Improvising Music:  a Summary Page

Originally this was a Reminders Page, "being written for people who already have met with me in-person, intended to be used after we have discussed the ideas, and you understand the ideas, so all you need is reminders – with brief summaries – of what you already know."

Then I began writing topic-explanations that were more thorough than those I originally had planned — i.e. they were more than brief semi-explanatory “reminders” — so it has become a Summary Page with logical “summaries” of ideas.  Therefore I think that even if we haven't met in-person, you can understand most of the ideas.     { There are three other summaries.  And whenever you want to explore more deeply you can click links to the main page that is much longer than this page, with more ideas & details. }

learn strategies by doing experiments:  You will improve your making-of-music by learning practical music-making strategies (that are used by all musicians, are based on principles of harmony) in a process of learning-by-doing when you do musical experiments (you try new musical ideas) to produce new musical experiences so you can listen and learn.     { more about music-making strategies and doing musical experiments }

understanding a music-making strategy:  You can play music better when you know music better, when you understand the music-making strategies – based on principles of harmony – that we see in...

the patterns of three chords:  If you ignore the upper Bars and look only at lower Circles,* you'll see patterns in the red notes (LOW high high), blue notes (LOW, high, high), and green notes (LOW high high).  All three patterns are the same.  Each is a chord-pattern that is formed by the “every other note” spacing (1-3-5, LOW-high-high) of a red chord, or blue chord, or green chord, where each LOW is “the home note” (the 1-note) of that Chord.  All of the Red LOW's – they're special, with a white dot – are also “The Home Notes” (the 1-Notes) of The Key that has a “red chord” and “blue chord” and “green chord”.  Playing melodies that feature the notes of a chord (red or blue or green) is the most important melody-making strategy, and it's the foundation of music theory.    /   * Circles & Bars show notes of Major & Minor.

If you know a little music theory, you'll recognize that these patterns are chords (C and F and G) in the Key of C.*  Even if you don't know this, you still can play skillfully with the chord-notes of red and blue and green.  But I encourage you to learn the logical language of music theory due to its many benefits, because "you can play music better when you know music better," when you develop a cognitive-and-functional knowledge of music theory that is cognitive (to understand music) and is functional (to play music).  Using a colorized keyboard is an effective way to learn music theory, as in my clear-and-thorough explanations for The Key of C Major that will help you develop a solid foundation with deep understanding.    /    * In case you're wondering, my unconventional colorizing (with red,blue,green) leads to conventional music theory and mainstream music playing.   And knowing one simple fact – that “each 1-Note is a C” – lets us easily translate my colors (red-blue-green) into letters (C-F-G).

two harmonies:  When you play multiple red notes simultaneously – to form a chord – this produces harmony;  it will sound harmonious, with a pleasant sound.  And when you play red notes sequentially – to make a melody – this also produces harmony that sounds harmoniously pleasant.  Because of this, you can...

enjoy two harmonies:  The foundation of music theory — for all music we commonly hear, for classical, jazz, blues, rock, pop, country, folk,... — is the fact that people enjoy harmony (due to interactions between musical physics and human physiology & memory) when Chord-Notes are played simultaneously (in a harmonious chord) and/or sequentially (in a harmonious melody).  Both harmonies — simultaneous harmony (made in a chord) and sequential harmony (made with a melody) — are being heard when we...

use chord progressions:  Most musicians think playing with Chord Progressions – using the most common chords (the red & blue & green) plus others – is the best way to make music that is interesting (due to the chord changes) and is enjoyable (with the two harmonies we enjoy), that combine simultaneous harmony (in chords) and sequential harmony (in melodies).

chord progressions and keyboard colorizing:  I teach (and play) with a colorized keyboard because it's extremely useful for improvising melodies during a chord progression that is "the best way to make music," that therefore is the goal of 1-2-3 in Strategies for Making Melodies.  The first two melody-making strategies — by playing only-red (in 1) and mainly-red (in 2) — are much less interesting than 3, but they (especially 2) will help you learn how to skillfully play the interesting “full music” of 3 when you're using a chord progression.

