Imagine being able to sit down at the piano and create your own unique music without years of study. Now imagine being able to do it within 1 hour! It’s possible when you learn how to play the open position piano chord!

The OPC is a special way of forming chords at the piano. You use both hands right away to create a modern sounding chord that’s perfect for today’s contemporary styles. It’s called open position because of the way the notes of the chord are spread out.

The left hand plays the root, fifth, and seventh notes of the chord while the right hand takes the third and seventh again. The sound is amazing but this isn’t the biggest benefit of this particular chord structure. The biggest benefit is what you can do with it!

For example, in the piano lesson Reflections in Water, you start by playing a C Major 7 OPC. Now that you have the chord what are you going to do to make music? You are going to improvise a melody with the right hand using the tones from the C Major scale. You see, all you really need to know in order to make your own music is chords and the scale the chords came from.

You need to know the notes of the scale so you can use them to improvise a melody. Now the beauty of the open position chord is that you don’t have to move your hands around too much in order to create a melody with. In fact, you can pretty much stay within this chord structure and create a beautiful piece of music.

Reflections in Water uses 4 chords to create a few minutes of music with. A beginner can learn to use this chord structure within 1 hour and create music with it. It really is that easy!

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/pianolessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

As you probably know, there are thousands and thousands of different chords in music – everything from basic major chords to minor 7ths to 13ths to suspensions to poly-chords. Someday, you might want to learn all those chords if you don’t already know them.

But meanwhile, there are 3 chords — just 3 — that you absolutely, positively have to know. If you don’t know these three, there’s hardly a song in the whole world that you could play. But by knowing just 3 chords, you can play hundreds, if not thousands of songs!

Really?

Really.

Are you ready? Here they are:

I IV V

Huh? What’s all that about?

Here’s what:

In every key there are 3 chords — just 3 chords — which are known as primary chords — chords that occur way more than other chords. They are like family members of that particular key. They are groups of notes built on the 1st note of the scale, the 4th note of that scale, and the 5th note of that scale. (Those are 3-note chords called triads — in another article we will get into 4 and 5 note chords.)

For example, here is the C scale on the keyboard. It runs from C up to C and octave higher. The I chord is built on the first note of the C scale, and so on:

So if I build a chord on the I — every other scale note up from C, the chord is C, E, and G — known as the C major chord.

If I build a chord on the IV — every other scale note up from F, the chord is F, A, and C — known as the F major chord.

If I build a chord on the V — every other scale note up from G, the chord is G, B, and D — known as the G major chord.

Please notice, if you haven’t already, that those 3 chords contain ALL the notes in the C scale!

So what?

So any melody – tune – in the key of C (as long as it just uses the 8 notes of the scale) can be harmonized just by playing one of those 3 chords!

Think about that — that’s a HUGE insight that most people never get.

So, in any given key you can play in, there are PRIMARY CHORDS — chords that occur way more than other chords. They are like family members of that particular key.

At your house, let’s say you have 3 people in your family — your spouse, your child, and you. On the same block, but down the street a few houses, lives your cousin and her family.

At any given moment, who are the most likely people to be in your house?

The Terminator?

Hillary?

Dubba?

I don’t think so.

It’s possible, of course, but not too likely. If I had to guess, I would say it would be either you, your spouse, or your child. It might be your cousin down the street — there’s a much better chance of that than, say, David Letterman or Prince Charles — but my best odds would be to guess that the family members would be there.

It’s the same way with chords. In any given key, there are 3 family members that are residents of that key — the I chord, the IV chord, and the V chord. They are far and away the most likely chords to occur in any given key.

For example, if I am playing in the Key of C, and the first chord is the C chord and I have to guess what the next chord is, I would guess that it would be either the F chord or the G chord. Why? Because those are the other family members. So we have narrowed the odds a great deal just by knowing who the members of the family are.

Does that mean that there are always just 3 chords in a song? No, but there are literally hundreds of songs that are made of just 3 chords.

