Piano and Music Videos

Welcome to the first in our three part series on technology’s impact on music. There are going to be people with very strong emotions on both sides of this discussion and I’m going to do my best to provide a neutral presentation. Today we are going to discuss the impact that technology has had on art and music.

It’s simple to point to current technologies and see how they have impacted musicians and music as a whole. Where there used to be live bands we now have DJs and sound systems – which in certain circumstances has put musicians out of work. Electronic music has been popular for decades and some people might not even consider some of it to be music in instances where there are no actual performances – just recordings. As we delve into the controversy between technology and music you can envision the arguments of each side start to form.

Let’s take a moment and put ourselves at the time before the piano existed and even before the harpsichord came to be. There was a point in time when these were considered new inventions and something that would change music – either for the better or for the worse depending on who you asked. We could go all the way back to the origins of music – the human voice – and probably find conflicting opinions as new instruments were slowly integrated into music; there was probably never a time without controversy.

Societies eventually move on and the technologies of each age will inevitably replace the technologies of old and it will have an impact on art. Take a look at the architecture of today and compare it to the architecture of a thousands years ago, or 100 years ago; the differences are striking. Some people will revere the older styles of art and architecture while others will embrace the new – but this phenomenon is timeless.

When it comes to art, it’s ultimately about the people making music, not just the technology utilized. The inventions and instruments are merely the tools employed by the artists – what they create is a product of their environment and the tools available to them. You might not personally enjoy the work that an artist creates with newer tools, but you shouldn’t discount the tools they use – they are merely vehicles of expression.

There can be a level of resentment from people who studied their whole lives to be skilled in particular instruments that are upstaged by people using newer technologies to replicate what they do in new ways.

The best thing we can do is simply create the music we want in the ways we are familiar with. There will always be audiences for great music – no matter what tools are used to create it. Reaching people and creating a sense of emotion is the goal of art and no particular method will limit you from doing this.

You’ve no doubt heard diminished 7th chords before. Anytime you hear spooky chords in an old horror movie or a Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody, works of Richard Wagner, as well as many other pieces of music, they are pervasive. They serve very important functions. But what are diminished 7th chords?

Today we are going to cover Double Sharps and Double Flats. You might think I made this up but it is an actual thing in music and it’s something that you should be aware of.

You’re probably familiar with sharps and flats and you might assume they are represented by the black keys on the piano. This, however, is not entirely true, sharps and flats are not just black keys on the piano.

Sharps and Flats simply raise or lower a note by a half step. A half step is represented by the closest interval. On a piano, this is a set of two keys next to each other with no keys between.

If you play C on a piano it is a white key. If you play a C sharp it is a black key. If you play a C flat it is a white key (the B key). The note that is sharp or flat is simply the next key to that note – whether it is white or black.

So what about double sharps and double flats?

Here is how you would see them in your musical scores:

So what does this mean and how do you interpret these notes. Well if a sharp or flat is simply a half step either higher or lower – then a double sharp or double flat is a whole step (or two half steps) higher or lower than the written note.

This is a really interesting question. Sometimes you will see E sharps or C flats written in music and you might wonder why they just don’t write F or B instead – after all, an E sharp is an F and a C flat is a B on a piano. So why add this level of complexity?

Let’s start by exploring the foundations of Western Music. For most of us the music we are familiar with is founded upon the principles in Western Music. Everything from Rock to Pop to Symphonies utilizes the same aspects of being built upon scales.

What are scales exactly? Musical Scales are a series of whole steps and half steps that have all the notes (letter names) in order. For example, here is a C major scale:

When you see these string of notes together you should recognize that they are Diatonic, which means they are all built on the interval of a second. In other words, one letter to the next letter, line to space, space to line consecutively.

For more information on scales we have a series of in-depth videos on this topic:

You may not have heard the term Minimalism but you have certainly heard the music. This is a recent evolution in music and it is featured in countless film scores. Today we are going to discuss aspects of minimalism and what separates it from different musical styles.

There have been a number of cycles throughout music history. Over time, musical forms become more complex and eventually reach a point where they collapse upon themselves. By the end of Johann Sebastian Bach’s lifetime, Baroque music had become so complex that it literally broke down and ushered in the Classical era of music with its well structured forms. This is not the only time this has occurred in history and sure enough this similar pattern is found throughout musical eras.

The Romantic period following the Classical period shared many forms. However, the structures were expanded as was the orchestra and the length of works. Harmonies and modulation of keys in the music of Wagner, Richard Strauss and others led to the breakdown of tonality with composers such as Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern abandoning tonality completely and ushering in the 12 tone system of composition which is not based upon major and minor scales at all!

Eventually in the 20th century we had another breakdown in music which ushered in minimalism. This form of music took incredibly complex music and broke it down into simple patterns and textures that interweave in new and complex ways. In the video provided with this article I play an excerpt from Orphee Suite for Piano by Phillip Glass to give you an idea of what minimalist music can sound like.

You’ve probably seen this in music and you might have wondered exactly what a dot does to a note. To preface, we are not talking about staccato notes (which have dots above or below notes) but dots next to notes that look like this:

The short answer is that these dots change the length of a note.

The real question is how much does it change the length of a note? There is an explanation that many teachers and pianist use that might seem a little confusing. If you add a dot to a note it adds half the value of the note. With a little dissection this is easy enough to understand but trying to teach this to younger students can be a real challenge. Luckily, there is a simpler way to explain this.

I typically teach students what these dots mean using the following phrase: a dot after a note adds the value of the next faster note. This is really simple if you know all your notes because each note is half the value of the next note. For example, if you have a whole note, it’s the value of two half notes. This chart should help explain things a bit more:

So knowing this information, what would a dot do to each these notes? Luckily we have another chart here that will help explain it:

So a dot next to a whole note would mean that you would have a whole note plus the value of a half note. A half note with a dot next to it would mean you have a half note plus the value of a quarter note. The same rule applies for all notes with a dot next to them. I always encourage my students to think of dots next to notes as adding the value of the next faster note because it makes it easier to figure out.

There is even one more way of looking at this to break down dots next to notes that could be potentially easier for students. Breaking down the true value of notes with dots next to them actually doesn’t take any sort of addition at all. In this chart we break down the true value of each of these notes:

As you can see:

A dotted whole note = three half notes

A dotted half note = three quarter notes

A dotted quarter note = three eighth notes

A dotted eighth note = three sixteenth notes

When you think about it this way it could be even easier for you to break down rhythms. What about when you see two dots next to a note? This is going to be covered next time!