Such a positively presented, easy to follow, inspiring and important lesson. Somebody please should have shown me this 40 years ago. Well, never too late to pass it on to someone in need. Teachers like you truly make this world a better place - thank you so much!
There are millions of technically highly accomplished pianists in the world but magnificently brilliant educators who are also great musicians such as the one and only Adam Maness are just rare gems… Not every technically capable musician is a great educator AT ALL…
This is such a genius intro to piano, and to keyboards in general. I could wish I'd started my keys journey with this little instruction. Thanks for putting this together, Mr M!
I'm commenting here as the beginner I am -- a few years into guitar, a few months into music theory, and very early into piano -- and, wow, I can't believe this makes sense to me and I can actually play it! True testament to how extraordinarily darn good you are at this. Thank you!
That's a great take on a 2-5-1 type scheme. I love it 👍I always favored slash chords, because they generally reduce complexity and the voicings still sound polished.
thanks, this are wonderful hints for person like me who straggle and hav problem with boring exercises those are melodic and pushing, to go farther, tray, and the time is no more important, and I’m not a spring chicken, but with dicier, to achieve and shape own stile to be more smooth, on my keyboard. thanks again.
Good video! Got here from looking into the mu chord, and I think it's probably important to mention Steely Dan made sure the 2 and 3 stayed right next to each other in all voicings, just to get that whole tone dissonance versus a plain add2/add9 chord.
I am a long time player but always can learn something new, even from EZ lessons. Good stuff. As a suggestion but not a ctiticism, you say right off the bat that this is for non-players. I think non-players might want to have an example or two of how these EZ chords can be put together to be able to play a well known standard. rather than just a sequence of nice-sounding chords.
At a certain level (a pretty basic level) a musician has to understand tension and release. And we get that with 1 chords and 5 chords no matter the genre, it’s virtually everything harmonically. As for a 2-5-1 (from my experience starting on guitar playing rock) I’ve seen guys playing 40 years who don’t understand it or even know what it means and yet it’s something that was covered in my first 6 months of jazz guit lessons as a teen. I guess I’m taking non-players to mean non piano players vs people with little to zero musical background period.
Actually, as a non-pianist musician (bass with some sax and a little guitar) this lesson is better without including a specific tune. It gives me everything I need to start making good sounds on keys, with enough detail to start applying it to songs of my choosing. Very empowering!
I remember before I really started learning to play piano and practiced a lot I was listening to Black Cow by Steely Dan. I thought man that keyboard sounds so good. I know this is probably way out of my league but I'm gonna give it a shot. The first verse only took me three minutes to learn by ear and I thought Ok maybe I will learn to play piano
Your work is so good! Really helping me uncover some gaps in my understanding of music. Thanks so much for taking the time to make these videos! I’m gonna keep watching and playing with!
This is all great and I appreciate the knowledge you impart but it would be much more useful for someone like me if you actually had some indents, coloured perhaps and diagrammatic fingerings of the chords other than the music notation. It's too late for me to bother about conventional notation but I am still interested in finding out more about these shapes and their connections.
"So, an inversion, if you don't know (or if you're a drummer) ...) lol Gotta love our drummers, not only for their hip groove but because they help keep our time feel honest. All my favourite metronomes are drum tracks. Yeah, I like to say nice things like that right after I tell a drummer joke, because those people like to hit stuff just for fun. 😅
Back in the 70s there was a Steely Dan songbook that had an explanation of the Mu chord. And I must tell you that it was not the inversion you show here. The Mu chord was strictly a major triad with an added 2, as in "Rikki," for example. The key to its sound was the whole step interval between the 2rd and 3rd. (On keys, the right-hand root could also be included, but on guitar the upper root had to be omitted. [So 1-5-2-3-5.] ) Yes, the voicing you show here has the same notes, but it's not a Mu voicing. I've seen that voicing presented elsewhere as a Mu chord, but it's really not.
@@SolarMumuns According to whom? I know the Peg voicing, I learned it off the record when I was a teenager. They used it often. But while it has the same notes, it's a different voicing than the Mu major. It was strictly their substitute for a major triad, with the 2nd and 3rd next to each other--that's the key to its sound. The other one has 4ths, different sound, different application--usually 3rd in the bass. I'm not going to argue this. Bye.
I often have to think like this on the fly with extended chords. E.G. Maj7#11 as a major triad in the left hand and a minor triad a half step down in the right hand. Or a min13 being a min7 in the left hand (not a triad oops) and a minor triad a whole step up in the right hand.
Me, a drummer: I get the inversion joke, but you didn't flip your sticks. Me, a percussionist learning piano: Shh, drummer. You can be the metronome if you want something to do.
I've been learning some gospel lately, and I've been seeing this chord a lot, but the right hand seems to closed voicing rather than spread like in this example. Eric Whitacre does something similar in one of his pieces(I can't remember which one), but with a natural 11 instead of the 9th and right next to each other (eg. D+Bb Eb+F)
I’m sorry but I just have to ask, does a G7sus4 contain the note A? The F major chord has an A in it. A is the 9th of the chord G so then the chord would be G9sus4. Just a detail, I know, but I still think it’s good to clarify! Great vid overall:)
I play a sus2 by just replacing the 3 with the 2. If sus4 is called for I play the 4 rather than the 3. To your point, I hadn't thought the A belongs in the Gsus4. Only if the chart just says "sus" I'll play both the 2 and 4; however, I've found that chord symbols are often used casually, and jazz harmony often adds notes that aren't necessarily implied by the chord symbol. No one I used to play with when I was beginning could explain this, so I worked it out myself and will assume it's correct until someone with more formal theory tells me why I'm wrong. I always apply those rules rigidly and dogmatically, except when I feel like doing something else. 😮😅
What's Mu? The personal taste of cows? 😆 But seriously...does anybody know why it's called Mu? ...Anyway I love that triad sus11 easy peasy sound from the James Taylor 70's records! ❣😍👏... and when songs where made of artisan actual sounds
Ooh, Carole King voicings. Or could be Stevie Wonder. Not crazy about the sound at 14:05. That C in juxtapose with the B clangs in my ear. But otherwise really like your voicing ideas. BTW, I just realized that G-SUS is the Ultimate gospel chord - LOL.
hmmmm so if i am hammering away on something that sounds like a one i can just move it up a degree and i may well get a five..... interesting. this may seem like an EZ lesson but like many simple things it's actually quite profound.
Do people make drummer jokes since they aren't in a decent band so they only know drummers as mediocre as themselves but need to cope with the pain that in any great jazz/rock/fusion/metal band the drummer is usually the best player?
