This video is for songwriters who play instruments other than the piano - I’m assuming that means guitar in most cases - but who can pick out basic notes and chords and like to add a little bit of keyboard when you’re recording to thicken up your mixes. Just a few tips on how to add depth and richness to your chords.
By the way, you might get your head around it better if you watch in full-screen mode - click the full-screen icon at the bottom right of the video frame.
If you’re a music theorist you need to get to grips with the lazy, jazzer’s way I have of describing chords: ‘G’ means ‘G major’; and in most cases when I’m talking about ‘the basic chord’ I mean the tonic triad - so, in the case of the chord of G, that’s the notes G, B and D from bottom to top.
Also, when I talk about sevenths I’m considering them in their bluesy context rather than in the context of chord resolution. If you’re in the key of G major, a G7 or C7 chord will have a bluesy sound; a D7, however, will sound ‘clean’ and give the strong impression it’s trying to resolve on to the G. You can hear the effect I’m talking about in the short sequence of twelve-bar blues that I play. There’s more information on chord resolution here.
Here are all the notes to those chords, in G major:
G - G, B, D
G6 - G, B, D, E
G7 - G, B, D, F
Gmaj7 - G, B, Dm, F#
Gsus4 - G, B, C, D (it sounds better if you miss out the third - i.e., the middle note of the triad, B in this case. I left it in when I played it in the video to save confusion, but the whole thing sounds a lot less crunchy with it missed out).
G9 - G, B, D, F#, A - that’s the jazzy sound. The ‘warm’ sound misses out the F#: G, A, B, D. That usually sounds better with the A, B and D played in the right hand and the G in the bass, an octave or so lower.
The minors you can have fun working out for yourself. There’ll be more on piano chords and songwriting soon!
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Ah yes, “elegant simplicity” - very much how I’d describe my piano playing (i.e. I’m rubbish…).
I tried having lessons, but 20 years of hammering out tunes in my own sweet way on my Mum’s piano didn’t stand me in very good stead for learning how to do it ‘properly’ - so I gave up and just carried on hammering.
I’d be interested in seeing a post on the relative merits of different keyboards for the “non-pianist pianist” - can’t decide what to get at the moment. I don’t want to spend much, but really want a decent amount of keys, preferably weighted ones, and that will make a noise without being hooked up to the computer - but of course will output to the likes of Garageband when necessary. Any thoughts?
I’ll echo each of Phil’s comments and requests as above Bill. I’m also sh*te at the piano - for the same reasons!….. It was even the same piano!!
I’ll be reading your recording posts later on.
Top work!
Matt
Cheers chaps!
Phil, you might well find that a DGX-630 like mine does the job. It’s got weighted keys, a very natural touch and you can line out to whatever software you want and/or export MIDI to a USB drive.
The only slight downer is that it’s purely USB output with its own onboard soundcard - there are no MIDI outputs. This was initially a bit of a problem for me because the only drivers that come in the box are for Windows. However, Mac drivers do exist and I can point you in the right direction to find them.
Big advantage is that it’s cheap and it comes with its own, relatively tasteful, stand in the box (I’ve got a separate X-stand for gigging.) They usually come in around £550-600. For one of my next posts I’ll do a little video tour of it.
P.S. I notice some madwoman already done just that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ul3vNLUBVI
I *won’t* be using the cheesy built-in voices, effects and accompaniments (ewww) but I’ll show you how it works with Garageband.
Just so we’re on the same page of the bank statement, when I say “I don’t want to spend much” I mean “I’m skint and can only stretch to about £100″. Does that completely eliminate all my options straightaway? I guess it probably does…
In that case your best bet might be to get yourself on eBay and have a look around for one of the old-style Clavinovas - the early CLP and CVP ranges that were made with steel, thick plastic and MDF, rather than the fancy wood cased ones you get these days.
If you find one it’ll be old, and the touch and sound won’t be quite as good as a newer model, but you’ll be able to MIDI it easily through an equally cheap soundcard.
A Clav that’s about a decade old should still be in good nick, even if it’s taken a few knocks: the casing seems to have been designed by an escapee from the Bismarck and Graf Spee programme who couldn’t quite leave battleships behind.
So they weigh a ton, but they can take all kinds of punishment. Mine (which I sold just a year ago, for £50) fell out of the back of my car on two separate occasions and continued to play just as well as ever. The friends I sold it to have emigrated and have containered it out to New Zealand, and apparently it’s still playing just fine.
If you do find one, you might have to do a bit of woodwork and build your own stand, because the originals last nowhere near as well as the keyboards themselves. An X-stand won’t do the job, as the keyboard will be too heavy.
If you find one you’re interested in and have any questions, give us a shout.