Here are some ways you can “phatten” your piano chords:

1. Use color tones such as 6ths, 7ths, 9ths, etc.
2. Use crunches by playing the chord notes from the top down.
3. Use tremolos. You can often “run the tremelo” up the keyboard.
4. Use voicing in 4ths instead of 3rds.
5. Use “blue notes” – slide off black keys onto white keys.
6. Use polytonal notes (non-chordal notes) and then resolve to chord notes.
7. Use “toast notes”. Play chords crisply using staccato touch but with the pedal controling the sound.

How to play piano using all kinds of exciting techniques!

How to play piano is a subject that most everybody thinks about from time to time during their life. It is a universal desire to create music and express oneself through songs and musical pieces.

Playing piano is a wonderful skill that can stay with a person throughout his or her lifetime and bring joy to them and their family and friends.

The traditional way to learn piano is to take piano lessons and learn to read music from sheet music and piano books, and 90% of people who play do learn that way. But there is also a minority of people who learn to play the piano by using chords. Piano chords are groups of 3 music notes played at one time or at least almost at the same time.

By learning to play piano by playing the melody of a song and then matching that melody with chords in the left hand which use the same piano notes, an individual is able to get started harmonizing the songs he or she likes very quickly.

Learning to read music is a wonderful skill and I highly recommend it, but learning music theory through chord analysis is valuable too, and a skill that should be learned as quickly as possible. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=313VSLGgDyg

***For a GREAT course in music theory (understanding how music works) come on over to our Music Theory page.

Not really, but Elisabeth is WAY ahead of where I was at this age!

(My 12-year old granddaughter)

(This is a guest post – not by Duane)

I’m sure that anyone who was in a jazz club was amazed by the piano players who are the most awesome to behold. They give you the feeling that they are playing a song just like that, without even hearing it before in their lives. There are actually plenty of individuals who are capable of this, they can listen to a song once and then play it flawlessly and without any hesitation. They are considered to be gifted and somehow apart from the rest of us that need written keys, music along with notes and times signatures as our guide.

So yes, it is possible to learn the piano by playing it by ear, however this is not a common method. Ear training for piano players requires to learn music simultaneously, this is the most known and common method. This skill is acquired after many years of practice, listening, reading music and imitating the way that most professional musicians do. For some, playing by ear is actually a gift, an inborn talent that came to them naturally. A good example in this case is Mozart who played and composed many complicated compositions even as a child, long time before he even saw sheet music.

However, you should not make the mistake of thinking that you do not have to learn to read music in order to active this ability for yourself. Anyone that wants to be a good musician, even professionals require this skill. When you can read music you get access to every piece of music ever written. This way you will gain better hand to eye coordination by learning to read music and play the piano, therefore improve your overall musicianship. So basically by reading music you will unconsciously learn to play it by ear. Learning to play the piano by reading music will offer you a perception of the notes and this way you will have an idea of what the music sounds like.

A general piano instruction will include learning to read music, this is an essential part in order to get the basics required to be able to play by ear. This can prove out to be quite difficult for those that do not have a good understanding of good techniques and music theory and learning to play by ear for them can be difficult. It is very important to invest time in practicing your scales and positions, these techniques should definitely be implemented in every practice session since they will help you develop good habits while training your ear in the same time.

It doesn’t matter what’s your reason for wanting to play, ear training for piano players can begin by practicing and reading music. It is never too late to begin your training in these techniques, in fact, it is never too late to achieve your goals! You will find most of these courses online which will offer you most of these musical skills. So wait no longer, sign up for a course and be what you have ever dreamed, learn to play piano by ear and impress others as you were impressed by them.

For a great course in Ear Training, please go to How To Grow Big Ears!

Jazz music faces a big problem in the United States and that is a, dare we say it, closed mindedness on the part of many music lovers. The orchestral musicians and lovers don’t like it because it’s not as structured as their style of music and those who like pop music don’t like it because it’s just a bit too academic.

Jazz has the unfortunate problem of being stuck in between the two musical extremes which is why today it has more of a cult following than a mainstream appeal. This is truly a shame because jazz is far more than what we think.

Jazz is what really put American music on the map. In the early part of the 20th Century in a town called New Orleans, Jazz music was accidentally invented by the African American population. With an emphasis on syncopation, improvisation, and complex rhythmic patterns, the African heritage of the music is easy to hear but those musicians weren’t out to invent anything new. The “jam session” was where the music was born and as time went on, American musicians began molding the style in to what we call Jazz.

