Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hi, this is part seven out
of ten of the course series, the Ultimate Piano
Keyboard Course from total beginner to Advanced. My name is Martin Cohen. I'm a piano teacher, a jazz musician,
and I'm a composer. Now if you are a
beginning piano player and you want to learn
to play the piano, then I would advise you to go to part one of this course series. In the description
of this very course, you will find a
link to part one. If you're not a beginner, you're a little bit more advanced, you could eventually start in
another part than part one. In that case, you can also go to the description
of this course. You will see the description
of all the courses, of all the ten parts
of this course series. You can decide in which
course you want to start. What are you going to learn in this particular course
of the course series? Now, this particular course
goes about special courts. We're starting with the
major seventh court. Later we will add nodes to tries to get the add to the add four courts
and also other courts. I will teach you shorts, I will teach you courts. Finally, I will teach you how to add notes to seventh courts. For example, ninth, 11th, 13th. To make the courts sound more interesting than just the
normal everyday courts, I would like to thank you very much for your interest
in my course. I hope to see you in the
inside of this course or in any of the other courses
of this course series.
2. Major 7th chords: In this lecture, I want to talk about major seventh chords. Now, major seventh chords to begin with, I said it before, they are not often seen in popular music or
in rock and blues. They're seen a lot in jazz. But yeah, if you want
to continue in music, that's not only if you
want to play jazz, but if you want to
continue in music, it's good to know what they
are and how to play them. Major seventh, they are actually major seventh courts based on a major triad but also
based on a minor triad. I will in this lecture only
look at major seventh court. Major triad on minor triad, they're even less
frequently used. Major triads again in
yes, you see them. Major seventh, I will start
as usual with C T. Well, it's very simple, you not
as in the dominant seventh. Minor seventh, but
you add major seven, which is the seventh note
in the scale 1234567. Actually, that's all.
This is a major seventh. Now perhaps it sounds a
little bit exotic to you. That's mainly because
you don't hear them very often
in popular music. Of course, you can
play inversions. This is a root
position, by the way. First inversion,
second inversion, third inversion, and then
I'm back in root position. I will show some other
major seventh chords. Major seventh. Look at the
seventh note in the scale. 1234567, Major try with
the seven major seventh. This is major seventh, of course all the inversions, but you can find
it out yourself. Another way to quickly
find the major seventh, it's just a half
tone below the root. Let me take another
one, major seventh. If you have the major T, go to the an octave up
and a half tone lower. And that's the major seventh. It's also of course, the
seventh note in the scale, but you can find it by just lowering the root
by a half tone. Major seventh. Okay, that's it about
major seventh chords. As I said, there are also
minor major seventh chords. Very simply said, it's a minor. Try it with a major seventh. Now listen how
exotic this sounds. Perhaps you don't like it mainly because you're not
used to the sound. Again, in jazz they're used. But I almost dare to say
that never in popular music. Okay, I will not talk again about the major seventh chord. It's based on a minor triad. This is a minor third, major seventh, because
this is a major seventh. That's all I want
to say about it. Concerning all the other
major seventh chords, you can find them yourself of. But you can find all the
major seventh courts in the resources of this lecture
with all the inversions. To find the resources that
go with this lecture, just go to the projects and resources step
in this course. You find here a
download link where you can simply download
the resources.
