I’m excited to announce a new online lesson series, in progress here at Piano With Kent, called Piano Chords 108.
Free Piano Chord Catalog from Piano With Kent
Catalog of One Hundred Eight Essential Piano Chords
I present today a free companion book for my Piano Chords 108 series (also free).
This is an online eBook. As such, it can also serve as a quick way to look up piano chords, by way of the clickable table of contents.⁰
IMPORTANT:
The sole purpose of Chords 108 is to teach piano students how to memorize all 108 of these chords as they appear on the piano keyboard.
Therefore, this catalog should be used, ideally, only to check your understanding of the memorization system taught here.
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Eastern Scales, Relative Minor, and The Educated Guess
Today I’m sharing a dialog about Eastern scales and modes, between a YouTube viewer and myself.
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How to improvise in modal jazz: Understanding “So What” by Miles Davis
Hello friends,
This is a brief introduction to the idea of “modal jazz.” We’re going to look at probably the most famous example of modal jazz, a tune called “So What,” by Miles Davis and Bill Evans.
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Chords 108 – Lesson 3: The Simple Formula for All 12 Minor & Minor 7th Chords
Hello Friends,
Today I’m happy to present the next lesson in my ongoing course, Chords 108.
Kent
Class Audience: Any musician who’s struggling to memorize the individual notes to all those dang chords on piano or keyboards, and looking for a solution.
Today: Learn how to immediately call up the notes to any of the twelve minor chords on a keyboard — without having to rely on rote memory. This lesson applies to all twelve minor seventh chords as well!
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Learn all 12 DOMINANT-7th Chords Today
Book Review: Jazz Piano Series by John Mehegan
My “jazz piano bible” is a series of four books by John Mehegan, referred to collectively as the Jazz Improvisation series. Books can be an invaluable part of your training as a musician, especially in the area of jazz, since a solid understanding of classic jazz can get fairly heavy on the music theory side of things!
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Soloing Tips: Using the Pitch-Bend Wheel on Electronic Keyboards (part one)
This lesson is for keyboard players who want to “properly” use the pitch-bend wheel on their electronic synths or other keyboard. By “properly” I mean that you can’t just randomly roll that pitch wheel around and expect your keyboard licks to make any sense (outside of cartoonish sound effects).
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Learn all 12 Major & all 12 Maj7 Chords by Pattern (not by rote)
<- Back to the Chords 108 Main Course Page
Welcome back!
Today we’ll learn the unique 3-letter formula the applies to every standard Dominant Seventh Chord.
Audience: Any musician who’s struggling to memorize the individual notes to all those dang chords on piano or keyboards, and looking for a solution.
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 all twelve major seventh chords as well.
Continue reading “Learn all 12 Major & all 12 Maj7 Chords by Pattern (not by rote)”
Steps to Memorizing Chords: Half-Steps, Whole-Steps, and Thirds
CHORDS 108 | Lesson One: Background Material
Course Reference:
Piano Chord Catalog
Welcome to Piano Chords 108!
In this first lecture of the series, students will learn how to visualize and play half-steps, whole-steps, minor thirds, and major thirds on the piano.
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Jazz improv practice: A nice drill using “approach tones”
Here’s a nice jazz drill, to give you practice on:
(1) Adding interest to your melody lines, by sometimes preceding the “target tone(s)” of a chord with “approach tones;” and,
(2) increased mastery of any given scale, especially as it relates to the underlying chords.
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