Making Music with Chords I, IV and V

Firstly, a lesson in Roman Numerals:

I = 1

II = 2

III = 3

So far, so good!

But then:

V = 5, therefore:

IV = 4 (the I for 1 is before the V for 5, so it’s like 5 - 1 - see?)

And we can work the other way in a similar way too:

VI = 6

VII = 7

And just in case we need it,

VIII = 8.

If you’ve been cross referencing with the title of this very post, you will have realised that I am referring to chords 1, 4 and 5.

But what are they? Why are they important? How do we find them?

So…many…questions!

Let’s break it down and start with…

The C Major Scale

C major is just going to be our example scale here because it’s easy and it’s the one that most everyone can relate to because it’s where we all start learning.

The notes of C major are:

C - D - E - F - G - A - B, then of course, it resumes back to C and continues on an indefinite loop of musical trauma.

The note C of a C major scale is…the root note! Simple, really. The root note is just the note after which the scale is named. And more inkeeping with this, the root note is I (one).

It doesn’t take a long time to be able to work out the numerical values of the rest of the notes. In fact, we cover it several times - for example, when learning intervals.

But, just to recap, here they are:

C = 1 (I)

D = 2 (II)

E = 3 (III)

F = 4 (IV)

G = 5 (V)

A = 6 (VI)

B = 7 (VII)

C Major Scale

So, if we extract numbers 1, 4 and 5 from here, we would be referring to C, F and G respectively.

When we are referring to 1, 4 and 5 of a major scale, all of these chords are major. So, to clarify, C major, F major and G major are chords I, IV and V of C major. However, as you may have already learned, major chords don’t need clarifying; we can just say C, F and G.

To find a simple chord of three notes (a triad), we just need to find the root note of each chord. For C, this would be C, for F it would be F and for G it would be G. These are the root notes of each chord. We then need to stack to third intervals above it, but always being mindful of the scale we are in.

This is nice and easy with the C major scale because it’s purely white note based, but basically we want to leave a note between the first two notes and a note between the second two notes of each chord:

C - D - E - F - G = C major

C Major Triad

F - G - A - B - C = F major

F Major Triad

G - A - B - C - D = G major

G Major Triad

And there you have it - chords I, IV and V of C major.

Play these chords one after the other - or, better still, listen to how they sound in different orders. Don’t feel you always have to rise up to the next chord. Maybe go from your C major up to F major and then down to G major. It’s a less easy jump, of course, but it will give you an idea of how the movement can affect the sound you’re creating.

If you know your scales, try and find chords I, IV and V for other major scales that you know.

Let’s do one more together:

A major is:

A - B - C♯ - D - E - F♯ - G♯

A = 1 (I)

B = 2 (II)

C♯ = 3 (III)

D = 4 (IV)

E = 5 (V)

F♯ = 6 (VI)

G♯ = 7 (VII)

A Major Scale

So chords I, IV and V would be A, D and E, all major.

To find the chords, use the respective chord names as the root notes and then leave a note between the first two and the second two notes:

A - B - C♯ - D - E = A major

A Major Triad

D - E - F♯ - G - A = D major

D Major Triad

E - F♯ - G♯ - A - B = E major

E Major Triad

And there you have it!

Making Music with Chords I, IV and V

You may or may not be surprised and excited to learn that a tremendous amount of music bases itself around a I, IV, V structure. This isn’t to say that the chords appear in this specific order, but you may find songs that use I, V, IV, I, I, V, IV, I. Or perhaps they start with V then move to I, then IV and back to I.

As with the individual notes on a piano, there are unlimited possibilities when it comes to chordal structure - even when we only limit ourselves to just three!

Let’s assume that everything we are playing is in the key of C major.

Play the chord of C major, then rise up to F major, then to G major.

Does this sound familiar?

Perhaps if we put a melody over the top:

Or perhaps a different melody:

Or…

Maybe at the end instead of holding onto that G major, we’ll fall back down to F major: thus our structure is C - F - G - F (I, IV, V, IV).

A simple melody over this could be:

In fact, on my cadences blog last week I also demonstrated ‘Crash’ by the Primitives as an interrupted cadence. This is exactly the same chord structure.

Changing the Rhythm

Chords don’t have to be as regimented as one per bar!

