The Piano Encyclopedia’s Music Fundamentals Report: Piano Lesson Report I
Music
Fundamentals
An Introduction to Composing and Improvising on the Piano
¾ Understand Music: Intervals & Chords & Scales Explained!
¾ Master the relationship between Chords & Intervals
¾ Take your Piano Skills to the Next Level
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Copyright © 2005‐2010 by Rodrigo Schejtman (PianoEncyclopedia.com)
Music Fundamentals
The Piano Encyclopedia
ISBN 978‐987‐25216‐2‐2
All rights reserved. This book is protected by copyright laws and
international treatises. Permission must be obtained in writing
from its publisher ‐Rodrigo Schejtman‐ for the use of any original
text, graphics or illustration. Permission must also be obtained in
writing from its publisher for the reproduction, storage in a
retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise.
Neither this book nor any part may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or by any information
storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing
from the publisher. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of
this book, or any parts of this book, including any images, and
illustrations, may result in severe civil and criminal penalties
Reservado todos los derechos. No se permite reproducción parcial
o total, el almacenamiento, el alquiler, la transmisión o la
transformación de esta obra, en cualquier forma o por cualquier
medio, sea electrónico o mecánica, mediante fotocopias,
digitalización, u otros métodos, sin el permiso previo y escrito de
los editores. Su infracción está penada por las leyes 11723, 25446,
y tratados internacionales. Edición argentina. Queda hecho el
depósito que previene la ley 11723.
Schejtman, Rodrigo
Music fundamentals. ‐ 1a ed. ‐
Buenos Aires : The Piano
Encyclopedia, 2009.
E‐Book.
ISBN 978‐987‐25216‐2‐2
1. Enseñanza de Música. I. Título
CDD 780.7
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born, they are made
Introduction
Welcome to The Piano Encyclopedia’s Piano eBook: Music Fundamentals. I am
confident to say that you are about to experience a revolutionary learning approach
–not found anywhere else‐ which will radically change the way you play piano and
reveal you how music works – in a practical way.
I can make this claim without any hesitation whatsoever, as this is the second edition
of our Music Fundamentals eBook: our book has been read by more than twenty
thousand people up to this date, and we have received (and keep receiving) hundreds
of emails and blog comments from people like you, telling us their success stories and
how much this book has helped them:
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born, they are made
You might wonder what is inside this book and why it has this kind of impact on many
of its readers. With our Music Fundamentals book you will learn how music works, and
by doing so, you will discover the fundamentals to playing the piano with freedom,
improvising, creating your own music and playing by ear. Our teaching methods are
different from everything else, because ‐different to the conventional learning
methods‐ you won’t need to depend on memorization or rules. Our method is based
on pure logic and understanding, and with simple concepts that anyone can
comprehend, you will be able to play by ear, improvise, and even compose your own
music, all by understanding how music works – in a practical way.
Now you might be wondering if this book is appropriate for your level. Music
improvisation, composition, and playing by ear may sound complicated for starters.
However I can tell you that even if you are just starting to play piano, I assure you that
this approach will prove to be most useful and save you years of frustration (I wished I
had learned all this when I started playing the piano). On the other hand, if you have
been playing for years and you consider yourself an intermediate or advanced student,
but no one ever taught you how to improvise, compose your own music, or play
without depending on sheet music, I give you my word that after reading this eBook
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born, they are made
you will see music in a whole new way that will radically improve your piano and music
skills. My claims are backed up by comments from people like you, who found our site
and read our eBook, and I hope that once you finish reading it, you will too share your
success story with us. This book is for all levels, from absolute beginner to advanced:
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born, they are made
We will start the lessons from the very basics, teaching you what are intervals, chords,
and scales – so that even beginners can follow this course without any problems – and
then reveal to you the relationship that exists between chords, scales, and music
intervals. Even if you consider yourself an advanced student, we highly recommend
that you don’t skip these initial chapters and read the whole book, as we use a
different approach for teaching the basics that will help you to understand the more
advanced concepts that follow. Using this methodology, you’ll be able to see songs
from a new perspective and advance quite quickly, as we move rapidly into the world
of playing the piano with freedom, composing, improvising, and truly understanding
music!
Why are we giving this Book for free? Many people ask us why don’t we sell this book,
especially given the fact that it took us a tremendous effort to write, edit, and publish
this book. It involved the collaboration of a team of editors and graphic designers
(more than 300 illustrations are found on this book) during many months. Still, we
have decided to give it for free, for two reasons:
The first one is because we want to spread this new way of teaching music – a method
based on logic and understanding‐ in order to help those that have struggled with the
frustration caused by conventional piano learning methods, which are based on
memorization and rules. And I don´t say this just from we but also on a personal level,
as I have experienced that frustration too.
I am a piano player myself, and I have been playing the piano for more than fifteen
years up to this date, and during my first ten years of taking piano lessons, even I
managed to play concert level pieces very well… if you had asked me to play without
sheet music, improvise, compose, or jam with some friends at that time, I would have
simply either ignored your request and played a piece from my repertoire, or have told
you that I simply didn’t know how to do that. I was an ‘interpreter’. Only an
interpreter. But it was not my fault. Believe me, I wanted to be more, and I used to
spend lots of hours every day studying and practicing the lessons that my teachers
gave me. My problem was that I never had a teacher that could teach me all that I
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born, they are made
learned years after, which did convert me into the pianist, musician, and composer I
am today – not just an interpreter. Today, I can sit at a piano without any sheet music,
improvise music on the fly, create my own piano pieces, and play by ear. I hope you
can do all this too, and that’s the main reason why I have created this book: so you
don’t have to go through the same frustrating path, many of us already have.
After the success we had this book, we decided to create a Digital Home‐Study Course
to help those that wanted a step‐by‐step course on how to apply all these knowledge
and use this revolutionary music learning method. Our followers – literally thousands ‐
encouraged us to think big as we started posting development news on our blog. We
started by creating an a in‐depth lessons book that covered from how to play basic
songs up to how to improvise and compose a piano piece step‐by‐step with interactive
animations and sound. Then we added practice booklets, reference booklets, and even
interactive music training games. And we thought, what if we could add an online
community that would be integrated into the course itself, where all our students
could interact, ask questions, enjoy piano video galleries, and even participate in music
contests by uploading their improvisations and compositions? We wanted to create
the best piano learning experience on top of our unique teaching method. And after a
total of three years, the collaboration of more than fifty people from all the corners of
the world – writers, editors, graphic designers, developers, musicians, pianists‐ our
dream finally became a reality. Today our Digital Home‐Study Course –coined “The
Logic Behind Music”‐ comprises more than a thousand pages of interactive learning
content, which span 12 multimedia books (lessons, reference books, practice
booklets), and contain more than 3000 interactive examples with on‐screen piano‐
keyboards that show our students how to play the piano with freedom, improvise, and
compose music. The community also become a reality and is now bundled with our
course, and we are proud to say that our students today enjoy using a community that
shares many features similar to big social networks such as Facebook and Youtube,
including user profiles, wall comments, private messages, forums, news feeds, and a
piano gallery with over a 1000 piano videos and hundreds of master classes from the
greatest pianists of our century.
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born, they are made
All this was possible to the enthusiasm and support of our followers, and I want to use
this opportunity to ‐once again‐ publically give my thanks to everyone who supported
us, and thank them for all the emails, blog comments, and words of support we have
received during the development years
Even though that giving away this book made us become the first (and only) piano site
to ever give away a book with more than hundred pages (and over 300 high quality
illustrations) for free (when we could be selling it), and even our Digital Home‐Study
Course is finished, we think it is still a good idea to keep it for free. We hope that once
you finish reading this book that you have a new vision of how music works, and that
the concepts you learn trigger your interest in getting to know more about our unique
piano learning method and about using our revolutionary Digital Home‐Study Course
“The Logic Behind Music”, as many of our students do.
I suggest you read this book next to your piano so that you can enjoy all the provided
examples as you follow along. Get your trusty highlighter, grab a tasty beverage… and
dive right in!
After you're finished with your first review of Music Fundamentals, I'd like to know
what you think. So, join the conversation on our blog and leave your comments or
questions for me there:
Click here to Join the Conversation with me and other Pianists
You may also find some very interesting comments and questions from other pianists
that have also read this book.
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born, they are made
Before you go on to the next page, I want you to think and ask yourself: do you want to
be just an interpreter? (Would you be satisfied by learning only how to play piano from
sheet music or by rote?) Or would you like to become something more? If so, you can ‐
and I encourage you to get started‐ since all the success stories that we have collected
from our students tell us one thing:
“Musicians are not born – they are made.”
Enjoy!
