Hello and welcome to InsidePiano.com, my name is Federico Dantoni.
And today’s video answers a question posted to our blog by Antonio from Spain
who wants to know how to use his knowledge of chords
to be able to play songs by ear.
Thank you Antonio for reaching out to us,
and greetings to all Spain from Chicago,
special thanks to Dani Peralta for his generous donation.
Thank you all for your support and I hope you enjoy today’s video.
To be able to play a song by ear, we need 2 important pieces of information
The melody and the Bass Line.
Which are the outermost lines of the song.
The Melody which is the highest part
and the bass which is the lowest part of the song.
Once we know these 2 elements
Melody and Bass Line
we can play the rest of the song from here.
With the melody we’ll determine which is the scale of the song.
Let’s day the song yesterday, from lenon and mcCartney
In this case the scale is G Major.
And the bass line will tell us the chords of the song.
The scale of the song of G major, so the first bass note will be G
F#
B
E
So now we know the chords are…
G Major
F# minor
B7
and E minor
Now that we now the chords and the melody.
We gotta put them together.
To do that we’ll use a technique called Chord-Melody
There is a misunderstanding of this concept going around the internet that I like to
clarify.
I’ve seen a lot of video tutorials teaching Chord Melody as a 2 Part System.
Part 1 Melody - Part 2 Chords
So they play the Melody with the right hand And the chords with the left hand.
But this is wrong. You don’t play piano like that.
With the exception if we are playing with a Jazz Band
improvising with the right hand, and comping with the left.
But these are Rootless Chords
It’s an improvisation technique, and a different subject.
Chord-Melody is not a 2 Part System.
Melody and Chords.
Chord-Melody is a 3 Part System.
Parte 1 is the melody with the right hand.
Parte 2 is the bass with the left hand
which tell us the name of the chords we have to play
and Parte 3 is the chord blended between both hands with the rest of our fingers.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3.
Now listen carefully to the difference of sound between these 2 positions.
between this…
and this…
We are using a wider range of notes and we are distributing the voices correctly.
The Piano is a Representation of the Orchestra and to play correctly,
we have see the Piano the way a composer or an arranger does.
Sopranos with the right hand.
Basses with the left hand.
Baritones, tenors and altos in the middle.
Sopranos, Bases
Baritones, Tenors and Altos.
This is the right way to see the piano, and the right way of distributing the voices.
The formula for voicing chords this way is as follows.
1, 5, 1 with the Left Hand
or 1, 5, 3
1, 5, b3 for the triad chords.
1, 5, 1
1, 5, 3
1, 5, b3
And 1, 5, 7
1, 5, b7
for seventh chords.
1, 5, Major 7
1, 5, minor 7
1, 5 Major 7
This is the formula for the left hand.
Again Part 1 Melody
Part 2 Bass with the left
and Part 3
1, 5, 1 Then we complete the chord with the right hand.
Then, once we know the Melody and the bass line,
we can play the whole song.
G Major
1, 5, 1 with the left hand
F# minor
1, 5, 1 with the left hand
B Major
1, 5, 1 with the left hand
E minor
1, 5, 1
D Major
1, 5, 1
C
1, 5, 1
D Major
1, 5, 1
G Major
1, 5, 1
G again…
E minor
1, 5, 1
A7
1, 5, b7
C Major again
1, 5, 1
and G
1, 5, 1 with the left hand
and complete the chord with the right.
Take a look at the full access this position give us
to all the chord extensions.
We have access to everything from here.
This other way on the other hand
It’s a very close narrow position.
But from this position we have access to a full range of colors and extensions.
and we have our fingers free to create movement
And rhythm
which is what makes the music tick.
This is not something that can be explain quickly in one video,
but since we are in the subject let’s illustrate the concept of the use of chord extensions.
Let’s play the verse slowly one more time
to see how the extensions sound.
Now let’s play the chorus
using the chord extensions.
I hope you enjoyed today’s video.
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and stay tuned to learn more about piano and the language of music.
Thank you and I’ll see you on the next video.