How To Turnaround at the End of a Musical Phrase When The 3rd Is The Melody Note
When The 3rd Is The Melody Note – What To Do At The End Of a Phrase
Good morning again. This is Duane and we’re doing a series called Good Stuff You Really Ought To Know About Music, all having to do with various aspects of music theory, particularly as applied to the piano. Yesterday I did a four chord turnaround, when the 5th of a melody is on top. In other words, at the end of a phrase if the 5th of the melody is on top, you could use something like this; the 3rd, the flat 3rd, the 2nd, and a flat 2nd. But what if the 3rd’s on top? What do you do? You can’t do that because it doesn’t work. Because it’s going to violate that melody. In other words if the singer or sax player, or whoever is holding that note, you can’t go like that because it’s going to sound like that. So what do you do when the 3rd is the melody note of a song at the end of a phrase? There are several things you can do, but one thing you can do is this; play the I chord and come up to the C sharp diminished 7th chord when the 3rd is the melody note.
In other words, up a half step on your left hand. You go from the C chord to the C sharp diminished 7th chord and then you go to D minor 7th. Keep that E on top and then to G 7th and you follow it like this; G 9th, or I could use G with a flat 9th, that would work too. Let’s say in the song in a phrase like this. See that? Another thing you can do is go to the 6th chord. In other words, instead of going up to C sharp diminished 7th, you can go to A minor 7th. Then the same, D minor 7th and then G 7th, or you could go to D flat 7th there, like so. In other words you’re playing the root, the 6th, the 2nd, and the flat 2nd. That’ll work too. Either the one diminished 7th chord, two, five, or one, six, two, five. Or one, six, two, flat two, and back to one. Any of those will work. There’s a couple turnaround ideas, you come to the end of a phrase and the 3rd’s on top. The 3rd is the melody note.
We’ve covered the 5th and the 3rd. Tomorrow I’ll take up what do you do when the root’s on top. When the melody is the root and there’s a couple other answers to that as well. That’s it for today, if you enjoy these little tips, come on over to PlayPiano.com and sign up for a whole series of video tips. Hope to see you there. Bye-bye for now.
***For lots more good stuff on piano playing come on over to my website at https://www.playpiano.com and sign up for our free piano tips – “Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions!”
Here’s a great little book on chords and chord progressions on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Chords-Chord-Progressions-Exciting-ebook/dp/B0076OUGDE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404158669&sr=1-1&keywords=piano+chords+duane+shinn
Here is the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMnoCU3_KVs
____________________________________________________________