Altering Chords

English: Dominant seventh flat five chord on C (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 I have learned a great deal of information from Jermaine Grigg's, especially the section on altered chords from his course, The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear 

Introduction to Altering Chords

"Any chord, whether major, minor, augmented or seventh, can be modified or 'altered' thereby changing its character or color. In particular, with the dominant seventh which is mainly characterized by three notes: the root, major third and minor seventh; the fifth, ninth eleventh and thirteenth may be altered.

Raising or lowering the notes of a chord and its extensions by a half step may change its dissonance. This increases the 'tension' of the chord and increases the sense of release as one moves to a less dissonant chord (the tonic). Care must be taken that these altered chords are correctly numbered."

Example: C9 (+11) represents a C ninth chord with the root, a major 3rd, a perfect 5th, a flattened 7th, a major ninth and a sharpened 11th.

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C

Example: C#9 (#11) represents a C# ninth chord with the root, a major 3rd, a perfect 5th, a flattened 7th, a major ninth and a sharpened 11th.

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C

 Example: C7 (b9b5) represents a C seventh chord with the root, major 3rd, diminished 5th, minor 7th and minor 9th.

Db Eb Gb Ab Bb Db Eb Gb Ab Bb C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C

The main purpose of altering chords is to increase the effectiveness in a progression. In previous lessons, we've already learned how a dominant seventh is more effective than a dominant triad in "2-5-1" and other chord progressions.

I recommend to my friends, The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear
The book goes on to explain using altered chords in the 2-5-1 progression, in the 3-6-2-5-1 progression and the 7-3-6-2-5-1. 

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"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." B.B.King

Related articles

• The 9th Chord
• Altered Chords
• Play Diminished 7th, Half Diminished 7th Chords

Know Your Chord Vocabulary

        Photo Credit: FreeDigital Photos

I wrote an article awhile back called, "How To Play The Piano Without Music."

Looking for tips on how to memorize music? Playing without sheet music is possible. Here are my own challenges and triumphs.

A group of us musicians were asked to play for an outdoor event at an amphitheater right by the ocean. The morning began with a huge downpour and we were frantically drying wet music scores with a hair dryer. Needless to say, it was quite challenging. What did I personally learn from the experience? Memorize your music! Yes, you can insert sheet music in plastic sleeves and that would be one way to succeed. However, it's fun just to go to Guitar Center and play a few memorized tunes in front of anyone who will listen. Try playing Happy Birthday for someone at the piano by memory.

1. So, why memorize music?

Playing without sheet music is very liberating.

Of course there's no need to memorize music if you don't want to. As a musician, I choose to memorize to avoid uncomfortable situations like music blowing off my stand when playing outdoors. Especially performing a night gig and the light bulb goes out on your music stand, surrounded by total darkness in the orchestra pit.

If you have been doing your homework during your practice sessions and you are familiar with the set of music, then you're not locked in to reading just the music notes with having to turn pages as well.

You will soon discover new ways of music flowing since you're eager to play without music.

2. Steps to help you memorize music.

If you're playing boogie blues or rock and roll, learn the various left hand patterns in the 12 bar blues form. Notice a couple of phrases and see if the second phrase answers the first.

When I'm reviewing a song, let's say it's a ballad, I first determine the keynote and play around and find the melody in that particular key.

If you're given a lead sheet, remembering chord progressions is the key to memorizing the song that is built on recalling the theory that you understand. Analyze the structure of the piece.

Now memorizing note for note is another ball game. Honestly, it can be more difficult for others than a youngster playing a memorized piece at a recital. In my opinion, the key to memorizing sheet music is through repetition. Also, try to remember if your hands are going in opposite directions or playing separately. Note tricky fingering as well.

I suggest taking small sections of music and repeatedly going over a few lines. We call this chunking and chaining. Please be patient. You may find recording or using flash cards to quiz yourself helps boost confidence in playing licks to a certain measure.

Laying down a rhythm pattern, programming drums, jamming in garage band or just using a metronome for a classical piece can keep you on track with skills to remember a song. Listening to a phrase of music indeed works the brain for short-term memory. Keep at it daily. In the beginning, I would open my music, then close it and try to play what I pictured.

