How To Play A Minor Third

With the changing of the leaves, experiencing cooler nights in California and seeing Halloween decorations all about, my ears turn towards those minor sounds. From wikipedia you can learn a bit about minor thirds:

"A minor third is a musical interval of three semitones. It is the smaller of two commonly occurring musical intervals compounded of two steps of the diatonic scale. The prefix 'minor' identifies it as being the smaller of the two (by one semitone); its larger counterpart being a major third. The minor third is abbreviated as m3 and its inversion is the major sixth. The minor third may be derived from the harmonic series as the interval between the fifth and sixth harmonics, or from the 19th harmonic.

The minor scale is so named because of the presence of this interval between its tonic and mediant (1st and 3rd) scale degrees. Minor chords too, take their name from the presence of this interval built on the chord's root (provided that the interval of a perfect fifth from the root is also present or implied)... The minor third is classed as an imperfect consonance and is considered one of the most consonant intervals after the unison, octave, perfect fifth, and perfect fourth."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_third

I wanted to share a piano exercise I found online. MrRon on YouTube provides a great Warm Up Exercise in 3rds Through the First 5 Notes of the Major and Minor Scale!

* Play Piano - Warm Ups in Major and Minor 3rds!



I love this piano exercise. Try it in all 12 keys!

Another valuable resource I found online is from Hear and Play Learning Center where Jermaine Griggs explains on his blog that minor thirds in songs contain 3 half steps.
You can visit their site at:

http://www.hearandplay.com/main/tag/minor-thirds

One more wonderful site for music lessons to share with you can be found at Zebra Keys.
How Does the Natural Minor Scale Apply to Songs?
"Some sad sounding songs are written using notes of the natural minor scale. When a song is written in the natural minor scale, most if not all of its melody notes as well as harmony chord notes come from that scale."
Here you will learn about the Natural Minor Scale:

http://www.zebrakeys.com/lessons/intermediate/musictheory/?id=32

If you're interested in Classical music, JS Bach comes to mind with Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. Perhaps you have seen many of Yoke Wong's piano teaching videos on YouTube. Here is one especially for this time of year:

http://www.yokewong.net/halloweenmusic.html

Do you like the blues? a friend on facebook, Gilbert DeBenedetti has a site for free sheet music. Have you heard of Big Bad Goblin Blues?

http://gmajormusictheory.org/Freebies/Holidays/Halloween.html

* Other related Topics:
How To Form Chords

http://ladydpiano.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html

Chord System

http://ladydpiano.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html








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