3. Adding notes to major chords (add2, add4, ...): Okay, in this about
other courts. About more special courts than the courts that
you're used to. As you know, in the
last lecture we did the major seventh court, which is not that special. Okay. It was a court that
we haven't seen yet. It therefore, that I
put it in this section, what we're going to do now is
looking at adding to court. I will first do that
major major tris, you can also add to to seven courts, but
we do that later. For now, just try it
and we're going to add notes to the triads
in this major triads. In the next lecture, I
will do the minor triads. For simplicity reasons, I
start with major triad. Now, what notes can add? I will mainly look
at from the scale. I will only look at
notes from the scale. Now, I will not add the seventh because that becomes
a seventh chord. We did that already. What other than the seventh, can I add? Well, when we look at the scale, here's here's one here's one. As you know, the court itself
is not 13.5 of the scale. We could add note
246 again seven, because then it becomes
a seventh court. This is not about
seven court in major, that would be the D or the. Now, let's start with the D. The second we can add just two normal C major tie the second. I then get this court, now we call this court two. You can see here above
the virtual piano, not two, perhaps you think
it sounds a bit dissonant. Okay? Could be, note that
dissonance is not a bad thing. Dissonance can be beautiful
if it's applied correctly. Two, you can do
other inversions. Of course you could do this. Well, those are other
inversions of the C A two. Now you could ask, why
don't I put the D up here? It's also a possibility. I will talk about that possibility
later in this section. That's two. Now I said you can
add the second, but you can also add the fourth
note in the scale of 1234 major is the fourth in my major. Add the fourth, I get this. We call this, do you see it
above the virtual piano? Of course. Also here you
can make inversions. You can find it out yourself. You can either with a
two and with the four, resolve the courts to
its normal major court. What I mean is this tension, it has a bit of
tension in the court, adds to, but when you
resolve it to this court, to the normal major court, then it's a release. Music Is very much about
tension and release. You build up some
tension and release it, that can be very, very nice. Then you hear it a little bit of tension and
then the release. Same thing for the four. Very often, to make
it more pronounced, this tension release, you
could in the case of two, in the first case
not even play the E. Then you have tension release or with the four
tension release. Okay, so you can
use it for that. The six, we can add the six also or in major six
is of course 123456. So I could add to
the normal major. I get this co, Okay. Now perhaps you say to yourself, but this is an A minor minor
seventh, first inversion. The root position, root
third, fifth, minus seven. And when I take the lowest
note one Oct have this court, the minus seven court in first inversion is exactly
the same thing as a six. By the way, we don't say at six, we just say six. That's just the convention. And you see it above the
virtual piano at six. But just six? Yeah, it
could be a confusion. Is this an a minor seventh
court or is this a six court? Well, I would say when
you play A in the bass, then it's a minor seventh. When you play a C in the base, we then it's a six court. Simple as that. Okay. Now we've seen in major how this works. I will quickly go over
some other tonalities so that you can see how this adding two chords
also goes in other keys. For example, this
is the major chord. Well the second node in the
major scale is of course, the node A add two port. Again, you can make the tension, release tension in the two, well, the inversions, you
can find that out yourself. A four. What's the fourth
note in the major scale? 1234. That's, this
would be a four. Also here you can make
this tension release. 66 note in the scale
of major is 123456. That's here you have six again, this looks as an minus seven T. It's the same
thing as with the -7.6 when an E in the base. Yeah. Then it's an E minor seven squared when you
play in the base. Yeah. Then it's a
six squared. Okay? Okay, another example. For example, D. This is D major. With the
second of the D major scale, we have D at two, tension release with the G, which is the fourth note in
the scale of D major 1234, we can make D at four, tension release D at four. Of course, you can
also add the sixth, well the sixth note in the
scale of major 123456. It's B. This is six, I watch out. Not a six, but just six. Looks like a B minor
seven scored. Yeah. When I put the B in the base then it's a
B minus seven squared. But when I put the
D in the base, then it's a six scored. Okay. One last example,
the major major. Try it. The second
in major is sharp. This would be at two
tension release. The fourth note in the
scale of major 1234 is a. We can make a four
tension release. Works a bit nicer when
I put in the tension, not the third also because
they're very close to each other like I did
in all the other. Okay, that's a 46123456. That's with the C
sharp. This is six. Now, how can you use
those extra nodes in Ts? For example, if you have a Port chord progression as follows, you play, for example, who measure of four beats, a whole measure of four beats, the whole measure four beats, a whole measure of four beats. Well if you would
play just 1234234. 234 to 34. Imagine I would play
that while accompanying a singer or play in
a band or whatever. Yeah, it's a bit boring. Eh, four beats of just
discord lying there. Well, that's where your
extra notes come in. You could for example,
in the secord play a little bit with this. For example, with add two in the base will just
play the bass notes. I can double the, play
them just single, but let me double them for now. I play a little bit with
this second and then in, for example, this A, that's the second. Alright, That's a
ad two that I get. Then in the D, what could I
do? This is the normal D. Try it in second inversion, that's a fourth back
to my normal D. A two back to my normal D. Then in the A, I could do this, for example. What did I do? See what I do here. I have both the second and
fourth at the same time. Come back to the normal
fifth, but okay. And then I take the six, which is the F sharp, and come
back to my normal A chord. I could make my
whole progression, for example, like this. You play a little
bit with a 246. Now of course, I
exaggerated a little bit. Don't overdo it here. I did a little bit too much. Perhaps you have to when you're playing
with other musicians, listen to the other musicians
what they're doing. And don't be too
much in their way. If there's someone
singing and you're very busy adding all kinds of stuff, yeah, you're in the
way of the singer also for other instruments. Let your ear be the guide of what extranos you add
and how many you add. Okay, that's it for now. See you in the next lecture.
