Piano Note

Piano chord charts are used to help you keep track of chord changes. And the cool thing about them is that you can use them for improvisation and composition. Here’s how.

Let’s say you have an 8-bar phrase to play. There are no chord symbols yet so you don’t know what chords you’ll be playing. You just have 8-bars in front of you. The first thing you need to know is the time signature. For our purposes here, we’ll keep it simple and use 3/4 or 4/4 time.

Now let’s select 4/4 time for our 8-bar phrase. Now we know the meter but what about the chords? Here’s where we can jot down chord progressions for either improvisation or composition. For example,

(more…)

This piece is written as an aid to training. Amateur movers should regard the information here as reasons not to attempt piano movements. Basic knowledge of lifting techniques may only encourage severe harm to assistants, yourself, and least of all…the piano.

The piano is not only heavy and unwieldy, but has polished and vulnerable surfaces to protect. Grand pianos have legs which are designed as stands, and they should be jacked up with proper tools - just to be moved across a room. Even upright pianos, which may be very heavy, typically suffer from failed castors. I wonder what percentage of the pianos moved actually do have a full set of working castors?… not many!

(more…)

The Open Position Chord (OPC) allows you to create a vented sound. A sound that is open, literally, as opposed to the closed triads taught in most course books.

The OPC covers more than two octaves of the keyboard allowing you to create without moving the hands around too much. Perfect for the beginner and advanced player. New Age music in particular has an open quality that is created in a number of ways. The first way is by the chord choices used. Most of this music is in a Major Key. The sound is pleasant without any dissonant tones.

(more…)

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

(more…)

It is a good thing to be on the right place at the right time, is it not? Sometimes we call this ability timing. When you play piano this is a very important skill. The result will be music!

To play the notes at your piano on the right keys and with timing does not mean that your notes will be played with mathematic precision. That would probably not be music.

This is why a metronome will only help you halfway to this goal.

You have to learn timing together with other people and by listening to good musicians.

(more…)