Chords for David Bowie "Life on Mars?" Piano and Discussion: Part One | Reverb Learn to Play

_ _ _ [F] _ [Am] _ _ [F] _ _
[F] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
_ [Gm] _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[F] Hey friends, Joe [F] here at Reverb.
Today I am going to provide a theory breakdown of [D] David Bowie's Life on Mars.
This is [Bb] going to be a different lesson than we've done here before, [C] but I think that no
matter what kind of musician you are, whatever your instrument is, whether it's bass, guitar,
piano, there's so much language [F] in [Am] this song that you can apply in so many different ways.
And I think that [Gm] we can learn so much about direction of progression, [F] about bass movement,
about voice leading, and about simple shapes, specifically triads, that we can use on the
piano, especially folks who are not professional piano players like myself.
Now, we've all heard the record, Rick Wakeman plays piano on the record, it's obviously
an astounding performance.
This lesson is not going to be about directly transcribing Rick Wakeman's part.
We're going to start out in the key of F major. _
F major triad.
_ _ Two hands. _
Nice to put the little signature melody in the right hand. _ _
_ _ _ And the chords are going to go F major, _ _ _ [Am] F major 7, just bringing that pinky down one
half step, _ and then F7.
[A] _ _
_ _ Immediately this is a standard move, we've talked about this in other lessons before
here, including a couple of George Harrison [F] lessons. _ _
_ [Am] _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
Feel [F] free to kind of arpeggiate that along with the melody in the right hand.
_ _ _ _ _ [Am] _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [Eb] _
Then we go [D] _ D major. _ _ _
Like we've talked about in other lessons before, when we have a chord that's outside of the
key, often we can have a better understanding of that chord's function by looking to where
that chord resolves to.
In this case, that chord naturally resolves down a fifth [Gm] to G minor, okay?
Which is a common move for a D major, and this has kind of an implied D7 function.
[F] So so far we _ have_
_ _ [Am] _ _ _
_ _ [F] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ [Gm] _ _ _ _ So that D resolving to G minor [D] is, what we call that is, 5 of 2.
We're in the key of [F] F major, G minor, which is our target chord, is the 2 minor in the
key, [D] so D is going to be called 5 of 2.
So we've got the I [F] chord, and then [Am] I major 7, _ I dominant [A] 7, _ _ _ [D] 5 of 2 resolving to [Gm] 2.
_ _ Bring our [Eb] thumb down here and our pinky down a full [Bb] step, so we have B flat, which is the
IV chord, so [Gm] we're going from G minor to [Bb] B flat to _ [C] C7. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Same [F] thing, _
_ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [Gm] _
_ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
okay?
So that's the same thing twice through the first part of the progression.
Then the first twist, the first turn here, A [Ab] flat _ _ with an E flat in the [Eb] bass.
_ _ [Ab] _
_ _ Okay, so this is an [Eb] A flat with a fifth in the bass, it's a second inversion chord, meaning
that the fifth is in the [Ab] bass.
_ _ Then [Eb] we're going to talk about the bass line and then the harmony, okay?
So the bass line, the bass movement is ascending from E flat, _ _ [E] E natural, _ _ [F] F, _ _ _ G flat.
[Gb] _ _ _ So [Ab] those are the four ascending bass notes.
In the harmony, we have A flat, _ _ E augmented, [E] _ augmented you can just think of as a major
chord with a sharp fifth, so I have E, G sharp, major third, _ C, which is a sharp 5. _
Bring that thumb up one half step to F [Fm] minor, _ _ and then back to [Ab] A flat, it's actually [C] going
to be an A flat [Gb] 7 with a G flat here in the bass, okay?
Beautiful voicing, a flat 7 in the bass, [B] which is why I'm calling that note a G [Gb] flat, because
that's the flat 7th of A flat major.
_ [Abm] _
_ That provides us with a dominant 7 tonality.
So let's put the bass notes and the chords together.
A flat with E flat in the bass, [Ab] _ _ E augmented with E in [E] the bass, _ _ _ _ F minor _ with F in the [Fm] bass.
This is a great move, an [E] augmented chord _ resolving up a half step to a minor [Fm] chord.
Beautiful move, we're going to see it again in the next section too.
And then _ [C] _
_ A flat again with a G flat in the bass.
[Ab] _
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ [Fm] _
_ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _
You can also [Eb] play these chords by voice leading with the top note of the triad [Ab] up along with
the bass notes, okay? _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ _ [Fm] _ _
_ _ [Gb] _ _ Okay?
Sometimes that's maybe a little simpler for the ear to follow.
From the A flat 7 now, we have a dominant chord, and once again we have a dominant chord
that moves down a fifth to D [Db] flat. _ _ _ _
_ Common for a dominant chord to do that, and that's exactly what it does. _
D flat in the bass, _ and I like this voicing here, _ _ _ _ _ third, fifth, root, and I'll tell you
why, because then we can move from the fifth here that I'm playing with my index finger,
the bass is going to go _ D flat, _ [A] A, _ _ B flat, [Bb] _ _ B natural.
[B] _
_ And the harmony is going to be D flat, [Db] _
_ _ A [A] augmented, remember augmented chord, major chord with
a sharp fifth, equals the same move here.
An augmented chord resolving up a half step to a minor chord, _ to B [Bbm] flat minor.
_ _ And then once again, [B] _ bringing that bass note up one more half step gives us a D flat 7
chord, D flat dominant.
[Db] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ [Bbm] _ _ _ _ [Db] _ _
_ _ _ _ So let's go back [Am] to that first turn when we went from A flat with E flat in the bass,
let's play those four chords, and then play the D flat, [Ab] those four chords, and check out
how similar that movement actually is, just played in two different keys. _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ All this [Fm] tension, these chords are taking us [Gb] away somewhere else, this feels like a
natural [Db] resolve, _ _ _ [A] _ more tension, constant build, [Bbm] and constant tension [Db] making us arrive somewhere,
and then unexpected, _ [Bb] _ _
B flat major.
Now watch part two of this lesson, we'll go from B flat major, we'll learn [F] the chorus
and the interludes.
_ [Am] _ _ [F] _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _