Improvising on the piano involves several factors, but the most notable factor is the creation of a new melody while using the same chord progressions. In essence you are composing a new song, but the new song uses the same chords in the same order as the original song. Improvising is used in all genres, but it is most used perhaps in jazz, where a new melody is created several times in one song. Typically the lead sax or trumpet player will improvise for a period of time (on the same chord changes), then another member of the group will improvise for a period of time, and so on.
Arranging a song is somewhat different: you might keep the same melody, or alter it to some degree, but you might use different chords and different styles in the process. It’s a little bit confusing at this point, because the same type of thing could be happening in improvisaion. One musician will see it one way, and another musician another way, but that’s as it should be — it creates an endless flow of new and exciting music.
I’m sure you know all about major scales and probably relative minor scales. Today I would like to take a look at chromatic scales, whole tone scales, and pentatonic scales. Click on the play button and listen to this short podcast on these musical scales.
There are countless things you can do to “fill up the empty spaces” in your piano playing, but the easiest kind of fill is a chordal echo. Like the word implies, you just echo the chord in force an octave or two above the previous chord. Listen to this short podcast and you’ll understand:
The canon (not a big gun as in the photo of a civil war cannon) is a musical form where the melody or tune is imitated by individual parts at regular intervals. The individual parts may enter at different measures and pitches. The tune may also be played at different speeds, backwards, or inverted. Listen to this short podcast where I illustrate and demonstrate a musical canon on the piano:
There are many ways to add excitement to your piano playing. Here are 7 ideas you can put into practice fairly quickly.
1. Change the chords slightly by adding color tones. What are color tones? Color tones are notes added to the basic chord, usually expressed as 6ths, 7ths, 9ths, etc. For example, instead of playing just a straight C chord as it is written – C, E, G – try adding a color tone to it, such as a 6th (A) or a 7th (Bb) or a major 7th (B) or a 9th (D). In fact, try adding a couple together, like a 6th and a 9th. So instead of being a plain vanilla chord made up of C, E, and G, you’ve made it a tasty variation adding A and D to the equation.
2. During the pause between phrases, add a counter melody. How? Take the given melody notes and turn them upside down or inside out, or change the rhythm slightly so the tune is still recognizable, but different.
3. Add chord substitutions. Instead of always using the chords that are written, ask yourself this question: “Into what other chord will this melody note fit?” For example, if the melody is G and the chord is C, what other chords contain the note G in them? There are several answers to that question. G is not only in the C chord, but it is also in the Em chord, the Eb major chord, the G chord, the Gm chord, etc. Try one of those alternate chords until you like the sound combination, then use it instead of the C chord. It will add an originality and freshness to your playing almost immediately.
4. Add fills and runs between phrases. How do you do that? Simply break up the chord that is in force at the moment, and run it up the keyboard as a broken chord – one note at a time. Or start at the top of the keyboard and come down. Or play with the chord a bit by playing 2 of the 3 notes instead of the entire 3 note chord.
5. Use melodic echos. After you have played the melody, echo it by playing it an octave higher, or two octaves higher, or an octave lower.
6. Use half-step slides. If the chord progression is from D7 to G7, instead of going to G7 directly, “slide into it” by playing the chord that is one-half step above – namely, Ab7, then quickly sliding off Ab7 to G7.
7. Use “blue notes.” Blue notes are created by sliding off a black key onto a white key quickly. For example, if the melody is E, slide off Eb to E quickly using the same finger.
For a complete course on 101 ways to make your piano playing more exciting, please click on How To Dress Up Naked Music.
Once you know all the major chords, it’s easy to form diminished and augmented chords by just changing one or two notes. Watch this short video and see how easy it is to learn them all and understand them.
Piano chords come in all flavors — major, minor, diminished, augmented, and many kinds of extended chords such as 6ths, 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, 13ths, etc. This 50-minute video will give you a good introduction to piano chords and prepare you for more in-depth study:
Most people play the piano by reading music and playing what is on the written sheet music, and that’s fine. Others play by reading only the melody of the song, but also by using the chord symbols that appear above the written music.
Which should you do? I say BOTH. There are benefits to knowing how to do both, so don’t sacrifice one for the other. Why limit yourself to just one way? So keep learning to read music — the better you can read, the better off you will be in many situations. But also learn all you can about music theory and chords, as that will enable you to create a much bigger sound on the piano than you would get from just reading the written sheet music.
There are so many different chords of different kinds and flavors that it’s easy to get lost and think that chords are so complex one could never begin to understand them. In this video we take a look at the various kinds of piano chords and add them up. Can you guess how many there are?
There are 12 major keys one can play in (more if you count enharmonic keys, but we won’t here). To learn those 12 keys, it is useful to learn the “Circle of Keys”. It is often called the “Circle of 5th” or the “Circle of 4ths”. It is all the same thing — just depends which way you move on the circle. Watch this 5-minute video on the circle:
Primary chords are the most-used chords in any key, and they are all major chords. The I chord is the most-used, followed by the IV and the V chord. In this video we explore the primary chords in all 12 keys:
Each key you play in has a “feel” and a sound of it’s own. Beginners usually play in the keys of C, G, and F. But as you advance in your piano playing, you should get to know some keys that aren’t as familiar. Watch this short video about the key of Db:
Non-harmonic tones are simply melody notes that are not part of the chord in force at the moment. For example, if the chord is C7, the chord notes are C, E, G, and Bb. Any other note in the melody which is not one of those 4 notes is said to be non-harmonic — in other words, not a member of the C7 chord.
