Learning the piano

[Whiny Minotaur]

I've been relying increasingly heavily on the piano and keyboards for songwriting lately, but I'm getting frustrated because my piano playing is so pedestrian. The chords I'm playing or boring as hell, and I can't seem to get an interesting sound, because I can only play triads.

I'm not really interested in becoming a virtuso of the piano, but I would like to learn the piano in a more theory based approach. Anybody know any resources?

[Larry Mal]

I guess my question is, do you actually know theory? Because if you don't, then I will suggest you learn theory in and of itself. If your playing on the piano is based around simple root-third-fifth triads (in ascending order) then you would be able to add some interest by not only adding other notes to the harmonization, but by also learning about voice leading and inversions as well.

So, the adding other notes would be relatively simple, you'd make the chords be seventh chords, let's say. So you'd play a G major7 chord (G,B,D,F#) and then you would move to an A minor7 chord (A,C,E,G). That could add some interest right there.

But the inversions would be able to add possibly more interest, which means that you play the chords otherwise than root-third-fifth in ascending order, you could play fifth-third-root instead, or third-root-fifth, you get the picture.

Voice leading can build upon that knowledge, using our example of G major 7 to A minor 7 you can imagine something like this:

G moves -> to G (stays the same, common to both chords)
B <- moves down to A
D <- moves down to C
F# <- moves down to E

This would actually be poor voice leading, though, since every voice is moving in the same (parallel) direction except for the G note which is static. A person skilled at voice leading (which I am not) would be able to come up with something more interesting.

Voice leading came from singing, so imagine how much more exciting it is to hear the voices moving in independent yet connected ways, some voices move up the scale to the new note and some voices move down. That's a lot more interesting than all the voices moving up the scale at the same time then all the voices moving down the scale at the same time next.

You can do the same thing with the piano (maybe you can, I can't very well). One can do the same thing with the piano, anyway. Because although you can do very good voice leading with the guitar (it can play six different notes at a time, more than plenty) a lot of us play fixed positions like barre chords, in which all the voices move in the same direction at the same time. You play a G major barre chord on the third fret, G-B-D, then move to a D major chord on the fifth fret (D-F#-A) and it sounds good, but again, all the voices have moved in the same direction (parallel).

You can get away with that in a pop music format because there are other instruments that can move in other directions other than the guitar if you want that, but my point is a lot of guitarists don't learn a lot about voice leading- myself included, I'm no genius here. But if you ever look at a jazz guitar book, like good old Ted Greene, the reason all the chords are such knuckle busters compared to barre chords is because they are built with voice leading in mind:

https://www.amazon.com/Ted-Greene-Chord ... 0898986966" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

With the piano, though, voice leading is arguably easier to do. But first you would have to know the theory behind what makes the chords be what they are, and how they move in relation to each other, then you might come to inversions and from there voice leading. The more of that stuff you can add to your piano playing, the more depth you have to draw upon when you sit at the bench.

Good luck, I hope some of this is helpful, and I'm on a similar journey myself with it.

[Whiny Minotaur]

Thanks for the detailed response, Larry. That's much more than what I was expecting.

I do have a rudimentary understanding of theory, which was admittedly learned in a swashbuckling fashion. Voice leading is something I do know, and am trying to apply in my own music. I guess I should go over the things I already know more thoroughly, and then learn some new things.

It's really interesting to write music in a more cerebral manner, after just bashing out chords on guitar. Now that I'm a grown man I finally have the patience to do it

[Haddock]

If you want to go deeper into Harmony, this book is great :
https://www.innertraditions.com/harmoni ... ience.html

[Larry Mal]

Thanks for the detailed response, Larry. That's much more than what I was expecting.

I do have a rudimentary understanding of theory, which was admittedly learned in a swashbuckling fashion. Voice leading is something I do know, and am trying to apply in my own music. I guess I should go over the things I already know more thoroughly, and then learn some new things.

It's really interesting to write music in a more cerebral manner, after just bashing out chords on guitar. Now that I'm a grown man I finally have the patience to do it

Glad you found some of it useful, at least. Sorry if I told you a bunch of stuff that you already knew, it wasn't quite clear to me exactly where you were at so I just threw some ideas out there. Ideas I intend to follow more closely should I ever find the time.

And yeah, it is fun to write using only your mind and not your hands. I try to do things to make my guitar playing more unique and interesting, but you know, I'm only so skilled and there is only so much I can do. So when I went back to school, I found it pleasant to resume my study of music theory and even more importantly formal composition. That was very helpful, as I have to get together some rudimentary skills in order to write music for instruments that I didn't necessarily play, which put me purely in the world of imagination. I'm not going to suggest that it was any great music by any means, but still, it added a lot of freedom for me to be more of a composer and writer rather than someone who plays guitar.

[Dok]

Forgive me for stating the obvious (to some people), but a good teacher and 30-minute daily practice regimen will do more for you than any self-teaching. Worth every penny.