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17 ways to play a chord progression — Transcript

by David Bennett Music Theory · 3,310 words · 501 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00this video was made possible by HD piano
0:02quite often the role that the piano
0:04plays in a song is to accompany to
0:07support the melody by playing chords but
0:09just because we're given a chord
0:11progression to play on the piano doesn't
0:12mean we know exactly what to do with
0:14that chord progression there's loads of
0:16different figures or patterns that we
0:18can apply to a chord progression to turn
0:21it into a part we can play it like this
0:24we can play it like this there's loads
0:26of different things we can do so today
0:28we're going to look at 17 different
0:30figures 17 different patterns that you
0:32can apply to a core progression and
0:34we'll start with the most simple thing
0:36we can do but just because it's simple
0:38doesn't mean it's bad and that is just
0:40to hold the
0:43chords just hold the chords for the
0:46entire
0:47duration that might seem too simple but
0:50what we're doing by just holding the
0:53chords is providing a foundation a bed
0:56of Harmony on which the melody can
0:58evolve and move move freely above we're
1:01not actually getting in its way by
1:02adding Rhythm we're just doing the
1:04simple but essential role of providing
1:08that Harmony and a great example of this
1:11held chord approach to playing piano
1:13chords is Take Me to Church by
1:16[Music]
1:22hosia so that's just holding the chords
1:24but what if we do want to add a sense of
1:26Rhythm a sense of timing well the most
1:28basic thing we can do there is play
1:31quarter
1:33notes just play four
1:37times per bar or four four
1:41time so you can see
1:43here my right hand is playing the chord
1:46four times in a steady pulse and my left
1:49hand is just underpinning it by playing
1:51the root note of that chord once
1:53throughout the entire bar so when I play
1:56a C chord in my right hand I'm playing
1:57the note C in my left hand
2:00this is a really simple yet effective
2:02way to create a
2:05supportive and steady piano PA and as
2:09you might be able to guess from the
2:10particular chords I'm playing here a
2:12great example of this simple but
2:14effective quarter note pattern is the
2:16song sign of the Times by Harry Styles
2:19just stop you crying it's a sign of the
2:24times so just there the right hand was
2:26playing quarter notes four times per bar
2:29and the left hand was underpinning it by
2:31just playing once per
2:33bar but what if the left hand played
2:36eighth notes like
2:39this now the left hand is playing twice
2:42for every time that the right hand is
2:43playing once and that creates a sense of
2:46drive it creates this persistent Rhythm
2:49that keeps the song going
2:51forward and as you might be able to
2:53predict from the particular chords I'm
2:54playing here this is a pattern that was
2:56used in the Coldplay song The Scientist
3:02come up to meet you tell you I'm sorry
3:07but just because it was used in the
3:09scientist doesn't mean that we can't use
3:11this pattern for any core progression
3:13that we like you can't own a figuration
3:16a pattern so if you like a pattern that
3:19you find in a song you can effectively
3:21lift
3:22it change the chords and now it's
3:28yours and that is something think that
3:30null gallager of Oasis was very much
3:32thinking when he used this
3:35pattern this is the opening piano part
3:38to Don't Look Back an angle by
3:40Oasis it is a C major
3:44chord and rather than playing it all at
3:47once we're playing the top two notes
3:49first followed by the low root note on
3:52its
3:53own creating what I would call a top
3:55bottom pattern and that pattern persists
3:59even when we change chord so we start on
4:01the C chord and then we go to the F in
4:04second version but we still got that top
4:05bottom
4:07pattern and the astute in the audience
4:09will recognize that no Galaga borrowed
4:12that exact pattern with that exact chord
4:14progression from the song Imagine by
4:17John lenon
4:22[Music]
4:34so next we're going to break into a
4:35whole category of figurations on the
4:37piano called
4:39arpeggios now an arpeggio is anytime
4:41where you take a chord and rather than
4:44playing all the notes together you play
4:46them one after another like this so
4:48rather than playing an a major chord
4:50just like
4:51this we take the notes of that chord and
4:54we go up and down them
5:02so this is an example of Largo the song
5:05Someone Like You by a d and this is a
5:08very typical arpeggio figure where we're
5:10going up and down the chord very simply
5:13just starting on the low note going to
5:15the middle note top note middle note
5:17back down to the low note
