Half-Step Slides: One Type of Transition Chord
Transition Chords – Smoother Ways To Get From One Chord To Another
| Hi and welcome to another free video on PlayPiano.com. Good morning, this is Duane. Today I’d like to talk a little about useful transition chords. Transition chords are just what they say. They’re chords that connect a sequence of chord progressions. Let’s say, for example, that you’re going between C7th and F. That’s a very familiar chord progression, isn’t it? A 5-to-1 chord progression, but there’s some connective chords you can use. One in particular that’s very useful, and that is the, I call it a half-step slide. If instead of going directly to F, you go to a variety of F Sharp, voiced correctly, above it, such as that like makes a big difference. Instead of just that, you have this.
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| Now I say voiced correctly because you have to come up with the right voicing of it to make it sound decent. In other words, you can’t go just F Sharp, F. I mean you could but unless you want that sound, that leaves a little bit to be desired, so it depends what the melody is. Say the melody is on C. I might want to voice it with the root on the bottom and the 7th in the left hand, and then the melody on top and under that some notes from the chord. I’m using the 3rd, 2nd, root, and 6th of the chord, sliding down into F.
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| Give that some thought. You can do a half-step slide. You pick the chord that’s a half-step above wherever you want to go. For example, if you’re moving from G7th to C, you can do this, G7th to D flat 7th to C, kind of like that chord. D flat, A flat, root and 5th, then the 3rd, the 7th, the 9th, and the melody note, whatever it is, if you can reach that. I can’t really, I have to roll it to get it. You can do it like that but you really need that 3rd too.
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| Just a couple thought about one kind of transition chord. Tomorrow we’ll take a different kind of transition chord based on the diminished 7th concept. See you then, Bye-bye for now.
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| Hi, this is Duane again, and I’d like to tell you about a little book that I wrote a few years back. It’s called “Piano Chords and Chord Progressions: The Secret Back Door to Exciting Piano Playing.” It’s a terrific resource about chords. If you want to know more about chords, you ought to latch onto this book. It’s just barely over $10.00, $11.00 I think it is. It covers all the chords and chord progressions that I talk about in my videos. It’s just a great, it’s not a substitute for videos of course, or DVDs, but it’s a great summary and it’s so inexpensive that it’s well worth your while to get.
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| Here’s the Table of Contents, you can just look down here and see all the things it covers. Starts out with Major and minor diminished augmented 6th, 7th, and on to 13th chords, and suspensions and alterations, and then gets on to chord progressions, and so on. It’s a very thorough book and it’s got a lot of illustrations. I’ll just talk you through a little bit, and there’s the back over. It’s worth your while to get. Hope you take advantage of that. Thank you. 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
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