In related ways to make music, you can...

1) play only-red.  When you improvise a melody that has only red notes, everything you do will sound good.  But even if you're playing creatively — by moving rightward & leftward (upward & downward in pitch), sometimes skipping red notes, trying different rhythms — while making melodies that are only-red (or only-blue, or only-green), soon this will become boring.  To make your music less boring, you can...

2) play mainly-red by including some non-red notes.  This gives you more options for creatively making melodies that are mainly-red, then mainly-blue, then mainly-green.  But no matter how well you play a 2 (with red, or blue, or green), your music will be MUCH more interesting when you...

3) alternate times of only-red (for awhile) and only-blue (for awhile) and only-green (for awhile) during a chord progression.  And it gets even more interesting when you alternate mainly-red and mainly-blue and mainly-green.     { hearing chord progressions in videos }

Using Strategies and Process to Make Melodies

As described earlier, you will improve your making-of-music by "learning practical music-making strategies... in a process of learning-by-doing."  We'll look at each aspect of improving, first music-making STRATEGIES and then strategy-learning PROCESS.     { Or you may want to first look at effective ways to learn with goal-directed practice by playing slow & playing faster and with whole-part-whole playing of a whole chord progression (3) and its parts (1 or 2). }

[[ iou – Here I'll summarize ideas about in-person coaching and web-page learning plus learning from your discoveries and my explanations.  In this page (and section) I'll focus on explanations by trying to clearly explain useful strategies (by using word descriptions + illustrative example-melodies) and will link to "discovery games" in other pages.  And I'll emphasize your opportunities to do MANY explorations and make many musical discoveries, with wide variety, when you do experiments that are stimulated-and-guided by strategies.  I think this combination — so you'll have explanations (in this page) and discovery games (in other pages) — will be the most time-efficient way for you to learn, and will be the best way for most people. ]]

practical music-making STRATEGIES

When you want to improvise music, you can...

use three kinds of melodies:  In a general melody-making strategy you make melodies that are mainly red {or mainly blue, or mainly green} by mixing brief times of chord-melodies (with only red notes) and brief times of scale-melodies (with consecutive notes), plus occasional brief times of skip-melodies (with “everything else” you want to play).  During a scale-melody the non-red notes are called passing notes because they let you musically pass between two chord notes, i.e. between two red notes.     { examples of chord-melodies & scale-melodies & skip-melodies and combinations }

use two kinds of scale-melody:  In the Key of C, a scale-melody can include all consecutive white notes, or all consecutive notes, both white & black.  In a very simple melody, a brief chord-melody (1-3) transitions into a brief scale-melody (3-4-5) to form “1-3-4-5” with only white notes.  Or the melody can become “1-3-4-5b-5” when the scale-melody includes all notes – both 4 (white) and 5b (black) – between 3 and 5.

make rhythmic adjustments:  Because these two melodies have different numbers of notes, making each “sound musically artistic” requires finding (by experimenting) different rhythms for each.  You can play each in a variety of “rhythmically artistic” ways, but you'll find that a way that sounds good for one melody probably won't work well for the other.

[[ Kristin – Early this morning I had planned to "tie up some loose ends" in three parts below here, but instead became fascinated with questions in the iou-paragraph below, wondering about the relative benefits of "discovery" and "explanation" because each offers different advantages for a learner.  And playing the keyboard, mainly trying to construct "discovery activities" with a reasonable difficulty level, to illustrate strategies while giving a reader opportunities for discovery.  And I've just enjoyed making music.  It's fascinating and fun.  Therefore the loose ends (and rough edges) remain, with lots of IOU's.  I'll continue working on them later today, thru Thursday-Friday, and think I'll make fairly rapid progress AFTER making decisions about this question:

