Gigajam Essential Keyboard Skills Level 2 CDROM

Lessons 11 to 20 take your skills to the next level. These skills equate to Music Grade 4.

By the end of level 2 you will be quite an accomplished player and have the skills to be a confident live performer.

Here in more detail are the 10 lessons covered in Level 2. To hear an example of the kind of things you'll be able to play at the end of each lesson click the "Hear how you'll sound!" button.

Lesson 11: Introducing Rests

This lesson begins our study of rhythm incorporating Rests. We will begin to study their appearance, note values and how they are played to create and enhance rhythms. At the end of this lesson you will be able to play a variety of rhythms incorporating Quarter notes rests.

Lesson 12: Introducing Melody

In this lesson we will introduce the concept of Melody and begin to play simple Melody lines using Quarter notes. The use of Melody will require you to develop greater two-hand co-ordination and we will also build upon rhythm by incorporating Rests. We will also include a brief introduction to the use of Keys and Keys Signatures to develop your theory and reading skills.

Lesson 13: Developing Rests

Lesson 13 builds upon the skill developed in Lesson 11, except here we introduce Eighth note rests. As a result, you will develop greater skill in being able to understand, read and play rhythm.

Lesson 14: Developing Melody

Here we are going to build upon our introduction to Melody in lesson 12 and move the ideas on by incorporating more rhythm and more reading, by specifically incorporating a variety of rests into the exercises. Lesson 12 uses Major scales. In this lesson we shall look at Minor scales for our Melodies.

Lesson 15: Introducing Triad Arpeggios

In this lesson we are going to look at how to play different arpeggio patterns using Triads. This will develop strong two- hand co-ordination and also the technical ability with which to play Melodies.

Lesson 16: Developing Triad Arpeggios

This lesson builds on the use of Arpeggios and brings in the use of Eighth notes. The focus is on strong co-ordination, timekeeping, fluency and remembering the Triad shapes and notes.

Lesson 17: Introducing Dotted Notes

This part of the course is attempting to develop your reading and musical knowledge to a level that will provide a great deal of the foundation skills essential to becoming a proficient musician. In this lesson you will learn anmd understand the role of Dots in music, how they appear, how they are used and how you read them, play them and understand their value in terms of note lengths.

Lesson 18: Developing Dotted Notes

Having introduced the concepts of dots in the previous lesson we now progress through a series of sophisticated rhythm exercises, utilising many different combinations of note vales including dotted notes and rests. The exercises focus on developing these newly acquired skills, along with using Melody.

Lesson 19: Introducing Power Chords

Here we are preparing for the performance piece and need to be able to understand and play Power Chords. The application of the skills learned through this Level will come strongly into play when developing power chords and there is a strong use of two-hand co-ordination in the exercises.

Lesson 20: Performing a Song

Play with a professional band, whilst reading a Keyboard chart. This lesson can go towards your Level Two in Essential Keyboard Skills with Gigajam Keyboard School.