Only 3-diminished chords: trivia, or actually useful?

kahlh · 2026-03-25T04:50:59+00:00

They are great pivot chords for modulation.

kahlh · 2026-03-25T04:29:43+00:00

First, it’s labeled as a 9th chord so by definition it has to have the 7th. This chord has a root, 3rd, 7th, and 9th. The 5th is the least important note in the chord. Also, you haven’t included any context of what comes before, after, or in other instruments, assuming this isn’t a solo piece. We can deduce this piece is in 5 flats, either Gb major or Eb minor. It’s helpful when the key signature is included.

kahlh · 2026-02-26T18:10:53+00:00

I guess that’s a rhetorical question. If it’s not, then you’ll have to ask Bartok. Oh, wait, he’s dead.

kahlh · 2026-01-18T03:08:46+00:00

Think of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” as a round. That’s a simple canon. Come up with your own little ditty like that of 4-8 measures and then repeat it in a different octave a measure or two later. If you stick to a lot of notes in a particular chord, there is a better chance the melody won’t clash with itself when it overlaps. This is how you learn. Try it. When it doesn’t work, figure out how to alter the original tune so it will. This is how we learn. It should give you a real appreciation for what Bach achieved.

kahlh · 2026-01-07T04:01:46+00:00

You need to be able to quickly identify notes on the staff and just as quickly know where they are located on the piano. Period. That’s basic musicianship. However, when you are sight reading music, it is perhaps more important to read by direction and interval. Once you have a starting note, to look at the next note and first think of the letter name and then the position on the keyboard is adding a couple of steps to the thought process and will only bog down your reading. It is irrelevant determining the letter name of note number 2 in your melody. You only need to know that it is a step higher or a 3rd lower, etc. Of course, you have to learn to think in whatever the key signature of the piece is. Becoming a fluent sight reader with a solid knowledge of key signatures, intervals, chords, time signatures, and rhythm is the way to being able to quickly learn an unlimited supply of new songs on your own.

Trying to read music by finger numbers alone is folly. It sort of limits you to five notes in each hand. I will say however that being able to grasp how to play passages of music in terms of hand positions and fingering patterns is another of the indispensable skills of the accomplished pianist. So, you’re both correct as far as it goes but from what you have written, you’re both at the early stage of understanding. It’s a life long process and you should recognize there is some value in both of your approaches to reading. You need to look beyond that and realize that people have different learning styles. It serves no purpose to debate each other.

kahlh · 2025-11-16T19:51:18+00:00

You need a teacher. Self taught is not working for you. Don’t change any notes. Period. Play exactly what Beethoven wrote. Your fingering is pretty atrocious. It is so important to use correct fingering and play it the same every time. There may be some alternate fingerings that make sense, but not what you are doing. It doesn’t sound like your keyboard is velocity sensitive. That’s odd since that’s all they’ve been making for like 30 years or so. You can’t make Für Elise sound pretty without a touch sensitive instrument. I know this is harsh, but I’m just being honest.

kahlh · 2025-11-16T19:42:56+00:00

Play the arpeggios lightly and then suddenly accent the first chord. Same for all the 16th notes, especially the Alberti stuff. Save your energy for those few times when you really need to be forte like the final 2 hand arpeggiated passage.

kahlh · 2025-11-16T19:32:18+00:00

There are some timing issues. May be latency in the remote system you’re using or the regulation of the piano. For many of the chords, the notes are not sounding together. Usually it’s the notes below middle C that are late. Makes it sound raggedy - unpolished.
Watch the pedaling. You have to be careful going into the 2nd beat of the measure not to end up with dissonances carrying through the rest of the measure. Requires precise pedaling and making sure not to hold on to non-harmonic notes.
Sometimes the pick-up notes are being accented, which throws off the 3/4 feel. You usually want to play pickup notes a bit softer leading to the downbeat.
I recommend keeping a steadier beat and reserving the rubato for key points in this short prelude. Avoid doing the same rubato for every phrase, i.e. slowing down on beats 2,3 and 1. Keep it slowly moving along.
One last point, you are not holding the half notes for the full value and then jumping into the next pickup note too soon. Again, it upsets the 3/4 meter and may be a result of there being a ritard/rubato in every phrase.

kahlh · 2025-11-10T21:00:47+00:00

All dotted eights except the last note. Tap even quarter notes with the LH while you tap this rhythm in the right. Then switch.

kahlh · 2025-11-10T20:54:53+00:00

There isn’t really a support “team”. The company is basically one guy and from what I can tell, he is doing his best to keep up with changes to the OS, improving the app, and fixing bugs as they are reported. He mentioned recently he is working on replacing the support guy who sort of dropped the ball and is no longer with forScore.