Using the exact same idea, we will use chords I, IV and V across two bars. That’s one bar for I - C major, - and then one bar for IV and V - F and G - one minim each!;

If I were to have asked you about the similarities between Denis, La Bamba, Twist and Shout, Wild Thing, Crash and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds then you may be forgiven for not having realised there was one. Because they’re all completely different pieces of music!

But they all stem from that same chord structure, and this points so well to the unlimited possibility of music. If you can use three chords to create this much versatility, imagine if we started to bring in all seven! And that’s just all seven of the scale!

That, however, is not for now!

Chords I, IV and V in Classical Music

What I have demonstrated above is largely rock and roll, which thrived on I, IV and V thanks to the accessibility of playing them and them sounding full and ‘chunky’ at the one time brand new electric guitar!

Whilst it seems that this music is right on the other side of the musical spectrum to classical music, it isn’t. In fact, western classical music theory bases itself very heavily on using chords I, IV and V.

However, there is one slight difference to chord V in the classical context.

I introduced this last week in my cadences blog, but please welcome back - by popular demand:

The Dominant Seventh

Unlike last week where I got carried away, I’m only going to introduce you to the one technical term in this blog: The Dominant.

Every note in the scale has a fancy name as well as a numerical degree and a letter name. And root, if that note happens to be the root.

The Dominant is the fifth degree.

So, in C major:

C = 1, D = 2, E = 3, F = 4, G = 5!

The dominant seventh refers to the chord of the fifth degree but as a seventh chord.

So, in classical music, I, IV and V would be written as I, IV and V7. Specifically - in C major - those chords would be C, F and G7.

So how do we find a G7?

We find our simple major triad (G - B - D, as we discovered earlier in the blog) and we add a seventh interval - keeping in mind the key we are in* (C major)

G = 1

A = 2

B = 3

C = 4

D = 5

E = 6

F = 7

G7 Chord

So, our G7 would be G - B - D - F. As discussed briefly in last week’s cadence blog (seriously, you’ve got to read this blog. It’s a page turner), it’s standard music theory practise to keep chords consistently ‘voiced’ i.e. same number of notes per chord, and because we use triads of C major and F major, it’s very common to see a note dropped from that G7 chord. You may see a G7 as G - B - F or G - D - F or one of their inversions, but it’s still the chord.

*because if we assume we’re using a G major scale we would stick an F# on the top and that’s a different type of seventh chord 🤦  oh so many rules! If you want the academic way to approach a standard seventh chord, it’s a major triad with the minor seventh interval over the top. Maybe one day I’ll blog about the other types of seventh chord, but for now that’s the only one you’ll need!

Conclusively, in classical music, you would see chord V instead as V7 - the dominant seventh - more often than not:

Mozart's Piano Sonata in C Major - Simplified

Try It Yourself

The basis of an awful lot of songwriting comes from using this chord structure in some capacity, so why not try writing your own short melody over the top of those chords in whichever order you like the sound of. If you want a more classical sounding melody, remember the dominant seventh!

Learning to hear these chords is a really strong tool you can have at your disposal, so watch my short YouTube series to learn more about how to develop your musical ear to this end:

In fact, subscribe to my YouTube channel so you never, ever, ever miss a video like this!

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Jack Mitchell Smith is a piano teacher based in Macclesfield, Cheshire. Click here to find out more.

Weekly blogs are posted that may help you with your musical or piano journey. Click here to sign up to the mailing list so you never miss a post!

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#pianoteacher #pianist #chords #learnmusic #musictheory #songwriting

Finishing Your Music - the Four Cadences

In music, it’s important to start well.

It’s also important to finish well.

In music, we use a little thing called a cadence to guarantee a satisfying ending to our piece, and most any piece of music (with the exception of atonal music) can have one of the following cadences applied.

So, what exactly is a cadence?

A cadence is, simply put, a chordal motif that resolves - either fully or partially - a phrase, melody or piece of music.

Luckily there are only four basic types to learn, however they are all so wonderfully different that we’ll cover them all:

• Perfect

• Plagal

• Imperfect

• Interrupted

In order to best understand your cadences, it’s important to understand intervals within a key signature as I shall be referring to these. Luckily, I very recently posted a blog about that too - so read up on them here!

The Perfect Cadence

The Perfect Cadence is arguably the one that we default to most often as musicians. This is a very simple chordal arrangement of chord five to one (V - I).