All the best,
Rod Schejtman,
_________________________________
CEO & Founder of The Piano Encyclopedia
www.PianoEncyclopedia.com
rod@PianoEncyclopedia.com
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born, they are made
More Testimonials from our Students
Let me share with you more comments from our students – about this book that you
are about to start to reading. I highly recommend you read this book from head to
toes, as reading separate chapters will not help you understand the fundamentals of
how music works, so I hope that these testimonials give you enough reasons. :‐)
Below you will find a selection of just a few testimonials from our students, taken
directly from our blog. To see the complete list of hundreds of testimonials please click
on the following link, and once you finish Reading this eBook let us know what you
think by leaving your own testimonial:
Click here to Read all Testimonials or To Post a Comment
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born, they are made
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born, they are made
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born, they are made
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born, they are made
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born, they are made
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born, they are made
Inside Music
Fundamentals
Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1
More Testimonials from our Students ............................................................................ 5
What we’ll cover with our Music Fundamentals Book .................................................. 17
P ART 1: C OMPOSING , I MPROVISING ,
K EY E LEMENTS
OF
AND
R EALLY U NDERSTANDING T HE
M USIC ............................................................ 8
Required Knowledge........................................................................................... 19
The Important Elements of Music ...................................................................... 21
Why Should You Learn Scales and Chords? ........................................................ 25
My Personal Experience & Overcoming Frustration ........................................... 27
Should You Memorize All The Zillion Of Scales and Chords That Exist Out There?
............................................................................................................................ 33
Part 2: Mastering the Elements of Music & Understanding
the Relationsip betweeen chords, scales, and intervals .... 37
The Building Blocks ............................................................................................. 38
The Balance Between Tension and Relief ........................................................... 41
The Octave Interval ............................................................................................. 47
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born, they are made
The Perfect Fifth Interval .................................................................................... 50
The Major and Minor Third Intervals.................................................................. 55
The Relationship Between intervals and chords ................................................ 63
Building the Major and Minor Triad Chords ....................................................... 65
The Relationship Between Intervals and More Complex Chords ....................... 73
The Relationship Between Scales and Intervals ................................................. 77
Mastering the Major and Minor Triad hords ...................................................... 81
Part 3: Mastering Intervals and Chords ......................... 85
Get Familiar with the Rest of the Music Intervals .............................................. 86
The Second Intervals ........................................................................................... 89
The Seventh Intervals ......................................................................................... 91
The Tritone Interval............................................................................................. 94
Combining Tense Intervals into Chords .............................................................. 95
Creating Your Own Chords .................................................................................. 97
Part 4: Summary of Music Fundamentals ......................... 98
Lesson Summary ................................................................................................. 99
How To Practice On Your Piano......................................................................... 101
Creating Cheerful and Melancholic Moods With Chords ................................. 103
The Next Piano Lesson Report… ....................................................................... 107
Time To Join The Conversation! Ask Questions & Leave Us Feedback ............. 104
What we’ll cover with our Music Fundamentals Book
As I don't know your piano level, I have decided to start this lesson with the basics,
before going straight into topics such as learning how to harmonize a scale, and
master techniques of improvisation and composition.
Even if you already know the basic chords and intervals, I am sure that you’ll be able to
get a great value out of this lesson. I want to let you know that it took me several years
to find someone to teach me chords the way I am going to show you in this book‐
understanding the relationship between intervals and chords. So if this approach is
new to you, I am sure you'll really enjoy it and I hope that it will open a new vision to
you of how music works, as you discover the important role that music intervals play.
This approach will help you for grasping harmony concepts more easily in the near
future, which are needed for composing and improvising.
I hope you enjoy our Music Fundamentals eBook: the beginning to chords, intervals,
and to understanding how music works – in a practical way.
I suggest you read it in a calm place, or even best, read it next to your piano so that
you can enjoy all the provided examples as you follow along.
Page 17
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
PART 1
Taking your piano Skills
to the next level.
COMPOSING, IMPROVISING, AND REALLY
UNDERSTANDING THE KEY ELEMENTS OF MUSIC
Page 18
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Required Knowledge
This book is for all piano levels –from absolute beginners to advanced. It is both for
those that are just starting as well as for those that have been playing for years
(intermediate / advanced), but never had the chance to learn how to improvise, how to
create their own music, or how to play the piano without depending on sheet music or
memorization.
The lessons start right from the beginning with a review of all the basic elements of
music ‐so you will do great if you’re a beginner‐ and then continue with more
advanced topics about how music works, which will let you take your piano skills to the
next level.
I began playing more than 15 years ago, and until a few years ago not one teacher had
taught me anything about music theory. I reached the point where I was playing
concert pieces, without learning the basics. In this way, no teacher offered to teach me
the basics and I was really too ashamed to ask.
Not many years ago, my new teacher imposed me to study everything again from the
very beginning. We advanced quickly, and I was actually really grateful as I began to
understand how everything worked. Composing and improvising on the piano changed
from being a distant dream, to something I was able to accomplish in just a few
months.
So even if you’re an advanced piano player and are already playing complex pieces, I
am sure this overview of the fundamentals will help you in grasping the next lessons
much easier, and once we get to chord progressions and how harmonize a scale, you’ll
be able master the fundamentals of composing and improvising right away.
Page 19
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
If you’re a beginner, I assure you that you’re in the right path to quickly
understanding music. I wish that I had learned this right from the beginning to save
years of frustration.
Page 20
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
The Important Elements of Music
In this first lesson report we'll start with the very basics and the most important
elements of music:
 Intervals
 Chords
 Scales
Q: What are intervals, chords, and scales?
An interval is usually described as the distance between two notes.
Let’s look at some examples of music intervals:
Page 21
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
A chord is usually defined as 3 or more notes played simultaneously.
Now, let’s see some chords:
A scale is defined as a series of notes that are played one after another – usually 7
to make up a specific sound, or serve as the starting point for any piece of music or
composition.
Page 22
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
And finally, let’s see some examples of scales:
If you read the definition of music intervals –the distance between two notes‐ you’ll
notice that intervals can be considered as the elemental building blocks of chords and
scales. In this way, you will notice that music intervals are very important in
determining if a chord or scale sounds like a particular music style: jazz, blues, classical,
Arabic, Spanish, Indian, or any style you can think of.
So how does this work?

In Chords: The distance of the notes used in a chord, that is the music intervals
that will be combined to create a particular chord, will define the chord’s
sound.

In Scales: Similarly, the distance used between each note of a scale, that is the
music intervals that will be combined to create a particular scale, will also
define the scale’s sound.
Page 23
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
OK, so these definitions are indeed interesting and we can see that intervals are really
important to understanding chords and scales; however, the question is‐ why should
you learn chords and scales anyway?
Page 24
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Why should you learn Scales and Chords?
Let me give you the big picture: chords and scales are the skeleton of any music piece,
from Classical, Jazz, Blues, Bebop, Rock, Pop, to almost any music style you can think
of.
So you should learn them really well and understand them, and especially, know how
to use them. You have to understand that once you master these two, discover how
they work together, and understand the relation between both, then you will be able
to play any song or music piece you like. After this, you’ll be able to start improvising,
composing your own works, and you will be able to see music in a whole new way.
Even if you play Classical or Pop music and don't want to learn improvising or
composing, you'll discover that you'll be able to understand what you're playing:
notes and chords will stop being just notes and chords, and you'll start seeing the
structure behind the music, the chord progressions behind the score, and start seeing
the harmony behind any song or music piece. You'll even be able to transpose any
song to any key you would like, and in some cases even predict what chords come
next.
As you can see, mastering chords and scales is something very important and is
practically the base of everything.
Most students are introduced to chords when playing their first songs –however many
do not really understand why the combination of those chords sound *good* when
played in that order.
There is actually a skeleton behind each song and each music piece, which is related to
the progressions of chords used, while the melody or tune of the song is actually
based on different combinations of scales. Moreover, the reason why some chords
sound good one after another, or why some scales play smoothly when used with
certain chords, is strongly related to the type of music intervals that make them up
Page 25
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
and how they interact together: both by producing tension and resolving it, and thus
producing pleasure to the listener. I’ll tell you more about that in the following
sections, but what I want you to take from this chapter is that everything is strongly
related: intervals, chords, and scales.
While this process may seem complicated at first, the magic begins with allowing you
to use simple, but very powerful concepts that make everything easy to understand.
Part of what I am going to teach you in this first report lesson, and in the upcoming
ones, are things that I wished I had learned before, simple but very powerful concepts
that took me many years to discover, but that changed my piano life completely.
Page 26
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
My Personal Experience & Overcoming Frustration
I actually had decided to tell you about me later in the report, but I think that by
reading the following, you’ll understand how all these concepts had an important and
deep impact on me. I hope that step‐by‐step, I’ll help you discover how to see music in
a whole new way throughout the piano reports and The Piano Encyclopedia’s Core
Lessons.