5:18[Music]
5:25again but arpeggios don't always have to
5:28go up and down they could just go in One
5:30Direction so for
5:32[Music]
5:34example Beethoven's famous Moonlight
5:36sinata is based extensively on
5:40arpeggios and these arpeggios are just
5:42moving
5:44[Music]
5:51up so these aridos are taking the
5:55cord and playing the low note middle
5:58note high note and returning to the low
6:00not
6:11again so we can go up and down with an
6:13RPO we could go just up and of course we
6:17can go just
6:20down like Clocks by
6:24cplay now the interesting thing about
6:26Clocks by cplay is it goes down twice
6:30and then it goes halfway down like
6:35this did you see what happened there so
6:37we go down the three notes of the E flat
6:39chord then we go down them
6:41again and then we just go halfway down
6:44them before it then switches to the next
6:53chord and the thing is with arpeggios is
6:56you can get really creative with them
6:58particularly if you introduce more notes
7:00to the voicing of the chord so the
7:02examples you've looked at so far like
7:04Someone Like You by a d it was just
7:06Triad chords so there's only so many
7:08ways you can spin out three different
7:10notes but what if you added another note
7:13to the chord
7:16now you can have a new pattern or
7:22even there's lots of different things
7:24you can do and with more notes brings
7:26more
7:27options like this
7:30this is bed Prelude in C major and here
7:33we have this five note voicing of a C
7:35major chord and that allows him to get
7:37this distinctive arpeggio figure where
7:39we travel from the bottom of the chord
7:40to the
7:41top and then we travel from the middle
7:44back to the top
7:46again and that entire piece of
7:49music is just based on different
7:52voicings of this arpeggio figure
8:01this next figuration is what we call the
8:03Alberti Bas named for the composer
8:06Dominico alberty who used it a lot in
8:08his music but perhaps the most famous
8:11use of this particular pattern is not
8:13Dominico's work but moart
8:16[Music]
8:25work so throughout that Mozart's Piano
8:28Sonata in C major
8:29the left hand is using this pattern
8:31where we take a chord like C major for
8:34example and we play the low note the top
8:37note the middle note and then the top
8:39note
8:40again that is Alberti
8:44base so this is another variation of
8:46what we could call an arpeggio or some
8:49people would rather call it a broken
8:51chord sometimes arpeggio is limited to
8:53just chords that go up or down not ones
8:57like this where they go kind of both
8:58directions
9:01but whether you call it a broken chord
9:03or an arpeggio this pattern is a great
9:05way of spinning out any chord
9:07progression into that sort of classical
9:09esque sound and because of that
9:11classical Association to the sound you
9:13don't see it that often in popular music
9:15but one great example is actually John
9:17Lennon's song
9:18[Music]
9:24Love Love is a beautiful piece of music
9:27and you can actually learn how to play
9:28it right now using HD piano today's
9:33sponsor loads of the example songs I'm
9:36giving today are actually available to
9:37learn on HD piano and learning these
9:39songs could be a great way of getting to
9:41grips with these different patterns with
9:42these figurations so you can then apply
9:44them freely and confidently to whatever
9:47songs you
9:48want HD piano offer a massive library of
9:51songs by many classic artists including
9:54Muse
9:58Queen radio
10:01head abber
10:06intro Elton John just to name a
10:09few and as you can see you don't even
10:11need to understand how to read notation
10:13to learn songs with HD piano they remove
10:16that barrier to entry by just diving in
10:18with these clear tutorials with the
10:19descending notes from the top and the
10:21easy to understand and follow guidance
10:23by the
10:24tutors you can start learning piano
10:27today with HD piano using the link down
10:29below thanks very
10:31much one of my favorite patterns to play
10:34on the piano is this one what we can
10:36call the
10:37traco I mentioned it recently in a video
10:40about famous rhythms that you should
10:42know it's basically the pattern of two
10:45dotted quarter notes followed by a
10:47regular quarter note or what you could
10:49think of as 3 32 if you're just thinking
10:52about how many eigh notes are in each
10:54beat so we've got 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3
10:591 1 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 1
11:022 and as you can guess from the piano
11:05part I'm playing there that traco Rhythm
11:08was used in the piano part to All of Me
11:10by John
11:12[Music]
11:14[Applause]
11:16Legend So that's the traco pattern a
11:19rhythm we can use to make 44 sound a
11:21little bit more exciting but there's a
