Simple Piano Chords Can Make Your Piano Playing More Interesting and Exciting

Here is a transcript of the video in case you want to follow along:

Good morning, this is Duane, and today we’re going to do something a little different. Even simple piano chords can make your piano playing more interesting and exciting. You’ve heard me talk in the past about how simple things can become complex, and I’m going to give you an example of this today, but I’m not going to tell you where it’s from.  You can probably guess where it’s from.  Then in the days to come, we’re going to develop this simple little tune with a simple little chord progression, and see where it goes.  Okay?  Here it is.

It’s a simple melody, starts with an F sharp, E, D, in other words the first three notes of the D scale.  All right?

Third, second root, and then goes down a half step to C sharp, and then B, and then A.  In other words, we’re coming right down the D scale.

Duane is demonstrating on the piano.

If we were in the key of C, it would be … see it’s very simple, so back to the key of D.

Duane is demonstrating on the piano.

Got that?  Very, very simple, okay?  Now I’m going to put a chord with it.

We’re going to have a D chord, and then we’re going to have an A chord, then we’re going to have a B minor chord, then we’re going to have an F sharp minor chord, then we’re going to have G chord, then we’re going to have a D chord, then a G chord, and an A chord, and then we’re going to do it again, okay?

This time, I’ll put the melody on top that I just played, which … the melody goes like that.  All right?  With the chords under it, here we go.

Duane is demonstrating on the piano.

D, A, B minor, F sharp minor, G major, D major, G major, A major, back to D.  Okay?  Let’s count how many chords.  One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Then we just start over again?  Okay.  It’s just eight chords.

Here’s the chord progression.  I want you to learn, to memorize this chord progression.  It’s the one chord, we’re in the key of D.  I should have said that first of all.  We’re in the scale of D, which means we’re in the key of D, which has two sharps, F sharp and C sharp, based on the scale of D.

Remember the scale comes from the Latin word, la scala, the ladder.  It’s the ladder of notes that runs from D up to D.  Okay?

The one chord is D.  This is the one chord then it goes to the five chord, which is A, then the six chord, which is B minor, that’s the secondary chord, then F sharp minor, which is the three chord, again a secondary chord in the key of D, then the four chord, which is G, then the one chord, which is D, back to the four chord, which is G, and the five chord, which is A.  Okay?  Then back to D.  Again, I’ll take it slow.

Duane is demonstrating on the piano.

Okay, some of you are probably recognizing that by now. Â  Okay?  Okay, let’s take it from the key of D to the key of C, and see if we can keep the same chord progression.  Okay?

Chord progressions, the wonderful thing about chord progressions is they’re movable, aren’t they?  They’re movable concepts.  Once you learn in one key, you can play it in any key, once you learn the formula.  The formula was one, five, three, six, four, one, four, five and then back again.  Okay?  There’s eight chords in that sequence, right?

Let’s do it in the key of C.  The melody, instead of being … in the key of D, it would be this.

Duane is demonstrating on the piano.

Here we go.  One, five, six, three, four, one, four, five, one, five, six, three, four, one, four, five, and then back to one.  Okay?

I would like you to memorize that.  Memorize that chord progression.  It’s very very useful, because it belongs to one of the greatest tunes ever written, but not only that but you can use it to create your own songs by improvising on it, creating different patterns of notes, different melodies based on that same chord progression.  We’re going to explore that in the next few lessons.  We’re going to do it in several different styles, so we’ll see how that goes in the days to come.  Meanwhile, learn that progression really well.  I’ll go over it one more time.

It’s the one chord, followed by the five chord, the six chord, the three chord, the four chord, the one chord, the four chord, the five chord and back to one.  Okay?

That’s it for today, so we’ll see you tomorrow with another extension of this same idea.  Meanwhile, if you’re not signed up for my free newsletter, be sure to come on over to playpiano.com and sign up for that free newsletter on piano tips, because there’s loads of videos and instructions about chords and all kinds of stuff.  Come on over and sign up for it, and tell you friends to do it too.  Okay?  See you tomorrow with another video on this same subject, so see you then.  Bye bye for now.

To watch this video on YouTube click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeDld6-s1ho