4. Adding notes to minor chords: Now the notes that we added in the former lecture,
second, the fourth, and sixth, we can only
add them to major chords, we can also add them
to minor triads. In this case, for example, I will start with C. Again. The minor triad, as
you know is this one. And the second is, of course, still the D. This would be minor add two. Here you see the
notation in a two. Of course, if you can
have a minor two, you can also have a minor at 44. As you know is the 46 is a little bit another
story because as you know, the minor scale, the C natural
minor scale is 1234566, note is now a flat. But you can add the
six minor court. This is a, this is also a possibility when
you're playing, let me say first minor court, then a minor court just quickly, a second minor at two. I can for example, in the minor sixth, but would I, the major
sixth in the scale? Or rather the six? Well, let's come
back from the scale. Let's say we're in
the scale of minor I. Do we see that? This one sounds a
little bit dissonant. Now, everything depends
on the context. Of course you can play it, but I think that when
you're in the scale of minor in scheme in there's flat, this
sounds much better. Again, this is as what I've
said in the former lecture. Let your ear be your guide. Anyway, you can also add the
second fourth and the six, be it to the major six or
minor six minor chords.
5. Slash chords: In this lecture, I will
talk about slash chords. What are slash chords? Let me first start
by just showing you a chord progression in second in version and a minor. You see that in the base I play, which goes with the major chord. Which goes with the major, and that goes with the minor. Now, it sounds much nicer
when you do it like this. Look at the base. The left hand I have exactly the
same and a minor. The only thing is
that when I play the, I don't have the
root in the base, as a base node in my left hand. But the third of the chord, in that case, I have a descending base line
from C to B to A. And that creates a
very nice effect. I want to look at this,
this is a major, major. Try it in the base, you can notate that
as a slash chord. You can see here above the virtual piano
that I write it as. It means that I play a
try with a B in the base. The letter A is the base, the letter before the ching
that is a slash court. Now perhaps you remember
that we used before a court. I didn't mention that at the time that it
was a slash court, but that was when
we were playing Hey jute in the lecture
How to Accompany a singer. The lecture is called How to
Accompany a Singer. He jute. That's in section
three about courts. If you don't remember,
you can go back to that lectures at about 6
minutes into the lecture. In the chorus, play the chords B flat minor and then minor. Now I played it just with
the base nodes B flat. And what I actually play, you see flat play broken. Then play the minor, that's the one where I
don't play in the base, but in this case the fifth of the chord with A in the base. This one can it as a T, A minor over an A. You see it above the
virtual piano denotation. You can do it on major courts, you can do it on minor, on Tris, you can even do it
on seventh chords. I will show you later anyway, you've seen it
before in the haul, you see it very
often where you have descending baseline or
an ascending base line. That also sometimes occurs. But it's not the only use actually you can
play any below a. Try it or for example, of course, if I
play in the base, it's just A. I will never, not with notation, listen how nice this sound
with a D in the base. I will talk a little
bit more about this court in next lecture, but this would be over D court. Now, for example,
if you have an A over a court court
over a A in the base, you can not it of course, as this court is actually nothing else than just an
ordinary a minor seventh court. If I take the 0, this is a minor seventh court. In some cases you can create a normal court
with just a court. Now as I said, you
can play major minor, but you can also seventh courts. For example, this
one minus seven, you see it's in third
inversion over in the base. Sounds also very nice. Now you can play
any over any base. Of course, sometimes it
will be very dissonant, sometimes it will be dissonant. As I said already in
a formal lecture, dissonance is not something bad. Dissonance can be beautiful. Just use your ear as a guide. Okay, I will play you one other chord progression where you see a very nice example of
a descending base line. Which you can not with notation. For example, minor, just a normal minor chord
with a normal in the base. Then we play a minor, but with a B flat in the base. You can not that as minor flat with A in the
base, you notated. See the descending base line? C flat. A flat. Let me just play it and
I will also kick in, add two nodes and
some other notes. Just have a look. And then again,
so what did I do? The C minor, for example, or you can play
anything you want. I play the minor seventh, so then it's minus seven as a T with an
A flat in the base. So you would write it
as minus seven A flat. Okay. Just to show you this example of how it can
be used, that's cords. Of course, you can
see them sometimes in lead sheets, now you
know what they are.
