How to learn the keyboard with Pizzicato? [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]
In this lesson, we will see how to use
Pizzicato various tools and windows to learn playing the
musical keyboard. The purpose is
to learn how to read a musical score with progressive
exercises on the level of rhythms and notes.
To learn how to play a musical score with the keyboard, we
will use the following aspects of Pizzicato:
- The score view to display the score,
- The keyboard window to visualize how to play the notes,
- The recorder to set the tempo and to activate the
metronome,
- The instruments view to determine the sound to use,
- Musical libraries to generate exercises and
accompaniments.
You must well understand the handling of the first four
aspects. For the musical libraries, we advise you to read the Composition libraries (1) lesson to
have at least an outline of what they are. If later you wish to
personalize the exercises and really understand what happens in
this lesson, we highly advise you to read all lessons about
musical composition libraries.
You must also understand the content of the main music
lessons, in particular the lessons speaking about notes, rhythms
and the musical keyboard layout.
The keyboard learning exercises will be done each time with
the following steps:
- You lay out the Pizzicato screen so as to see the score,
the keyboard and the recorder. You select the sound to
play.
- Using the musical libraries, you select notes and rhythms
for a given difficulty level. Pizzicato generates the
corresponding exercises.
- You ask Pizzicato to play the exercise in order to see
and hear the correct way to play it.
- You play it at the same time than Pizzicato, by observing
the score and the keyboard window and by listening and
observe if your version is the same as the Pizzicato
version. You correct your performance by comparing and
adjusting. Once this exercise is under control, you come
back to point B with another exercise.
The regular practice of these steps will increase your ability
to play a musical score. The rest of this lesson will explain you
each step in detail.
Organizing the screen [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]
Several documents are prepared for keyboard learning. They are
located in the Music folder, in the DataEN
folder.
Start Pizzicato and close the default document. Check that the
Windows, Windows management option is well set
on Free. Then open the Keyboard learning 44.piz document,
located in the Music folder, inside the DataEN
folder. It is a set of melodies and rhythms written for a 4/4
measure. The main view appears as follows:

The element of the top left corner is a musical score that
comprise 12 4/4 measures. The folders with an "M"
contain random melodies, classified from 1 to 15 per increasing
difficulty. By going from Melodies 1 to Melodies 15,
the notes are more and more dispersed and it increases the
difficulty of reading. The chromatic melodies folder (by
half tones) is even more difficult, because it also contains the
accidental notes (keyboard black keys). The folders with an
"R" contain rhythms of an increasing difficulty. They
are numbered from 1 to 20. When the number is followed by a +, it
means that the folder contains several different rhythms.
Double-click on the element named Exercise. Disable
the document manager or resize the window to see all measures.
The score displays 12 measures:

It is in this window that you will be able to place melodies
and rhythms in order to generate the exercises.
Open the keyboard window, using the Window menu. In
the Options menu, select the Keyboard item. In
the dialog box that appears, check (if it is not already done)
the Fixed key width box and fill in value "8".
Click OK.
According to the size of your screen, organize the windows to
easily reach each one. Here is for example how to organize the
screen:

With that screen, you can easily view the score and the
keyboard keys. You also have an easy control of the metronome,
the tempo (via the "..." button of the recorder) and
the START and STOP recorder keys.
In the Windows menu, select the Instruments item:

The Family and Instrument columns let you
select the sound with which you will play. By default for a GM
synthesizer, the flute (woodwind family) is selected. You can
modify this choice if you want. We highly advise you to use a
sound that can be maintained as long as you keep the key pressed
(organ, woodwind, brass
). It is not the case for the piano,
guitar or percussion sounds because these sounds stop themselves
after some time, even if you hold the key pressed. By following
this advice, you will better hear the exact duration of the notes
of the exercise. Close the instruments view now.