So… Let me share with you my personal story…
I started playing piano more than fourteen years ago, which seems to me like a long
time, but to tell you the truth, I can’t say all of them were easy and enjoyable. In fact, I
went through many teachers, and I got frustrated many times. So frustrated, that I
even quit my piano lessons several times, but luckily to always try again and trust that
the next piano teacher or the next piano lessons I would have, would give me what I
was really looking forward to.
If you’ve taken lessons for several years, you probably might have had the same
feeling. Piano classes that seem to take you no where, with no certain goals defined,
and lots of effort that doesn’t seem to pay off, especially if you’re with the wrong
teacher.
Well for me it was like that for several years. Years passed, and yes I could learn new
popular songs, but I wasn’t feeling that my piano playing skills were greatly improving,
and most of the time I felt I was going nowhere, so I quit and started again many
times.
Then about six or seven years ago… I decided to give it another try. I started on my
own with classical music. I even set myself the challenge of learning how to read scores
on my own… and started with Bach.
Page 27
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
I don’t know why, but I wanted to learn the hard way and wanted to advance at a fast
pace. So I managed to play the easy Minuets and then went quickly off to play even a
short three voice Fugue, which was actually over‐complicated for my level.
Then I decided it was time to get a classical teacher and started playing the Bach
Inventions. At that time, I considered the pieces to be impossible (especially Invention
no. 8), but I wanted to play badly enough, that I managed to read and play them, so I
was very happy.
Eventually I began playing harder pieces I love. Chopin, Beethoven as well as Bach are
quite a few of my favorites. I actually became quite good, and could play the pieces at
a good speed, with technique and dynamics, and I was getting quite a lot of attention
from family and friends.
Then, as I started to have more responsibilities I began having less time and I couldn’t
practice the pieces any more. Some pieces took me several weeks and sometimes
months to prepare, so to have time to practice I began taking classes every 2 weeks…
then every month… and then I quit.
I was really frustrated, as for example, I had managed to play an English Suite from
Bach, a very difficult but lovely piece, in which I had spent more than two months to
fully prepare. I had almost practiced it to ‘perfection’ playing it with the correct
dynamics, transmitting the desired emotions and giving an expression to each of the
separate voices correctly, with all the music details to make it sound like a concert
recording. I knew it so well; I literally played it sometimes with my eyes closed. But
that summer, I went on vacation and didn't have a piano for one month. And when I
came back… I had lost all my skills….
I couldn’t play the piece any more…
There is even this quote said by a famous historic composer: “One day without
practice, I can tell the difference. Two days… and the orchestra can tell the difference.
Three days… and the audience can tell the difference.”…
Page 28
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
I was actually surprised by this quote when I heard it for the first time and even asked
myself: then imagine a month! Haha.
Sadly… even I could play the notes… all my technique, dynamic details, and everything
I had meticulously practiced for months… was definitely lost.
So I was so frustrated… I felt that more than three months of continuous effort in
preparing that piece had been thrown in the garbage… Frustration had reached my
maximum level. But I didn’t want to quit the piano... but since I couldn’t prepare for
classes, I decided to end them.
My teacher kept telling me that I was very good and that I should continue with the
lessons. Everything had such a deep impact on me that I even thought about quitting
my engineering career and dedicating my full time as a concert pianist! Crazy as it
sounds it all was very real, hard and intense.
Now comes the interesting part.
That year passed off, and I kept playing without any lessons. But then, unexpectedly, I
met a friend of my brother who told me that he was studying with a piano teacher that
knew a lot about music theory and that he taught it in a really interesting way.
Then I realized that with all the pieces I had played, I had actually never known what
was going on! And so… that’s why I was always stuck. I was just reading notes from a
score and playing them without really knowing the actual ‘meaning’ of those notes. In
this way every new piece was as difficult as the previous, as I couldn’t find out what
was common between each piece, nor could I predict what was going to happen while
I was playing. Actually, I realized that songs and scores had been like a set of
instructions and that I actually did not really understand them.
Page 29
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
So I decided to learn music theory so that if I didn’t have time to practice, at least the
concepts would stay in my head and wouldn’t leave me as my piano technique had
done.
…And so I met this teacher and told him that I wanted to have classes every 2 weeks
since I didn’t have enough time. And he told me that he wouldn’t give me classes every
two weeks, that I had to go every week, or he wouldn’t give me classes at all, but that
if I didn’t have time we would prepare on the class.
And so I did start classes with him, and he first changed my piano lessons to something
I could enjoy more and not stress out about.
The interesting part is that he knew both about classical music ‐ he had studied seven
years in a music conservatory‐ and also was a Jazz player. He knew the best of both
worlds.
I began learning simple things that completely changed my piano life, such as how to
harmonize a scale, find chord types and ways to build relationships between various
harmonies. I discovered the relation between chords and scales and how they produce
harmony through creating more tension or a release, and how you can predict how
scales and chords are going to sound by applying this basic concept. There are many
other interesting and simple concepts that I am going to be sharing with you.
For me it was an incredible change.
From then on, I began composing my own pieces –something that I considered a
‘distant dream’ and that I thought would forever be out of my reach! And every time I
was busy because I had to study or work, I would just sit on the piano and freely
improvise.
It was so rewarding... and ‐it is so rewarding!
Page 30
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
I changed from ‘interpreting’ music to being able to transmit my own… and that for me
was such a difference. It really gives me a chill when I think back to all of this.
The real beauty and the possibilities of music began to be seen.
I used to love Chopin, so I even got one of the old Chopin Waltz' that I used to play. By
analyzing the harmony, I could try to play it in another tune, and I was even able to
improvise parts of the melody and change it on the fly.
And pop, rock, or even jazz songs, which were actually hard for me, as I didn’t know
how to follow the chords and how to play them, are now much easier as I can
recognize the chord structure and harmony behind them. Now learning to play songs is
much faster and much more enjoyable.
So … for me, music changed completely in the last years.
I can tell you –and many musicians would agree‐ that there is nothing in the whole
universe that can compare once you see that level of music.
Luckily, I have been able to find many talented people that share this vision of music
and are working with us together, pursuing this same dream.
Unfortunately, it took me almost ten years to discover these concepts for the first
time. Most of the time when I discuss these concepts with other musicians and ask
them how come so few music players (not just pianists) know these simple but
powerful concepts, I get the following response: “Because the way it’s taught, Rod.
Most of the teachers in my experience, never reached the point we have been
discussing today”.
So I want to transmit to you these simple but powerful concepts that changed
everything for me.
Page 31
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
I’ll be sharing with you everything I learned through this book and also through our
Digital Home‐Study course “The Logic Behind Music”. In the latter, you’ll enjoy
interactive multimedia content that combines all of our experiences together, and the
concepts that made each of the members of our team reach a new level of music
understanding.
The Piano Encyclopedia’s Digital Home‐Study Course “The Logic Behind Music” is an
interactive learning software that shows all the concepts I’ve told you about ‐ the
relation between chords,
scales, intervals, harmony, and everything ‐ through
multimedia lessons, interactive books, images, animations, and sound recordings.
This Digital Home‐Study Course was the result of three years of work, inspired by the
success we had with this book and the support of our followers.
We look forward to changing the way people learn piano worldwide, and with our
Digital Home‐Study Course, we look forward to making this dream true. This is the
reason why we have worked so hard throughout all these years, and keep working, in
helping as much people as we can, reach their music goals.
Thanks for reading about my personal story, now yes, I hope you truly enjoy this book
and that it makes you see music in a different way. Thank you.
Page 32
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Should you Memorize All the Zillion of Scales and Chords that
Exist out There?
From the story I’ve told you, you may now realize that chords and scales are
fundamental to your learning; however, you might have seen that there appear to be
dozens of scales and trillions of different chords in different positions and different
keys. At first sight, it seems impossible to learn them all and seems like a huge task,
right?
Even more, there are many sites that say, yes I am going to teach you 7000+ chords,
and then you see these complex chord charts with multiple combinations that are
impossible to use, and then you see yourself looking back at each chord chart, for
every chord that you see in a song. Chord and Scale charts are extremely useful and
have been one of the most valuable things that have made me reach my actual piano
level. However, it’s important to know how to use them. They are the greatest thing
that can happen to you to make you speed up your learning, compliment and enrich
your music, and give you new ideas and resources to apply to your musical creations‐
but they should not be something you should depend upon for every song you play.
Throughout the lessons, I’ll provide you with chords, intervals, and scale charts, and
teach you how you can use them as tools to power up your learning and understand
the relationship between all the musical elements.
Even worse… terrible things happen with some of the ‘chord dictionaries’ out there in
the market. Not long ago, I went back to one of my favorite music stores to buy some
music sheet I was looking for, and I was surprised by one of these brand new
important “Chord Books” that had ‘just arrived’, full of color illustrations showing all
the possible key combinations, and juicy graphics. Chord books can be very useful, not
only for playing songs, but also for composing and improvising, and they are really
handy and easy to use.