11:23variation on the traco that we can use
11:25where rather than both
11:27hands playing the same Rhythm like we
11:30were just
11:31then the left hand could play a
11:33different Rhythm the left hand could
11:36play steady quarter notes you know four
11:38quarter notes per bar and then the right
11:40hand can put the trao over the top of
11:44[Music]
11:50that and then we get this sort of bounce
11:52between the two rhythms the way that
11:54they are interacting there's an element
11:56of syncopation there so this is what we
11:58could call the demo Rhythm it's exactly
12:01the same as the traco but we have that
12:03consistent quar note pulse underneath
12:05and the name demo actually comes from
12:07the 1990 dance hall song demo by
12:10Jamaican dance hall musician shaa ranks
12:12demoo
12:17demoo one of the characterful elements
12:19of the piano is the ability to play
12:21different things in the right hand and
12:23the left hand and one of the best
12:25examples of that is when you're playing
12:27a poly Rhythm a poly rythm is where we
12:29have two different consistent tempos two
12:32consistent rhythms pulses playing at the
12:34same time so imagine we had three beats
12:37in a bar 2 3 1 2 3 happening in the
12:43right hand so the right hand's going to
12:44play one 2 3 1 as if it's in 3 four 1 2
12:493 but the left hand could then play two
12:52beats in a bar underneath that three
12:56creating a poly rhythm
13:06and as any radio head fans will already
13:09recognize this particular piece I'm
13:12playing here is Daydreaming by radio
13:14head a great example of a
13:17three over
13:19two poly Rhythm played on the piano and
13:23you can apply that pattern to any song
13:25you like here they're doing it in this
13:28arpeggio figure where we've got a three
13:30note arpeggio in the right
13:32hand and then chords in the left
13:36hand but you don't have to have the
13:38arpeggio you could just play 1 2 3 1 2 3
13:43as a block chord in the right
13:44[Music]
13:56hand now the way to play a poly them
13:59isn't to actually think okay I'm playing
14:01three and two because it's very hard for
14:03our mind to split our attention between
14:06two completely different pulses what we
14:08need to do instead is think about the
14:10composite Rhythm that's created when
14:12that three and two interact and the
14:16composite Rhythm we get with three and
14:18two interacting together is what we call
14:20nice cup of tea because the word the
14:23expression nice cup of T creates that
14:26composite Rhythm nice cup of T nice cup
14:30of T nice cup of T nice cup of T and if
14:34you focus on playing that Rhythm when
14:36you look down at your hands you'll
14:37realize you're actually playing three in
14:40the right hand and two in the left
14:45hand so that's a 3 over2 poly rythm but
14:49another very accessible poly rythm is
14:51the 4 over3 where the right hand will
14:54play Four 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 like that but
15:02the left hand will be playing three
15:04underneath so it'll be four over
15:08[Music]
15:22three and if you recognize that
15:24particular piano part I was playing it's
15:26because it was used in the song Fake
15:28Empire by the
15:31national
15:34[Music]
15:35St so just like with a 3 over2 poly rthm
15:39to play a 4 over3 poly rthm we don't
15:42want to think about playing four in the
15:44right hand and three in the left hand
15:46that's not going to work we need to
15:47think once again about that composite
15:49Rhythm the Rhythm created by the
15:51interaction of the four over three and
15:54in the case of 4 over3 that composite
15:56Rhythm can be expressed with the phrase
15:58part pass the godamn butter pass the
16:01godamn butter pass the godamn butter the
16:04sound of that phrase gives you the
16:07composite rhythm of 4 over three pass
16:10the godamn butter pass the godamn butter
16:13pass the godamn butter that's the godamn
16:18[Music]
16:24butter the next figure I'm going to show
16:26you is the Walts
16:30now the Walts is a pattern we can only
16:32really use in three four time you could
16:34technically force it into four four time
16:36but it would be like a triplet in four
16:38four time because it's distinctively a
16:40pattern of three 1 2 3 1 2 3 and it has
16:46thatp PA sound the O is the strong
16:50single note the root note and the p pa
16:53is the other two notes of the
16:54chord played on the second and third
16:58beat of the bar one 2
17:013 and by playing it particularly
17:03staccato like that you can get a very
17:04light bouncy
17:07feel so that's the wal and we can apply
17:09that to any chord
17:12progression we
17:17like but of course we might want to use
17:19a similar pattern to that but in four
17:21four time and we can do that all we have
17:23to do is add one more P to our pa pa so