[[ As a teacher, this morning (May 8) I'm struggling, trying to "find a balance" between sharing strategies (like "ending on a home-note" and "using neighbor notes" or "ending on a neighbor note, so you can begin on a home-note") -- in this section (and this page as a whole) probably I'll describe strategies and give examples, will put games for "do-it-yourself discovery" in another page, and will just share strategies here, illustrated with examples; although a reader will have fewer discoveries-of-principles now, they then can begin using the strategies to explore, with many opportunities to USE the principles for making a wide variety of melodies.]]

improvise DIY-Melodies:  Play “each kind of scale” between two other pairs of notes, beginning with first 5-and-2, then 5-and-7.   Next, for each of these four scale-melodies, continue playing a melody beyond the end-of-scale, beyond the 2 or 7 (going lower & higher than the 0 & 9 on my diagram, if you want) with additional notes.  When you have extended each scale-melody (by playing 1-8 extra notes) several times to invent your own DIY-melodies, continue reading. [[say "extend by 4-8 notes"?]]  [[ change melody to 1-3-5....2 and 1-3-5.....7 each with two ways, but recommend starting melody-extnsions with 135...7 because it leads to better rhythm-continuity for including other-neighbor 9 === by contrast, 135....2 tends to end with 1354321, cannot artfully end on a 1-after-0 or 1-after-2 ]] [[ maybe use 135...2 for home-note, and 135...7 for neighbor note?? ]]   /   Probably you'll recognize that you've been using two common strategies, with a home-note and neighboring note(s), when you...

end on a home-note:  Did you sometimes end “5....2....” on 1 so it's “5....2....1”?   And end “5....7....” on 8 to make “5....7....8”?   If yes, you're using a valuable strategy by often (but not always) ending a phrase on a home-note, on either 1 or 8.  If no, try it.  And before a home-note ending, maybe you sometimes...

use neighbor notes:  A musically artistic way to end on 1 is to “approach it” from below and/or above, with the next-to-last note(s) being 0 and/or 2 (the neighbor notes of 1), and maybe also including 1 as a not-yet-final home note.  And in the other DIY, you can “approach 8” by using 7 and/or 2, which is analogous to (and very similar to) “approaching 1” except now you've been playing an upward scale, so the melody-making is a little different.   /  ==== [using neighbor notes during chord transitions, e.g. "

135_648_759_851_ [[later describe A-vs-B as different shapes, one ascending, other bouncing high-low-higher, medium-low-high, small down then big up]]

135_648_975_431_ [[also do example with 012...89X for 9-X transition?]]

135_648_975_4320,135_648_975_431_

creativity doesn't require complexity

When musicians are making melodies, a key principle is that...

[[ iou – this needs a paragraph-title ]]   Earlier I describe "playing [an only-red melody] creatively by moving rightward & leftward (upward & downward in pitch) [to reverse the direction], sometimes skipping red notes."  Although this complexity is useful for “spicing up” a long only-red melody, it isn't necessary when you're using short only-red melodies in a context that is more complex.  This is your situation after you have expanded your melody-making options from only-red (in 1) to mainly-red (in 2) by also using non-chord notes, and you are mixing colors (by alternating mainly-red & mainly-blue & mainly-green during a chord progression in 3).  And ALSO when you have developed skills in using a variety of melody-making strategies like mixing brief melodies (chord-, scale-, skip-) and playing two kinds of scales (with only-white, or both white & black), using home-notes & neighboring notes, and other strategies.

