Have you ever seen this symbol, “b”? What about “bb”? A flat almost appears as a lowercase b and a double flat as two lower case b’s–Whatever the case may be, it means to play something a half-step (semitone) lower than usual or in the case of a double flat you will play a note two half-steps lower. I like playing flat chords and in flat keys. It reminds me of Church…growing up in the deep South where almost every congregation I played for sang familiar hymns in the key of A Flat. Playing in flat keys also reminds me of playing piano pieces by Chopin and Brahms. Thanks to growing up studying piano using Dr. Pace’s piano method(s), I was able to comfortably play hymns in all twelve keys…and well, from a young age!
For this week’s homework, I would like for you to try to practice your flat chords: D flat, E flat, A flat, G flat, B flat…and you can also practice playing a B chord this week too. Have fun! If you care to, see this link that I found online this week to help you further with music theory concerns–http://www.teoria.com.
Happy flat playing. See you next week! Thanks for playing. Thank you for listening.
CMajor's Classroom 