Page 33
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
However, when I looked more carefully I noticed that there were several hundredth‐
pages thick different chord books – all with different titles ‐ one after the other. Such a
terrible thing! Well you might say, why is that bad? They had the “Jazz Chord Book”,
the “Blues Chord Book”, and the “Rock Chord Book”, and so on for several music
styles… Each worth a couple of big bucks each.
So by now you must either be thinking… “hey it must be great to have all those chord
books at home and play the different styles”… or: “I can’t believe I’ll have to spend so
much time studying all those books and memorizing all those different chords to
master all those styles”. And second “I can’t believe I’ll actually have to buy all of them
and spend so much money…”
Well, from that point of view it actually sounds a bit crazy, but I have good news for
you: I couldn’t resist, so I took all the chord books out of the shelf, laid them out on a
table of the store, and started comparing the index of each of the books!
Guess what I found out? Obviously – of course – 90% (yes, Ninety‐percent) of the
included chord types were the same in ALL books: Jazz, Blues, Rock, everything.
So as you can see, this was a really awful thing. Any person who wouldn’t have
compared the indexes, and had bought them all, would have been ‘tricked’ into buying
lots of repeated information – a real waste of money, time, and a cause to loose
motivation for any piano student... Sadly enough, this is not an uncommon way to
approach chord and method books.
But WHY did they share 90% of the content? Were they wrong? Not really. The truth is
that many music styles share many similar chord types. And sometimes, there are just
a couple of chord types that give each music style it’s unique flavor, while others are
shared in common, from Classical to Jazz, although used less frequently depending on
the style.
Page 34
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
So that’s really the good news: if you wanted to learn all styles you would have to learn
just the characteristic chord types that are used in each style‐ and not the whole
collection of chord books. In that way, understanding how chord types are shared
between different music styles will give you a deeper understanding of what makes
each musical style different. The same is true with scales, and understanding the
distinctive characteristics between styles, and combining both the appropriate chords
and scales, while helping you to master each of the music styles. So it’s not just
learning chords or scales from a particular style, but knowing how to combine both.
Just an aside‐ this idea is what really took us to create one of the most important
features of the Piano Encyclopedia’s Chord Dictionary. We decided to have ALL the
existent piano chords in one single book, and to categorize each chord type by every
music style where they are used. In this way the user can not only filter them by ANY
particular music style, but also compare several music styles and see which chords
they have in common. By comparing several music styles, it’s possible to get to know
the characteristic chords of each style. We’re following the same idea with the Piano
Encyclopedia’ Scale Dictionary, and the best part is that both dictionaries are closely
integrated, so you’ll also be able to look up what chords should be used with each
scale and vice‐versa. The idea is to provide you with a deeper understanding of how
everything really works – and not just some fancy titles as “Jazz Chord Book”, “Rock
Chord Book”, “Exotic Scales Book”, etc.
Well, back to the music store, the second good news is that even with a single chord
book, the hundreds of pages contain the same chord types transposed in all keys, and
just in different positions or inversions. Inversions are just interesting and different
ways of playing the same chord to give it a unique sound‐ and we’ll see more about
them in the next lessons. But what I am trying to tell you is that once you understand
how to create a certain chord type in one key, you’ll be able to do it in all the rest of
the keys, without any further memorization. There is no need to memorize every
single note of every chord and every scale: every chord and scale type follows a certain
pattern. Also once you understand how certain inversions work, you’ll be able to apply
them to any chord, without learning anything by heart.
Page 35
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
So I want you to really understand chords and scales, and learn how these 7000+
chords can be reduced to just a few chords. By knowing some simple concepts you’ll
be able to create all those combinations yourself. Also with the method I am going to
show in this one and the upcoming lessons, not only will you be able to play any chord
or scale in any key, but also can create your own chords, and even be able to predict
how a chord will sound before you play it. Same with scales.
So let's get to the actual stuff, and let me tell you that the secret to all this is to
understand the following: all the chords and scales are made up of different
combinations of music intervals.
These music intervals are like the building blocks of chords and scales, and if you
know them wisely, you'll also be able to determine how a chord will sound even before
playing it.
I hope that this introduction opens your eyes as to the importance of learning music
intervals, chords, and scales, and that you enjoy what’s coming up next!
Page 36
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
PART 2
Discovering the relationship between chords,
scales, and intervals
MASTERING THE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC &
UNDERSTANDING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN EACH
OTHER
Page 37
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
The Building Blocks
So by now you might be wondering, if music intervals are like the building blocks of
chords and scales…
Q: What are music intervals exactly?
A musical interval is usually defined as the distance between two notes.
These two notes can be played apart such as when playing a melody or a scale, or can
be played simultaneously, such as when the interval forms a part of a chord
Let me give you several examples of different music intervals:
Page 38
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
So as you see, the distance between the first note and the second note determines the
name of the musical interval and the sound it carries.
These are just a few of all the music intervals that exist, so by now you might be
thinking:
Q: Which intervals should I learn and why?
Well, my first objective for this lesson is a practical one, and I would like for you to be
able to quickly build the Major and Minor Triad chords in any key. Minor and Major
triads are the basis of most music pieces, and they will be really useful for playing your
first songs and creating your first compositions. To learn these we’ll need to master:
 The Perfect Fifth Interval
 The Major Third Interval
 The Minor Third Interval
As we’ll see shortly, combining these intervals will let us build the chords on any key
without the need to memorize the individual notes of each of the major and minor
triads.
Page 39
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
My second objective, is more profound, and is for you to understand why the major
and minor chords sound like they do, and to understand the nature of intervals in
order for you to start building your own chords, and to be able to predict how a chord
will sound even before you play it, right from the beginning.
In order to accomplish the latest, I want to tell you about a very simple but powerful
concept that will guide us throughout the whole lessons:
“Music is the balance between creating tension and relief”
Page 40
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
The Balance Between Tension and Relief
In the first class I had with my current teacher, he said one phrase that I remember
every time I play, which summarizes all the most important music concepts I’ve
learned with him throughout the past years:
“Music is the balance between creating Tension and Relief”
Yes… this is the powerful but simple concept that I’ve told you about in the last
chapter.
Q: What do you mean by tension and relief?
I think it would be better for you to experiment it: go get any of your favorite songs or
music pieces, no matter what style they are, and click on play.
Ready? Click on play and follow along with the next paragraphs.
If you listen carefully you’ll discover that there are moments in the music where
tension is building up and then finally finding release or a resolution. You may
identify this effect many times throughout the music, some resolutions being stronger,
and others weaker. In the last passage of the music piece or song that you’re playing,
you’ll probably feel the strongest sensation of tension and most definitive resolution,
remarking the ending of the music.
This balance between tension and relief is common to almost all music. However, it
will be very clear for you to recognize it on most classical music, as it’s usually built of
basic chords, but you may also perceive it on Pop or Jazz music pieces or songs, if
you’re able to get through the more complex chord formations.
Page 41
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Now imagine a music piece that had too much tension and only clashing sounds, but
no release. The music piece will probably not be very appealing to most, as it will feel
quite unpleasant and disturbing, since the tension builds up and never resolves.
Now imagine the exact opposite, a piece without any clashing sounds, and no tension
at all whatsoever. The music piece will probably sound pleasant to the ear, but will
most likely be extremely boring to listen to. For a listener, pleasure is produced each
time tension is resolved, so a piece without any tension usually results in a boring
composition.
In this way, one of the biggest secrets of music and what makes a music piece
interesting and pleasant to the ear is:
Finding the correct balance between creating tension and relief.
This concept will guide us through all of our lessons, will let you discover more about
the music you’re already playing, while opening your path into improvising and
composing.
However this is not a mathematical formula, there is no formula which will tell you
what combination of chords or melody is used to produce the exact needed amount of
tension or release.
Creativity plays a very important role in composing and improvising; nevertheless, it’s
important to have the right resources, the right tools and information to help you
make composing and improvising an easier task, and thus let your creativity flow by
using the right knowledge.
In this way, if you get to know which chords or notes in a melody will produce
tension or relief, you’ll be much closer to finally playing on the piano with what was
initially on your mind.
Page 42
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
That is what we are going to learn on the following chapters. We’re first going to learn
how to build the major and minor chords with intervals, and then head off to analyze
the different intervals to see if they more likely produce tension or relief.
As you already know, intervals form chords and scales, so understanding the nature of
intervals, will also let you predict which chords will most likely produce tension or
relief, and the same with your melody line.
It’s important to stress that the concept of tension or relief is also relative to the
context of the sound. In this way, if you play a very tense chord, and then play a less‐
tense chord, you will still feel a sensation of relief, even though the second chord is still
causing some tension and has not yet completely resolved.