When we are referring to the key that a piece of music is in, one (I) refers to the root note and five (V) - unsurprisingly - refers to the note that is a fifth interval above it; to put it another way, the fifth degree of the respective scale.

Using C major as our trusty old example, one / I / the root note would be C and we would then count up to five:

II - D

III = E

IV = F

V = G

So in the key of C major, a perfect cadence would be a resolve of chord five to chord one: G to C.

Simple.

All degrees of the scale have a technical name as well as their numerical place. If you wish to learn more about them, by all means read towards the end of this post from a few months ago, however the two that I shall share on this post are:

I = tonic

V = dominant

When we refer to a dominant seventh chord, we’re just referring to the seventh chord of the fifth degree of the key signature that we are in. Sheesh, that’s a lot of words!

Let’s break it down further:

In the key of C major, our fifth chord is G as we have established.

Now we will make this a G7 chord. This is a G major triad (G - B - D) with a minor seventh interval plonked on top (G - B - D - F). Don’t question why it is a minor seventh - it’s one of those things in music we just have to accept: a seventh chord such as G7 is the standard major triad with a minor seventh on top. These notes can be played in any order and you can even lose the D, hence why other inversions may be learned (some of my pupils know the Roald Dahl friendly BFG version of the G7 chord).

So the dominant seventh of C major is G7.

“But why is this relevant to cadences, Jack?”

Sorry, yes, I got sidetracked.

Chord five in a perfect cadence can just be a standard major chord, but it can also be the dominant seventh. Therefore, G - C is a perfect cadence. G7 - C is also a perfect cadence.

Actual examples of perfect cadences being, quite frankly, perfect

Perfect Cadence in the Minor Key

Ah yes, let us not forget about tonality here! How does changing the tone to minor affect our cadence?

In order to create a true perfect cadence, we need a leading note (oh, go on, I’ll throw you this extra one in at no extra cost!).

A leading note is the name of the seventh degree of the major scale and is a semitone below the tonic, therefore. So, in C major the leading note is B.

This resolution between semitones is what creates a perfect cadence, however anybody who read my previous post on the different types of minor scales will know that it isn’t quite that straightforward because there are not 1, not 2, not 57 but THREE types of minor scales.

Due to the gross inconsistency of the melodic minor, let’s throw that one out with the dishwater and focus on the C natural minor and harmonic minor scales:

Natural Minor: C - D - E♭ - F - G - A♭ - B♭ - C

Harmonic Minor: C - D - E♭ - F - G - A♭ - B (♮) - C

As you can see, the natural minor features a B♭, and so our fifth chord of G could only be a G minor: G - B♭ - D. This resolving to C minor sadly does not constitute a perfect cadence as the would be “leading note” is, in fact, a flat, leaving two semitones (a whole tone) between the leading note and the tonic.

On the other hand, the harmonic minor has a B♮, which brings us back to having our leading note and meaning that we have all the notes in the scale to not only find the fifth: G - B - D, but also a dominant seventh: G - B - D - F. Therefore, this is a perfect cadence.

In a nutshell, major dominant chord to minor tonic chord will get a perfect cadence in the minor key!

Sheer perfect...ion 😉

Plagal Cadence

Our plagal cadence also resolves to the tonic, but it comes from a slightly different place:

Degree four of the scale / IV.

Remember degree four of the C major scale? If not:

C = I

D = II

E = III

F = IV

Therefore, a plagal cadence in C major is F to C.

Plagal Cadence

Play a perfect cadence and then play a plagal cadence and listen to the differences between the two.

One of the most common descriptions of the plagal cadence is that is it the ‘amen’ cadence: imagine a choir singing that very word across the two chords of your plagal cadence and you’ll see what I mean!

Plagal Cadence in the Minor Key

For plagal cadences, the natural and harmonic minor scales are technically the same thing for a IV - I transition (although if we are talking cadences we should really be referring the harmonic minor because - western classical theory!).

Our F chord in the minor scale could not be F major but would have to be F minor: F - A♭ - C; resulting in our minor plagal cadence being:

F minor to C minor (a rather sinister ‘amen’).

