sonjajoubert777

About Sonja Joubert

Sonja Joubert is a master pianist classically trained by the late master Mr Josias Van Der Merwe and the late Adolph Hallis. She is also an excellent piano teacher with over 40 years of teaching experience specialising in both jazz and classical piano.

Preparing for Your Piano Exam

2023-10-09T14:28:16+01:00

Preparing for your piano exam is more than just knowing your pieces and your scales but also working through the ear training syllabus and sight-reading.Many times ear training and sight reading get overlooked in preparation because of the vast amount of work that you have to prepare for your music exam.When I studied for piano exams, the former mentioned was in most cases left for the last month or two. Fortunately, most students studying music will have a good ear to be able to recognise intervals, chords, etc., and you could get away with only practicing it the last two months [...]

Preparing for Your Piano Exam2023-10-09T14:28:16+01:00

Rhythm and Beat

2023-10-10T12:31:00+01:00

All music has what is commonly known as rhythm and beat. Beat and rhythm are two distinct concepts, and one should not be confused with the other. Musicgateway states it as follows: “Beat is the underlying pulse of a piece of music, while rhythm is the pattern of notes and accents that create the musical texture.” source In a big band, these concepts are sometimes nuanced by a specific section of the band, e.g., the rhythm section and the percussion, but all the instruments will be contributing to the beat and rhythm to a smaller or larger degree. It is much [...]

Rhythm and Beat2023-10-10T12:31:00+01:00

Playing Piano by Ear or by Sight – Which is Best?

2023-01-27T09:49:44+00:00

Playing the piano by ear or by sight - which is best? There are often disputes between musicians as to which of these two ways of playing music is best. The ear players see their way as best, and the note-reading players say, “no, our way is best!” So what would be the best way for you to learn to play the piano or an instrument? Let's look at playing from music sheets and not playing by ear. A significant advantage of playing by sight is being able to read music pieces from the score - even if you have [...]

Playing Piano by Ear or by Sight – Which is Best?2023-01-27T09:49:44+00:00

Understanding and studying the lead sheet: Autumn Leaves

2021-03-01T11:08:58+00:00

“Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners... The jazz standard repertoire has some overlap with blues and pop standards.” Jazz standard - Wikipedia Autumn Leaves “One of the most popular jazz standards of all time is “Autumn Leaves” by Joseph Kosma... Autumn Leaves is an excellent jazz standard to start with because it covers some basic chord progressions and harmonic concepts found in jazz”. 30 Nov 2017 - How to Navigate Autumn Leaves - [...]

Understanding and studying the lead sheet: Autumn Leaves2021-03-01T11:08:58+00:00

Creating jazz piano voicings for the adult beginner

2021-03-01T11:09:35+00:00

What are voicings? Voicings are created when you move the order of the basic chord tones of your jazz chord around so that an authentic jazz sound is created. Using the normal jazz chord in its root position with its stacked 3rds on top of each other sounds boring and not like real jazz. I already discussed the building of jazz chords in the article: “Fundamental jazz chords”. It is best to change the order of the chord notes by moving them around forming not only intervals of 3rds on top of each other, but also 5ths or 7ths or 4ths [...]

Creating jazz piano voicings for the adult beginner2021-03-01T11:09:35+00:00

Jazz chords and knowing your intervals – for the adult beginner

2021-03-01T11:08:01+00:00

In this article, I will be discussing the 7th chords or jazz chords which are formed on any given major scale or key using the natural notes of the given scale. We will be working from the major scale on which western music is built. This structure is called the tonal center. There are 12 possible major or minor keys any particular song can be played in. This is because of the 12 notes on the piano keyboard. This means that anyone of these twelve notes will be the tonal centre or home base. How can we determine the home key? [...]

Jazz chords and knowing your intervals – for the adult beginner2021-03-01T11:08:01+00:00

Is it important to learn music theory as an adult beginner?

2021-03-01T11:07:14+00:00

Many people think that learning the theory of music is merely time-wasting and not really important. The fact is that learning and understanding music in its written form and knowing the basics concerning the theory behind it can only be to the advantage of a student. It can never be to your disadvantage. You might think that you only want to be able to play your instrument and make music. That you are not interested in studying the background or theory of music but rather in being able to play your instrument. But alas! To really enjoy and understand your music [...]

Is it important to learn music theory as an adult beginner?2021-03-01T11:07:14+00:00

Teach yourself jazz theory: chords built on the major scale part 1

2021-03-01T11:07:03+00:00

Today we will be discussing the jazz chords built on each of the steps of the major scale and how to implement these chords into your jazz repertoire. In the article called “Jazz chords and knowing your intervals”, I discussed the basic scales, intervals and the combination of intervals and chords that form the four basic jazz chords namely the Major 7th, the Minor 7th, the Dominant 7th and the Minor 7th b5 chords. In this article, I will be discussing the different 7th chords or jazz chords formed on each step of the major scale.  When building chords, you will [...]

Teach yourself jazz theory: chords built on the major scale part 12021-03-01T11:07:03+00:00

The basics of jazz for the adult beginner

2021-03-01T11:06:49+00:00

I already discussed jazz in general and its origin in a former article. As I mentioned before, the term Jazz is used very loosely for nearly every style of music which is not classical or contemporary, like rock or rap. “Jazz is a broad and complex genre, and so it may seem difficult for those who are first getting into Jazz to know where to start. . . . But Jazz doesn’t need to be complex. You can actually get by with a minimum amount of theory and practice”Stefan Joubert In this article, I will try to capture some of [...]

The basics of jazz for the adult beginner2021-03-01T11:06:49+00:00

The basic chords used in jazz for the adult beginner

2021-03-01T10:50:02+00:00

The basic chords used in jazz for the adult beginner In this article, I will try to capture some of the basics of jazz to help you as an adult beginner. The most important ingredient in playing jazz being the chords you use. It’s like the bricks in a wall. Knowing your basic chords and scales needs to be a foundation to work from. We will look at how chords are structured or built and their extensions. Starting as an adult beginner, learning to play jazz could take quite some time just to master the basics. Moving from classical musician to [...]

The basic chords used in jazz for the adult beginner2021-03-01T10:50:02+00:00

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