Here’s another weekly Gospel Music Training Center clip from Jonathan Powell. This time, he’s playing “Jesus Is Real.” To learn the same chords and patterns found in this song, check out the Gospel Music Training Center.

In my last post, I introduced the 5-part “Musician Transformation” system:

Fundamentals Fluency, Chordal Command, Pattern Proficiency, Song Solidity, Ear Efficiency.

We started with the first step, Fundamentals Fluency, which consists of scales, number system, finger exercises, intervals, and rhythm.

Now, we’ll turn to chords!

In Chordal Command, we focus on 5 key areas: Triads, Extended Chords, Inversions, Primary vs Secondary, Voicings.

Triads

As it sounds, triads are 3-note chords.

They are the simplest chords to play.

While some argue over whether a chord starts at 2 or 3 notes (it really doesn’t matter), most consider the triad the smallest chord.

There are 4 main triads:

• Major
• Minor
• Diminished
• Augmented

Examples:

C major

C minor

C diminished

C augmented

I call these the “Fantastic Four” because with these four simple chords, you can play just about any other chord available!

Extended Chords

This is the next phase and as I alluded to above, the “fantastic four” chords help to create extended chords.

For example, to create a major 9 chord, all you really have to do is “stack” two major chords together.

If you know your numbers (as discussed in Fundamentals Fluency), you’ll know the 1st and 5th tones of C major.

Simply play major chords on each of those tones. Since C is the 1st tone of the scale and G is the 5th, that means C major + G major.

Playing C + E + G (C major) and G + B + D (G major) creates a C major 9:

Major 9, minor 9, dominant 9, major 11, minor 11, dominant 11, major 13, minor 13, dominant 13, and many more can be played simply by stacking triads on top of each other.

This entire system is covered in our Musician Transformation program, which is available to all new members of our Gospel Music Training Center.

Inversions

Next is mastering inversions because you can totally transform a chord by simply ordering the notes differently.

The number of notes in the chord generally determine how many inversions are available for the chord.

I like to think of it as every note getting its turn on the bottom.

So if you take this C major 9 chord in root position:

Here are the different inversions for it…

First inversion:

Second inversion:

Third inversion:

Fourth inversion:

Primary vs. Secondary Chords

Not all chords are created equal.

As you start building your chordal vocabulary, it’s important to note which chords are going to occur most often.

In any given key, the 1st, 4th, and 5th tones of the scale are what we call “primary chords.”

These are the most important chords of the key.

All other chords (2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th) are “secondary chords.”

For more information on primary chords, click here.

Voicings

Inversions dealt with the order of notes in a chord (i.e. – “Every note getting its turn on the bottom”).

Voicings not only deal with the order of notes but which notes you choose to double up on, omit, skip, etc.

For example, you could take a typical C major chord:

…Put it in first inversion (E on bottom):

…But voice it this way (pay attention to the “E” on both top and bottom):

Or you could do this:

Or you could do this:

Or you could do this:

Or you could do this:

While there are limited number of inversions (based on how many notes in chord), there are usually many more options available when it comes to how you can voice chords. The quick examples above are proof.

Hope you enjoyed this lesson. Until next time!

JG

After yesterday’s post, I received an awesome comment from Chris Johnson.

I quickly replied and after re-reading our exchange, thought it appropriate to share with you.

Chris wrote:

Well you’ve done it again Jermaine. You know how close I am to my goals! I pretty much do all of this already but I still struggle at times and I always struggle with the bass.

I have all of these skills under my belt except for picking out those darn bass notes!

I think I’m still trying to do it all in 10 minutes… Trying to do it too fast ya know.

When I get home tonight, I’ll pick a song and really bare down on the bass because I know this is where I get lost.

Example: I’ll pick a few out and then I’ll get lost somewhere along the line and that’s usually the end of my personal training as far as understand a song in full. :)

But I just gotta stick with it like I did with everything else. I’m so close… so close….. But I’ll get there. You know I’m not giving up, not at this point!

My reply to him:

Thanks for your comment Chris.

The cool thing about it is the more you pick out songs, the bigger repertoire of patterns you build. The same patterns are going on over and over.

It’s not a random picking of bass notes. Once you’ve found your key, you’re down to 7 notes that will most likely occur. That’s not to say others won’t because we use bass notes outside the scale to take us to various places. If a chord outside the scale is present, you’ll hear it… like the b7 or the b6. Those are borrowed chords.

Also don’t forget about the circle of fifths. Majority of movements will be to next door neighbors on that circle of fifths chart. Search for “circle of fifths” in the search bar above for more pointers. If you remember this order of notes, you’ll find more often than not, your bass moving in this direction (there are exceptions as there are with anything in life):

C F Bb Eb Ab Db Gb B E A D G C

And if the bass isn’t moving like that, it’s moving relatively close… from one tone of the scale to the next tone of the scale up or down… maybe leaping over a note or two at most (if not moving in circle of fifths flow).

Use your ear to hear up —or— down. Ask this ONE question first:

“EAR, did the bass go up or down?” Answer that question internally, then remember what I’ve said about:

-circle of fifths movement
-next door “scale tone” movement
-very close movements (at most, usually 2 notes of scale)

And you’ll be golden. Perfect practice makes perfect. Repetition is the mother of skill. Just keep at it. And retain what you learn because it will most certainly come up again. All songs draw from the same pool of patterns.

After learning a couple dozen songs across different genres (or probably way less), you’ll probably have every chord and progression you’ll ever need.

Keep up the great work Chris,
JG

Let’s not kid ourselves.

The whole point of learning all these theories, principles, and shortcuts isn’t because we’re in love with this stuff (well, some of us are). But for most, learning this stuff is a means to an end.

And without a doubt, the ultimate “end” (at our website at least) is to hear a song and in a matter of minutes, be able to play it.

There’s a lot that goes into it, don’t get me wrong. But here, I want to give you a really concise blueprint… a series of steps that, if followed, can produce you results very quickly.

I call it the “GO-TO CHORDS” principle.

These are chords you can always rely on when you’re on certain tones of the scale. Many of you know them as diatonic chords.

In this post, I’m going to show you how they fit into my quick system.

But first, let me give you all the steps to playing a song or pattern quickly.

GOAL #1 – Be able to find the key quickly

When you’re an ear-player, everything starts here.

You don’t have sheet music in front of you.
You have no grand staff with a key signature telling you the key.

You must rely on your ear.

Luckily, I’ve done a 30-minute free video lesson on this topic that has helped tens of thousands. And if you’re really serious, you’ll invest a few bucks in the 80-minute audio course I put together on this same subject.

GOAL #2 – Know your scales & numbers

Finding your key puts you on the right planet.

Now you must speak the language of the planet you’re on.

The major scale (and minor for that matter) is the language. Not only must you know your scales but you must know them as numbers.

C major: C D E F G A B C.

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

Luckily, I made a free guide that helps you with this as well. Click here to check it out.

GOAL #3 – Master the “go-to chords”

Once you know your scales as numbers, there are certain chords that happen naturally on certain numbers. If you’re on the 1st tone of the scale, there’s a “GO-TO chord” you can almost always rely on. Same with every other tone of the scale.

Here’s a quick list of them but check out this free guide I created on chords. It will break all of this down in all 12 keys.

1st tone = Major Chord
2nd tone = Minor Chord
3rd tone = Minor Chord
4th tone = Major Chord
5th tone = Major Chord
6th tone = Minor Chord
7th tone = Diminished Chord

Goal #4 – Learn to pick out bass notes

Once you come into a world (by determining the key in step #1), you automatically have 7 notes before you that will occur most often.

