord F by crossing the thumb under the pointer finger to reach note G then spreading the fingers to reform pattern four. Note G is in both chords C and F7. Move from chord F to chord C by crossing the fourth finger over the second to reach note G then forming pattern four again. Move from chord G back to chord C by crossing the fourth finger over to note G to replace the thumb, and putting the thumb on note C to form pattern four again. In both those crossovers, the fourth finger goes to key note G, that note being in all three chords, C, F and G.
Practise jumping from higher chords F to G and back.
Cross over from chord C to chord F to chord G and back to chord C.
Practise playing the three main chords of the key of Am, that is Am, Dm and Em. Notice that the main chords are all either major or minor, each being like the root chord.
All the notes in those two keys are played on white keys of the piano. Some notes in other keys are played on black keys, on sharps and flats. The sharp of one note is the flat of the next. So F sharp can also be called G flat and it is the same key.
Melodies in the key of F, G or Gm begins on a root note below middle C. So for example the thumb of the right hand plays note F below, deeper than, middle C to begin a tune in the key of F. Key of F has one flat note in it and that is Gflat.
Play chord G with the fourth pattern then change it to Gflat by moving the pointer finger one semitone back to reach the black note.
Practice playing the lower chords F and Gm over and over.
Also practise changing chord Dm, played near middle C, to chord D major. Dmajor is one of the main chords in the key of G.
Apart from jumping or anchoring from one chord to another, there is another way to move from chord to chord and it is called pivoting. Pivoting is not used for open or closed playing with the right hand. It is used by the left hand and is explained in the second book, ‘Rhythm time”. Pivoting is used to move from a chord played one way, or with one inversion, to a chord played with another inversion, when both chords share one note. One finger pivots on that note and swings across to the other chord. Moving from chord C to chord F and back with the left hand is an example of pivoting pivotting. Chord C is played with the scond inversion and F is played with the third inversion. Both chords share note C. The pointer finger anchors and pivots on note C and swings over to chord F.