Q. I am classically trained, and have played predominately from sheet music for about 15 years now. I want to start playing more jazz, contemporary and modern music, but I am not good at playing from chord sheets, improvising, playing by ear, etc. What can I do to become more proficient in playing chords in various different voicings? What are some good drills?
A. I'd suggest practicing with recorded rhythm tracks like Jamey Aebersold's play-along CDs. The great thing about them is that the piano is on one channel and the bass is on the other, so you can use the balance control on your stereo to mute the piano track while you practice with the bass and drums. You could start with something fundamental like "Nothing But Blues" or II-V-I progressions to get the feel, then work your way up to more complex progressions.
Another advantage to having the separate tracks is that you can start out by listening to the piano track and trying to imitate it, but then you can mute it and experiment with your own style. Try different chord voicings, different rhythms, or quartal harmonies (chords built in fourths rather than thirds). Part of the beauty of jazz is that you never have to play a tune exactly the same way twice. You can try something new each time.
How many notes does a harmony have to comprise?
Q. I looked up what a "harmony" is and I got an example; That C, E and G played simultaneously form a harmony, which are Three notes. But does it have to be Three notes in order to be a harmony or could it be two or 4+ notes played simultaneously?
A. All these answers are pretty correct
The straight truth is, it depends.
Depends on the style, depends on who you ask.
By any standard definition of harmony, there does not have to be more than one note sounding at a time. Gregorian chant was all unison, meaning everybody sang the same note (they would all go from one note to the next at the same time). This is called monophonic texture. The "harmony" is implied by the line of the melody. Even just by hearing about ten seconds of a monophonic melody line, any trained musician could tell you loads of information about the harmony (look up modes, leading tones, modulation for more info).
Any two different notes playing simultaneously creates harmony. This is called "vertical" harmony when it is analysed chord-by-chord. When analysed in context of the entire piece, you would be analysing the horizontal harmonic motion. If you had a chord that looked like this:
B on top
G on the bottom
Going to this:
C on top
E on the bottom
You would analyse that as going from a dominant chord to an imperfect tonic chord in C major. Even two notes can imply a hell of a lot of harmony!
Harmony built upon thirds is by far the most common in Western music. This USUALLY means there will be three notes playing at the same time, but there can ALSO be just two, or also four notes playing at the same time in tertian harmony (tertian harmony means harmony built upon thirds). This means if you start on C, you skip a note to go up to E or Eb (or very rarely Ebb). Then you skip the next note to go to G (or very rarely Gb, Gbb, G#, or Gx). Then, (usually in a dominant function chord, with exceptions in jazz or late romantic music) you can skip another note to go up to B, Bb, or Bbb.
Four notes or more playing simultaneously is very common is jazz. The pianist often plays "voicings," which are ideal combinations of around 3-5 notes in terms of voice leading.
Quartal harmony has been experimented with, which is harmony based around FOURTHS instead of thirds, but bear in mind that this can still mean that two, three, four, etc. notes can be playing at one time.
12 separate pitches playing at a time is usually (more than 99%) the maximum amount in Western music, and it has been done by the likes of Ives, but there have been people to experiment with what is called micro-tones (notes with smaller intervals than half-steps from one note to another). Thus, theoretically there are an infinite amount of separate pitches to be played at once!! But after a point, the human ear can't distinguish between two extremely close microtonal pitches.
And although 12 separate PITCHES can be played simultaneously, there can be even more NOTES if you repeat pitches in different octaves. For example, if you took your arm and smashed it down on the piano keyboard! You could get a couple good octaves worth of notes in there.
Oftentimes bands will write a song with a "chord progression," which is a map of the harmony from one chord to another, and give it to their bassist, guitarists, and/or pianist. The bassist will usually just play one note for each chord, and this is usually the root, third, or fifth (but basslines vary based on style). The pianist and rhythm guitarist will play multiple notes at a time. They will usually play the root, third, and fifth. (When you strum a guitar chord, this is what you get!) The lead guitarist if there is one, and any other instrument like saxophone or violin, could play melodic lines (one note at a time) based upon the vioce-leading of the harmony. The singer sings the melody (obviously one note at a time). Back-up vocalists will sing around the melody, but down or up intervals of thirds or fourths. All of this comes together to create harmony! Technically there can be 5-10 notes sounding at a time in a band, but usually only three or four PITCHES, because pitches are repeated between instruments.
Woohoo!
Does anyone know what phat chords and quartels are on the piano?
Q. just want to know
A. There's no such thing as "phat chords".
Quartal harmony is harmony built in 4ths, as opposed to the more common tertial harmony, which is built in 3rds.
The opening chord of Kraftwerk's "Trans Europe Express" is a great example of a quartal harmony.
Some early proponents of quartal harmony include Claude Debussy, Arnold Schoenberg, and Igor Stravinsky. Jazz pianists Duke Ellington, McCoy Tyner, Bill Evans, and Art Tatum also make/made liberal use of quartal structures.
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Title : How do I become more proficient playing chords on the piano?
Description : Q. I am classically trained, and have played predominately from sheet music for about 15 years now. I want to start playing more jazz, con...