The PIANO PROFESSOR is back

The PIANO PROFESSOR is back.
Answering questions about...
PIANO, MUSIC THEORY, SONG WRITING

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=uAGWYVYij9g
twitter.com/AnonBabble

I started working out of the Jazz Piano Boom by Mike Levine, is there a piano method book you recommend?

Is it possible to write good lyrics without having a melody to write along with?

i always recommend a three tiered approach to my students.
1. Alfred's All in One for Adults series (to learn basic chords and to read music)
2.Fake Books (try some limited to like the key of C or G or something easy, to be able to quickly play popular songs easily)
3.Improvisation (you don't have to be trained to start to make music on your own, no matter how terrible it sounds it gets creative juices flowing)

what is the secret to a good chorus? What chords make a chorus really stand out from the rest of the track? does the VII chord work as a replace dominant?

also does the dominant seventh chord in a minor scale works like a minor scale, where you can just add a seventh to the V?

ask thousands of teenagers who keep poetry notebooks

ask thousands of wanna-be rappers who write lyrics off the top of their heads in rap cyphers

try copying the styles of your favorite lyricists, until you understand how they do it. then, you will absorb their styles and come up witjh your own

good choruses contain simple, catchy phrases that can be repeated and remembered easily.

no particular chords make them stand out, but typically verses are more complex harmonically as the chorus should be simple with just a few repetetive chords.

Yes the vii chord implies a dominant seventh chord so indeed it can replace dominant, however it lacks the 5 in the bass so it is weaker harmonically than a V chord

dom 7ths in minor are spelled exactly the same as in major ... same exact chord, so yes just add a seventh. functions the same way

thanks

How would you finger the right hand? I'm stumped.

i would finger it gently like your mom's pussy.
here's one possible solution
ms paint keeps moving my numbers over wrong

That's okay -- I can follow it despite paint being a big bully. Thank you for taking the time to do that.
I was trying to avoid using the same finger on consecutive notes since it's marked legato.

I feel like
1 3
4
3 5
2
1 4
1 4
5
2 4
1 5
5
4
3...
is easier for me...I'll keep experimenting.

I wish the editor would have given suggested fingerings -- this is nuts. At least it's only one variation that is this bad.

If im writing in a mode that doesn't work well with certain chords should I just flat or sharp it or just avoid using that chord?

Like if I was in D dorian and wanted to do a major d I have to use an F#

youre going to have to slide fingers at some point even if it is legato there's no avoiding it.try to group the notes to cover as many as you can under one hand position so you maximize where your hand is. it may be irregular, in fact it's going to be irregular. i hope for your sake the tempo is marked largo.

it's meno mosso following a variation that was andantino

youtube.com/watch?v=uAGWYVYij9g

thanks again for the help.

just make your non-chordal tone a passing note between two notes that are part of the mode

yeah just whatever fingering you go with, make sure you stick to it and don't change it. that will let your muscle memory kick in the more you play it.

bump if anyone else wants to chat i'm still here

Could you talk a little about voicings? Like for diatonic chords, are there certain approaches to making full sounding chords and then sparse or thin? Do you know what I mean?

well you have 10 fingers so technically you could repeat notes in a thick cluster, like
LH: c,e,g,c RH: e,g,c,e
or just make it sparse like
LH: c RH: e,g
not sure if that's what you mean. To make chords sound richer, i often add a Sus2 so like a c major chord would be
c,d,e,g
which is really pretty and thick sounding. Jazz heads really like to add the 6ths so
c,e,g,a
which also sounds thicker.
you can also add 7ths and 9ths to thicken it ---
and then just use standard chords which will in contrast sound thin compared to 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, etc

Ok. I suppose it comes to style I'm just curious how often you would use all 10 fingers for a C major chord. Or how many octaves you would spread across.
This is coming from a guy who plays guitar ya see

welli was exaggerating. never use 10 fingersfor c major. sorryi'm getting reallydrunk right now

Okay well thanks anyhow. Kompai

Do all songs have to follow a chord sequence? If not what other ways can songs be made?
I've been trying to write stuff but I feel most chord sequences are way too boring and repetitive.

Also any tips on improvising with a certain chord or scale

Whenever I write music, I find that my left hand, the accompaniment, I resort to very simple patterns like boom chucking

How do I make my left hand more involved/less generic without transferring the melody to it? If you can recommend me a composition book or something as well, I'd appreciate it