Easy Way To Make a Piano Intro To a Song

Good morning, again, this is Duane, and we’re doing a series about music theory called “Good Stuff You Really Need To Know About Music”. One thing that’s helpful to know about music, is that you can make an introduction to most any song with just two chords, so this video is about an easy way to create a piano intro to a song.

Let’s say you’re playing in the key of C, and it doesn’t matter what the song is. Let’s say you’re playing Moon River. You’re in the key of C. Here’s the two chords you need to use. You need to use the one chord in second inversion, that means put the fifth of the chord on the bottom. Then use the four chord as the second chord, so just the one chord and the four chord, and I think that’s all you need. Watch me do it. You can even hint at the melody a little bit, if you just play the one chord. See that? All you need is the one chord and the four chord. One, two, three, four, whatever the fourth note of the scale is.

Say you’re playing in the key of E flat. What’s the one chord? Well, it’s obviously E flat, isn’t it? What’s the four chord? A flat. The second inversion of the one chord, that’s the E flat chord broken up, and then the four chord, which is A flat. You can play the one chord again and then the four chord. Whatever song you’re playing, all you need is the one chord and the four chord. But, do have that ostinato bass, in other words, the fifth note of the one chord on the bottom, second inversion of the one chord. That makes it sound unfinished. If you put the root on the bottom, that’s not as near as effective as this. You can just improvise, just play a melody in thirds, or make reference to the song, like I did there with Moon River.

Another intro you can do for more up tempo things is to do this. Say you’re in the key of C, so you want the chord in second inversion and then play like this. Whatever you’re playing, okay? All you do is play the one chord, and then you go to the diminished seventh chord of that key. So you’re playing the C chord in the key of C over G, and then you go to the diminished seventh chord which is Cdim7, but I’m playing it in first inversion, so you go from the one chord to the diminished seventh chord, to the four chord, that’s the four chord, and you could go just from there. Or, you could do something like this and then go on with whatever the tune is.

There’s a couple of ideas for creating intros for most any song out of just two chords. Thanks for being with me today. If you enjoy these tips, come on over to playpiano.com and sign up for our whole series of tips, because they’re free. Okay, thanks. 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=fhlWbMjuyFA&feature=youtu.be

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