The Primary Piano Chords (the fam) Of All the Major Keys

Here are the primary chords (the family chords) of all the major keys (remember that the primary chords are the I chord, the IV chord, and the V chord based on the scale of that particular key):

Key of C: C, F, G

Key of G: G, C, D

Key of D: D, G, A

Key of A: A, D, E

Key of E: E, A, B

Key of B: B, E, F#

Key of F: F, Bb, C

Key of Bb: Bb, Eb, F

Key of Eb: Eb, Ab, Bb

Key of Ab: Ab, Db, Eb

Key of Db: Db, Gb, Ab

Key of Gb: Gb, Cb, Db

Do you have to know all these chords in all these keys?

No.

You can choose to play in just one key, or just a few keys.

But what you MUST know is the 3 chords in whatever key you want to play in! That means that the stark beginner can learn 3 chords in just a few minutes, and be able to play along with thousands of tunes, because most folk songs, hymns, country songs, and many rock songs just use the 3 basic chords. That’s why people who know zilch about music can pick up a guitar, learn 3 chords, and strum along while singing everything from On Top Of Old Smoky to Amazing Grace to My Country ‘Tis Of Thee to Auld Lang Syne to Silent Night to……………………..well, you get the idea. And not only a guitar, but a piano, keyboard, or whatever.

Duane Shinn is the author of over 500 music books and products such as DVD’s, CD’s, musical games for kids, chord charts, musical software, and piano lesson instructional courses for adults. He holds an advanced degree from Southern Oregon University and was the founder of Piano University in Southern Oregon.

He can be reached at http://www.chordpiano.com. He is the author of the popular free 101-week e-mail newsletter titled Amazing Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions with over 56,000 current subscribers. Those interested may obtain a free subscription by going to http://www.playpiano.com

How is your piano playing coming? Did you start to learn the major scales and stop after the key of G or F? Two or more sharps or flats got you stumped? Find yourself turning the page when you see a key signature of three sharps? Read on.

While it is not necessarily detrimental to your piano playing career not to be able to play in all the major keys. Being able to play them can make your piano playing come alive and make transposing and just playing in general infinitely easier.

Since there are only 12 major keys why not devote an entire week to learning a key and it?s primary chords. Start with the key of F and go counterclockwise on the circle of fifths. Since most people go clockwise this will encourage you to dive right in and start learning all the flat keys first.

Also make it a point to learn the Primary chords that go along with each key. Make your hands become familiar with the 1 chord, the IV chord, the V and V7 chord and all of their inversions. Root position, 1st inversion and second inversion.

Play these chords with both hands.

Play chords with your left hand while doing the scale of the key you are currently studying in your right. Then move on and play chords with your right hand and the scale you are studying with your left.

Play your scales staccato and your chords arpeggiated.

Make sure you learn the correct fingering.

It may be slow going at first but it will pay off in the end.

For print outs to help you, including the Circle of Fifths, Scale Fingerings, and Primary Chords visit The Struggling Church Musician and go to the Tools from the Struggling Church Musician section.

K Quinn has been playing the piano for 10 years. She picked up the guitar 5 years ago and both for her church. Visit her website at http://www.strugglingchurchmusician.us for more church musician tools and tips.

Barre chords are the scourge of the beginning guitarist. Like a bum knee, a prison record, the inability of matter to exceed the speed of light; barre chords hold us back. The next time an F minor chord messes with you, mess back with this:

• Check your thumb placement. Your thumb should be pressing against the back of the neck, on the fattest part, behind the area where the 2nd finger’s hanging out.
• Check your first finger placement. It should be parallel with the fret wire, so close it’s just barely touching the side. Roll your finger a bit toward the nut, so that the bony side of the finger is digging into the strings instead of the strings digging into what my student Casey calls the chub.
• Stop pressing so hard. That first finger’s only responsible for fretting some of the strings, so don’t try to press down on each string with equal force. For example, when playing a standard barred F chord, press hard with the tip of your finger on the 6th string, and dig your knuckle into the 1st and 2nd strings, but let the finger rest lightly over the other strings.
• Take heart. Often you can transpose a song to avoid barre chords. Also, some great guitarists never play barre chords–BB King, for example, played his way to greatness pretty much one note at a time. As he said in the U2 documentary Rattle and Hum, I don’t do chords.

Rob Hampton teaches private and group guitar lessons in Seattle, Washington. His website features guitar chords and tabs written by him for his students–they’re some of the most accurate free guitar music you can find on the web. He also has a lively guitar teaching blog.

Do you know why playing guitar is so much easier than playing piano? It’s because guitar players learn how to use chords first. Even before note reading!

