God be Praise Lyrics By Bishop T.D Jakes and the Potters'house Mass Choir

[Chorus:]

God be praised.

God be praised,

Let the name of the Lord be praised.

Oh Oh Oh Oh God be praised.

God be praised,

Let the name of the Lord be praised.

[Verse:]

From the rising of the sun,

To the setting of the same,

Let the name of the Lord be praised.

And until my dying day,

When there's no more I can say,

Let the name of the Lord be praised.

[Bridge:]

Praise ye the Lord,

Praise God in His sanctuary,

Praise Him in the firmament of His power.

Oh Oh Oh Oh praise ye the Lord,

Praise God in His sanctuary,

Praise Him, praise Him,

Praise ye the Lord.

Solfa Notation

Music Notation

Music notation can be described as the act of reproducing musical sounds in writing or the art of writing music. As a musician, vocalist or instrumentalist you may be inspire to compose a new song, or melody can just come into your head, mind, or heart on the spurn/spun of the moment & for you not to forget you have to put it down on paper if you don't have an audio/sound recorder. The means by which you do this is called notation. There are many types of notation but two major types of notation are:
(i) staff notation
(ii) solfa notation

(I)Staff Notation
Staff notation is the method of writing musical sounds on a staff or stave, using symbols called musical notes.

Diagram

(II) Solfa Notation
Solfa notation is very common as it is easy to learn & does not involve much technicalities. It is commonly used by traditional/classical choirs. Some instrumentalists also make use of it when playing their instruments.

Solfa notation uses 7 consonants of the english alphabet to represent sound and they are :
d, r, m, f, s, l, t .
Solfa notation is the method of writing musical sound with solfa notes for example the popular rhyme Mary has a Little Lamb has the following solfa

m r d r m m m
r r r m m m
m r d r m m m
r r r m r d 

Pronouncing the solfa 
We have 
d as in doe (Doe a female deer)
r as in ray   (A ray of sunlight)
m as in me ( Me a name I call myself)
f as in far    (Far a long way to walk)
s as in sew  (Sew a cloth)
l as in la
t as in tea    ( I want to drink tea)

Solfa actually enables you to feel the music you are either playing or singing.

Musical Alphabets

Musical Alphabets

In music we make use of the first seven(7) letters of the alphabets, namely A, B, C, D, E, F, & G. These seven letters are called musical alphabets & are used to write music. 

After letter G we go back to A, folowed by B, C, D and the pattern/progression continues all over again.

ABCDEFGA'B'C'D'E'F'G'A''B''C''D''E''F''G''A'''.

The white keys of the keyboard are named after the first 7 letters of the alphabet.

Keyboard Diagram 
  

One octave Keyboard

Two octave keyboard 

Each alphabets corresponds to a specific sound. The sound produced when E is played on a piano is different from when D is played. Also the sound produced when E is played on a well tuned guitar is similar to E played on the piano. Thus if I play C on the lower part of the keyboard & the upper part they are expected to sound basically alike. The only difference will be in the pitch of the two C(s). The pitch of the upper C will be higher than that of the lower C.

Also C played on the piano is the same as C played on the guitar although the quality(timbre) of the notes will be different.   

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Characteristics of Musical Sounds

Musical sounds have some characteristics that differentiates them from all other types of sound and they include:

1.  Pitch 
2.  Quality or Timbre
3.  Intensity or loudness

What is Pitch

Pitch can be defined as the highness(height) or lowness(depth) of a musical sound, note, voice or musical instrument. Pitch refers to how light or how deep a sound, or

Rudiments & Theory of Music Part 2

In rudiments & theory of music part 1, music was defined as the combination of melody, harmony, & rhythm pleasant to the ears. We are going to look at each of this elements one by one.

Melody

Melody is the tune of a song. It is usually sung by treble/soprano singers. Usually the lead singer/vocalist sings the melody.

