Online piano and music theory course

Iván Rolón

Welcome to the online piano and musical theory course. Here I will offer explanations in text and video about the contents and activities proposed in the piano and musical theory course as complementary material for the development of the classes.

This course aims to provide effective guidance for developing a comprehensive musical and pianistic education. By comprehensiveness, I mean the development of all the skills necessary to independently pursue unrestricted musical practice. This includes: music reading and writing, ear training, piano and vocal technique, instrumental and vocal practice, musical analysis, playing from memory, composition, sight-reading, and improvisation. It is designed for those who wish to progress deeply, creatively, and independently in their musical and piano journey, following a clear and progressive structure.

The course is divided into 12 levels (Basic: A1, A2, A3, A4; Intermediate: B1, B2, B3, B4; Advanced: C1, C2, C3, and C4), each with 24 lessons. In the following posts, you will find the first lesson of the basic level (A1) free of charge and openly available. This online course is offered to reinforce accompaniment during home practice, providing guidance to help students progress independently at their own pace. Here you'll find detailed text and video explanations for each activity, downloadable supplementary materials, and self-assessment guides.

Each lesson in the course includes exercises for developing fundamental skills for effective, independent, and comprehensive musical practice. These are:

0. Music Theory: This section contains explanations of the technical elements covered in each lesson, accompanied by exercises to facilitate understanding. It details the rhythmic, melodic, harmonic, morphological, and piano technique aspects included in each of the corresponding sections of the course. Learning music theory is fundamental for musicians at all levels because it enables the understanding of the technical elements of music, facilitates music reading and writing, enriches performance technique, improves musical interpretation, offers analytical tools, enables composition and improvisation, provides a common language for communication among musicians, and helps develop logical, mathematical, concentration, and memory skills. I suggest starting each lesson with a review and practice of the technical aspects covered.

1. Rhythmic Reading: To continue, I offer progressive exercises for percussion, singing, or piano playing to foster the development of the rhythmic skills necessary for musical performance. Training rhythmic reading is crucial for coordination, improves the understanding of musical notation, facilitates musical interpretation and the learning of new pieces, and enables the ability to sight-read. Each rhythmic exercise is linked to a video that you can use as a guide until you can perform it on your own, either with a beat or with the help of a metronome. Once you have achieved satisfactory rhythmic reading, I suggest you record yourself playing the exercise to check your own technique.

2. Rhythmic Composition: To enhance your understanding of the theory, foster the development of cognitive skills and creativity, and provide additional training material, I propose composing rhythmic exercises using the technical elements presented in each lesson and taking the rhythmic reading exercise provided as a model. You can write your rhythmic compositions in the digital or printed version of this volume, in a separate notebook, or using music editing software. I offer guides on handwritten music notation and using music editing software, available on the learning platform. I also suggest recording this exercise to self-correct your reading.

3. Rhythmic Sight-reading: Because mistakes in musical performance can slow down the learning process and lead to frustration, the purpose of this training is to achieve correct rhythmic performance from the first attempt. To this end, I provide sight-reading exercises. However, no additional material is offered to facilitate solving the sight-reading problems, as it is expected that the student will be able to solve them independently after practicing rhythmic reading and composition. The purpose of these exercises is to verify that you are able to correctly solve the proposed difficulties at sight-reading after a brief mental reading before moving on to the next unit and, if necessary, to indicate the continuation of training through the composition and reading of additional rhythmic exercises. To carry out these exercises, I suggest you record your first reading for self-correction.

4. Rhythmic Dictation: Aural training is essential in musical education because it allows musicians to develop the ability to identify musical elements through listening, deepens their understanding of theory by connecting theoretical concepts with musical reality, facilitates the learning and memorization of new pieces, thus expanding their repertoire, improves accuracy, understanding, and sensitivity in musical performance, optimizes the skills involved in musical creation, both in composition and improvisation, and is an essential component of musical life, applicable to musical notation and transcribing music by ear. This training begins with rhythm, as it is the primary musical element, to which melodic and harmonic aspects will later be integrated. To develop this aspect, I offer progressive rhythmic dictation exercises. These are linked to each exercise to facilitate their search. You can listen to the video as many times as necessary to identify the time signature and write the rhythm. You can then check your answers by consulting the self-assessment guides for the corresponding unit of the online course. If necessary, I suggest you continue practicing rhythmic writing from dictation. You can use your recordings of the rhythmic reading, rhythmic composition, and sight-reading exercises for this.

