Wednesday, May 27, 2015

It's so hard it makes me want to cry


I find understanding different keys in music almost impossible.  I've tried and tried to read about it, but nobody seems to get down to my low level of understanding - not understanding.

When I listen to a piece of music I can't tell what key it's in.
All pieces sound the same to me.

And when I'm told that A minor is relative to C major, I don't have a clue what that means. To make it worse, there are two minor keys to each major. With the harmonic A minor scale, for instance, there are two sharps on the way up but none on the way down. How, I ask myself, can you compose a piece of music in this key with sometimes sharps and sometimes not??? 

Not only do I not understand the theory, my fingers get all muddled up when I try to play the scales. It certainly doesn't come naturally to me.

Oh, I just found a whole book online and free that might help: http://www.monarchknights.com/teacherwebpages/halladay/documents/BasicMusicTheory1ed_000.pdf

Yes, Winifred, I'm with you on 'the good old days'. My heading on that blog was highly ironic.

1 comment:

Winfix said...

I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about Diana.
I have always been able to sing quite well and have been in lots of choirs always
struggling to read the music but actually playing an instrument makes me stressed out at the very thought.
I am impressed that you can actually play the piano and are willing to be with Emma on a very special day for her. Well done Nanny. Keep at it. x