Amazing Grace Piano Arrangements – A Song Anyone Can Play – Beginner Or Advanced

 

Good morning, this is Duane and today we’re going to take a look at Amazing Grace Piano Arrangements and take a look at how easy it is to play it because it just has three chords in it. You probably heard me say that there’s thousands of songs literally that just have three chords. They’re called the primary chords of any key.

For example, if I was in the key of C, which is based on the scale of C like that, the primary chords are the C chord, that’s home base or the root chord, and I form it just by playing a root third and fifth up from the root, okay? That’s called the 1 chord in the key of C.

Another prominent chord, another primary chord is the 4 chord so I count up 1-2-3-4, and build a chord there, so that’s called the 4 chord in the key of C.

The other chord that’s used a great deal is the 5 chord, 1-2-3-4-5, so I count up 5 notes and play the chord right there. The primary chords in the key of C are 1, 4, and 5. With those three chords I can play lots of songs.

If I was in the key of F however, then those wouldn’t be the 1, 4, 5, would they? They would be based on the scale of F which goes like that, and I won’t get into why there’s a B-flat in the key of F. You can look that up. I’ve covered that many many times.

In any case, here’s an F scale. The 1 chord is built on F, the 4 chord is built on the fourth note scale, and the 5 chord’s built on the fifth note of the scale. If I just 1, 4 and 5, I can play “Amazing Grace”. I’m going to play it through just to show you how easy it is.

If I pick out the melody on F, 1 chord, 5 chord, 1, 4, 1, 5, 1. Fortunately, we don’t have to play chords in root position. They don’t have to be played with the root on the bottom. There’s the 1 chord in F. An easier way to play the 4 chord is just to keep my finger on F, little finger on F and move up to B-flat and D. That’s called an inversion of the B-flat chord.

There’s the F chord, there’s the 4 chord B-flat, and the 5 chord is right there, the C chord. So I could play 1, 4, 5, 1, all without moving my hand very much. Watch me do it.

Now I’m not limited to that however, am I? That’s a very easy way for a beginning to pick out “Amazing Grace” but you’re probably more advanced or you probably wouldn’t be watching this so I’m going to show you a couple more advanced ways.

First, on the left hand instead of just holding the note, I can chord it. I can go something like that. Now I can also put chords under the right hand melody, can’t I? It sounds a little fuller there.

As you advance, you’ll learn to put in color tone so I could add a 6. There’s a 6 to the F chord, and I can also syncopate it. Add in a seventh, and so on like that.

Now, I could eventually get to the place where I could play it by combining all that stuff, added notes and substitute chords and so on, and I could play it in a full-blown style maybe like this. That’s really a mixed style but I could play in a flowing style too, couldn’t I?

In other words, I’m not limited to one style or another. Once I know those chords, I know the principles of adding chord substitutions and color tones and so on, the sky’s really the limit in arranging a song.

Now, am I limited to just playing in the key it’s written in? I think it’s probably written in the key of F, I haven’t looked it up lately, but I could play it any key, couldn’t I, as long as I know those three chords.

Let’s say I wanted to play in the key of E-flat. First I’d have to know the scale of E-flat and then figure out the primary chords in the key of E-flat which would be the 1 chord, the 4 chord, and the 5 chord. I could play it in E-flat and so on like that.

I could play it several keys, couldn’t I? I could start in E-flat, I could go to F, I could go to G, all kinds of things. I won’t demonstrate that but I just want you to know the possibilities are endless for this. Hopefully it will motivate you to learn different keys and chord substitutions and color tones and arranging and so on.

Anyway, that’s my little tip for today, actually a challenge to you to learn as much as you can so that you can have more fun at the piano as you play and be of more use to people too. Thanks for being with me and we’ll, excuse me, see you tomorrow with another little 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

You’ll learn piano chords galore and how to apply them when you play piano – major chords, minor chords, augmented chords, diminished chords, 6th chords, 7th chords, 9th chords, 11th chords, 13th chords, suspensions, alterations and more. Chords are the “missing link” in most piano lessons and you can learn them all easily. Learn piano playing and music theory at the same time – it will make your progress faster
and you will understand music like you never have before.

Here is the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yLhGnBLdQA

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