Friday, October 26, 2012

Piano Improvisation - Soloing In the Right Key

By Jason Johann


Improvisation is one of the most important things that allow a piano player to diversify their skill. The process of learning needs one to have a lot of patience and determination. Some of the major advantages of doing this involve getting your own composition as well as playing with other musicians. One of the primary things that help with this is learning how to get a key to solo when it comes to jamming. Many books will not give you a direct insight on the matter and it is all a matter of experience. This article helps with that.

Learning how to improvise on the piano takes work and patience. Understanding that each key has natural notes that fall within its scale helps tremendously when attempting to figure out what notes to use when creating melodies. Let's use a C major scale for example. The notes found in C major are: C, D, E, F, G, A and B which are commonly referred to as the I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi and vii. For notes I - vi, it is possible to build a major or minor triad using one of these notes as the root i.e., you can build a triad from the note C, D, E, F, G or A.

The roman numerals represent the chords. Some of them are capitalized while others are not. The capitalized numbers are a representation of major chords while the others represent minor chords. One can get major chords from the triad of C, G and F notes. C will consist of C, G and E notes whereas G will comprise G, D and B. F on the other hand, will consist of A, C and F. D, E and A will form the minor chords. It is crucial that one master this because it answers the question of wondering if it is necessary to change keys when moving from one chord to the other.

However, if you understand that each key consists of naturally occurring chords which you can use without actually "changing keys" then it's clear that you can solo using the dominant key, which is often times the very first chord existing in a chord pattern. Take for example the chord change/pattern C, G, Am, F. There are four different chords used in this pattern however you would solo using the C scale. As long as you use the naturally occurring chords found in the scale of C, which is basically any chord major or minor chord built from C, D, E, F, G or A, you would continue solo in C.

F is not found naturally among the chords of C. When you decide to play a chord that is not naturally included in the C key, the key will have to be changed during the duration when the foreign chord will be used. Another example that is used is the D major key.

It is important that a learner embraces practice in this sector. This is the only way that they can fully master the art of choosing the perfect key to solo when jamming. Working with your hearing skills gives the best insight on what changes to make and how to improve. The more you jam out on the piano, the faster you'll improve.




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