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Intensive Learning Workshop: Keyboards

1. be created by playing a C in your left hand and a Bb triad in your right This is a great transition chord to new keys You can even add the 5 in the left hand if you like bar 2 Note the low C could cause bass conflict if you add rhythm MATH bVIIA R 11 chord INTENSIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP Left and Right Hand Techniques 6 The 13b9 Chord Ok so this is more than 5 chords but you will love this one Every jazz piano player uses this voicing It s a bit trickier but the sound you get is wonderful It s a dominant 7 type of chord so the left hand is a little different To get a 13 flat 9 chord play the 3 and 7 of the dominant chord in your left hand and play a major triad built on the 6 of that chord So fora G13b9 play an F and B in your left hand and an E major triad in your right Now go find a jazz club and show your stuff MATH VIA bVII Ill 13b9 chord You now have a number of ways to create two hand voicings This will give you something more interesting to play now that you have thinned out the bass register It also gives you options other than doubling or tripling the root note while allowing you to play triadic arpeggios and fills with greater ease Our next section will cover left hand voicings The goal assigning of different roles in both hands INTENSIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP Left and Right Hand Techniques Part 2 Left Hand Comping With Right Hand Melodic Ideas Triads and Exe
2. G IDCIE F Dm7 G7 BC C E F AFMaj G11 The Three Primary Chords You Must Know in All 12 Keys My Guarantee 1 If you know how to play the I IV and V chord in all keys in all inversions 2 and if you can hum a melody you hear in your head you will be able to play almost anything The 3 Primary Chords Because the I IV and V chords cover ALL of the notes in the major scale it stands to reason that any melody derived from the major scale must be able to be harmonized using these chords Quite simply play the chord that has the melody note in it Only play the chords on the beat passing notes in the melody don t need to have a chord under them at all times With this concept learned you will feel more confident playing songs for people off the cuff separating your hands to allow you to do fills and harmony not just bass and chords and it will allow you a canvas on which you can create your own music the songs in your head Full Triad Thinner C G C F C C G C F C IV V Root position Start 1 IV V 1 Inversion Start IV V 2 Inversion Start Can you do this inversion without looking DON T FORGET TO LEARN THESE CONCEPTS IN ALL KEYS INTENSIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP Left and Right Hand Techniques 11 Three Ways to Make Chords More Interesting 1 Open them Up 2 Roll them Up 3 Colour them Up Open Them Up Closed Open Closed triads become open triads to avoid clutter and mud
3. Intensive Learning Workshop Keyboards MATT DAY Modern Musical Context WHAT Do I Do WITH My LEFT HAND Prepared for INTENSIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP Left and Right Hand Techniques How To MAKE EFFECTIVE USE OF BOTH HANDS One of the questions hear most from keyboard players is What do do with my left hand Good question The issue primarily in the band setting is interference with the bass and guitars This interference happens at 1 A harmonic level 2 Arhythmic level In this session we are going to look at a number of ways to make good use of both hands This will allow you to be as economical and effective with your notes rhythms and voicings as possible We will break the workshop down as follows Part 1 Constructing New Two Hand Chord Voicings Part2 Left Hand Comping With Right Hand Melodic Ideas Part 3 Keyboard Splitting Playing Two Separate Sounds Part 1 Constructing New Two Hand Chord Voicings Let s say you see a C chord on your chart You might play something like this If it was a G or F G perhaps something like this How efficient was that Of the five notes in the first example how many of them are roots C s What does that do to the weighting Does the low C get in a bass players way Even in the second example a lot of doubling or tripling of roots and still too low in the bass Are these voicings too thick Maybe no
