(By the way, thanks for all your support. You have been tremendously supportive on our radio show, the new gospel music training center, our various product launches, etc. I appreciate you).

Well, since I’ve been helping out with e-mails lately (to make sure we keep response times under 1 day), I’ve had an epiphany. Why not take a question a day from the REAL e-mails that come in and elaborate on them? It makes it easier on me because I’m answering that e-mail anyway — now I can simply format it, expand it a little further, and post it on the blog for all to see. Works for you?

(Granny calls that “killing two birds with one stone.)

And I won’t always limit it to one question per day either. If another good question comes in, I’ll post it too. You might end up with a bunch of smaller posts rather than one big long post, like in the past. I’ll see how this works.

Submit your questions at: blogquestion@hearandplay.com (you may not get a personalized reply but they will queue up for future posts).

So here’s today’s question submitted by Judy:

***********
Question
***********
“Hey, I don’t know what you mean by things with a “b” in FRONT of a scale number, such as “b3″ Whattup?”

***********
Answer
***********

Great question!

So we all know that I’m a big advocate for numbering your scale.

In other words, just don’t think of the C major scale as:

C D E F G A B C

Think of it as:

C is 1.
D is 2.
E is 3.
F is 4.
G is 5.
A is 6.
B is 7.

So if I ask you, “what is the 7th tone of C?” you should know it right away. These “numbered” degrees are what we call scale tones (or you can call them “scale degrees,” whatever you want frankly).

Now, let’s cover our little friends called “sharps” and “flats.”

A sharp is not a black key.
A flat is not a black key.

Rather, to “sharp” something means to raise it.
To “flat” something means to lower it.

(I guess I should define another term… a “half step” is from key to key with absolutely NO keys in between. A “whole step” ALWAYS skips a key with one key always in between).

Plain and simple.

When you see a “flat” sign (b) in front of a scale tone, that means to lower that tone one half step.

So if I say “the 3rd tone of C,” I’m referring to E because E is, indeed, the third tone of C.

C D (E) F G A B C = C major scale

If I say the b3 (”flat third” or “flatted third”) of C, then it would be E flat (Eb).

I simply take the same third tone and lower it a half step.

C D (Eb) F G A B C (believe it or not, this is actually the C melodic minor scale.)

I hope this helps!

***********************
Judy’s Follow Up Question
***********************

“Thank you for your help. Curious why it wouldn’t be written 3b for i.e. ‘Eb’
instead of b3?”

***********************
My Follow Up Answer
***********************

Well, because we say “flat 3″ or the “sharp 5,” instead of “3 flat” or “5 sharp,” it transposes the sign in FRONT of the note rather than after. That’s just how the terminology works.

Like the chord “C7 #9#5″

Pronounced: “C Seventh Sharp 9, Sharp 5″ or “C Seventh Sharped 9, Sharped 5″

I wish I knew more of the history but it’s like they say: “That’s just how it is…” :-)

I hope this helps.

——————

Until next time.

Wednesday: How to play songs with just two chords and still sound good

Thursday: Now you can finally make the numbers work for you!

Friday: It’s a numbers game! Discover how to crack the code

Monday (yesterday): Here’s a quick way to add even more spice to your songs

*Once you’ve caught up, this lesson will be a cinch!

Let’s get right to work!

Yesterday, I left off by showing you how to add the 3-chord to your songs. We stuck with the basic E minor chord and we inverted it so the melody “G” was on top:

“A-ma-zing grace* how”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

*On “grace,” the melody changes to “E” so you can actually invert your chord from “E+G+C” to “G+C+E” (which is 2nd inversion).

“Sweet the”
F major (root inversion) ~~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major (root inversion) ~~~
(C + E + G)

“That”
E minor (2nd inversion)
(B + E + G)

“saved a”
A minor 7 ~~~
(E + A + C / A bass)

“wretch like”
D major (add 9) ~~~
(F# + A + E / D bass)

-OR-

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D bass)

“Me”
G major (first inversion) ~~~
(B + D + G)

I promised yesterday to show you something else you could do with the 3-chord on the word, “that.”

As you learned on Thursday, substituting major for minor can sound much better at times. It doesn’t work all the time but it’s usually worth a try.

If it sounds worse, you just revert back to using minor… it’s that simple!

The reason it works is because it’s sort of operating like a 5-chord temporarily. And if you’ve learned just one thing from me, it should be that 5-chords have very strong pulls back to their tonic chords (that is, the “1-chord”). So when you take a 3-chord (in this case, “E minor”) and change it to an E major, it’s temporarily operating like a 5-chord to the next chord, which is A minor. E is the 5th tone in the key of “A.”

So let’s substitute E minor for E major and see what happens:

“A-ma-zing grace* how”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

*On “grace,” the melody changes to “E” so you can actually invert your chord from “E+G+C” to “G+C+E” (which is 2nd inversion).

