Duane Shinn (that would be me) has good news for you if you want to play the piano. He (me) has little fat hands & stubby little fingers - not at all suited for playing the piano - more suited to making mud pies or some such. I am also fairly uncoordinated with just average musical ability - certainly not a great piano player. But I've learned a ton about music over the years and people tell me I'm pretty decent at explaining how music works & how to progress more rapidly on the piano. Over the years I have developed about 150 techniques for conquering the piano. Most professional pianists can do these techniques, but very few can explain them in a way people can understand. I specialize in making complex techniques simple. I invite you to watch a few of my free videos and see some of these for yourself before making any decision about taking any of my courses.
The 3 Diminished 7th Piano Chords Diminished 7th chords are unique animals. They have some unusual qualities that make them interesting and useable. For example, they are the only type of chord that is simply a stack of minor 3rds. If you … Continue reading →
Slash Chords A “slash chord” is a hybrid kind of chord. It simply means “play the given chord OVER the note after the slash”. In other words, in this example, we would have a C chord played, but the lowest note would … Continue reading →
Chord Suspensions Suspensions are chords in which the 4th degree of the scale takes the place of the 3rd degree — usually temporarily, but not always. For example, a Csus would look like this: Fsus would look like this: Gsus would … Continue reading →
All The 11th Piano Chords One of the most exciting chord types you’ll ever learn… Hello again, and welcome to the next edition of the newsletter. I hope you are enjoying learning about all the chords in the world — and we’re going to … Continue reading →
Chord Progressions Part One: The Circle of Keys – Major If you’ve ever heard of the “circle of 4ths” or the “circle of 5ths”, they are the same thing as the “circle of keys”. It just depends on whether you’re … Continue reading →
“Oops! I forgot Minor 7th Chords!” How could I do it? Minor 7th chords are some of the most-used chords there are. They are also the mellowest chords around — entire songs have been composed using nothing but minor 7th chords, and … Continue reading →
Alterations So far we’ve covered chords from major to minor to diminished to augmented to 6ths to 7ths to maj7ths to 9ths to 11ths to 13ths — and last time we covered suspensions. I trust that you have been MASTERING … Continue reading →
Chord Progressions Part 14: “The ‘Alternating 7ths & m7th Chords’ Chord Progression” Back a few lessons we learned about the circle of keys — also called the circle of 4ths, or the circle of 5ths. Let’s take a review of that: If … Continue reading →
Chord Progressions Part 13: “Enlarging the ’12 Bar Blues’ Chord Progression Through the Use of ‘Embedded Chord Subs’” Last time we learned the 12-bar blues progression — hope you have it down cold by now, as you will use it your entire musical … Continue reading →
Chord Progressions Part Three: “How To Tell What Key You Are InWhen You Have Flats (b) In The Key Signature!” If you’re going to be able to know what chord progressions are likely in each key, you obviously need to know how … Continue reading →