They usually learn how to play chords in the first position. Called open position chords, the beginning guitarist quickly learns how to finger this position and can immediately create music. That’s why so many people love the guitar and want to learn it!

They don’t waste time learning the masters or anything like that at all. Nope. It’s all contemporary. Unless of course it’s classical guitar.

Now why can’t those interested in learning piano have the same benefits? After all, it’s not like everyone wants to learn how to play Bach or Beethoven.

The good news is you can play piano using only chords. But not just any chords. I’m talking about learning a chord structure that will have you sounding like a professional right away! It’s called the Open Position Chord and with it, you’ll be able to create your own unique music!

I know it sounds far-fetched. I didn’t think I could make my own music either until I discovered this chord position from a book titled The Four-Way Keyboard System. In it, the author Alan Swain goes into great detail about the benefits of learning this chord structure.

I didn’t have to really read what he wrote. I just played it. And I was hooked! Here was something I could learn quite easily. And I could learn it in all 12 keys – just as easily! I had found what I was looking for. A modern sounding chord that would let me improvise with both hands at the piano right away AND sound good doing it!

Most of us know what triads are. This 3-note chord structure has been used to introduce students to chording on the piano. But learning triads isn’t necessarily the best place to start. In fact, there really is no good reason to begin your piano studies with triads.

Listen, if your goal is to read music and play kum-ba-ya, then by all means, spend countless hours learning how to read music and play triads. But, if you want to improvise and create your own unique music, I can think of no better chord structure than the open position chord!

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/pianolessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

Remember the old ad that used to run endlessly in magazines and newspapers:

They laughed when I sat down at the piano…but when I started to play… ?

I remember very well the first time I played piano for a group. They DID laugh. It was a disaster. I overheard the leader say Let’s get somebody with some rhythm in there to play.

Ouch!

That hurt. But I told myself right then and there that I would learn to play the piano so well that no one would ever laugh at me again.

Guess what?

Nobody laughs anymore. And they don’t laugh at my students, either.

Why?

Because I discovered…

– The BACKDOOR to piano playing –

What in the world is the backdoor to piano playing?

Chords.

Chords are a way in to the world of piano playing without having to go through the front door: years and years of scales, drills, rote practicing, etc. Chords are really a shortcut to understanding and playing music without all the formal training.

Formal training is fine if you have the time and money. But most adults don’t want to wait forever before they can play something enjoyable on the piano. I took lessons when I was a kid, but found it boring. Not only that, but all I could do was play the written music exactly as it was written. Without the sheet music in front of me, I didn’t have a clue what to do. So I lost interest in piano playing until the incident described above. But shortly after that, I had the opportunity to play in a school combo — but to do that, I had to learn chords, and learn them fast.

I didn’t really know where to turn, so I sent for a $2. chord chart advertised in Popular Mechanics, and within hours after I got it I was playing the Dm7 chord and the C6 chord in my left hand while I played the tune with my right hand. Talk about excited! Within a few weeks I could play dozens of songs using chords. And I discovered that my sight-reading speed greatly improved at the same time, because now I understood what I was seeing on the printed page!

So I came in through the back door instead, and now I enjoy what I used to hate! Why? Because I understand what I’m doing because now I understand chords and chord progressions. I eventually went on to get advanced degrees in music and literature from Southern Oregon University — and it was easy because of all I had learned about music theory and harmony due to playing and understanding chords.

Can you do the same?

There’s really no reason why you can’t if you have the desire. Start looking at sheet music with new eyes: look for notes that make up chords and then analyze those chords. Before long you’ll start seeing a pattern of recurring chords; in other words, chord progressions. Do this for a few months while simultaneously learning about chords and how they are formed, and music will take on a new dimension for you. You’ll no longer view sheet music as something you are tied to, but rather you’ll see it as a map that you can follow to create the sounds and styles you choose.

Duane Shinn is the author of the popular free 101-week online e-mail newsletter titled Amazing Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions Piano Lessons for Adults with over 84,400 current subscribers.

Piano improvising and arranging is an art but definitely not a science. It is all based on chords and chord progressions. There aren’t any steadfast rules for creating an arrangement, nothing to dictate the limitless potential of your imagination. Musicians learn to arrange by simply arranging ? and improvise by improvising — over and over again. It’s a big game of trial and error. But it?s also a scientific method: you keep the experiments that work, and abandon those that don?t work.