Progressive exercises generator [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]
The measures of the score are for the
moment empty. To create an exercise, you just need to drag a
melody and a rhythm in the first measure. Click and drag Melodies
1 into the first measure of the score. Then do the same
with the rhythm 4/4-1. At this time, Pizzicato
calculates the exercise combining these two elements and you
get for example:

As the notes are randomly selected, you
will not necessarily get the same result. Your first exercise
is thus ready. You can generate other exercises of the same
difficulty by dragging again the same rhythm into the first
measure of the score. Each time, Pizzicato will calculate a
new exercise based on the two elements which you dragged into
the first measure.
To change the type of rhythm, drag the
desired rhythmic element into the first measure. Pizzicato
automatically removes the previous rhythm and calculates a
new exercise with the new rhythm. Drag for example the 4/4-7
element into the first measure. The score will display
for example:

The same principle is valid to change the
difficulty of the melody: drag the new melody into the first
measure.
An
additional factor may be used to vary the difficulty of the
melody. By default, the notes are generated in a random way
between the low C and the high C of the treble clef, i.e.
eight different notes at the same time. If you do not have
any notion of score reading, it would be wiser to start with
only the first four notes C, D, E and F. The following
adjustment may be done to modify the exercise range, i.e. the
lowest and the highest notes of the exercise.
By holding down the Ctrl key, double-click
the Melodies 1 element. In the dialog box that
appears, click the button labeled More options
A part of the dialog box contains the following parameters:

By modifying for example the upper note to
F 3, the notes generated in Melodies 1 will be
limited between C3 and F3. This adjustment is specific to
each melody, it will thus be necessary to do it each time you
change the melody. It can also be used to increase the
playing range. Once you control the 8 first notes, you will
be able to widen the exercises upwards and/or downwards. With
this, you can delimit the notes which will be used in the
exercises. Click twice OK.
For the rhythms, you can also increase the
difficulty. Once you control the exercises with the suggested
rhythms, you will be able to do them again by dividing their
duration by 2 or even by 4. You will then obtain eighth notes
and 16th notes in the exercises.
To do that, double-click for example on the
4/4-1 icon by holding down the Ctrl key. In the
dialog box that appears, the following area is used to
activate the division of the durations and to select for
example a value of 2 or 4:

Do this only when you perfectly handle the
exercises. Click for the moment on Cancel.
Listening to the exercise and learning how to play it [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]
Now that you can generate an exercise according to the
rhythms, melodies and range difficulties, you need to listen to
it and to learn how to play it. Let us see this in practice for a
very simple exercise.
- Modify the range of Melodies 1 as indicated here above, in order to have notes between C 3
(lower note) and F 3 (higher note).
- Drag the 4/4-1 rhythm in the
first measure.
- Drag Melodies 1 in the first
measure. You get your first exercise which contains a
whole note every two measures. The notes are limited to
the required ranger (4 notes).
- See that the score windows, recorder and
keyboard are well visible.
- Activate the metronome ("..."
button on the recorder). In the Options... menu,
select the MIDI Play Options... item and to the
right of Metronome measure, select Before
playing. Click on OK. This forces Pizzicato
to play an empty measure before starting the exercise.
You can thus easily forecast the first beat to play.
- With the space bar, ask Pizzicato to play
the exercise. You hear 4 metronome clicks (because it is
a 4/4 measure) and then the exercise starts. A small
black triangle follows the playing measure and the
playing note is coloured in red during its time length.
You can hear the notes and see them appear on the keys of
the keyboard window. The first step of the exercise
consists in locating in a passive way all what happens:
- Which note is played on the score?
- To what musical keyboard key does
this note correspond ?
- How long is it played?
|
- Make the exercise play as many times as
necessary so that you can easily forecast what happens at
every moment. The metronome clicks help you to locate and
count the beats. Do not go further before fully
controlling this step.
- Now you will play with Pizzicato. With the
space bar, start the exercise. Play the notes on your
musical keyboard at the same time as Pizzicato does. If
you do not have a musical keyboard, you can use the
corresponding keys of the computer keyboard (see the
lesson about the
window keyboard).
