That’s a really good idea for an exercise - it would help chord knowledge and music theory 👍

@@BillHilton Thanks for reply. If simple songs that don't go out the key it is fun as well. Chords get learned really fast. My problem is rhythm I just can't seem to get how to do that. How to play chords in fluid ways. I only seem to be able to play them as block chords. But it is still fun to play melodies against them. For seventh chords I looked up a few very simple, short but well known jazz numbers. Playing them in all keys gets the 7th chords hammered into memory. I used hymns for the triads as very simple singable tunes. For the 7ths I used following songs Every time we say goodbye Autumn leaves (Great for diminished chords) All the things you are (2-5-1s all way through) Smile Gives you all 7th chords and nice to sing as well. I never needed to add any other songs. These were enough to memorize all chords and all their inversions. And it was so much fun. But it is an exercise to learn chords. I did not learn any of the songs I used for this. In fact I found it counter productive to learn the songs when doing this. I treated the songs simple as tools to learn the chords. I still do it now to keep them all fresh. 9ths power chords etc etc.

What I found interesting is you start to recognize chords that are close to each other. ie Same notes used etc. You also get a feel for what chords work together. I also transcribed the hymns from church recordings online. Then I just find my own triads that fitted my melody transcriptions. I never once looked up any melodies or chords for any of the hymn songs. I still do this, it is helping me recognize intervals with respect to the tonic note. Plus it is great ear training. I am getting faster at transcribing, I can find notes in seconds now as opposed to minutes when I started. I am not into hymns as music but I'm finding them a great learning tool. Interesting discovery (and this just might be particular to me only) is that I can recognize quickly sequences of notes within a song I am transcribing but find it hard to pick out two notes out of context (ie two random notes played on piano) This indicates to me that interval training is not going to help me as much as transcribing songs is. So for me, I think interval training is a waste of time.

Recognising chords that are close to each other is the heart of the matter for me - everything is about context. Interesting that you mention transcribing: it's incredibly powerful, and I might make a tutorial on it soon. Trying to transcribe chords in particular, though it isn't easy to start with, I've always found very good for my ear.

@@BillHilton Thanks for replying to my waffle! Ok I can not resist. Here is more waffle! ;-) I love this stuff it is so fascinating. For complex songs I don't transcribe the chords just the melodies. Only add my own chords for simple songs like nursery rhymes and hymns etc (As a lot of my chords often end up way different than the chords actually tabulated). Hymns are the best. But for the handful of songs I am using for learning my 7th chords, I look up the chords as its quicker. Because I am only using those selected songs (those using complex chords) to memorize them and their inversions. Although you end up learning tons of other stuff in the act of doing that, which is never intended. But it is great when that happens. And it happens a lot. But I still transcribe the melodies as I can do that with less errors than copying them down. (I have found that many melodies in fake books and online are just wrong??? Hence transcribing your own melodies saves time. But I only transcribe with scale degree numbers. For example the diatonic scale is 1-2-3.4-5-6-7.1 and for chords they go like so [1M7] [2-7] [3-7] [4M7] [5D7] [6-7] [7.b5-7] this way I only need to transcribe the song once in my own number notation, by using scale degree numbers only for both the melody notes and the chords. Unlike the melody note numbers, I place the chord numbers inside circles, not brackets as shown above. That way you don't mix up chord numbers with melody numbers when reading the notation whilst playing. (ok you always get the odd note or two from outside the scale but that don't matter as you just add in flats b or sharps #) I discovered this notation trick myself. But I am sure many people have found this out as well, after doing a lot of transcribing. Saves time and gives you far more insight into how music is put together. It means you learn how to associate scale degree numbers with the scale of the song each time you play it in the 12 scales. Plus it allows you to see very clearly the intervalic relationships between different songs. In fact you can't help but notice that. So your learning that detail without even trying to learn it. Also you only have to write this type of diatonic song notation down once only, as it applies to all keys. For flats and sharps (in Key of C for example) would be Cb = 1b E#=3# for an octave higher I place a plus sign in front +1b for the octave lower I use a dot .1b Just doing these things has catapulted my ability to play by ear. Not yet with piano though, but with my low whistle I can now play songs by ear without looking anything up at all. This is very recent, it only started to happen in last few weeks. Very exciting. Although I still sound terrible on the whistle! But I can now find the notes almost instinctively, which is what I have always wanted to do. Play by ear!!! Transcribing tons of songs with the piano has done this. Paradoxically although I have now transcribed hundreds of songs, (mostly hymns) I've never memorized any of them. So I can only play a song (as long as it stays in key of D, the whistle key) very slowly by ear with the whistle! But this still makes me very happy ;-) Because I now know, that it will improve over time. I can do it with piano a little, but only if I play in the key of D. But with whistle it is almost same as using my voice box when singing.

