I can't believe how fantastic this woman is. She is an absolutely amazing teacher. Completely knows how to connect with other human beings to teach music in a way I've never seen before. She's a gift from God!
AMAZING!! I’ve known that music could be played with numbers for years, but never could find anyone to teach me about it.. So clear and easy to understand. Thank you so much.
This lady is nothing less than awesome. I stumbled upon her while researching the 16251 progression. Talk about getting more than what you asked for! I wish I could find an instructor like Mrs. Ramirez in my hometown.
Roman numerals are used to designate chords instead of numbers because Roman numerals can be written in both lower case and upper case form to ease distinction between the minor chords and the major chords of a scale, or key. For example, C major scale chords would be arranged or categorized as: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 C D E F G A B Maj min min Maj Maj min min*dim I ii iii IV V vi vii*dim C D E F G A B Maj min min Maj Maj min min*dim I ii iii IV V vi vii*dim C D E F G A B*dim E - G - - - - G - B - - - - Upper case Roman numerals being Major chords and lower case Roman numerals being minor chords. If I see a iii chord and a V chord it’s immediately understood that I have a minor chord and a Major chord, respectively. But if I’m given those very same chords written numerically as a 3 chord and a 5 chord I’ll find it impossible to tell which is the minor chord and which is the Major chord unless I’m very familiar with the seven degrees of a scale that designate the chords of that scale. Hope this doesn’t confuse and rather helps and clarifies the reason for and use of Roman numerals instead of numbers for chord degrees of a scale for those who are curious, or confused.
Also isn't that to distinguish chords from harmony? For example, you can say V7 with the 7 in superscript. We know that it's not the VII chord, it's a 7th interval from the root note (actually a minor 7th). If someone were to just write "IN THE KEY OF C 1, 3, 5" on a chalk board and ask me what that was I would say it was a C major chord, not a chord I, iii, V progression.
@@CaseyVan For a beginner, it’s easier to see and know that, I iii V represents a major, minor, major chord progression due to the large and small letters, or Roman numerals, respectively. But for that same beginner, although the numbers 1, 3, 5 might represent the 1 3 5 chord progression of the C major scale to them, that person, being new to the game, may forget and become confused that the progression follows the major, minor, major pattern, respectively, because there’s no distinction made through the use of numbers. A number is just a number, sort of speak. But with Roman numerals, they’re large and small letters so that an upper case letter represents a “major” chord and a lower case letter represents a “minor” chord. And that makes life a whole lot easier! The whole idea is to avoid confusion and ease operation. When you’re new to it, if you saw 1 3 5, you’ll be hard pressed to know which are the major chords and which are the minor chord in the progression. Whereas with, I iii V it’s almost immediately clear that you have a major, minor, major chord progression because you have an upper case, lower case, upper case letter progression, respectively. Makes life simple!
Also, in order to understand it, you need to be comfortable with: 1. Major chord 2. Minor chord 3. Scale (specifically Major Scales) 4. Key 5. Intervals (specifically semitones and tones)
You are an absolute wizard to have worked out the ground rules of playing music without score. Wished I watched your a video decades ago. This would have saved me over a half century of struggling. Thank you from glued reader of printed music.
you're kidding man , theres nothing new here other than it being very clearly explained on a yt vid all very available in books , especially those on jazz theory
The 5th is 50% higher in frequency (A=440hz E=660hz) which is why it sounds good to the ear. (only thing that sounds better or more in sync or in harmony- is an octave which 100% higher). What is called the 4th can be thought of as a minus 5th as it also has a 50% relationship to the tonic (F is the 5th below C just as G is the 5th above C).
I have played guitar for many years but I learned to play by ear. I have never understood music theory and i have always wanted to know more about music theory when i stumbled onto Karen's lessons. I have really enjoyed her lessons . Karen has a beautiful personality and it shows that she really enjoys teaching. Thank you so much for these wonderful lessons Karen they have brought me a great deal of enjoyment. Most sincerely, George Nourse Caldwell, Idaho
Dear Karen, I have tried for years to play piano. Can't read music, I am slow my nature. But after following your lessons, I can now play and truly enjoy it. Thank you so very much for your help. I took lessons for a year and still couldn't play. Now I play with groups that come to out town and play along with them. Again, Thank you so very much. Glenn Nolan
this channel is great,the information is so deep,ave been following this tutorials for about one month or so and I cant lie ave improved alot with the piano,Probably one of the best PIANO teachers that ave come across on the internet.GOD BLESS you for the great work you are doing,it really helps alot
I feel like I know her personally. She has the GIFT of sharing. She does wonders for the RU-vid Community. Thanks Karen and whoever posted all of the videos. God Bless!
Oh My God, through all my learning & studies, you have just demystified this fog that I have never seem to get my head around, and in part 2 I finally can understand the circle of fifths. Thanks for such a logical and simplistic explanation.
Oh Karen you are so gifted! Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us, youtubers! I'm learning so much, I thought I would never be able to learn because I can't afford private lessons and at this season of my life, so crazy busy( 4 children, husband, money issues, fatigue etc) It's been a blessing to come to your channel and feel I can achieve this dream of mine at my own pace. May the Lord bless you all.