5. Reading Notes: Developing musical notation skills is fundamental to a musician's overall development, as it facilitates the communication of musical ideas, allows for understanding the structure of musical works, improves technique and interpretation, enhances creativity, and helps develop cognitive skills such as concentration, memory, and problem-solving abilities. To this end, I propose exercises designed to help you identify written notes, their corresponding octave, and their position on the staff and keyboard, until you achieve immediate recognition of these elements. In this section, you will find notes in treble clef and bass clef, to write down notes, octaves, and positions on the staff, and play them on the piano. I then suggest you continue practicing in random order, using the game linked to each exercise.

7. Melodic Composition: As with rhythmic training, composing melodic exercises using the elements covered in each lesson aims to deepen your understanding of music theory, develop cognitive and creative skills, and create additional practice material. You can write your rhythmic compositions in the digital or printed version of this volume, in a separate notebook, or using music editing software. I also suggest recording this exercise to self-correct your unaccompanied, singing reading.

8. Melodic sight-reading. The purpose of these exercises is to achieve accurate reading of the notes, rhythm, and intonation on the first attempt. These exercises allow you to check if you can correctly resolve the reading and intonation difficulties presented at sight after a brief mental reading before moving on to the next unit. If necessary, they will indicate the need for further training through composing and reading additional melodic exercises. I also suggest recording your first reading of these exercises for self-correction.

9. Melodic Dictation: Aural training in its melodic aspect integrates rhythmic skills with the recognition of melodic and harmonic elements, such as intervals, scales, chords, and cadences, in the writing of melodies and musical pieces based on listening. To this end, I propose progressive exercises in melodic dictation. These are linked to each exercise to facilitate their search. You can listen to the video as many times as necessary to identify the time signature and write the melody and rhythm. Then you can check your work by consulting the self-correction guides for the corresponding unit. If necessary, I suggest you continue practicing melodic dictation. You can use your recordings of the melodic reading, melodic composition, and sight-reading exercises for this purpose.

10. Piano Technique: Training piano technique is fundamental for playing with fluency, precision, expressiveness, and without injury, and allows you to tackle works of progressively increasing complexity. To develop an efficient, healthy, and expressive playing technique, I offer progressive exercises, along with detailed explanations and self-correction guides on the learning platform, as a complement to personalized instruction.

11. Instrumental Practice: This section addresses repertoire learning through imitation, by performing and interpreting solo and ensemble piano works from the score, playing by heart, and performing in public.

Training the performance and interpretation of piano works from the score gives musicians autonomy in learning the repertoire and developing a personal interpretation. Performance refers to the ability to decode the information written in the score and translate it into sound. This requires the coordination of theoretical knowledge, rhythmic and melodic training, sufficient technical skills to overcome the difficulties of the repertoire being studied, and refined musical expression skills acquired through imitation. Musical interpretation, in addition to performance, involves a creative process in decision-making based on the desired musical outcome. This is an individual process that, nevertheless, can be informed by exploring reference interpretations, the perspectives of other musicians, musical analysis, bibliographic consultation, or formal research. For the progressive development of independent performance and interpretation skills, I provide works composed by me specifically to suit the stages of gradual development proposed for each lesson, accompanied by a video tutorial with a visualization of my hands on the keyboard, high-quality audio, and the synchronized score. This material is offered as a model of the expected outcome and as support for learning the repertoire by imitation. It includes detailed explanations, guides for self-correction, and reflection on decision-making, all available on the learning platform.

Learning by imitation is essential in musical training because it allows you to learn new repertoire, assimilate techniques, styles, and musicality organically and naturally by observing and replicating the movements and sounds of models, developing aural skills, memory, technique, and musical taste.

I also suggest you practice performing the proposed repertoire by heart. Training memory is crucial for achieving a fluid and expressive musical performance. It allows the pianist to play pieces without relying on the score, freeing up attention to focus on resolving technical aspects, musicality, and the emotional connection with the work. It facilitates performance, stimulates enjoyment of music, and fosters cognitive development. Memory is trained in four ways. Auditory memory is linked to rhythmic and melodic/harmonic training, as well as to the incorporation of musical models through active listening, which provides an internal model of the expected result. Visual memory is developed through performance based on reading the score, allowing the musician to retrieve information through mental reconstruction. Muscle memory is developed through the repetition of movement patterns during performance, the automation of which is essential for musical practice. Finally, short- and long-term analytical memory is trained through the practice of musical analysis. The ability to synthesize the complexity of a score into simple musical elements and verbalize them is fundamental for achieving effective incorporation of the work.

Furthermore, learning musical works both solo and in an ensemble is crucial for a musician's overall development. Solo practice enhances individual technique, personal interpretation, and self-confidence, while playing in an ensemble fosters active listening, coordination, communication, a sense of teamwork, and provides an enriching musical experience. Both approaches are complementary and essential for a comprehensive musical education. For solo instrumental development, I suggest practicing with the metronome and counting the beats aloud. I also suggest that students practice  melody reading and singing while simultaneously playing. For ensemble practice, the pieces are provided with instrumental accompaniment by the teacher. The tutorial videos for home practice include this instrumental accompaniment, along with an introduction to facilitate entry and rhythmic coordination.

