Piano Cheats

Let’s recap the chords in ‘Chord Association (part 1)’ post:

· Chord IIIm usually leads to Chord VIm

· Chord VIm usually leads to Chord IIm

· Chord IIm usually leads to Chord V

· Chord V usually leads to Chord I

· Chord I usually leads to Chord IV

The following are often associated with one another in the same way (You will see from here the reason to be familiar with II, III, and VI major chords):

· Chord III usually leads to Chord VIm

· Chord VI usually leads to Chord IIm

· Chord II usually leads to Chord V

In the key of C, that means:

· E usually leads to Am (i.e., E –> Am)

· A usually leads to Dm (i.e., A –> Dm)

· D usually leads to G (i.e., D –> G)

Before I proceed with video illustration of these associations, let’s revisit Suspension (Sus4).

Tags: cheat, how to play, II major, III major, keyboard, piano, progression, shortcut, Sus4, suspension, VI major

There are 5 parts in this song.

First, the intro, which is the same as the verse, is made up of the following progression:

IIm –> (I/3) –> (V) –> VIm –> (V/7) –> I –> (VI/M)

The chords in brackets ( ) are transition chords, i.e., they are very short. In this case, they appear on the 4th beat of a bar. For example, Chord IIm is played 3 times, then Chord I/3 is played once (together they make up 4 counts of a bar), before move on to Chord IV (the next bar).

An important thing you should take note of in the above progression is the way that the bass notes progress, i.e., they go like this…

2 –> (3) –> 4 –> (5) –> 6 –> (7) –> 1 –> (1#)

The above chord progression repeats itself until the song reaches the pre-chorus which goes like this:

IIm –> I/3 –> IV –> V

Then the chorus goes like this:

IIm –> V –> IIIm –> IV

The pattern repeats itself throughout the chorus until the last line. The ending goes like this…

IIm –> I/3 –> VIm –> II/M –> IV –> V

There is also a bridge that goes like this…

VIm –> IIIm –> IV –> V

Th progression for the bridge repeats until the song returns to the chorus.

This song is in the key of F. So, the 5 different types of chord progressions above are translated as the following:

Intro/Verse: Gm –> (F/A) –> Bb –> (C) –> Dm –> (C/E) –> F –> (D/F#)

Pre-chorus: Gm –> F/A –> Bb –> C

Chorus: Gm –> C –> Am –> Bb

Ending: Gm –> F/A –> Dm –> G/B –> Bb –> C

Bridge: Dm –> Am –> Bb –> C

Take note of the way the bass notes move, especially in the intro/verse and pre-chorus. Can you see a clear pattern there?

I have said earlier that when II, III and V major chords appear in a song, they often do so with their ‘M basses’. For this song, D/F# is the VI major chord with its M bass (F# being the middle note of the D major triad), and G/B is the II major chord with its M bass (B being the middle note of the G major triad).

Here is the illustration on video…

Notice that my right hand doesn’t need to move much. That’s the beauty of improvising the 3 minor chords using the 3 basic chords!

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There is no such chord as an M Chord. The ‘M’ here actually stands for “the middle note”. And it’s not new. In fact, we have used that before in Chord I, IV and V. Let’s see:

The middle note of a C major chord is the E note, because the E note is the middle note of the C-E-G triad. Therefore E is the ‘M bass’ of the C major chord. On a chord chart, it’s usually written as C/E (read ‘C on E’).

Similarly, F/A is F major on its M bass, or F/M in my own notation. You probably don’t see this notation anywhere else. But I have a reason to use this notation. We will talk about this later.

G/B (read ‘G on B’) is therefore G/M in my notation.

C, F and G major chords are Chord I, IV and V of the C key.

Now, let’s go back to the II, III and VI major chords (my last post). What I want to tell you is: these 3 chords are usually played with their middle basses.

Back to the example in the C key…

D major chord (i.e., Chord II) is often (though not always) played as D/F#, i.e., D major on the right hand, and F# (i.e., its M bass) note on the left hand.

Similarly, E major (i.e., Chord III) is often played as E/G# (G# being the middle bass note of the E major triad), and A major (i.e., Chord VI) as A/C# (C# being the middle note of the A major triad).

Learn this well. II, III, VI major chords, each on its ‘M bass’, will be very useful. Believe me.

When you are familiar with these 3 chords and their associated M basses, you won’t be troubled by the apparently complicated chords on your music sheets or chord charts when such monsters appear: F/A, E/G#, G/B, D/F#, B/D#, etc.

I am going to illustrate the above using “Love Song” by Sara Bareilles. Watch out for my next post.

Tags: A/C#, bass notes, C/E, cheat, D/F#, E/G#, F/A, G/B, how to play, love song, m bass, piano, sara bareilles

In “The 3 Basic Chords” post, we learned the following 3 chords:

Chord I – i.e., the I major chord

Chord IV – i.e., the IV major chord

Chord V – i.e., the V major chord

Then, in “The 3 Minor Chords”, we learned the following 3 chords:

Chord IIm – i.e., the II minor chord

Chord IIIm – i.e., the III minor chord

Chord VIm – i.e., the VI minor chord

Here, we are going to learn the corresponding major of the above 3 chords. These are:

Chord II – i.e., the II major chord

Chord III – i.e., the III major chord

Chord VI – i.e. the VI major chord

Unlike their minor counterparts that can be improvised using the 3 basic chords, I don’t know of anyway one can improvise II, III and VI major chords, but to learn it by hard. Too bad.

However, they don’t appear in many songs. And even when they appear in a song, they do so in relatively small part of it.

In the key of C, the II, III and VI major chords are D major, E major and A major chords respectively. This is how you play them:

D major comprises the following 3 notes:

D – i.e,. the “doe” note of the D major scale,

F# – i.e., the “me” note of the D major scale, and

A – i.e, the “so” note of the D major scale.

Figure 1: D Major

Likewise, E major comprises the following 3 notes:

E – i.e., the “doe” note of the E major scale,

G# – i.e., the “me” note of the E major scale, and

B – i.e., the “so” note of the E major scale.

Figure 2: E Major

Similarly, without elaborating, A major comprises A, C# and E notes (i.e., the “doe”, “me”, and “so” notes of A major scale).

Figure 3: A Major

If you were playing in the key of G, then the II, III and VI major chords would be: A, B and E major respectively.

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Very often, a certain chord would naturally lead to another chord. You can find this in many songs. I call this ‘Chord Association’, i.e., associating one chord with another. The following are some examples:

· Chord IIIm usually leads to Chord VIm

· Chord VIm usually leads to Chord IIm

· Chord IIm usually leads to Chord V

· Chord V usually leads to Chord I

· Chord I usually leads to Chord IV

You must have noticed that the above makes use of pretty much all “the 3 basic chords” and “the 3 minor chords”. In the key of C, the above translates to:

· Em usually leads to Am

· Am usually leads to Dm

· Dm usually leads to G

· G usually leads to C

· C usually leads to F

They don’t happen all the time, of course, but they do occur often enough that I feel it a useful tip to know.

I have entitled this post as ‘part 1’. There is a ‘part 2’ to come but before that, we will have to shift to the ‘Advanced’ gear. Please buckle up.

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