Get Into The Mode
If you’re having trouble figuring out what key a piece of music is in, the reason could be that it’s not in a key at all—it might be in a mode. Here’s an introduction to understanding these unusual modal scales, plus a guide to where you can find them in some of your favorite tunes.
March/April 2010
Rerouted: Following Musical Detours
On a road trip, there may not always be a direct route from point A to point B. The same goes for music:
it’s not as simple as starting at the beginning of a piece and playing straight through to the end. Make sure you know how to find your way when your music throws you in different directions.
Jan/Feb 2010
Moving On Up
Everyone learns to play scales when first starting out on an instrument. Hopefully, you’re still diligent
about using them in your warm-up routine. But do you really understand the theory behind what
you’re playing?
Nov/Dec 2009
Time For A Rest
It would be exhausting to play every single beat, in every bar of a piece of music, both for the player and for the
listener. Rests in musical passages are exactly what they sound like: they give players a chance to take a breather,
both literally and figuratively.
Sept/Oct 2009
Rhythmic Notation
Many drummers start out “ear-trained.” That is, they learn by listening to other drummers and mimicking
what they hear. While there’s nothing wrong with this approach, it’s impossible to become a well-rounded
musician without also learning to read music.
July/August 2009
Play It Again: Using Repeats and Repetitions
Sometimes an idea is so good that it’s worth saying a second or even third time. Repetition, either
exact or with variations, is one of the basic organizing principles of music. Repeated notes, phrases, rhythms,
chord progressions, and even entire repeated sections create patterns which help listeners (or players) make
sense of the music.
May/June 2009
Hold That Thought: Reading Holds and Pauses
Music that bubbles along is all well and good, and can be perfectly enjoyable (think of most of
what you hear on Top 40 radio), but sometimes it’s good to meander—or even stop—to sniff the
flowers along the way to your musical destination.
March/April 2009
Ready to Progress? Give Yourself a Hand!
Chances are, if you’re a beginning pianist with an electronic keyboard, you’ve been playing mostly right-hand
melodies, relying on the auto accompaniment feature to fill in bass lines. Learning to use both hands can open up a
whole new world in your playing, enabling you to tackle more advanced pieces. Developing a strong left hand is one
of the most important elements to progress as a pianist.
Jan/Feb 2009
Make Your Music More Dynamic
Think how boring music would be if everything was the same volume. Music isn’t only given life by its melodies and harmonies. Nuances like contrasts between loud and soft parts help give music direction and expression. Learn how to recognize and use these contrasts, or “dynamics,” in your music making.
Nov/Dec 2008
A Rhythmic Mix
Composers and songwriters are always coming up with new musical challenges for performers. Some pieces
have a new time signature in almost every bar. While complex meters and irregular placement of accents can
make for a rhythmically exciting piece, they can also be a challenge to master.
Sept/Oct 2008
Circular Logic
One key to better sight reading and to more effective practice is knowing the circle of fifths. The circle represents the
relationships between all of the major keys, and it arranges the keys in order of their number of sharps and flats. This guide shows you how to make the most of this useful tool.
July/Aug 2008
Ear Training’s Greatest Hits
Training yourself to hear the intervals between two notes doesn’t have be a painstaking process. There are hints and tips hidden in some famous, easy- to-remember melodies to help you learn every interval in the chromatic scale.
May/June 2008
Breaking the Code of Modes
In addition to the major and minor scales that are at the heart of many practice sessions, there are other ways
of grouping eight notes in each octave. For a new approach to both playing and listening, try out these Gregorian
modes which can be performed on any instrument.
March/April 2008
Foreign Accent
In a concert performance, accents and other markings are a composer’s way of grabbing the audience’s attention. “Hey,” these notes, dots, and points cry out as they jump out of the texture of the music, “pay attention to this!”
For the performer, though, following these indications is a way of organizing the piece of music and of prioritizing
the most important things. Emphasizing the wrong note in the wrong place, or failing to pay attention to them at all, can lead to a flat, uninteresting performance.
January/February 2008
Get to the Point of Counterpoint
Counterpoint developed as a kind of musical “follow the leader," starting with a melody and a group
of other singers following after. Some of the most complex music has its roots in this simple structure.
Making Music shows you how to recognize three different counterpoint forms: round, canon, and fugue.
November/December 2007
Go Fourth and Play
Just as each note going clockwise in the circle of fifths is a perfect fifth (or seven semitones) apart, going counterclockwise yields notes that are a perfect fourth (or five semitones) apart. Chords that are a perfect fourth apart are often used in Western popular music, so if you play blues, rock, country, or folk music, it’s worth memorizing the circle of fourths pattern.
July/August 2007
Hit the Right Chord
Have you ever wondered how expert guitarist are able to figure out so many chord shapes and chord voicings (that is, alternative fingerings that are sometimes easier or way better to bridge to other chords)? They practice, for one thing, but they also might have stuffed away in their gig bags a guitar chord encyclopedia, either in book or DVD form. Here’s your guide to using the guitar chord diagrams found in these types of references.
May/June 2007
Words into Music
If you’re new to music, you may have noticed that this hobby, like any other, has its own vocabulary. If some of the words seem foreign, that’s because they are—Italian, to be exact. Use this glossary of common musical terms to translate performance instructions that you might see written on sheet music.
March/April 2007
Learn Your Degrees
Chords—groups of notes played together—are the building blocks of music. They are also responsible for much of music’s emotional power. In order to be able to build chords, you first must understand the individual parts of chords, or scale degrees.
January/February 2007
Catching the Right Pitch: A Beginner’s Guide to Transposition
Put simply, a transposing instrument is one whose musical notes are written at a different pitch from actual concert pitch. In other words, transposing instruments such as clarinets, trumpets, saxophones, and French horns, don’t sound a C when a C is written on the page. This might seem confusing, but with this guide, transposition isn’t all that hard to grasp.
November/December 2006
The Rudiments of Wisdom
Other musicians practice scales and arpeggios; drummers practice rudiments. As the name suggests, rudiments are basic patterns played on a drum. Before jamming, spend 10 or 15 minutes playing these essential exercises.
September/October 2006
Additional Links for this month's Clip&Save:
Percussive Arts Society
Learning the Proper Snare Drum Technique
Learning Snare Drum Technique
Scale the Heights!
Warming up with scales and other exercises not only will keep your technique sharp, but also serve to limber up the muscles in your fingers, hands, and wrists. But what is a scale, exactly?
May/June 2006
Pick Up the Tab
You may have seen guitarists referring to a special kind of sheet music called a guitar tab, which is a system that describes notes and chords in terms of the strings and frets on a guitar. To help you learn tab basics, Making Music has dissected the guitar tab for a simple melody.
March/April 2006
Keep Your Rhythm
You pick up a piece of music and you want to dive into it, but the rhythms are unlike anything you’ve seen before and the time signatures are constantly changing. How will you get through it? Here, learn about individual note values and how they fit into different meters.
January/February 2006