- Play the exercise as many times as
necessary. Your goal is to play each note at the correct
time and with a correct duration. Compare your play with
the one of Pizzicato and correct according to what you
hear. For this, check if the moment during which you hold
the key corresponds well to the colouring of the note,
and if the pressed keyboard key on the screen is the same
as the one played by Pizzicato.
- Be sure to understand why each note is
played at such a time and with such a duration. If you do
not understand why Pizzicato plays the notes like it
does, read again the lessons about music, because
something was not understood correctly about this
subject.
- Once this exercise is under control, you
can go to the next one. Drag another melody, another
rhythm, or the same ones to have an exercise of the same
difficulty level. The continuation of this lesson will
give you the advised progression of difficulty (range,
melodies, rhythms, tempo).
Fingering [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]
It is the art to correctly select the fingers to use when
playing the notes of a score. All the exercises can be done as
well with the right hand as the left hand, but use only one hand
for all notes of the same exercise. Study each exercise with the
right hand and then with the left hand (or the reverse if you are
left-handed). You will notice that some exercises will appear
more difficult with one hand than with the other. Here are some
basic rules to select your fingering:
- The fingers are numbered from 1 (the inch or thumb) to 5
(the auricular or little finger) for both hands. In a
study score, it is common to see these numbers placed
just above the notes to specify to the student which
fingering technique he must use.
- The purpose of the fingering technique is to
be able to play a piece as easily as possible, with
precision, flexibility and speed. It is a practice to use
from the beginning. By playing a score very slowly, it
may seem easier to you to play with only one finger.
Nevertheless you will not be able to tie two notes
correctly because it always takes a certain time to raise
the finger, to move it and to press the other key. Take
directly the good practice, even when you play very
slowly: use all your fingers.
- As far as possible, avoid any useless motion of the hand.
If you must play the 5 notes from C to G, use fingers
1,2,3,4 and 5 (right hand) or 5,4,3,2 and 1 (left hand).
Thus take care to use your fingers in a natural way
according to their position in front of the notes and
move your hand only when necessary.
- When you must play more than 5 consecutive notes (a scale
for example), the hand needs to be moved. To keep a
continuity between the notes, one uses the passage of the
inch (1) or the major (3) during the scale. Here is for
example how to play the C scale with the right hand:
C(1) D(2) E(3) F(1) G(2) A(3) B(4) C(5)
- The inch (1) causes the moving of the hand. By going
down, the fingering technique remains the same and it is
the major (3) which causes the moving of the hand. For
the left hand, the fingering technique becomes:
C(5) D(4) E(3) F(2) G(1) A(3) B(2) C(1)
- For series of longer notes, you can also make a passage
of the fourth finger to get for example:
1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 1 2 3 4
- When the notes are not related any more (for example C,
E, G), keep the same principle: minimize the motions and
use the fingers in the most natural way compared to their
position. Here is an example for the right hand:
C(1) E(2) G(3) C(5)
- You can also make a passage of the third or fourth finger
for longer sequences:
C(1) E(2) G(3) C(1) E(2) G(3) C(5)
- On the left hand, that would give:
C(5) E(3) G(2) C(1)
C(5) E(3) G(2) C(1) E(3) G(2) C(1)
- To envisage the fingering techniques correctly, it is
necessary to look at the notes being played a little in
advance. The most obvious example is the scale. If you
need to play only the first 5 notes, the most natural
fingering technique is:
C(1) D(2) E(3) F(4) G(5)
- But the fact that the progression continues further
forces to modify the fingering technique to be able to
play in a continuous way the 8 notes:
C(1) D(2) E(3) F(1) G(2) A(3) B(4) C(5)
- For the exercises of the course, take care to play the
notes in a tied way. When two notes follow each other
(i.e. there is no rest between them), the first note must
exactly stops when the next note starts, without leaving
a vacuum between the two and without superimposing the
sounds of the two notes. Therefore you must raise your
finger at the same time as you press the next finger.