4. d in the right hand over a one or two note voicing in the left is a chord fraction INTENSIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP Left and Right Hand Techniques Top 5 Chord Fractions There are many chord fractions available to you For our purposes will mention only five Learn them in all 12 keys and you will have 60 great chords that you can access quite readily Chord fractions also make it very easy to do runs fills and licks because you are only dealing with a triad j P ee DD Anr Jee eee oe Peo 1 The Maj7 Chord The major seventh chord is obtained by playing a minor triad built a third above the root note of the chord not the scale So to create an Fmaj7 play an F in your left hand and an Am triad in your right The Am is built on the third of the chord MATH Illm R root Maj7 chord Try playing the arpeggios this way INTENSIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP Left and Right Hand Techniques 2 The Min7 Chord The minor seventh chord is almost the same fraction as the Maj7 just reverse the rule Play a major triad a minor third above the root So to create a Gm7 chord play a G in your left hand and a Bb triad in your right Add the fifth the D bar 2 in your left hand and play the Bb triad in second inversion for a different sound MATH bIIl4 R Min7 chord 3 The Min 11 Chord The minor eleventh chord a more colourful option to the minor seventh chord is built simply by playing a minor triad
5. diness How are the created we touched on this earlier Lets try this progression Draw in barlines to create a 4 bar system First play this progression with root voicing s in your left hand Now take out the middle note from each chord and move it up one octave Play it Em Bm C D 7y He a s What do you notice What do you hear INTENSIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP Left and Right Hand Techniques Roll Them Up Rolling up the triad from bottom to top creates interest and movement We added the A or 2 too allow the pattern to flow a little easier In this example the B in the 2 measure makes it a little muddy and also makes the hand position awkward because of the leap Improve it 1 He a s Colour Them Up Bar 2 we added the 2 Bar 3 we sus it Bar 4 we did both o You can also add the Major 7 A A2 Asus4 A2 sus4 to the chord making it one handed voicing This is great for pop and jazz when doing fills o Use inversions for good voice leading and reducing muddiness Find where these chords sound the best F FMaj 3 inv 2 Inv 1 Inv zy _ 2_L_ L_ 2 oF Oe O9 EE a gt Je T O DON T FORGET TO LEARN THESE CONCEPTS IN ALL KEYS 12 INTENSIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP Left and Right Hand Techniques 13 What About Minor Voicings Minor chords in the left hand operate in the same fashion We saw this in the example on th
6. e previous page Open them up the same way you would a major triad Colour them up by adding the 2 and the 4 o Make them a 4 note minor seven chord Can you still see the chord fraction even though its all in one hand now INTENSIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP Left and Right Hand Techniques 14 Progressions With Left Hand Voicings Let s play a few progressions in with left hand voicings using all of the elements we have learned Open and closed voicings Rolling up the chord Colouring up the chord We will use a progression similar to the one Paul Baloche used in the song My Offering Use ideas such as pentatonic scales and motifs write in some ideas in the treble clef F2 C C 7sus4 Application Next time you are on worship team begin to play chords with all the options you have learned while doing sparse fills and motifs in the right hand INTENSIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP Left and Right Hand Techniques A Little Jazzier Example Based on Peace Piece by Bill Evans This simple repetitive left hand ostinato is a great way to develop your left hand voicings The key of C makes this a very enjoyable and accessible process This exercise is best used with an excellent YouTube video from Australian pianist Doug McKenzie If you do a You Tube search Doug Mackenzie Peace Piece you should find it What to Do 1 Learn the left hand until it is steady and starts feeling natural b OE
7. in your left hand and a major triad on the minor seventh note of the chord These are called stacked thirds Getting a Dm11 chord is easy its just a C triad over a D minor triad MATH bVIIA Im amp min 11 chord prefer an alternate route to get to this chord bar 2 Lets use 4ths to do this Just find the root note and stack 4ths up from there until you have 4 notes Then to make it a little richer just add a major third above the last 4 bar3 This would make Dmin11th look like this bar 3 LH DG RH CFA bar 3 INTENSIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP Left and Right Hand Techniques 4 The Min7b5 Chord The minor seven flat five or half diminished chord has a wonderful jazzy type of sound