3. Why these steps will help.

Practice, repetition and patience, a win-win formula, but truly there is no magic pill to take in memorizing music. Playing with other musicians for years and having that experience helps in knowing how to play certain songs well without sheet music. I'm thinking the biggest factor of all is choosing to memorize a song that you know and love will make it much easier for you to learn. You're on your way!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5861178

 Duane Shinn talks about using Fake Books like so many musicians do. They know their chord vocabulary. They add chords to the melody line. Here's a good one that I recommend that has tons of pop songs,  The Ultimate Fake Book for C Instruments

You've just got to know chords. So, I'm talking about:

 Root of the Chord

In chord symbols, the root tells us what note is the root of the chord. In an E7 chord, the E is the root.

Quality of the Chord

Quality tells me if the chord is major (maj), minor (min), diminished (dim), or augmented (aug). In a Emaj7, the maj ells me that the E chord is major (happy sound.) To continue, Em means the chord is a E minor chord (sad or mysterious sound). Eaug (E+) means that the chord is an E augmented chord. (sounds like a train.)

Chord Extensions

The extension is written after the quality of the chord, showing if the chord differs from a triad, like an 6th, 7th, 9th, 11th or 13th. So a C9 is the C chord including the 9th note above C, which is D. A C6 chord is the C chord including the 6th scale note above C, which is A. This part of chord symbols is not always shown; if there is no indication of an extension, the musician is to assume that the chord is a triad.

Alteration 

Sometimes the alteration is usually but not always expressed. This is the "notes" section in chord symbols; it gives the musician any specific (and sometimes irregular) instructions for playing the chord and is always written in parentheses after the extension (or the quality, if no extension exists). For instance, (no fifth) would tell the musician that the chord is to be played with the fifth tone left out. Sus – (suspension), means to play the 4th scale note instead of the 3rd. A minus sign means to lower (flat) a chord tone, such as C-9 which means to flat the 9th of the chord. Now a plus sign means to raise (sharp) a particular chord tone. 

I hope you enjoyed these tips and I want to recommend a product that I have purchased myself from Jermaine Griggs. The audio CD course, Chords 101 and 102 will help you create bigger, sounding chords... the best inversions to choose and so much more. You'll be playing dozens of seventh chord voicings and learning about what chords strongly pull together. Learn the power of tonic chords and and other scale tone degrees.

*affiliate links in post* 

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 "The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." B.B.King

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• Learn a Jazz Tune in Three Steps
• How To Play The Piano Without Music

The Art of Piano Chord Voicings

Jammin' at the Savoy

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Piano Chord Voicings

There's lots of music talk about voicings. So, what are they to the musician? What is this all about?

The Art of Voicing is a manner in which one distributes or spaces the notes of chords. When you listen to music, you probably focus on the melody. That is the familiar part of a tune that is easy to hear.

When you sing along or hum throughout some of the music, it is the melody and not the background that you think of. To have this important part of the music stand out, the melody should be louder than the accompaniment. However, this is not always easy to do.

Every voicing should flow smoothly to the next one and your hands will more than likely be moving just a little. By voicing chords you bring attention to certain notes more than others. So sometimes instead of using a clear melody, artists play a bunch of double notes and chords. You should always voice all double notes and chords to give them more clarity.

If you are playing all the notes at the same volume, you cannot hear the melody very clearly. So you will want to pick out the one note in each chord to play a bit louder. This is what we mean by voicing.

If your hands are jumping all over the place, you are probably not using good voice leading. The art of voice leading is the smooth movement of notes from one chord to the next. Very often the note you should voice is on the top of the chord, but sometimes the middle voices have hidden melodies that are more interesting than the top voice.

When looking at a chord passage in your music, decide which voice needs more sound and which can be played softer. Listen to other recordings of pianists bringing out the top voice for each chord in the right hand.

With practice try playing the middle note of a chord louder than the other two notes. Next, focus on the bottom note of a chord. Think of chords being sung in a choir. Each note is a different voice such as bass, tenor, alto and soprano. Your ear will usually hear the soprano sing and ride on the melody line. Those wonderful harmony parts add so much color, flavor and tone in the background of the song.

