Pianist - Easily Play New Contemporary songs Guide
Let me start by saying that you’ll be shocked to learn that playing more contemporary does not involve making up “new” chords. In fact, in GospelKeys X “Urban and Contemporary Worship,” one of the most commonly mentioned chords is the “major seventh” chord.
Now, don’t get me wrong…
You’ve probably played a major seventh chord
time and time again. And you’ll probably agree that after a while, it just
becomes a normal chord — if you’re using it redundantly (the same way over and over).
Most musicians, however, fail to realize the
power of the “major
seventh” chord when used with other chords. In other words,
learning how to play two chords at the same time. It may take some getting used
to but after a week, any musician should be able to add this to their playing. It is very powerful.
Let me explain…
First, let’s cover the major seventh chord.
1) Take any major scale
2) Play the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th tone to
create a major seventh chord
3) Invert the chord to create what I call the
“next door” effect.
… so taking each step above, here’s how to
form an Ab major seventh chord (Abmaj7):
1) The Ab
major scale is:
Ab Bb C Db Eb F G Ab (played separately of
course).
2) The 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th tones from the
scale above are:
Ab C Eb G (played together as a chord).
3) Since all major seventh chords include the
1st and 7th tones, these notes, if played right next to each other will create
what I call the “next door” effect. In order to do this, take the chord above
(Ab C Eb G) and invert it so that that Ab and C are at the top of the chord
rather than the bottom:
Eb G Ab C (…
notice that the Ab and C are now on the other side of the chord).
The “G” and “Ab” in the middle appear right
next to each other on the piano. That is what we call the “next door” effect
and produces a far more contemporary and modern sound than playing the Abmaj7
chord opened like in the previous example. GospelKeys X “Urban and Contemporary Worship” goes
into more detail about this technique, but for now, we have enough information
to understand this concept.
Now… let’s do the same thing for the Db major
seventh chord (Dbmaj7):
1) The Db major scale is:
Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb C Db (played separately).
2) The 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th tones from the
scale above are:
Db F Ab C (played together).
3) To create the “next door” contemporary
feel that GospelKeys X
talks about, we want to move the “Db” and “F” from the bottom and put them on
the top. The Dbmaj7 chord inverted now looks like this:
Ab C Db F
So now we have two maj7 chords:
Abmaj7 and Dbmaj7
Now, we will turn these two chords into a nice
urban movement.
Let’s start with the Dbmaj7 chord (Ab C Db
F). We will use that over a Bb bass on the left hand. Theoretically, this makes
the chord a Bbmin9.
For the Abmaj7 chord (Eb G Ab C), we will
play that over an F bass on the left hand. This is also called an Fmin9
(because of the addition of the left hand “F” on the bass). So another “lesson”
inside of this lesson is:
“Major chords combined with certain left
hand bass notes also create minor chords.”
So play each of the chords below giving four
counts to each:
Bb bass on the left /// Ab + C + Db + F on
the right hand.
F bass /// Eb + G + Ab + C on the right hand.
Simply go back and forth between these two
chords. This by itself characterizes the urban feel.
But it hardly ends here. This is just
the foundation. We’re going to totally change the chords
above to create an even more “urban and contemporary” sound.
As your piano playing becomes more sophisticated,
you’re going to start playing chords on your left hand. So what we’re going to
do now is switch what we were formally playing on the right hand to our other
hand.
You’ll see this technique talked about in
depth in GospelKeys X “Urban
and Contemporary Worship.” Here’s a taste of it below:
Let’s deal with the Dbmaj7 chord first.
Play this on your left hand:
Ab C Db F
Now, to complement this chord, on the right
hand, let’s play a regular “Ab” major chord in the second inversion
Ab maj (second inversion): Eb Ab C
Now, here’s something to keep in mind…
You don’t want to be playing your left hand
chord too low on the piano or else it will sound distorted. Play your left hand
just high enough to create a nice sounding chord. The “Eb Ab C” chord on your
right might overlap with your left hand. This is alright. With “Urban and Contemporary Worship,” you’ll
do crazy things like this but you’ll produce crazily “modern” sounds… trust me.
So now, you’re playing this:
Left: Ab C Db F Right: Eb Ab C
(If the left hand is bothering you, feel free
to leave out the “F”). Keep in mind that taking it out will lessen the “phat-ness” of the sound,
but if you are having trouble playing four fingers in your left hand to start,
this would be the note to leave out.
We will do the same thing for the second
chord. In our left hand, let’s play the Abmaj7 we’d normally play in our right
hand.
Left: Eb G Ab C
On our right hand, let’s layer an Eb chord on
top of it:
Right: Bb Eb G (don’t be fooled by the Bb on
the bottom because this is an Eb maj chord in second inversion).
So, the whole chord is:
Left: Eb G Ab C Right: Bb Eb G
Now play both chords together, repeating back
and forth (four counts each).