When you’re trying to pick out bass notes, you’re not being random. You’re relying on what you know about the major scale to guide you. Those 7 notes are key.

And to take it just a step further — even within those 7 notes are keys that occur most often. The first, fourth, and fifth tones are what we call “primary.” Out of the 7 notes that make up the scale, look for these 3 to occur most often. The others (aka “secondary”) support the primary ones.

Newbies: When I say bass notes, I mean the root of the chords. Most likely, you’ll be listening to a band playing. The bass player is holding down the root note while everyone else is playing chords, melodies, licks, and patterns. You’re really trying to key in on what the bass player is doing.

Having bass boost headphones can help. Turning up the bass may also help.

But from experience, it’s not really ONLY what the bass is doing but when you get good, you can just hear overall what’s going on. Your excuse will never be “the bass isn’t loud” because even if you can’t hear the bass itself, you can hear everything else and that should still hint you in the right direction.

Say you hear these 5 bass notes in the key of C major:

C >>> A >>> D >>> G >>> C

Good job, you picked them out!

Now all you gotta do is put this system all together:

Goal #5 – Put it all together

If you’ve picked out these notes in the bass:

C >>> A >>> D >>> G >>> C

…all you do now is backtrack.

You’ve already used step 1 to tell you the key (hopefully).

If you’ve listened to me, you’ve also used step 2 to key in on the major scale and limit your choices to the 7 notes of the scale (which will occur majority of the time; outside notes can occur too but they are not the norm).

Now you’ll use step 2 to also make sure you know your numbers for these bass notes:

C is 1
A is 6
D is 2
G is 5
C is 1

Now that you have the numbers, you can use the “go-to chords” in step 3.

I’m not saying these will always be your final chords. But they should always be your “GO-TO CHORDS.” The only exception to this rule is when you’ve developed your ears so well that you know without a doubt what chords are occurring.

If not, start with your go-to chords. And at least, if one or two don’t work, you can try other chords on those tones (like if one tone usually has a minor chord, try a major chord).

If your go-to chords sound right, then you focus on finding the right voicings or inversions.

Sure, you may be correct in knowing that C major is played off the 1st tone of the scale. But which C major?

C + E + G (root position)?

E + G + C (first inversion)?

G + C + E (second inversion)?

And if you’ve gotten the right inversion, have you got the right voicing?

Maybe the composer put two “E’s” in the chord (e.g. – E + G + C + E). It doesn’t change the fact that it’s a C major chord but it definitely accentuates the E’s (aka – “3rd tone”)… which sounds very good by the way when playing major 7 chords (E + G + B + E over “C” bass).

That’s basically the system.

Find key >>> identify major scale and numbers >>> determine bass >>> put correct go-to chords on each bass tone >>> tweak.

It seems long but each step is pretty short. And you get better and better over time.

For me, this all happens in about 20 seconds after turning a song off. For a beginner, it may take several hours. That’s ok. It’s better than sheet music because you’re FREE and liberated with this method. And as you get better and better, you’ll add stuff to the song. As Paula Abdul on American Idol used to say, “you’ll make it your own.”

Well, I’m done for today. This lesson has quite a few gems in it. Save it, print it, read and re-read it. Tack it up on your wall.

This is it right here. Follow it, hone it, and you’ll do really well.

Until next time.

In yesterday’s post, we used my new Song Robot software to learn the hit love song, “Hero.”

If you haven’t checked out yesterday’s 30-minute video, feel free to do so now.

Today, I want to break down some of the chords of this song as there is a common pattern present that’ll certainly be familiar to you if you’ve been with me for a while.

The main chorus of this song features the famous “6-2-5-1″ progression… with a little twist (the 4 is added between the 6 and 2 and if you followed this lesson not too long ago, you already understand how the 4 can be inserted or interchanged with the 2 because of their close relationship).

This song is in the key of E major and if you go to around 3:04 of yesterday’s video, the song starts on an E major add 9 (E + F# + G# + B + E):

It’s important to think about songs in terms of numbers. In the key of E major:

So the first chord is, indeed, on the 1st degree of the scale. So far, pretty simple.

Then there are melody notes that you can learn either in the Song Robot itself or on yesterday’s video.

[I will note here that when you're learning songs on your own, it's extremely important to pick inversions of your chords that keep the melody note on top. If you're melody is B, you don't want a chord that puts E on top... you want to pick the inversion that puts B on top.]

Next, the song is headed to the 6th tone but uses the 7th tone as a passing chord. That’s D# in this case.

This happens a lot. We still choose to look at the “bones” of the progression — the main thing going on and that’s 1-6-2-5. If we counted every single passing chord, this progression would really be: 1-7-6-5-4-3-2-5.

But really, the main chord tones here are: [1]-7-[6]-5-[4]-3-[2]-[5]

So the D# passing tone takes us to C#. This is a pretty important chord in this song — the 6th tone and we’re playing a minor 7 chord here:

(Note: The C# minor 7 chord is arpeggiated… or broken up… but if you played it all together, this is what you’d play).

After the 6th chord, we use another passing tone (B… the 5th) to take us to the 4, which is a simple A major chord:

(Note: Because you’re playing A lower in the bass, you don’t have to necessarily repeat it. You can take it out to make the chord lighter — A + E + C#).

After the 4-chord, there is another passing chord on the 3. This time, a simple E major but in 1st inversion so the 3 is on the bottom (G#):

E major / G#

Now, we’re getting ready for the final “2-5″ progression, which takes us back home.

On the 2, we’re playing an F# minor 7 chord:

And finally, on the 5, we have a Bsus chord:

So there you have it — a series of main chord tones and passing tones.

But the real lesson here is seeing the major pattern at work which is “2-6-5-1″ but then realizing the “4″ was inserted in between to extend the progression out. And if you followed my lesson last week about substitutions, the insertion of the 4 will make perfect sense!

So go to yesterday’s video and learn this song. Or better yet, click here to get your hands on the Song Robot so you can slow it down to your own pace and learn learn it in all 12 keys if you want!

Until next time,

Since the release of my Song Robot software, people have absolutely been going nuts over it.

So I’ve decided to create a full 30-minute video of Song Robot walking you through the hit song, “Hero” in slow motion.

The first part of the video shows most of the song played at normal speed. The next part shows it slowed down to 50% of the regular speed. The last part (which takes up the most time) shows it at a mere 10% of actual speed.

If you don’t have the actual software, this is the next best thing. Of course you don’t have full control but my video captures everything you’d see if you actually had the software.

So enjoy this video and if you really like what you see, why not give the Song Robot a try? Click here for details about it.

Click here for a free video demonstration of Song Robot.

Here’s a “beginner” video tutorial of me teaching Kirk Franklin’s “Imagine Me.”

It was from a past product launch so ignore any events I announce at the end. Enjoy the 40+ minute video!

Join the Gospel Music Training Center for more in-depth, personalized tutorials like this.

Instantly Download My FREE Groundbreaking Guides, "MUSICIAN TRANSFORMATION^" Right Now!

(UPDATE: Just added… 37-pg Follow-Up Guide, "THE BIGGEST SECRET."
Download all three today! FREE!)

"FINALLY EXPOSED! The Hidden, Underground System Advanced Gospel Musicians Have Been Hiding From You… That Will Instantly Propel Your Playing To The Next Level Today!"

INSIDE! Discover how you can use this chart to easily find and fix your most frustrating problems hindering you from getting to the next level in your gospel playing.

(Hint: You must have all 5 elements above to succeed. Missing just one element will lead to the problems listed on the right side of the chart.)

