Chords for One of My Favorite Piano Tricks

_ Hi, and welcome back to another lesson.
Today I'd like to talk to you about a simple but really effective progression,
or maybe I'll call it a chord resolution or voicing that I like to use in my own playing.
So the way we're going to do this is I'm going to play a short example,
and then I'll point out exactly what the actual progression is,
and show you where it gets featured in the example.
So let's start with the example itself. _
_ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ [Dm] _
_ [F] _ _ [C] _ _ [F] _ _ [D] _
_ [F] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _ [C] _
_ [Em] _ _ [Dm] _ _ [G] _ _ _
[Dm] _ _ [F] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ Voicing the progression
Okay, _ _ _ _ _ _ so what's the voicing or the example, I mean the progression itself?
So think about a simple V-I progression, and let's be concrete,
let's say we're in the key of [G] C major, so our V is a G, and our I is [C] a C.
So the V resolves to the I.
Now, in the left [G] hand, instead of playing the roots as the bass notes,
so I'm not going to play [C] a G and a C, I'm going to play two other notes.
In this case I'm going to [G] play an F [Em] _
_ to an E.
And what these are, these are [G] the 7th degree,
or I mean, this really turns the G chord into a G dominant [Em] 7th chord,
and this is a C chord but with a bass that's not on the root or in the tonic.
[E] It's on E, it's on the 3rd degree.
_ [G] And if the theory doesn't mean a lot to you, don't worry about it.
Just think about [C] any time you see this sort of progression,
[G] instead of playing the root [F] on the V, you play something that is two [G] semitones below it,
so not the G [F] but an F, and this resolves to something that is a [C] semitone below [G] it.
[C] _ _
[Em] _ [F] Now this idea can be extended to really any V-I progression.
So for example, if you have an F [Bb] going to a B flat,
[F] so instead of playing the bass, an F, [Bb] and a B flat,
[F] I'm going to play [Eb] an [F] E flat _ _ [Bb] _ to a D.
_ _ Or for example, [E] let's say we have an E [A] to an A.
_ [E] So instead of playing an E bass going [A] to an A,
I'm going to play [E] a D bass _ [A] _ going to a C sharp,
which is a note in the A major chord, it's just not the root. _ _
And you can actually string these along, just like I did in the example. _
And _ _ _ _ _ [Bm] _
_ you can really keep going with these [Gm] things.
[C] _ _ [Dm] _
[G] Now, the moment you get used to it, you can start using inversions in your right hand.
So you don't have to use the exact inversions I used, but let's say you have, again,
_ [Bb]
an F going to a B flat.
[F] _ [Fm] So instead of [Bb] playing it this way, you could play something [F] like_ _ _
[Fm] So I'm using bigger chords in my right [Dm] hand. _ _
Or I could use something like this,
[Bb] _ _ [Fm] which is a different inversion of F and a different [D] inversion of B flat.
_ _ [G] One thing that I find particularly effective in this context is,
let's say we have a G going to a C,
[Gm] _
then when [Em] playing the C, instead of playing it this way,
[C] an E, a G, and a C, I play this C here instead.
So I'm not really playing a full chord in my right hand,
but that's okay because [E] the bass makes up for it.
It makes up for the E that should have been here.
_ _ [F] _ [Dbm] _ _
So _ _ [F] _ you can really keep going [Am] _
_ [Gb] up the keyboard, down the keyboard, you can [C] jump around.
And it's really a fun thing to play.
It creates a nice amount of tension that resolves very nicely.
And in the piece I played, there was a beginning that really didn't have anything to do with it,
_ which is a [F] C chord going to [D] an F, [C] going to a D, [C] going back to an F,
then a C chord again.
There's a pedal note, which is a C, and the C bass [F] keeps on going.
Then there's an F, again, [C] a D, [F] an F, and then it comes, you know,
then I start playing these [Bb] progressions.
[F] _ [G] So I have a C [F] going to an F, [C] and look at the bass.
The bass [Bb] does exactly what I showed you previously.
In the case of a C, _ [C] then you don't play the C to an F, you [B] take the C,
you go down two [G] semitones, then one more [F] semitone.
_ [G] And then, _ _ again, an F [C] to a C.
[G] _ [F] C to an [G] F, G [C] to a C.
_ [Em] Then at some point in the middle I sort of [Am] have a slightly [A] different progression,
[Em] which is an E minor, [Am] _
[Em] or an E minor 7 to be more [Am] precise, to an A minor 7.
Then I [Dm] have a G, _ _ [Bm] sorry, [Dm] then I have a D [Bm] to a G. _
Again, the same exact progression I've [G] shown you.
Then a C [Am] to an F, the same progression.
And then I sort of [Dm] wrap things up to a D [F] minor 7, _ _ to an F over bass of [C] G,
and then to a C, which is back to the tonic.
[F] _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ And that's it.
So, personally, I really like incorporating this into my own pieces,
and I'll actually leave a link in the video description to a piece I uploaded here to YouTube,
which I call Minute Rhapsody, which uses this really a lot.
So that will give you maybe an even more well-rounded idea of where this progression can be used.
And, in fact, you can treat this as an exercise, in the sense that you can go and have a listen
and try to identify the points where I use this particular [G] tool or progression.
_ _ [E] _
_ [Ab] And it happens quite a lot there.
_ That's it for now.
I hope you've