Another Minor Plagal Cadence

Thanks to the wonders of music theory, there is actually another slight variation on this in that you can just ‘minor’ (if you will permit the word ‘minor’ to be used as a verb) the fourth and have a major tonic. Such as F minor to C:

Two examples of minor plagal cadence

This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have come from the key of C major, ‘nor C minor. However - speaking independently and assuming that we are, indeed, in the key of C something or other (to make sure our numbers still add up!) then this cadence is indeed a plagal cadence - and a minor plagal cadence at that.

Imperfect Cadence

I can’t stress enough the importance of revising and cementing in your minds what you have already learned before moving on to the final two cadences as these two are great examples of music rulebooks being thrown out of the window yet again. However, if you are ready to move on - let’s do so!…

The imperfect cadence is also known as the half cadence which - whilst not as poetic - is something that may help you remember better what I am about to show you:

Rather than finishing on our tonic (C), we have to finish on our dominant (G).

And we don’t have to travel from the tonic to G to get there.

An imperfect cadence can be one of several other chords in the key - most commonly I, II or IV - resolving back to the dominant.

So, in C you could go:

C - G

Dm - G

F - G

Imperfect Cadences

You may observe that the first example is like a reverse perfect cadence, so that may also help you remember: an example of an imperfect cadence is a perfect cadence flipped around!

The whole point of imperfect or half cadences is that they sound incomplete and like you want them to resolve. They’re creating a sense of need for completion.

Imperfect Cadence in the Minor Key

Unsurprisingly, you can get imperfect cadences in the minor key as well!

Again, we would strive to use the ‘leading note’ principles as in perfect cadence if we were to term our cadence as imperfect, which would allow us - in the key of C minor - the following cadences:

Cm - G

D dim* - G

F minor - G

Imperfect Cadences in the Minor Key

• don’t worry if you’ve never come across a diminished chord before. If you take a minor triad, the top note is just lowered (diminished) by one semitone. So, a D minor triad - D - F - A - would have the A lowered by one semitone to create a D diminished - D - F - A♭.

Interrupted Cadence

Now we know what perfect cadence sounds like, imagine you’re listening to a piece of music and it goes down to the dominant or dominant seventh and you think to yourself that classic line:

“Ah - must surely be going to resolve to the tonic now”

as I have on many exciting nights.

But then - shock, horror! It doesn’t. It ‘resolves’ to some completely different chord!

That, fellow listeners, is the interrupted cadence doing its usual rude trick of interrupting your expectations (this is also called a deceptive cadence because…this!).

Whenever your dominant or dominant seventh appears to make a move to resolve but then goes anywhere but the tonic / I, you have an interrupted cadence!:

G - Dm

G - Em

G - F

G - Am

…all interrupted...

Interrupted Cadences

...and because it’s not worth a separate subheading for interrupted cadences in the minor key, again using the harmonic minor scale:

G - Ddim

G - E♭ aug*

G - Fm

G - A♭ dim

Interrupted minor cadences

• Oh dear, dear, it’s not a good day if you're a chord novice! An augmented chord is a standard major triad with its top note raised up (augmented) by one semitone. Thus your usual triad of E♭: E♭ - G - B♭ - would have the top note of B♭ raised up by one semitone making it a B natural. Therefore an E♭ augmented chord is E♭ - G - B♮

How We Use Cadences

Of course, almost every piece of western classical and modern popular music can - believe it or not - have a cadence applied to the very end.

So, the end of a piece is the obvious answer here.

However, we can use cadences wherever we like providing we make a point of them:

The whole idea of a cadence is that it creates an air of finality and resolve so, whilst they don’t have to come at the end of the piece, you want the phrase they are applied to to feel like a full stop and taking a breath.

The opening chords of Pachelbel’s Canon are D - A. Considering that this in D major, we wouldn’t go calling the opening bar of Canon an imperfect cadence because - even though this is precisely its definition (chord one to five), it isn’t in a place that stops and leaves you hanging. It flows through.

Speaking of imperfect cadences, both this and the interrupted cadences don’t find themselves at the end of pieces. Speaking strictly for Baroque, Classical and Romantic era composers, it would be extremely bad practise for them to employ this kind of suspense of unsatisfying ending at the end of a piece. Perfect and plagal would always find its way at the end!

We also need to take into account the written key vs. the audible key of a piece. Movements in a sonata form tend to be written in one key throughout, however they develop through to repeat themes but in a different key, using instead a littering of accidentals rather than a change of key signature. Cadences will always apply to the key you are playing in, which may be different to the one that is written in the key signature.