For example, four simple chord-melodies can be combined – by alternating chord-colors (red,blue,green,red) – to form a melody that is musically creative, yet simple.*  You can hear many melody-examples that also are simple, yet are more creatively artistic, when Aimee Nolte shows why maybe 4 notes [or 2,3,5,...] is all you need.  Although a 4-note melody won't be complex, it can be creative.  And wonderful to hear.   🙂

simplicity can be sufficient:  For example, an easy way to begin experiencing the wonderful music of chord progressions (in 3) is by playing a simple melody – 135468579851 – using the notes (0123456789) shown here, with two home-notes underlined.  Even though each 3-note melody (135, 468, 579, 851) is simple (with one color, as in 1) the overall result is musically complex, producing beautiful music because 3 (with a “changing of chords” during the progression) is inherently more interesting than 1 (without any chord changes) or 2.

use rhythmic variations:  You can experiment with a variety of rhythms so you're combining artistic note-choices and artistic rhythm-choices, with “art” defined as music you enjoy making & hearing.  In a simple example, the melody notes in "135468579851" can be rhythmically modified to make “1355468_5799851_” where "_" shows that this final note lasts two beats instead of the one beat used for other notes.   This variation converts the original rhythm of “3 beats per bar” (135 and 468, ...) into “4 beats per bar” (1355 and 468_ , ...).   And at the time-level of the whole melody, you can hear/feel an 8-beat phrase (1355468_) and longer 16-beat phrase (1355468_5799851_), with phrase defined as "a series of notes that sounds complete, even when played apart from the main song."      { more about melodic rhythms }

what should follow this?  maybe...  A) Mystery w 135 examples,   B) begin w simplicity of only-chord, later only-->mainly w link to WPW

[[ iou – the next paragraph will be combined with (maybe followed by) the simple red-blue-green-red melody, illustrating strategies that include repetitions with variations -- e.g. if do 4 times of 135 will become boring, but if twice maybe fascinating --> wondering "how often? again? or not with a change?], transtn to Mystery -- or do mystery principle, then do examples of 135-135-135 w colors vs 135-135-135 w only red ]]

[[ full paragraph about Musical Mystery ]]

* Although complexity isn't always required, sometimes it's useful.  A chord-melody {or scale-melody} that moves in only one direction – by ascending continually, or descending continually – will sound good, but after awhile you may want to change the chord-melody by reversing its direction, or skipping a note(s), or changing its rhythm, or by smoothly converting it into a scale-melody or skip-melody.  ====  is useful, but sometimes a reversal-of-direction you can try playing melodies with and without reve  

only chord-notes ➞ mainly chord-notes:  When you begin doing 3 it will be easiest – and best, I think – if you begin with the simplicity of playing only chord notes, so your melodies are only-red & only-blue & only-green, as in these two examples.  While you're doing this for a particular progression, during each chord your melodies will automatically (because you're using chord notes) be harmoniously pleasant, and you'll be improving your ability to “hear the chord changes” and “internalize the harmonies” in your musical memory.   /   After you're comfortable with the progression, move onward to playing mainly-red & mainly-blue & mainly-green by also playing non-chord notes in your melodies.    [[ iou – this will end with a link to "making the only-to-mainly transition" in WPW section ]]

my terms and our strategies:  Although my terms — like chord-melodies & scale-melodies & skip-melodies (above) and (below) red melodies & blue melodies & green melodies — are not used by other musicians to describe melodies, the melody-making strategies are used when we improvise melodies.  My approach (using a colorized keyboard) is innovative, but the results — using our strategies for making melodies — are traditional, are in the mainstream of music.

some additional melody-making strategies are...

developing rhythmic skills:  What?  Some essential skills are "making your melodies ‘fit into’ the available time [e.g. the time in a bar or phrase] in rhythmically musical ways [e.g. by using "rhythmic adjustments" when similar melodies "have different numbers of notes"], playing smoothly with rhythmic continuity & melodic continuity, and with precision & accuracy in your rhythm-timings."   How?  To develop these skills, you must gain experience with “disciplined playing” when there is rhythmic accountability (to provide feedback on your rhythmic skills), as when playing along with a backing-track video, or with other musicians in a live jam session.