Let me show you exactly what I am talking about. Let’s play a very simple progression
of chords. Play the following chords in order:
Page 43
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Don’t worry about the chord names yet and just play it and feel the sound. As you can
listen, the first chord seems to contain no tension, then the tension seems to build up
with the second chord, and it’s finally resolved in the last chord, producing a sensation
of relief. So in this case it’s the distinction between the second while the first and last
chords are pretty clear, with the middle chord having the strongest tension.
However, let’s see another example where we actually have different degrees of
tension, and tension builds up and then slowly resolves, each time producing a new
sensation of relief to the listener.
Page 44
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Play the following chords on your piano:
In this case, you actually feel that the second chord produces the most tension, and
then it resolves to the third chord, lowering the tension level and thus producing a
release. However, the third chord is the same one that was producing the tension on
the first example, and is now causing a sensation of relief as it produces less tension
than the previous one. Finally, the last chord resolves all the tension into a state of
complete release.
Page 45
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
If we could picture the tension‐level across time, we would have a graph that would
start off at zero, then get to a high peak, and then slowly get back to zero.
Actually, you could do that with every song you listen to –not just these three or four
chords‐ and you’ll discover that usually, once the tension level reaches it’s highest
point, you’ll be reaching the climax of the song or music piece. In this way, you can see
how this concept plays an important role in all music.
With these examples, I hope you have also noticed that the division is not black &
white, but that the different intervals and chords produce different levels of tension
and relief. In this way the overall sensation of each of the sections of your song or
music piece will vary depending on how smoothly and quickly the tension is built up
and how smoothly the tension is resolved, to produce a release.
Thinking about the concepts of tension and release will help you understand much
better what you’re playing, and will help you to get started with composing and
improvising,
To make things easier and practical we’re just going to divide the intervals into:
‘tension‐producing’ and ‘non‐tension producing’ intervals for the most common cases.
On the upcoming lessons, we’ll see that this can be studied in a deeper way using
terms such as consonant, dissonant, unstable, ambiguous, and many other
classifications and considerations. However, I would first want you to get all the
practical data, so you can start applying this on your piano, before getting technical.
Now it’s time to take a look at some intervals and see all this in action as we learn how
to master the major and minor triad chords.
Page 46
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
The Octave Interval
You might already know this interval, even if you don’t know its name. This one is
actually one of the easiest ones to learn, as it’s just the same note repeated in a higher
pitch, which is called an octave higher.
The Octave interval is not really necessary to build the major and minor triads, but it’s
useful to know as it is one of the most fundamental intervals of music, and it’s very
easy to master.
Let’s see how it looks in all keys before moving on.
Please take a look at the next page.
Page 47
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Master Composing, Improvising, and take your Piano Skills to the Next Level
Play this interval on any key, for example on Key of C:
You may notice that this interval does not produce a tense sound, but produces a
quite comfortable sound.
However, let’s move on to one of the most important musical intervals that will help
you as the basis for building many chords: The Fifth Interval.
Page 49
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
The Perfect Fifth Interval
Not only is this interval present in almost all of the chords and scales of conventional
harmony, and we’ll help us build our minor and major triads, but also plays an
important role in composition and harmony.
This interval is also related to something called "The Circle of Fifths", which we'll see in
the upcoming lessons, and will help us for creating chord progressions that will define
the underlying harmony of our compositions.
In this way, you should definitely master this interval.
Now the question is...
Q: How can we build up a Fifth Interval?
Page 50
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Let’s see some examples of what the Perfect Fifth Interval looks like:
You won’t have to memorize all of the individual notes of each one. If you count the
notes by key, including both the black and white keys, you'll notice that there are 7
keys‐ not counting the key that you are on‐ from the first to the last key of ANY Fifth
interval. In music terms, the 7 keys are referred to as half tones‐ where a key distance
determines each “Half‐Tone”.
You might also see the music term “Whole‐Tone” in some texts, which represents 2
half tones. Throughout the lessons we’re going to be naming distances only using half
tones, as they are easier to count.
Back to our explanation, the good thing to know, is that the distance from the first to
the last note is 7 keys (not including the first key that you play), which means that
you're now ready to build the Fifth interval on ANY key!
Page 51
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Let's do an example; if you wanted build a D Fifth Interval, you would play the D note:
…and then you would count up 7 Half‐tones starting from D.
In this way you would be able to build the D Fifth Interval by playing both
simultaneously:
I have created a chart for you, with all the Fifth Intervals in all 12 tonalities, so you can
master the Perfect Fifth interval in all keys. Please take a look at this chart on the next
page.
Page 52
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Master Composing, Improvising, and take your Piano Skills to the Next Level
If you play any Fifth interval, no matter what key you play it in, you’ll notice that the
Fifth interval produces a comfortable sound and apparently no tension. In this way,
you can be sure that if a Fifth interval is part of a chord, it will not add tension to that
chord.
While the formal name of this interval is “Perfect Fifth”, I have actually named this
interval as “Perfect Fifth” and “Fifth” indistinctly, and the latter is widely used
informally.
The reason why the “Perfect” is added to the name is because, as we will see on the
following lessons, there are other types of ‘Fifth intervals”, where the spacing changes
by a half tone. These are also sometimes referred to as augmented and diminished
fifth intervals, and so the word “Perfect” usually enforces that we’re talking about the
interval with the seven half tones that we have presented.
Page 54
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
The Major and Minor Third Intervals
Now that you understand the Fifth Interval, we can advance faster, and I can show you
the types of third Intervals so that you can start building complete triad chords. There
are two types of third intervals, which work with the perfect fifth to make a complete
triad.
However, before I show you how, let me first show you how the two types of third
intervals look like in the key of C:
Let’s look at another example in the key of F:
Page 55
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
As you see, they are very similar, with the difference being in a lowered note of a half
tone. The difference is one chord has a raised Third, while the other has a lowered
Third.
Again, you won’t need to memorize the notes of every Third interval in all keys. All
intervals follow a certain pattern, and if you count the number of notes from the first
to last note, in both the interval examples, respectively, you should notice they are the
same.
The two types of intervals that are used for Thirds are the “Major” and “Minor”
intervals. Just by knowing how the Major and Minor Intervals that are defined, you
should be able to master them on all keys.
Q: How are the major and minor third intervals defined?
If we define these intervals, we would have:

Major Third Interval: 4 Half Tones from the first to second note

Minor Third Interval: 3 Half Tones from the first to second note
Page 56
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
I have also prepared for you two interval charts to show you the Major and Minor‐
Third Interval on all keys so that you can practice.
Let’s first take a look at the Major Third Intervals on all keys.
Please go to the Major intervals chart on the following page.
Page 57
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Master Composing, Improvising, and take your Piano Skills to the Next Level
Remember that you can get to a minor third from a major third by lowering the second
note one half‐tone. In this way, take a look at the Minor Thirds Intervals on all keys.
Please take a look at the Minor Third Interval chart on the following page.
Page 59
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Master Composing, Improvising, and take your Piano Skills to the Next Level
Before moving down to triad chords, I want you to tell me if you think that the minor
and major third intervals cause tension or not.
Go ahead and play the D Major Third Interval, for example:
You’ll notice that the sound is quite pleasant with no sign of tension. You may try
playing the same interval type on different keys. Even when pitch changes, the sound
texture will feel the same, which should still feel pleasant or un‐disturbing.
Now, let’s experiment with the Minor Third Intervals. Go ahead and play an E Minor
Third Interval, for example:
Page 61
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Although you’ll notice a change in the sound texture, quite more sad or melancholic,
you’ll still feel that the sound is pleasant or un‐disturbing. Again, that will be same, no
matter what key you play it in.
So for now, we could say that the Perfect Fifth, Major Third, and Minor Third Intervals
are intervals that do not cause tension and that usually sound pleasant or un‐
disturbing.
Now if I told you that the Major and Minor Triad Chords are actually made up of a
combination of these three intervals, would you be able to guess if the Major and
Minor triad chords will produce tension or not?
I know you already know the answer, but keep reading and we will go into that as soon
as I show you how to create the major and minor triad chords in any key.
Page 62
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
The Relationship Between Intervals and Chords
Now we get to the interesting part.
You already know that chords and intervals are closely related and that intervals are
actually the building blocks.
Even though intervals are usually stacked up to make chords, it’s useful to think about
the relationship of each of the notes of the chord in respect to the Root of the Chord.
The Root of the chord is simply the name for the first note of a chord.
If we had a C Triad Major Chord, for example:
The Root of C Major would be C.
The same works in any other complex example, for example a B m9b5 chord:
Still, B is the Root of B m9b5. Don’t worry about the chord naming, we’ll see those
chords in future lessons, but the concept I want you to get is that the Root is just the
first note of any chord, when the chord is in its ‘original’ position.
So the point is that you can think of chord as adding up several intervals, and can
predict how a chord will sound from this. This can be done with the intervals forming
at the root of the chord, as we’ll see in a minute.