Voicings become easier to play and you will discover that your hands are barely moving especially when it comes to shell voicings since the roots are moving down in fifths or up in fourths. Later on you will learn more left hand voicings in bebop style, rootless left hand voicings and rootless shell voicings. When the left hand plays the third and seventh of each chord, these rootless shell voicings allow the right hand the freedom to improvise.

Blues Piano Voicing (YouTube)

You may be interested in:

Jazz101 and Jazz201 or Tritones

*affiliate links in post*

All the best,






"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." B.B.King

The Diminished Seventh Chord: We Will Worship the Lamb of Glory

The DIMINISHED SEVENTH chord may be formed by lowering each note of the DOMINANT SEVENTH (V7) chord one half step, except the root, which remains the same.

IMPORTANT! The interval between each note of a diminished seventh chord is a minor 3rd (3 half steps)!

Now you'll want to spell each chord correctly! The Gdim7 chord should not be spelled G Bb Db E, even though the notes E and Fb are ENHARMONIC (that is, they represent the same key on the piano). The interval from G to E is a 6th. The interval from G to Fb is a 7th (in this case a diminished 7th).

In forming a Cdim7 chord, it is necessary to flat the note Bb. When a flatted note is flatted again, it becomes a DOUBLE FLAT, indicated by the sign bb. In this case, the note must be called Bbb, not A.

REMEMBER: When diminished 7th chords are properly spelled, one letter of the musical alphabet is skipped between each note.

Play a dim7 chord on each note of the chromatic scale below. Build each chord by adding 3 notes above the root, each 3 half steps apart. Play with RH using 1 2 3 5 fingering on each chord. Repeat one octave lower with LH, using 5 3 2 1.

Cdim7 = C Eb Gb Bbb

C#dim7 = C# E G Bb

Ddim7 = D F Ab Cb

D#dim7 = D# F# A C

Edim7 = E G Bb Db

Fdim7 = F Ab Cb Ebb

There's a worship song that I've done that has a dim7 chord in it in the Key of D. Do you know We Will Worship The Lamb of Glory by Dennis Jernigan?
D                                     A/D

We will worship the Lamb of Glory,
D                   A/D          Bbdim7
We will worship the King of kings,
Bm7                  Esus     E
We will worship the Lamb of Glory,
G        A7sus   A7   D  A  D  A
We will worship the King.
 

                         A
And with our hands lifted high,
         G         D
We will worship and sing.
                           A
And with our hands lifted high,
           G            D
We come before You rejoicing,
                       G           D/F#
With our hands lifted high to the sky,
         Bbdim7            Bm7
And the world wonders why 

            G               A7sus  A7   D

We'll just tell them we're loving our King.

We Will Worship in Key of E 

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I hope you enjoy your stay at LadyD Piano.

Slash Chords

Slash chords


The left side of the slash, the numerator if you will, represents the chord. The right side of the slash, the denominator, represents a single note, usually played deep in the bass. Here's some examples:


C/G = CEG/C


C/E = CEG/E


Bb/C = BbDF/C


Here's a chord progression with an independent bass line. The gospel piano style typically features a separate bass line such as this:


C = CEG/C


G7/B = DFGB/B


F/A = CFA/A


C/G = CEG/G


F = CFA/F


C/E = CEG/E


G7/D = DFGB/D


C = CEG/ Low C


This next example shoes how much this bass line can influence a chord. Without the bass line all we have are five Cm chords and a G7. With the bass line added the sound really changes. This chord progression is found in such songs as "Blue Skies", "Feelings", "This Masquerade", and the introduction to "Michelle."


Cm = CEbG/C


Cm/B = CEbG/B


Cm/Bb = CEbG/Bb


Cm/A = CEbG/A


Cm/Ab = CEbG/Ab


G7 = DFGB/G


Often times the lowest note surrounded should be considered the root of the chord even when it may not seem logical. For example an F/G would function more like a G11 than it would any kind of F chord. An Am/D is really a D9 (with the F# missing.) Exceptions to this concept occur when the bass note is part of the chord.