combining old with new:  When you're playing along with a song that has a familiar melody, you can alternate times of using the old melody as-is, and modifying it to form semi-new melodies that are slightly-unfamiliar (with some unpredictable Musical Mystery but not too much) so your variations can be recognized as being slightly different, but not totally different.    {more}

creatively using black notes:  One way to use musical imagery is to inspire yourself by “thinking ___” and filling the blank with classical, or blues, jazz, rock, popular.  Maybe you'll find it useful to “think classical” while playing white passing notes;*  and you can “think blues” while also mixing in black notes, especially three blues notes that are the flatted notes of 3b (3-flat, below a chord's 3-note) and 5b (below its 5-note) plus 7b (in the Scale of C Minor).    /   * But some chromatic melodies (with non-scale black notes) have a “thinking classical” sound-and-feel.  You can hear some of these (along with explanations of principles) in a video from Chris Houston, Chromatic Melody - Tips & Tricks.  Many more principles-with-examples are in Jazz Improvisation by Julian Bradley, in one of my two favorite teaching videos;  the other is his Jazz Theory.   /   Another strategy for playing “blues melodies” is to develop skill with...

playing only black notes:  In an only-black melody, you cannot “make a melodic mistake” and (as with only-red) everything you do will sound fairly good, although you'll think some ways-to-play sound better than others.  Playing only-black can be done with five different home-notes, each producing a different 5-note pentatonic scale;  the two most common are a Minor Pentatonic Scale & Major Pentatonic Scale (with home-notes of 3b & 5b) that, when used in the Key of C (so the home-note is 1) can be slightly modified to become blues scales that – similar to using blues notes – are useful for playing blues.   /   Although “everything you do sounds good” when playing only-red (in 1) or only-black, playing only-black will be visually easier and (because you have more notes to use) you can invent melodies that are more interesting.  But the most interesting possibilities occur when you're playing mainly-red (in 2) or mixing red-blue-green (in 3).  The potential for musical complexity — and thus for inventing melodies that are interesting & enjoyable — increases when you move from only-red (1) thru only-black (1b) to mainly-red (2) and (in 3) to blendings of mainly-red & mainly-blue & mainly-green.    { a few tips for playing only-black }

making melodies with intuitive singing:  A satisfying way to make music – especially during chord progressions in 3 – is by singing because this gives you an efficient connection between thinking and doing, with an intuitive translating of your musical ideas (imagined by you) into musical sounds (made by you).  It may be easier to translate ideas-into-sounds when you sing without words.   /   Then you can convert the melodies you're discovering while singing into melodies you're playing while keyboarding.  When you're making these conversions, one effective process-of-learning is to experiment while you're playing slowly.

your strategy-learning PROCESS

connecting STRATEGIES with PROCESS:  How are these related?   • You can use practical music-making strategies to stimulate-and-guide your explorations (because you'll know many note-choices that probably will sound musically artistic) when you are learning-by-doing, are experimenting so you can listen & learn.   • You can use your process of learning-by-doing to master the strategies, to “make them your own” so they now are internal (they have become actualized in the ways you intuitively make music) rather than only external.

principles for improving your process of learning: 

iou – The rest of this page will be better soon.  It will improve soon, May 7.

[thinking strategies with regulation of metacognition, @index#exp, quote parts]   /   And I'll add a few new ideas, but not a lot more. ]]     { After you have used these ways-to-play for awhile and have “internalized them” subconsciously, probably you will rarely think about them except sometimes during slow playing when you're searching for creative new ways to play. }

You will learn more effectively, and more enjoyably, when you use strategies to guide your experimenting  —  by playing...  often slow (to allow creativity) but sometimes faster (to develop rhythmic skills),  while thinking about theory and by not-thinking,  seeking new adventures,  expecting to improve,  aiming for quality in learning & performing  —  so you will get more musical experiences and learn more from your experiences.

When you do experiments, you can learn more effectively if you play...