You already know the first real jazz style. Dixieland jazz produced such songs as “When the Saints Go Marching In”. This was seen between 1918 and 1928 and incorporated rhythm instruments like banjos, drums, and guitars. At the same time, there was a northern style emerging in Chicago which was very similar but faster in style.

What many people don’t understand is that Jazz spent many decades as the popular music of its day. What Madonna, Katy Perry, or Aerosmith were in their day, jazz greats like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie were to theirs.

In the 1930s through World War II, another type of Jazz called swing music was the popular music of its day. Songs like “Swing, Swing, Swing” or “Take the A Train” were popular in that era as well as many others. The swing era also was the start of what we call the big band. Today’s version of the big band may be Harry Connick Jr. or Michael Buble but in those days people like Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, and Duke Ellington were the Buble’s.
In the 1940s through the 1960s Bop was the jazz style of choice. People like Thelonious Monk, and Dizzy Gillespie were from this era that later gave way to cool jazz in the 50s and 60s. People like Miles Davis gave us cool jazz along with soulful and Latin jazz with many of this era’s standards still well known today.

Jazz Fusion came about in the 70s with what we now know as rock mixing with jazz at its peak. Well known artists like Frank Zappa gave us this fusion or mixed sound and as the 20th century went on through the 80s and 90s we would see the modern jazz sound develop. Some people consider modern jazz as something you would hear during a romantic night out but punk jazz, jazzcore, and M-base jazz developed all over the world.

All popular music we know today got its start hundreds of years ago through classical music but the idea of hearing music played by bands instead of orchestras came from jazz music. It’s not stuck in the middle of two styles as many listeners believe. It is, in fact, what we listen to everyday just in a slightly different form.

You already know of major and minor scales and you’re probably playing some or all of these scales in your lessons but those 48 scales barely scratch the surface of the many types of scales that we find in the musical world. Jazz musicians, for example use certain types of scales to achieve the jazz sound while musicians all over the world use various types of scales to achieve the sound that makes their style unique. It would take a long time to go through each of these different types of scales but here are a few that you might consider trying as you expand your musical vocabulary.

Chromatic Scale

The chromatic scale isn’t really all that “out there” as scales go. In fact, all classically trained musicians have to learn the chromatic scale because it helps with technical facility on their instrument. The Chromatic scale is simply every half step in between an octave. A Chromatic scale starting on C would have twelve notes and end on the C above it. If it sounds easy, beware. It’s a lot harder to play than it is to figure out.

Blues Scales

A blues scale, also called a hexatonic scale in the academic world, is a scale based on six notes. Starting on C, those notes would be C, Eb, F, Gb, G, Bb, C. This is the scale that jazz musicians use to achieve the well known blues sound that comes with jazz music. Of course not all jazz music is based on the blues scales but as any jazz improvisation student knows, being able to improvise on a blues scale in any musical key is basic required knowledge before joining the ranks of the best jazz musicians.

Pentatonic Scale

The Pentatonic Scale is better known than you think. If you play only the black keys of the piano, you are playing a pentatonic scale. These scales are actually much more complicated than that. The two most common types are major and minor. An example of the major pentatonic scale is C, D, E, G, A, C. An example of the minor is C, Eb, F, G, Bb, C. Each of these are based on an interval pattern that can be transposed to begin on any note.
This scale is found all over the world including American music. Some people attribute the sound of this scale to far eastern sounding music but that is only one of many places in the world where this scale is commonly used.

Whole Tone Scale

The Whole Tone Scale is made entirely of major intervals and has only six notes. The notes of a whole tone scale are C, D, E, F#, G#, A# C. The whole tone scale isn’t as widely used as the pentatonic scale but it also has world wide appeal. Mozart was known to have used it as well as Rimsky-Korsakov. This is another scale that has a unique sound that composers use as a new musical color in their music.

Many other scales

There are many more scales to explore. Without too much work, you can find plenty of different scales online to try out and see what kinds of sounds are produced. You may even find that a piece of music you couldn’t figure now makes sense because you know the scale it was built around.

For info on many more different kinds of scales, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Musical_scales

Brent Olstad – awesome arranger!

As you know I almost never recommend other piano or music sites simply because I’m never sure about the quality or reliability of the site owner. In fact, over the last 15 years I believe I have only recommended 2 other sites. One was Dave Sprunger’s playpianotoday.com site and the other was Patti McCoy’s site at patmoranmccoy.com.

But today I have an enthusiastic recommendation if you are in the market for arrangements of any kind — piano, flute, trombone, etc. — and even custom arrangments where you pick the song and he arranges it specifically for you. He specializes in hymn arrangements, but he does other genres as well.

