What In The World Is “Chord Color Magic”?

Good morning. This is Duane. Today I’d like to talk about adding some chord color magic to our piano playing. I’ve taught literally thousands of students over the years, and the easiest way to graduate from this kind of sound to this kind of sound is through learning some of the chord color that you can do. You can add color to your chords by adding extended notes of some sort like a 6th, a 7th, a major 7th, a 9th, 11th, 13th, an altered note like a lowered 9th and so on.

Let me just walk through a few of those chords. You can do that in both hands of course. That’s a C, but that’s a C 6th, so that immediately adds a factor, a sounds to the C chord. That’s a 7th and that’s a major 7th. Those all add some sort of sound to the chord, don’t they? In other words, they’re not that sound. They add a dimension to it. This is a 9th. A 9th includes a dominant 7th. A major 9th includes a major 7th. The language used to express that is not always clear but that’s the difference. The 11th is where the 4th takes the place of the 3rd temporarily. It’s like a suspensions except it’s spread out into two octaves. There’s a 13th. A 13th often includes an 11th or a raised 11th, that sort of sound. We have 6ths, 7ths, major 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, 13ths, and the various altered chords such as I can flat the 9th. That’s a flatted 9th. That changes the sound of the chord obviously.

Let’s take a song, a simple song. Let’s say we’re playing “Over The Rainbow.” Guess I ought to play the right note. That’s fine, especially if you add arpeggios to it and arrange it just a little bit like that, but you can get so much a fuller sound if you add some of that chord color. Now it’s not my purpose to teach all those extensions I just went over. In other words, you’ll have to assimilate how to put a 9th, 11th, 13th, 6th, whatever into it, but let me just show you the change in sound. Instead of that we can have this kind of sound.

Now let me talk about what I’m doing. I’m using a 6/9 here. I’m putting in a 6th and a 9s right there. There would be a major 9th. Then on A minor I’m putting in a 7th. Then on E minor I’m putting in a 7th too. On C 7th I’m putting in a 6th along with a 7th. That’s a F chord and I’m putting in a 2nd. G 7th I’m voicing with the 7th on the bottom and a 6th, a 7th, a 3rd, and a 6th. Then I’m lowering the 6th to a flatted 6th. Instead of going back to C I go back to E minor 7th, and then that minor 7th. Now instead of F minor right there I substituted B flat 7th. Then C. That’s a 7th with a flat 9th. That’s D 7th with a 6th. That’s a G 7th suspension. That’s a G 7th with a flat 9th and back to C. That’s a C major 7th. That’s a G 7th suspension. That’s a C 13th. That’s a 2nd. That’s a flatted 9th on B, E minor 7th. Forgot where I was in the song.

Anyway, you get the idea. Now, you have a lot of work to do ahead of you but I just wanted to show you what’s possible by adding some color tones to your playing. Some of that you may not like. That’s fine. Everybody’s taste is different, but I encourage you to explore around and try out some things like that, because I think you’ll find something you’ll like and your piano playing will take on a new dimension and be more interesting. Thanks for being with me. If you enjoy these little tips come on over to PlayPiano and sign up for our series of free piano tips. They’re all free, so not much to lose there. Thanks. 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=NillI5sRKvA&feature=youtu.be

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