Report #1: http://www.hearandplay.com/mtreport.pdf
Report #2: http://www.hearandplay.com/missingchapter.pdf
Report #3: http://www.hearandplay.com/bigsecret.pdf

(Update: Get TWO additional 29-pg and 37-pg guides, "THE MISSING CHAPTER" & "THE BIGGEST SECRET")

Over 100 pages in total across 3 FREE reports!

I’m very interested in your comments. Please leave them below.

Enjoy the material!

Talk soon,

Jermaine Griggs

Big Surprise… Important Video

Report #1: http://www.hearandplay.com/mtreport.pdf
Report #2: http://www.hearandplay.com/missingchapter.pdf
Report #3: http://www.hearandplay.com/bigsecret.pdf

Happy New Year!

Yup, it’s been that long since I’ve written in my blog… but for good reason…

You’ll probably remember I promised I’d go on vacation after the launch of my latest 12-disc “Musician Transformation” & Gospel Music Training Center resources in December 2009 (which sold out, btw).

But that’s not the only reason I’ve been gone…

On December 15, 2009 at 3:41 a.m. (just a lil over 3 hours after my wife’s birthday ended on the 14th), God blessed us with another little angel, Layla Ann Griggs… 8lbs, 11oz, 20 inches.

Here’s a pic of her and my wife:

If you remember the birth of my first daughter, Jadyn Olivia Griggs, on June 8, 2006, you’ll know they practically look like twins!

I never thought I’d be one of those types that forget the names of my kids… “Now take this bottle Jadyn… I mean LAYLA!!!” (And I’m only 26…!!!)

I’m also so proud of my beautiful wife Sarah because just some weeks after giving birth to Layla, she was back up and glamorous! Here’s a pic I snapped of her just before our “date night” to a nearby comedy show.

And since I’m revealing pics, I guess I’m next…

NOT!

You’ll have to wait to see my transformation! I’ll reveal myself in June (maybe on my birthday????)…

Let’s just say JP (from GospelKeys Urban Pro 600) and I have been working out every morning at 6am… yup 6am! (If you got a goal or dream, GO GET IT! And go STRONG! Will Smith says it best here)

With that said, I want to reintroduce you to over 2 hours of free video content and over 50 pages of written material I created early in 2009. I realize that a lot of people have joined the hear & play family since then and have never seen these free resources.

Others have been on board a while and still missed these.

And the rest clicked the links when I originally posted them but FAILED to do anything with the information. So here’s another opportunity!

(If you did make good with this information, congrats… you’re in the top 10% of action-takers! Take this time to review…)

This is a series. They all go together.

VIDEO LESSON #1 – “Finding the key to any song”

If you ask any ear-musician, this skill will be at the center (or maybe the “center” of the “center” like in hit movie, Slumdog Millionaire).

If you can’t determine what key a song is being performed in just by listening, you’ll have many problems down the road (at least when it comes to playing by EAR in situations where you need to “think on your feet.”)

This is the most “intuitive” of all the skills and knowledge you’ll attain. It’s not like reading sheet music where you look at the grand staff and determine what key the piece is in by the number of flats or sharps that appear at the beginning of the music.

YOU DON’T HAVE MUSIC IN FRONT OF YOU.

No reference.

Just your ear.

This video will make it plain…

Note: If you really like what I talked about, I have an 80-minute course that covers finding the key to any song. You can find it here.

VIDEO LESSON #2 – “The KEY to getting to the next level in your piano”

This next lesson reveals a very important STRATEGY you MUST have as an ear-musician.

Again, if you’re reading sheet music, this probably isn’t emphasized as much… but when it comes to playing by ear, “NUMBERS” rule.

And your ability to know your numbers “inside” and “out” will determine how far you get… and how fast you get there.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out the next lesson below. There is also a 28-pg report that goes along with it.

(You may also find my “core fundamentals” courses helpful)

RESOURCE: Click here to download the free 29-pg report that goes along with this video lesson.

VIDEO LESSON #3 – “The SECRET to playing ANY and EVERY chord you want in SECONDS”

This next lesson will take you even further…

It borrows a very familiar concept from the car industry (popularized by Henry Ford in the early 1900′s) and adapts it to music!

It’s the very next logical step in the process and you’ll get it laid out for you plainly in this video…

(there is a 14 page report included at the bottom of the video)

If this topic interests you, then you may like my “hear & play chords” series.

RESOURCE: Click here to download the free 14-pg report that goes along with this video lesson.

VIDEO LESSON #4 – “The MISSING PIECE OF THE PUZZLE to playing almost any song out there”

This last video could arguably be the MOST IMPORTANT part when it comes to learning real songs and understanding just how closely related songs are (yes… all songs follow the same general patterns and principles — this video will reveal all of this to you…)

There’s also a 12-pg report that goes along with it…

RESOURCE: Click here to download the free 12-pg report that goes along with this video lesson.

(If you’re into gospel music, GospelKeys 202 really breaks down the idea of “patterns.” 70 to 80% of songs have the same common movements in them. This course is revolutionary in that it breaks down all these patterns and covers the “how,” “what,” and “why.” Click here for more information)

————

Wow, so there you have it! A good way to start off the year!

I look forward to your comments about our new addition and/or the videos above. I read each and every one of them.

(My last blog post got over 750 comments when I was giving away my FREE 12-disc “Musician Transformation” course … which will be back in a couple of months, don’t worry!)

Take care,

Jermaine Griggs
Founder

Ok… it’s a little more than 4 chords.

But the main part is just 4 chords as you’ll soon see.

I’m just going to list them here with my piano image tool but you’ll need to check out this post to see the full video!

(I’m a little sleep deprived. My wife is begging me to got get some rest so after this post, I think I better go sleep!!!)

Chord #1

Fsus2

Chord #2

C major / E bass

Chord #3

G major

Chord #4

C major (add 9)

Now head over to this post to see the 45-minute video tutorial! I think you’ll really get a lot out of it!

Until next time —

I’m off to support my grandma as she has surgery today in Long Beach but I wanted to post this short lesson before I leave.

I just posted a mega 33-minute video so this lesson will just give you an abbreviated version of the video. What I really encourage you to do is stop what you’re doing and head over to view the entire lesson. Dozens of comments have already come in about it since i posted it last night (…don’t forget to leave me one as well!)

The tutorial teaches you how to play a popular song with just 4 chords! And they’re all seventh chords too (major, dominant).

I’ll use my new piano tool I announced yesterday to show you the chords below. But visit the 33-minute video to get the full scoop!

Here’s the four chords…

Dmin7

G7

Cmaj7

Fmaj7

Notice the stepwise motion between tones. That’s what makes it sound so good!

This is what we call a 2-5-1-4 chord progression.

“2-5-1-4?”

“huh?”

Don’t worry. It’s simple. The number just come from the major scale:

C major

Just number each tone of the scale:

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

The “2nd” tone is D.
The “5th” tone is G.
The “1st” tone is obviously C.
The “4th” tone is F.

If you look at the root of the progression, it’s moving from D to G to C to F. Thus, a “2-5-1-4″ progression.

Check out the 33-minute video lesson for details! I hope you like it! :-)

Until next time —

If you’re a beginner, have been studying major and minor chords on this site, and want to put your knowledge to good use, check out this archived 33-minute video lesson I created some time ago.

I cover, step-by-step, how to play a very popular song called “Lost Without You.” I chose this song because it really allows me to show you my song learning process… and I dig the progressions! You’ve probably heard the song… it was a chart-topper for sure!

Jermaine

P.S. – There’s two versions. A smaller, lower quality version (loads faster) and a bigger version. Pick the one that’s appropriate for your connection speed.

