Tired of only being able to learn simple songs? Whether you are learning from tutorials, lead-sheets, sheet music or by ear... the trick to levelling up & playing trickier, more satisfying songs is SIMPLER than you might think.
Today we’re going to talk about how to get yourself out of that rut of playing the same ol' boring songs and begin to play the super FUN songs you're bursting to play!
Perhaps you’ve been playing the piano for 1 year, 2 years or more and you feel like you can’t get past the certain level of difficulty with the songs you are able to play. You’re past the beginner stage in terms of time and technical knowledge, but you still don’t seem to be able to apply all that knowledge into playing the more satisfying songs that you desire to play!
If that’s you, and you’re stuck in this rut where you don’t seem to be able to make that next step then this is for you!
The thing you need to work on the most if you want to play more difficult songs: whether you are playing from sheet music, a lead sheet, chord chart, playing by ear, or even from a YouTube tutorial – is chord knowledge.
Now, I’m not talking about your basic major and minor triads. I’m talking about the trickier ones. If you’ve tried to learn more difficult chords before and they haven’t stuck, you found it difficult to memorise and recall them, or you simply aren’t sure what the purpose of those chords are then you need some new information!
If you’re just trying to learn new chords as you come across them while learning a piece, it’s too overwhelming! Especially if you come across more than one new chord in the same song - frustrating as hell! So because it’s difficult, we go back to songs of that simpler level and it’s boring.
We need to extend our knowledge of chords & harmony!
Chords is the name we give to the group of notes we play on the keyboard.
Harmony is the name we give to the relationship between chords.
You might have heard the word ‘harmony’ in reference to singing: melody and harmony: we use the same term to describe the functions of chords and how they affect the story of the song.
When we can look at each chord as a puzzle piece and understand how those chords work together to form the overall picture of the puzzle - then it becomes easier to remember the big picture rather than trying to remember each individual puzzle piece (chord).
We certainly don’t want to memorise every single chord starting from every single note on the keyboard - so when we understand how the chords fit together there’s a story there to help us recall songs easily!
If you think about it, no one really gets excited about reaching ‘Grade 4’ or ‘Grade 6’ because of the technical knowledge you’ll acquire, we just want to be able to play more impressive songs, right?
By studying chords and harmony you will be able to tackle songs that are more impressive much quicker.
You might be thinking - I know my major and minor chords, I know my major 7ths and minor 7ths (or maybe you don’t know those yet) but there are many more interesting chords to sink your teeth into!So how do you begin this journey to find out more about the chords and their relationships to each other? Come to my coaching session ‘We Love Chords!’!
Being a creative pianist requires a solid knowledge of different types of chords, what they're used for, and how to play them anywhere on the keyboard! Come to this coaching and learn about chord types & their purposes in a way that doesn’t bore your socks off!
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