3.2 - Bass Note Identification

PROJECT 3.2 OVERVIEW

For this project, you are going to complete two online components:

1. A note ID quiz on musictheory.net

2. A Schoology quiz.

For your grade, successful completion will result in full credit regardless of the score achieved in each part.

Identifying notes on the keyboard

Now that we're using pitches in our compositions, we need to make sure that we can identify the notes on the piano.

Before you get anxious about your piano abilities, I'd like to remind you that everyone's level of comfort with the piano will be different. Think of it like typing on your computer keyboard - some people are able to type long stretches without looking down at their fingers; others will need to "hunt-and-peck" one letter at a time (not to mention all points in between). Any of these methods will put letters on your screen - it's just a matter of your personal comfort level.

The musical alphabet consists of just seven letters:

A B C D E F G

And those letters repeat:

E F G A B C D E F G A B C

"But Datsko!" you may be thinking, "You didn't mention things like flats and sharps!"

That's true. I am going to skip talking about those right now in the interest of keeping everything simple for our beginners.

We'll be working in the key of C Major for our class this semester. There are actually 15 different Major keys that you can choose from, but C Major uses only the white keys on the keyboard, so (again) we're keeping it simple.

The C Major Scale looks like this:

Here's a song that definitely will help you remember where C is, and will NEVER get stuck in your head...

Bass Hand Positions

So now that we can identify notes on the keyboard, let's talk about hand placement. When discussing piano-playing, musicians have agreed that each finger has a dedicated number associated with it:

You'll notice that the hands are mirrors of each other when it comes to numbering: the thumbs are always "1"; the pinkies are always "5".

There are two basic positions we're going to use to play our bass lines. Positions are important because it gives a "home" for our hands, and allows us to use all 5 fingers rather than moving our hands for each individual note.

In Position 1, our left hand pinky will start on C, and we will line up the remaining fingers with consecutive notes. This allows you to cover 5 notes of your bass part without having to move your left hand at all!

In Position 2, our left hand pinky will start on F and we will line up the remaining fingers with consecutive notes. By adding this second anchor point, you can cover the entire scale of bass notes.

A note about pinkies and thumbs:

Your pinky and thumb can be used to s-t-r-e-t-c-h out and reach the next note on either side of the position you're in. This is 100% allowed, and is ideal so that you don't have to move your whole hand for a single pitch if it's the next consecutive pitch!

Assignment for Project 3.2

This is one of the few assignments now that won't be recorded in Logic Pro.

There are two parts: both must be completed for credit:

Part 1: Go to musictheory.net and work on the keyboard note identification exercise. Your assignment is to complete at least 20 examples, with an accuracy of 90% or higher. When you are above 90% and have done at least 20 examples, take a screenshot (you can do this on the mac by holding down SHIFT-COMMAND-3) and upload the screenshot to Schoology.

FYI - reloading the page will reset your score.

NOTE: The default setting should be for the white keys only. If the site starts asking for black key identifiers, please email me so we can get you on the right track.

Part 2: To review hand positions, I am asking you to complete the short quiz on Schoology.

Any score of 14/16 or better will be considered a 100% and complete for full credit.

Any grade below 14/16 should be re-done until you get at least 14 correct. The schoology quiz will allow up to 20(!) retakes

Feel free when completing this check-in to use the pictures from this page for reference!

Page updated

Report abuse