That being said, there are a few things that can help you in the knowledge of piano improvization. Don’t think of these as rules, but rather points on a roadmap guiding you through the vast world of arrangement and improvisation possibilities.

- The first step, of course, is to learn as much as you can about chords and how they work. Once you get a handle on piano chords and the chord symbols that represent them such as Fm7, G9, D, C7, etc., you can then learn how to break those chords up in various patterns.

- Learn several different chording patterns, such as open voicing, arpeggios, upward inversions, western bass, Alberti bass, swing bass or boogie bass. This course guides you through these techniques, in addition to others, and teaches you to understand when they’re the most appropriate.

- Learn some right hand fillers, like octaves (and the multitude of harmonic possibilities associated with octaves), tremelos, grace notes, twangs, runs, and turnarounds. Again, this course teaches you these fills and several others.

- Study pre-arranged sheet music. Your local music shop will have tons of music books containing several arrangements; read and play through these in detail. Seeing what other people have done with various pieces of music will help you understand the art of arrangement and also introduce you to new techniques!

- Dig into different musical styles, like ragtime, blues or country-western. Pick up some compilation CDs focusing on a particular style of music or purchase some piano sheet music specializing in the style. Understanding the fundamental elements of various styles will help you learn to arrange any song in that particular style — or just add a few stylized elements to any arrangement.

- Jump online and type in ?chord piano? or ?piano chords? into your search browser, and you will come up with a zillion choices where you can learn all you need to know about chords in a reasonably short time. It?s not rocket science, and once you learn a few piano chords, you probably will become addicted to chords and their application to your piano playing.

Duane Shinn is the author of over 500 music books and products such as DVD’s, CD’s, musical games for kids, chord charts, musical software, and piano lesson instructional courses for adults. He holds advanced degrees from Southern Oregon University and was the founder of Piano University in Southern Oregon. He can be reached at http://www.chordpiano.com. He is the author of the popular free 101-week e-mail newsletter titled Amazing Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Piano Chord Progressions with over 56,650 current subscribers. Those interested may obtain a free subscription by going to http://www.playpiano.com.

Do you write songs? If occasionally they seem ho-hum to you, take a look at these suggestions for writing good melodies and chords:

MELODIES:

i) A good melody has to be memorable. It’s no good if your audience can’t remember it. So make sure your melody has repeating elements. If you can get a repeating rhythmic idea working for you along with a repeating melodic idea (like in Born in the U.S.A), you’ve got something that will snag your audience for good.

ii) Is your song in the right key? You’d be surprised what moving it up or down even by one note will do. Don’t fall in love with the key of your song unless you’re sure it’s going to work for you. Moving a song up will generally build tension, and moving it down will allow it to relax. Put it where you need it.

iii) When should you add vocal harmonies to a melody? Chorus melodies should feature more harmonies than verses. When lyrics are personal observations or a recounting of events (like in verses), these will work better unharmonized. If the lyrics are conclusive like the kind often found in choruses, they accept harmonies more readily.

iv) Let your chorus melody feature the key note more than the verse. If the song is in A major, let that note A occur more often in the chorus, especially at the end of structurally important spots, like the end of the 8th bar or 16th bar. Let that key note be more of a focus. For verses, try letting the third (C#) or the fifth (E) be more of a focus.

CHORDS:

Sometimes, just getting chord progressions that sound interesting can be a problem. Want some chord progressions to try out? Here are some samples. Each progression has a little harmonic twist which you may find interesting. Try two beats for each chord, but also try experimenting a little. There’s no copyright on chord progressions, so feel free to use them in your songs if you wish:

i) A A/C# D D/F# F G C E (Note: A note after a slash means that it should be the lowest sounding note in the chord. So A/C# means play an A major chord, but have a C# note as the lowest sounding note.)

ii) D Gdim F#m B7 E9 A7 D

iii) Cm7 Fm7 Cm7 F Eb Ab Fm Gsus4 G (Note: Play each chord for two beats, and one beat each for the final two chords.)

These are just some ideas that will hopefully get your creative juices flowing. Beyond these tips, the best advice is to write every day. As author Ernest Newman has said, The great composer does not set to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working.

