Piano With Kent (Lessons & More)
Have you found your keys?
(a) Diminished Seventh.
(b) Minor Sixth.
(c) Augmented Fifth.
(d) Both A and C are correct, with name depending on the implied key center. They sound the same, by either name.
(e) Both B and C are correct, with name depending on the implied key center. They sound the same, by either name.
(f) The famous “Lost Interval of Egypt.”
UPDATE, Nov. 17, 2018: The first video lecture of this course has just been published!
I’m excited to announce a new online music course in progress here at PWK, called “Piano Chords 108.”
Since our site is blog-like, this course will be published in installments. (That’s also how we did things this summer with “The Blues Piano Crash Course” and “A Study in Blues Piano.”)
This post below is the Course Introduction (just text for now).
COURSE INTRODUCTION
Continue reading “Announcing “Piano Chords 108: Lose That Chord Catalog””
Slash chords in sheet music look like this:
G7/F
F#m/C#
etc.
Here’s a detailed tutorial on how to interpret slash chords on piano. This lesson includes insights into several ways that slash chords are used, such as indicating an inversion, implying a descending bass line, or a simply notating a fresh chordal sound.
Composers and songwriters can use the “slash chord idea” in their creative thinking. That is, the effect of playing any given chord over bass notes that are not the actual root of the chord opens up endless possibilities. Some of the thinking behind these possibilities is discussed in this lesson.
Rhythm is never to be neglected in the Blues, even in performances that are so slow and sultry that it feels like we're all just breathing, no real beat, just waves...oh sorry, I spaced! Ha. Thing is, even a very slow blues is going to rely heavily on rhythm to give us another undeniable take on real life. We all know how "slow" can sometimes be more alive than "fast" anyway. It all depends right?
I'm saying that about rhythm here because this is the third lesson in a row where we've been practicing two-handed coordination on the piano. And I think I'd better explain myself, before you get too bored or too frustrated or both.
First, the more fun work (fun work? yep) picks up again after this third lesson on coordination. I swear. Also, you will learn how to do a walking bass line in this one.
Finally, this maybe-less-than-fun stuff is truly important, this coordination work on piano, because if your hands aren't "of one mind" -- coordinated -- then the exalted Rhythm Itself will suffer. And we can't have that in the blues, not on my watch, dig? If you want to sound great, instead of just good or worse, then quite often it's just a matter of fixing up that rhythm. Something that can mystify us sometimes -- that frustrating sense of "it just doesn't sound right" -- can often be traced back to one thing: The Lack of a Solid Groove. Rhythm is King!
