Piano music

So, you’ve been dying to play the piano. But you don’t want to spend years learning how to read music. Of course you don’t! And you won’t have to IF you learn a chord-based approach to playing the piano.

Here’s a method I use to get my students playing piano in a flash. First, you need to learn a few chords. But not just any chord type. No. The chord type I have my students learn first is something called the open position chord. And with it, you’ll be able to create your own unique music right away!

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A student wrote me an email about the lesson “Ocean Dreams.” Here it is:

“Dear Edward, I can’t believe that you’re using just 3 chords for this piece. It sounds like it uses much more material. Please tell me how you did it!”

Here’s my answer - Dear B. First, thanks for listening to my free lesson. To answer your question, the secret to getting the full sound you hear in this piece is not in how many chords are used. It’s in how the chord is voiced! Notice in the lesson that your left hand is very much open and covers a full octave of the keyboard.

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How many chords do you need to create a piece of music? Would you believe that it doesn’t really matter and that whole pieces of music have been created using just one chord? For example, if you play a D minor 7 chord, you could use the bass note D to create a drone effect and anchor the whole improvisation. It could last for a few seconds or many minutes.

The important thing is were you in the moment when you created it? If you were, then it will be a good piece of music. If you weren’t it will be notes in the air without communication. What communicates is your feeling. It’s your feeling that gets across through the notes.

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One of the first challenges faced by the advancing guitar player is learning a core group of basic guitar chords. Why is it so important to learn these basic chords? Chords form the backbone of most rock and pop songs, and provide the harmonic accompaniment to the melody and instrumental solos.

Rhythm guitar based on basic chords provides many of the most memorable rock riffs think AC/DC s Back in Black or The Who s Won t Get Fooled Again . What s really amazing is that by learning no more than 10 to 15 basic guitar chords, you will be equipped to play thousands of rock and pop songs!

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Chord jumping is a simple technique that allows you to use much of the piano. You simply take a chord and “move it” up the keyboard.

Now, I’m not talking about inversions here, although there’s nothing wrong with inversions. I’m talking about taking a simple chord structure and just using the entire piano to create with. Here’s what I mean.

Take the lesson “Coral Reef” for example. Here we have 2 chords, A minor and F Major. The beauty of only having 2 chords for this improvisation exercise is that it frees you up to experiment. That is, you can focus on moving them around instead of looking to see when the chords change.

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