Piano Cheats

In fact, by combining the 3 basic chords on the right hand with different bass notes on the left hand, you can pretty much get all the chords you need for most songs (not all, of course).

Here is a very common ‘chord progression’ (or a pattern of a series of chords) used in many songs with what-is-commonly-known-as “walking bass notes”. The progression goes like this…

The “Chord” part is what you play with you right hand. And the “Bass” part is the bass note you play with your left hand to accompany the right-hand chord. The I, IV and V chords are the 3 basic chords (click on the link to go to the post about the 3 basic chords). The ‘numbers’ for the bass notes are the “doe”, “re”, “me”, etc. on the scale.

Another way to present this is:

I –> V/7 –> VI m –> I/5 –> IV –> I/3 –> II m –> V

The way to read a notation like “V/7” above is “Chord V on 7^th bass”, i.e., the 5^th chord in the key (on the right hand) accompanied by the 7^th note (the “ti” note) in the scale (on the left hand).

You would notice from the above that I/6 is in fact VI m (6^th minor) chord. Similarly, IV/2 is actually II m (2^nd minor) chord. Yes, we have covered that in “The 3 Minor Chords” post previously. You can go back there for revision if necessary.

Let’s tweak the above chord progression slightly to produce a better sound. Remember that F chord and G bass note combination on part 1? This is where it becomes useful. Let’s do that for Chord V (the last chord) in this progression, i.e., let’s substitute V/5 with IV/5. This is what the resulting progression looks like:

I –> V/7 –> VI m –> I/5 –> IV –> I/3 –> II m –> IV/5

Or

The part marked red is the only difference (the ‘tweaking’ we are doing).

Below is my illustration on video…

You probably notice that in the video I play Chord I in its 1^st inversion, i.e., in the me-so-doe (3-5-1) position, and Chord V in its 2^nd inversion, i.e,. the so-doe-me (5-1-3) position. As I’ve talked about in the “Inversion” post, this is entirely a personal preference. My reason for using those inversions is purely to minimize my hand movement.

Here is a song in which you can make use of this progression. It is a portion of “There Is None Like You” by Don Moen:

Try that out! Have fun!

Tags: bass notes, chords, piano, tweak, walk-down

This is a really useful ‘trick’. Well, at least I think so myself.

Most of the time when we play a chord on the right hand, the left hand would accompany that with a bass note (or octave) that corresponds directly to the chord. For example, when you play a C chord with your right hand, you would play a C note with the left hand as the ‘bass’

In fact, by combining the chord on your right hand with a different bass on your left hand can produce some quite interesting sound.

For example, try playing an F chord on your right hand and a G note on your left hand at the same time. How does that sound?

Try it the other way round, i.e., playing a G chord on the right hand accompanied by an F note on your left hand. How do you like that?

I am sure these sounds are quite familiar to you. You have heard them in some songs somewhere. Just when exactly can such combinations be used? I will come to that on another post another day. As for now, I just want to point out that there are various bass notes one can use to accompany a chord to ‘tweak’ the chord and make it interesting.

In ‘The 3 Basic Chords’, we came across the corresponding 3 bass notes for Chord I, IV, and V. These bass notes are ‘do’, ‘fa’ and ‘so’. What else?

Then, in ‘The 3 Minor Chords’, we came across 3 more bass notes: ‘re’, ‘me’ and ‘la’. Wait a minute, in fact right there we were already tweaking our Chord I, IV and V into Chord VI m, II m, and III m, simply by combining the 3 basic chords on the right hand with different bass notes on the left hand.

Anyhooser, that leaves us with the ‘ti’ note on the bass that is still not covered yet by any chord. In other words, if you were playing in the key of C, your bass has pretty much covered most of the ‘white’ notes in the C scale, except the B note (i.e., the ‘ti’ in the C scale). However, a couple of questions remain:

- Does the C bass note, for instance, always go with the C chord?, i.e,. Does the ‘do’ note always go with Chord I?

