Piano With Kent

Learn all 12 MINOR & MINOR 7th Chords – Today

Hello friends,

Today I’m happy to present the next lesson in my series called Piano Chords 108.

The lesson video is below. It’s about learning all the MINOR chords, and how to “permanently memorize” them, without having to struggle with rote memorization.

Audience: Keyboard players and curious musicians of all persuasions who are struggling with learning the individual notes to all those dang chords on piano. In other words, tons of people!

Description: Learn how to immediately call up the notes to any of the twelve MINOR chords — without having to rely on rote memory. This lesson applies to the twelve MINOR SEVENTH chords as well.

Coming next (posting soon): The twelve dominant seventh chords.

Blues Piano Licks #1 and #2 from “A Study in Blues Piano — Focusing on 12 Licks”

Attention students of blues, country, pop, hip-hop, jazz and rock:

This is the first lesson in my premium course called A Study in Blues Piano -- Focusing on 12 Licks.

Blues Piano Lick #2 (plus all others in this class) are available 24x7 to our supporting members (Premium All-Access). Thanks to all! You keep this site 100% ad-free, with lots of free content provided the general public. In return, you get 24x7 exclusive access to my premium courses, custom sheet music, and more!

Such as....

Members have easy and timely access to Kent (me) as your instructor, by way of interactive comments on any lessons, or by direct message (using the "Contact" page).

I take my teaching very seriously, and I absolutely love to explain things. So let me help you!

BLUES LICK #2: Da-boo-da Boo-dee-ooo:

Sorry!

The content you're trying to access below is for members only.

Thanks to all!

Learn all 12 Major & all 12 Maj7 Chords by Pattern (not by rote)

Hey! Today I’m happy to present the next lesson in my ongoing course, Piano Chords 108.

This course is currently available to the public, but will soon be compiled into a premium class, available to our supporting members only.

The video is below. It’s about learning all the major chords, and how to “permanently memorize” them, without resorting to rote memorization.

Description: Learn how to immediately call up the notes to any of the twelve major chords — without having to rely on rote memory. This lesson applies to the twelve major seventh chords as well.

Coming next (posting soon): All twelve minor and all twelve minor seventh chords.

Important: If you came here directly from INSTAGRAM, these videos may not go FULL SCREEN, and/or horizontal (when you rotate your device). Everything works great when you come here using a standard web browser (Chrome, Edge, Safari, etc.) on any device (phone, tablet, PC, smart TV). Instagram visits are just strange in this respect!

HERE WE GO:

Finding Your Way Across the Keyboard Landscape

Dear budding piano players,

Here’s a musical overview of your piano keyboard, along with helpful hints for remembering the letter-names of the keys.

“Claire De Lune” Sheet Music with Letter-Notes Added

Dear Supporting Members,

Here’s a brand new sheet music offering from Kent. This one is another custom job for piano and keyboard players who read music “a little bit,” but who may have trouble remembering the details about key signatures, or may sometimes be unsure about which piano key belongs to which line or space on the staff.

Maybe you’re an adult who had lessons many years ago, for example.

To help people with that, each note is marked with the correct letter-name (such as F, Eb, G, G#).

About Marking up Sheet Music with Lettered Notes

ACCURACY GUARANTEED: This annotated sheet music was prepared by me, and was very carefully cross-checked for accuracy, by doing note-for-note comparisons against three other publications of Claire De Lune sheet music. All references used are from reputable sources. In the rare cases were I found differences between publications, I researched the issue, and chose the best version of the notation (for that measure or section.)

Continue reading ““Claire De Lune” Sheet Music with Letter-Notes Added”

Trouble Playing Certain Chords? Some Notes can be Omitted!

UPDATED: Feb. 9, 2019.

Good day! Good evening! Today I’m sharing my answer to the following student question:

“Sometimes I can play the C7 Chord, lots of time I am hitting the G# because I have to move my hand higher on the keys to sound the chord. Any hints on fingering or practicing this? Thanks much!“

My answer: Continue reading “Trouble Playing Certain Chords? Some Notes can be Omitted!”

New! Optional Sheet Music for “A Study in Blues Piano” (Blues Licks)

Hey!

In response to student requests for sheet music illustrating licks from my video course, A Study in Blues Piano: Focusing on 12 Licks, I have so far created notation for several of the licks.

Today, I have another sheet for you, which I hope will also be helpful.

Remember, sheet music materials are completely OPTIONAL for this class. Blues is an improvisational art form!

Continue reading “New! Optional Sheet Music for “A Study in Blues Piano” (Blues Licks)”

Bohemian Rhapsody Movie Sparks “Third Beat” Questions

In the film Bohemian Rhapsody, there’s a scene where Queen’s guitarist Brian May is pitching his song We Will Rock You to the band (film clip is below).

He says, “…now, I want you to clap on the third beat.” Of course, this is a movie, and I have no idea if he really said it like that.

Regardless, I’m using this scene as a fun starting point to talk briefly about counting rhythm.

Fact is, when We Will Rock You is counted in the regular way, the beat looks like this:

The completely natural (and intuitive, and correct) way that most people would count this song is:

Continue reading “Bohemian Rhapsody Movie Sparks “Third Beat” Questions”

Eastern Scales, Relative Minor, and The Educated Guess

Fellow Theory Geeks,

Even among some good musicians, music theory is occasionally regarded as more of a “nice to know” thing. Interesting place to visit, but they don’t want to hang around too long.

By contrast, I am shameless enough – dare I say, proud enough – to put forth that I am a music theory GEEK. I like staying “all up in theory land,” and often.

Music theory teaches us WHAT works, and also what CAN WORK. And, if it AIN’T WORKING, it’s usually easier to know WHY, because you possess a systematic command of how rhythm, melody, and harmony work together.

Notice I put rhythm first. Too often neglected — but I put it first in my musical thinking. More on that in other posts.

OK…If you’ve read this far, I guess we have a quorum! Two geeks is always a quorum in my experience. Partly because it’s so hard to find a third geek, on short notice. Anyway welcome, can I get you some coffee? Orange Julius?*

Continue reading “Eastern Scales, Relative Minor, and The Educated Guess”