6. Sus chords: I'd like to speak
about sus courts. What is a skort perhaps? You've seen them
already in sheet music or in lead sheets, for example. Two or four or just S without
dimension of four or two. So what's that? Well, actually
let me do the example. To begin with, the two court is just a court where the third
is replaced by the second. That's the difference with an Ad 2.2 you had the
second and the third now to court in this
case is just D, G. The third has been
replaced by the third of this resolves tension release. That's two. In the same way you
can, of course, make a 44 cord there. The third is replaced
by the fourth, this is a G, of course also this
resolves nicely to a triad. Sometimes you also
see just what is now. When you see just S, it
normally means S four. This would be some other chords, S24 or Ds2d4, or let me take another one, for example, 24, or simply, it's actually very simple. Now to be honest, it is actually to have also
a third in a score, the fourth and eventually the second to also have a third. But this is actually only
done in jazz, as you know. This is not a jazz, I will not talk about this
possibility anymore. But if you might see this, then you know it's possible. Okay. Now there are also
seventh chords with, for example, seven as well. It's the same thing, you just add the seventh, for example, for let me play in the
base chord would be this. When you add the seventh, then you have the seven chord. Now, very often when
you see seven s, you can add the
second and fourth. What do we have? Seven, second,
fourth, and fifth. This would also be
a seven scored. I have an added second. What is it? Fourth? No, third. You can leave out
eventually the fifth, Fifth is not always necessary. You can leave out the root because I already played
with my left hand. I have discord. Have a look
at this chord, actually. What do we have? A C in the base, but what do we have in the right hand? B flat. That's the B flat. The B flat major. Try it. This is A scored, but I could write it
as a B flat. Over. Look above the
virtual piano there, you see it written B flat. Actually you can make a
seven scored by just taking the major try a whole
tone down the root. For example, a G
cord in the base. A whole tone below the is
the I take the major chord. You can take it in
other inversions. Of course, very often the second inversion sounds
the strongest case for the, we have in the base
and the B flat major. Second version of you can take
other inversion as I said, but this one strongest D. I showed you this one
in a former lecture. This is the D sounds
better, second inversion. Now let me show you
one last example, a little bit more difficult, with some black keys in it. For example, B flat in the base. I take a B flat, one whole
tone below the B flat flat. A flat major is this, but I will take it
in second version. This is a bit low,
let me take it here. This is a B flat sort. Now sorts also very often resolve to their
normal major chord. For example, when
I have a C skirt, then it resolves
nicely to the Cod. Sometimes skirts and then they have a very
nice floating sound. Okay, those are skirts.