Not all musicians can be a music teacher and not all music teacher can be a good musician but you seem to have the both qualities...a professional musicians and a professional music teacher. congratulations
I don't know how is that in your countries, but at least in Poland they don't teach us harmony in public music schools, only classic music and playing notes. It's horrible, because knowing the mathematics of harmony would give the musicians so much power from their early years of learning :( at least we have RU-vid. Thank you!
Very interesting post. So: you are saying.... that in Poland, they teach only what has been written.... but with knowing harmony you can write and play new music.... is this correct?
aha ! music nazis ! so desperate for classical robots , yes the oppression of expression and individual free thinking for fear of having people play the much feared jazz or even the venomously despised rock n roll
In China neither. I'm in my 30s and am re-studying music theory for playing guitar.I find this video so helpful and regret having the pathetic music lessons I had when I was a kid.
A really good explanation for the chords and I'm still working on just having fun with learning and playing without thinking because I'm still new and I'm having a good time with all this wonderful information Thank you Karen!
Why I didn't find your videos before? I must say you have made everything so easy and understandable!! Your videos beat all the garbage out there on YoutTube. Thank you so much for helping us out.
Listen to me!,...Thank you follow making the video. I have been trying for years to map out music simply by ear. You made it very simple to understand. game changer...blessings
Hey! I love the way you teach......Your my kind of teacher.......I never had lessons, but When I was 17, I bought my first organ and started playing around with it, and within a month I was playing in church and loving every minute of it....the way you teach is somewhat how I learned to play.....I did teach myself how to read some notes just so I could learn the melody of a song....but sad to say, I haven’t sat down to an organ for 26 yrs....I do miss it.......
interesting points ,if anyone else needs to find out about best piano courses try EasyPianoLessons5.blogspot.com Ive heard some interesting things about it and my work buddy got great results with it.
The dominant chord V is so important because the 5 note of the scale that is one octave higher has a harmonic resonant frequency to the 1 note of the chord. That is, when you strike middle C, the G string in the next higher octave also vibrates. So you can see now why it seems "natural" to play I-V-I.
To people complaining, I think this is a simple course, following conventions and rule of thumb for learning musicians. Its not the be all end all of music theory and I dont think its supposed to be.
The reason people complain about the basics is because they think that they know more than what they actually know. If they knew as much as they thought they knew, they would be more humble and not complain. The knowledgeable never complain about hearing the basics because every so often, they are reminded of something they forgot. He who complains about the basics of his craft, will be too limited to perfect his craft.
This is in my opinion a good lesson for entry level chord structures. But don't get it confused with "rules." This is a great tool and teaches many fundamentals. The sky is the limit with chord structures, don't confuse this for rules. I am pretty sure the teacher doesn't mean this to be a rule book, but more of a guide to help young students easily navigate chords. These are not the only directions chords can go. 4-6 is often a sequence that happens and there are more, but this is helpful for beginners none-the-less.
already said but, this is a basic class and done very well, end of story. surprising how many negatives comments for someone who obviously really cares about what she does...fantastic video...thank you...
long time didn't follow the session , since that time my music theory improved a lot . always yours teaching were too advanced to me . lets see how good student l'm now ? always enjoy your class !!!!
Song at 1:10 -- Heart and Soul. Did you know that Hoagy Carmichael wrote the music? I've been playing jazz piano for over 50 years and I just discovered that recently. And, it has a bridge -- I never knew that. Yes, that 1-6-2-5-1 is very common.
Brilliant lady. I have 3 of the 4 semesters required in music theory to hold a degree in music - darn close to holding a degree in music. I hold a minor in music. And with that, nobody explained it this way.
I like this gal a lot. Great personality. If my piano teacher would have been her when I was 5 I might have stuck with lessons. Mine was so stuffy that I dropped out and learned guitar, steel guitar , banjo, mandolin and harmonicas by ear. I didn't stick with my lessons, so Iguess I will never amount to nothing. I didn't learn about the circle till I was fourty five.
exactly! lol half way through i said wow...this is how i got lost years ago in college....taking real private piano lessons with a teacher and learning the circle of fifths one key at a time is the real way to understand this. talk will only confuse the hell out you!
Hi , just looking through all the past posts ,going back years ,I lot of people have said thay cart see the board, and the formula for the cords, I'm wondering why Karen has never said what is it's,, does she or anyone monitor this page ? Still she has help 100s of people inc myself over the years ,, she is a good teacher ,,
Key and scale do not mean the same thing though they are used interchangeably. Key simply means Tonic. Scale is the subsequent pattern of notes from the Tonic. There is no such thing as a C scale. C is the key, major is the scale. As you may also have C minor, C dorian, C whatever.
I literally came to the comments when she said that, it does sound like shes teaching children and trying to keep it simple but telling them things which arent true probably wont help
U can use any note of the key of C as a tonic to use another scale, like playing the Em scale over the Em chord in the key of C. Its just to confusing to explain newcomers, she wanted to keep it simple.