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!

As we all know, music is a universal language. However, music can not be music if it is not accompanied by instruments. The piano is one of the most prominent music instruments of all time. However, not many people know how to play the piano. In fact, many people like playing it but they are locked out because they do not know how to effectively do that. Learning how to play the piano is not hard nowadays. There are numerous excellent piano books on chords that can guide anyone into being a good piano player in future.

There are a variety of guide piano books on how to play the piano well. There are those that are suited for beginners and there are those that are for those that want to know how to play the piano professionally. When choosing the best book to learn how to play the piano, one is supposed to look into a few considerations. First of all, it is important to know the level of expertise that one has. This is supposed to mean that when choosing the book, the level of experience that one has with playing the piano plays a very important role. Someone with a little bit of experience will no doubt choose a book that will enable him/her get to the next level whereas, someone with little or no experience will choose a book that will teach him/her from the start to becoming a good piano player.

Another very important factor to take into consideration when choosing the best piano book online that teaches music theory is the type of instructions given. The instructions have to by all means be very easy to comprehend. The more hard it is for a piano learner, the more hard and difficult it will be for him/her to grasp anything that the book wants to teach. At the end of the day, a book with easy to understand instructions that take the piano learner from the start to the end smoothly is the best choice.

The price of the book is another very important factor to be considered. This means that one should first of compare a few books so as to know which one is the most suitable for his/her allocated budget. This is supposed to mean that one should always go for the book that is most economical and at the same time, most convenient for his/her piano playing learning needs. However, at all times when choosing the prices, it is very important to only go for a book that does not compromise on the quality of what one is supposed to learn so as to be a good piano player at the end of the day.

If one strictly adheres to all the above mentioned factors, then getting the very best in the piano learning instructional book will not be a hard thing at all. At the end of the day, the person will also become a professional piano player just like the ones he/she admires most if what he/she learns is put into practice effectively. This is what looking for the book is all about in the first place.

Things You Can Do On The Piano With Just Two Chords

If you are a relative beginner on the piano, you don’t have to know scads of chords to get started. Eventually you’ll want to learn as many as you can, of course, but you can get started with just two chords. After you feel comfortable with two, graduate to three chords. There are literally hundreds of songs you can play with just three chords. Then move to four chords — you’ll find thousands of songs you can play with just four chords. From there the sky is the limit, and you’ll discover that it gets easier as you go!

For lots more ideas on playing with just a few chords, click here: “Songs You Can Play Using Only 4 Chords!”

Sometimes people ask me why they have to learn all those different types of chords, such as augmented and diminished and 9ths and so forth. The answer is “They don’t. They can get by with just the primary chords UNLESS they want to create sounds that produce the feeling they want.” But for those of us that DO want to create some more complex sounds, it’s a good idea to learn all the possible chords.

To learn lots more about chords please go to All The Chords In The Whole Wide World!

What can you do with chords once you know them?

There are upteen zillion things you can do with chords, and the more you learn about all aspects of music theory and form and compostion and improvisation and chord progressions, the more you will be able to use chords in a creative way.

But today let’s just consider the simplest few things we can do with chords. Watch this short video:

For a complete course in 101 things to do with chords, click on this link: 101 Ways To Make Your Piano Playing Much Fuller & Exciting!

Do you love the sound of those big, fat chords that you hear some pianists play? What you are hearing is often extended chords - chords that have been extended beyond the octave range, such as 9th chords. But how do you play them? My hands are small, and I can’t reach a 9th. And even if I could, I don’t have enough fingers to play an 11th or a 13th.

The solution is to divide the chord into two parts — either using both hands or…..watch this short video and you’ll understand:

For a wonderful course on what to do with chords, please click on Piano Playing.

The basic chords of music are TRIADS - 3-note chords composed of various intervals of the scale based on the root, 3rd, and 5th and their alterations. To form a 4-note chord you simply add a note of the scale such as the 6th, 7th, or major 7th to the basic triad. This short video demonstrates how this works:

For a COMPLETE course in chords click on “All The Chords In The Whole Wide World!”

Any chord can be turned upside down simply by taking the bottom note of the chord and putting it on top - an octave higher. There are 3 positions of any 3-note chord (triad): root position, 1st inversion, and 2nd inversion. Watch this short video and you’ll grasp it quickly:

For more information on inversions click on Chords UpSide Down

Diminished triads are formed by lowering the 3rd and the 5th of a major triad. (A triad is a 3-note chord). Remember that a major triad is formed from the root, 3rd, and 5th of a major scale. Watch this short video:

For more information on diminished triads click on Diminished Chords

A triad is a 3-note chord of some kind, and an augmented triad is composed of a major 3rd stacked on top of a major third. That creates the “unbalanced” sound typical of an augmented triad. This short video demonstrates how a major triad can be turned into an augmented triad with just one change:

For more information on augmented triads and a free cheat-sheet, come over to Augmented Triads

Here’s a short video overview of the world of chords — what they are, how they are formed, and how they relate to one another.

