Simple Piano Notes & Simple Piano Chords…
Simple Piano Notes & Simple Piano Chords…
Here is a transcript of the video if you would like to follow along:
Good morning, this is Duane, and today we’re going to do something a little different with simple piano notes and simple piano chords. You’ve heard me talk in the past about how simple things can become complex, and I’m going to give you an example of this today, but I’m not going to tell you where it’s from. You can probably guess where it’s from. In the days to come, where going to develop this simple tune, this simple little chord progression, and see where it goes, okay? So here it is. It’s a simple melody.
It starts on F#, E, D : in other words, the first three notes of the D scale, all right? Third second, root. And then it goes down a half-step to C# and then B, and then A. In other words, we’re coming right down the D scale.
[Duane playing piano]
If we were in the key of C, we’d be :
[Duane playing piano]
See, it’s very simple, okay? So back to the key of D.
[Duane playing piano]
Got that? Very, very simple, okay? Now, I’m going to put a chord with it. We’re going to have a D chord, [Duane playing piano] and then we’re going to have an A chord, [Duane playing piano] then we’re going to have a B minor chord, [Duane playing piano] then we’re going to have an F# minor chord, [Duane playing piano] and then we’re going to have a G chord, [Duane playing piano] then we’re going to have a D chord, [Duane playing piano], and G chord, [Duane playing piano] and an A chord, and then we’re going to do it again, okay?
This time, I’ll put the melody on top that I just played, which the melody goes like that. [Duane playing piano] All right, with the chords under it, here we go.
D, A, B minor, F# minor, G major, D major, G major, A major, back to D, okay? Let’s count how many chords.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and then we start over again, okay, so it’s just eight chords progression. I want you to learn and memorize this chord progression. It’s the one chord, we’re in the key of D. [Duane playing piano] I should have said that first of all. [Duane playing piano] We’re in the scale of D, which means we’re in the key of D, which has two sharps. F sharp and C sharp, [Duane playing piano] based on the scale of D, remember? The scale comes from the latin word ascala, the ladder. It’s the ladder of notes that runs from D up to D, okay?
So the one chord is D. So this is the one chord. Then it goes to the five chord, which is A. And then the six chord, which is B minor, that’s a secondary chord, and then F# minor, which is the three chord, again the secondary chord in the key of D. And then the four chord, which is G, and then the one chord, which is D, back to the four chord, which is G, and the five chord, which is A. Okay, and then back to D. So again, I’ll take it slow.
[Duane playing piano]
Okay, some of you are probably recognizing that by now, okay? Now, let’s take it from the key of D to the key of C and see if we can keep the same chord progression, okay? Chord progressions, the wonderful thing about chord progressions is that they’re movable, aren’t they? They’re movable concepts. Once you learn it in one key you can play it in any key once you learn the formula. The formula was one, five, three, six, four, one, four, five, and then back again. There’s eight chords in that sequence, right?
So let’s do it in the key of C. The melody, instead of being [Duane playing piano] in the key of D, it would be this. [Duane playing piano]
Here we go, one, five, six, three, four, one, four, five, one, five, six, three, four, one, four, five, and then back to one. Okay? So, I would like you to memorize that. Memorize that chord progression. It’s very, very useful because it belongs to one of the greatest tunes ever written, but not only that, you can use it to create your own songs by improvising on it, creating different patterns of notes, different melodies, based on that same chord progression, and we’re going to explore that the next few lessons, and we’re going to do it in severe different styles, so we’ll see how that goes in the days to come.
Meanwhile, learn that progression really well. I’ll go over it one more time. It’s the one chord, followed by the five chord, the six chord, the three chord, the four chord, the one chord, the four chord, the five chord, and back to one. Okay?
That’s it for today, so we’ll see you tomorrow with another extension of this same idea. Meanwhile, if you’re not signed up for my free newsletter, be sure and come over to play piano.com and sign up for that free newsletter on piano tips, because there’s loads of videos and instruction about chords and all kinds of stuff, so come on over and sign up for, and tell your friends to do it too, okay?
See you tomorrow with another video on the same subject, so see you then. Bye-bye for now.
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Piano notes and piano chords combine to make a great song!