Piano and Music Basics
This Music Basics section contains information which may be useful to beginners. This is information which may help if you are learning the piano or keyboard and useful for musical reference purposes. The first section shows how to learn chord shapes and explains what the chords are. Following from that, there is a section on how to actually play chords on a piano. Moving on, there is a basic 101 guide on how to read music. Finally, for more advanced areas, a basic guide on how to transpose music from one key to another.
The music information sections are laid out below.
There are some other music sections that you may find useful if you are learning music, please see the links below.
- List of Basic Guitar Chords – ideal if you are learning guitar
- Some Chords and Tabs – apply the chords you have learned
How I Learned Music
At an early age I started playing piano, maybe around 6 or 7. I wasn’t taking lessons more playing by ear. Around the age of 11, I started doing basic piano lessons and I did so for about 6 years up to Grade 5. After that, the basic music theory I had from those lessons allowed me to join music groups, such as choirs and bands, and thus learn about playing live, playing with a group, and performing in front of an audience. Knowing about styles, keys, music time signatures, clefs, and chords is all important and it is a good idea to at least have a few lessons by a music teacher so that you can learn best practices (You can learn a lot of bad habits otherwise). Also, as much as possible I try and do at least 30 minutes of practice each day to keep my brain sharp and my playing style and musical memory (if there is such a thing) in good shape.
My Current Musical Journey
I am now a keyboardist and musical director for the Queen Tribute band Celebrating Queen which is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. I regularly perform in the USA with them and here in Ireland I often sub for other Queen and Tribute Bands. I have a timeline of my musical journey to date and you can see this on the “Shane McDonald Music Timeline” page. I enjoy networking with other musicians and over the years I have done everything from arranging and writing to performing and coaching. I also do YouTube Piano Tutorials for Queen songs on the Shane’s Queen Site YouTube Channel.
If you have any questions – just drop me a line.