After watching the video, click here: The Wide World of Chords — An Overview From Above

Minor chords have a haunting quality that is unique as witnessed by the fact that countless composers from Beethoven to Billy Joel have written many pieces in minor keys. Watch this short video on minor chords, then click on the link under the video to go to the web page that illustrates minor chords.

Click here: Minor Chords

How important are major chords? Since probably 80% to 85% of all the chords used in music are some form of major chords, I’d say they are pretty important. And since there are only 12 of them (not counting enharmonic chords like Gb and F#) it’s not too much to go to the trouble of learning them.

Three of the major chords are composed of just white keys on the piano; three major chords have a black key as the 3rd of the chord; three major chords are like Oreo cookies; one major chord is composed of all black keys; and two are left over — B and Bb. Watch this short video and you will understand:

For more information on major chords please go to: Major Chords

Here is an easy 2-chord pattern that even beginners can learn to play right away. All it consists of is two chords — and I’ll keep it in the key of G to keep it simple — G and C. By playing the G chord in 2nd inversion (in other words, upside down) you can move to the C chord just by moving your thumb up one key and your little finger up one key, making it very simple to learn. Watch this 8-minute video and you’ll quickly get the idea:

Do you know what chords are used most frequently in a song? Of course, any individual song could differ, but if you took all the songs and put them in a computer and had the computer figure out which chords happened the most often, you would get a clear answer - no doubt about it.

Watch this short little video which explains a chord chart that reveals those most frequently-used chords:

Click on either Chord Piano or the Crash Course.

In addition to the normal notes of a chord, you can add notes called “color tones”. They are called that because they add color and interest to a song. Some of the color tones you can add are 6ths, 7ths, major 7ths, 9ths, flatted 9ths, flatted 10ths, 11ths, 13ths, and combinations of all of these. Watch this short video that explains color tones:

To learn about a course on Color Tones, click here.

How To Turn a Chord Into a “Cascading Waterfall Run”

It’s pretty easy to take most any chord (4 note chords are easier than 3 note chords, generally, simply because of the way your hand is constructed) and turn it into a “cascading waterfall” of sound.
For a complete course in creating piano runs, please click here: Piano Runs Galore!

This piano lesson video is the second in a series of videos on how to create unique chord substitutions - making surprising chord changes that are individual for each song and each musical situation.

For a complete course in Chord Substitutions, please go to “Chord Substitutions: 3 Secrets of Creating Fresh Harmonies”

Among the various ways to reharmonize a tune are three specific but easy methods. This is part one of a three part series, and deals with a simple question you can ask at any point in a song to come up with new and fresh chords: “Into What Other Chord Does This Note Fit?”

Watch this short video and you’ll understand:

Then come back here tomorrow and we’ll take up part two of the series.

Imagine if a painter only had 12 colors to choose from. He wasn’t allowed to mix them together, he couldn’t dilute the colors, he could only use one type of brush and every painter had to use the color and type of canvas. Visual art would be boring, wouldn’t it? Artists would have a much tougher time developing their own style and even the person with no interest in art would begin to notice that everything she sees is based on the same 12 colors.

If musicians could only use triads (Three note chords based on 1-3-5 of the scale) the world would sound like it would look with only 12 colors. The various styles or genres of music would be much tougher to distinguish from each other and their unique sound that we’ve grown to love would be gone.

This is why composers developed extended chords. Extended chords “extend” the basic triad by adding notes to it. Extended chords, combined with creative voicings, are what give the different styles of music their unique sounds. Let’s look at how they work.

First, we will call a triad the building block of all chords. Remember that if we have a C Major triad, it is built by stacking the first, third, and fifth scale degrees on top of each other. This is referred to as a C Major chord. If we add another note on top of our triad, we would add the seventh scale degree (because for now, we always skip a note in between). Now we have a chord called a “C Major Seven” chord. The notes of this chord are C-E-G-B.

We can add another note on top of that. Do you know what it would be? It would be a D because we’re skipping a note. Now, although technically D is the second scale degree because we went in to a new octave, when we’re building chords, we call it the ninth scale degree. So now we have C-E-G-B-D. This is a “C Nine” chord.

Are you seeing the pattern? The next tone we add would be an F and we would have a “C Eleven” chord and the next would be an “A” and we would have a “C Thirteen” chord. Of course one cannot extend to a fifteenth chord because we’ve used all of the diatonic notes.

As we always say, very little in music is painfully simple and extended chords are no exception. First, these are the most basic of extended chords. There are many others. For example, there is another seventh chord called a dominant seventh chord that is spelled, C-E-G-Bb. There are hundreds of extended chords.

The other complication with these chords is that the more notes that we add, the worse they sound if we don’t do some creative voicing. When we write a seventh chord, for example, we often remove the fifth of the chord. This gets increasingly complicated as more tones are added.

Now, go to the piano and listen to these extended chords. You’ll find that your musician’s toolbox has just been expanded. And if you really want to get up to speed on extended chords, grab our course on “Super Chords Made Super Simple!”

Copyright June 16th, 2011 by Duane Shinn. Please do not copy without permission!