Part Four: Chord Progression Intros

Image by Lomacar via Flickr

Over the past few days I've really enjoyed sharing information on piano intros. Here's my final post:


 1. The "Amen" Intro


C                 F                C               G7
C/CEG        F/FAC        C/CEG      G/GBDF

2. "Heart and Soul" Intro
These six variations are all based on the familiar "Heart and Soul" chord progression (C AM Dm G7). 
Note the following  possibilities for variations.
* The A and D chords can be either minor or seventh.
* The C chord can be played Cmaj7 to achieve a more modern sound.
* The G7 chord can be any of the variations previously discussed.
* The last example uses special jazz substitutions for these chords.


Play these octaves in your l.h. while you play the chords in your r.h.


CC/CEG    AA/CEA      DD/DFA        GG/DFGB


CC/CEG    AA/CEA       DD/DF#AD  GG/DFGB


CC/CEG    AA/C#EGA  DD/DFA        GG/DFGB


CC/CEG    AA/C#EGA  DD/DF#AC   GG/DFGB


CC/CEGB  AA/CEGA   DD/DFAC      GG/DFGB


CC/CEGB   EbEb/EbGBbDb    DD/DFAC    DbDb/DbFAbB


3. "Inkspots" Intro
A great little intro from the 30's and 40's


C/CEG    C#/C#EGA#   D/DFAC   G/GBD#F


4. Fancy Lead In


This intro starts on the F major chord, goes then to F#dim and then goes to the "Heart and Soul" progression.


F/FAC  F#/F#ACD#   C/CEG   A/AC#EG   D/ACDF#   G/GBDF


Improvising


If you are comfortable with the idea of improvising, you can play any of these chord progressions with the left hand while you improvise something with the right hand. How do you improvise? That's a complicated question. There is no easy correct answer. You can start by making up simple right hand melodies whose notes don't conflict with the chords. It may not sound like much at first if you're new to the idea of improvising, but keep at it. Experiment. It's the only way.


Turnarounds


Sometimes you can use intros in the middle of a song. They make for good material when connecting the end of one verse of a song to the beginning of the next verse, for example. When used in this fashion, these intros are referred to as "turnarounds". Practice using turnarounds in your everyday playing. Like the intros, turnarounds can add a lot of interest to your performance.


I hope you enjoyed the intro study. Let me know what you think! :)


Thanks for stopping by.
I hope you enjoy your stay at LadyD Piano.

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