As a final word on cadences, strictly speaking all notes need to be considered as resolved, whether that be staying the same or moving up or down to create a new chord. In other words, a fully fledged G7 (G - B - D - F) to a C major triad (C - E - G) would be considered bad practice because we’ve lost a note! In all examples I’ve given above and below I’ve followed this rule however as anybody who studies music - even that by the greats as Beethoven etc. - this rule is so frequently not followed. Especially in piano music where sometimes it feels more logical to drop notes in certain chords.

There are other such rulings - my suggestion below about inversions may be deemed controversial as - speaking as a purist - the tonic chord should be in root position. There are many other rules that have been disputed amongst music theorists and musicians: the tonic should always be at the top, the tonic root should be played twice in the structure of the chord, however…make of that what you will and just remember the numbers and the structures!

Examples of Cadences in Music

Whilst I did indeed use ‘Over the Rainbow’ a couple of weeks ago to demonstrate an octave jump and how that sounds, I shall use it again as its verse (or chorus, depending on how you consider the song structured) features both a plagal and a perfect cadence. And it’s not even Christmas yet! :

'Over the Rainbow'

'Way up high' is a plagal cadence because in my arrangement, ‘up’ is an F and ‘high’ is a C (and we’re in the key of C major!).

Yet on ‘lullaby’, we hang around the dominant seventh - G7 - for ‘lul-la' and resolve to the C - the tonic - on ‘by’ - creating a perfect cadence.

For simplicity, I have used root position chords although inversions of chords - such as the ones actually used in this song - would not actually affect the cadence.

To take an extremely simplified rendition of that Beethoven classic ‘Für Elise’ - which is in the key of A minor* - note how this middle section finishes on an E major chord. This is the dominant of A minor, and despite being the end of the phrase its sounding incomplete is typical of an imperfect cadence.

'Für Elise' Score

• Disclaimer: technically this piece at this point has in fact modulated to the key of C major, and whilst its tonality has audibly changed, the inclusion of a E major chord within the passage is enough for me to continue with this example assuming it were still in A minor.

Interrupted cadences are becoming more and more popular in…popular music! Whereas a more classical approach would be to use a perfect cadence to resolve from the dominant / IV such as I - IV - V - I, or a plagal: I - V - IV - I, popular music has many examples of songs that deviate from this and go somewhere else to complete the phrase. Such as I - IV - V - back down to IV. In the key of C major, this would be C - F - G - F. That decision to go back to F rather than C separates it as being an interrupted cadence rather than a perfect cadence.

Here’s ‘Crash’ by the Primitives adapted to C major. As a phrase alone it sounds unfinished, hence why the music carries on:

'Crash' Score

Because verses and choruses feature these unresolved types of cadences so frequently in modern music, this explains why many bands and artists opt for a fade out of a recording; suddenly giving a perfect or plagal cadence would sound odd and finishing on an interrupted or imperfect would leave the listener hanging...forever!

In Conclusion

In conclusion…play around! Regardless of cadences, it’s as well to familiarise yourself with how chords sound when modulating from one to the next anyway. You don’t have to identify the specific chords as this would suggest perfect pitch, but just being able to pick out the structure in a song or piece of music is a really powerful tool to have at your musical disposal!

Knowing where cadences fall and how they are used can really help you to punctuate them in a piece of music when you play them and, of course, if you are composing, knowing how to employ them with a little more theory behind you opens up natural potential to your writing that will make your music seem more logical and flow better.

I haven't yet recorded a slightly more sophisticated video on the subject, but thanks to YouTube shorts you can see at least a couple of videos of me wittering on about cadences. Here's the first. Make sure you subscribe to make sure you don't miss any future ones!

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Jack Mitchell Smith is a piano teacher based in Macclesfield, Cheshire. Click here to find out more.

Weekly blogs are posted that may help you with your musical or piano journey. Click here to sign up to the mailing list so you never miss a post!

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#musictheory #pianolesson #musiclesson

How to Kickstart Your Motivation in Piano Playing: Steps to Becoming More Motivated to Learn and Play

Some of my older pupils who have, in their younger years, taken piano lessons, have commented on how much teaching styles have changed. Aside from the fact that it seems most piano and instrumental teachers from their younger years were terrifying and strict, it seems that the approach is very different now to how it was as well.

