Q.
A. The fake books are great, but did you want books about chord progressions?
These are highly recommended
The Jazz Piano Book, Mark Levine
The Jazz Theory Book, Mark Levine
Jazz Chord Progressions, Bill Boyd
On a piano, how many chord progressions can i use within a song?
Q. Lets say the root note is c major. can i use a melody such as cM7, then Csus and then C6? or should i stick with one chord progression. Im mainly writing pop-ish songs, not so much jazz or classical. Thanks
A. I'm not sure you understand what a "chord progression" is - it's just a sequence of chords. A "melody" is just a tune, you can't have "a melody such as cM7" (Cm7, if that's what you mean, is a chord, not a melody). Also, "c major" could',t be a "root note" - C major would be either a key/scale or a chord.
How to improvise over a four chord progression?
Q. Ive been playing the piano my entire life but only a couple of years ago I started exploring jazz improvisation. As of almost a year I've become very interested. Here's my question, I've become quite good at improvising over charts with, let's say, a higher volume of chords. So for example something like I Got Rhythm is one of my favorites. However, I have a lot of trouble creating melodies and just basically improvising with less chord volume. For example a blues or some of Cole Porter's songs with only 4 or so chords, each being used over several bars at a time. I use the many guide tones between chords to make melodies so when there are less chords it's as if I run out of ideas. Any suggestions, videos or links?
A. learn some theory so that you can substitute other chords in place of the stock chord changes. That's really what jazz is all about. I can't just give you a formula because there are sooooo many ways to do it. So don't set a goal of becoming great at this in a short period of time; instead, enjoy the process, the journey, the reward of each little nugget of understanding that you gain. That's what it's like for me when I learn a cool chord substitution... its a little thing that makes my ear happy, and understanding how and when to use it any time I want to do so makes me happy.
Here are a couple to get you started.
Substitute the relative minor for a major chord.
Ex.substitute Dm for Fmajor.
Substitute the relative major for a minor chord.
Ex. substitute F maj for D mi
So lets say you have a chord progression C F G. You could play C Dmi G, or even C F Dm G
Put "secondary dominant" chord in between two other chords.
Example: say you have the progression C F G C. Put a D7 between the F and the G so that you have C F D7 G C. You can do this to the D7 too: put an A7 in between the F and the D7 so you have C F A7 D7 G C
The explanation for why you can do this is too long to get into. Just build a major chord off the fifth of the chord you're going to. Example An A chord is A C E, so the secondary dominant is E7. Going back to the previous example, you can put that E7 in between the F and the A7 so that it leads into the A7. thus we have C F E7 A7 D7 G C.
Substitute the chord that is an augmented 4th or b5 away in place of the secondary dominant. Going back to our example of C F Dmi G C you can substitute a Db7 for the G7 so we now have C F Dmi Db7 C. Notice how this produces nice chromatic voice leading... D Db C.
Extend chords: make major triads into major 7ths or 9ths. Make dominant 7 chords into 13ths. Example: Cma7 Fma9 D-9 G13 Cma9. Doing this right also smooths out voice leading; for example, the 9th of the D is E and that is also the 13th of the G. The root of the D is the fifth of the G13 and the 9th of the Cma9. So this one note can (and usually should) sustain through all three chords.
BTW a "dominant 7th" chord just has a 7 in the name: C7, G7, A7, D7
A "major 7" chord has "major" in the name: Cma7, Gma7, Ama7, Dma7
Both are built on major triads (example C maj triad is CEG)
The difference is the 7th of the chord. A "major 7th" is further up from the root of the chord than a "minor 7th" is. Example if C is the root of the chord, the ma7 is B and the mi7 is Bb.
so, to spell a major 7th chord, you spell a major triad (CEG) and add the major 7th (B). Thus Cma7 is spelled CEGB.
To spell a dominant 7th you spell a major triad (CEG) and add the minor 7th (Bb). Thus C7 is spelled CEGBb
so thats about two years of music theory in five minutes :-) hopefully it helps more than confuses.
Take a good theory class or take some lessons, there's a lot more where that came from and a good teacher will make it a lot easier to learn
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Title : Can anyone recommend a good book on chord progressions for piano?
Description : Q. A. The fake books are great, but did you want books about chord progressions? These are highly recommended The Jazz Piano Book, Mark L...