APPENDIX for Part 1B

Most of these sections originally were in Part 1B.  I think some parts will be fascinating for some readers, but “too much” for others.  Therefore they've been moved into this appendix, out of the main flow, so you can decide.  For a particular section, maybe you'll be fascinated and the ideas will help you understand and will stimulate your own explorations.  Or maybe not, and you can ignore them.

[[ most of the Appendix isn't in this page, instead I'll just skip to

four ways to improvise music:

U – You can improvise freely with Unstructured Improvisation by “just putting notes together” in any way you want.  In an effort to be “more free” so whatever you invent will be “more new” you can try to ignore chords and pre-existing melodies.

VM– You can improvise a Variation Melody by modifying the notes of a pre-existing Melody, as described earlier.  This is a common way to improvise a new Melody.

CPM – You can improvise a Harmonious Chord-Progression Melody when you know each chord that's being played (i.e. whether it's made from red notes, blue notes, green notes, and/or other notes) and you sequentially play its chord-notes along with some non-chord notes.  You are using the structure of a pre-existing Chord Progression, using its structure as a framework to guide you in sequentialy playing chord-notes (plus non-chord notes) to improvise a Melody that is based on the Chord Progression.

CP – You can improvise a Harmonious Chord Progression by simultaneously playing chord-notes, and occasionally changing the chord.  For example, Part 1A encourages you to improvise a Harmonious Chord Progression by alternating time-periods of Chords that have only red notes (played simultaneously) and only blue notes and only green notes, by "changing the chord-color whenever you want, to whatever new chord-color you want" so – with your choices of whenever and whatever – you are improvising Chord Progressions.  Or you can begin with an old CP, and change it into a new CP.    {more about CP}

You also can do musical improvisation in other ways that move beyond basic chord-notes (1,3,5) in the main major chords (I,IV,V) and melodies using chord-notes.

Now each description above is expanded, especially for the “harmonious improvising” of CPM and CP.

U – During improvising that is Unstructured, one way to “be more creatively free” by "ignoring chords and pre-existing melodies" is to freely experiment with pentatonic scales.  Although it can be useful to play pentatonics in C Major, it's easier to be unstructured when you play only black notes due to the visual simplicity (leading to mental simplicity and freedom) because all notes that are black – no more, no less – are in the scale, so it's easy to intuitively know all notes that ARE in the scale (they're black) and ARE NOT in the scale (they're white), and you can focus your full attention on using the black notes to creatively make music.   /   If you want to preserve an improvised melody that uses only black notes (typically it's in the key of E-flat Minor Pentatonic or G-flat Major Pentatonic) you can transpose this melody into a white-note key (A Minor or C Major) and use it during another strategy, using U to supplement VM and/or CPM.

VM – When using VM you begin with an old Melody and modify it to improvise a variation that's a new Melody.  VM is based on a pre-existing Song that includes a Melody plus a Chord Progression (CP) — and both aspects of the Song can inspire a new Melody, when you modify its Melody (in VM) and/or use its CP (in CPM) — so VM often is combined with CPM to form a hybrid of VM-and-CPM.

CPM – improvising Chord-Progression Melodies

Instead of improvising a new Chord Progression (CP), musicians typically use an old CP (already invented by other musicians) that is pre-planned and fixed.  Part 1A explains how colors (red, blue, green) can guide your improvising of melodies that harmonize with chords in the CP (so these melodies are CP-based) while you also are improvising the CP, so you're combining CP with CPM.  By contrast, in most music you're using a fixed CP you know, so you're doing only CPM by improvising a CP-based melody.   Part 1B continues explaining “how to CPM-improvise” with the concept of passing notes that you use when moving from one chord-note to another, passing between them.

The following examples of passing notes that are useful for playing blues melodies during a chord of C Major. {to understand better, you should play these on a keyboard - or another instrument - so you can hear them}   Although some of the non-chord passing notes are in-scale white notes, many are non-scale black notes that are named as flats (b) or sharps (#).

You can move between chord-notes (1 3 5 1) with... 1-3b-3-5 or 1-3-5b-5 or 1-3b-3-5b-5 or 5-5b-4-3-1 or 5-3-3b-2-1 or... any of the many possibilities for ascending from 1 thru 3 to 5, or descending from 5 thru 3 to 1.

