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Rayblewit

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Hi Pomster,
In your case just learning, I would just start with the Majors C, F and G.
Practice these and also figure out the inversions. Some inversions are easier to play IMO.
Follow up with A, B, D and E of course!

Also look at and learn 7th's such as C7, G7, D7 and F7. These are very common.
Also look at minors Am, Dm, Em, Fm, Gm. These ones are also common.

That lot will keep you going for quite a long time. As you stumble accross a weird chord being part of a song which you like to play, it will be easy to learn it having all of the above under your belt.

You will notice too that some weird chords are actually the same or similar to to ones you know for example G6 can be substituted for Em.

Anyway that is my experience in learning chords. I play a lot of inversions because they can quickly change from one to another without your hand moving from one end of the octave to the other. for example, switching from F to Dm can be done by moving just one finger.

Note: I am only talking about Left Hand chords being used as accompiament.
My methods described above are my personal opinion and not necessarily orthodox.

cheers
Ray
 
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Hi Pomster,
In your case just learning, I would just start with the Majors C, F and G.
Practice these and also figure out the inversions. Some inversions are easier to play IMO.
Follow up with A, B, D and E of course!

Also look at and learn 7th's such as C7, G7, D7 and F7. These are very common.
Also look at minors Am, Dm, Em, Fm, Gm. These ones are also common.

That lot will keep you going for quite a long time. As you stumble accross a weird chord being part of a song which you like to play, it will be easy to learn it having all of the above under your belt.

You will notice too that some weird chords are actually the same or similar to to ones you know for example G6 can be substituted for Em.

Anyway that is my experience in learning chords. I play a lot of inversions because they can quickly change from one to another without your hand moving from one end of the octave to the other. for example, switching from F to Dm can be done by moving just one finger.

Note: I am only talking about Left Hand chords being used as accompiament.
My methods described above are my personal opinion and not necessarily orthodox.

cheers
Ray


There's a lot more to this malarky then meets the eye. Probably like most peeps, the more i learn the more i want to know .... Should of done this years ago!
 

Fred Coulter

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Depends on how you define chords. Under one definition, there are twelve major chords, one for each note. But if you include inversions, there are thirty six. And that's assuming you only play the three notes in the chord in close position. If you open them up, the number of chords increases dramatically.

A root position C major chord is played C, E, G, with the C on the bottom. First inversion is played E, G, C, with the E on the bottom. Second inversion is played G, C, E, with the G on the bottom. They are all major chords.

Close position chords in the bass part of the keyboard can sound very muddy. So it's common to open them up, with a C major chord in root position possibly being played C, G, E. Obviously there are other possibilities.

Also, there's not rule that you only play each note once. In traditional choral music, there are four parts. If you have them sing a major chord, one of the notes must be repeated.

So before talking about the number of chords you use, you really have to define what you mean by a numbered chord.
 

SeaGtGruff

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The average pop musician needs to know only three chords-- I, IV, and V. ;)
 
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With single-finger mode, we can play major, minor, dominant 7th and minor 7th on keyboards..That'd be enough for thousands of songs.
What do you guys recommend about using single-finger chord mode? So far in my training I always played the full triads. Not sure if there's a "right time"to get lazier and use single -finger chord mode in the accompaniment...thought? Advice?
 

Fred Coulter

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With single-finger mode, we can play major, minor, dominant 7th and minor 7th on keyboards

Really? I thought single finger would only do major (or minor, if it knows what key your in). How can you have a single finger know when it's time to do dominant 7th, etc.?

As for when it's the "right time?" I'd say never. If you're not performing one man band type setups, you probably shouldn't be using an arranger's auto-accompaniment. (One man bands are allowed to have a singer and/or a melodic instrument and still be a one man band.)

But then again, I'm from the classical and progressive rock side of the spectrum, so I may be a bit biased.
 
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Really? I thought single finger would only do major (or minor, if it knows what key your in). How can you have a single finger know when it's time to do dominant 7th, etc.?
Thanks Fred. I also want to learn more piano than playing one man band, guess I'll have to avoid single-finger mode as much as I can.

I learnt this from the psr website you shared on another post, what a great website. In yamaha "single finger mode", dominant 7 can be done with the root note +the white key left to it. Minor 7 would be root+white+black key left to it. ( I guess it's no longer "single finger" anymore :), more like shortcut mode.lol)
 

Fred Coulter

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I learnt this from the psr website you shared on another post, what a great website. In yamaha "single finger mode", dominant 7 can be done with the root note +the white key left to it. Minor 7 would be root+white+black key left to it. ( I guess it's no longer "single finger" anymore :), more like shortcut mode.lol)

I agree. I knew you could get more interesting chords with two notes, but one seemed optimistic. Good name for marketing purposes, but not for a description of reality.

Stick to learning your left hand.

(And for a real challenge, learn to play organ. One that matches AGO specs. Your feet can do more than just step on the sustain pedal.)
 
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I agree. I knew you could get more interesting chords with two notes, but one seemed optimistic. Good name for marketing purposes, but not for a description of reality.

Stick to learning your left hand.

(And for a real challenge, learn to play organ. One that matches AGO specs. Your feet can do more than just step on the sustain pedal.)

Hmm .... Are you saying you only play chords with your left hand?
And play the melody with your right hand?
 

Fred Coulter

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Are you saying you only play chords with your left hand?
And play the melody with your right hand?

Thinking about how I play, it really matters what I'm playing.

When I was playing out, I would generally play chords in my right hand, and bass lines in my left hand. (My piano teacher describes this as "keyboard style".) The melody was handled by the singer. If I was soloing, it tended to be more pianistic type solos rather than synth type solos, although I did both.

When I'm playing piano, I'm playing what's written. And that can go all over the place.

As for organ, here's an example of what you're supposed to play with your feet at the lowest level of organ playing (level 7; RCM Organ Syllabus). A quarter note = 58. C major (illustrated), G major, D major, A major, Ab major,

upload_2017-7-12_13-19-11.png


And at the same tempo for in minor keys, in C minor (illustrated), G minor, D minor, A minor, and G# minor. (Don't ask why the major is Ab while the minor is G#.)

upload_2017-7-12_13-22-8.png


Number three is in the melodic minors of C minor (illustrated), G minor, D minor, A minor, and G sharp minor.
upload_2017-7-12_13-22-58.png


And that's just scales with your feet. By level 10, you're playing solos with your feet:
upload_2017-7-12_13-25-21.png


No, I don't know how to play organ.

Yet.

(My daughter's learning while in college. Her goal after college is to eat regularly.)
 

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Fred Coulter

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Oh, here's an example of playing keyboard style popular music. (Time signature is 7 4, which should be a bit of a hint about the song.) This is what's played during the verses.
upload_2017-7-12_13-31-9.png


One thing interesting is that that I never thought of the first half of each measure as Bm7. I always just thought of it as D major against the bass line. Different perspectives...

(Good luck finding an arranger pattern for 7 4.)
 

Rayblewit

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What do you guys recommend about using single-finger chord mode?
I think this single finger method is a bad habit to start with. We have five fingers and we should use them. It makes playing music much more rewarding when switching chords during a tune using 3 fingers and sometimes 4. It has been a long road learning but the benefit of knowing where the chords are on the keyboard is so satifying. To read music and play the chords without looking at the keyboard gives one immense self esteem and pleasure. Single key playing would be unrewarding. I would encourage any beginner to learn to play proper chords.
Anyway, how do you play F#m7 chord with single finger? How common is this chord eh?
Chord Blimey!
 

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