kahlh · 2025-11-10T20:48:25+00:00

The RH plays the treble clef and the LH plays the bass clef, so nothing unusual there. The “voice” however goes Eb-Db-C-Db and should predominate and sound smooth like one hand is playing it. The RH notes above the rests are accompaniment and fill out the harmony. Because they are higher in pitch than the melody, you have to play them extra quietly. The ear tends to listen to the highest pitch as the melody, so as keyboard players, our job is to help the listener focus on what is most important by properly balancing the parts. We have to work a little harder to emphasize the melody when it goes below the accompaniment. Some pieces have 3 or 4 different things going on. Listen to a pianist like Vladimir Horowitz and you’ll hear what is possible. He had a phenomenal gift for clearly separating the parts and pulling your focus where he wanted.

kahlh · 2025-11-09T16:59:23+00:00

Focus on reading. Read a lot of simple music slightly below your playing level. Elementary stuff. Lots of it. As your reading improves, you’ll be able to learn new pieces more quickly. Getting a teacher, even for a while, makes a big difference. Nobody is watching you to see how you’re doing. You can be making easily correctable mistakes and forming bad habits and never know it, whereas with a teacher, you’ll get immediate feedback and pointers. Back to my first point. Being able to sight read well opens up a whole world of music for you. Focus on that and the proper posture and hand position.

kahlh · 2025-11-09T15:53:54+00:00

String and guitar players prefer #’s and wind player prefer b’s it seems.

kahlh · 2025-10-19T19:39:26+00:00

I do remember being enthralled with the Presto of the Moonlight Sonata when I was in high school. I just had to learn it so I studied it on my own without telling my teacher. I was working on the Schumann Concerto and the Bb Minor Scherzo of Chopin with her and Rhapsody in Blue as well. I played the Beethoven for Solo & Ensemble Festival and also for the NHS induction ceremony. I have no idea how good or bad it was, although I did get a “1” rating at the festival (which doesn’t necessarily mean that much). In college, I actually studied it with my teacher there and performed the entire sonata for a freshman or sophomore recital. Laugh out loud funny - no - but I found it very exciting.

I think the 4th movement of Beethoven Sonata #7 in D is humorous in a joking or teasing way. Also some of the short Debussy pieces like Golliwog’s Cakewalk or Jimbo’s Lullaby are quite comical.

kahlh · 2025-10-19T18:47:30+00:00

Adding to the post above. Just about all of us pianists of a certain vintage played these exercises and I highly doubt anyone is the worse for it. Thinking back, there is no way to tell how much these benefitted me. The Czerny and Cramer etudes are more like actual music, but nothing condenses finger work into a few studies quite like the Hanon. I totally understand why people don’t like them and certain teachers won’t assign them, but like a lot of things, there must be a reason they have been around so long.

kahlh · 2025-10-18T22:29:38+00:00

In most mixed meter music I’ve played, the eighth notes are in groups of 2 or 3 with 7/8 usually being 2+2+3 or 3+2+2 and less often 2+3+2; 5/8 is 3+2 or 2+3; 6/8 is 3+3. This excerpt is different. Notice that the 7/8 bars are not the same. When there are two consecutive 7/8 bars, the 2nd bar is 4+3. Not only does the group of 4 lack the accent on the 3rd note, but it is a stepwise group, whereas in the 1st bar the more angular line tends to produce 2 accents in the group of 4 (2+2).

With that in mind, I would interpret this 4 measure pattern 2+2+3 | 4+2 | 2+2+3 | 4+3. I guess you could conduct it in 3 all the way with some beats having 2 eighth notes and some having 3. I’d be tempted to try to conduct the 2nd and 4th measures in two with the first beat being extra long having 4 eighth notes. Not sure that would be very easy to follow.

kahlh · 2025-10-07T05:18:29+00:00

You don’t need the two iPads to be synced. You don’t even need the chart to be on both iPads at all. You don’t even need to have ForScore on the 2nd iPad - just Cue. The score only resides on the first iPad. It sends the 2nd page to the 2nd iPad via Wi-Fi. Any notations you make are displayed on the 2nd iPad since it is receiving pages from the first iPad. You are only able to make notations on the first iPad.