Smaller size:

Larger size:

In today’s post, I want to take our ballad chord progression from yesterday a step further.

Let’s look at where we left off yesterday…

C major (add 9) (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: C
G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: B

A minor 7 (G + C + E) *** Bass: A
D9 (F# + C + E) *** Bass: D

G minor 7 (F + Bb + D) *** Bass: G
C9 (E + Bb + D) *** Bass: C

F major (F + A + C) *** Bass: F

G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: E

C major (add 9) (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: D

G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: G

(I hope you practiced that 6-2-5-1 turnaround [A chord > D chord > G chord > C chord] from yesterday. Remember that you’ll have to play the turnaround a little faster than your regular chords because it needs to fit in the same amount of space as the chords from the first lesson. See Thursday‘s lesson for details.)

I have specifically emphasized the chords we’ve already changed. Now let’s start with the F major chord.

Right now, we’re playing a regular major chord. But after coming off such a nice sounding turnaround, I think this F chord should be jazzed up a little bit.

The good news is that you can turn any major chord into a major seventh chord by lowering one note. Yes, one note!

Since you’re already playing “F” on your bass, you don’t necessarily have to play it on your right hand. So let’s simply lower “F” to “E” on our right hand.

F major 7
F major (E + A + C) *** Bass: F

See what I see? Yup, it’s what I talked about in a previous lesson. If you look closely, you’ll see that you’re now playing an A minor chord (A + C + E) on your right hand. You’re just playing it in second inversion, which puts “A” in the middle. But that’s another lesson. All together, this chord is an F major 7.

So, let’s review our chord progression with this latest change…

C major (add 9) (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: C
G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: B

A minor 7 (G + C + E) *** Bass: A
D9 (F# + C + E) *** Bass: D

G minor 7 (F + Bb + D) *** Bass: G
C9 (E + Bb + D) *** Bass: C

F major (E + A + C) *** Bass: F

G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: E

C major (add 9) (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: D

G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: G

Here’s the next change I’d make…

See the chord on “E” bass right after the F major 7 chord?

Let’s change it!

There’s actually many things we can do to it. For starters, we can invert it so that it’s closer to our F major 7 chord.

Since we have made many changes to our previous chords, it’s sort of changed where we play our chords over time. So by going back to these original chords like we’ve done, it’s kind of awkward because our new chords are so far away.

So the first thing we can do is invert what we already know to play and see if that makes things sound better.

Here’s what we’re already playing…

G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: E

Now, let’s invert it so that it’s closer to our “F major 7″ chord…

G major (add 9) (D + G + A + B) *** Bass: E

Sounds good to me! So let’s save this one! We can use it!

But we also have other options…

Remember this lesson on quartal chords? They’re basically chords built on fourth intervals.

I particularly like the way major 7 chords sound when they progress to quartal chords. Here’s a quartal chord you can use over “E” bass:

D quartal / E (D + G + C) *** Bass: E

Let’s plug this into our progression…

C major (add 9) (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: C
G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: B

A minor 7 (G + C + E) *** Bass: A
D9 (F# + C + E) *** Bass: D

G minor 7 (F + Bb + D) *** Bass: G
C9 (E + Bb + D) *** Bass: C

F major (E + A + C) *** Bass: F

D quartal / E (D + G + C) *** Bass: E

C major (add 9) (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: D

G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: G

It’s getting better and better!

For the chord on “D,” I’m just going to play an F major chord on my right hand. That makes it a D minor 7 chord.

D min 7 (F + A + C) *** Bass: D

And here’s the thing about ending songs. Remember yesterday, I talked about circular progressions?

That’s exactly what D >>> G >>> C is! We call it a “2-5-1″ chord progression. It’s probably one of the most widely used progressions in music. It’s perfect for ending songs.

And if you review yesterday’s lesson and look at the circle of fifths, you will see that “D >>> G >>> C” are all neighbors!

The best part is that you can keep the “F major” you’re playing on “D” bass the same! No need to change it. Just change your bass to “G.” (This goes for most song endings, by the way!)