Page 63
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Before going into that, let me tell you about a very important characteristic of the
Minor and Major Third Intervals.
These intervals are actually really important, and have a special characteristic that
usually divides most scales and chords into two distinctive groups, in addition to the
division we made regarding the tension / relief.
If you listen to them on the piano, you'll perceive that while all of them sound pleasant
and un‐disturbing, the Fifth interval sounds neutral, the Minor interval usually sounds
a bit sad, melancholic, blue, or dark, while the major interval usually sounds happy,
cheerful, or playful.
As you already know, the above intervals don't produce tension and you might have
already figured out that neither the Major nor minor triad will be tension producing
chords. However, the last bit of information regarding the quality of the third will
become more useful in predicting more about the chords’ sound, as you’ll see next.
Page 64
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Building the Major and Minor Triad Chords
So let's finally get into chords, and the two basic piano chords: Major and Minor
Chords.
Q: What is a chord?
A chord is usually defined as at least three notes played simultaneously, which means
that at least two intervals are played at the same time (with one note in common
between both intervals).
Before going to that explanation, let’s take a look at some examples of the Major and
Minor triad Chords.
Let’s see some major triad chords examples:
And now some Minor triad chords examples:
Page 65
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
As you can see both the Major and Minor chord triads are very similar. Again, you
don’t need to memorize the notes of every major and minor chord in every key. By
knowing the Perfect Fifth, Major Third, and Minor Third intervals, you’ll be able to
build up any major or minor chord on ANY key. Let’s see how this works.
Let’s see what would happen if I play a C Fifth Interval:
…And then ADD a third from the Root (from the first note as we mentioned before):
We would actually get a Major chord!
Page 66
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Yes:
+
=
Therefore you can see that by knowing intervals, creating chords is just as easy.
The best part, is that not only will you be able to build any chord type on any key, using
this method of relating the intervals to chords, but will also be able to predict how
each chord will sound.
Let’s take a look at this now by playing the past examples.
Page 67
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
The major chord does not only sound pleasant, without producing tension, (as neither
the major third nor perfect are tension producing), but it also sounds quite cheerful,
happy, or playful, as it is composed by a major third interval, which has that nature.
The same easy procedure can be applied to build up all the Minor chords in ANY key:
Let’s play a C Fifth Interval:
And then ADD a Minor Third Interval from the Root:
And we actually get a Minor Chord!
Page 68
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
That’s right:
+
=
Page 69
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Again, this chord not only sounds pleasant and non‐tension producing (as it’s
composed of a perfect fifth interval and a minor third), but also sounds quite sad,
melancholic, or dark, as it is built up from a minor third interval, which has that
nature.
Therefore, the quality of the intervals of a chord, really determines the quality of the
chord itself, and knowing more about the intervals, will let you become more
creative into creating your own chords, adding more tension, building a more
pleasant sound, or making a melancholic or happy mood.
Before we continue, let’s take a look at all the Major and Minor Triad Chords in the
following pages:
Page 70
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Master Composing, Improvising, and take your Piano Skills to the Next Level
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Master Composing, Improvising, and take your Piano Skills to the Next Level
The Relationship Between Intervals and More Complex Chords
Now that we’re done with the triad chords, let’s see what happens with more complex
chords and intervals.
The relationship between chords and intervals not only happens with 3 note chords.
Actually almost any chord that has a minor third will have a sad or melancholic feel,
and any chord that has a major third, will most likely have a more happy or upbeat
feel.
Complex chords are made up of more than three notes or may include different types
of intervals.
Just to give you an example, let me show you some more complex chords.
Play and compare the two following more complex chords and feel their sound. Both
are Seventh chords. This means that there is a fourth note that includes a Seventh
interval from the root, thus the name “Seventh Chords”. But you’ll probably feel that
the first one, that has a major third from the root, has a more upbeat sound, while the
second has a more mellow or sad sound, as it has a minor third from the root.
Page 73
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Now do the same with the following Ninth Chords, another type of chord concept that
includes usually five notes. A ninth chord means that there will be an interval that is a
ninth above the root note. Again, the only other difference between both chords is the
chord’s third, which is major in the first one and minor in the second one.
Even though these chords contain more notes than the previous, each still has a
feeling of sadness/darkness or happiness/cheerfulness, and this is caused by the
quality of the third of the chord.
You’ll also feel both chords produce more tension, and are a bit more disturbing than
the major and minor triads.
Page 74
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
The reason is that they both have the Minor Seventh Interval, which is a tension‐
producing interval, while the second chord also has the Major Ninth Interval, which is
also tension‐producing interval.
Let’s see an example of the Minor Seventh Interval in C:
Do you feel the tension? Can you experience the clashing sound between the two
notes and an unpleasant sound?
So as you can see, the different intervals add color and tension to the chord, to
produce a different sound texture.
The previous chord type is actually called “dominant” chords, as they produced an
important amount of tension from the interval spacings, which ask for a resolution.
The seventh chord is widely used in Classical Music, while the ninth chord is used in
more Contemporary music such as Jazz and Blues. We’ll see how we can use these
chord types to build up the tension in our songs in the next lessons.
This division caused by the quality of the third interval is very important, and in this
way, all chords that have a minor third from the root are usually included into the
group of "Minor chords" and all the ones that have major thirds are included into the
group of "Major chords"
Page 75
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Adding more intervals to a chord gives more complex moods and more interesting
chords.
Page 76
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
The Relationship Between Intervals and Scales
Intervals also have an important role in scales, and we can also divide them into
“Major Scales” and “Minor Scales”.
Similar to chords, if a scale has a major third interval from the root, then it’s usually
categorized as a “Major Scale”.
If the scale has a minor third interval from the root, then it’s usually categorized as a
“Minor Scale”.
So as you can see, practically the same rules that work with chords can be applied to
scales. Even more, the third interval affects the mood or sound of the scale, in a similar
fashion it does with chords.
Let’s compare some examples:
If you examine carefully both examples, you’ll notice that there is only one difference
between them. The first one contains a major third interval from the root (colored),
while the second one contains a minor third interval from the root (also colored).
Page 77
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Now if you play these two scales from the first note to the last note, in order, you’ll
notice that the first one has more cheerful or upbeat sound –as it’s a “Major Scale”
(has a major third from the root) ‐ while the second one has a more sad, dark, or
melancholic sound as it’s a “Minor Scale” (has a minor third from the root).
So as you can see, changing the quality of the third interval also changes the mood or
sound of the scale, in a similar way it works with chords.
As an aside, you can appreciate from the image’s footer that the Jazz Minor is widely
used in Jazz licks. So if you want to have some fun, you might as well give it a try .
Now we’re going to look at another interesting example, but this time with a five‐note
scale. We previously mentioned at our formal definition, that scales usually have seven
notes. The reason we used the word usually is because there are some exceptions, and
the following is one of them:
This scale is named “Pentatonic Minor” scale (“Penta” = five, hence the name).
However, it’s more widely known simply as the “Chinese” Scale. You might be
wondering why is it called Chinese Scale? Believe me; it will be very easy for you to
Page 78
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
figure it out once you play it on your piano. I suggest you go ahead and give it a try
right now.
The great thing about this scale is that it’s very easy to play; by just using the black
keys of your keyboard you’ll get a real Oriental sound.
Now take a look at the scale right below it, the Pentatonic Major Scale. Even though
it’s on a different key, it really has the same structure as the previous scale, but has a
minor third interval instead of a major third interval, from the root.
You’ll appreciate that just that small ‘architectonic’ change produces a different mood
on the scale.
So it’s interesting to know, that independent of how many notes the scale has, the
third interval always plays a very important role.
Make sure that when you try out the different scales that you give some attention to
where the scale begins, as usually the first note of the scale is the most important one.
This first note is like the ‘home’ of the scale, usually named as the ‘root’ note of the
scale. You’ll discover that if you play the same scale in ascending and then descending
order, from a different starting point, then the scale will indeed sound different and
have a different mood or characteristic depending on the note you choose to begin
with. Regardless of that, that doesn’t mean you need to play all the scales in order,
from beginning to end without changing anything‐ because that could be plain boring
.
But instead‐ try building up any melody your ear tells you, but for now try that by
starting on the scale’s first note and finishing on the same note, while doing any
movement you want in the middle. Highlighting the first note –the root note‐ in this
way, and making it the concluding point, will give your ear a stronger feeling that
you’re actually playing a melody based on that scale and key that you’re trying (and so
Page 79
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
that you get familiar with more technical terms, this is also called ‘establishing
tonality’). We’ll see more about that in the next lessons.
Page 80
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Mastering the Major and Minor Triad Chords
To start mastering all these music concepts, you should first be able to play the major
and minor chords in all keys. I am sure that by now you already know how to build
them on any key, by using the intervals formula, but it's also very important that you
play them on the piano.
Simple major and minor chords are almost 90% of many classical piano pieces and pop
songs, so you should definitely know them well.