- What about those ‘black’ notes, the sharps and the flats? Will we ever play them?

The answer for the first question is ‘No’, and for the second question is ‘Yes’. I shall go into detail another day.

So much for now.

Tags: bass, bass notes, cheats, chords, piano, tweaks

Basically there are 2 parts in this song – the verse and the chorus.

For the verse, the chords progress from Chord I to Chord V, then to Chord –I (minus-one), then to Chord IV. After that, simply repeat this chord progression (I, V, -I, IV) until you reach the chorus.

The chorus has a slightly different progression, i.e., Chord I followed by Chord V, followed by Chord VI m (i.e., VI minor), then Chord IV (I, V, VI m, IV). This pattern is repeated throughout the chorus and until the song goes back to the verse.

The song is in the E key. Therefore, the chords for the verse are E, B, D and A (i.e., E is the Chord I in the E key, B the Chord V in the same key, D the Chord –I, and A the Chord IV). In the video, you would see me play Chord IV (i.e., the A chord in this case) in its 1^st inversion, i.e,. C#-E-A notes. The reason is simply to minimize my right hand’s movement.

The chords for the chorus in the E key are E, B, C#m, A.

If you were to play this in the C key (and use your ‘Transpose’ button to transpose the song to the E key), then the chords are:

Chord I – C

Chord IV – F

Chord V – G

Chord VI m – Am

Chord –I – Bb

That means, you should play C – G – Bb – F (i.e., progression I, V, -I, IV) for the verse, and C – G – Am – F (i.e., progression I, V, VI m, IV) for the chorus.

So, there are only these 2 chord progressions for the entire song. A piece of cake, eh? Have fun!

Tags: arise, cheat, chords, how to play, music, on piano, pattern, paul baloche, piano, progression, shortcuts

I have said before that mine is a not-so-conventional theory. That’s one reason why this site is called Piano Cheats at the first place. You probably have not heard and will not hear of any chord called “minus-one” anywhere else.

What exactly do I mean by a minus-one chord. In my definition, it is a chord that is one full tone down from the 1^st chord or Chord I. For example, in the key of C, the minus-one chord is the B-flat (Bb) chord. And in the key of G, the minus-one chord is the F chord.

I have no idea and I don’t really care what that chord is called conventionally, but it is easier for me to recognize, identify and locate it on the keyboard by thinking it as one step down (full tone) from Chord I (rather than 6.5 or 7 steps up from Chord I). That’s the reason I call it minus-one. It can’t be Chord Zero, right? If anything should be known as Chord Zero (which usually refers to the baseline in any field), it should be the 1^st chord of the key rather than this chord. So, there is no Chord Zero in this theory.

One may ask, “So, in the key of C, the C chord is Chord I, and the Bb chord is Chord –I, what do you call the B Chord?” The answer is, you probably never play a B chord in the C key. So, there is no need to give it a name. (Actually, when you do play a B note as the bass in the C key, you will play a G chord with your right hand. But that is another topic we will cover later.)

Below are some illustrations of Bb chord (i.e., the minus-one chord, or Chord –I, of the C key):

Figure 1: Bb Chord (root position, i.e., Bb-D-F notes)

Figure 2: Bb Chord (1^st inversion, i.e., D-F-Bb notes)

Figure 3: Bb Chord (2^nd inversion, i.e., F-Bb-D notes)

And of course, it’s up to you which of the above inversions you prefer depending on which one of them you find easier for you to play.

As for the left hand, just play the Bb note, or a Bb octave as shown below (Note: Just the thumb and the little finger are playing. The other fingers aren’t pressing any key):

Tags: cheat, chord, inversion, minus-one, piano, theory

This is just a post for the sake of “claiming” my blog on Technorati site. Not quite sure what benefits I will get from doing this yet. After all, I am a new blogger.

Technorati Profile