Fmaj / G (F + A + C) *** Bass: G

And this will naturally bring you back to the beginning of the ballad!

~~~~~~~So beautiful ~~~~~~~~~

So let’s put this all together…

C major (add 9) (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: C
G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: B

A minor 7 (G + C + E) *** Bass: A
D9 (F# + C + E) *** Bass: D

G minor 7 (F + Bb + D) *** Bass: G
C9 (E + Bb + D) *** Bass: C

F major (E + A + C) *** Bass: F

D quartal / E (D + G + C) *** Bass: E

D min 7 (F + A + C) *** Bass: D

F maj / G (F + A + C) *** Bass: G

How do you guys like the additions?

Until next time —

For the past couple of days, we’ve been talking about slow ballads. If you’re just now tuning in, I recommend you check out both Tuesday and Wednesday’s lesson.

Today, I’m going to show you how to take it even further! Right now, you know how to play a very popular ballad movement from the past two lessons — and the best part is that you’ve only used TWO chords!

So, how do we venture outside of these two chords? I’m glad you asked…

The key is understanding “circular” movements.

I always talk about this so I won’t go into detail but here’s the main idea…

Learn this circle going counter-clockwise and you’ll never have a problem adding interesting movements to your chord progression again!

Let’s start from where we left off yesterday with these chords:

[Set 1]
1-chord = C major (add 9) (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: C
5-chord = G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: B

[Set 2]
1-chord = C major (add 9) (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: A
5-chord = G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: G

[Set 3]
1-chord = C major (add 9) (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: F
5-chord = G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: E

[Set 4]
1-chord = C major (add 9) (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: D
5-chord = G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: G

Right now, we’re just moving in a stepwise motion downward.

But I want things to be more interesting so let’s add some circular movements to the mix. That is, I want to start taking advantage of the strong pulls certain chords have towards others. The circle of fifths above gives you all the strong pulls (I prefer going counter-clockwise because that’s how most music works). In other words, the pull between C and F is huge! Same with F and Bb — heck, combine them together (C >>> F >>> Bb) and you get one of the most popular chord progressions there is!

The good news is you have many options. I want to focus on one of them.

It’s what you call a “6-2-5-1 turnaround.”

Don’t let the numbers scare you! They come straight from the scale.

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

What is the 6th tone of C major?
Answer: A

What is the 2nd tone of C major?
Answer: D

What is the 5th tone of C major?
Answer: G

What is a the 1st tone of C major?
Answer: Duh, C!

So what is a “6-2-5-1″ chord progression?

Answer: A >>> D >>> G >>> C

Note: Of course, each of those tones will get a chord but I just wanted you to get the concept. Whenever you see numbers like “2-5-1″ or “6-2-5-1″ or “3-6-2-5-1″ or “1-4,” usually they’re just referring to chord progressions built on certain tones of the scale. Simple!

If you also take a good look at this “6-2-5-1 turnaround,” you’ll notice that it is “circular” in the sense that these notes are neighbors on the chart. Scroll above and look at the chart again. Where’s “A” — then “D” — then “G” — then “C?” Right next to each other!

So here’s what I want to do…

I want to replace some chords in my ballad so that I can use this 6-2-5-1 progression to take me to that chord on “F.”

Why F?

Because that is the chord most likely to come after C. After all, if you keep going on the circle, you’ll see A, then D, then G, then C — then F.

So this “6-2-5-1″ should lead us to our 4th tone (or F in this case) brilliantly!

Here it is:

“6″ chord = A minor 7 (G + C + E) *** Bass: A
“2″ chord = D9 (F# + C + E) *** Bass: D

“5″ chord = G minor 7 (F + Bb + D) *** Bass: G
“1″ chord = C9 (E + Bb + D) *** Bass: C

See what I see? Basically the “2″ chord is almost identical to the chord before it. You just lower your thumb and change your bass!

Same goes for the “1″ chord. It’s just like the “5″ chord except for the lowered thumb and new bass note!

This will take you perfectly to an F major chord:

“6″ chord = A minor 7 (G + C + E) *** Bass: A
“2″ chord = D9 (F# + C + E) *** Bass: D

“5″ chord = G minor 7 (F + Bb + D) *** Bass: G
“1″ chord = C9 (E + Bb + D) *** Bass: C

“4″ chord = F major (F + A + C) *** Bass: F

Some things you must keep in mind…

We aren’t deviating from the original chord progression. We’ve just added a few chords, that’s all. In fact, the “A,” “G,” and “F” chords still fall where they would normally be played in the original progression. We’ve just added some other little chords in between them.

One thing you have to do, however, is speed up the chords because now you have double the chords to play in the same amount of time. So you have to play them double the speed.

Once you get used to it, you’ll be fine!

Here’s the progression altogether:

C major (add 9) (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: C
G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: B

A minor 7 (G + C + E) *** Bass: A
D9 (F# + C + E) *** Bass: D

G minor 7 (F + Bb + D) *** Bass: G
C9 (E + Bb + D) *** Bass: C

F major (F + A + C) *** Bass: F

G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: E

C major (add 9) (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: D

G major (add 9) (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: G

(Yes, I know when you play a different bass note under a C or G major chord, it changes the total name of the chord. I’ve been using “C major” and “G major” for the last few posts to emphasize that all it takes is TWO chords to play a full ballad. So for now, we will refer to them as C major over whatever bass note we’re playing. Let’s keep it simple for now.)

*There’s some more changes I’d make to the original “C” and “G” chords but you’ll have to wait til’ tomorrow to get those! :-)

Until next time —

I left you with this nice ballad-style chord progression:

*Play the chord with your right hand and play the single bass with your left hand.

[Set 1]
1-chord = C major (C + E + G) *** Bass: C
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: B

[Set 2]
1-chord = C major (C + E + G) *** Bass: A
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: G

[Set 3]
1-chord = C major (C + E + G) *** Bass: F
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: E

[Set 4]
1-chord = C major (C + E + G) *** Bass: D
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: G

*This takes us perfectly to the beginning, where we start all over with our C major (1-chord).

And for a chord progression that only uses 2 chords, it sounds pretty darn good!

It’s used EVERYWHERE from Mariah Carey to Andre Crouch, as you saw on the videos I shared with you yesterday.

Today, I want to show you how to spice up this chord progression by employing one little trick. I’m not even going to cover more chords just yet. I’m just going to show you how to spice up the 2 chords you already know from this example.

Want to know the secret?

Some of you may already know it…

The secret is the “9.”

(And this works for any slow, ballad-style song — especially worship music).

Now, some people call it the “2,” depending on how and where you’re using it. I’m not too much concerned with explaining that part right now. You can find tons of prior lessons on the terminology by searching for “ninth chords” or “add 9″ in my search box above.

But what is important is determining what the “9th” (or “2nd”) tone of your chord is.

Here’s how you find the magic 9 and then I’ll show you what to do with it.

Let’s look at our first chord, which happens to be a “C major.”

It obviously comes from the C major scale:

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

From yesterday’s post, you understand the importance of numbering your scale.

Notice, however, that the scale only goes up to 7. Let’s add another octave (basically repeat the scale a little higher).

C D E F G A B C D E_ F_ G_ A_ B_ C

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

(Don’t mind the little “_” underscores. I’m just using those to make my numbers line up with the letters. I can just see someone freakin’ out over that now! :-)… “Oh my gosh, what are those underscores!!!” Just joking…)

What is the 9th tone of the scale?

Answer: D

It’s also the 2nd tone of the scale so whichever way you want to look at it is fine. For the purposes of this lesson, the only important thing is that you know the NOTE to add. The 2 and 9 will always give you the same NOTE (although one is a high version and the other is a low version, technically).

So what do we do with this magic “9th” tone?

You guessed it.

We simply add it to our chord.

C major triad
C + E + G

C major with added 9
C + D + E + G

Some people even choose not to play the “C” because it will be taken care of with your left hand bass. If you prefer that sound, then only play “D + E + G” on your right hand with a “C” on your left hand bass. That will work too!

Ok, so let’s replace all our chords with our new chord and see what we get:

*Play the chord with your right hand and play the single bass with your left hand.

[Set 1]
1-chord = C major (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: C
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: B

[Set 2]
1-chord = C major (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: A
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: G

[Set 3]
1-chord = C major (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: F
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: E

[Set 4]
1-chord = C major (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: D
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: G