“Sweet the”
F major (root inversion) ~~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major (root inversion) ~~~
(C + E + G)

“That”
E minor (2nd inversion)
(B + E + G#)

“saved a”
A minor 7 ~~~
(E + A + C / A bass)

“wretch like”
D major (add 9) ~~~
(F# + A + E / D bass)

-OR-

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D bass)

“Me”
G major (first inversion) ~~~
(B + D + G)

That sounds good!

Only one problem though…

By switching from E minor (B+E+G) to E major (B+E+G#), we’ve gotten rid of our melody note, which is “G.”

Here’s a perfect introduction to altering chords to make them sound the way you want.

And truth be told, it’s the way I found out about a lot of the altered chords I learned when I was 11 years old and playing for a bunch of churches (A long long long long time ago, hehe!)

Basically, new chords that you’ll learn that are not the “obvious” ones come out of dilemmas. Just remember that.

Usually, the story goes something like this.

Darn! That chord sounds good there but how can I play that chord but also keep the melody on top? How can I include the same notes of the chord that pulls to the next chord a lot smoother but still include my melody on top?

These are the questions you ask yourself. And here’s how to get to an answer…

Let’s take the E major chord (B+E+G#), which sounds great, and alter it so that we keep the melody on top.

Since “G” is the true melody, G# would overshadow it because G# is higher than G. So first, I need to invert this chord so that G# is on the bottom. This will leave room for me to play the “G” up top.

E major

G# + B + E

Now, I’m going to put my melody note up top…

G# + B + E + G

(This is a weird chord because it has both a major third and what appears to be a minor third. What you can do is change the “G” to “F##” but that gets really really technical. That would make this chord an E major #9. For the purposes of keeping this post simple, I’m just going to call it a “G” rather than the true #9, “F##” ok? I just wanted you to know how I’d go about naming this chord).

Now, this chord sounds alright to me but when I hear it, something tells me it can be better.

Since I’m also playing E on my left hand, one thing I can do to make this chord better is NOT play E on my right:

G# + B + G on right /// E bass on left

Here’s another tip…

Whenever you take out the keynote of a chord from your right hand and only play it on your left, check to see if the flat 7th note works, especially if the foundation of the chord is major. This will turn the foundation into a dominant chord.

In this case, we’d add “D.”

This makes the beginning of our chord:

[E on bass] + G# + B + D (that’s an E dominant 7 chord, a.k.a. - “E7″).

Then we add our altered note up top:

G# + B + D + G on right /// E bass on left

I don’t know about you but this chord sounds really good! And it works perfectly in the song because it keeps the melody on top.

Basically, we switched our minor chord to a major chord. Then we inverted the major chord to allow room for the melody note.

Once we heard it, we made little changes by taking out the repetitive “E” on the right hand and only played it on the left. Then, we added the flat 7th degree to create a dominant chord as the foundation.

This gave us our masterpiece:

G# + B + D + G on right /// E bass on left

Let’s plug it into our song.

“A-ma-zing grace* how”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

*On “grace,” the melody changes to “E” so you can actually invert your chord from “E+G+C” to “G+C+E” (which is 2nd inversion).

“Sweet the”
F major (root inversion) ~~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major (root inversion) ~~~
(C + E + G)

“That”
E7 #9
(G# + B + D + G / E bass)

“saved a”
A minor 7 ~~~
(E + A + C / A bass)

“wretch like”
D major (add 9) ~~~
(F# + A + E / D bass)

-OR-

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D bass)

“Me”
G major (first inversion) ~~~
(B + D + G)

I’m tempted to end the blog post here but I have one more idea for ya! (Don’t ya just love me???) :)

Let’s see if we can make this chord even better.

Here’s what I’ve learned over the years. Whenever you have a dominant chord with a sharp 9 alteration (like this chord), you can also sharp the 5th tone in the chord and it will provide even more pull to your next chord.

G# + B + D + G on right /// E bass on left

In this chord, the 5th degree is “B.”

E major scale
E F# G# A B C# D#

Change that to B# (or for simplicity’s sake, let’s just say “C” for this blog post).

Now you get:

E7 #9#5

G# + C + D + G on right /// E bass on left

Now, let’s try to plug it in…

“A-ma-zing grace* how”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

*On “grace,” the melody changes to “E” so you can actually invert your chord from “E+G+C” to “G+C+E” (which is 2nd inversion).