Gary Ewer is a Canadian composer, arranger, clinician and music teacher. He has written for a variety of professional ensembles. His music has been performed by various groups, including Symphony Nova Scotia, the Elmer Isler Singers, Rhapsody Quintet, the Cape Breton Chorale, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and others. Presently Mr. Ewer is a full-time instructor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, teaching aural perception, music theory, choral techniques and orchestration, as well as conducting the Dalhousie Chorale and the Dalhousie Chamber Choir. He is the author of The Essential Secrets of Songwriting and Gary Ewer’s Easy Music Theory.

To be on the right place at the right time is quite nice. It is called timing. In your guitar playing you will find that timing is crucial. This means to play your notes at the right time so that the result will be music.

To learn to play guitar notes at the right time is not the same thing as playing mathematically perfect. You cannot learn to play music by only using a metronome for example.

You have to listen to music and play together with other people and learn to react rytmically upon other peoples playing.

Anyway, in music there are usually a pulse that you can feel more or less and your ability to feel the pulse in the music will help you contribute with your musical and rytmic playing to the end result.

How can you learn to feel the pulse in the music? I will give you seven suggestions that might help you develop your timing when you play guitar and increase your ability to feel the pulse:

1. Dance to the music. If you can learn to feel the pulse with your whole body it will help you play musically. In this case it doesn’t matter how your dancing is performed.

Listen to music on your stereo and move to the music. The important thing is to develop the feeling that you are floating or surfing with the music without any effort on your part.

2. Learn to play drums. I think it would be a good thing if all musicians as part of their musical development on their particular instrument learned to play drums.

The ability to create rhythms and patterns when playing drums will help you a lot when you try to learn to play guitar in time and in a musical way.

Actually you don’t need drums, you might as well play rhythms on your laps with your hands. Try to play eights for example on your laps by alternating between your right and left hands and by accentuating different eight notes as you play.

What you can play with your hands on your laps or on a table or something else requires another article I guess.

3. Buy a metronome. A metronome will give you a 100% even pulse and can help you play in different tempos. It will help you play in slow tempos and help you keep a steady tempo.

How to use a metronome to your andvantage you can learn in other learn to play guitar articles.

4. Practice strumming patterns on your guitar. The act of strumming chords on the guitar resembles drum playing and will increase your overall ability to use a pick.

For example, playing eights with up and down strokes on a barr? chord and playing around with the rythm by releasing the left hand pressure on some notes thereby damping them and also accentuating some notes with the up or downstrokes with your pick can create interesting rhythmic patterns.

5. Play with other people. As I said before the art of timing when you learn to play guitar doesn’t mean the same thing as playing mathematically perfect even if it is sometimes necessary to do that in some music.

When I produce my own music on my preferred recording software I have realized that the bass part for example can be edited to play on exact beats.

When I have quantisized the bass part 100% it usually means that the whole production loses tension so to speak. I can see that I many times play a little ahead of the beat and other times a little laid back and this is done intentionally to create energy in the music.

When you learn to play guitar it is very important to learn to feel the pulse in the music. I hope my tips can help you be on time!

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and learn to play guitar resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com

If you thought music theory was a waste of time and not necessary to further your musical goals, then read these following 5 reasons why this is not true.

1.Read sheet music: Being able to play from any piece of sheet music. Well it may be hard to play BUT you can read it!

2.Be able to transpose: Say you are playing a piece from the sheet music you can now read but you think it sounds too high or too low, or just not right. Well now you can move it into a new key and play at a better singing.

3.Be able to modulate: You will be able to, with a few quick moves of the fingers, move your music into a new key with a succession of notes so pleasing to the ear it will bring a smile to your listeners faces.

4.It will increase your skill in improvising: Enough said.

5.Knowing music theory will help you recreate the sounds you enjoy in your favorite songs. Those fabulous chord progressions. The parts that give a song that certain sound. Gospel, Contemporary etc.

To learn music theory you dont have to become a scholar on the subject. Just at least learn the basics. Getting a good music theory book and spending a few minutes a day reading from it and doing any included exercises can jump start your music playing.

K Quinn is a church pianist and guitarist for her church. Having picked up music late in life she is the site proprieter at http://www.strugglingchurchmusician.us Tips, tools, and recommendations for a church musician.

More articles at articles host