You can move from 1 thru 3 to 5, or instead you can skip 3, as with 1-5b-5 (ascending) or (descending) 5-3b-1.   Or moving upward from 3 thru 5 to 1 (an octave above 1), you can play 3-5-6-1 or 3-5-6-7-1 or 3-5-5#-6-1 or 3-5-7b-1 or 3-5b-5-7b-1 or (to descend) 1-6-5-3 or (by combining down-movements with an up-movement) 1-6-5-3b-3 or 1-7b-5-3b-3 or 1-7b-5-5b-5 or 1-7b-5-3b-3-5b-5.  Or moving an octave downward from 1 to 1, play 1-7b-5-4-3b-1 (using the notes of a minor pentatonic scale) or 1-7b-5-3b-3-5-6-5-3-1.  Or from 1 up to 1 and back down to 1, with 1-3-5-6-1-6-5-3-1 or 1-3-5-6-7b-6-5-3.  The final example intentionally has one less note (the 1 is missing) because this allows a smooth transition from mainly red (during a C Chord) when it's followed by mainly blue (during an 4 Chord), as when 1-3-5-6-7b-6-5-3 is followed by 4-6-1-9-10b-9-1-6, to form a classic blues-rock riff.   /   Of course, all of these “passing note” ideas — and other ideas, because these are only a few of the MANY ways to use passing notes — can be adapted for use during any chord, whether the chord is 1, 4, 5, or Am, Dm, Em, or another.

Here are the same two paragraphs (above), but with melody-notes described with letters (CDE...) instead of numbers (123...):

You can move between chord-notes (C E G C) with... C-Eb-E-G or C-E-Gb-G or C-Eb-E-Gb-G or G-Gb-F-E-C or G-E-Eb-D-C or... any of the many possibilities for ascending from C thru E to G, or descending from G thru E to C.

You can move from C thru E to G, or instead you can skip E, as with C-Gb-G (ascending) or (descending) G-Eb-C.   Or moving upward from E thru G to C (an octave above C), you can play E-G-A-C or E-G-A-B-C or E-G-G#-A-C or E-G-Bb-C or E-Gb-G-Bb-C or (to descend) C-A-G-E or (by combining down-movements with an up-movement) C-A-G-Eb-E or C-Bb-G-Eb-E or C-Bb-G-Gb-G or C-Bb-G-Eb-E-Gb-G.  Or moving an octave downward from C to C, play C-Bb-G-F-Eb-C (using a minor pentatonic scale) or C-Bb-G-Eb-E-G-A-G-E-C.  Or from C up to C and back down to C, with C-E-G-A-C-A-G-E-C or C-E-G-A-Bb-A-G-E.  The final example intentionally has one less note (the C is missing) because this allows a smooth transition from mainly red (during a Chord) when it's followed by mainly blue (during an F Chord), as when C-E-G-A-Bb-A-G-E is followed by F-A-C-D-Eb-D-C-A, to form a classic blues-rock riff.   /   Of course, all of these “passing note” ideas — and other ideas, because these are only a few of the MANY ways to use passing notes — can be adapted for use during any chord, whether the chord is C, F, G, or Am, Dm, Em, or another.

Playing a Wide Variety of Chords

In the Main Page I describe systematic strategies for exploring the many ways to simultaneously play only red notes.  That section should be read first, as a foundation, and then you can continue your exploring below.

• On this diagram,

top row:  is notes (1 3 5) in C-Chords, middle:  notes (CDEFGAB) in C-Scale,  bar-rows:  red notes in C-Chords.

you can see that a basic C-Chord (C-E-G) has “every other note” spacing that I call 2-and-2.  The next three red notes (E-G-C) have a wider spacing of 2-and-3.  Looking rightward, for the next set of three red notes (G-C-E) the spacing changes to 3-and-2.  And looking further right, it's back to 2-and-2, repeating the first pattern (of C-E-G) except it's an octave higher.   /   Play the chord (of C Major) with each spacing pattern, and listen.  Each pattern is a different chord inversion, producing sounds that are similar (because each chord is C Major, using only red notes: C, E, G) yet are different (due to the different spacings that put different notes into the bottom-middle-top of each chord inversion, in each version of a C Major Chord).     { terms: the chord inversions have names but of course you can play the chords without knowing their names. }    { the importance of orders and octaves:  By doing experiments with the chords of a 50s Progression you can hear how "changing the order-of-notes makes a BIG difference in the sound of a chord, especially in the context of other chords [in a chord progression]," and how "even though notes that are an octave apart sound 'essentially the same' when they're the only two notes we hear, when we hear these octave-notes in the musical context of other notes, they can produce very different sounds-and-feelings." }