Of course, there is a place for scales and a time to start drilling notes, but when the entirety of a piano lesson focuses on this and you get a clap around the wrists and a good scolding for not doing it well - especially if it transpires you haven’t practiced the allocated 300 hours that week - then the pupils are likely going to lose a little motivation.

I am a super strong believer in the idea that for most people, learning piano is something that is being learnt for sheer enjoyment and pleasure. So why on earth would the lessons take the form of some sort of corporal punishment? Surely this approach - even if it worked in making you an outstanding pianist - will do something much worse to the ego and to the soul. It can, perhaps, drive the love of music and of learning and playing out of you rather that into you or prevent you from being motivated.

I think I can confidently comment on the satisfaction of the pupils I have in that they enjoy their lessons, and there are two fundamental direct results that need to be taken from lessons:

1. Lessons should be productive: at the end of a lesson, the pupil should feel that something has been achieved. This doesn’t have to be big; perhaps playing a piece that they have practiced all week but with two notes that were causing them an issue playing into the piece more fluidly. Perhaps they learn the definition of a simple dynamic or tempo term that so far had alluded them. Maybe of greater importance, however, is that…

1. Lessons should be enjoyed: Why should we put ourselves through all of this hard work - because let’s be honest, it’s hard learning an instrument! - if we are not enjoying it. And this goes for the lessons, too. As well as motivational, they should feel a sense of ease within the lesson that allows for them to perform their best for me.

However…with the best will in the world, stumbling blocks are always something that we’re going to have to contend with and it is remarkably easy to get disillusioned with our playing. Even when you get to an advanced level, such as myself (no brag intended, read on…), I made the mistake of watching a video of Daniel Barenboim playing the opening movement to Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata whilst I was learning it. I didn’t play that piece again for nearly a week out of a major sense of Imposter Syndrome. Ironically, I play it worse now than I did at the time because I didn’t persist with learning and practice!

Anyway, enough about me - this post is written with the intention of becoming motivated towards better learning and better playing of the piano.

So, let’s get started…

The Approach of Learning Pieces to Keep Your Motivated

Identify Your Strength

Before anything else, you really ought to spend some time working out what your strengths already are. Also, identifying your weaknesses is important because these can definitely be improved on through practice (just about every possible weakness in piano playing has appropriate exercises to help you develop them).

But the thing you may need to hear (or read) is this: not everybody is a virtuoso. Much as it pains me to admit, I myself am not virtuoso, ‘nor will I ever likely be owing to my five year break from playing piano from 2009 - 2014 (and even after that I wasn’t really learning - just playing for pleasure and writing until 2020 when I actually left to devote to music full time!) and chronic pain (sympathy vote). As a result, I have an enormous soft spot for slower, more balladic pieces and am very good at delicate, controlled pieces of work - and whilst I can play / have played my share of Baroque fugues and ridiculously intricate romantic piano runs (Chopin 😡! ) they’re not my strength. I can give you a much cleaner performance of Schumann’s Romanze in F♯ major (“Einfach”) or, let’s say, the second movement of Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata (“Adagio Cantabile”) than I can that ridiculous (but fantastic) first section or, indeed, my opening movement of his ‘Moonlight Sonata’ is pure elegance, my third movement…less so!

Now, that isn’t to say that I can’t play them and - most importantly - isn’t to say I shouldn’t play them as practice will always be happening, however if I develop more of a repertoire alongside my practice of something that’s a real challenge then I’m going to be much more satisfied.

If you identify your stronger style and then use this to learn more pieces - which you will do so much more quickly - you will feel naturally more motivated because you’ll feel you're achieving the learning of several pieces and at a quicker rate. Plus, it’s all repertoire to tick off your list! It’s the ultimate win, win!

Alongside this, have something to challenge you on the go too. If this takes considerably longer to learn it doesn’t matter because a) all practice is good practice and b) you’ll have learnt a lot alongside it too!

Compose Your Own Piece

This is the ultimate creative goal and is a perfect way to incorporate those weaknesses into something that ultimately you will want to play. When we compose a piece of music, we have an intuitively protective instinct as a result of it being ours, therefore we want to be able to play it better than we often want to play a recognised piece, even if only for the feeling of obligation because - surely a composer should be able to play their own pieces, right?

Consider your weakness and make that the focal point in terms of the piece’s complexity (remember that complexity is subjective according to where you’re at at this time: the inclusion of this weakness should be the main bit that needs practising).

