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    A Journey to Meet Beethoven
    A Journey to Meet Beethoven
    A Journey to Meet Beethoven
    Ebook249 pages5 hours

    A Journey to Meet Beethoven

    By Pat Champness

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    About this ebook

    This is a book to help you learn to play the piano. It is not a 'Learn the Piano in Ten Easy Lessons' tutor - plenty of those exist - but an adventure introducing you to the world of music and stirring your imagination. Beginning with simple pieces, as you are fed with more knowledge the compositions become more advanced. They are all by composers whose works range from a 14th century Venetian dance to a 20th century South American tango. Your journey takes you through sixty-eight pieces with their historical and geographical backgrounds, the last being the much-loved first movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Hence the title.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherM-Y Books
    Release dateAug 8, 2012
    ISBN9781905553969
    A Journey to Meet Beethoven

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      Book preview

      A Journey to Meet Beethoven - Pat Champness

      Introduction

      The above probably makes as much sense to you as do Icelandic runes, Egyptian hieroglyphs, or Mayan inscriptions. However once you have made the journey through this book all will be revealed and you will be able to meet the work of the great Beethoven, (the Shakespeare of music), without fear, and create his moonlit landscape for yourself. For this journey the luggage you will need will be mental alertness and physical relaxation.

      Make the journey slowly, one step at a time. There is no need for hurry or panic, but only enjoyment.

      Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Piano?

      How to learn and how not to, and don’t you want to have some fun on the way?

      Throughout this book I have used as few technical names as possible. They can always be found in books on theory. The aim of this book is not to pass exams, but to learn to play the piano with as much pleasure as possible.

      Music is universal and has no barriers of either politics or language, so our journey will not confront such problems. At the start of this journey I am assuming that you know nothing, and wish to travel this path through your love of music. Of course you may not be entirely ignorant, in which case you must bear with me and join the travellers a little later on, after skimming through the initial pages.

      The Soft-Loud

      For those for whom the pianoforte is a mystery let us begin with an introduction to it. It was invented in Italy by a harpsichord maker, Bartolommeo Cristoferi, at the beginning of the 18th century. Hence its Italian name Pianoforte, which means simply ‘Soft-Loud’. Why? Because the keyboard instruments which existed up to that time – organ, harpsichord, clavier, virginals, et al., could only produce a variation of volume of sound by mechanical means. The delight of the pianoforte is that you can produce soft or loud tones at will, simply by the magical power of your fingers.

      Naming the Notes

      Take a look at the keyboard, first at the black notes, which you will see are arranged in groups of twos and threes. This is important in locating the names of the white notes.

      The white note in between the group of two blacks is D, and the two notes between the group of three blacks are G and A.

      Once you have found A, naming the rest of the notes is easy. We only use the alphabet from A to G, which is repeated both up and down the keyboard.

      Don’t be tempted to label the notes with stickers. This will only hold you back in the long run.

      To become familiar with the letters play the following words. At first confine yourself to the A – G in the middle of the keyboard, which includes ‘Middle C’. Afterwards you can venture further afield.

      CAB DAD BED ACE DAB AGE FAD FED GAG BAD EGG FEED BABE DEAF CAFE FADE CAGE DEED AGED FACE EDGE BEAD DACE CEDE BADE BEEF FADED ADAGE EFFACE BADGE ADDED CADGE BAGGAGE CABBAGE.

      Now look for them all over the keyboard. The grouping of the black notes will help you.

      For instance: C and F are both L-shaped, but C is to the left of the group of two black notes and F to the left of the group of three black notes. It should be easy to find them all now, high and low.

      Finding Middle C

      Middle C is an important note because written music centres around it.

      On the piano Middle C is the nearest C to the lock.

      On an electric keyboard there is neither lid nor lock. So measure the length of the keyboard – a piece of string will do. Middle C is the nearest C to the halfway mark. I cannot give you absolute measurements as keyboards may vary in

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