to it It is played in much the same manner as the Min 7 chord Play a minor triad a minor third above the root Lets try a tough Min7b5 chord to de mystify these chords F m 7b5 is created by playing an F in your left hand and an A minor triad in your right Notice how easy it is to play anA minor arpeggio instead of a full F m7b5 arpeggio The sound is not compromised because you have already played the root it is still an F m7b5 chord You can also play the root and flat 5 bar 2 in your left hand followed by an inverted Am chord in your right MATH billm amp R Min7b5 chord 5 The 11 Chord The eleven chord is built simply by playing the root in your left hand and a major triad a minor seventh above the root C11 would
8. l also help you hear the difference clearly in a stage setting Lets look at one example for each of the above combinations We will use basic rhythms in the left hand for the purpose of this study Feel free to thin out the chords more after you have played through the examples a few times Refer back to section in your workshop manual that discuss playing strings and fills etc INTENSIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP Left and Right Hand Techniques Keyboard Split Combinations What to Do in Each Hand Pad and Strings chord tones 19 INTENSIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP Left and Right Hand Techniques Pad and Nylon String Guitar this is ethereal sounding nice for intros endings and vamps t ann ee EE eet ee panaan a Ar e A a a a CS CN CS CC CC CO a Ve ee ee f ee i 20 INTENSIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP Left and Right Hand Techniques Acoustic Piano and Rhodes ostinato in left while playing simple intervals in right TTS s gt T b U 115 s gt J jr gt _ hae a ie 7 H Pag iou OMT aa OSTI T F ese Teea iea l e ee t Ee EEE OF o Think as part of the band what is your role in the moment o Create motifs o Leave space o Watch phrasing o Share ideas double lines with other players o Avoid clutter DON T FORGET TO LEARN THESE CONCEPTS IN ALL KEYS 21 INTENSIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP Left and Right Hand Techniques
9. ld a Maj9 chord CMaj9 INTENSIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP Left and Right Hand Techniques 17 Now Try it Root less As long as you have a bass player playing the roots you will be fine just playing the left hand voicings without a bass note This is called a Il V I progression Very common in jazz and pop and a lot of fun to solo over with a pentatonic scale Dm9 G13 CMaj9 Don t just stick to C Try it in Eb Keep practicing and add some interesting colour notes in the right hand Try Eb or Bb pentatonic and see what you get DON T FORGET TO LEARN THESE CONCEPTS IN ALL KEYS INTENSIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP Left and Right Hand Techniques 18 Part 3 Keyboard Splitting Brain Splitting Playing Two Separate Sounds So by now you should have learned that there are lots of things to do with your left hand other than playing the bass notes Another way to occupy both hands in an efficient manner is to split your keyboard You will have to figure out how your particular keyboard splits by checking with your user manual Or Google how to split a RD 700 or whatever your keyboard is You can also use two keyboards to achieve this We are going to use the same concepts we learned in the first two sections and apply it to a split keyboard Here are some split options LEFT HAND RIGHT HAND Lc pee fom pa Ren Sr Saar The key is to make sure the sounds are distinct enough to be noticed well This wil
10. o n a a EEE EEE Ee ij Hee A S S _ ra oe 2 Learn a few phrases from the video by ear 3 Using C pentatonic and G pentatonic make up some melodies using interesting skips and jumps in the melody Use the score on the following page for ideas C Pentatonic G Pentatonic What Have You Learned More confidence in the left hand New chords and voicings Cmaj7 and G9sus4 Some new ideas by ear Making melodies using pentatonic scales 15 INTENSIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP Left and Right Hand Techniques 16 A Little More Ok if we take the idea of chord fractions and consider that a 7 chord over a root will also yield some nice voicings a new sound appears Min9ths and 13ths Learn these rules To create a minor 9 chord just play a Maj7 chord a minor 3 above the root o 0 Dm9 will equal an Fmaj7 over D Dm9 To create a 13 chord the one that naturally follows a minor 9 you need only play a Maj7 on the 7 note of the chord So what s the seventh of G F Ok now play an F Maj7 Chord over G Sounds nice eh In fact you are playing a G13 Sus 4 G 13sus4 Simply DROP THE G13 FIFTH A HALF STEP and now you have full fledged G13 chord o Why do we call it a 13 Finally you are going to end up at some sort of C chord when this progression is over Lets make it a Cmaj9 Just play an Em7 over C In other words a Min7 chord played on the third will yie
