Download My Parallel Sixth Exercise

Because I know you need another exercise to hone your virtuosic piano skills... (download is available below)





Parallel Sixths Exercise
www.freethepiano.com



PARALLEL SIXTHS -

 

They separate the men from the boys, the women from the girls, and the pros from the amateurs.
 



If you're not there yet, you might want to try my very romantic parallel sixths exercise.  I created this exercise for a composition student who is trying to fill his tool box with more tricks.  He wanted to bump up his skill level and add depth to the RH melody.  He had seen me spontaneously weaving sixths underneath the melody line while interpreting a lead sheet, and wanted to know how I did that.  It is something I hardly even think about anymore; it happens with such ease.  I even know intuitively when to substitute a fifth for a sixth (there are certain times the sixth doesn't work musically). 

So why are parallel sixths so important in piano?  First of all, they sound amazing.  That's why romantic and impressionist composers like Chopin and Debussy used them with such zeal.  A sixth is rich and deep; much more so than a third.  Thirds are weaker to me, even though it is the same pitch as the sixth, projected in the opposite direction.  They just don't have the sonorous punch and chime of a sixth.  Sixths are bold, dramatic, and romantic.  They also leverage your showmanship if you can spontaneously craft a seamless string of parallel sixths in your right hand (much more virtuosic than a monophonic, single-note melody line)!  So I would advise every pianist to get fluent in parallel sixths in all the keys, and to memorize the proper legato fingering.  I guarantee that mastery of this exercise will improve your classical chops and get you ready for more nocturnes.  It will also fill your composing toolbox with a new trick!  I use parallel sixths in jazz and lead-sheet interpretation.

Of course, I needed the left hand to have something equally meaty to chew on in this exercise, so I threw in a filled-out arpeggio pattern in the left.  It compliments the RH sixths nicely, and would be a likely choice to use if I were interpreting a lead-sheet or composing in romantic style. 

Enjoy!  Don't forget break it down into hands separate at first, and make sure you do the right fingering.

***This exercise is a free download for now.  It is not for sale or distribution, but may be used for personal or teaching purposes. ***

PARALLEL SIXTHS TRAINING

 

(Click the link above to download and print the sheet music for this exercise.)



A Dead MIDI Cable is No Excuse!

Yesterday my MIDI cable died.  It just stopped working.  When I awoke at 6am to write out my newest compostion, my trusty equipment was shot.  I troubleshot every possiblility to diagnose the problem (reversed IN-OUT config, unplugged, re-plugged, re-opened software after cable attached, switched pianos, etc), and determined that the cable was indeed kaput.  Since I need my MIDI cable for quickly scribing the notes into the computer (via hyperscribe in Finale software), it seriously hinders my data input without the cable. 

What's a composer to do without her MIDI cable in 2014?  I could have walked away from the computer and folded laundry.  I could have run to the music store to get one, but music stores aren't open at 6am on Sunday mornings.  So I decided to quit making excuses and use this handicap as an opportunity to learn a new skill.  There are, indeed, a couple of ways to enter notes without a MIDI cable.  One is simple entry, a method that uses tedious mouse-clicking.  And there's speedy entry, a method I had yet to really learn. 

Within Finale, I had been relying on combination of hyperscribe, cut-and-paste, transpose, and simple entry to quickly scribe my scores, but I had been avoiding speedy entry.  My hybrid method worked very well, and was pretty efficient.  But an orchestrator colleague I know only uses speedy entry in Finale (absolutely no hyperscribe).  It is a typing-based entry method in Finale, and there's a learning curve involved.  But once you learn it, it's like touch-typing on the computer...you become very, very fast.  Some people swear by it, so I decided that my lack of a MIDI cable set up the perfect scenario to learn a new skill.

I delved into the online manual and googled for answers to my questions.  I learned that 4 stands for eighth note, 5 for quarter, and 6 for half.  See, I'm not looking them up on the chart and I already have this memorized.  I learned that you can navigate from one beat to the next with the arrow keys, and that you can use the + symbol to raise a note a half-step, and the minus symbol to lower it.   I did get a little frustrated when I went to enter three and four-note chords.  I realized that, once again, I kind of need MIDI input via a MIDI controller/piano-- that is, if I want to be fast!  I also reached a roadblock when I tried to enter triplets via speedy entry.  It appears some MIDI input is necessary for this as well.  So, given that my music has a lot of chords and triplets,  I decided to abandon speedy entry for the moment and will re-explore this method once I get a new MIDI cable. 

Bottom line - I started mastering a new skill this morning, and I will build on my new knowledge later.

But wait!  I had nothing to show for my work this morning; no notes input, no score produced.  I decided not to make excuses, so I spent the extra time needed to simple-entry my notes, a tedious process, but with cut-and-paste and transpose, the process is a little faster.  And I have the start of "Moving On".  

Download My Filled-Out Arpeggio Etude

Here's the Filled-Out Arpeggio Etude I spoke about in my previous post.  I wrote this for myself and my advanced students, when I was teaching a lot of students.  This is one of my most used tricks when gussying up a popular lead-sheet.  I used to call this arpeggio the 1235 arpeggio because it utilizes the scale degrees 1235.  The 2 is not usually used in arpeggios, but all advanced pianists should know and practice arpeggios that incorporate the 2.  They should know the standard, workable fingering.  This arpeggio can be sped up into a dazzling run to end or introduce a piece, either in the left or right hand.  Click the link below to download and print this free exercise.  For now, my special exercises are free!  Later I will be putting them into book form for teachers and pianists to purchase.

Filled-Out Arpeggio Etude

(click text above to go directly to a .pdf and print!)

Filled-Out Arpeggio Etude
www.freethepiano.com