Thanks for the kind words, E.C., and for buying the books - I very much appreciate both! The question of chord memorization is a tricky one, and this tutorial in part stems from an argument I've been having with myself for some time: is it better to learn these things organically (as I've suggested here) or in a regimented way? I have nothing particular against either style, and both have served me well from time to time (I wouldn't have passed many exams without memorizing stuff...) Left hand leading is a subject I've been toying with for a while, and it may get a dedicated tutorial soon - watch this space...!

You have fully explained in short the chords in one tutorial but I missed what you taught twds the end. I hope to come across it again. Thank you

Hi Peter, I'm in the same boat. I started using Muse Score which is a free music writing software which you can download and install fairly easily. I just "type" all my ideas into Muse Score using either a keyboard or a digital piano. I didn't have a digital piano when I first started, I just clicked them in with a mouse and to tell the truth sometimes it's just easier that way. You can add text blocks to explain what you are trying to teach and also transpose and copy and paste phrases very easily, post online and also make pdfs to send by email. Here is an example of some sketches I did. Not very difficult really: musescore.com/user/8699541/scores/7917422 Have a go at it. Music has gotten so complicated, if you have found a way to simplify it, you'd be surprised how grateful younger generations can be. I myself would be grateful. Cheers, Jack

I know yours is an old post but the Website Pictory can create a video from text pretty easily.

You're welcome! Yes, I think singing is colossally important on the piano - one of the problems of the instrument is that it's kind of "fire and forget": you hit the key and the piano makes the sound, which is very different from other instruments, where you have to focus on (e.g.) the sound quality and tuning of the note. As a result, it's really easy to just stop listening to the sound you're making when you play the piano, which can result in uneven chords, bad phrasing and all sorts of other problems. A big of singing really helps us keep connected to the underlying music!

You're really welcome! If you need pointing in the direction of specific tutorials, or you have questions or requests (more tutorials on chords/harmony for example) just let me know - it's the subscriber feedback that keeps the channel going!

That’s good to hear - give me a yell if you run into any questions you need answering!

You’re welcome - glad you found it useful!

Glad you like it, Stephen. Yes, I did think about the different colours/different chords thing, but it seemed like it might clog up the video a bit (KZfaq is all about straight-to-the-point these days 🤣) and I guessed people would probably work it out for themselves, just like you have!

I like your different color idea!

Thanks very much!

Glad it was helpful - shout if you wind up with any more questions!

I already have quite a few! You might like this one - kzfaq.info/get/bejne/h7V9m5eEsa6Rpo0.html - I’ll perhaps make some more, soon, and maybe also do a playlist of my current piano left hand tutorials :)

Further to that previous comment, here's a quick playlist I've put together of left-hand tutorials: kzfaq.info/sun/PLpOuhygfD7Qlnu-c8mgi5y2sZRtqeRgcC

I can help you there! This tutorial has all the basic chords: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eZeZYMZ33Z3Dj4E.html -- let me know if there's anything else I can help with!

Thanks Sven - that’s really good to hear, and I appreciate you buying the books. Give me a shout if you run into any problems or have any questions!

You're welcome - glad it helped!

Thank you - glad you liked it!

Good point, Ameelia - I forgot about Chordify! I still love my songbooks though 😍

Thanks Don! I do try to keep a lid on my interjective adverbs 😂

I could not agree more, Bill - clearly I use a lot of digital gear, but I remain a big fan of paper (and pens and pencils). For a lot of jobs it’s still the best technology!

@@BillHilton thanks for your channel, by the way. I'm not a pianist, but I've always loved music theory, and I've been able to apply your lessons elsewhere.

You’re welcome Lynn - glad you liked it!

Thank you - it's pretty much based on the one I used when I was learning chords as a kid, so I guess I know it's worked at least once!