11. rcises While the chords in the previous example are very pretty without the ability to play basic triads and intervals in the left hand the overall sound you are trying to achieve will be compromised In this section we will look at the basics of simple left hand accompaniment If Mozart saw the value in it then we must also The Mozart Example Independent and Supportive Left Hand In this familiar excerpt from Rondo alla Turca notice how simple the left hand is Notice also how independent YET supportive it is re S e Now trying playing this example using solid chords in the left hand only It s just and V7 The Rose An Example of Open Voice Triads In this illustration notice how both hands work to attain an open voice sound in the piece The middle note is taken out of the left hand triad Often taking out the melody note from the left hand gives the overall sound more clarity C G B F A G B C ee w sS M S o S S S b i ioi E fa AT l a ee Question When you are playing left hand chords on the piano or keyboard do you always need to play EVERY note in the chord How about just part of the chord Is it a cleaner sound INTENSIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP Left and Right Hand Techniques 10 A Hymn Pop Example In this example notice how the melody note is avoided in the left hand This allows the melody to stand out on its own while making sure the left hand harmony does not get too thick and cluttered C
12. t for solo playing but you are in a band and you must share the harmonic blanket INTENSIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP Left and Right Hand Techniques How Do You Fix It When a chord has too much of one tone in it an unbalanced sound is created It is like alliteration in speech or prose scientists say saying something simple seldom settles situations Too much of the s sound While you may want this for effect from time to time normally you will want to achieve a more balanced and pleasing sound Let s consider two hand voicings for a possible solution Refer to the example on the previous page when needed In Bar 1 above we have removed unnecessary notes to thin the sound We briefly looked at open voicings in the following sections To create an open voice triad you simply take the middle note out of the triad and move it up one octave or down With bigger chords this is called a drop 2 voicing taking the 2 note from the top of a four note chord and moving it down an octave very popular in jazz o Using an open voicing in a pad or string patch can create a very rich sound In Bar 2 we kept the E but avoided the temptation of throwing the C back in for comfort sake Instead we added a colour note D and doubled the fifth Because the fifth was not the root it feels ok to double it as it helps create interest and balance against the 2 In Bar 3 we have a four note chord bu
13. t still no doubling This is a nice Maj7 chord voicing and can be used to add some colour to the or the IV chord when the melody is not the root of that chord A root note sung against a major 7 creates a half step collision for the person singing in that range o Play example 3 while singing middle C In Bar 4 we simply added more colour the 2 to example 3 Now we have a Cmaj9 chord INTENSIVE LEARNING WORKSHOP Left and Right Hand Techniques Clarifying Questions Why do we call it a Maj9 major 9 chord and not a major 2 chord The major 7 interval is ALWAYS a step below the root of the chord How do you turn a triad into open position Lets do the same thing with the G or F G chord Again too much root in the first example and both examples probably go too low for band playing In the first bar we took out the low G and added the 2 below the B More of a cluster chord but it has a nice warm sound and is not too low In the second bar F G we just removed the bass note making room for the bass player Chord Fractions Polychords A fast way to obtain nice rich voicings is to use chord fractions We have talked about chord fractions on and off but lets look at some practical chord fractions that you can use in your playing right away First a chord fraction is just like a math fraction something over something equals something else So we could say a triad playe

Intensive Learning Workshop: Keyboards

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