Often major keys are learned first and well, yet minor keys (or part of them), if discussed at all, are learned almost as an afterthought or introduced like an uncomfortable sore thumb or a poorly loved little step-sister. However, when one realizes that the master composers wrote their greatest pieces as often in minor as in major, one must acknowledge that students should learn to embrace minor tonalities as equal partners with major tonalities as they learn the musical literature. In the Piano ABC's Level Three books, ...
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Often major keys are learned first and well, yet minor keys (or part of them), if discussed at all, are learned almost as an afterthought or introduced like an uncomfortable sore thumb or a poorly loved little step-sister. However, when one realizes that the master composers wrote their greatest pieces as often in minor as in major, one must acknowledge that students should learn to embrace minor tonalities as equal partners with major tonalities as they learn the musical literature. In the Piano ABC's Level Three books, students learn the relative major and minor keys together with a "hands-on" format that helps students easily remember how to derive major keys from the key signature and minor keys from the major key. (One can also derive minor keys from the signature, but the author chose to initially not bog students down with too much information.) The first pieces, therefore, are in G major followed by pieces in E minor. As we progress in reverse alphabetical order learning new bass clef notes, the next pieces are in F major followed by D minor, etc. An easy lesson introduces very accessible thinking tools to help students determine whether the piece is in the major key or the relative minor key. Students are challenged to accept responsibility to remember and play with the first reading of a piece the sharps or flats in the various major and minor keys of these developmentally more difficult pieces included in Level Three. Increasingly complex rhythms are studied and played. Three against two (and two against three) is learned in several very easy steps and with different meters. To unlock note reading doors and windows, the student is taught easy mnemonic devices to remember all ledger line notes above and below the Grand Staff. A variety of more sophisticated pieces encourages sensitive listening and playing. Students should be playing much of the standard literature at this point in their progress, yet teachers may find that except in the case of those composers who organized their works with didactical intent, the majority of pieces available favor three or fewer sharps or flats. Thus, pieces in major and minor keys extending from no sharps or flats to five sharps or flats are included in the Level Three books to give opportunities to play in these keys. 114 pages.
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