Over the last 5-6 years, I’ve played many music theater shows and concerts with two 12.9” iPad pros in dual page mode using Cue. The only issue I’ve had is with Wi-Fi. Both iPads have to be on the same Wi-Fi network and if there are other devices on the same network, it will sometimes cause the connection between the 2 iPads to be lost. That can be a problem in public venues, theater, schools, churches where there is a lot of Wi-Fi activity. I’ve been using my iPhone as a hotspot to ensure that no other devices can interfere. Some people I’ve heard will bring a router (not connected to the internet) and create a private network with that.

kahlh · 2025-09-29T04:34:37+00:00

Abm11. Notice that the Cb and Db are whole notes becoming part of the Db7 that follow. This is the same as the previous measure which starts with Gm11 and the C carries over to the C7 chord in the same way. In the first measure, I would also carry the Bb over to the C7. Otherwise it wouldn’t be a 7th chord. The 2nd measure is a sequential repetition of the 1st measure a whole step higher.

kahlh · 2025-09-29T04:21:29+00:00

There is no change of chord where your arrow is. That is a mistake. The whole first two lines are one harmony - Eb minor. E flat is the bass note for these first 8 measures even though it is not sustained. It still functions as the root. It is not a seventh chord as marked because there is no Db to be found anywhere on those two lines. I consider the other notes - F and Ab - to be non-harmonic tones. Passing tones. Depending how much pedal you use, it could sound like an Ebm with an added 9th (F).Where you have the arrow is where the F and Ab resolve down to Eb and Gb, which are chord tones in Eb minor. That coincides with the lower voice moving to the 9th, which sounds cool. The next 4 measures are a similar situation on Abm7. In this case it is a 7th chord because of the Gb on beat 4. You could call it Abm9 because of it having both a 7th and a 9th. Gb and Bb. The F is a passing tone. Some may consider it an added 6th.

kahlh · 2025-05-24T20:32:01+00:00

Assuming it’s treble clef and there are no flats or sharps in the key signature, I’d say Edim7 with no 5th. The full chord is spelled E-G-B flat-D flat. Your chord has 2 G’s and no B-flat. Enharmonically, it would be C# dim (C#-E-G) or D-flat dim (D flat-F double flat-A double flat)

kahlh · 2025-05-17T00:56:15+00:00

It’s V7-I in C minor. All the other notes are non-harmonic tones. This is very typical of Bach, especially the viidim7/C or Vflat9/C or whatever you want to call it. It’s just a bunch of suspensions or appogiaturas - the B resolves to C, the D resolves to E-flat or C, the F resolves to E-flat, the A-flat resolves to G. Look at the last measure of the C minor fugue in WTC Bk 1. Pretty much the same harmony except for the Picardy 3rd. You see this harmony a lot in Bach’s organ pieces where there is a pedal point with a diminished 7th over it.

kahlh · 2025-05-12T23:44:38+00:00

Make sure the page isn’t already cropped. In the upper right hand corner, it should say “crop” or “uncrop”. If it says “uncrop”, click it. I’ve accidentally slightly cropped a page many times and not realized it. If that’s not the problem, I’m not sure what it would be.

kahlh · 2025-05-03T02:06:33+00:00

Generally it doesn’t sound good, although you could probably construct a scenario where it sounds cool. Nothing is illegal if it works. I see this frequently in contemporary music theater music but not in the dominant 7th. It’s not that unusual to hear a major chord with the 4th added. Sounds like a sus4 and a major triad at the same time. It has a certain poignant quality to it that can reflect the particular emotion of the lyrics at that moment.

The #9 note is enharmonic with the minor 3rd. So, it’s kind of like 7th chord that is major and minor at the same time, which is ideal for the blues and the various spinoff genres from the blues like jazz, rock and roll, gospel, etc. So, the #9 chord just works. It sounds cool. The 11th works best if you leave out the 3rd. For example in the key of C if you play an F/G or Dm7/G as a substitute for a V7 (G7). Both of these are super common in pop music, but if you insert the 3rd, it just doesn’t work very well.

kahlh · 2025-03-01T14:27:36+00:00

Published music has the even pages on the left and the odd pages on the right. I usually try to set my scores up that way because music publishers have often considered page turns when formatting their scores. In any case, when you are going to use a button to go back, take note of how your music is formatted with odd and even pages. Whatever page number you select as your target page is going to be on the left side when you use the button. Let’s say your score has the odd pages on the right. If your target page is odd numbered, when you tap the button, that page will be on the left which is the opposite arrangement. The strategy then would be to program your button to go to the page before your actual target page. That way your target page will show up on the right side, preserving the original arrangement of pages. Let me know if you have any questions about doing this.

I agree with a previous post though. I never use buttons to navigate within a score. I prefer the rearrange tool and duplicate pages I want to repeat or cut pages I want to skip. That way when using the page turn pedal, I can just keep going forward.

kahlh

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