How Colorful Chords Can Improve Any Song

Adding colorful chords to a song CAN  improve that song and make it more interesting, but of course you do not want to overdo it.

Good morning, this is Duane and we’ve been doing a series of videos on the subject of coloring on the piano without crayons, in other words, how to make our songs more colorful and today I’d like to take up the old tune Moon River by Johnny Mercer and just walk through it. We probably won’t get through the whole song today but I want to at least start it. We’re playing it in the key of C so that’s based on the scale C which goes like that of course. Whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. If you don’t know the relationship of scale notes then please turn to a video where it talks about how to form a major scale. In any case we are playing in the key of C based on the scale of C which has no sharps or flats which does not mean that we can’t use accidentals along the way, we certainly can, but they’re not organic, they’re not indigenous to the key of C.

Moon River goes like this – (Duane playing piano). We want to make it a little more interesting so how do we do that? How do we get from that that I just played to something like this? How do we get from this to what I just played? It’s step by step of course and the whole process is known as coloring or filling out the chords in the song to make it sound more full and more interesting. Instead of just starting with a C chord, I put some color tones, because remember, we’re coloring the melody, in it. I played this chord which is a major 9th, it’s got a major 7th, and a 6th. I’m laying my thumb across the 6th and the 7th there. See, that’s a 6th; one, two, three, four, five, six, and the seventh through the scale so I’m playing two of them with my thumb. If you’re not quite that advanced then you can just play one or the other, just play B or just play A, that’s fine, they’ll both work, but do include that 9th. You can include the third, I like to include the third too, so I’ve got a five note chord there.

From the top down it’s G, E, D, B, and A. Notice it has all the notes of the C chord except C, but we’re going to solve that by playing an arpeggio, an arpeggio is a broken chord and we’re going to play that on the left hand. After I play the first chord, I think I came up and echoed it like that. I’m playing the same chord an octave higher because I have a beat there to spare. One, actually I’ve got two beats to spare so I could one, two, three if I want to. When you play the echo though, do it softer, echoes aren’t louder than the thing that it’s echoing is it? They’re always softer so make sure you do that. I guess I ought to play the right notes. Here I’m playing … the chord is A minor and on the left hand I’m playing A minor 7th and I’m voicing it like this, the seventh on the bottom, then the root, the 3rd, and the 5th and the melody goes D, C and I’m making that melody a little more interesting by playing it in 3rds. In other words, under the D I’m putting in a B and under the C I’m putting in an A.

Not only that, I’m sliding off the B flat to B to give it a little click and then I’m echoing. The same things I played there, I echoed up there, a little different, but the same notes. Again, let’s take it that far. The next chord is F, so I’m playing a low F and C, might a play a low F and A the whole chord. I might do that. The melody note is B, now B is not in the F chord is it, but I can make kind of a polytonal effect by playing a G chord over that F chord. In other words I’ll play the F chord with the left hand like that and the right hand, I’ll play the G triad. We have that kind of sound. Again. The G chord over the F chord, then you can just continue in 3rds if you want or you can do it in block chords, I think of that as a frozen hand because I’m keeping my hands as though they’re frozen and just playing like that. After I get back to C, I play the same chord and echo it.

The next melody is C and D, and the next chord is going to be B diminished 7th. Now, B diminished 7th is like this, no it’s half diminished 7th, I’m sorry. B, D, F, and A natural, a diminished 7th would be A flat. We don’t want that at all. We want the A natural so let me back up. Now this is a B half diminished 7th chord and the left I’m playing B, F, and A and on the right hand, the rest of the notes F, A, B, and D. Now I think what I’ll do is I’ll take that chord and run it up the keyboard a couple octaves and maybe come back down. I’ll just go up for one octave and back down. Watch me do it slow. Let’s take it in context now. You’re just taking that chord … Now on the left hand, let’s see what was I doing there? I think I was … Let me back up again. I was basically just chording on the left hand, in other words, a low B and then that B chord, B half diminished chord. Then it slides down from B half diminished to B flat 7th.

Then voicing that with the root of the bottom of the 7th above it. Right hand from the melody down is D, I like to use, D, C, A flat, and G, and then the melody goes up to E, and then to A minor. I think that’s as far as we’ll go today because this is a little bit complex, so let me play it that far. That is called a turn by the way. Instead of just the note I went, if you like that you can do it, if not just go, and there’s that B half diminished 7th, down to B flat 7th, and then we’ll pick it up tomorrow with the next section of the song. If you enjoy this kind of thing come on over to PlayPiano.com and sign up for our series of free videos and hope to see you there, so 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=MxG0Ygv4J2s&feature=youtu.be

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