Preparing to Play in All Keys®

Step #1:  Thinking in Numbers and Intervals.

In Europe and parts of Asia, they teach a music system called Solfege.  This is also known as "moveable Do".  That is like singing the first five notes of the major scale as "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So . . .".

My personal system is to think in numbers.  To do this, look at intervals.  We want to be able to think, hear and play intervals freely and easily.  Take a look at the Interval Chart.  One idea of learning intervals is to to think of a song.  Analyze the first interval(s) of the song.  That will help you to remember the interval.

However you choose to learn your intervals, you have to spend a lot of time doing this.  Keep working on intervals until it is part of your musical language.

Step #2:  Thinking in Chord Structures.

My suggestion is that you think more in chord structures, than chord names.  For instance:  a major triad in the root position is a major third on the bottom (5 half steps) and a minor third on the top (4 half steps).  When we play the major triad in the first inversion, we think of a perfect fourth on the bottom (6 half steps) and a minor third on the top (4 half steps).  Likewise, if we play the major triad in the second inversion, we think of a perfect fourth on the bottom and a major third on the top.

We can do this with all chords.  And once we analyze the structures in intervals, it is relatively easy to play the same intervals in all keys.  The numbers stay the same, even though the notes on the piano are different.

Step #3:  Thinking in Scale Structures.

What gives a major scale a special sound and feeling is the location of the half steps.  In this case, the half steps are between 3 & 4 and 7 & 8.  Think of this as playing from one to one.

If we move our hand up one note to the second degree of the major scale . . . and then play from 2 - 2, this called the dorian mode.  Dorian sounds kind of minor.  This is because the third degree of the scale is now a minor third.

Depending on which note you start in the major scale, the half steps move accordingly.  Make a project to start identifying the different feelings of each mode.