“Sweet the”
F major (root inversion) ~~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major (root inversion) ~~~
(C + E + G)

“That”
E7 #9
(G# + B + D + G / E bass)

-OR-

E7 #9#5
(G# + C + D + G / E bass)

“saved a”
A minor 7 ~~~
(E + A + C / A bass)

“wretch like”
D major (add 9) ~~~
(F# + A + E / D bass)

-OR-

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D bass)

“Me”
G major (first inversion) ~~~
(B + D + G)

*I know that’s a big jump from the E chord you just learned to the next one (A chord) but after practicing it, you’ll be fine! The key is keeping that melody on top and since the melody jumps from “G” to “C,” it’s not unusual for the chords to jump to follow it.

Well, that’s all for today!

I’d like to hear what you guys think about these two new chords. Let me know…

Until next time,

If you haven’t caught up, it might be a good idea to do so now. If not, just keep reading this lesson and if it makes sense, awesome! If not, visit the links above as this lessons builds on prior concepts.

As you know, we’ve been talking about using the number system and how to go from playing “Amazing Grace” with only three chords (aka - the “primary chords”) to adding more interesting chords from other tones of the scale.

On Wednesday, it was pretty simple. We just played a few songs by simply using the 1, 4, and 5 chords of the scale. We learned that those are called primary chords.

Thursday, we added the 2-chord. We also started looking closer at the circle of fifths and how chord progressions work. Like how the 2-chord pulls strongly to the 5-chord. We ended up slipping this chord in Amazing Grace right before the 5-chord and it worked brilliantly!

Then on Friday, we continued to mess with the circle and made a new discovery. That if we can use the 2-chord to progress to its neighbor on the circle (the 5-chord), then we can most certainly use the 6-chord to progress to the 2-chord.

After all, we could easily play Amazing Grace with just the 1, 4, and 5 chord. But the 2-chord made it more interesting by leading to the 5-chord. But we just took it a step further and asked the question: “What if we could pull to the chord that pulls to the 5-chord? How would that sound?” And it worked!

So we added our 6-chord. It led us to our 2-chord.

All of this can be seen on the circle.

Just look for these tones on the circle:

1) First, look for the primary chords of C major: C, F, and G. Notice they are neighbors on the circle. That means they have a very strong connection with each other.

2) Then, look for “D.” Notice that it’s a neighbor to G. That’s how we figured out we could lead to G by using some type of D chord.

3) Why don’t you also look for “A.” That was Friday’s lesson. It opened our eyes to the fact that we could also progress to a tone that progresses to another tone. We also learned another way of looking at the 6-chord (or “A” in this case). It’s commonly used as a tonic substitution, which means it can take the place of a 1-chord when you want to switch things up. And if you pay even more attention to the inner part of the circle, you’ll notice that “A minor” is associated with C major. In fact, they share the same exact slice on the circle at 12 o’clock.

And to be honest, there’s tons more patterns and observations that can be made from the circle. You can learn so much about music just by comparing what you already know about songs to that circle! (Try it when you get some time…)

Now that you’ve gotten my brief executive review of pretty much most of last week, let’s work to make “Amazing Grace” even better.

Here’s how far we got on Friday:

“A-ma-zing grace* how”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

*On “grace,” the melody changes to “E” so you can actually invert your chord from “E+G+C” to “G+C+E” (which is 2nd inversion).

“Sweet the”
F major (root inversion) ~~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major (root inversion) ~~~
(C + E + G)

“That”
(In previous lessons, I told you not to play a chord here yet. Today, however, we will!)

“saved a”
A minor 7 ~~~
(E + A + C / A bass)

“wretch like”
D major (add 9) ~~~
(F# + A + E / D bass)

-OR-

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D bass)

“Me”
G major (first inversion) ~~~
(B + D + G)

I want to focus on the word “that.”

I know in previous posts, I said I wouldn’t do anything with that chord.

And that’s correct… if you’re only limited to the primary chords, D minor, D major, or A minor.

But if you extend the circle just a little further, then the word “that” becomes a powerful passing tone.

So if the chord right after “that” is “A minor,” what do you recommend playing on “that?”

(Hint: Work backwards… the G chord is where all this leads to… the D chord leads directly to it… the A chord leads to the D chord… so just look at the circle and figure out what leads to A)…

If you guessed “E,” you’re right on track!

Now, I don’t have much time to explain why “E,” (which is the 3rd tone of C) is minor but you can find prior lessons on this.

But just take my word for it…

The third tone of any scale, just like the 2nd and 6th tone, is most likely to be a minor chord.

And it fits perfectly because the melody on the word “that” is G. (Remember what I said about keeping the melody on top?)

E minor:
E + G + B

Simply invert this chord to make G the highest note:

E minor (inverted):

B + E + G

Now, let’s plug it into our song:

“A-ma-zing grace* how”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

*On “grace,” the melody changes to “E” so you can actually invert your chord from “E+G+C” to “G+C+E” (which is 2nd inversion).