Work slowly to develop that ability from the beginning.
Sounds [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]
In order to better distinguish the melody
played by Pizzicato and the one you play, you can ask
Pizzicato to play with another sound. This is only possible
with Pizzicato Beginner or Professional. For this, do what
follows.
- Add a second staff in the score view.
- Open the instruments view. For the
first line, select the sound with which Pizzicato
will play. For the second line, select the sound with
which you will play. Remove the cross in the two
boxes of the AC (automatic channel) column. In the MC
(MIDI Channel) column, select "2" for the
first line and "1" for the second line.
Close the instruments view.
- Start the score and play at the same
time.
Another possibility (without making this)
consists in playing the notes an octave higher. The exercise
is the same but you play a whole octave higher (or lower) in
order to better distinguish the notes you play from the notes
Pizzicato plays.
Learning progression [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]
Here is the advised progression of study
for the keyboard training. Use this progression well, with
the following principles in mind:
- Apply each step explained in this
lesson.
- Do not go to a new exercise before you
perfectly handle the current one.
- If an exercise really seems too
difficult to you, do the following steps:
- Decrease the playing speed (tempo)
with the recorder,
- If it still does not work, return
to the previous exercises, until the moment you
can do them easily. Then come back to the more
difficult exercise.
- If you need it, read the lessons
about the musical theory again, because there can
be something which you did not understand well
and which prevents you from playing the exercises
correctly. Use the glossary to be sure to
understand all words of these lessons.
- If exercises really seem too easy for
your level (provided that you can play them without
fault), do not hesitate to skip some exercises to
increase the level of difficulty. To force yourself
to make exercises for principle of doing them all
whereas you master them can be discouraging, because
one does not feel a progress. To keep it interesting,
take care to adapt the difficulty level throughout
your progression.
Here is the list of the basic steps. Mark
on paper each finished step.
With the Keyboard
exercises 44.piz (measure 4/4) file, do
the following exercises:
- Range from C3 to F3 with Melodies 1;
take a tempo of 60 to start and increase gradually to
100; use the following rhythms, in order from 1 to
20:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -
5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17
- 18 - 19 - 20
- Range from C3 to C4 with Melodies 1;
take a tempo of 60 to start and increase gradually to
100; use the following rhythms, in order from 1 to
20:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -
5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17
- 18 - 19 - 20
- Range from C3 to C4 with rhythm 19;
take a tempo of 60 to start and increase gradually to
100; use the following melodies, in order from 1 to
15:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -
5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15
- Range from C3 to C4 with the chromatic
melodies; take a tempo of 60 to start and increase
gradually to 100; use the following rhythms, in order
from 1 to 20:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -
5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17
- 18 - 19 - 20
With the Keyboard
exercises 34.piz (3/4 measure) file, do
the following exercises:
- Range from C3 to C4 with melodies 1 to
15; take a tempo of 100; work with the following
rhythms:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -
5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16
- Range from C3 to C4 with the chromatic
melodies; take a tempo of 100; work with the rhythms:
16 - 15
With the Keyboard
exercises 68.piz (measure 6/8) file, do
the following exercises:
- Range from C3 to C4 with melodies 1 to
15; take a tempo of 40 and increase gradually up to
60 beats per minute; work with the following rhythms:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -
5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17
- 18 - 19 - 20
- Range from C3 to C4 with the chromatic
melodies; take a tempo from 40 to 60; work with the
rhythms:
22 - 21
Here is the additional suggestions to
increase the difficulties and the variety of the exercises:
- You can do the same exercises by
dividing the duration of the rhythms by 2 and then by
4. You will obtain eighth notes and 16th notes and
the rhythmic aspect will be more difficult.
