Piano music

So, you’re thinking about (or are already) playing piano using the chord approach. But, you’re lost in the sea of chord types.

There are minor piano chords, major piano chords, and diminished piano chords. There are 9th chords flat 5 chords and other chords I can’t even begin to describe to you.

The good news is you don’t need to learn piano chords this way. There’s a much easier way to learn them and it all has to do with something called the open position chord.

Those of you who have been reading my articles for some time know I’m a big fan of this chord structure. You also know that I like it because you use both hands right away to create

a modern sounding seventh chord.

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How do you begin a piece of music? That’s a question I’m often asked. The answer I usually give is that you begin as soon as you start playing - that is, if you’re trying to “compose” something, the piece begins the moment it has energy and is something you want to capture. If it’s an improvisation, the piece begins the moment you set your fingers on the keys and hit the first note. It’s like free flow writing and writing a chapter to a novel.

The writer can both improvise and enjoy the process or can structure the ideas more - or, as I like to do, combine both procedures into one. I start out by improvising - always. Then,

if I want to memorialize a musical idea, I write down the first two bars of melody along with the chord(s) I’m playing. I throw this on a chart and voila - the idea remains fresh until I want to either expand on it, or ignore it completely.

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If you’ve ever looked at a flower garden, not only its beauty may have captivated you, but also its overall arrangement.

There may have been some tulips or roses combined with other flowers or plants.

You may also have stood there looking it over. Maybe you started on one side and your eye moved down or vice-versa. Now, music making is a lot like flower arranging. You combine different elements to make a pleasing whole.

It is a natural tendency of the human mind to create order out of chaos and art from nothing. What is pleasing to the listening ear is symmetry. The flower arrangement captivates, not only because of its great beauty, but because it has been composed and arranged to

a pleasing whole - something the eye and the mind can grasp hold of and ponder.

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There are basically two ways you can compose a piece of music. The first and most traditional way is to write out the melody and then harmonize it. Some call this working from the top (as opposed to the chords on the bottom.) The second approach is where you create some kind of rhythmic harmonic pattern and improvise (or compose) the melody on top. Now, which one is best for New Age music?

The answer is neither approach. Each has its own merits and own special benefits. For example, if you start with a pattern in your left hand and improvise a melody with your right, you are doing what most new age composers/improvisers do. This is what George Winston does

most of the time. He has chords he sets to a certain rhythm and does his thing with that amazing right hand of his.

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“I’m losing the left-hand,” cried one piano student. “Every time I try to add in my right hand, the left stops” exclaims another.

These are common complaints for students who wish to learn hand independence. And for most, this is a big problem. They want to play the piano with both hands playing different parts. But the main reason most piano students have problems with this is because they try to play too fast!

Hand independence is one area that takes some time (not too much time) but some time to achieve. And this too depends on how complicated the hands tasks are.

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