The site is http://www.brentolstadmusic.com Brent is my nephew (by marriage) and is a brilliant pianist and arranger. He is the author of at least a dozen published books you can see by clicking here: http://www.brentolstadmusic.com/published-works.html

Do yourself a favor and go over to his site at http://www.brentolstadmusic.com and just browse around and see all the exciting stuff he does. You can listen to audio samples on his page. He even has a free arrangment of Beethoven’s Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee you can listen to and then download if you want. Click here: http://www.brentolstadmusic.com/free-music.html

(If you are wondering if he is a student of mine, the answer is no — he is way beyond me.)

Great site – fantastic arrangments! Click here: http://www.brentolstadmusic.com/

Brent Olstad is an arranger and composer, most noted for his Faithful Flute series published by Ron Harris Music. Brent was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, and attended Biola University in La Mirada, California, where he received his Bachelor of Music degree in Organ Performance (1984).

Brent played keyboards in the Biola Jazz Ensemble and was active in the Biola Concert Band as a percussionist and as the Student Conductor for two years. He was a two-time winner of the Biola sponsored Composition Contest and was the recipient of the Howard Organ Scholarship two years in a row.

Brent is a classically trained pianist/organist but is also gifted in playing other styles, including jazz and gospel. He is the Minister of Music at Ashland Bible Church in Ashland, Oregon. Brent performs locally in small jazz groups, for community theater, and as an accompanist.

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What is Polytonality in Piano Playing?

Polytonality indicates that two different tonal centers are being used at the same time. Sometimes this means playing in multiple keys at once, but in this example we are speaking of using more than one chord at the same time. Watch this short video:

Then go over and check out all the awesome courses at PlayPianoCatalog!

When I was growing up in Auburn, California my older cousin would come to visit us during the summer and thrill and amaze me by playing Flight of the Bumblebee and Bumble Boogie. That was my introduction to boogie, and I still find it interesting and exciting.

Boogie-Woogie, thought to have its birth place in Marshall Texas, Is a style of blues piano playing that is characterized by a steadily repeated left hand bass figure. Sometimes called eight to the bar with a succession of right hand figures, much of it is written in 4/4 using eight notes. Boogie-Woogie pieces are generally 12 bar Blues.

This raw rhythmic style is considered the most impressive form of Jazz music. This piano music is infectious. Once you catch the Boogie-woogie “there ain’t no going back”. This music is extremely rhythmic with a real strong drive. It just grabs hold of you and makes you want to submit to its amazing power. It takes you to rapid highs and fast paced rhythms before you know what is happening to you.

The lively, exhilarating, rhythmic Pinetop Boogie Woogie was first recorded in 1928 by the incomparable Pinetop Smith. But that wasn’t the beginning of Boogie-Woogie. It was just the first recording of this exciting fast paced music. Soon to follow was a hit by Mead Lux Lewis that was called The Honky Tonk Train Blues. The Boogie Woogie was soon being played in house parties and Juke joints across the country. It wasn’t long before it even hit Carnegie Hall in 1938.

Boogie-Woogie style is characterized by the pumping left hand patterns that were said to be inspired by the steam locomotives that were opening up new opportunities for the recently emancipated Afro- Americans in America. This syncopated style of blues piano playing, has had a major influence on popular American music. In the early forties it had a huge influence on the swing bands and RandB style Jazz music. It was soon to become one of the major ingredients of what would become known as Rock and Roll.

Boogie-Woogie was originally called Barrelhouse music because it was played in the Barrel Houses that were a place where barrels of liquor were stored. The Boogie-Woogie has a distinctive 8 beat rhythm that will get your toes tapping in no time and will make you want to shout with enthusiasm. The roots of this style of music are said to go back as far as the 1900s But it really came into it’s own in the 1930s.

Fats Domino and Dr. John are a couple of all time favorites when it comes to Boogie-Woogie. Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis are not to be forgotten when talking about Boogie-Woogie piano playing. They brought this style of music to a whole new generation.

The Boogie- Woogie style is kept alive by current piano players both famous and amateur. The most famous Boogie-Woogie piano player today is probably Axel Zwingenberger. Ben Waters and Caroline Dahl are also known for their mastery of playing a mean Boogie- Woogie piano. Some of the well known songs by these pianists are Boogie Woogie Be With Me by Axel Zwingenberger, Boogie Woogie Stomp by the UKs Ben Waters and Caroline’s Boogie by Caroline Dahl.

If you are a relative beginner, take a look at Boogie For Beginners. It will get you started as a boogie-man or boogie-lady.