• Another kind of experimenting is to move the 2-and-2 spacing rightward by one white note, so instead of beginning on C (to form a Chord of C Major, I ) it begins on D (to form a Chord of D Minor, ii );  moving further rightward, you'll form chords of E Minor ( iii ) and F Major ( IV ), and so on.  Then you can do this with the other spacings, by moving 2-and-3 rightward to form inversions of C Major and D Minor,..;  or move 3-and-2 rightward to form inversions of C Major and D Minor,...   When you creatively mix the spacings (2-2, 2-3, 3-2) and locations (of the chord's lowest note) you'll produce a variety of interesting-sounding chords and chord progressions.

• Or you can “skip” some chord-notes (they're grayed-out in the examples) instead of playing all that are consecutive, as in forming a C Major Chord with C-E-G-E or C-E-G-C-E, or with E-G-C-E-G or E-G-C-E-G or E-G-C-E-G, and other “spread out” chords.

• Or totally omit one kind of chord-note, as in C-E-G & C-E-G-E-C;  or with G-C-E-G & C-E-G-C & E-G-C-E, without G;  or E-G-E and G-E-G,...

• Instead of using only red notes (C,E,G), of course you can do analogous experiments with chords made from only blue notes (so F,A,C are arranged in different orders of the bottom-middle-top notes) and only green notes (with G,B,D in different orders).  And by alternating periods of red chords and blue chords and green chords.  And you can use other chords — especially A Minor (it's the vi-chord when you're playing in C Major) and D Minor (ii) and E Minor (iii) – to produce a wider variety of chord progressions.  During all of your experimenting, listen and learn, enjoy.

What's below originally was in the main page, but then I decided it was “too much” to be included in a section about how to form chords.  You can consider it to be part of the “results of discovery” when you explore the possibilities of forming chords.

other C-Chords:  Above I describe the C-Chord as 135 (it's CEG), beginning with 1(C) as the lowest note.  But another C-Chord is an inversion to form 351 (it's EGC), with 3(E) as its lowest note;  and the highest note 1(C) is an octave above 1(C).  Or in another inversion, a C-Chord can be 513 with a lowest note of 5(G).   [[ iou – in late March, I'll make diagrams of these three chords, so it will be easier for you to understand. ]]   /   Or you can begin with 135 (CEG) and add a fourth note to make 1351, with a highest note of 1(C) that is an octave above the lower 1(C);  or play this chord without 3(E) so it's 151;  or add an extra note, so it's 1513;  or with one more note, it could be 15135 or 15131 or 15151 and others.   /   You'll have more fun if you play these chords and hear their sounds.   These are just a few of the many possible C-Chords;  to discover others, explore the possibilities by yourself or with tips.

a variety of C-Chords:  Using red-bar notes, above I describe 9 kinds of C-Chords:  135 (CEG) and the inversions of 351 (EGC) and 513,  plus 1351,  151,  1513,  15135, 15131, 15151, etc;  and you can discover other C-Chords.

a variety of F-Chords:  Using blue-bar notes, you can produce analogous F-Chords:  135 (FAC) and the inversions of 351 (ACF) and 513,  plus 1351,  151,  1513,  15135, 15131, 15151, etc;  and you can discover other F-Chords.

a variety of G-Chords:  Using green-bar notes, you can make analogous G-Chords:  135 (GBD) and the inversions of 351 (BDG) and 513,  plus 1351,  151,  1513,  15135, 15131, 15151, etc;  and you can discover other G-Chords.

