It is, of course, possible to play from Klavar music without any ability to name the chords and intervals. In fact, over concentration on naming and analysing can actually inhibit fluent playing. The music should always come first; analysing after. However, I believe that for a deeper enjoyment of the music and certainly in order to discuss the music meaningfully, a knowledge of intervals and chords is essential.
The benefits of knowing the intervals
The first step in forming a close relationship with someone is to learn their name. So it is in music. We may already be able to find the notes and many of the chords with ease due to the exceptional clarity of Klavar, but when we can identify each interval and chord by name, they acquire a more distinct personality. When we meet them in the music we can then greet them with the broad smile that we reserve for our best friends. We derive a special kind of comfort from this familiarity which I believe enables us to play with greater EASE and CONFIDENCE. There is also a kind of intellectual pleasure of actually "knowing" what we are playing. Though we may not wish to invoke this ability to analyse, all the time, it is there if we need it.
It is definitely much easier to LEARN a new piece that we may wish to play from MEMORY if we can analyse and name the chords and intervals.
Our ability to play by EAR will improve when we have played carefully all the tunes in this book paying attention to the intervals that make those sounds.
Our SIGHT READING should improve dramatically after mastering the intervals and we will learn to anticipate certain combinations--notice for example how frequently a TRITONE resolves into a minor 6th or a major third.
Our FINGERING will become more fluent when we have practised the intervals in the most natural positions.
The cartoon illustrations
The illustrations are not simply to amuse the "children". They are an integral part of fixing the intervals vividly in our minds; specially in their use of mirror images. Pattern recognition is essential in music and the memory is helped enormously by these mirror image cartoons.
Terminology
I have used the terms familiar to Klavar players, not the more accurate but more complicated terms of traditional music notation. An augmented fourth is treated the same as a diminished fifth, for example, as on the piano they use the same notes. Only "flats" are used, not sharps. In traditional notation double sharps, double flats etc are necessary to describe certain combinations of notes; this is of theoretical value only and is avoided in this book.
Carl Neilson, the Danish composer, writes in his book Living Music:
"In studying the basic intervals - one must be taught to regard a melodic 3rd as a gift of God, a 4th as an experience and a 5th as the supreme bliss. We must first reverence and respect the simple intervals, dwell on them, listen to them, learn from them and love them" .
I wish you joy in this endeavour.
Peter Jackson. Hong Kong 1997
Revised 2001 On-line
2006
