QuantumPortal
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The Infinite Chord Guru!
99 World Scales and Thousands of Chords
The Piano Keyboard Pattern | Chord Shapes | Music On-The-Fly
1975 to 1980 I played piano and synthesizers for several music groups yet I could not sight read music. The secret to this ability is to build a vocabulary of chords and learn to feel the chords through the fingers. The keyboard consists of a pattern of five sharps and flats overlaid across seven natural notes. This pattern causes many chords to share common shapes. This means that although there are countless chords, there are far less chord shapes.
If you learn a few chord shapes you can quickly create a lot of chords by playing a specific shape at a specific position on the piano. This way you can learn to play chords without having to memorize the individual notes that build a chord. In fact it is entirely possible to play chords without knowing the individual note names of each chord as you improvise music. Soon each chord shape and the sound of the Chord will link together so that when you want to play a certain sound you will feel the shape in your fingers.
As I played in music groups I discovered many musicians who did not sight read music but instead manipulated chord and scale shapes across a fixed plane. This was true for rhythm guitarists, lead guitarists, bass players and keyboard players. Each instrument has its individual patttern. In fact I even extended what I learned on piano and experimented playing chords on the flute. I was able to improvise on guitar, piano, synthesizers, and the flute without reading a single note of music.
All it took to create a good jam session was for everyone participating to understand the scale they were playing and the chord changes they were going to execute together. As they played, they did not think of the individual notes they were playing, but instead concentrated on the shapes and the position of the shape on the instrument they were playing.
The Infinite Chord Guru exploits this strategy and multiplies it by exposing 99 World Scales and the Chords that belong to each Scale.
Don't get me wrong. I am not putting down sight reading. It is a very important skill and I admire musicians who can do it. However as I admire the sight readers, they have also admitted to admiring what I was able to do that they could not. They were amazed at how I could seem to invent music on-the-fly without a musical score in front of me to follow. Of course I was not inventing music on-the-fly, but rather I was simply playing clusters of related chords and effortlessly exploring musical landscapes. I find that improvising chords on the Piano or Synthesizer keyboard is very liberating. It is the technique that fits best with my lifestyle. I do not have the time required to learn to sight read music and I do not have the ability to carve out practice sessions every week. But when I am able to sit down at a keyboard, I can play with the limited time my busy lifestyle permits. This technique may work well for beginning musicians who want to be able to improvise music in a band.