* {a comment for readers: This paragraph is optional, and is technical – although musically logical – so if it confuses you, please feel free to skip it and move on.}   Sometimes I don't colorize the key-general chord names.  Instead of (I,IV,V) they're (I,IV,V) in situations where the key isn't necessarily C, as for a 50s Progression (I-vi-IV-V) that can be played in any key;  in the key of C it's (C-Am-F-G) that is (I-vi-IV-V);  but in the key of G, it's (G-Am-C-D) and (I-vi-IV-V).  Why?  Because on my colorized keyboard, always the red notes are C,E,G, and blue notes are F,A,C, and green notes are G,B,D.  Therefore in the Key of C, colorized symbols (I-iv-IV-V) are correct, although not necessary.  By contrast, in the Key of G a colorizing (as G-Am-C-D or I-iv-IV-V) would be incorrect for music theory — because even though the colors are technically-correct (because for each chord, the chord-note colors are correctly indicated) it would be musically-incorrect because “in G” the four chords have musical functions that are different than their functions “in C” — so these chords should be uncolorized as (G-Am-C-D and I-vi-IV-V).   /   Because of the "always," my keyboard-colorizing is intended to be used only for playing in the Key of C (i.e. C Major) or in A Minor.   But the colorizing also might be useful in the Key of F (for 2 of its 3 main chords, for F & C) or in the Key of G (for 2 of its 3 main chords, for G & C).

When describing key-specific terms and key-general terms I ask you [in an earlier version] to "compare isolation-diagrams" for the Key of C and Key of G, "using logic to understand," and a link for "details" sends you here.   /   When musicians describe Chords in the Key of G, calling them “C,F,G” is incorrect, but we can say “I,IV,V” because these terms correctly describe the Chords that have 1-Notes of “1,4,5”.  Why?  If you look at the top two lines of the color-isolation diagram with only-red (it's for a C-Scale, for the Key of C) you'll see that its 1st and 4th and 5th notes are C and F and G, so the Chords that have these Scale-Notes (1,4,5) as their 1-Notes are correctly described by their key-specific letters (C,F,G);  and their key-general terms (I,IV,V) also are correct.  But when we use this logic for the diagram with only-green (for a G-Scale, for the Key of G) the Scale-Notes (1,4,5) change to “G,C,D” — so instead of labeling Chords with terms that are specific for the Key of C (with Chords of C,F,G) we must use terms that are specific for the Key of G (with chords of G,C,D) — but... the key-general terms (I,IV,V) are still correct, even though the Key has changed.  Let's compare Chords in the Keys of C and G;  in the Key of C, the main Chords are (C,F,G) that are also (I,IV,V);  in the Key of G, the main Chords change to (G,C,D) but they still are also (I,IV,V).

colors:  For example, the I-Chord is a C-Chord in the Key of C, but it's a G-Chord in the Key of G.  Of course, the IV-Chords also differ in the two keys, and so do the V-Chords.  For all three main chords, by comparing isolation-diagrams with only-red (for the Key of C) and only-green (for Key of G) you can see why both “C,F,G” and “I,IV,V” (or “I,IV,V”) are correct for chords in the Key of C;  and why in the Key of G both “G,C,D” (not “C,F,G”) and “I,IV,V” are correct, although “I,IV,V” would be totally incorrect, and “I,IV,V”) is musically incorrect.

Here are paragraphs-with-details, before I decided it was TMI with details that weren't useful for most people.

listen to the music of others “live” in person, or (more often) with a time-shifted recording that's on physical media (CD, tape, vinyl record);  or in a digital file (MP3, AAC/M4A,...) you download or internet-stream;  or on radio (broadcast AM or FM, or streamed) or TV (broadcast, cabled, streamed).

make your own music by using your internal instrument (voice) or an external instrument (keyboard,...).  It's easy to make music by using your voice, with or without words,* because singing is an efficient connection between thinking and doing, with easy-and-intuitive translating of your musical ideas (imagined by you) into musical sounds (made by you).  You also can have an intuitive translating (of ideas into sounds) when you develop skill in playing a keyboard, or another instrument.    /    terms:  To make a generalizing-of-principles easier, when I write “playing an instrument” it often means making music by using an instrument that is either internal (vocal) or external, so it's generalized to include all ways of making music.  But usually the term instrument – when it's used by most people in most situations – means a non-vocal external instrument.

iou – This section has extra information about playing blues melodies and currently it's very under-developed.  In the future (maybe before mid-2024) I'll continue working on it, and it will improve.