Let’s say you’re struggling with a B major scale. Logically, our piece will be in B major.

Using a simple rhythm in the background of, let’s say, a broken B fifth interval (B and F♯), we can maybe create a very simple leitmotif using notes from the first five notes of B major (the B major pentascale), and then using a nice ascending B major to lead us into the final bar.

Make sure you write it down - it all helps towards your practise of sight reading, believe it or not, as well as ensuring that you play the piece the same way each time!

A simple idea might be something like this:

Fun fact: that symbol in the left hand bars 2 - 3 - 4 means to repeat the previous bar!

By simply incorporating your problem scale into this piece, you have an added interest in learning it. Even if you only practise the scale going forward within the confines of this piece, it will actually be of benefit to you because if you then did decide to practise the scale individually, it will improve. Your added creativity and the satisfaction of creating a piece of music yourself will add even more fuel to your motivation for learning and playing. It may even open up a whole other avenue to your passion that you wish to follow!

Different Instruments Makes the…Dream Work?

A very simple remedy to helping you not feel stale is by making sure you have either a piano, digital piano or keyboard that you adore playing on, or at least have access to one. If you only have access to one, then consider the next time that you have the opportunity to play and what you would like to be doing on this piano / electric piano / keyboard and how you need to get there as this dream will keep you motivated.

If you already have one that you adore, that’s wonderful, but especially if we’re going down the electric route try exploring it to its full potential. Whilst when learning piano it’s best to default to the piano setting, try setting it to a different sound and playing around. Whilst the bulk of your practice should focus on piano, playing around and creating different soundscapes and hearing your music with a completely different timbre sometimes (often, in fact) creates inspiration.

As for an acoustic piano, consider again how seriously you are taking your learning of the instrument. If you’re happy with what you have and it’s a fairly old model, some keys stick and the tuning warps after a few days then that’s OK. But if this is your dream and you strive to be the best then you will need to invest (ideally sooner) in something new and reliable and my goodness you need to play them to decide which one is the one you want to buy because - like a wizard and a wand - you will connect very differently to different pianos. Read my post here for more tips if you are a first time buyer.

The Art of Pressure in Becoming More Motivated toward Learning Piano

Now let’s talk about little about how pressure can actually be our friend.

Many of my pupils get nervous when they come to lessons because I’m there. It’s not personal and it’s not - as many would believe - because they fear inadequate next to my, frankly, quite awesome skills (felt confident, might delete later…)…no. It’s just the idea of having an audience. That’s all. It can be anyone - it can be somebody who doesn’t even play the piano. But tension sets in, fear sets in, they forget the notes and where the hands are supposed to be…

If only there were ways to practice performing under pressure!

There are!

In fact, playing for a piano teacher is actually not even the best pressure you can practise under, although I dare say it is one of the ones that you absolutely should be doing if you are taking your learning seriously.

Let’s explore some of the options to us:

Perform for Others

I’m not saying you need to hire the Albert Hall or anything, but this is a very simple one.

You can do this one of two ways: both are fantastic:

Spontaneously

If you live with others and have been practising a piece of music, call them in when you feel ready. This is great for you because it doesn’t necessarily give you any sense of major trepidation like a more organised performance would because you won’t even wake up knowing that you’re going to be playing for others that day.

Then ask for feedback. Feedback from people closer to you is amongst the most crucial feedback you will ever get! This isn’t just because you’ll listen to it more, but because they won’t necessarily hold back on you - which is fine - but also because you’ll be more inclined to get better for them because of who they are to you.

Or because you’re stubborn and won’t be beaten by their criticisms!

Either way, it’s a win, win!

Organised Performance

You can still organise this within your household and for people who live with you, but even though it’s the same place and the same people as the spontaneity idea, that more formal approach will give you an added sense of adrenaline for the performance which you can practise dealing with using this tactic.

More appropriately for the blog, however, is that if you organise your performance a couple of weeks / months (whatever you feel you need) ahead of time, your motivation to actually be able to play the pieces you wish to play well will skyrocket and you will find yourself practising them to the point that you’re off book and loving every second of immersing yourself in the music!

Many piano teachers organise showcases for their pupils for this very reason! And, whilst I am in a strange limbo between Macclesfield and Congleton at this precise moment, this is something I shall be looking to organise going forward. And if any of my pupils are reading…this is perhaps the exciting motivation that they need to cease reading this blog and get back at those keys and practising that piece they’re working on!

