Roman Numeral System | Piano Lessons in Bartlesville
Are you ready for another awesome discussion about music and about learning different aspects about how to play certain instruments and about music in general and just some other tips and tricks when it comes to playing the piano or playing any other instruments. So we do offer a variety of lessons at Curtis Music Academy. We offer Piano Lessons in Bartlesville, piano lessons and vocal lessons primarily. Today’s lesson actually applies mostly to instrumental lessons, we’re going to be talking about the Roman numeral system of playing chords, and it’s also called the natural number system. And it’s a way to play chords. If you’d like to learn about this topic, sign up for a one dollar lesson today!
It’s a way to transpose easily, and especially useful for Piano Lessons in Bartlesville. And I really like it because it’s a way to really start understanding how different keys follow the same pattern. And so even just for that aspect, I think that the Roman numeral system is really valuable when people start understanding how the structure of music works. Now, I was taught in elementary school vaguely about the Roman numeral system, but I don’t know if kids nowadays are. And so that is a little bit tricky of a subject, but it really just boils down to learning the first seven Roman numerals and uppercase mean major chords, lowercase meaning minor chords and how it applies to certain music during Piano Lessons in Bartlesville.
Now the most common Roman numerals in a song would be the Roman numeral one Roman numeral four. Roman numeral five. Roman numeral minor six. In the key of C, that would be C, F, G, and a minor. So if you’re playing through a song, you actually might just write out those Roman numerals instead of writing out the different letters, and that would be beneficial if you get really accustomed to reading the Roman numerals that way. It’s also really beneficial if you are in a situation where you’re going to transpose often because in a different key, the Roman numerals would actually stay the same. And so that is why it’s valuable to me, is because it transcends and is true no matter what key you’re in. This is crucial for teaching Piano Lessons in Bartlesville.
Whereas if you did like English letters, you would have to change all of the chords. I think especially guitarists really like this method because they rely on those Roman numerals a lot more than I personally have in my experience. I can’t speak for every piano player now. One time I was in a band sitting where we were using the Roman numerals numbers and we had our set list. We had practiced and everything sounded good. But towards the end we started doing a little spontaneous music. And at that point we had our ear monitors in our headphones and the band leader was just directing us what chord to play using the Roman numeral system, the way that he taught in his Piano Lessons in Bartlesville.
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And so he would say one. And then that way the band would be together and then he would say, you know, it was probably something unusual, like two minors or however that way we were on the same page for that little bit of that moment of uncertainty and uncertainty. We were still together. And so it’s a really easy way to bring a bunch of musicians together to play in a certain key, play the correct notes. So it was really valuable, especially in that situation of teaching Piano Lessons in Bartlesville. I think even beyond that, if you never really, quote, use it, I think it’s really important to understand the Nashville number system for music theory reasons, because it will just help you see that it literally is the same exact thing that you’re playing.
It just started up like a half step higher or it’s in a different key. And so that in and of itself is really valuable. So, for example, we talked about a chord progression earlier in the key of C. We could do that same progression in the key of G. So in the key of G, it would still be Roman numeral one Roman numeral for Roman, numeral five, Roman numeral six minor. But in this particular key, it would be G, C, D and E minor. So you see how the Roman numerals stayed the same in two different keys, although the English letters changed. So this is really cool when you’re transposing and when you’re transposing, realizing that the scale is the same. It just has different starting points on the piano.
I use this example when I am teaching Piano Lessons in Bartlesville. In some ways I like to think of it like a really high apartment building. It has the first floor, it has the second floor as the third floor and going upward. So you could think of it in a very simple way. Obviously, you can get more complex than this, but the first floor could be the key of C right in everything on that floor is relative to that level. Like you have a kitchen, you have a dining room, you have a bedroom. Right. So then the next floor is level the key of D. And so that one you still everything is relative to that level. So that’s the way it is with playing in different keys. You can play in the key of C in everything. Sounds like the normal song. Now if you go up a level to the key of D, it’s the same song.
It sounds exactly the same, but you have just started it at a different starting point. Therefore the whole song is relative to that starting point. So that kind of makes sense to a lot of people, especially in Piano Lessons in Bartlesville. I think that that’s going to really help explain it to a young student such as a child or maybe a pre-teen or teenager who’s learning the piano, that the term of transposition sounds a little overwhelming. So that could be something like to have an image of an apartment building or an office building. That’s many stories high. And just to say this is just a different level, it’s the same principle, though. So anyway, Roman numeral system in transposing goes hand in hand. And so that’s why I love it so much, particularly for the music theory side of it. So thank you so much for tuning in for this podcast about Piano Lessons in Bartlesville. We will see you next time.