7. Chord extensions: In this lesson, I want to
talk about extensions. What are court extensions? I will start to
explain this with a dominant seventh
court, 171357. You see that there
is a logical order, a third up, in this
case, a major third up, we come to the three third, in this case a minor third, because from E to G
is a minor third, we come to the fifth,
This is a third, this is a third, a major third, then a minor third, and from G to B flat is also a third minor
third in this case. Anyway, we're going
up in third, 1357. Now, what would logically be now when you have
the series 1357, the next one would be
nine. What would be nine? Well, when we go from
B flat a third up. Well, when it's A -30
it would be this one, but let's go up a third. It's this one. Now, why do I go up a major third
and a minor third? Because I want to stay
in the key of major. Of course, this is not major, but that's the only exception, 77, when I go 1357 and
I would go to nine, then I would come to the D. That means that the
D is the ninth. And I would say, **, **,
**, Martin, wait a minute, you said that D is the second
when we did the C two, for example, then
suddenly was the second. Now suddenly you say it's a
ninth. What is it actually? Well, let me go back
to the Ad two here. The D, I call it a second, but remember that
when we were doing the Add that I said we could place the D also Here, let me play it like this. We actually, when you
do it in this way, then you would call the D the ninth instead of the second. It's called the ninth
when it's placed above, above the major triad and
it's called a second when it's placed within the
nodes of the triad. This is then the two as
we learned it before. This would be a nine,
that's the difference. Let me go back to
seventh chords. This let me just play in the
base with the left hand. I can play it here. I can also play an octal. Then I only have those
nodes left here. Now I call it a nine. Now why not a nine? Well, because I have
the seventh also in it. When there's also a seventh, when it's a seventh chord
with an added ninth, then I don't say a nine, I just say 99 is
actually the court. With a ninth and a seventh. Add nine would be this one. I don't play now the C here, because I already have
it in my left hand. This is a nine. This is a ninth. Okay, that's the ninth. I can go on by
adding other third. Remember we third
till the ninth. Now I go another third
within the key of arrive at. Now this is nine, then this would be ten
only we don't call it ten, but this would be 11, this Court would be 11. Now, to be honest,
when you see 11th, you mostly don't play the nine, but the seventh is always in it. This is 11th. If you don't play the seventh, this court well, this is a 11. Remember that four was,
this is the fourth. But when you add the fourth
here, then it's an 11th. You could say that 11th is a open voicing and four
is more closed voicing. Open voicing, the ninth
and the second two. This is a voicing, nine is an open voicing. Okay, the 11th
would be this one. Now, to be honest,
the 11th sounds a bit yeah, dissonant
very often. In jazz, they make it a little
bit, a half tone higher. You would call it
then, the sharp 11th. But that's going too
far for this course. The important thing is to
know that this is the 11th. We can go one step further, 1357 in this case, minus 791-114-1213,
this is the 13th. Of course, we know
it's the sixth, we would call six, but when we play it
with the seventh, then we call it the 13th. Remember that 13th is just a seventh chord
with an added 13th. You can call it six. Well, we call it 13th
because it's placed above. The seventh is also included. Can I play it with
the ninth together? Of course, you can play it also with the fourth. The 11th. Well, as I said, the
11th is a bit dissonant. I'd rather leave it out. This is also a
13th in this case, with an added ninth, but normally we don't
put it in the symbol. This is 13th. This is also a 13th. Let me show this also in other, let me show you, for example, the seven. This is the ninth. The 11th would be this one, but sounds a bit dissonant. And the 13th is this one. Another example is the 79. This will be 11, but as always, the 11 is a bit dissident, 13. Now, can I do this
also on minors? There we go, minor seventh
with the ninth in ninth, perhaps nicer when I
play in the base a bit lower then I don't play it
in the right hand anymore. Sounds nice in ninth. Now with the fourth, let me play it like this or 11. In this case it sounds the 11th, the dominant seventh court. It didn't sound nice, but
in the seven it sounds. Now, with a dominant seventh, that sounds very dissident. Doesn't mean that you
cannot ever play it, but it sounds quite dissident. 11.13 but for some reason, in minor chords we call it
rather minor six, of course. Let me show it in other chords. In minor seventh ninth, minor 11th, minor six. Now, when you see, for example, in a lead sheet the
symbol C seven, then actually you may
yourself just add a ninth. Why not? It sounds nice and
it's in the scale of C. You can also add the 13th. Very often used
voicing for a seventh. Let me play it here
in jazz is this one. I have the root here, I
have the major third here, the minor seventh ninth
here and 13th here. Now you might say, hey,
where's the fifth? The, I don't have it. I said before, I think the
fifth is less important. This is a very nice jazz
sounding seven voicing. That's extensions.
Martin Cohen, Teacher, musician and composer