“Sweet the”
F major (root inversion) ~~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major (root inversion) ~~~
(C + E + G)

“That”
E minor (2nd inversion)
(B + E + G)

“saved a”
A minor 7 ~~~
(E + A + C / A bass)

“wretch like”
D major (add 9) ~~~
(F# + A + E / D bass)

-OR-

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D bass)

“Me”
G major (first inversion) ~~~
(B + D + G)

Wow, this song is sounding better and better!

I really hope this series of lessons is helping you see the big picture. How to take a song from just three primary chords (which can very well be used to play probably 80% of songs out there but they’ll sound extremely basic) to fully functioning chord progressions.

Tomorrow, I’ll show you how to make this 3-chord (on “E”) even better! There’s a trick you can actually use on 3-chords.

In fact, the 3-chord is one of my favorites.

Until then,

Today, we’re going to keep exploring the number system and circle of fifths and see what else we can do to spice up the primary chords we already know.

Yesterday, we took it a step further and added the 2-chord.

C major

1-chord
(C major)

2-chord
(D minor)
(D major, when needed)

4-chord
(F major)

5-chord
(G major)

Now, let’s see what else we can add to spice up our progressions.

Let’s bring up my little friend…

You’re already familiar with the counter-clockwise motion of the circle and how chord progressions work. We covered that yesterday. In fact, that’s where we got the idea to introduce the “D” chord right before the G chord (because before that, we were only working with primary chords: C major, F major, and G major).

But it goes even further…

If you want to make things more interesting, you can actually lead to the chord that leads to your primary chord. Yes!

Let me repeat…

Like I said before, composers could easily write most songs with just primary chords, the 1, 4 and 5. But that would mean really basic songs.

In fact, songs like “Hallelujah,” “Lord I Lift Your Name on High,” and (I’ll go left field with this one), “Wild Thing” simply use primary chords. And in the regular 1-4-5 order at that!

But as we learned yesterday, you can use other tones of the scale to lead to your primary chords. So rather than having C major (1-chord) go straight to a G major (5-chord), you can slip a D minor or D major (2-chord) to make things more interesting.

But now, I’m going to show you how to take it a step further and determine what to play before the 2-chord, if you wanted to add even more variety:

Observe the circle.

Where’s D?

What does it lead to?

G, right?

But what leads to D?

Bingo!

That’s the chord you’re going to try to slip in… some type of “A” chord (usually it will be minor, but there are times when it’ll be major or dominant).

Let’s see if we can make this work for “Amazing Grace.”

Here’s how far we got yesterday…

“A-ma-zing grace* how”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

*On “grace,” the melody changes to “E” so you can actually invert your chord from “E+G+C” to “G+C+E” (which is 2nd inversion).

“Sweet the”
F major (root inversion) ~~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major (root inversion) ~~~
(C + E + G)

“That saved a”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

“wretch like”
D major (add 9) ~~~
(F# + A + E / D bass)

-OR-

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D bass)

“Me”
G major (first inversion) ~~~
(B + D + G)

Now, if you had to add this “A chord” somewhere, where would you put it?

On what word of this song would you hit this chord? (Remember, it needs to come before the 2-chord on D).

Answer:

I’d put it on “saved.”

“Sound.”
C major (root inversion) ~~~
(C + E + G)

“That”
(I wouldn’t really play a chord here since this word is like a pickup. Just let the previous chord take care of it).

“saved a”
A minor (2nd inversion) ~~~
(E + A + C)

“wretch like”
D major (add 9) ~~~
(F# + A + E / D bass)

-OR-

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D bass)

“Me”
G major (first inversion) ~~~
(B + D + G)

Notice, I used “A minor” before the 2-chord. Using a major chord there doesn’t work (but always try it in other situations to make sure it’s not the better fit… but like I said, the minor chord is standard on the 6th degree).

There are two reasons the “A minor” works there.

1) “A” leads strongly to “D” as we know from the circle of fifths.

2) “A minor” is actually the relative minor of “C major.” They share the same key signature. They basically live in the same house. They are very close as well. In fact, their triads almost share the same notes:

A minor
A + C + E

C major
C + E + G

2 out of 3 notes are the same.

But something even better happens when you change “A minor” to an “A minor 7″ chord.

“A minor 7″
A + C + E + G

Wow! It’s basically a C major chord, except for “A” is on the bottom.

Yup yup! To form the relative minor seventh chord, you just play the same chord on your right but change your bass to “A” (or the 6-tone).

So any time you have a song that comes back to the 1-chord, try the 6-bass (that is, “A”) on your left hand with the same 1-chord on your right hand and not only do you totally change the feel to a minor seventh chord that easily, but it provides the variety you need!

