Q. Can someone either give me a basic chord progression/ melody for piano or give me any tips?
A. Most pop songs contain the chords of C major (CEG) G major (GBD) and D major (DF#A). These are pretty much the basis for anything you hear in the charts. Tips wise, make a mind map including mood, instruments, structure and influences. This can often start you thinking and get your creativity flowing. Also, spend 15 minutes just messing around on your piano and that is the golden time when you come up with all your ideas.
Good Luck :)
How do I learn how to play chord progressions easily on piano?
Q. I heard my step uncle and actual uncle play some really beautiful chord progressions and I just want to be able to play like that. I have a history in music, but only treble clef. I'm working on learning bass clef but just need motivation and determination. Also, if this is any help, I'm 15
Any help/ advise would be appreciated. Thanks
A. Do you have experience with piano? It get's a little technical with the way chords are formed. A good way to start is to practice playing simple chords. If you have experience with piano and know which key is which, then you might want to start off by playing a C major chord. With your right hand, put your thumb on C, your middle finger on E, and your little finger on G. It should look like you're skipping every other white key with your hand (second and fourth fingers don't play) Then if you want, you can play around and move up and down to D with the same fingers skipping and on all the white keys. Then you play a D minor. Most pop songs have simple chords like that. However, your step uncle and uncle might have played something with more complex chords. I suggest reading up on different ways that chords can be formed, but a progression is just a pattern. A lot of songs use the chords C F G and A minor. (if you learn those, you'd be able to play about 1000 songs I bet). Another way is to look at a piano chord chart, which might take less studying if you just want to get to playing the song. Here's one: http://www.8notes.com/piano_chord_chart/. Ask them what songs they were playing, and then you can use the chords and find the notes with the chord chart.
Why do chord progressions have to follow the 'Chart'?
Q. If you have ever studied music theory, you know what I'm talking about (If not, just google "Chord Progression Chart"). Be as detailed as possible. Talk about what would happen if you didn't choose to follow the chart. Don't say, "It has to follow the circle of fifths" without explaining to me WHY that is important.
A. I went through music conservatory as a piano performance major and later did a second upper-level training in theory and composition, and never -- in all that classical study -- ever seen a "Chord Progression Chart."
ADD: I just googled it: this is a form of popular music theory, and specific for guitar playing more than actual 'music theory.' Please Do Not Mistake It In Any Way As Music Theory: what you learn from a chart like that would not qualify you for admittance to or be of any help to you in a freshman college theory 101 class. It may help you learn your way around basic guitar, but if you ever want a handle on music theory, of any sort, I'd ditch it. Thinking in nothing but 'chords' is very "pop theory" and wholly detrimental to your full development as a musician, regardless of musical genre. /// The shock there is another planet of music theory, often at odds with the pop theory terminology, shows up often enough in this category of Y/A, especially when it comes to analysis and identifying chords beyond the basic triads and seventh chords. END ADD
Some chords work, to all ears, better than others going one to the next. Initially, it is what is first learned, classical or other theory, since one has to start somewhere, and from the basics and beginning is almost always the best as well as most logical starting point. I repeat your chord chart has at least as much or more to do with 'the handiness' of playing guitar at a basic level vs. actual theoretic musical use, or other real musical possibility.
After one further investigates theory, there are no 'rules' but only examples of how, formerly, someone else 'made music work.'
If everyone 'followed the chart,' as if it were a law there would be no more music, no need to make anymore, and all listeners would be bored to tears!
Some progressions, within a certain context, may have one chord sounding really 'weak' - and your flow or structure collapse. That same chord, approached with different horizontal voicing of parts - individual lines, in an otherwise similar harmonic context, could sound 'fine.' That is nothing you will learn to do anything about if you are studying 'chord - chord - chord' instead of approaching those chords as a consequence of several simultaneous lines. -- Because, that is after all, how you learn enough to make anything sound good!
No rules, no laws, just examples of what most commonly 'works' or what others before you have made 'work.' At the time, at least in the common practice period of classical theory, what ended up in textbooks was 'breaking rules' of that day!
You are in trouble if you take those examples you study as a rule or 'law.' - you may have to mimic those examples closely for an assignment, that is so you learn how to work them yourself. It is not intended that will be the way you 'should' or will later compose.
That chart, again, is for pop music more than anything, all the conventional progressions, and very much about how to physically negotiate the guitar while mucking about within that set of conventions. It is a list of what has commonly worked and been done before, no more, no less.
Best regards.
Powered by Yahoo! Answers
Title : Pop song writing help?
Description : Q. Can someone either give me a basic chord progression/ melody for piano or give me any tips? A. Most pop songs contain the chords of C m...