17:28we had p pa for Walts and this other
17:31pattern that I'm going to call the
17:33Turkish March pattern is going to BEP PA
17:39p p 1 2 3 4 1 2 3
17:454 and as you could probably predict the
17:48reason I've called it the Turkish March
17:50pattern is because it was used in
17:51Mozart's Turkish March in the left hand
17:54part
17:57[Applause]
18:01so to finish off I'll show you two more
18:02figurations you could use and both of
18:04these are going to be played with what
18:06we call a staccato Rhythm I used that
18:08word a minute ago staccato staccato
18:11means short and snappy we want to be
18:14able to hear that gap of Silence between
18:17each note the opposite of staccato would
18:20be what we call
18:21Legato where each chord each note Blends
18:25into the next where there's no
18:26discernable gap between the two so
18:28that's
18:29G but
18:31Stato means we have a gap between each
18:35note so one of the rhythms one of the
18:38figurations we can use this staccato f
18:40with is simply just to have eth notes
18:43but played with that staccato
18:49fill and underneath that we could add
18:52held left hand notes so the left hand
18:55isn't staccato but the right hand is
18:58[Music]
19:00and the beauty of this staccato sound is
19:03it's very light it doesn't take up too
19:05much space in the Sonic picture so if
19:08you're working with a larger Arrangement
19:10where you've got guitar and bass and
19:12drums a way of the piano finding a
19:14little Gap to fill in without stepping
19:17on toes is to play a light non-invasive
19:20Rhythm like a staccato Rhythm where you
19:22got lots of space it's not filling up
19:25loads of tonal Space by being theato
19:29and as you can perhaps guess from the
19:32chord progression I'm playing here the
19:35particular chord progression a great
19:36example of this staccato eight flat
19:39pattern is the song I Need a Dollar by
19:41Alo
19:42black I need
19:44[Music]
19:47dollar and the last figuration I'll show
19:49you is very similar to that previous one
19:51it's once again Stato chords played fast
19:55and quite high up on the piano but this
19:57time I'm not playing with an e note
19:59Rhythm I'm playing it with a triplet
20:01eighth note
20:02Rhythm so we got
20:04that 1 2 3 1 2 three sound to it
20:08right and this is a very typical pattern
20:10in rock and roll music an early sort of
20:13rock and roll roll music like Fat Domino
20:15or Little Richard or the particular
20:17example I'm looking at here is Smokey
20:19Robinson and the Miracles you really got
20:21a hold of me where the piano is playing
20:24this very light staccato sound in
20:27triplets
20:29moving between the c major chord like
20:31that and the a minor chord like
20:33[Music]
20:41that it's really important as a piano
20:43player to think about where your piano
20:46part is fitting in with the wider tonal
20:49Arrangement so like I was mentioning a
20:51second ago if you've also got a
20:52guitarist in the band and a bass player
20:54in the band and also a singer you want
20:56to think about where their parts are
20:58falling on the harmonic spectrum because
21:01as a piano player you can play both in
21:03the really low register where the bass
21:05guitar will be you can play in the mid
21:10register where the the regular guitar
21:12will be and of course you've got the
21:13vocal to consider which will be in this
21:16sort of range so you want to think about
21:18how can I fit into the jigsaw of the
21:21music without stepping on toes and
21:23actually a great place to go is often
21:26the high notes because although a guitar
21:29can play relatively High a lot of the
21:31time they will be focusing in the
21:33mid-range you know if they're playing
21:35open chords they're going to be in this
21:36sort of
21:38range so as you can see in some early
21:41rock and roll music where you've got
21:42these quite full arrangements where you
21:43have guitars and horns and bass the
21:46piano might move quite high up to avoid
21:50getting in the way and that coupled with
21:52that staccato Rhythm means that they can
21:55play a piano part that complement the
21:57music rather than steps on the music you
22:00know you can really get
22:05high and you can hear that typical rock
22:08and roll do sound
22:19right there's a reason they've chosen to
22:22take the piano part that high up is
22:24because they want to find their own
22:26place in that spectral image of the
22:34music so that is 17 different ways that
22:36you can play a chord progression to
22:38create an accompaniment part as a piano
22:40player of course there's many other
22:42approaches and patterns that you can
22:44take so if you can think of some good
22:45examples then do leave them in the
22:47comments down below
22:58oh
23:04[Music]

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