- You can extend the range of the
playing notes. By placing it for example between C 3
and C 5, you will have a range of 2 octaves. If you
lower the range (from C 2 to C4) you will get
exercises with notes in bass clef and treble clef.
- You can work each exercise with the
right hand, the left hand or even the two hands at
the same time (by playing the right hand for example
an octave higher).
- With a good understanding of the
composition libraries operation, you will be able to
give free course to your imagination. You will be
able in particular to create scores with several
staves (to work with both hands at the same time) and
to add accompaniments with chords progressions. You
will be able to learn how to play all generated
exercises.
Learning to play with an accompaniment [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]
 |
Only
Pizzicato Professional
will allow the following exercises.
If you do not have that version, use
the demonstration version to give it a try |
 |
Here is a series of exercises
accompanied in various light music styles. You are not forced to
finish all the other exercises to begin them. We nevertheless
advise you to work some exercises from the beginning of the
lesson, in order to understand the basic principles.
Pizzicato contains various styles of
light music accompaniment (Disco, Reggae, Jazz, Rock,
Funky
). To exploit these styles of accompaniment as well as
possible, see the lessons about the composition libraries. We
will see here the steps necessary to learn the keyboard by being
accompanied by a small light music orchestra.
- Open the document corresponding to
the style you wish to work. The styles are available in
the File menu, in the Open a model item,
Accompaniments sub-item. Open for example Jazz.
The main view displays a whole series of icons which
constitute the basic elements of the style.
- By holding down the Ctrl key,
double-click on the Example icon located in the top left
corner. The sequencer view opens.
- Drag the Melodies icon into the
second measure of the sequencer view first track (Labeled
Sol. for Soloist).
- Do the same with one of the rhythm
icons (folders with an "R").
- Click on the sequencer window to
activate it, and in the Edit menu, select the Generate
score item. Pizzicato then calculates the melody and
the accompaniment. The notes of the melody are selected
in a random way but they respect the chords progression
associated with the style.
- Open the scrolling view or the
score view, the keyboard and the recorder windows and
organize your screen as explained at the beginning of
this lesson.
- First listen to the melody with its
accompaniment. Visualize the notes and the keyboard keys.
Then try to play with Pizzicato. Correct yourself by
listening to the version of Pizzicato.
- When you control the exercise, you
can either generate others of the same level, modify the
rhythmic element or change the style (close all windows
without saving and go back to the beginning).
To work accompanied melodies, we advise
you:
- For the rhythmic aspect, work the
rhythms folders by increasing difficulty (from 1 to 20).
When you control these levels of difficulty, use a
division by 2 or 4 of the rhythmic elements, as explained
in the first part of this lesson.
- To get a different melody of the
same difficulty, select all measures and select the
Generate score item in the Edit menu.
Pizzicato computes another melody for you.
- The notes of the random melodies
have by default a range of one octave (from C3 to C4).
You can decrease or increase these values as explained in
this lesson.
- Although these exercises with
accompaniment are more pleasant than playing alone, do
not neglect the exercises indicated at the beginning of
this lesson. In a general way, the accompanied exercises
are more difficult. The other exercises propose more
continuous melodies, because the notes are not related to
any chord.
- Do not hesitate to decrease the
tempo of some accompaniments.
- When you control an exercise well,
you can disable the play of the melody by Pizzicato (P
column of the instruments view) and play it as a soloist
with Pizzicato accompanying you. Then you can try to play
other notes and to amuse yourself to improvise on the
accompaniment. Listen to the notes which sound good and
locate the moment where it happens. Compose your own
melodies based on each accompaniment.
If you modify the documents of the
Music folder used for learning, you can easily get the
originals back by reinstalling Pizzicato. Your other documents
will remain present.
It is by a regular practice of this
lesson exercises that you can manage to read scores. You will
progressively feel progress with these exercises. Alternate the
exercises alone and the accompanied exercises. Vary the styles of
accompaniment and the types of rhythms. Good learning and have
fun!