Play a song on the piano in lots of different styles!

Good morning. This is Duane, and today I’d like to ask you a question. How many different ways can you play a song on the piano? It’s really important that you learn to play a song more than one way. You do that through mastery of chords and improvisation. It’s very important because that way you can get variety into your playing.

There’s a classic story of Erroll Garner when he was playing; you know, the great jazz pianist. He wrote the song “Misty,” by the way. He was playing “Misty” much better than that, by the way. He was playing that and a lady that saw him play said “Oh, Mr. Garner. Could you play that again just that same way?” He said “I don’t remember how I played it.” He played it a different way and then a third time a different way, and so on. It just is important to learn a variety of styles.

I’m going to start out real simply and play and old hymn called “Living on the Everlasting Arms,” and just look at how many different ways we might play that. Let me just start out kind of straight – and so on. A lot of people, that’s the extent of their playing. They learn how to play it as written and that’s it. But as a good pianist you need to get some variety in your playing.

One thing you could do is, you could add arpeggios. All I’m doing is breaking up the chords in the left hand, very simple. You could break up the chords in the right hand under the melody, too. Listen. You see I’m breaking up the chords like that. Of course you could play it in octaves. Here I’m chording, playing it in octaves in my right hand and chording in my left hand. See that? That’s one way, too.

Then, of course, rhythm. You can do lots of different things. Let me just play one way. Pretty easy right there, isn’t it? Now let’s take it a little more complex. I’m going to put in some color tones. I haven’t even mentioned changing keys. If you played it the first time through kind of like that. Let me just [inaudible 03:45] again.

I’ve probably played it in a half dozen different ways, and that’s just the start. You could play it in a zillion different ways and in a zillion different keys. Well, not a zillion; you’re limited to 12 major and twelve minor. Plus, I didn’t even get into minor keys at all. I used a few chord substitutes but not many. You see the world is open to you. The world of piano playing is wide open for you to be as creative as you want. The key is to learn how to play chords, then how to arrange through improvising and arranging styles. Hope that helps, and we hope to see you tomorrow as I continue with our tips series. Bye bye for now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ces2-IOW8JM&feature=youtu.be

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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.