HearandPlay.com Monthly Newsletter --- June 2004!
http://www.Hearandplay.com
Serving 68,464 Musicians
Worldwide!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contents:
I. Welcome
II. Exciting
Announcements!!!
III. Online Classroom:
"Exploring
Fancy Chords and Progressions!"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Subscriber,
Welcome to June's
newsletter! Since I've gotten so many questions on how to construct, alter,
and invert fancier chords, I've decided to cover it in this month's online
classroom section. You're sure to benefit from the tips and tricks in this
month's newsletter.
It has also come to my
attention that many of you haven't received my newsletters since December
2003. So what I've decided to do is compile the last six months of my
newsletters at the website below. You can visit this site to view newsletters
all the way back from January 2004:
------------------------------------------------------------------------ Online Classroom: "Exploring Fancy Chords and Progressions" ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note: You might want to print this lesson out for easier reading.... I get tons of e-mails asking me how to spice up old chord progressions. So this month, I will introduce a couple of "spicy" progressions that you can play in the place of classic progressions like "2-5-1's" or "6-2-5-1's!" I will start by giving you a basic way to play the progression. I will then show you how to "spice up" the same progression.
#1) Key of F major This example is based on a "7-3-6" progression. If you remember, last month (May), we covered "7-3-6-2-5-1" progressions. A "7-3-6" is simply an abbreviation of the larger progression. For simplicity, I will post one of the progressions that you learned last month. Now... keep in mind, that this progression is pretty contemporary in and of itself. However, there are ways to take an "already-contemporary" progression and spice it up as you'll see below. NOTES IN PARENTHESIS ( ) DON'T NECESSARILY HAVE TO BE PLAYED IF YOU CAN'T REACH THEM.Common Example of 7-3-6 progression:
Now... let's spice it up a little bit! Ok, to start: For the "7" chord above, let's replace the left hand with a tritone: "G+Db." BUT INSTEAD OF PLAYING JUST A TRITONE ON THE LEFT, we will add an "F" to create this three-fingered triad: G + Db + F TIP: When spicing up your chords, sometimes the lowest note won't correspond with the traditional way to play a progression. You'll be playing things like "tritones," various inversions of the left hand, altered chords, and more! So don't worry about trying to decipher why a "G" is the lowest note instead of an "E" (like in the common example above). As you'll notice, the same type of sound will be produced, but more jazzier. The end result is always more important --- that is, you'll still end up going to the "6" chord, which is on "D." So, let's continue: On the left, we will play G+Db+F, which is like a G7 (b5), but very abbreviated. On the right hand, we will simply play a Gbmaj triad (Db + Gb + Bb) in its second inversion. Let's look at the whole chord now:
The next chord is pretty simple. Just take the left hand chord you're playing and move the "F" to "E" so that you get this chord: G + Db + E <<<<<<<<<<<< Left hand. Now for the right hand, simply move the Gbmaj triad to an Fmaj triad. That means moving (Db+Gb+Bb) down to (C+F+A). C + F + A <<<<<<<<<<<< Right hand. The entire chord will look like this:
Now, we will look at the last chord of this series. Very very simple again. Tip: With a lot of these "spicier" voicings, it's not all about playing huge chords. In actuality, a lot of these "spicier" voicings are simply two small chords combined (aka "polychords"). Play around with smaller chords until you come up with sounds that you've never heard before. You'll surprise yourself!
So as you can see, this last chord is simply a D7 on the left and a Cmaj triad on the right.
Now, let's combine all three chords for our final "7-3-6" progression:
#2) Key of Ab major The following progression can be used to replace a classic "6-2-5-1." So that you understand how a "6-2-5-1" might normally be played, I have listed one below for you: A " / " slash means that the note to the right will be played on the bass (left hand).
Note: The "1" chord has been added above just to give you a sense of what chord a "6" would proceed.
Now replace the same chords above with these:
... So can you tell the difference?
What do I do next? Start learning these progressions in all twelve keys! Just because I played them in F and Ab major doesn't mean you have to be confined to those major keys. Use our 300-pg course to figure out how to transpose these chords into other keys. Remember, chords have different functions. Try using the chords above in other keys. For example, though the second example I listed was posted in Ab as a "6-2-5-1" progression, isn't it true that an F to Bb to Eb to Ab is also a "3-6-2-5" in the key of Db major? So in essence, what might be one progression in one key WILL BE A TOTALLY DIFFERENT PROGRESSION in another key! Try those same chords out and see if they work. You'll be surprised at the results. So once you learn the progressions in all keys, then start mixing and matching their roles. Use them as "2-5-1s" in some keys but as "1-4" progressions in others! You'll see the power of this technique as soon as you start using it! Well, I hope you enjoyed June's newsletter and I'll be back in July! Take care! This concludes June's Online Classroom Lesson If you were intrigued by the online classroom lesson above, then you would definitely benefit from my course! *** “The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear” 300-pg Course *** With 20 chapters and over 300 pages, the home piano course provides several resources, techniques, tips, principles, and theories to playing the piano by ear. Along with hundreds of chords and scales, you'll also learn how to turn them into gospel, jazz and blues chord progressions and better yet, how to use them to play ABSOLUTELY any song you want ... IN VIRTUALLY MINUTES! Again, don't miss this opportunity. I've even added an additional bonus if you purchase the course this week --- You can read more about the course at: https://www.hearandplay.com/course ------------------------------------------ Enjoy this edition? Visit our message board and let us know! http://board.hearandplay.net Please Let a friend know about HearandPlay.com! PLEASE FORWARD THIS NEWSLETTER TO YOUR ENTIRE E-MAIL ADDRESS BOOK. ------------------------------------------ Yours Truly, Jermaine Griggs www.HearandPlay.com
|