Piano Cheats

If you have noticed (or are still noticing) some strange symbols on my blog, that’s because you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) to view the blog.
These symbols do not appear on other browsers, e.g., Firefox, Netscape, Safari, etc.

Anyway, I have done my best to not let those symbols appear on IE also, by moving the text out from Wordpress to a simple Notepad, then paste them back to Wordpress again. However, I have not managed to get rid of all of them. So you may still see some of those strange symbols. I hope they aren’t too annoying any more.

For those who do not know what I mean by the strange symbols, that means you have not encountered them. Lucky you!

Tags: Add new tag, browsers, strange symbols

This song is in the key of D.

The 1st part of the verse goes like this…

I –> V/M –> VIm7 –> VIm7/5 –> IV –> IV/5

The 2nd part is the same except that it has an additional IIM7 chord towards the end…

I –> V/M –> VIm7 –> VIm7/5 –> IV –> IIm7 –> IV/5

See “The M Bass” post for the “M” notation above.

In the key of D, this is translated into….

D –> A/C# –> Bm7 –> Bm7/A –> G –> Em7 –> G/A
By applying chord substitution to improvise the minor-7 chords with major chords (see “The 3 Minor Chords”), we get…

D –> A/C# –> D/B –> D/A –> G –> G/E –> G/A

See the video for illustration…

The chorus goes like this…

I –> V/M –> IV/M… (repeat)… IIm7 –> IV/5 –> I

In the key of D, this is…

D –> A/C# –> G/B… (repeat)… Em7 –> G/A –> D

Or in the “Piano Cheat” way…

D –> A/C# –> G/B… (repeat)… G/E –> G/A –> D

Tags: chord progressions, hillsong, how to play, piano cheats, piano chords, shortcuts, video illustrations, with all i am

I have done the illustration using 2 different keys: F# (the original key) and F (an easier key to play).

There are only 2 different progressions in the whole song. The 1st progression is repeated throughout the song except during the bridge. This is how the 1st progression goes:

I –> IIIm –> VIm –> I/5 –> IV –> V

In the key of F, this is translated into:

F –> Am –> Dm –> F/C –> Bb –> C

For those who want to know the notes for those chords (i.e., what I played on the right hand), they are:

In the F# key:

In the F key:

The chord progression for the bridge goes like this:

IIm –> I/3 –> IV –> VIm –>

IIm –> I/3 –> IV –> IV/5

In the key of F this is translated into:

Gm –> F/A –> Bb –> Dm –>

Gm –> F/A –> Bb –> Bb/C

For those who want to know the notes for those, they are:

In the F# key:

In the F key:

Here is the video…

Tags: better in time, chord progressions, how to play, leona lewis, piano cheats, piano chords, piano shortcuts, simplified, video illustration

Have you ever played a song, a complete song, without having to change chord? Here is your chance… I call this video illustration the “lazy” version!

For those who are interested to know how the one “chord” on the right hand came about, please read on.

The progressions for the verse and chorus are the same, i.e.,

I –> IIm7 –> IV –> V

With a little bit of tweaking, that can be turned into…

I –> IIm7 –> IV2 –> V4
Please see “Suspension (part 2)” for IV2 and “Suspension (part 1)” for V4.

Now, if we were to improvise the IIm7 with a major chord, then we get…

I –> IV2/2 –> IV2 –> V4

Please see “The 3 Minor Chords” post for the improvisation if you don’t already know how.

This song is in the key of E. So the above is translated into…

E –> A2/F# –> A2 –> B4

The chords, E, A2 and B4 have these 2 notes in common: B note and E note. That what makes up our one “chord” in the video (the right hand).

The bridge goes like this…

IIm7 –> I/M –> IV –> V

If you don’t know what “M” is, please refer to “The M Bass” post.

In the E key, that progression is translated into…

F#m7 –> E/G# –> A –> B

Again, with some tweaking, we can turn that into…

A2/F# –> E/G# –> A2 –> B4

That’s all.

Tags: chord progressions, how to play, i could sing of your love forever, piano cheats, piano chords, piano shortcuts, simplified, video illustration

I appreciate all kinds of songs of all languages. Here are a couple of them I discovered on YouTube that I think are really cool!

First, I believe this video deserves more views than it has already received so far. Come on… every-bud-day… let’s do the mong-key dance!

And this one below is simply cool…! It’s called “Singh is Kinng”…!

Tags: Akshay Kumar, berryz kobo, RDB, singh is kinng, Snoop Dogg, yuke yuke monkey dance