(The technical term is called the “tonic substitution.” It’s when you substitute chords for the 1 that sound very similar. “A minor 7″ and “E minor 7,” for example, are common tonic substitutions. “A minor” has A + C + E + G (3 notes in common with C major 7) and “E minor” has E + G + B + D (also 3 notes in common with C major 7). So regardless of what key you’re in, try substituting the 6-chord or 3-chord in place of the 1-chord to see what you come up with.

So let’s try the addition of the A minor 7 (which is no change in the right hand, just a new bass note):

“A-ma-zing grace* how”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

*On “grace,” the melody changes to “E” so you can actually invert your chord from “E+G+C” to “G+C+E” (which is 2nd inversion).

“Sweet the”
F major (root inversion) ~~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major (root inversion) ~~~
(C + E + G)

“That”
(I wouldn’t really play either of these chords here since this word is like a pickup. Just let the previous chord linger. In a future post, I’ll introduce the “3-chord.” If anything, I’d put it here but we’ll talk about that later).

“saved a”
A minor 7 ~~~
(E + A + C / A bass)

“wretch like”
D major (add 9) ~~~
(F# + A + E / D bass)

-OR-

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D bass)

“Me”
G major (first inversion) ~~~
(B + D + G)

So there you have it!

You’ve just added one more scale tone to your arsenal!

You started with just primary chords:

C major
F major
G major

Yesterday, you added the 2-chord:

C major
D minor (substitute major)
F major
G major

And today, you added the 6-chord to the mix:

C major
D minor (substitute major)
F major
G major
A minor

Practice these and tell me how you like em!

Until next time

We established that the 1, 4 and 5 are the most important degrees of any scale and that you can pretty much play tons of songs with these chords.

In fact, you can play most songs with just these chords.

(Your songs may sound basic but the point is that you can do it!)

But now, I want to take it a step further and show you how to get those other tones of the scale working for you.

Let’s turn back to the C major scale…

C major

C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(Of course, we’ve numbered our scale because this is of no use if we don’t think universally… and numbers allow us to apply this to any key later on so get used to thinking in terms of numbers).

As you know, the primary chords are on the 1st, 4th, and 5th degrees:

C F G
1 4 5

But now, let’s take it a step further.

Music loves to move in fourths and fifths.

In fact, the interval between “C” and “F” is a fourth (”perfect fourth,” specifically).

And the interval between “C” and “G” is a fifth.

To find out what interval you’re working with, count the number of alphabet letters encompassed in the interval (that includes the starting and ending notes).

So, between C and F, there is C - D - E - F. Four alphabet letters means this is a fourth interval.

Note: Don’t mix up alphabet letters and notes. When you count white and black keys, there are much more than four notes in this interval. That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re solely talking about alphabet letters and not even concerned with anything else.

How many alphabet letters are in between C and G?

Well, let’s see…

C - D - E - F - G

Five! That’s why this is a fifth interval. Get it?

For this lesson, we’re only going to focus on fourths as they are much more common than fifths in popular chord progressions.

See this circle?

We’re going to focus on going counter-clockwise. That is, the direction from C to F to Bb and so on.

These are fourths. Plain and simple.

If you write them out, it’ll look like this:

Memorize this! This is the direction most songs flow in.

And this is what I want to use to help you add flavor to your primary chords.

Question…

What are the primary chords of C?
(This is easy. You already know the answer because it’s at the top of this page).

Another question…

Where do these primary chords lie on the circle?

Bingo! They are neighbors!

C is right in the middle. To its left is F and to the right is G.

That means they have a very close relationship. This circle isn’t just a pretty way to organize keys… it’s a circle of close relationships and the closer notes are arranged on this circle, the stronger they pull and work with each other.

Remember I said that music usually flows in fourths and that going counter-clockwise around the circle will give you fourths?

Well, think about it. In yesterday’s, lesson, I told you that Gmaj has a very strong pull to Cmaj. Now, notice where G is on the circle. It’s to the right of C (as we just learned) and comes right before it, if you’re moving counter-clockwise around the circle.

And pretty much the whole circle works that way.

They key directly to the right side is what pulls the strongest to its neighbor on the left.

So G pulls strong to C.

C pulls strong to F.

F pulls strong to Bb.

Bb pulls strong to Eb.

E pulls strong to A on the other side of the circle.

D pulls strong to G.

Hmm, D pulls strong to G…

(And it works the other way around too. G pulls strong to D as well. But for this lesson, we’re focusing on fourths and the counter-clockwise direction of the circle because this is more common in chord progressions).

I’ve got an idea.

Why don’t we take a song from yesterday and see if we can pull to any of the Gmaj chords by first using some type of D chord?

But first, let’s make sure we talk about the numbers behind this…

C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

C F G
1 4 5

Now, we’ve introduced “D.”

C D F G
1 2 4 5

So basically, the “2″ leads strongly to the “5.” (Remember that rule).

