The reading courseLesson 4 of 13 · Level 2
2nds and 3rds as shapes
Play two notes at once in one hand by their shape: a 2nd side by side, a 3rd one above the other.
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A 2nd's heads side by side and a 3rd's stacked: read the lower note, then the shape.
Music soon asks one hand to play two notes at once. Don't name both: read the lower note, then the shape, and let the shape tell your hand what to do.
A 2nd together is two neighbouring keys. Its heads can't sit one above the other, they would overlap, so one is set beside the other, touching: a lopsided pair. Play the lower note and the key next to it.
A 3rd together is two keys with one between them. Its heads stack neatly, both on lines or both in spaces, like a snowman's two balls. Most often it is fingers 1 and 3, or 2 and 4, of a hand in position.
The guides that go further: How to read intervals by their shape and How to read chords: triads, inversions and sevenths.
Pieces this lesson opens
Pieces in the library that read as ready once you know everything up to this lesson, and didn't before it.
- Piece in C, Op. 117 No. 10Cornelius Gurlittlevel 2
- Study, Op. 139 No. 2Carl Czernylevel 2
- Ode to JoyLudwig van Beethovenlevel 2