*This takes us perfectly to the beginning, where we start all over with our C major (1-chord).

Sounds good doesn’t it?

But we won’t stop there. Let’s add the secret “9″ to our 5-chord as well.

Simply go through the same process with the G major chord, determining it’s 9th tone (or 2nd tone).

The magic “9″ for G major should be “A.”

But if you recall from yesterday’s lesson, we intentionally inverted our “G major” chord so that “G” was on top. This provided a smoother transition between the two chords. We surely don’t want to mess this up by adding “A” on top so we’re actually going to add it on the bottom:

G major triad (inverted)
B + D + G

G major with added 9 (inverted)
A + B + D +G

*For some, it can be awkward playing the “A” and “B” with separate fingers so some people just play both the “A” and “B” with their thumb. That’s right! You can play two notes with one finger. Musicians do it all the time! So if that’s easier for you, just let your thumb handle both notes.

Let’s wrap it all up!

[Set 1]
1-chord = C major (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: C
5-chord = G major (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: B

[Set 2]
1-chord = C major (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: A
5-chord = G major (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: G

[Set 3]
1-chord = C major (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: F
5-chord = G major (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: E

[Set 4]
1-chord = C major (C + D + E + G) *** Bass: D
5-chord = G major (A + B + D + G) *** Bass: G

Curious to hear what you guys think about the “added” 9 trick! Let me know!

Until next time —

Today’s post will be fun because I’m going to show some of my newbies how to play something you hear all the time.

From Mariah Carey to Fred Hammond and Andre Crouch, every artist has had their share of the slow “ballad” — and more specifically, the type that simple moves down the scale, note for note.

Here are some samples just so you know what I’m talking about…

Do you hear the similarities?

(Now, I’m not talking about all the details and melodies — I’m talking about the primary movements of the choruses of each song. They are all moving in a downward, stepwise motion, scale tone for scale tone — and that’s what I want to show you how to play today… with just TWO chords!)

And because I’ve limited this lesson to only two chords, it may not be suitable for my experienced readers. However, sit back and you just may pick up something here or there.

Can you guess the two chords I’m talking about?

If you even thought about the 1-chord and 5-chord, congratulations! (In fact, I did a lesson not too long ago that stressed playing songs with only the 1 and 5-chords. You can check it out here.)

And, of course, when I say “1″ and “5-chord,” I’m grabbing those numbers straight from the major scale.

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

1 = C
5 = G

And to make it even simpler, we’ll only play major triads on those tones…

1-chord = C major (C + E + G)
5-chord = G major (G + B + D)

But as you know from past lessons, these chords are too far from each other so we’re going to invert (change the way) we play our second chord so that it connects to our first chord more smoothly.

Since these chords have a note in common (“G”), I want to play the common note with the same finger. But as you can see, one “G” is on top (C major triad) and one “G” is on the bottom (G major triad). So what I’ll do is invert my G major triad so that “G” is on top! Super simple!

5-chord (1st inversion) = G major (B + D + G)

So now we have G on top, just like we want it! That gives us two chords that are pretty close to each other:

1-chord = C major (C + E + G)
5-chord = G major (B + D + G)

What if I told you these EXACT two chords played this EXACT same way could allow you to play the ballads sampled at the top of this lesson? Would you be excited?

Well, first off…

I don’t want to mislead you. By no means will these two chords, alone, have you sounding like a seasoned professional. And you will have to learn them in the other keys because the samples above are not in C major. But you will have a clear understanding of how these slow ballads are created — what they’re made of… and that’s important!

And for these 3 songs included here, there are hundreds more that follow this same movement. It doesn’t even take a musician to hear the movements. Just listen to the three recordings above until you hear what I’m talking about. Yes, they are in different keys! Yes, the melodies are different! But that’s not what I’m talking about — I’m talking about the movement of the chords… how close they are… how the bass is moving. This is what you want to key in on.

But back to the two chords…

The first thing you want to do is get good at alternating between the two chords.

1-chord = C major (C + E + G)
5-chord = G major (B + D + G)

Now, play this in a nice, slow “ballad-style” rhythm (…all I’m doing is alternating between each chord and stopping after the 8th change).

[Set 1]
1-chord = C major (C + E + G)
5-chord = G major (B + D + G)

[Set 2]
1-chord = C major (C + E + G)
5-chord = G major (B + D + G)

[Set 3]
1-chord = C major (C + E + G)
5-chord = G major (B + D + G)

[Set 4]
1-chord = C major (C + E + G)
5-chord = G major (B + D + G)

*To make things easier, I’m calling each pair of chords a “set.” So, there are 4 sets for a total of 8 chords. Still following me?

Now, here’s the best part…

You know your C major scale, right?

Do you know it backwards?

C major (downward)
C B A G F E D C

Here’s the great news. All you’ll do is give each one of the chords above one of these bass notes in your left hand. This will pretty much be the pattern until the last chord. Don’t worry, I’ll show you what to do for the last chord when we get there.

So basically, your right hand is simply alternating between a C major and G major chord and your left hand is playing the C major scale backwards (or what we call moving in a “stepwise” motion).

*Play the chord with your right hand and play the single bass with your left hand.

[Set 1]
1-chord = C major (C + E + G) *** Bass: C
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: B

[Set 2]
1-chord = C major (C + E + G) *** Bass: A
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: G

[Set 3]
1-chord = C major (C + E + G) *** Bass: F
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: E

[Set 4]
1-chord = C major (C + E + G) *** Bass: D
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) ????????????????

Wow! You’re playing ballads and all you had to learn was two chords!

The last bass note is easy. We’re not quite ready to go back to “C” on our bass. We will, but we must play another bass note first.

I don’t have much time to talk about why this is, but the 5-chord will almost always take you back to your 1-chord. It has a very strong pull back to the 1-chord. It signals to our ears that we are returning back “home.” Even non-musicians hear a good 5-chord and know a song is either about to end or return back to the beginning.

And it’s no surprise that the very last chord is a 5-chord (B + D + G). All we have to do is play the 5-bass with it and this will complete one cycle of our ballad.

So here’s the entire ballad with the last chord on “G” bass:

*Play the chord with your right hand and play the single bass with your left hand.

[Set 1]
1-chord = C major (C + E + G) *** Bass: C
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: B

[Set 2]
1-chord = C major (C + E + G) *** Bass: A
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: G

[Set 3]
1-chord = C major (C + E + G) *** Bass: F
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: E

[Set 4]
1-chord = C major (C + E + G) *** Bass: D
5-chord = G major (B + D + G) *** Bass: G

*This takes us perfectly to the beginning, where we start all over with our C major (1-chord).

There you have it! A ballad with two chords..

In future lessons, I’ll show you how to spice up this ballad by adding “other” chords. Similar to prior lessons, you’ll see how a song is created from the most basic patterns and spiced up using other chords of the scale.

For now, enjoy playing this and let me know how you’re doing!

Until next time —

As you know from other articles of mine:

“The number of notes in a chord determines how many inversions exists for that chord”

Example 1: If there are three notes in a chord (as in a “TRIAD”), then there are three inversions for that same chord.

Example 2: If there are seven notes in a chord (like in a “THIRTEENTH” chord), then there are seven ways to play it.

With this being known, the amount of voicings, inversions, and ways to play chords are virtually endless.

If you have the 300pg course, you’ll find more information about this on page 50.

Review:

Here’s a break down of the inversions that exist in larger chords:

Seventh chords (4-notes):

Root position, first inversion, second inversion, third inversion [More info]

Ninth chords (5-notes):

Root position, first inversion, second inversion, third inversion, fourth inversion [More info]

Eleventh chords (6-notes):

Root position, first inversion, second inversion, third inversion, fourth inversion, fifth inversion [More info]

Thirteenth chords (7-notes):

Root position, first inversion, second inversion, third inversion, fourth inversion, fifth inversion, sixth inversion [More info]

Moving on…

Now that you understand that the bigger the chord, the more ways to play it, we can look at this concept as it relates to more extended chord progressions.

We will cover “2-5-1″ progressions in this lesson. If you don’t know what “2-5-1″ progressions are, feel free to refer to past newsletters or my 300pg home study course for more information.

C major:

Scale: C D E F G A B C

The “2″ of C major is D.

The “5″ of C major is G.

The “1″ of C major is C.

These keynotes (“D,” “G,” and “C”) make up a 2-5-1 progression in C major.

Here are some variations.

Dmin7

G7 (aka Gdom7)

Cmaj7

Dmin7 (D F A C)

G7 (G B D F)