In other words, if I’m playing a song only with primary chords and I want to start venturing outside my comfort zone, I can first try out a chord on the “2″ and there is a high probability that it will work to lead to the “5.”

If the circle says it, then it’s right! :)

So let’s take a song from yesterday and see what happens.

“A-ma-zing grace how”
C major ~~~~~~~
(C + E + G)

(Note: It sounds better to play the chord on “ma-zing” rather than on the first syllable, “A”)

“Sweet the”
F major ~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major ~
(C + E + G)

“That saved a wretch like”
C major ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(C + E + G)

“Me”
G major
(G + B + D)

Now what we can do is slip a 2-chord before the G major.

So that means it should come on:

“wretch like”

(…your ear should have told you that if there should be a new chord added, the best place would be here).

Now, normally the 2-chord is minor. You’d have to go to past lessons to get the scoop on that because this post will be super long if I explain each tone and chord of the major scale.

So try minor there first.

See how it sounds to your ear.

“That saved a”
C major ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(C + E + G)

“wretch like”
D minor ~~~
(D + F + A)

“Me”
G major
(G + B + D)

Now, the D minor can surely work there but if it were me, I’d keep fishing for a closer match on this 2-chord.

So let’s try D major…

“That saved a”
C major ~~~
(C + E + G)

“wretch like”
D major ~~~
(D + F# + A)

“Me”
G major
(G + B + D)

Sounds much better doesn’t it!?!

I know this is a beginner post but keeping the melody on top is very important.

And the melody on “wretch” is the note, “E.”

But “E” isn’t in the D major chord so there are two ways you can do this to spice up your chord movement.

1) Try to add “E” to the chord as the highest note

OR…

2) Try to rearrange chord so that you can add “E” on top.

Right now, adding E on top of “D + F# + A” is kinda hard.

But that’s where possibility #2 comes in.

What if we invert this D major chord so that D is on top? Again, I can’t really talk about inversions here or this post will be super long. Just use the search box up top to search for posts that talk about inversions and you’ll be caught up to speed!

So inverting the D major chord to “F# + A + D” (aka - “first inversion”) allows us to put an “E” right on top:

F# + A + D + E

Now, I personally don’t like the sound the “D” and “E” make up top and since I’d most likely be playing “D” on my bass (in the left hand), I’m going to take it out.

That leaves me with “F# + A + E” over “D” bass.

You wanna know what chord you’re playing here?

D major (add 9)
(F# + A + E on right hand / D on bass)

That’s not bad for a beginning lesson!

But do you see how easy it is to naturally start playing more complex chords? One thing leads to another… one requirement leads to the next and before you know it, your ear has taken you to something totally different!

In fact, you can add a C in there and make this a D dominant ninth chord (”D9″ for short).

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D on bass)

The following is Amazing Grace with the added 2-chord and other inversions to keep the melody on top. Pay close attention to the order of notes in each chord as I’ve made some changes:

“A-ma-zing grace* how”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

*On “grace,” the melody changes to “E” so you can actually invert your chord from “E+G+C” to “G+C+E” (which is 2nd inversion).

“Sweet the”
F major (root inversion) ~~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major (root inversion) ~~~
(C + E + G)

“That saved a”
C major (1st inversion) ~~~
(E + G + C)

“wretch like”
D major (add 9) ~~~
(F# + A + E / D bass)

-OR-

D9
(F# + A + C + E / D bass)

“Me”
G major (first inversion) ~~~
(B + D + G)

(Unless otherwise noted, you can play these chords on your right hand and you can play the keynotes of the chords as the bass notes on your left. Basically, C major means “C on left” and “C+E+G on right.” Or you can play the chords on your left and pick out the melody and play it on your right hand. Try both ways and see what you like best.)

So there you have it! Without getting too deep (because there’s always tomorrow… and the next day… and the next day), we’ve learned how to start using other tones of the scale to lead us to our primary chords.

Until next time!

From the natural minor scale to the harmonic and melodic minor scales, we’ve covered a lot.

We even delved into the corresponding chords that come from these scales (I’ll continue with the triads and sevenths of the melodic minor shortly).

Today, though, I want to slow down and go the other direction.

I wanna talk to my straight beginners in this post! I want to give you guys some hope that if you know just two chords, you can actually sit around the piano or keyboard and have fun with your kids.

And if you don’t know already, those two chords are the 1-chord and the 5-chord.

Let me briefly explain…

Every major key can be looked at using numbers.

For example, the C major scale:

C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

(For my newbies… these are played separately, one after the other.)

But the scale has a ton of other usages.

And I’ll help you to understand one of them today.

See those numbers?