Harmony

Harmony means agreement. Harmony exists when there is agreement between the various performers(instrumentalist/singers) in a band, choir or orchestral. Harmony is the combination of the various voices, parts & instruments. 
In practice the various singers or instrumentalist of a choir/band/orchestral are divided into different parts singing or playing different variations of the tune/melody but all the various parts must be in agreement.
In a traditional choir the singers are broken down into 4-part harmony which involves soprano, alto, tenor & bass (S.A.T.B) while in a contemporary choir the bass part is usually omitted which results in 3-part harmony involving soprano, alto, & tenor (S.A.T).
Soprano is usually sung by women with high voices while alto is sung by women with low(deep) voices. Tenor is sung by men with high voices while bass is sung by men with low(deep) voices.

Rhythm

Rhythm is the flow or movement of music. We have different rhythms such as march, reggae, makossa, highlife, waltz, swing rhythm etc The song " O when the saints go marching in " is usually played using a march rhythm.

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Rudiments & Theory of music Part 1

What is Music

What is Music

Music has a lot of definitions & we shall be looking at a few of them.
Music is the combination of pleasant sounds.
Music is the combination of sounds that are pleasant to the ears.
Music is the combination of melody, harmony, & rhythm pleasant to the ears.

PLAYING THE PIANO BY EAR USING CHORDS

Playing the Piano by Ear

Playing the piano can be fun & very appealing when one gains mastery of it but many people run away from it because of the boring nature of the classical approach to learning how to play the piano where you have to sit down for hours memorizing lots of theory, repeating boring exercises & scales, & at the end of the day you can only played the pieces you have learned & nothing more because you have only been taught to played written music & nothing more. You can't play on the spur of the moment, neither can you freestyle and you are limited to just one style of music.

This limitations can be removed by learning how to play piano through the use of chords & playing piano through the use of chords can be very, very interesting. Chord piano can be played just by anyone who possesses musical ears with little or no musical theoretical background. Chords are made by striking 3 or more keys on the keyboard either at once or successively(arpeggio).There are different kinds of chords.

CHORD PIANO

Chord piano is played using chords.The Piano Keyboard is made up of white & black keys. The white keys are named based on the 7 letters of the alphabets :A,B,C,D,E,F,G. If we press key C, D, E, F, G, A, B, & key C again successively we have successfully played the key of C-major which in terms of solfa notation is doh(d), ray(r), me(m), fah(f), soh(s), lah(l), te(t), doh(d). Now piano chords are made up of 3 or more keys/. For now we will be looking at 3 keys chords within the key of C major.

THREE KEYS CHORDS(TRIADS)

Three keys chords are called triads. Triads can be built on all the keys that make up the C major scale. The triad build on C is made up of keys C,E & G which in terms of solfa is d,m,s.It is called the C major triad or chord or simply as chord C. It can also be referred to as CHORD 1 because it is formed on the first note of the C major scale.

The next key in the scale of C major is D & the triad built on D IS called D minor triad or D minor chord or simply Dm. It can also be referred to simply as chord 11(two) since it formed on D the 2nd note or 2nd-degree of the C major scale.It is made up of the keys D, F & A or in sol-fa terms r,f,l.

The 3rd key in the scale of C major is E. We have the E minor triad or E minor chord built on it which can simply be referred to as chord E or chord 111(three) since it is built on the 3rd degree of the C major scale.This chord is made up E,G & B or in solfa terms m,s,t.

We will summarize the other chords into the table below.

Table1 showing all the triads formed on the scale of C major:

Degree	Key	Chord name 1	Chord name 2	Chord name 3	Technical name	Chord notes	Chord sol-fa
1	C	C major chord	Chord C	Chord I	Tonic Chord	C,E,G	d,m,s
11	D	D minor chord	Chord Dm	Chord II	Supertonic chord	D,F,A	r,f,l
111	E	E minor chord	Chord Em	Chord III	Mediant triad	E,G,B	m,s,t
1V	F	F major chord	Chord F	Chord IV	Subdominant triad	F,A,C	f,l,d
V	G	G major chord	Chord G	Chord V	Dominant triad	G,B,D	s,t,r
VI	A	A minor chord	Chord Am	Chord VI	Submediant triad	A,C,E	l,d,m
VI	B	B diminished chord	Chord Bdim	Chord VII	Leading note triad	B,D,F	t,r,f
1	C	C major chord	Chord C	Chord I	Tonic Chord	C,E,G	d,m,s