The ancient Greeks considered music to be a natural part of life and every child was expected to be able to play not just one, but several instruments as part of their education. A person was not required to have a special gift, talent or natural ability for music. Music was simple enough for EVERYONE to learn.
About 1600 years ago for reasons which are specified in the seminar, a complex system of musical rules began to be added to these simplicities. The following information is just a small sample of the technology taught in The Understanding of Music Seminar™ and is presented here to show just how quickly and simply many of the basic concepts in music can be explained.
I do not claim to be the only person who educates people using this approach but feel I can justifiably claim to be amongst the most successful in using it. Music really can be both simple and fun to learn!
Understanding spaces
This is the most important concept to grasp when learning music and this concept of spaces (intervals) is more quickly understood on the keyboard. In the Understanding of Music Seminar™ each new concept is studied on both the keyboard and guitar.
All Western music (as opposed to Chinese music, Indian music etc.) is based on the interval or unit of musical space called the semitone or half step.
A semitone or half step is the SMALLEST interval or unit of musical space between two notes in Western music.
A simple way to see the interval or unit of musical space called a semitone or half step is to look at the diagram I have created called a cut-off keyboard (try to imagine taking a chainsaw to the keyboard and cutting off the bottom part of all the white notes):
The interval or unit of musical space of one semitone or one half step can exist between a white note and a black note, between a black note and a white note or between a white note and a white note.
I prefer to call this interval or unit of musical space simply ONE because the words semitone and half step can be confusing.
Now I am going to introduce you to an interval or unit of musical space consisting of two semitones or two half steps which is called a tone or whole step. A tone or whole step is simply an interval or unit of musical space equal to TWO semitones or TWO half steps. Look at the next cut-off keyboard diagram:
The interval or unit of musical space of a tone or a whole step can exist between a white note and a white note, between a black note and a white note, between a black note and a black note or between a white note and a black note.
I prefer to call this interval or unit of musical space simply TWO because the words tone and whole step can be confusing.
You have learned how to see the intervals or units of musical space I call ONE and TWO using a simple diagram I created called a cut-off keyboard.
An interval or unit of musical space of THREE is equal to 3 semitones or 3 half steps.
An interval or unit of musical space of FOUR is equal to 4 semitones or 4 half steps.
Try using the cut-off keyboard diagram below to practice moving UP the keyboard (LEFT to RIGHT) and DOWN the keyboard (RIGHT to LEFT) using intervals of ONE and TWO. Then try moving UP and DOWN the keyboard using intervals of THREE and FOUR:
Why is it so important to be able to see intervals or units of musical space on the keyboard? Well, I have a surprise for you. You now have ALL the information you need to play SCALES and CHORDS. But before I get you to play those scales and chords I want to teach you the NAMES of the notes on the keyboard.