If you take the 1st, 4th, and 5th tones out of this scale, you’d get:

C F G
1 4 5

And what we do is play major chords on each of these tones:

C major = C + E + G
F major = F + A + C
G major = G + B + D

(For my new readers, when you see me using the plus + sign to connect notes, that means to play them all together. Just my own way of breaking up each note of a chord. So the “C + E + G” would mean to sound all three of those notes at the same time, creating a C major chord. If you don’t know your major chords, click here).

Moving on…

These are what we call “primary chords.”

These chords will appear the most in your songs. In fact, most songs could be written with JUST these chords.

Composers use other tones of the scale to make the music more interesting. For example, I could have a progression that just goes from C major to G major and that would be fine. But if I wanted to add more variety, I’d employ maybe the 2nd tone of the scale to push me to the G major chord (…but that’s another lesson).

Now, primary chords are in every key. Just take the 1st, 4th, and 5th tones of any major scale and there you have it, the primary chords of that key.

So you’ve got three chords and they’re found in just about every song.

Let’s explore them:

The 1-chord

The 1-chord is basically the same as the title of your major scale and key signature. If you’re in the key of C, obviously the first tone of the scale is C — therefore, the first chord is C major (since primary triads are major chords). This chord is most likely to begin your songs. It’s also most likely to end your songs. Even in the middle of songs when they tend to go back to the beginning (like the second half of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”), 1-chords are used. So when you feel like the song is at a permanent “home base” or even a temporary one (as in the middle of the song), most likely, you’re looking for the 1-chord… in this case, C major.

The 4-chord

The 4-chord usually comes right after the 1-chord. The 1-chord finds itself always progressing to the 4-chord. It doesn’t happen all the time (of course) but it’s pretty frequent. And like I said above, if the composer doesn’t choose to go directly from the 1-chord (C major) to the 4-chord (F major), she’s probably using other tones of the scale that will eventually lead to the 4-chord.

An example of this is in the beginning of “Amazing Grace.”

“A-ma-zing grace how”
C major ~~~~~~~
(C + E + G)

“Sweet the”
F major ~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major ~
(C + E + G)

“That saved a wretch like”
C major ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(C + E + G)

“Me”
_______________

(What chord might you guess here?)

You see how that works? We basically played the whole beginning part of Amazing grace with just the 1 and 4-chords. And where I left you off, the 5-chord would have come next…

The 5-chord

The 5-chord tends to come in the middle of the song or verse. It’s that thing that connects you back to the 1-chord. But if you think about it, the 1-chord usually comes in the beginning of a song or at the end of the song (or in the middle of the song when it appears to have start all over). So, if that’s the case, the 5-chord is that feeling that tells you the song is about to end or about to go back to the beginning.

Don’t you feel that in the middle of Amazing Grace?

“A-ma-zing grace how”
C major ~~~~~~~
(C + E + G)

“Sweet the”
F major ~~
(F + A + C)

“Sound.”
C major ~
(C + E + G)

“That saved a wretch like”
C major ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(C + E + G)

“Me”
G major ~~~
(G + B + D)

When you sing “me,” that is the the middle area I’m talking about. That is the part that lets you know something is about to repeat.

That is where the 5-chord is best used. Of course at the end of songs too.

But you know what?

Most songs you can play with just the 1 and 5 chords. Here’s an example:

“Mary Had A Little Lamb”

“Ma-ry had a lit-tle lamb”
C major ~~~~~~~~
(C+E+G)

“Lit-tle lamb”
G major ~~~~~~~~
(G+B+D)

“Lit-tle lamb”
C major
(C+E+G)

“Ma-ry had a lit-tle lamb, her”
C major ~~~~~~~~
(C+E+G)

“Fleece was white as”
G major ~~~~~~~~
(G+B+D)

“Snow”
C major
(C+E+G)

“The Wheels On The Bus”

“The”
G major (either you can play a G major here or you can play no chord here and come in on “wheels”).

“Wheels on the bus go round and round”
C major ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Round and round”
G major ~~~~

“Round and round. The”
C major ~~~~
(note: you can play a Gmaj chord on “the” if you want or you can leave it alone)

“Wheels on the bus go round and round”
C major ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“All through the”
G major ~~~

“Town”
C major

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Until next time!

One of the biggest myths is that you don’t have to understand music to play by ear. You just play. That is the furthest from the truth.

While there are a lot of “gifted” and talented musicians out there that have no idea what they are playing (…they just play by listening), this is not the way you want to be. At least if you can help it.

Believe it or not, understanding how scales are formed and how they create chords and progressions is one of the most important things you can learn.

(By the way, major scales are a series of seven unique notes played one after the other. They are the basis of what we call “major keys” and everything is based on them. Chords are three or more notes played at the same time. These are the combined sounds you hear in songs. Chord progressions are no more than chords going from one to the other… a series of chords played one after the other).

