Piano Video Lesson: Secrets of Improvisation: Improvisation Made Easy

Hi, I'm Robert Estrin and this is livingpianos.com. Today is Secrets of Improvisation Diatonic Seventh Chords. It's the most amazing thing. I've been to many conservatories and master classes, classes, degrees, all of the rest of it, diplomas. And you know what is almost never taught unless you're a jazz major, improvisation is completely neglected. It's really shameful. As matter of fact, I remember once there was a Julliard graduate doing master's work at Julliard in piano performance, who couldn't play Happy Birthday by ear. Isn't that a sad fact?

Well, I'm here to show you some very simple things you can try. Now, if you're a sophisticated jazz player, this might not be of value to you, although you might get something out of it. But for those of you think, "Oh, I can't possibly improvise." Yes, you can. And a great deal comes down to just having a command of some basic theory.

You have to know what notes to choose among when you're improvising. What notes are going to go with what. Now, of course, there's blues, which is a whole other discussion that we can have at another video. But what I'm talking about is just tonal music. I've talked about simple things like Dorian mode and all that, but today is a little bit different. I'm just going to talk about diatonic seventh chords. Now, that's a mouthful. What the heck am I talking about?

Well, first of all, what our seventh chords? Just a very quick theory primer, because you know what? It's not that complex. It's only complex if you don't know your key signatures, if you don't know your major scales. You got to learn those first before you can do much of anything with improvisation. It also is unbelievably helpful for your sight reading and learning music.

So any of you who haven't learned your key signatures, I highly recommend it. And I have never made videos on that, and I guess it's due time. In the comments here at livingpianos.com and YouTube, let me know how many of you would really appreciate a tutorial on how to figure out key signatures. In the meantime, I'm going to assume you know your key signatures, because it's all based upon that.

So let's start in the simplest key signature, no sharps and no flats, C major. What are diatonic chords? Well, first of all, what are chords? Chords are notes arranged in the interval of thirds. What are thirds? They're notes that are two notes apart, three notes apart, really if you count the first and last note. In other words, a scale are all seconds. Each of those notes is a second apart.

If you skip them, then you have thirds. Those are all thirds, root, third, fifth, seventh. That's why it's called a seventh chord. Now, the interesting thing is you can do this in any major key. So if you were in D major, you could leave out every other note of the D major scale. And there's a D major seven. On and on you can do this any key.

But that's just the one seven chord. That is a seventh chord built on the first scale degree. What about a two seven? Here's the one seven again in C major. You could start on the second scale degree and have a two seven. You could start a third scale degree and have a three seven, on and on.

So what's the significance of this? Well, if you just want to play something really simple, you can go from a one seven to a two seven, back and forth, or it can go up to a three seven to a four seven and back down to three seven, two seven, one seven. Let me show you, because to show you is probably a lot less complicated than it sounds. So in C major, one seven.

I just went up from a one seven, two seven, three seven, four seven and back down. If you want something simpler, you can just go from one seven to two seven, and here's the beauty. You don't have to play fast. A lot of times people think... They see great artists playing a mile a minute and think, "Oh, you got to play fast to improvise well." You don't. You just have to make a melody. Strive for something that you want to sing.

Doesn't have to be fast. Doesn't have to be technical. And if you find that you're having difficulty, the difficulty is most likely going to be with your left hand. That's right, believe it or not, keeping that rhythmically coherent, where you're not changing the cord in random fashion, but holding them the same amount of time. You could use a metronome for that, or better yet find a drum beat on your keyboard or on YouTube to play along with.

The best of course is to play with other musicians where there's a give and take. But you can get your feet wet with this just by finding a drum beat. And by the way, YouTube is loaded. Just come up with any kind of drum beat you can imagine like lounge drums, 60 BPM, beats per minute, or swing, or shuffle drum beat, and you'll find it. People have posted just about every kind of beat you can imagine on there. Find one that's a speed you like, and then experiment.

Now, that was a C major. You could do the same thing in any key. I mentioned D major. What about if it was F major? In the right hand just remember not to hit B naturals. Otherwise, obviously, it's not going to sound good if you go outside of the key. This is why key signatures are so important for improvisation, not to mention knowing where you are in a piece of music and for sight reading, it's a godsend to know what key you're in. Suddenly everything makes sense. So if you're in any key at all...

Experiment. Start off in C major. If you've never improvised before, just go from a one seven to a two seven in C major and the hard part, believe it or not, is just this: Make sure you maintain the integrity of the comping. If you have friends who play music, comp for them and let them solo, and then let them comp for you. Comping is playing the chord behind the solo, because improvising by yourself, where you're doing both the structure, the chords, the comping, and the solo is hard at first.

If you've got friends, this could be so much fun for you. And when you get into things like blues, and if you learn how to read a lead sheet, which just has the chord symbols and the melody line, it opens up vast possibilities of music for you in a myriad of styles from folk to rock to new age, jazz, blues, you name it. So this is a great way to get your feet wet. Let me know what you think. And once again, if you want some theory primers on key signatures, let's see in the comments how many of you want that. Thanks for joining me again. Robert Estrin here at livingpianos.com, your online piano resource.

Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/secrets-of-improvisation-improvisation-made-easy/

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

Thank you for your comment, question or request!

Comment/Question deleted successfully.

Post a comment, question or special request:

Comments or questions must be between 3 and 10,000 characters long.

You may: Login  or  

Otherwise, fill out the form below to post your comment:

Add your name below:


Add your email below: (to receive replies, will not be displayed or shared)


For verification purposes, please enter the word MUSIC in the field below

---