 • often slow (to allow creativity) but sometimes faster (to develop rhythmic skills), playing sometimes slow but sometimes faster, ---- It's very useful to sometimes play slow and sometimes play faster, because each produces a distinctive kind of experience, and each is useful in different ways.

 • with thinking, and without, while thinking about theory and by not-thinking,

 • to seek new adventures, seeking new adventures,

 • expecting to improve, to grow. [growth mindset] expecting to improve, while expecting to improve,

 • aiming for quality in learning & performing. aiming for quality in learning and/or performing, with objectives for learning and/or performing.

so you will get more musical experiences and learn more from your experiences.

Let's look at each of these strategies (• • • • •) for learning more effectively.

relationships-connections-correlations -- slow-conscious-learning, faster-subconscious-performing

• develop-and-use a better growth mindset -- you are confident that in this area of life (as in most areas, and all of the most important areas) you can “grow” by improving your skills, when you invest intelligent effort.*  An effective growth mindset combines honest accuracy (in self-perception) and optimism (about being able to grow & improve).

• develop-and-use an adventurous attitude:   When a person is beginning to improvise music, it's an unfamiliar activity, maybe uncomfortable, and you may not feel confident.  You need a growth mindset – plus wanting to learn from new experiences, no matter what happens – so you will have an adventurous attitude, will continue seeking new experiences.   /   One way to feel more comfortable, and feel more creatively free, open to exploring new ways of making music, is to improvise in low-risk situations, like when you're alone and nobody (not you or anyone else) cares about the quality or klunkers.  A feeling that “no matter what happens, I'll be ok” will help you relax.  You'll feel more free to do the creatively-risky experimenting that produces new experiences and new learning.   {experiences: getting more & learning more - learning from all experience (both failures and success) - performing and/or learning}    /    Another way to feel more comfortable is to use a colorized keyboard so you'll have easy-and-intuitive recognition of the chord-notes you can use to form harmonious melodies.  You'll enjoy hearing the melodies you're making, and this positive feedback (with immediate gratification) will motivate you, will help you feel more confident in your ability to make music that is interesting and enjoyable.

  When you play slowly, you have more time to think & play & listen;  this makes it easier to freely experiment, to creatively “try things” by combining note-sequences in a variety of ways, helping you discover how to improvise different kinds of new melodies and new rhythms, to make music that's interesting-and-enjoyable.  When you play faster – but not necessarily “fast” – with other musicians (recorded or in person) so you'll have rhythmic accountability, this helps you develop the disciplined skills of playing rhythmic melodies with accuracy and continuity, as explained in playing slow and faster.

• play while thinking or not-thinking:   [[ iou – I'll develop this in early May, re: your use of thinking strategies to regulate metacognition, to control whether to use it and (if yes) how to use it, plus connections with slow paying and faster playing. ]]

• define objective(s)/goals for performing and/or learning:

• What?  When you want your best possible performance now, you have a Performance Objective.  When you want your best possible learning now, so you can improve your best possible performance later, you have a Learning Objective.   For example, compare a basketball team's early-season practice (with a Learning Objective, wanting to learn NOW so they can perform better LATER) and late-season tournament game (with a Performance Objective, wanting to play their best NOW).   /   The title is "and/or" because your highest priority can be to maximize your learning now, or your performing now, or some combination of both. 

ways to play (to “practice”)

[[ this will have an introduction, re: goal-directed practicing  /  and comments about "practice" vs "playing" (similarities, differences, and Learning Objective vs Performance Objective)

play slow and play faster:  To learn more & enjoy more, during 1,2,3 sometimes play slow and sometimes play faster.  Why?  Playing slowly (with no external rhythm to “push you along”) gives you more time, and this lets you creatively explore new ways to play.  Playing “faster” — not necessarily “fast” but with rhythmic accountability (as when playing along with a video) — is disciplined practice that helps you develop skills in making your melodies “fit into” the available time in rhythmically musical ways, playing smoothly with rhythmic continuity & melodic continuity, and with precision & accuracy in your rhythm-timings.   You also can decrease the tempo of a video, for a “hybrid experience” that combines the benefits of both by giving you more time (for creativity) while keeping the rhythmic accountability.     { the benefits of playing slow and faster }

