It’s not the chord that you play, but what you do with it.
So, chords occur in in Madrigals, in Bach Chorales, in Mozart’s Music and in that of Metallica, from Bach to the Beatles, from Palestrina to the Pogues, from Beethoven to Beyonce, from Grieg to Gershwin. It’s not the chords that discern the style or the interest, it’s the creative use of them. What can you do with one chord? My improvisation lessons frequently start with “what can you do with one note?” because that’s what the incredible composer Petr Eben did in his first lessons with me. Here’s a quick exploration of one chord which is my no means exhaustive:
Budapest (George Ezra)
What’s interesting about this piece? Well, firstly, the introduction and the majority of the first verse are simply an F major chord, with the exception of a brief occurrence of Bb on “you-oo”.
As an improvisation teacher, what could be better than the exploration of one chord? It’s not how many chords you use, but one you can do with each chord that counts.
The Three Chord Trick
The chorus adds a 3rd chord, C Major, to form the “three chord trick”. The song therefore uses the I-IV-V chords in F (F, Bb and C). The order of the chords in the chorus follows that of a typical final phrase in the Blues: V-IV-I. The V-IV in Blues being the opposite way round to that found in classical music where a IV-V progression would be far more common.
Budapest Piano Lesson Online Cover
I enjoyed improvising a piano cover on Budapest, what can you do?
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