Key of the Week November 22 & 29: B Major and B minor (natural)

Thanksgiving week has kept me away from the Key of the Week, so I’m doing a two week stint with these keys…

E Major Review, Introducing E minor (natural)

Here we go… 4 sharps… I have the feeling this week will have a very “scalar focus” but we’ll see.

A Major review, introducting A minor (natural)

“A”… I call it “the Orchestra’s Key”.  3 Sharps.  As I think about it, this is probably the last of the “easy” keys on the piano.  After that, I enter the domain of the black keys, until I get back to F Major… and this is ok.  This is my past.  The Key of the Week program is designed to erase this mental barrier.

A minor, meanwhile– I’ll be playing just the scale.

D Major review, introducing D (natural) minor

Same basic goals as last weeks key G Major/minor.  One difference that I picked up from last week.  I’d like to really investigate what I’m calling “unison melodies.”  That is, on the piano, both hands play the same notes an octave apart, like when you play a scale.  But instead of playing a scale, I’ll be playing improvised melodies, where both hands play the same notes at the same time.  Sounds easy when I write it here, but it’s not for me.

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I’ve also been thinking that as I get deeper into the circle of fifths– I’ll say somewhere in the neighborhood of B Major– I’ll have to get more basic in how I play the keys.  That’s because deep in the circle of fifths is where I’m the most green.  Many of the keys there are like people I met once at a party a long time ago, where I remember their names, and maybe that they work downtown, but that’s about it.  Or maybe I just remember their hair color or something.

In any case, we’ll see what happens when I meet these keys again.

G Major review, introducing G minor (natural)

I had a real fun time playing with C minor last week, fun will probably continue with G minor this week.  And looking back at G Major, along with C Major and F Major is one of those keys that as kid seemed really appealing, with its lack of “black keys”.  Still, drilling these so-called familiar keys is very important.

Quiz:  G minor (natural) is the relative minor of what key? (Answer at the end of the week)

Reviewing C Major, Introducing C (natural) minor

Since I’m now trying to practice the Key of the Week twice a day, I’m either playing C Major for a while then shifting to C natural minor, or doing one practice that C Major and the other C minor.

As I tweeted earlier this week, I’m not to comfortable with minor keys at all, so as I launch in to this circle of fifths in minor keys I’m doing two things:

1.  Use only the natural minor, not the harmonic or melodic.

2.  Focus on scales and triads.