[[ maybe reverse the order of "play slow..." and "two ways..." ? ]]

two ways to play 3:  You can “hear the chord changes” either while you're playing melodies (that are different “colors”) or while you're hearing chords (that are different “colors”).  How?  This is possible because people hear two kinds of harmony — sequential harmony (during melodies) and simultaneous harmony (in chords) — so we hear two kinds of harmony changes.  Therefore you can do 3 {or 2} while only you are playing melodies, or while you're playing along with the chords of a backing track in a youtube video for a chord progression with only major chords (e.g. simple or blues) or — more common, and a little more challenging — also a minor chord (50's or popular or jazz), at a tempo you choose.     { or you can “play along” in other ways, including jam sessions }    [[ this will end with link to "improving 2 improve 3" and will have links to single-chord videos for 2, with comments about slow-w-drone and faster-w-vamp ]]

[[ iou – this needs introduction ---- Below you'll find ideas that can help you improve your melody-making in 3. ]]

Whole-Part-Whole

[[ in 3 --- While you're making this transition — from "only chord notes" to "also playing non-chord notes" — it will be useful to recognize that the keyboard has...

identical chord-note patterns, but different overall patterns:  [[maybe change this title]]   Although the isolated chord-note patterns (with “every other white note”) are the same for all three colors, each overall pattern is slightly different due to the “visual context” provided by black notes, with one big difference.  Therefore some visual cues will be different for each color, when during a chord progression (in 3) you're playing a mainly-red melody (during a red chord) or mainly-blue melody (during a blue chord) or mainly-green melody (during a green chord).   /   Because of this you can...

improve 3 by improving 2:  When you improve your melody-making skill with each color during a red-2, then a blue-2, then a green-2, so (during each kind of 2) you can fully focus on improving either your red melodies or blue melodies or green melodies.  An effective way to improve 3 is to use whole-part-whole cycles (with or without a single-chord video) by playing the whole (3) and then parts (red-2, blue-2, green-2), whole (3), parts, whole,...

[[ iou – here I'll develop analogy between playing long tones (to improve tone quality with a wind instrument) and playing long melodies (during 2's for red, blue, green, minor).  In each case the goal is to maintain high quality (of tone or melody) when you move from focusing on it (during long-tone playing or long-melody playing) to playing in the context of "full music" as in 3 with shorter tones or shorter melodies. ]]

[[ improving 2 may be especially useful for "during minor chord" melodies of CP's ---- Of course you also can do this for 50s/popular/jazz (with minor chords, that for awhile – when you begin – is less intuitive), AND practice playing melodies that are only-red (and mainly-red) with the upper Red Bars for A Minor;  in fact, you should...

[[ practice "long stretches" (e.g. do a 2 playing melodies with "mainly red bars" so you will be more skilled when playing-along with a 50's CP or Popular CP (that use A Minor), and practice "mainly blue bars" for a Jazz CP (that uses D Minor).  Why?  After you improve your skill with each of these (mainly red/blue green cirlces, plus mainly red/blue bars) you'll play more skillfully when during each part of a CP you're playing-along with one of these chords.