Glad it helped!

Glad you like it, and thanks very much indeed!

You’re welcome!

Thanks Katarzyna!

You're welcome! OK, first question first: I'm not sure you're missing anything, but there could be a few factors at work. First, never discount the possibility that the chords you've downloaded are wrong - like I say in the tutorial, one of the problems with finding chord progressions online is that they can be full of errors. Second, your ears might not be "wrong" as such, but they might in a sense be misinterpreting the progression of a piece of music, especially if the chord voicing (or even the production) leaves you with a chord that sounds slightly odd. For example, a tonic chord that is heavy on V notes (say, a C chord with lots of Gs) especially in the bass, can sound surprisingly dominant-ish. So it's a bit tricky to give you an absolute solution, except to say (a) always be a wee bit sceptical about chord progressions you've found online, and ideally check them across several different sources (b) trust your ears first, but remember they're not infallible. In terms of the left hand, a good rule is "if in doubt, play the root" - so C for a C chord, F for an F chord and so on. That said, you'll find that time invested in learning about voicings and inversions is very handy. The next (or possibly next-but-one...) tutorial I've got coming out might be quite useful in that regard. Does any of that help?

thanks greatly Bill. Watching out for the next tutorial.

@@BillHilton Thank you

That's really good to hear - I've just looked up the chords and it has some really good ones to learn in an interesting minor key progression: a good one to play around with on the piano, that's for sure. Good luck with it!

Glad to have you here!

Wilco :D

Thanks Louis! You're right - Ultimate Guitar is actually pretty reliable in terms of accuracy, as are one or two others, and I do use them myself when I want to do a quick check on chord progressions. I still find the chords-over-lyrics layout potentially problematic, though. It's fine for most contemporary songs, but can fall down when you have multiple chord changes in a bar or over a single lyric

Good point - I use them a lot for work and find they stick best to other bits of paper. There’s nothing worse than when they lose their stick and start fluttering around 😂 Glad you like the song, though!

@@BillHilton Yeah I often stick them to cardboard boxes containing pieces of equipment to allocate to specific people, at work. I have to assist them in sticking with a piece of Sellotape or they do that fluttering thing you mentioned! They do stick to each other fairly well too...

Glad you like it, Jorge - thanks!

That's definitely Am at 4:29, not Am/C, because there's an A in the bass. Then it's C-E-A ascending in the right hand. If you mean why didn't I play the r.h. Am chord in root position (i.e., A-C-E ascending) it's because I want more natural right hand voice leading in the A -> C -> F part of the progression. If I jumped too much it would sound uneven. There's some stuff on chord voicing in my latest tutorial, if you find it useful: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pqiRlLF0qMzaook.html

@@BillHilton that's definitely Am/C or Am (inv1) because that is how that first inversion is marked properly when you move chords first note octave up. Beginners may not use left hand at all so when practicing with rh only proper markings should be used, even if professional players just play with inversion in this kind of case.

@@SaundiHemmo Well, I obviously I’ve been using the wrong notation for the past 35 years, as indeed have all the musicians I know and all the people who taught me. Thanks for updating our knowledge there!

@@BillHilton I think only that basic chord in this, because with left hand or bass it is up to you what note you want to emphasize and in this case it is A. If you play only with right hand Am/C, what would you play? C-E-A. If you add bass, what would you play with it? A, because it is the root note for that chord. So if you play A with left and C-E-A on right, it is Am/C chordwise because left hand only emphasize A. "Bass" in chord is kot necessarily what you play with left hand, but what is lowest note on right hand. That is what I mean , the chord itself is played inverted and properly marked as Am/C where C shows lowest note in chord so A is played upper. Am/E is second inversion where E is lowest note in Am chord (tritone!), A and C played octave higher. This marking will be important when you write notes to tracker-style music program. If chord is Am, I would write A-C-E that sounds odd when C-E-A(upper) is needed to make software play it correctly.

Glad to hear it Blaze - thanks for saying so. I guess on the guitar there’s also that extra dimension of some chords being relatively easy to play and some being really quite difficult, especially barre chords high up the fretboard, plus questions of tuning, intonation and all the rest. Us pianists at least have it pretty easy in that respect - we just have to find the right notes to press!

I wish I could, Anthony - but you’ll need to talk to KZfaq about that one!