Dvd resource: Jazz 101



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Voicing

Image via Wikipedia

 Voicing:

We've already seen how some of these chords have created problems when we try to play them. A chord of five or more notes is difficult to play with one hand and will sound muddy. We solve these problems through proper voicing. Usually voicing means either you split the chord between two hands or else you eliminate certain nonessential notes. The following examples illustrate both techniques.


Perhaps the easiest voicing maneuver is to play the chord's root with the left hand while playing the rest of the chord with the right. In some cases we see some interesting patterns when we break up a chord this way.

Cm7 =  C/Eb G Bb (Eb major)


Cmaj7 = C/E G B (Em)


Cm9 = C/Eb G Bb D (Ebmaj7)


C7-9 = C/E G Bb Db (Edim7)


* Alternate Voicing for seven flat nine:


C/Db E G Bb (Db dim7)


* Seven sharp nine (Best Voicing) 


C7+9 = C/E Bb Eb


* Possible Voicings for the Csus4, Csus7, or C11:


C/Bb D F (Bb major)


C/G Bb D F (Gm7)



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Most Common Variations on the Minor Chord

Image via Wikipedia

 Where do chords come from? We know that chords come from scales. 

Here's the most common variations on the Major Chord:


Cmaj7 = C E G B


C6 =  C E G A


Cmaj9 = C E G B D

C6/9 = C E G A D


Notes:


* All chords contain 1,3,5, the basic major triad.
* Five note chords can be handled by spreading the notes between both hands. Usually the left hand gets the root (1) with an optional addition of the 5 or the 7. Eliminate non-essential notes in the chord (usually 5, perhaps 1).

 Most Common Variations on the Minor Chord

Cm7 = C Eb G Bb

Cm9 = C Eb G Bb D


Cm6 = C Eb G A


Cm maj7 = C Eb G B


Notes:


* All these chords contain 1 b3 5, the basic minor triad.
* The last 2 examples (Cm6 and Cm maj7) would work best in songs in minor keys where the chord is tonic. In other words Cm6 works best as a substitution for the Cm chord in the key of C minor. The minor major seventh could be used in the same situation. However, it is very dissonant and should be used with care.


Right now HearandPlay is offering a sale on their great Theory Book called the 300 page course book. There is lots of information on Major and Minor chords in the book. You might want to check it out: 300 Page Course Book

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Another Seventh Chord!

Image via Wikipedia

I found  a few piano tutorials on seventh chords online. Here's a few good ones:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLoxE6je7kc


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut6r4JRumHs 


We've discussed Major Seventh chords before and how they're built. The second type of seventh chord is called Dominant seventh because it's naturally formed as an extension of the V chord. (The I chord is known as the Tonic, and the V chord is known as the Dominant. So the type of Seventh Chord that occurs on the V is called a Dominant Seventh.) The V often moves to the I. The Dominant Seventh makes that movement even stronger.


G7 to C or G/BDF to CG/CE


The strength of the movement is a result of the strong voice leading that takes place: the seventh of the G7 (F) moves down to thw third of the C chord (E), while the third of the G7 (B) moves up to the root of the C chord (C).


GBDF to E,  GBDF to C and BF/CE


You've probably noticed that the Dominant Seventh interval is one half step shorter than the Major Seventh.


C to B = Maj.7 and C to Bb = Dom.7


To build a Dominant seventh chord, simply construct a major triad (2 steps + 1 1/2 steps) and add a minor third (1 1/2 steps) on top:


C to E =2, E to G =1 1/2, G to Bb =1 1/2 ... so, CEGBb


For practice, form and play Dominant Seventh chords (indicated by the symbol 7, as in C7) on the following roots:


F,  D,  Bb,  G,  Eb,  C, Ab, E, Db, A, B, F#



Free Chord Charts:
http://www.may-studio-music-lessons.com/piano-chords-chart2.html

Isn't she cute?!! Love it!



O.k. musicians, now it's time for the Super Bowl! Hope you're team wins and keep playing the blues!
~ LadyD

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