Cmaj7 (C E G B)

Now… notice that these chords are spread out and hardly close to each other. Using the power of inversions and my “common note” trick from the last newsletter, you can invert some of these chords to make them smoother.

Since the Dmin7 is our first chord, let’s keep that one the same.

Dmin7 (D F A C)

We can, however, invert the G7 to be closer to the Dmin7 chord.

First start by finding common notes between the Dmin7 and the G7 chord.

Common notes:

_____________________

_____________________

Notice that the Dmin7 and G7 chords both share the notes: “D” and “F.” These notes happen to be the first 2 notes of the Dmin7 chord.

Therefore, keeping the “D” and “F” in place, change the other notes to complete the G7 chord.

G7 (inverted): D F G B

Ask yourself this question: “Are these the same notes of the G7 chord?”

Your answer should be: “Yes, these are the same notes just played in a different order!”

So now your chord progression looks like this:

Dmin7 (D F A C)

G7 (D F G B) — which is the 2nd inversion of the G7 chord

Cmaj7 (C E G B)

Note: I really didn’t have to do anything with the Cmaj7 chord because it already shared the same ending as G7. Notice that the “G” and “B” from the end of the G7 chord already match the “G” and “B” from the Cmaj7 chord.

So which progression do you prefer better?

The old way:

Dmin7 (D F A C)

G7 (G B D F)

Cmaj7 (C E G B)

Or the new way:

Dmin7 (D F A C)

G7 (D F G B)

Cmaj7 (C E G B)

I think the new way is much smoother, if you ask me!

One reminder:

Sometimes the melody permits you to play various voicings of a chord. However, if you are not following the melody, then inverting will allow you a much more smoother accompaniment.

Let’s take it a step further:

Dmin9

G9

Cmaj9

Dmin9 D (left hand) / F A C E (right hand)

G9 G / B D F A

Cmaj9 C / E G B D

Step one: Determine if you want to keep the first chord the same or convert it to match up with the second or third chord. In this case, we’ll just keep the Dmin9 the same (in root position) and base the 2nd and 3rd chords on it!

Step two: Find the common notes between G9 and Dmin9 in your right hand (keeping the left hand stable).

Answer: They both have the notes: F A

Step three: Keep the common notes in place. All other notes that are not common will move either up or down to their respective places.

The new G9 chord is:

G (left) / F A B D

(Remember, we didn’t move the D F from the first part of the previous chord. We just changed the “C” and “E” to “B” and “D,” thus making the new chord a G7.

So our new progression is:

Dmin9 (D / F A C E)

G9 (G / F A B D)

Cmaj9 (C / E G B D) — no need to move this chord

Notice how easier it is to transition between these chords when the middle chord is inverted.

Let’s take it another step further:

Dmin11

G11

Cmaj11

Dmin11 (D / F A C E G)

G11 (G / B D F A C)

Cmaj11 (C / E G B D F)

How would you invert these chords (there are many different answers depending on which chord you choose to keep the same and which chord you choose to invert). Feel free to let me know on my message board at http://www.hearandplay.com/board

“The number of notes in a chord determines how many inversions exists for that chord”

“The number of notes in a chord determines how many inversions exists for that chord”

Step One: Determining the Melody

The first step of the process is to learn how to determine the melody. To be very honest, this concept is very easy to grasp and doesn’t require 300 pages to accomplish. Anyone with a decent ear can eventually find the melody to a song. However, in addition to the other techniques, principles, and concepts taught in our course, there are a few pointers to remember when determining the melody. The following lesson is taken right out of our 300-pg course (pgs 252-254): 

Again, this is just 3 pages on harmonizing melodies. If you are truly serious about taking your piano playing and music knowledge to the next level, I invite you to read more about my 300-pg course entitled, "The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear." Click here for more techniques, principles, concepts, tricks and tips on playing the piano by ear.

Step Three & Four: Altering Chords and Listening for Final Changes

Depending on the style of music you are trying to produce, step three will allow you to alter the harmonizing chords used in step two. To "alter" a chord simply means to modify it. There are several ways to alter a chord: You can raise or lower the 5th tone a half step or perhaps you can raise or lower the 7th, 9th, or 11th tones a half step (the list goes on and on…) However, it is important to make sure that the alteration chosen is in alignment with the mood of the song. For example, in gospel music, it is common to hear dominant and diminished alterations rather than just plain major triads.

The following lesson is taken right out of our 300-pg course (Chapter 16; pgs 229-231):

Here is a quick summarization of the four steps. This is actually page 257 of our 300-pg course:

Again, this is just a few pages on the harmonization process. For further training, I invite you to read more about my 300-pg course entitled, "The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear." Click here for more techniques, principles, concepts, tricks and tips on playing the piano by ear.

Step Two: Harmonizing the Melody

Step two is a continuation of the first step. Once you have determined the melody, you must NOW find the right chords to accompany your melody. For example, if your melody was C – D – E – F – G, you’d need chords to accompany "C", "D", "E", "F" and "G." Hearandplay.com teaches you each and every chord needed to harmonize all tones of a major scale. The following lesson is taken right out of our 300-pg course (Chapter 17; pgs 241-245):

Again, this is just a few pages on harmonizing melodies. If you’ve been helped by any of the free information on this page, you’ll definitely benefit from the content in our full 300-pg course. I invite you to read more about my 300-pg course entitled, "The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear." Click here for more techniques, principles, concepts, tricks and tips on playing the piano by ear.

Old version	New Version
Yes C+E+G   Je G+C+E   sus E+G+C   Loves G+C+E   Me * F+A+D  (old)	Yes C+E+G   Je G+C+E   sus E+G+C   Loves G+C+E   Me * G+B+D (new)

• If the chord you’re using to harmonize the second tone of a scale (in C major, that’s “D”) doesn’t sound right, try switching to a primary chord (or the V chord). In this case, we ended up replacing the Dmin chord with a Gmaj chord and it sounded much better.
• If the chord you’re using to harmonize the first tone of a scale (in Cmajor, that’s “C”) doesn’t fit as well as you think it should, try switching to the IV chord (with the same note on top). Remember, the highest note shouldn’t change since the I and IV chords share this same note in their chords.

Chords to study for future online classroom lessons:

• Major triads; see pg chapter 5 of 300pg course
• Minor triads; see pg chapter 8 of 300pg course
• Major sixth chords; see pg chapter 13 of 300pg course
• Minor sixth chords; see pg chapter 13 of 300pg course
• Seventh (dominant) chords; see pg chapter 10 of 300pg course
• Minor seventh chords; see pg chapter 10 of 300pg course
• Major ninth chords; see pg chapter 14 of 300pg course

When melody note is:	Simply play this chord:
C	E + G + C (played all at the same time)
D	F + A + D
E	G + C + E
F	A + C + F
G	C + E + G
A	C + F + A
B	D + G + B
C	E + G + C

Chords to study for future online classroom lessons:

• Major triads; see pg chapter 5 of 300pg course
• Minor triads; see pg chapter 8 of 300pg course
• Major sixth chords; see pg chapter 13 of 300pg course
• Minor sixth chords; see pg chapter 13 of 300pg course
• Seventh (dominant) chords; see pg chapter 10 of 300pg course
• Minor seventh chords; see pg chapter 10 of 300pg course
• Major ninth chords; see pg chapter 14 of 300pg course

In this lesson, we will learn how to take a melody and form various chords to accompany it. This is a common technique used especially by musicians who work with choirs.

For example, if one composed a melody which included the i, iii, iv, vi, vii, and viii tones of a scale, harmonizing this melody would mean playing a chord to accompany every note of the melody (either one chord or a combination of chords). The above melody in C major is:

C – E – F – A – B – C

Using a few techniques (as explained in my workbook; http://www.hearandplay.com/course), you can easily find the corresponding chords to each of those notes.

To HARMONIZE a melody means to create a chord accompaniment for it. Since the I, IV & V chords contain all the notes of the major scale, many melodies in a major key can be harmonized with just these three chords.

To determine the chords to be used, analyze the melody notes. Refer to the following chart to see which chord is generally used with each melody note of a major scale. When more than one chord can be chosen, your EAR should always be the final guide.

SCALE DEGREE —————— CHORD

1 , 3 , 5 ——————– I Chord (Major Chord)
2 , 4 , 5 , 7 —————– V Chord (Dominant Chord)
1 , 4 , 6 ——————— IV Chord (Major Chord)

There is also one scale degree which can be accompanied by a minor chord

SCALE DEGREE —————— CHORD

2 —————————- ii Chord (Minor Chord)

From personal experience, here are the most common chords that I play with the following scale tones:

SCALE DEGREE —————— CHORD

1 , 3 , 5 ——————– I Chord (Major Chord)
2 —————————- ii Chord (Minor Chord)
4 , 6 ————————- IV Chord (Dominant Chord)
7 —————————– V Chord (Major Chord)

Using the above table, here is an example in C major.

“Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”

E — E — F — G — G — F — E — D — C — C — D — E — E — D — D

With this “one-fingered” melody, I am going to show you how I can turn each and every one of the notes above into 3-fingered chords. However, if you are REALLY serious about learning this technique, you owe it to yourself to at least read about my 300-pg course as it covers several techniques to harmonize melodies. For more information on how you can receive my course at over 50% off (If you order by tomorrow), visit: http://www.hearandplay.com/special.html?offer

