The piano (and its contemporary descendant, the keyboard) have played a crucial part in all forms of Western music. With its substantial range of notes, and vast potential for melodic and harmonic interplay, the instrument has remained a mainstay in diverse genres like classical music, gospel, R&B, jazz, and film music.

Even within the primarily guitar-driven landscape of rock music, innovative players like Jon Lord (Deep Purple), or Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater) have managed to make the keys an irreplaceable component of their respective band's unique sound. Composers across the board frequently prefer to compose on the piano or the keyboard, because it is able to carry the key aspects of melody, rhythm and harmony simultaneously and allows them possibilities that are either impossible or obscured on other instruments. As an electronic, digital instrument which functions on samples of actual acoustic sounds, the keyboard is perfectly suited to sync with most of the radical innovations taking place in musical and recording technology today. Learning the keyboard can have huge theoretical and physical benefits for the serious musician. Apart from a grounding in how music works, playing the keyboard also cultivates dexterity with the fingers that can be effectively transfered to playing any other instrument. All this and more, makes the keyboard an excellent choice both as a primary or a secondary instrument.

Course Overview

Fundamentals and Theory
The Fundamentals section is designed to provide you with the basics of music theory. The core concepts of melody, rhythm and harmony will be covered through staff notation. The student is taken through intervals, formation of scales, time signatures, transposition, ornaments and phrasing. Your knowledge of music theory and the core fundamentals will open doors to a world that was previously closed to you. Used correctly, music theory will help you not only understand your music, but will allow you to communicate your musical ideas, and to explore music in ways you have never experienced before. Music theory allows you to be literate, and to expand your musical horizon, and to give you a vocabulary and method for doing so.

Technique
The Technique Section is designed to help you train your fingers to do what you want them to do. The concepts in this section include: Five finger exercises on a repeated pattern of notes, finger independence, trills, arpeggios and classical exercises from greats like Czerny and Hanon. Once you have mastered a particular exercise at the suggested tempo, a faster tempo will be your next goal!! Apart from raw speed, co-ordination and dynamics are stressed on.

Harmony
In Harmony, you will learn chords and how to play them in any inversion anywhere on the instrument. The focus is also on different accompaniment styles over one specific chord progression. The exercises cover many different chord patterns that you can use to learn chords in all inversions as well as Suspended, Dominant 7th and Power chords. you will also learn how to arrange chords together to form a musical piece. General concepts of voicing from a choral, brass ensemble, string quartet perspective are covered. The topics at an advanced level focus on jazz extensions such as 9ths and 13ths.

Ear Training
A sound musical ear is immeasurably important for all musicians. You must have a good sense of relative pitch and rhythm to be a good musician. And also it should go without mentioning that it is paramount to being a good songwriter.

Rhythm
The rhythm section trains a student to play at specific tempos to a metronome thus developing his/her own internal clock. Famous styles like Reggae, Blues and Country are discussed with playing the melody along with the rhythm. Triplets, odd meters, tuplets and polyrhythms are discussed at the higher level program.

Popular musical styles
Introduction to popular music styles like Rock, Blues, Funk, Metal, Rock n Roll, Country, Folk, Reggae & Pop will be covered with great emphasis on actually applying these styles on the keyboard with standard grooves, patterns and phrasings. Famous chord progression will also be covered from various genres. This will be covered in greater detail at Level 2.

Improvisation
Musically, improvisation is the act of writing a song while performing it. Improvising is a little more complicated than an imaginative children's game. Though it is a highly creative and flexible technique, it requires great skill on the part of the musician. A musician involved in an improvisation must have a detailed knowledge of chord structure and complicated scales and modes. Exercises include improvising bass riffs in the left hand using only two to three notes, use a pre-determined series of chord changes and improvise to create new melodies and harmonies, jamming along to a constant riff in the bass line and rearranging popular songs.

Music Production
The keyboard with software always pushes itself day after day with advancements in technology. It would be found in almost any music production house as a MIDI controller and external synthesizer. Study basic concepts of MIDI programming, loop based music, editing your music and using virtual instruments housed within your recording software. Also learn how to set patches and get the best tone out of your instrument for a specific task.

Study of Different Sounds
A modern day keyboard can have sounds including acoustic and electric pianos, organs, orchestral instruments and monster synths. A different approach to these various sounds is required to get the best results. Study concepts of pitch bending, layering multiple sounds, studying the role of each sound, applying specific techniques to each sound for a wide repertoire of music.

Performance
Study famous artists who have dominated their craft for decades and learn through them how a keyboard can fit in to different situations as the lead instrument, accompaniment and groove maker. Also learn how to play in a band and jam with other students. The main factor here is developing confidence!!