Parallel 4-Note Chords

Good morning. This is Duane and we’re involved in a series called “Good Stuff You Really Ought To Know About Music” that all has to do with music theory, various aspects of the guts of music, the forensics of music.

Today I’d like to talk about parallel stacked 3rd chords – 4-note chords composed of 3rds. You know what a 3rd is? It’s an interval of two notes. That’s a 3rd, 1, 2, 3, so if I play those 2 notes together, that’s called a 3rd.

If I play those 2 notes, it’s called a 3rd. If I play those 2 notes, it’s a called a 3rd also. A parallel stacked 3rd chord would be that. The human hand can easily play that. You have 1 finger here, okay? I usually use 1, 2, 3, and 5. If I move up to that, move up just a whole step, I have that sound. It’s still a parallel stacked 3rd chord. If I go up, it’s still a parallel stacked 3rd chord, isn’t it?

If I go up another one, it’s still a parallel stacked 3rd chord. If I go up another one, it’s the same thing. Go up another one, another one, another one.

Same thing is true in minor. If I play a C minor 7th, that’s a 3rd. It’s a minor 3rd but it’s still a 3rd. That’s a minor 3rd on top. If I went from C minor 7th to D minor 7th to E minor 7th, and I can come down with the black keys if I wanted to, like E-flat minor 7th and then D minor 7th. It works major or minor, it doesn’t matter.

You can mix them up as well. Let’s say that we have a song that goes like this. I can think of one, I can’t remember the name of it but…well, then we can harmonize it by doing that, couldn’t we? Oops. It makes for a nice, nice full sound. You can do the same thing with the left hand if you want. In fact, you can do hands together.

Whenever you see a melody that does something like that, try out a stacked 3rd chord and a stacked 3rd, a 7th chord, and see if it works and see if it fits. I think you’ll be delighted to discover that sometimes it does work. It doesn’t always work, of course, but sometimes it does.

By the way, you don’t have to play it as a block chord like that. You can go…you could even take it 2 octaves if you want.

That’s it for today…parallel stacked 3rd chords…four note chords. If you enjoy this sort of thing, come on over to Play Piano and sign up for our free newsletter. It teaches all about chords and things like this. Hope to see you there. Thanks for being with me and we’ll see you again tomorrow with another short video like this. 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=kF_BfaQY5oU&feature=youtu.be

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