Improvise On The Piano Using Chords – Beginning Steps

Today our video covers how to improvise on the piano using chords by using the rhythm of the melody.

Click on this link to watch this video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kdmXY4U8yI&feature=youtu.be

Good morning. This is Duane. Today we’re going to take a look at how to improvise using chords. Improvise, of course, means to make up your own music. A lot of beginners would like to improvise but they just don’t know where to start. I’m going to try to give you just a simple formula for improvising using the chords of the song that you’re playing.

First of all, you need to know what the chords are of course. Let’s say you’re playing “Blue Moon,” the song that goes … It goes like this (singing). You’ve probably heard that. You’ve heard that. The theme of it is just four chords. It’s the C chord, the A minor chord, the D minor chord, and the G 7th chord. The rhythm and the melody goes like this.

Now what I’d like you to do is to take the chords like the C chord, except don’t use the melody, but use the rhythm and the melody. Instead of playing (singing), use that rhythm but use different notes. For example, don’t start on G; start on B maybe. You see that? I used the same rhythm exactly. Da da, da da da da da da da. What did I do with the melody? I used the notes of the chord or scale notes. By the way, that’s all melodies are made out of. They’re either made out of scale fragments, part of a scale, or a broken chord. Those are the only two possibilities. Of cours , could be different kinds of scales like chromatic scales and so on, but you only have those two possibilities: either a broken chord or a scale fragment.

Now let’s do the same thing this time but we won’t start on B. Say let’s start on E this time. See the same rhythm. You see that? That was very simple, very easy, and it wasn’t very exciting, but that’s where you start. Take the notes of a chord first of all and just use the notes of the chord or the notes of the scale. Let me just do the notes of the chord this time. This is going to sound really boring, and I’ll use the same rhythm, but you’ll get the idea. You see that? I used the notes of whatever chord was enforced. If the C chord was enforced, I used either the C, E, or G notes. If A minor was enforced, I use just the notes of the A minor chord. If D minor was enforced, I use just the notes of the D minor chord. If G was enforced, I use just the notes of the G chord.

Now that sounds very simple, and it is really simple. It will be boring pretty soon so after you get that done then you want to mix in scale notes with that. Just remember that, though. There’s only two things you can make a melody out of. That’s either a broken chord or a scale fragment. Now we’re going to pursue this tomorrow again, and for several sessions, because I want to take it much, much more advanced, but that’s just a place to start: how to improvise using chords. This is section one. Thanks for being with me and we’ll see you tomorrow. 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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