Information:       
Home
Scholarships
Calendar
Music Helps
FAQ
Fall Registration

Lessons:       
Violin
Viola
Piano
Acoustic Guitar

More:       
Staff
Contact
Policies
Links

Music Helps:

      Family Music Studio publishes a monthly newsletter called Music Helps. You will receive Music Helps by email if you have email, paper copy if you don’t have email. Music Helps runs from September to May and is packed with tips, reminders, helpful information and opportunities for musicians. We also use Music Helps to teach music history. Music Helps goes through a five-year cycle of history: Early Music/Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Modern Music. In 2007-2008, we finished the Classical period. This year we will study the Romantic Era of music.

Below is a sample article from October 2004.

    _______________________________________________________________

MUSIC THEORY COACH      Scale study is foundational to the study of any instrument. It is important to learn to play in different keys. It is also important to recognize key signatures in the printed music and to be able to figure out what key the piece is in (what scale the music is based on). The key signature is at the beginning of a piece, printed right after the clef sign. A key signature can either have no sharps and flats, or contain sharps, or contain flats. A sharp looks like tic-tac-toe, a flat looks sort of like a lower case “b”. Now here is where some memory work comes in.      I will talk about major keys using sharps only this month. No sharps or flats is the key of C major. Memorize that fact! On piano, that would be the scale starting on C and going to the next C using all white keys. It is the easiest scale for pianists. C is not the easiest scale for string players. It involves the use of “low 2” for violin and viola, and 2nd finger for cello. Therefore, C major is not the first scale learned for a string instrument.      On string instruments, the easiest scales to play are the scales containing 1, 2 or 3 sharps. This would be the keys of G major, D major and A major. Now, here is the order of sharps: F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, B#. Memorize this fact! ***FCGDAEB*** It means that if a piece has only one sharp in the key signature, it will always be F#, the first sharp. If a piece has two sharps in the key signature, they will be F# and C#. And so on. The keys of F# major and C# major are not commonly encountered and we musicians tend to grumble a bit if we have to play in them! Here is how it works (the following is true for all instruments):      C major = no sharps or flats      G major = key signature of F#      D major = key signature of F#, C#      A major = key signature of F#, C#, G#      E major = key signature of F#, C#, G#, D#      B major = key signature of F#, C#, G#, D#, A#      F# major = key signature of F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#      C# major = key signature of F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, B _______________________________________________________________

                  

     If you enjoyed the above article you may like to read more. If so, you can download the whole October 2004 issue here (9kb).