As you’ll learn in “The Secrets to Playing Piano by Ear,” scales basically create chords. Chords create progressions -and- progressions ultimately create the songs you hear! Understanding “how” and “why” is the difference between an average musician and a professional musician.

Tip #2: Master the patterns rather than memorizing stuff

I always get asked, “How do you memorize thousands of songs?”

The answer is I don’t. I understand patterns.

A couple dozen songs may follow the same exact patterns — so to a regular person, they think I know 36 songs but all I’m doing is playing the same pattern. Yes, the song may be in a different key (there are 12 keys but once you understand scales and patterns, you can instantly play ONE song in all TWELVE keys very easily). The song may have a different melody, but at the end of the day, it will almost always share the same chords and patterns as many other songs.

Tip #3: Learn to listen

Playing by ear is not reserved for geniuses. It’s all about listening.

Do you hear tones going up? or down? Does a chord sound happy (perhaps its a major chord) or sad and serious (minor chord). Maybe it’s a scary chord… spooky (diminished chord). How about a blues chord… very soulful-like (dominant chord).

See… all these chords have feelings attached to them. Those that play seamlessly what they hear and feel have simply learned how to unlock their ears. In “The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear,” there are many ways to build your listening skills.

Tip #4: Become a pro at recognizing intervals

“Intervals,” in music, are distances between notes. As easy as that.

There are very small intervals out there like unison, seconds, and thirds and there are larger ones like fifths, sixths, and sevenths. These intervals actually help to name the chords that we play. When you say the name “major chord,” you’re actually referring to a particular interval in that chord that gives the chord its main sound quality. The same applies to minor and other chords.

There are different kinds of intervals: melodic and harmonic.

Melodic intervals are distances between single notes, played one after the other. Like “melodies.”

Harmonic intervals are distances between notes played at the same time (i.e. - “chords”).

Songs contain both melody and harmony (chords) so becoming a pro at recognizing these allows you to hear the stuff songs are made of! And if you can do that, then it’s just a matter of putting this interval with that interval and you get chords and progressions. More on this later.

Tip #5: Practice and get some real-world experience

You can study, study, study all you want but it won’t do you any good if you don’t put what you learn into action. Of course, this sounds a little cliché but it’s the truth.

Practice doesn’t make perfect.

Perfect practice makes perfect. Make sure to practice the right stuff. I’ve learned in music (and practically in life) that:

1) You can do things right

2) You can do the right things

There’s a difference. You can do things right… the WRONG things right. Focus on the right things and do THEM right and you’ll get better fast. “The Secrets to Playing Piano by Ear” gives you a lot of things to practice (scales, modes, chords, progressions, harmonization techniques, etc.).

In the area of speed and finger independence, Hanon are great exercises. Focus on the right things and do them as best as you can, and you can’t go wrong.

Well, that’s it for today.

Hear and Play 702: Piano By Ear For Starters

The Hear and Play 702 Audio Series is a 2-hour, 2-disc set that specializes in taking you from the VERY beginning all the way to playing basic songs (popular ones at that). You'll study everything from the notes on the piano, scales, and basic chords to melody, harmonization, and even progressions!

If you're a newbie and want to be up and playing in less than a few days, you can't afford to miss this opportunity at this incredible price. Click here to learn more | Buy now

I’ll back tomorrow!

Fingerings for major scales (02)

Note: Please pay attention to this lesson as you will need to know how to play scales when forming various major chords.

Get the rest of this lesson by clicking here

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This concludes lesson #2. This lesson is just half of what our course covers on major scales! To see how you can get this chapter with tons of written and interactive exercises, along with 19 other chapters, please click here

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Note: Please pay attention to this lesson as you will need to know how to play scales when forming various major chords.

Get the rest of this lesson by clicking here

Note: Disregard the "SLXYZ" numbers (if any) as they refer to sound examples. Our 300-pg course comes with a CD with over 330 sound examples which can be heard with the click of a button. (Example: SL003)

This concludes lesson #1. This lesson is just half of what our course covers on major scales! To see how you can get this chapter with tons of written and interactive exercises, along with 19 other chapters, please click here

If you are enjoying these lessons, please recommend them to your friends!

Sharps & Flats (03)

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This concludes lesson #3. Meanwhile, have you read about our course yet? If not, you’re missing out on a valuable tool! Click here to read stories from people who have tried the course…

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Whole & Half Step Intervals (02)

Note: Please pay attention to this lesson as you will need to know about whole & half step intervals to learn scales, chords, and other concepts.

Note: Disregard the "SLXYZ" numbers (if any) as they refer to sound examples. Our 300-pg course comes with a CD with over 330 sound examples which can be heard with the click of a button. (Example: SL003)

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Learning the notes of the piano (01)

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This concludes lesson #1. Meanwhile, if you are serious about learning to play the piano by ear, you have to read this article…

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