Piano Cheats

Talk about being well traveled? Man! I totally am envious of this guy!!!

Video 1 - Where The Hell Is Matt (2008)?

Video 2 - Where in Google Earth is Matt?

Video 3 - Where the hell is Matt?

There are more. Check out his site www.wherethehellismatt.com

Tags: around the world, matt harding, travel the world, traveling, video, well-traveled, where the hell is matt

1 May 2013

This is the 3-finger version of the video:

These are the “cheat” chords I played…
Part 1a: A2 - C#m7 - F#m7 - C#m7
Part 1b: D2 - E/D - C#m7 - F#m7
Part 1c: Bm7 - E11 - E
Part 2a: A2 - E/G# - F#m7 - C#m7
Part 2b: D2 - E/D - C#m7 - F#m7
Part 2c(i): Bm7 - E11 - E
Part 2c(ii): Bm7 - E11 - E - A2

………………………………………………………

25 June 2008

I promised to do a video illustration of Chord Association. Here is one with a very common progression. This is a song by J.J. Lim called Love & Hope.

The intro, verse, and chorus all use the same chord progression in this song. The progression is as follow:

I –> V/7 –> VIm –> IIIm –> IV –> V –> IIIm –> VIm –> IIm –> V

The accompanying bass note pattern goes like this

1 –> 7 –> 6 –> 3 –> 4 –> 5 –> 3 –> 6 –> 2 –> 5 –> 1.

That may look complicated, but if you break it down into parts. They are:

Part 1: 1 –> 7 –> 6 –> 3 (Just going down the scale, in other words, except that it goes to “3” instead of “5” after the “6” (la) note)

Part 2: 4 –> 5 –> 3 –> 6 (Now, this is a very common progression. Just remember it)

Part 3: 2 –> 5 –> 1 (This is another very common progression for ending)

In fact, part 2 & 3 combined makes a very common progression itself, which is:

4 –> 5 –> 3 –> 6 –> 2 –> 5 –> 1

Notice the “Chord Association” we learned before? Note the transition from IIIm to VIm in the progression? And then there is also the transition from VIm to IIm, and also from IIm to V, and lastly from V to I.

This song is done in the key of A, so the above full progression is translated to:

A –> E/G# –> F#m –> C#m –> D –> E –> C#m –> F#m –> Bm –> E

To create more interesting sounds, however, the actual progression played in this song becomes:

A2 –> E4/G# –> A2/F# –> C#m –> DM7 –> E/D –> C#m7 –> F#m –> Bm7 –> D/E –> E

Refer my previous posts (Suspension – part 1 & part 2) for Sus2 and Sus4 chords.

As for the minor-7 (C#m7, Bm7) chords, refer to “The 3 Minor Chords” post to see the improvisation using major chords. Find out from there how you can actually play simple major chords without having to learn those monstrous looking minor-7 chords.

The “E/D” and “D/E” in the progression above are simply “decorative”. If you are not comfortable with them, just play “E” for both.

As for DM7 (read “D Major 7”), I will cover it one day. For now, just play these notes for the chord: D-F#-A-C#. Again, if you aren’t comfortable with this chord, just play “D” instead.

Here is the video illustration…

Tags: cheats, chord progression, how to play, JJ, love & hope, piano, piano chords, shortcuts, 林俊杰, 爱与希望, 琴谱

I am posting this video to show a reader-friend (who is now learning this song) how I would play the song my “cheat” way.

I have chosen to begin from the middle section of the song (i.e., not from the beginning), as that’s where you can hear the verse, chorus and the bridge one after another.

The progression for the verse goes like this:

IM7 –> I6 –> I –> I6 –> IIIm –> IIm –> V

The song is actually in C#, but I am illustrating it in C in the video, as that is the key most of us would rather play. Translated to C, the above progression looks like this:

CM7 –> C6 –> C –> C6 –> Em –> Dm –> G

Now, such monsters as CM7 and C6 have not yet been discussed on my blog but we will come to that one day. For the purpose of this song, just follow the video. Very quickly, for CM7, you play C-E-G-B notes; and for C6, you play C-E-A notes (watch my right hand in the video).

You would notice that I play Em7 and Dm7 instead of Em and Dm. As we have learned in “The 3 Minor Chords” post, you can improvise Em7 with G/E and Dm7 with F/D.

The progression for the chorus is as follows:

I –> I/M –> IV –> V –> (IV/M) –> (V/M) –> I

In the C key, that is translated to:

C –> C/E –> F –> G –> (F/A) –> (G/B) –> C

The chords in brackets “( )” above are transition chords, i.e., they are played very quickly to transit to the next main chord. You have probably noticed in the video also that the same transition chords are actually used at the end of the verse just before we enter the chorus, and also the end of each chorus progression. The transition is this:

G –> F/A –> G/B

For the “M” bass, please refer to my “The M Bass” post.

For the bridge, the progression goes like this:

IV –> IVm6/2 –> IIIm –> II/M –> IVM7/5 –> V

In the C key, that means:

F –> Fm6/D –> Em –> D/F# –> FM7/G –> G

Now, there are probably a host of questions about the chords above. I won’t go into explaining them for now, as I will cover them in future posts. But for the sake of this song, quickly, this is how you play some of them: For Fm6, play F-Ab-D notes; and for FM7, play F-A-C-E notes.