…. Because I prefer the melody to always be the highest tone of my accompanying chords, I use different inversions of each chords. If you do not know what inversions are, please visit: http://www.hearandplay.com/course

Notice that the first 2 notes of the melody above is E (the 3rd scale degree of the C major chord). If you look on my chart above, I most commonly associate E with the (I) Major Chord. The (I) chord in the key of C major happens to be a C major chord! So, the first two chords are C major chords in the 2nd inversion (which makes E the highest tone).

REFERENCE:
If you do not fully understand inversions, you need to check out my 300-pg course as these FUNDAMENTALS are key to your success!

Root Position: The keynote will always be the lowest note (for example, C major = C – E – G in Root position).

1st Inversion: The keynote will always be the highest note (for example, C major = E – G – C in 1st inversion). Keep in mind that the notes are the same, but they are simply arranged differently with C on top instead of the bottom.

2nd Inversion: The keynote will always be embedded in the middle. This inversion will always put the third tone on top. (for example, C major = G – C – E in 2nd inversion). Notice that the “E” is on top.

More References: http://www.hearandplay.com/course — Chapter 4-6

… … Back to the lesson … Since we want E on top, we will choose a C major chord (2nd inversion) because it is this inversion which makes E the highest tone.

By simply following this same pattern, you can figure out all of the other chords. I have already done the work for you below.

“Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”

E — E — F — G — G — F — E — D — C — C — D — E –

E — E — F — G — G — F — E — D — C — C — D — E –
C — C — C — E — E — C — C — A — G — G — A — C –
G — G — A — C — C — A — G — F — E — E — F — G –

E — D — D (end)

E — D — D
C — A — A
G — F — F

Above, you will find each melody / harmony combination (written vertically from highest tone to lowest tone). As we studied earlier, the first two chords are inverted C major chords. The third chord is an inverted F major chord. Try to figure out the other chords … HINT: There are only 3 different types of chords (different inversions however) used in this example and I have given you two of them already!

Until next time —

From: Ms. Joanne Richardson

Dear Mr. Griggs (HearandPlay.com),

Let me first start by saying that I cannot thank you enough for your website and how you keep in touch with me from time to time. Your online material has been a great asset to my understanding of the piano and I hope to remain a member for as long as you continue to offer such great resources.

My reason for contacting you is because I really want to take my piano playing to the next level. I’m already skilled in sight reading but I just can’t grasp on to this new “train-your-ear” concept. Let me be the first to admit that I haven’t ordered your course, but as stated above, I have taken advantage of your online resources. I wouldn’t say that I cannot play by ear at all because that is not the case. I am able to play a few chords but there are still chords
that I can’t recognize without being in front of the piano. I am also able to play one-fingered melodies by ear (but I don’t know what to do after that). What are your recommendations for me? What will your course help me to do? Does it sound like this course is for me?

I appreciate your prompt response and look forward to ordering from you very soon. Thank you and again and may God bless you.

J. Richardson

(Note: Her e-mail address has been concealed for security purposes)

********

This is the e-mail that Ms. Richardson received from us . . .

********

Dear Joanne,

Thank you for contacting us. Let me cut straight to the point. Playing by ear is not something that you obtain over night. Of course, some people can do this easier than others, but I strongly believe that one can literally train their ear to recognize various sounds. Think about it … you recognize songs when they are being played even before a singer utters a word don’t you? You can
feel when something negative is going to happen during a movie when the music changes to a certain sound right? Well then … how different are the things that we do on a daily basis from recognizing a major scale or a minor chord in a song?

ANSWER … There shouldn’t be a big difference. The only reason you know when a scary scene is approaching is because you’ve been conditioned to associate spooky sounds with terror. The only reason you know the “intro” to a song is because you’ve heard the song so many times. Now let’s use these two examples in the context of playing the piano…

If you simply learn to associate certain chords with certain feelings, you’d know immediately when a certain chord is being played. That is, if you knew how a diminished or minor chord sounded, you’d be able to figure out that most of the chords played during “spooky” scenes of movies are some type of inversion
or alteration of these types of chords. Why? Because minor chords sound sad. Diminished chords sound spooky. Major Chords sound happy … and the list goes on!

Joanne, if you are able to play one-fingered melodies, than I strongly believe that you can be able to soon play fully-chorded songs. It’s not a matter of difficulty — it’s a matter of familiarity. If you familiarize yourself with the different techniques, principles, and concepts, then this process will be a
breeze. How do you do this?

First, you definitely need some written material. You cannot survive online throughout your whole musical career. You need something tangible that you can refer to … something that you can write on — answer questions — complete exercises — take chapter review tests (and don’t think I’m trying to put a sales pitch on you. Simply go to Yahoo.com and type in “piano books” and you should find a nice list of websites).

However, if you are looking for a complete system — a 300-pg workbook with a CD packed with tons of software, I will not discourage you from taking a look at my product. This just may be the tool that you’ve been looking for. If you are serious about learning the piano by ear, take a look at my newest workbook, “The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear” v1.0. http://www.hearandplay.com/course

Because you mentioned playing one-fingered melodies, I just want to give you a preview of our 4-step process to learning songs by ear. This is covered in Chapters 18 and 19 of our course.

1) Determining the Melody

This is essentially what you already know how to do. It involves sitting down and simply figuring out the one-finger melody of a song. For “Joyful, Joyful,We Adore Thee”, the melody would look like this:

E – E – F – G – G – F – E – D – C – C – D – E – E – D – D

E – E – F – G – G – F – E – D – C – C – D – E – D – C – C

Keep in mind that there are different ways to determine the melody depending on what type of song you are trying to play. This is just the beginning of what I can show you in our 300-pg course. For more information, I recommend that you visit http://www.hearandplay.com/course

2) Harmonizing the melody

Joanne, once you have determined the melody, there is a process that we teach you which will allow you to take certain notes of your melody, and create chords to accompany them. Essentially (and I can’t tell you everything in this e-mail as I can go on forever), there are three types of tones that I discuss in this section (Ch 17) of the course:

a) neighboring tones (upper and lower)
b) passing tones
c) chord tones

Neighboring and passing tones are essentially tones that help the melody move from one chord tone to another. Passing tones utilize non-harmonic notes (also discussed in Ch 17) which help the melody move from one chord tone to another while neighboring tones use non-harmonic notes to move from one chord tone back to the same chord tone. Chord tones are just what they are called —- tones
that are apart of chords.

Now, if you could take your melody and determine which tones are neighboring, passing or chord tones, then you’d be able to figuring out where to put certain chords (because not all tones in your melody require chords to accompany them).

Believe me, this process is not hard and cannot be explained solely through this e-mail. That is why I am personally inviting you to check out my course at http://www.hearandplay.com/course

3) Altering Chords

After you have determined what chords go with what tones, you can then proceed to alter certain chords to suit your situation. If you are playing gospel music, you might want to replace some of the major chords with dominant chords. If you are playing jazz music, you might want to replace major triads with major sevenths (these are just examples — there are a countless number of ways to alter chords and progressions). Again, here’s the link … it’s your decision – http://www.hearandplay.com/course

4) Listening

This is one of the most important steps to playing piano by EAR. You must be able to listen — that is, you must be able to hear irregularities (in other words, things that don’t sound right!). Maybe a chord is out of place or the melody is not being played correctly. In the real world, this could be something like a vocalist singing in a key different than what you are accompanying him/her in. YOU MUST BE ABLE TO LISTEN — For more information on our course and how we can help you to build your listening skills, visit http://www.hearandplay.com/course

Well, Joanne, I don’t want to bore you any longer. However, I do believe in taking the time to help my members. Feel free to e-mail me personally (anytime) at webmaster@hearandplay.com if you have any questions or concerns. I hope that something I’ve said has been helpful and look forward to hearing your testimonial real soon! Take Care and update me soon.