Sometimes non-harmonic tones can be quite dissonant; such as an F# in the melody while a C chord is in force. Usually the non-harmonic tone resolves to a chordal tone, hence resolving the dissonance into consonance. A good example of this is the 2nd note of the melody of “Maria” in West Side Story. There is a flat 5th juxtaposed against the tonic chord, but then resolved up 1/2 step to the 5th, creating a beautiful resolution.
One of the wonderful benefits of knowing music theory well (including chords) is the choice you have in key selection. You’re not limited to playing a song in just one key — you can use several if you wish. Take a look at the video below on Adeste Fidelis:
The text to the Carol O Come All Ye Faithful was originally written in Latin (Adeste Fideles) and was intended to be a hymn, which it is, but has also come to be one of our beloved Christmas Carols about our Lord.
O Come All Ye Faithful
Joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him,
Born the King of Angels;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.
O Sing, choirs of angels,
Sing in exultation,
Sing all that hear in heaven God’s holy word.
Give to our Father glory in the Highest;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.
All Hail! Lord, we greet Thee,
Born this happy morning,
O Jesus! for evermore be Thy name adored.
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing;
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.
“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night” Luke 2:8
In 1818, a group of actors were performing in many little towns throughout the Austrian Alps. On December 23 they came to the tiny village of Oberndorf, where they planned to perform the story of Christ’s birth.
Sadly, the church’s organ wasn’t working and could not be repaired in time for the show. The actors ended up presenting their show in a private home. Their presentation touched the church’s assistant pastor, Josef Mohr. So, that night, instead of going straight home, Mohr instead went up to a hill overlooking the village.
At the peak of the hill, he gazed down on beautiful snowy village below. His thoughts kept drifting back to the Christmas play he had just encountered. He remembered a poem he had written years earlier, it was a reflection back on the night when Christ was born.
Mohr thought the lyrics could make a nice carol for his church to sing the following at the Christmas eve service, but he didn’t have a tune to sing it to. So, Mohr went to see the church organist, Franz Xaver Gruber. Using his guitar he composed a melody to attach the poem to.
On Christmas Eve, Gruber and Mohr sang the song to their small congregation.
Weeks later, a well-known organ builder Karl Mauracher came to repair the church’s organ. When he completed the task, Gruber tested the instrument by playing the song he had written for Mohr’s poem. Mauracher was very impressed and took “Silent Night” back to his own Alpine village, Kapfing. There, two well-known families of singers, the Rainers and the Strassers, heard the song. Enthralled by it, both groups added “Silent Night” to their Christmas season repertoire.
The Strasser sisters exposed Northern Europe to the carol. In 1834, after their performance of “Silent Night” for King Frederick William IV of Prussia, he commanded his choir to sing it every Christmas eve.
The Rainers brought the song to the United States in 1839 where they sang it (in German) at the Alexander Hamilton Monument located outside New York City’s Trinity Church.
In 1863, almost fifty years after being writing in German, “Silent Night” was translated into English. Then in 1871 the English version was published in an American hymnal: Charles Hutchins’ Sunday School Hymnal.
Silent night! holy night!
All is calm, all is bright,
‘Round yon virgin mother and Child!
Holy Infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.
Silent night, holy night
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heav’nly hosts sing Alleluia
Christ the savior is born
Christ the savior is born
Silent night, holy night
Son of God, love’s pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus Lord, at thy birth
Jesus Lord, at thy birth
Lots of students have asked me some variety of that question: “What’s the difference between arranging and improvising?”
Remembering that language is fluid and not everyone means the same thing with the same term, still there are some basic understandings about the difference between the two. Basically improvising indicates the creation of a melody which is significantly different than the written tune, while arranging keeps the same melody, but uses different stylistic devices to create a new sound or a new feel to the song.
Watch this short video and I think you’ll understand quickly.
Diminished 7th chords are formed by adding a double-flatted 7th to a diminished triad. There are only 3 “different” dim7th chords, because all the others are simply inversions or enharmonic inversions of 3 of them.
For more information, check out playpiano.com/101-tips/15-diminished-7th-chords.htm
A seventh chord with a flat 5th is simply what it says — a dominant 7th chord with the 5th scale note lowered 1/2 step. The symbol for a C7 with a flat 5th would be C7-5. The symbol for an F7 chord with a flat 5th would be F7-5.
I’m sure you know all about major scales and probably relative minor scales. Today I would like to take a look at chromatic scales, whole tone scales, and pentatonic scales. Click on the play button and listen to this short podcast on these musical scales.
![MCj04326540000[1] Piano fills: The easiest kind of fill in piano playing](http://www.playpiano.com/MCj04326540000[1].png "Piano fills: The easiest kind of fill in piano playing")
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