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C(Maj)
D(Maj7#5) E(Algerian) A(Min6Add9) and more ... and more ...
The Infinite Chord Guru!
99 World Scales and Thousands of Chords
Chord Streams
Music flows as an expression of Chord Streams. Here is an example:
| 4/4 | | D(Maj) | | B(Min7) | | G(Maj) | | A(Maj) | :|| repeat | four times |
This is a well recognized Chord Stream that was used in many Rock ballads in the 1950's and 1960's. In the example above the 4/4 at the beginning indicates that there are four beats per each bar of music. Each chord is to be played with four beats.
Play ChordStream1.mid to hear the Chord Stream above looped over and over.
There are some very important concepts in the approach as to how the Chord Stream was played. First, each Chord has its own duration and secondly each chord is a member of a specific sequence.
Another concept that was used in this performace is that the sequence of each note that is played within each chord can be random! This may sound counter intuitive however it is true. Two musicians could play the same Chord Stream above and each musician could play each chord with the notes of each chord following a different arpeggio pattern and the listern would consider both musicians to be playing the same Chord Stream.
Play ChordStream2.mid to hear the Chord Stream above looped over and over but with a different Arpeggio pattern within the chords.
This experiment that we just conducted opens the door to very liberating opportunities for you as a musician. We do not have to play a song note for note exactly the same way each time we perform the song! As long as we play each chord for its appropriate chord duration and we play the chords in the correct sequence, the listener will recognize the song.
Just think of the freedom gained by this concept. Instead of memorizing thousands of individual notes to a song, you only need to memorize a few chords and play them with the correct chord duration an play them in the right sequence.
On the topic of Chord Streams there are many counter intuitive concepts and there are also myths. One of the myths I was taught by my peers as I first learned guitar was that you could play any song with just three chords. This myth is true only within one context. If you are playing along with a group of musicians who are playing the full Chord Stream of a song you can play the same song with just three chords and it will sound as if you are harmonizing with them. The fact that the rest of the musicians are playing the full Chord Stream will carry you so that you will appear to be playing the song with them. However, if you were to play the song all by yourself with just the same three chords, you would be exposed to not be playing the song. Worse yet, most listeners would not recognize the song you were playing.
I can share with you the counter intuitive concepts that work and I can also expose the myths that can fail you. Another important concept is that you do not have to know how to play all Chords. You only need to know the Chords that you will need to play. So rather than memorizing all chords in the chord charts, focus first on the songs you want to play. Then slowly as you learn more songs you will learn more chords.
Melody
Another important concept is what you should do with the melody. Instead of playing the melody and the chords together on the keyboard, it would be better to sing the melody with your voice and play only the chords on the keyboard. Take any contemporary pop song you like and listen to it being performed. You'll notice that the melody is carried only by the voice and that the instruments are harmonizing around the melody by playing chords. This divides up both parts nicely as an arrangement. It also reduces the complexity of the fingering you would have to execute on the keyboard. There should be an interlocking pattern between melody and the Chord Stream. Sometimes they are tightly in sync and at other times they dialog in a call and repsonse pattern. If you separate the melody away from the chords and sing it with your voice, you can replicate the appropriate interlocking patterns of each song.
How to Fit the Melody to Your Voice
Just like feet, each person's voice has a unique size or range. Odds are that you will not be able to sing a song in the original Chord Stream that it has in the sheet music. You can find the best Chord Stream that works well with your individual voice by trying out different Chord Streams generated by transposing the song into alternate Key Signatures.
A coarse method to do this is to try out the song with the same Chord Stream it has in the sheet music. As you sing can you tell if the melody fits your voice or is it too high or too low? If the sheet music Chord Stream is too high then tranpose the Chord Stream down two semitones. If the sheet music Chord Stream feels too low then transpose the Chord Stream up two semitones. You can repeat this process over and over until you identify the Chord Stream that fits well with your unique voice.
Here is an example of transposing lower or higher. Again here is the original Chord Stream.
| 4/4 | | D(Maj) | | B(Min7) | | G(Maj) | | A(Maj) | :|| repeat | four times |
This is the same Chord Stream transposed down two semi-tones. Play ChordStream3.mid
| 4/4 | | C(Maj) | | A(Min7) | | F(Maj) | | G(Maj) | :|| repeat | four times |
Here is the original Chord Stream transposed up two semi-tones. Play ChordStream4.mid
| 4/4 | | E(Maj) | | C#(Min7) | | A(Maj) | | B(Maj) | :|| repeat | four times |
This means that it is not good enough to learn the Chord Stream of the song that is written in the sheet music but you will also need to learn the Chord Stream transposed in a few other Key Signatures so that you can raise or lower the Chord Stream to fit your voice.
Use the Root of the Chord to Synchronize the Chord Stream
Another important concept is to double the Root of the chord into the Bass (by playing a second Root one octave lower than the Root in the Chord Chart). This lower doubled Root should target to play at the start of each bar of music as a way of introducing each chord in the Chord Stream. You'll find this trick to be a convenience such that if at minimum you get the lower Root to start on time for each bar, you can fumble the rest of the chord and no one will notice as much. I call this trick Framing The Chord. This can work well to buffer you in times when you are searching for the notes of a chord. All you need to do is start the lower Root on time for each chord and it will buy you time to figure out the rest of the chord! Sneaky isn't it? :-)
The Root of the Chord is the pitch that is part of the Chord Name. For example, in C(Maj) the Root is C. In D(Min6Add9) the Root is D. In Eb(Maj7) the Root is Eb. These are all the lowest note name of the chord.
The Dance
Playing Chord Streams on the Piano or Synthesizer is very much like performaning a dance. It is more athletic than most beginners realize. On the keyboard, the dance has two parts. The first part is the proper movement of the fingers to aim for the target chord shape and the second part is placing the fingers in the correct position over the keyboard.
For example, the exact same finger movements can produce a Major chord, a Minor chord or a Diminished chord depending on which key the thumb is placed. In other words, playing C, E, and G feels exactly like playing D, F, and A. It also feels exactly the same as playing B, D, and F. When you play C, E, and G you are playing a C(Maj) chord. When you play D, F, and A you are playing a D(Min) chord. When you play B, D, and F you are playing a B(Dim) chord. The position of the thumb while fingering the exact same chord shape yields three different types of chords.
Chord fingering on the keyboard is therefore a two dimensional exercise. It is Chord Shape plus Thumb Postion. If you can learn to recognize chord construction as the sum of these two inputs you can avoid memorizing all possible variations of chord fingerings. A few Chord Shapes plus numerous Thumb Positions can yield countless chords.
In other words, think of playing as a dance of the fingers that execute certain steps at specific positions on the keyboard to generate a particular chord. If you focus on this strategy, you can develop a link of Chord Shape plus Thumb Position to auto calculate countless chords without having to memorize countless chord fingerings.