[[ in a MAJOR Reorganizing, May 7, I'll use these ideas here, or maybe earlier as an introduction for "whole-part-whole" practicing ]]  [[whole is goal, parts are mainly means-to-end ]]

improve 3 with cycles of Whole-Part-Whole:  You can pursue an ultimate goal* — to improve your skills when improvising melodies during a chord progression (in 3) — by alternating times of doing the Whole (in 3) and its Parts (in 2).   /   * Even if your "ultimate goal" is improving 3, you can enjoy the goal-pursuing process of making melodies in 2.

doing the Whole:  You can do whole-3 – and enjoy improving your skills – in two ways (as with 2), when only you are playing, and when you're playing with others.  You can “play along” in several ways, but here I'll descibe the convenience of using videos.  For whole-3, use multi-chord videos (at different tempos) so you can “hear the chord changes” during chord progressions with chords that are only major {simple & blues} or are major-plus-minor {50's & 1564 & jazz}, and in other progressions.

doing the Parts:  You also can do partial-3 (that is whole-2) in two ways, with only you playing and playing with others.  For whole-2, use a single-chord video (with a red chord or blue chord or green chord) that is a non-rhythmic drone (useful for playing slow) or rhythmic vamp (for playing faster, at different tempos).  Of course, you can use these videos for doing whole------ [[to be continued]]

using cycles:  Although I [previously] describe 1-2-3 as "a three-stage progression of learning" and they are "stages" of increasing complexity, they're intended to be used in continuing cycles, not as one-and-done stages.  Each way to play (1,2,3) is an option you can use in cycles of whole-part-whole-part-whole-part..., or (more often) as whole-part-part-part-whole... because you often will choose to play two or more kinds of 2 — i.e. red-2, blue-2, green-2, and maybe a minor-2 (for 50's or 1564) or minor-2 (for jazz) — to help you pursue your goal of improved skills in 3.  And to enjoy the goal-directed process in 3.     { tips for pursuing goals with goal-directed dedicated practice }

[[ this paragraph will be moved "out of the main flow of whole-part-whole" to later in page ]]    playing melodies-with-blue:  You can hear the most important difference [[i'll quote-summarize and link to "identical chord-patterns..."]] when you play a five-note major scale starting on 1 (it's 1-2-3-4-5) and then starting on 4 (but to sound the same it must be 4-5-6-7b-8 instead of 4-5-6-7-8, where 7b is called 7-flat).    {more about the differences}

major & minor:  During our discussion-and-playing you heard the difference between Major Chords & Minor Chords;  and between Major Melodies & Minor Melodies.  The red-blue-green Circles (in two lower rows) are for notes of Major Chords, and red-blue-green Bars (in two upper rows) are for notes of Minor Chords.    [[ i'll link to index.htm#aminor, or specific places within that general section-about-minor ]]

unconventional colorizing ➞ conventional music:  In case a traditionalist scoffs at the concept of “music by colors” I wrote a paragraph about the educational benefits of colorizing to explain why "although my approach (using a colorized keyboard) is innovative, the educational results are traditional, are conventional" so it will help keyboard-users "play music and learn theory that are in the mainstream of music."  And a colorized keyboard — with a visual structure that is simple (with pitches increasing from left to right) yet significant (with important “musical meanings” for the patterns in white & black notes, and in red & blue & green notes) — is an effective way to learn the logical patterns of music theory because a learner can SEE the musical patterns, helping them help them understand music theory and play musical melodies.

numbers-and-letters and colors:  My system of colorizing is designed for the Key of C Major, and it uses the same logical correlations (between note-numbers & note-letters) that are used in standard music theory.  Everything is the same, with or without colors;  nothing changes.  But using colors can make learning easier-and-better.   /   Because this photo (used to describe melodies) is for the Key of C, the 1-Note is C, and 0123456789 is BCDEFGABCD.  These correlations (between numbers & letters) are used to translate my colors (red-blue-green) into letters (for notes or chords, C-E-G or C-F-G) & numbers (for 1-3-5 or I-IV-V), and to reverse-translate letters & numbers into colors.   /   Our system of music theory is complex yet is logical.  It's like a language, and it logically defines a system of terms — to describe notes & scales & chords & keys, by using 7 letters (plus flats & sharps) and regular numbers and roman numerals and words — in ways that are explained in this section.

iou — What's in this gray box will soon (May 8-9) be revised and moved into the sections above, or deleted.  But even before then you may find that some ideas are understandable and useful.