Q. I play the guitar, viola and sing and I used to take piano. I really have been getting into jazz lately and I want to pick up the piano again. I never really learned jazz on piano though, just guitar. I know chord structure, scales, modes and all of that. My question is, how difficult would it be for me to pick up jazz piano? Should I find a teacher?
A. No it will be easy especially with your experience :D !
Well it will be easy to pick it up, but hard to master, as you never really stop learning Jazz or Piano!
Heres a free lesson on youtube, to get you started: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB8VA1lAvPY
Start right away! Go on!
If your looking for more free advice or lessons, see my free e-book at: http://piano-secrets.weebly.com
Good-luck!
:D
Tom
How to play piano from lead sheets?
Q. My piano teacher gave me a few lead sheets a while ago, and I've been trying to figure out how to play them. I understand the chord structures, but how are you supposed to know what rhythm to play in? The only notes on the sheet are the vocals and the saxophone, but there's no written rhythm for the piano...do I have to be creative and make it up, or do is there a proper way to play it?
A. Part of learning to play from lead sheets is learning those accompaniment patterns! If you make this a regular part of your piano studies, you will build up a repertoire of patterns and styles to do with different kinds of songs. For a simple start, you can play the bass note of the chord in your left hand, and in your right hand, play the chord in quarter notes. So, for a song in 4/4, you'd play the chord 4 times per measure.
Then get creative and try out different patterns. You could also search on YouTube for recordings of the song to get ideas, and try to emulate things that you hear.
I think it's terrific that you're doing this and that your teacher gave you lead sheets! Learning to play accompaniment is such a great skill and it's too bad that more teachers don't include it in their lesson plans.
There is a great teacher online named Duane Shinn who is an expert at this - and he has a free course with 101 chord lessons. You can also just click around his site and watch free videos where he demonstrates some chord patterns - he's really a pro. Great inspiration for where learning to play this way can take you!
http://www.playpiano.com/101-tips/FreeLessons.htm
Hope that's helpful! Even if it's challenging at first, don't give up! It's a great thing not to be able to be creative and play from lead sheets.
What are some good sources to read about guitar theory/ music theory?
Q. I want to learn more about chord structure works, how scales work, how most songs are written/ song composition and things like that because I want to have a better ability to make and write music. I'm a novice when it comes to guitar as I have only been playing for a year. Any other suggestions on things I should learn or what order or something I should learn things in would be much appreciated as well!
A. Hey there, my name's Garrett. I'm glad you're looking into ways to educate yourself in the technicalities of music theory in approaching writing songs! Many people take off without learning some basic fundamentals and hit walls because they are not able to completely understand what they are playing.
Probably the best way to understand music composition is obviously professional instruction. But because many people do not have the time, means, or financial capability to do that, I'll run through some other alternatives.
Honestly, some of the best free sources of music theory come from people uploading things on YouTube. Just run a search for "beginning music theory guitar" or something like that.
If you have a few dollars to spend, go into any guitar center or bookstore and look for orchestration or composition books. Even though these books may be geared towards different instruments, that is ok. Music theory is music theory. The first few chapters will always be about how music is arranged and how chord structure works. It doesn't change instrument to instrument, and it will still give you a solid foundation for applying anything to the guitar.
Personally I would recommend learning theory first by looking at the piano instead of the guitar. This may seem foreign and weird at first, but let me explain. Piano is unique in that there is a visual for every note that is played (in other words, there is a single key for a single note). And these notes are lined up lowest to highest, from left to right. Guitar doesn't offer that. You can play a note on the low E string that is higher than the open D string, and you can play the same note in a multitude of different places on the guitar. Piano is not like this. Piano is very straightforward. You literally are able to see the intervals.
Here's a crash course to solidify what I am saying. I will get to how this applies to writing songs on guitar, promise!
A major scale is composed of these intervals - whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half.
Whole meaning a whole step. This means that you move two keys on the piano (including black keys) for every note you move up. A half step means you only move up one key.
A C major scale is the simplest, so I'll use this one as an example. Start on C, then whole step (skipping the black key) to D, then another whole step to E, then half to F, and so on, following the whole-half structure I indicated above.
If you do this right, you notice that you didn't hit any black keys and the scale sounds happy and familiar. This is why C is the easiest. There are no sharps and no flats. If you start on the note D and play a D major scale, following the whole-half structure, you'll notice that you will hit F# and C#. This is where sharps and flats come from.
Now lets see how this applies to creating a song, and chord structure. Lets start at C again. Play a C chord, then an F chord, then a G cord, and an A minor chord. These all sound good together, right? That is because all of these chords are in the same key; the key of C. The C chord is the I chord, the F chord is the IV chord, the G chord is the V chord and the A minor is the VI minor chord. If we go back to our scale, you'll notice C is the first note you hit in the whole-half pattern, F is the 4th, G is the 5th, and A is the 6th. You can mix these chords up any way you want and they will sound good. Thousands and thousands of songs have been written based on these chords alone. For now it is not important to understand why the first three chords are major and the 6 chord is minor, but you will get to that if you decide to pursue your musical training.
If you want to play in a key other than C, you look at the same pattern, just with different notes. For example, the I chord in the key of D is D. The IV chord is G, the V is A, and the VI is B minor. These are the same intervals as the chords in the key of C, just played in the key of D.
Of course you are not only limited to the I, IV, V, and VI chords in making a song. You don't even have to play chords. The great thing about music is that it is always up to the artist's choice. Chords are just a good place to start. As you learn more, you will learn the other chords that can be played in a specific key to sound good and how to add "accidental" notes and move in and out of keys, use passing chords, etc etc.
But start with knowing chord structure and what chords will sound good together and why. Then you can find intervals and grooves you like, put some lead guitar on top of the chords, or incorporate whatever you feel is best.
I know I practically just wrote a novel, and I'm sorry for that. But I really love this stuff and I like showing it to people too. I hope some of that made sense. Read up and you'll understand this stuff in no time!
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