Live Stream

For those on Face-Gram-Tok, this is fabulous. It’s all the added bonus of reaching a wider audience but without the inconvenience of leaving the house (or inviting a bunch of people into your house!).

The beauty of live stream is that you can do it spontaneously and you may well reach an audience of 0, but that’s fine. You don’t know if none or all of your social media friends and followers are going to tune it, but from an obligation point of view, your brain will automatically tune into (as brains are so very good at doing) the worst case scenario, thus your adrenaline and nerves very much exist.

You can schedule live streams ahead of time and share them and invite your friends to tune in, so there’s your motivation to get learning! And because you know your audience will be made up of friends and family, colleagues etc. it’s all people you’re going to want to impress on a personal level, so it really does push you that little bit more.

The Record Button

I’ve done a whole blog in the past as to why the record button is the silent killer of the greatest performers, but in a nutshell: if you wish to record a piece of music, you have to have that piece 100% under your belt to do so.

Picture the scene: a live performance of a 10 minute piece and you mess up a few bars in the middle. By the end of the piece, the audience will forget and it will be considered a great performance nonetheless.

However, as was the case of my aforementioned friend Daniel Barenboim - an outstanding pianist - and his unfortunate (but remarkably rescued) memory lapse during the middle section of Schubert’s beautiful Impromptu in A♭ major at the funeral of Jacques Chirac, having the record button on you requires 100% accuracy throughout because otherwise your mistakes will, alas, be recorded for the world to hear over and over again.

Obviously this doesn’t deter from the overall performance if you listen beginning to end of the piece in the same way as an audience member would but if you were recording for the purpose of sharing your ability, you would ensure 100% accuracy.

And how do you get that?

Practice!

So consider recording yourself in a few days / weeks / whatever you need to ensure you have enough time to practise all the problem areas of the piece(s) you will be recording and - if possible - allow yourself a set number of takes. Yes, it’s semi-reassuring to know you can always start again, but there’s only so many times you can redo the same thing in the same session before it not only drives you a bit crazy, but starts to affect your performance of it (read the blog to learn about how stress can impact it for the worst!)

The Academic Approach: Taking Exams

I have no problem with exams whatsoever. What I object to, however, is the automatic shoehorning of every single pupil into exams, like it’s the only way we can achieve. Some piano teachers are like this - and if you have a child and they learn through school it’s practically guaranteed that they will be signed up, but it isn’t right for everybody and can actually deter a lot of people from wanting to learn further because…it’s intense, academic and sometimes a little bit too formal for the learner.

But, in complete turnaround, it can have quite the opposite effect on some people who want - or even need - some sort of formal structure to keep them interested and motivated.

Here are the advantages of exams:

• Deadlines: You book an exam and you really ought to pass that exam first try for one of two reason. First reason is, of course, money. Exams aren’t cheap, so you don’t want to be unnecessarily paying for a resit. Secondly, however, is that exam boards update their syllabus every two years. This increases the urgency of you having to improve your piano skills.

• Increasing Challenge: Each time you pass an exam, you move onto the next one which has officially recognised harder technical challenges and pieces, so you’ll always be learning and practising something to improve your standard.

Grades don’t have to be achieved exhaustively - a beginner pianist may work towards the standard of and then towards Grade 1 and be quite content to then remove the academic constraints of the exam board and adopt a more customised approach to learning then, having used the pressures of the graded exam to get the basics into their system.

As a final note, it should be remembered that “piano exams” are not the only option available to you. Thanks to COVID, ABRSM introduced the “performance grades” more as a necessity which proved to be so popular that they still offer them. These require no technical exercises, but just an uncut, unedited video recording of you at a piano playing four pieces (three chosen by you from their set lists, one completely your choice) and submitting the video for assessment!

Slightly more academically is the music theory exam and, whilst most piano teachers don’t really encourage their pupils to do music theory exams until grade 5, don’t forget that there are four grades below that! Pupils with a more academic approach to learning may feel more content doing a theory exam than a practical exam, and it does help with the learning of piano because the best way to learn theory is to use theory - such as when playing piano!

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Jack Mitchell Smith is a piano teacher based in Macclesfield, Cheshire. Click here to find out more.

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