[[ iou - Later I'll figure out how to finish this section, and will link to an appendix with "more" about it.  /  Here is a preview of what I'll say:  I'm confused — because I'm wondering why this melody-making strategy is common among music players and music teachers (but how common is it?) — so I'm trying to learn more about the reasons. ---- I think experienced musicians know the chords, and "adjust their scale playing" in musical ways ---- maybe this (chords change but scales don't change) occurs because it's simple, and (as claimed by FA Chords Guitar) "Finally, with this last strategy, you'll achieve the level of Top Blues Master.  In this stage, you're going to mix the minor sound of the minor pentatonic scale, and the major sound of dominant arpeggios.  All the great blues masters, like Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, B.B. King, used this trick to enhance their expressivity and feeling.  All you need to do is to use the minor pentatonic as a foundation, and add the notes of the arpeggio of the chord your playing over."  This method (of pentatonics foundation and "add" arpeggio notes) is similar to what I'm describing, but isn't exactly the same / is a little different. ]]

Doing Without Looking – while Keyboarding and Juggling

note – Originally this was in the main page but I decided it was "too much" for most readers.  But it might be interesting for some (maybe including you?) so here it is:

When we're trying to understand how we can "do actions without looking" it's useful to think about relationships between traditional two-hands keyboarding (I'm a respectful spectator) and juggling (I'm a skillled participant).

There are some similarities – but also important differences – between no-look keyboarding (by developing "spatial memories") and semi-look juggling when we automatically use real-time "mental movies" that, along with peripheral vision, let your brain-and-hands know "where each ball will be, and when" so you can catch balls and re-throw them.  One "important difference" is that while juggling you get visual cues continually because you see each ball (directly) sometime during its journey from hand to hand, and you see all balls (peripherally);  this differs from a "blind experience" of the totally-no-look keyboard playing that is possible, and sometimes is actually done.

for context, here is some personal history:  During each class — for a decade of teaching Do-it-Yourself Juggling for the UW Experimental College in Seattle — I described the "mental movies" we automatically make, to explain the difference between ball sports (like baseball) when you should "watch the ball until you catch it" and juggling when you should not try doing this because it's impossible.

Reasons for Eclectic Instruction

note – As with "Doing Without Looking" above, this page originally was in the main page but after thinking "it's TMI for most readers" I moved it to here:

In the main page's second paragraph I claim that "this method of teaching [by using a colorized keyboard]... should be combined with other methods, in a creative blend that's better than any single method by itself."  Teaching with a colorized keyboard offers important benefits but so do other methods.  Therefore, we should combine methods.  {a relevant application is combining methods to design eclectic music education for keyboarding}   My overall philosophy of education includes a principle that we should design eclectic instruction by creatively combining the best features of different teaching methods.  This principle is described – in the homepage of my website for Problem-Solving Education – in this paragraph:

     Student Diversity and Activities Diversity:  All of us are similar in the most important ways, but "each student has a personal history that makes them unique," and some students will experience more success in problem-solving activities than in other kinds of activities.*  The emotional & motivational rewards of success – and we want to promote this for more students, with wider diversity – will improve their self-image, and their motivations for learning if they see their schoolwork as part of a personal education that is personally useful, is motivated and guided by their pursuit of personal goals for life.  We can use our observations — that students differ,  and whole-person education has many kinds of goals,  and different goals are better taught with different teaching approaches,  and each approach has (as in personal education) diminishing “marginal returns” — plus logic, to conclude that "we should try to design eclectic instruction by creatively combining the best features of different approaches into a synergistic blend that produces an optimal overall result (with greater good for a greater number) in helping students achieve worthy educational goals."    {* and "more success" often co-occurs with “more intrinsic enjoying” for two kinds of fun}

some context:  The home-page for Problem-Solving Education includes a strategy for "Better Education (More and More)" with two steps.  This paragraph is part of "Step 1 (Getting More Experiences)" that follows "Step 2 (Learning More from Experiences)" and precedes "building two-way Educational Bridges" from life into school (for actual past-to-present transfers) and from school into life (for anticipated present-to-future transfers).

general and specific:  My website for Problem-Solving Education is general, because (when we choose to use broad definitions) a problem is “an opportunity to make things better, in any area of life” and problem-solving is “any time you're trying to make things better.”  This page is more specific;  it's a mini-website about Music Education. 

my claims:  I think an effective designing of eclectic instruction is useful for education of all kinds, in all areas of life.  Below are some current claims — that will be modified while I'm continuing the exciting process of learning more from students and from teachers — about designing eclectic instruction that will more effectively combine my method (using a colorized keyboard) with other teaching methods.