#1: Left: Ab C Db F Right: Eb Ab C
#2: Left: Eb G Ab C Right: Bb Eb G
Now this sounds a lot better than the former
progression. But we’re still not done! In GospelKeys X “Urban and Contemporary Worship,” our
aim is to make you sound as modern and contemporary as possible.
Let’s keep going…
Now, going back and forth between the two
chords above sounds good. But it gets boring after a while so you’ll want to
include passing chords in the progression above.
We will include two passing chords between
chord #1 and chord #2 above. These passing chords will further “urbanize” and
“contemporize” our chord movement.
Tritones are two-note
chords used commonly in contemporary music. I don’t have room in this online
classroom to explain them in depth but have discussed them in past newsletters.
Feel free to visit the newsletter archives to read about them.
Ok… Ok… I’ll talk about them here just for a
little while:
Tritones consist of diminished fifth
intervals.
You can also determine the distance of a
tritone by simply counting three whole steps up from any note. Thus, the name
“tritone.” Counting “C to D” (1), “D to E” (2), and “E to Gb” (3) would be an
example. So the beginning and end (C and Gb) is a “tritone.” Now back to the
diminished fifth interval concept…
A diminished fifth interval is just what it
sounds like. A fifth interval decreased by one-half step. For example a fifth
interval is: C to G. To make this same interval a diminished fifth, simply
lower the G to Gb.
Now you have: C + Gb. That’s an example of a
tritone. So whether you want to use the “diminished fifth” technique or the “3
whole steps” technique, both ways will help you to form tritones.
There are six main tritones:
C + Gb (or Gb + C)
Db + G (or G + Db)
D + Ab (or Ab + D)
Eb + A (or A + Eb)
E + Bb (or Bb + E)
F + B (or B + F)
* Don’t forget these little chords. They are
extremely important when it comes to playing contemporary-styled music.
It is common to move from one tritone to
another tritone a half step down. This may be hard to understand so let me
demonstrate what I mean:
Above, notice the “F+B” tritone. It is common
to play the “E+Bb” tritone right after it.
Notice that in order to move from an “F+B”
tritone to an “E+Bb,” you simply move both fingers down ONE key — that’s all.
These two tritones are a half step apart (one note apart).
…And that is exactly how we’re going to use
them. In fact, those are the same tritones we’re going to use. They will become
the left hand chording for two passing chords we’ll use to get us from chord #1
to chord #2 above. Is this stuff interesting or what?
Tritone #1: F+B
Tritone #2: E+Bb
(Just a half step apart).
For both tritones, we’re going to play simple
major chords in our right hand. If you haven’t realized by now, we aren’t
making up new chords. We’re simply manipulating basic major chords to create
contemporary-sounding movements.
For the first tritone, we will play an “A
major” chord in our right hand.
Left: F + B /// Right: E + A + C# (an “A
major” chord in second inversion)
For the second tritone, we will play an “Ab
major” chord in our right hand. So basically, this is like the chord right
above but a half step lower. You should only have to move everything down one
note — that’s it.
Left: E + Bb /// Right: Eb Ab + C (an “Ab
major” chord in second inversion)
So the entire “passing chord” movement is:
Left: F + B /// Right: E + A + C#
Left: E + Bb /// Right: Eb + Ab + C
… Now, let’s stuff this “passing chord”
movement into the chord progression from the beginning part of this lesson:
Chord #1:
Left: Ab C Db F Right: Eb Ab C
Passing Chords:
Left: F + B /// Right: E + A + C#
Left: E + Bb /// Right: Eb + Ab + C
Chord #2:
Left: Eb G Ab C Right: Bb Eb G
Note: The “passing chords” above are to be
played faster than “chord #1” and “chord #2.” You can find an example of this
very progression in the GospelKeys
X “Urban and Contemporary Worship” 2 minute trailer video on
the website. Just go to the website and click on the “view video trailer”
button and you’ll hear this movement throughout the video sample.
To end, you’ll want to “loop” this movement
over and over so here’s a perfect transition to get you from chord #2 back to the
beginning:
Again, you’ll be utilizing a tritone on your
left hand and a regular major chord on your right hand.
Here it is:
Left: A + Eb /// Right: Ab + Db + F (a “Db
maj” chord in second inversion).
This chord will take you back to the
beginning. So to end, here’s an example of the entire urban movement:
Chord #1:
Left: Ab C Db F Right: Eb Ab C
Passing Chords:
Left: F + B /// Right: E + A + C#
Left: E + Bb /// Right: Eb + Ab + C
Chord #2:
Left: Eb G Ab C Right: Bb Eb G
Final Passing Chord back to beginning:
Left: A + Eb /// Right: Ab + Db + F
Pianist - Easily Play New Contemporary songs Guide
Reviewed by Admin
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7:00:00 PM
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This presentation is so insightful, revolutionary and educative. Every pianist should go through it . God bless you
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