For this purpose, now that you understand how intervals are related to chords, let’s
review the two major and minor triad‐chord charts I’ve shown you previously.
Please continue to the following page.
Page 81
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Master Composing, Improvising, and take your Piano Skills to the Next Level
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Master Composing, Improvising, and take your Piano Skills to the Next Level
The good thing about this is that once you now understand where the chords come
from and how they work, you don't need to memorize them.
Page 84
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
PART 3
Mastering Intervals and Chords
DISCOVER THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTERVALS AND
CHORDS AND TO BE ABLE TO PREDICT HOW A CHORD
WILL SOUND BEFORE EVEN PLAYING IT.
Page 85
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Get Familiar with the Rest of the Music Intervals
Once you have the basics of intervals down, you can begin to find other intervals that
carry more tension or offer more release. Knowing what these alternatives are can
help you to build more on the pieces you are learning and can help you to hear music
differently.
Take a look at all the common Intervals in C
Page 86
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
…Continues on the next page…
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Master Composing, Improvising, and take your Piano Skills to the Next Level
…Continued from the previous page…
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Master Composing, Improvising, and take your Piano Skills to the Next Level
Following are the most common intervals that are used to build tension.
We have already seen the basic intervals; however without getting any deeper yet, it
would be a good idea for you to get familiar with the rest of the common intervals.
We’ll study each of these intervals in the depth as we move along! :)
Page 88
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
The Second Intervals
There are two 2nd intervals, major and minor. The minor is the same as a half tone and
the major 2nd is the same as a whole tone. This interval is known as one of the most
tense intervals and can be used repeatedly in order to build suspense.
I think you’ll completely agree that this interval sounds like Alfred Hitchcock’s
“Psycho” movie, right on the shower scene, when the actress is about to get killed by
the evil murderer.
Play the following on your piano:
How does it sound?
Play it repeatedly on the upper octaves of your piano. Do it many times.
You might also want to feel the same interval type on a different key. You’ll experience
the same sound type, but on a different pitch:
Page 89
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
I am sure you’ve had enough of that sound, and I think you’ll completely agree that the
Minor Second interval can really produce some terrifying and disturbing tension.
Nevertheless, if you were to make a complete song or music piece by just playing this
interval type, even if you changed keys, I am sure neither you nor your listeners would
appreciate it.
A sound that is not as tense, but still holds a similar build up of tension is the major
2nd.
Page 90
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
The Seventh Intervals
Let’s see some more examples of other intervals type that produce tension: the 7th
Interval.
This interval is a 7th from the root note, with either 10 half tones or 11 half tones
moving up from the root, depending if it is minor or major. Like the 2nd interval, the
7th is used for the clashes, anticipations and builds of tension.
You can expect the Major Seventh interval to stay as disturbing as the Hitchcock
interval. You might feel that the two notes audibly clash with each other, and that the
sound seems restless or uncomfortable.
Try the same interval type on other keys:
You might be wondering how do we know it’s the same interval type, even if it’s on a
different key? Easy, same as we did with the rest previous intervals, count the number
Page 91
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
of notes from the first to the last note, in each of the three examples. You’ll notice it’s
the same for all three examples, thus defining the Major Seventh Interval type. In this
way, when you play the same interval type in different keys, you’ll get the same
sound color but on a different pitch.
Now let’s move into other ‘tension‐producing’ Intervals that are less ‘stressful’ or have
more release: the Minor Seventh Intervals.
Even you still feel tension and a restless or uncomfortable sound; you’ll notice that
the Minor Seventh Intervals actually holds less tension than the Major Seventh
Intervals:
Let’s play the Minor Seventh and Major Seventh Intervals and compare them:
You may still feel them uncomfortable or stressful, but I hope you’ll agree that while
both are tension‐producing intervals, the Minor Seventh Intervals sounds a bit more
pleasant than the latest.
Page 92
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
So as you can see there are different levels of creating tension.
Page 93
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
The Tritone Interval
The Tritone is one of the most important tension‐producing intervals, and is
considered to be one of the most crucial elements in music from Classical to Jazz
because of the amount of tension it uses.
Let’s listen to its sound:
This interval still produces a restless, uncomfortable, or unstable sound, and
constitutes one of the main ways of creating tension in the Classical era, while widely
used in Jazz and Blues. Understanding how this interval creates tension will actually
let you understand how many music passages work as it’s widely used in Classical
music and also on most contemporary music styles, such as Jazz or Blues. Mastering it,
will let you get into applying advanced composing tricks in the upcoming lessons.
Page 94
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Combining Tense Intervals into Chords
I am sure you have had enough of tension producing intervals, and you probably be
wondering: why is he making me play these interval types, if I am not planning to learn
composing for a horror movie?
Well, as you have seen in the past chapters, the truth is that these intervals are usually
not played alone, but played combined with other notes, thus forming chords. These
additional notes soften their tension‐ producing quality and combine it with their own
colors to produce different sound textures that can be very pleasant to the ear. In this
way, the intervals that produce tension are usually softened by their context and
thus all these intervals I showed you are used in many music styles, being the more
dissonant ones used especially in contemporary music.
Let me show you how this works by playing the C7 chord, which contains the Minor
Seventh Interval:
You’ll notice that even though the Minor Seventh Interval alone sounds clashing and
disturbing, once it’s played along the other non‐tense interval types, the overall result
is much more pleasant and smoothing, while still adding some tension into the music.
Following these lines, and knowing now that chords are made of intervals of different
characteristics, it’s easier to figure out which chords produce tension and which ones
produce release.
As you can see, the mixtures of intervals that are put together create the sound that is
needed to drive the music forward, through both suspense and romance.
Page 95
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
In about a minute, we’ll use all these information to create our own chords…
Page 96
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Creating Your Own Chords
Now that you know the fundamentals of how chords are built, you can build your own
chords out of the intervals that you have learned.
When you begin putting together your own chords, you can do it just like you are
putting together a recipe with the different intervals. This gives you a way to see how
the intervals can fit together to make a perfect mix.
Begin with deciding on whether you will choose a major or minor third. If you aren't
sure, decide whether you want the chord to be melancholic or cheerful. This will give
you the basis of your new chords.
After deciding this, you can decide if you want the chord to have tension or if you
want it have a more pleasant sound. As you go, you will learn which intervals have
more tension and which have a more pleasant sound. As long as you use the interval
chart as a reference, with the common intervals in place, you should be able to find
which sounds fit better into different places.
When you do this, let your ear decide on what the best movements are between the
intervals. If you want to replace the fifth interval and have one that creates more
tension, try moving up or down a whole tone or half tone in order to change the feel.
You can also add in more notes, such as the sixth or the seventh intervals, so that you
can create even more tension with the song. But never forget; allow the ear some
release by the end of your piece.
Page 97
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
PART 4
Summary of Music Fundamentals
DISCOVER HOW TO CREATE MELANCHOLIC OR
CHEERFUL MOODS WITH YOUR CHORDS AND HOW TO
PRACTICE ON YOUR PIANO
Page 98
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Lesson Summary
Let’s get a summary of all we have learned throughout this lesson:
Music is the balance between tension and release.
When you know how tension builds on intervals, you can predict how a chord
will sound before you play it.
When you understand how to use intervals, you can create your own chords.
The Octave = same note in a higher pitch.
Perfect Fifth Interval = two notes separated by 7 Half‐tones.
Major Third Interval = two notes separated by 4 Half‐tones.
Minor Third Interval = two notes separated by 3 Half‐tones (or one note less
than a Major Third Interval).
Major Chord = Perfect Fifth + Major Third Interval.
Minor Chord = Perfect Fifth + Minor Third Interval (or build up a Major chord
and lower the third interval one note).
Minor Third Interval usually sounds a bit sad, melancholic, blue, or dark while
the Major Interval usually sounds happy, cheerful, or playful.
Knowing this will help you to predict how a chord or scale, that contains any of
these two intervals, will sound.
Page 99
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
The qualities of the intervals of a chord, determine the mood of the chord
itself.
All chords that have a minor third from the root are included in the group
"Minor chords" and all chords that have a major third from the root are
included in the group "Major chords", independent of how many notes they
have.
All scales that have a minor third from the root are included in the group
"Minor Scales" and all scales that have a major third from the root are included
in the group "Major Scales", independent of how many notes they have.
It's very important you practice these chords on the piano and know them well; they
will be useful for our next lessons involving how to harmonize scales (that is useful for
composing and improvising) as well for playing many songs.
Page 100
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
How to Practice on Your piano
Q: How to Practice?
Print out the piano chord and interval charts that are in the appendix of this lesson,
and practice on your piano by following routine with the piano charts in front of you:
1. Play all the Fifth Intervals chromatically (note by note) first in ascending order
and then in descending order. This is the same as playing the perfect fifth
intervals from the interval chart from left to right, and then in reverse order.