Furthermore, regular public performance is crucial for a student's musical and personal development, as it allows them to apply and showcase what they have learned, overcome stage fright, gain confidence based on their achievements, communicate with others through music, improve expression, develop discipline through performance preparation, strengthen concentration, identify areas for improvement, and stimulate intrinsic motivation to continue growing through the validation received from applause and constructive feedback from the audience. It also provides valuable experience applicable to other areas of life. In musical training, the presentation of work occurs constantly and in various ways: in every class, in front of the teacher and classmates, in open classes and workshops, through audio or video recordings shared privately or on social media (which are also useful for self-evaluation and event preparation), in small family settings, in concerts of varying sizes, through live broadcasts, in competitions, and so on.

In addition, I also suggest you practice additional piano pieces selected according to your preferences. These include diverse musical styles of solo and ensemble works, designed to foster independent learning, be appropriate for your level, and follow a logical progression of increasing complexity. To facilitate your selection of this additional repertoire, I also provide video tutorials with works of varying characteristics and styles, organized by difficulty level, along with a link to download or purchase the sheet music, a brief biography of the composer, and a description of the work. I invite you to explore additional repertoire by consulting the playlist on my channel corresponding to your current level.

12. Musical Analysis: Musical analysis is important in musical training because it helps to thoroughly understand the technical elements that make up musical works and their relationship to the historical and cultural context. It allows for the development of perceptual, interpretive, and critical skills, provides tools to facilitate sight-reading and memorized performance of repertoire, and is fundamental for learning musical composition and improvisation based on models. To develop these skills, I offer a detailed musical analysis of the works presented in each lesson, followed by an additional work with similar characteristics for the student to analyze, along with self-correction guidelines.

13. Musical Composition: Musical composition is a powerful tool for the holistic development of musicians and an essential component of musical life. It is important in musical training because it fosters creativity, a deep understanding of music theory, and the development of technical and interpretive skills. It provides a vehicle for the expression of emotions and the search for one's own musical voice, and it promotes the development of cognitive skills, as well as strengthening self-confidence and self-esteem. To develop these skills, I offer in each lesson a guide for practicing composition based on elements drawn from musical analysis, along with detailed explanations and self-correction guides, available on the learning platform. You can write your compositions in the digital or printed version of this volume, in a separate notebook, or using music editing software. I suggest you submit your compositions accompanied by an analysis and a recording of your instrumental performance.

14. Sight-Playing: Training in sight-playing is fundamental to musical education because it improves the ability to quickly interpret new music, facilitates learning new pieces, and develops essential skills such as anticipation, rhythmic accuracy, and general musicality. It is also indispensable in professional musical life. To this end, I propose sight-playing exercises to be performed after musical analysis and mental reading. I suggest you record your first performance to self-correct. The purpose of these exercises, in addition to developing sight-playing skills, is to serve as a tool to verify that a sufficient level of development has been reached to allow for increasing the difficulty of the repertoire, continuing with the next lesson, and, if necessary, indicating further training through the composition and sight-reading of additional melodic exercises.

15. Free and Structured Improvisation: Training in improvisation is essential because it fosters creativity, develops aural and performance skills, improves mental fluency and flexibility, allows musicians to explore new ideas and sounds, apply theoretical concepts practically, and respond to unexpected musical stimuli. It is a spontaneous mental composition process channeled through musical practice itself. Improvisation can be free or structured. Free improvisation involves exploring the expressive possibilities offered by the instrument, without starting from a predefined musical approach. This provides numerous benefits, as it helps students release any tension or frustration arising from the formal training proposed in this course. On the other hand, structured improvisation involves closer guidance, using the compositional works and exercises proposed in each lesson as models. To this end, each lesson offers progressive exercises to facilitate the incorporation of the elements learned through musical analysis and composition into spontaneous musical expression, along with detailed explanations and self-correction guides available on the learning platform.

Each exercise in the lessons includes explanations and guides that provide ample tools for developing self-assessment skills, essential for a well-rounded musical education, as well as for conducting formative assessments and guiding decision-making based on the student's needs. Furthermore, at the end of each volume, a summative assessment is offered to measure the achievement of the proposed learning objectives and guide future development.

To start the course, I invite you to go to the theory lesson corresponding to module A1.1, and then begin with the first practical lesson below.

Theoretical lessons:

1. Sound parameters 

Practical lessons:

1. A1. Lesson 1