| There seems to be an obsession with learning more | | | | B A + D# G#+C#+F |
| advanced chords these days especially for the right | | | | Bb Ab + D G+C+E |
| hand. What students need to know is that sometimes | | | | A G + C# F#+B+D# |
| you can get by, by focusing on major chords for the | | | | Ab Gb + C F+A#+D |
| right hand and improving chords for the left-hand. It is | | | | You will observe from the chart that the RH is playing |
| very much possible to turn simple major chords into | | | | simple basic major chords while the LH plays tritones. |
| complex and advanced chords by adding some notes | | | | The chord sound complex and advanced when you |
| in the left-hand. | | | | play it. |
| The first example that uses simple major chords in the | | | | You may ask: where can I use these tritones? Well, |
| right hand, but by adding a few notes on the left-hand | | | | you can substitute them for minor and dominant |
| turns the overall chord into an advanced one - it is | | | | chords. So let us say you have a bass player and you |
| called tritones. Let us take a look at the C dominant7 | | | | are in the key of C major, the bass player is playing a |
| chord: | | | | D note, you may know that a D in the key of C is a |
| C+E+G+Bb | | | | minor. So instead of playing Dminor chord play a |
| If you remove the C and Bb you are left with a tritone, | | | | tritone-major chord combination from the chart above. |
| which is an E-Bb combination. The E is a third and Bb | | | | Go to the chart and look for 'D', then go across and |
| is the seventh. The '3-7' combination of any chord | | | | you find that instead of playing a regular D minor chord |
| gives yields a tritone. Now to get to the next level of | | | | you can substitute it with the following: |
| piano playing one needs to experiment! Now you need | | | | BASS LH RH |
| to learn all 12 tritones going down and down | | | | D C + F# B+E+G# |
| chromatically with your left-hand. | | | | Remember that the 'D' belongs to the bass player; you |
| I can't go in-depth with tritones for now, but here is a | | | | just play the LH-RH combination. If you do not have a |
| chart you must learn to learn tritones (LH means | | | | bass player, just quickly play the 'D' low on the |
| left-hand and RH mean right-hand: | | | | keyboard or piano and then follow with LH-RH |
| BASS LH RH | | | | combination. As you can notice, you are using simple |
| G F + B E+A+C# | | | | major triads on the right-hand while adding notes on |
| Gb E + Bb D#+G#+C | | | | your left-hand (in this case tritones), to enhance your |
| F Eb + A D+G+B | | | | sound. |
| E D + G# C#+F#+A# | | | | Finally experiment by playing basic major chords on |
| Eb Db + G C+F+A | | | | your right-hand while adding notes on left-hand to |
| D C + F# B+E+G# | | | | come up with your own chords, believe me there are |
| Db B + F A#+D#+G | | | | many. Empower your left-hand, empower your sound! |
| C Bb + E A+D+F# | | | | |