2. Play all the Third Major Intervals chromatically ascending and descending.
Again, this is the same as playing the major third intervals from the interval
chart from left to right, and then in reverse order.
3. Play all the Major Chords chromatically, first in ascending and then descending
order. Do this by mentally joining the Fifth + Major Third interval together. Use
the chord charts to practice.
4. Play all the Minor Third Intervals chromatically ascending and descending.
Picture the major third interval and lower a half‐tone as you practice them.
5. Last Practice all the minor chords by playing them in ascending and then in
descending order. Do this by mentally joining the Fifth + Minor Third intervals
together. Use the chord chart to practice.
6. For all of these, try also playing them in a random order, to see if you can
remember
each
of
them
7. Create your own chords.
without
looking
back
on
the
chart.
Without worrying about the chord names, try
creating your own chords out of the intervals that you have learned.
Page 101
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Make sure you know them well so that you are well prepared for our next lessons!
Page 102
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Creating Cheerful and Melancholic Moods with Chords
Ok, that's all for this lesson.
I hope you enjoyed the lesson and you got a new perspective on how to build up
chords, and their relationships with intervals, and that you have a better
understanding of why they sound like they do.
With this short knowledge, you already know that if you want to create a sad
melancholic song you'll need to use minor chords, and that you would probably play
your melody on a Minor Scale, while if you're looking for a cheerful song, your song
will contain almost all major chords and you’ll probably be using a Major Scale to play
your tunes.
If you read this again, you’ll see that it’s quite a powerful and very simple concept that
will help you for composing and improvising your first simple music pieces and songs.
Real soon…. in the next lessons!
Page 103
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Time to Join the Conversation!
Ask Questions & Leave us Feedback
…So tell me, what do you think of this book?
We have spent several months working on this one‐hundred pages book for you, so I
hope you’ll agree it was worth the read – and that you got great value out of it.
So if you enjoyed this lesson and it helped you in any way, I would deeply appreciate if
you let me know by leaving a message on our blog and I also encourage you to share
it with other people.
For me it’s very important to know that this lesson has been useful to you, and I would
love to answer any questions of anything you’d like me to explain further. I’d
appreciate knowing if you found this lesson too easy or too hard, so as to make
adjustments for the upcoming lessons.
If you benefited at all from this book, you can help us in two ways:
1. By going to our blog and posting your comments you can also help others
understand how this report helped you. Just go to the following blog post
now, and tell me and everyone else what you think of our book “Music
Fundamentals”:
Click here to Join the Conversation with and other Pianists!
2. Help us spread the word, and at the same time help your friends. Share our
site with your beloved ones!
Page 104
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
I am also looking forward to getting to know more about you as well. ;o)
So if you’d like to leave a comment or question on our blog about this book, please
join the conversation here:
www.PianoEncyclopedia.com/members/MusicFundamentals‐Talk
If you liked this book, let me tell you that this is just the tip of the iceberg. If you
enjoyed learning from this book, wait once you get to try our Digital Home‐Study
Course “The Logic Behind Music” with animations, sound, and piano recordings; the
integrated Community that will let you interact with other students and share your
recordings and compositions; and our interactive chord, scale, and interval piano
charts with more than 1000 pages of learning content, and over 3000 piano
animations with sound. All this content has been designed to teach you how to play
the piano freedom: improvise, create your own music, and play by ear without
depending on music sheet or memorization.
The main difference between this book and our Digital Home‐Study Course “The Logic
Behind Music”, is that our Digital Home‐Study Course is completely interactive and
goes way beyond the content covered in this book. It starts with a review of everything
you learned in this book ‐using more in‐depth examples‐ and then takes you step by
step –with on‐screen interactive examples‐ from how to play simple songs up to how
to improvise, create your own music, and play by ear.
I invite you to check out the video‐tour:
Click here to watch a video‐tour of our Digital Home Study Course
Page 105
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Thank you for reading this book, and in the name of the whole team, I deeply thank
your support to The Piano Encyclopedia!
Best Wishes,
Rod Schejtman
________________________________________
CEO & Founder of The Piano Encyclopedia
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Email: rod@pianoencyclopedia.com
Page 106
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
The Next Lessons…
With our Digital Home‐Study Course “The Logic Behind Music” we will start by first
reviewing everything we learned on this book, but with more in‐depth examples, and
using multimedia content: interactive piano animations, sound recordings, and
animated piano‐charts.
After learning to play several songs using chords, we will learn about the relationship
between chords and scales, and how we can use this knowledge to harmonize any
scale. By being able to harmonize any scale –on any key‐ we will understand how
music works. With this new knowledge, we will review all the songs that we learned,
and discover why those songs sound “good”, and why the composers choose those
chords or melodies that we played before. We will have a new vision of how music
works –in a practical way‐ and we will be able to understand how chord progressions
are used in any music piece to create tension or relief.
With these new skills, we will not only be able to analyze existing music pieces or
songs, but also learn how to play by ear, improvise, and compose our own music
pieces. After discovering how some songs ‘work’ we will be using this knowledge to
create our own chord progressions. We will learn how to use different chords to create
interesting chord progressions on any key, and we will be able to see, listen, and
interact with examples taken from real‐world songs from famous composers. Once we
have mastered how to combine chords together to create an interesting harmony, we
will learn how to create our own melodies to go with our harmony.
We will be finally create our first improvisations and compose our first musical
pieces, guided by step by step animated interactive examples that include sound.
After mastering the fundamental concepts learned, we will even learn to predict which
notes will cause tension and which ones would cause release without even playing
them, given a certain melody or harmony. In this way we would not only be able to
Page 107
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
predict which parts of a song have more tension, but also which set of chords are a
good match for any given melody –and vice versa‐ without even touching the piano
keyboard. The most interesting part is that we will be able to do this not thanks to the
use of rules, but because we will have a true understanding of the relationship that
exists between chords and scales.
This new knowledge will help us to develop “playing by ear” skills, as we will be able
to determine which set of chords and notes would go well in a song, by just
determining the scale that the song is in. This will help us to “pick up a song by ear”,
as we will know beforehand, which chords will be a good match.
Finally, we will learn more advanced techniques to improve our piano playing, and our
ability to improvise, create our own music, and play without depending on sheet
music.
We will learn advanced chords and how we can use them, and we will even discover
how to create our own chords – even four (or more) notes chords‐ by understanding
the relationship between intervals and chords. After taking these lessons, you will not
be afraid of any strange chord names that are usually found on lead sheets, and by
understanding how intervals work (and which ones produce tension), you will be able
to predict how chords sound, before you even play them (you will be able to predict if
they will be tension‐generating or not, depending on the context). With this
knowledge you will be able to enrich your chord progressions and create more
interesting music.
Last, but not least, you will learn about voicings, chord inversions, and how to use a
smooth voice leading to add quality sound to your playing by making a soft transition
between chords. This will improve your piano playing in a very radical way. We will see
animated examples with sound that will show you how to use this new technique with
the previous songs we covered, and also how you can apply it to your own
improvisations and compositions.
Page 108
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
At the end of the course we will review all the concepts and show you how to create
your own composition through examples that combine all the techniques taught
throughout the entire course.
After each section of the course, you will also be given Interactive Practice Booklets,
so you can practice on your piano, along with practice routines. In addition to that,
you will also be provided with multimedia Reference Books that include all the
fundamental chords, scales, and intervals on interactive piano‐charts with sound.
Included with the course, you will also find The Piano Encyclopedia’s Ear Training
Suite, which is a set of ear training games with more than twenty levels that will help
you recognize chords, scales, and intervals by ear so you can improve or develop
playing by ear skills; and The Piano Encyclopedia’s Sight Reading Suite, which is a set
of music reading games that will help you instantly recognize chords, intervals, and
notes, using on‐screen interactive exercises, so you can develop sight reading skills by
playing interactive music reading games.
To make the experience complete, you will also be able to use The Piano
Encyclopedia’s Community, which is integrated into our course. With your
membership, you will be able to interact with other students, ask questions, share
your progress, enjoy a piano gallery with over 1000 videos, and even participate in
music contests.
If you liked this book, I invite you to check out a video where you will find more
information about our Digital Home‐Study Course “The Logic Behind Music”, and I
hope that you decide to continue your lessons with us:
Click here to watch a video‐tour of our Digital Home Study Course
I also invite you to read some of the comments we have received from students like
you. Here I am posting actual screenshots of some of the messages we received
through our blog, our community, and through email:
Page 109
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Page 110
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
Page 111
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made
We have hundreds of testimonials from our students. You can read them all here:
Click here to read more Testimonials
… and make sure you watch the Video‐Tour of our Digital Home‐Study Course:
Click here to watch the video‐tour of our Digital Home‐Study Course
Page 112
PianoEncyclopedia.com
Musicians are not born – they are made