I know the above probably sounds rather complicated. But if you take note of the bass notes, there are certain patterns in them. Anyway, for now, perhaps it’s easiest to just follow the video. Here you go:

Tags: C6, CM7, engelbert Humperdinck, Fm6, FM7, how to play, last waltz, piano chords, progressions

This is how you can play U.R.Y. using 3 fingers – 1 on your left hand, 2 on your right hand. And you need literally only 2 ‘chords’ on your right hand.

There are two parts in this song: the verse and the chorus. Duh.

The progression for the verse actually goes like this (if u r interested, that is. Otherwise, just follow my YouTube video illustration):

VIm –> V –> IV –> I/M –> IV –> V

If this is the first time you see an “M” in a chord notation, check out my “The M Bass” post.

You should immediately notice the bass pattern in the above progression, which goes like this:

6 –> 5 –> 4 –> 3 –> 4 –> 5

The song is in G key, so the chord progression for the verse is translated to:

Em –> D –> C –> G/B –> C –> D

Just keep it this way for the moment. I will come back to this progression again shortly. Let’s turn our attention to the chorus for the moment.

The progression for the chorus goes like this:

I –> VIm –> IV –> V

And in the G key, that means:

G –> Em –> C –> D

So these are the 2 progressions we have got.

Verse: Em –> D –> C –> G/B –> C –> D

Chorus: G –> Em –> C –> D

For those of you who are interested to know how I have turned that into 2 ‘chords’ played with 3 fingers, please read on.

The Em chord here can be an Em7 chord.

The D here is actually a D4 (or Dsus4). Refer to my “Suspension (part 1)” post for Sus4.

The C here is a C2. Refer to “Suspension (part 2)” for Sus2.

What we actually have therefore should be:

Verse: Em7 –> D –> C2 –> G/B –> C2 –> D4

Chorus: G –> Em7 –> C2 –> D4

Now, Em7 can be improvised by G/E (Refer to “The 3 Minor Chords” post). Therefore, the progressions become:

Verse: G/E –> D –> C2 –> G/B –> C2 –> D4

Chorus: G –> G/E –> C2 –> D4

That looks awfully complicated but let’s examine these 3 chords: G, C2 and D4.

G chord is made up of these 3 notes: G, B, D

C2 chord is made up of these 3 notes: C, D, G

D4 chord is made up of these 3 notes: D, G, A

Notice that they all have D note and G note in common? That’s why my right hand can play these 3 chords as 1 ‘chord’ that is made up of 2 notes: D and G (and forget the rest)

The other chord that you see I play on the video is a straight D major chord, which is made up of these 3 notes: D, F# and A. But you must have noticed that I only play the first 2 notes. Well, it’s not a big sin to do so, is it? Afterall, this is ‘Piano Cheats’ here.
That D major chord occurs at 2 places: one is in the verse, just after G/E chord. The other place is as a ‘transition’ chord, more of an enhancement to the G chord and the Em7 chord in the chorus. Refer to my “Chord Mixing” post (under “Cheat Tricks” category) for this enhancement trick.

That’s quite enough of the explanation. Here is the video:

Tags: cheats, chords, how to play, keyboard, on piano, shortcuts, U.R.Y. by Hillsong

Remember Sus4? Check out my previous posts on ‘Suspension (part 2)’ and ‘Improvising Sus4’ if necessary. Now, Sus4 is often applied to the II, III and VI major chords, particularly in the ‘Chord Association’ context. Let’s use the following notation for the Sus4 of these 3 chords:

· Let the Sus4 of the II major chord be II4

· Let the Sus4 of the III major chord be III4

· Let the Sus4 of the VI major chord be VI4

The following lists how the II, III and VI major chords associated with other chords from the previous post:

· Chord III –> Chord VIm (i.e., III major chord usually leads to VI minor chord)

· Chord VI –> Chord IIm

· Chord II –> Chord V

Often, however, Sus4 is used before each of the above pairs. For example, Chord III4 –> Chord III/M –> Chord VIm. In the key of C, that means:

· Esus4 –> E/G# –> Am

(That is because Esus4 is the III4 chord in the C key, G# is the M bass of E major chord, and A minor is the VIm chord in the C key)

Therefore you will often encounter such progressions as below in a lot of songs:

· III4 –> III/M –> VIm

· VI4 –> VI/M –> IIm

· II4 –> II/M –> V

Let’s go back to the examples in C. In the C key, the above progressions are translated as:

· Esus4 –> E/G# –> Am

· Asus4 –> A/C# –> Dm

· Dsus4 –> D/F# –> G

I will illustrate this using a song (and to include a video) on my next post. The following shows how to play E4, A4 and D4:

Figure 1: Esus4

Figure 2: Asus4

Figure 3: Dsus4

Tags: A/C#, A4, Asus4, cheat, chords, D/F#, D4, Dsus4, E/G#, E4, Esus4, how to play, piano, progression, shortcut, Sus4, suspension