You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 3 BIGGEST Chord Mistakes...

Episode Date: November 6, 2023

Alright it's time to let y'all in on the big secret. Adam and Peter finally let loose the three biggest chord mistakes you can make. Find out what makes the list and let us know if you agree. Check out The Heart Melter chords short Adam and Peter referenced.Have a question for us? Leave us a SpeakPipeCheckout courses from Adam, Peter and more at Open Studio🎹 Head over to our YouTube channel for a better look 👀.Follow us on Instagram

Hey Adam. Yo. You could play this. I could. But wouldn't you rather do this? I would. Peter, you could play this. Yeah.

But wouldn't you rather play this? Mm. I think so. Yeah, me too. Hey, Adam. Yes. You could play like this. Is it a messian?

I'm making a messian of it. Yeah. But wouldn't you. Rather, do it like this. You know? I think I would. Hmm. And that's a good choice.

It's your choice. It's corny. It's a corny video. I'm Adam Menace. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the ULAIR podcast. Music advice coming at you. It's your decision to listen to this podcast.

And it's a good decision. It's a very good decision. Peter's making fun of me. If you don't know, Peter's making fun of one of my videos it just came out. Thank you, Peter, for grounding me to the earth. Well, congrats on the million, millions. Now we can say we're getting into the millions of views of that. That would be the heart melter video that you have lovingly presented to the world. Check it out on YouTube shorts, Instagram shorts. Talk, check it out over on the talk. How do you get there? Ticktok.com? What's happening with that?

Yeah, you go to www. TikTok.com. It's a great video. Really based around triads, plagal cadences, beautiful sounding piano. Beautiful sounding voice. Congrats, ma'am. Thank you. And that video is based on all of some, some, like, good ideas to play with chords. Yeah.

And today's episode of the You'll Hear podcast is all about maybe some things not to do when you're playing chords. And maybe some ways that you can up your chord game. That's right. And I think it's important for us to remember sometimes folks shave a little bit or Brussels at things like. They do Brussels.

They Brussels, Belgium. Big shout out to Belgium. Thanks with the beer and the chocolates. We love. Sometimes I got to tell the story about the $26 Belgian beer. You tricked me to having that. I know the story. I was there. Yeah. But no, so we're calling this three biggest chord mistakes. And I know a lot of people like, why is that so negative? I want to know what I should be doing instead of what I shouldn't be doing. You know, because a lot of folks are like, I already know how to play bad. Tell me how to play good. But I use this in my practice all the time. I think it's an important sort of overall framework that we can use in thinking about what we don't want to do. So like

mistakes we don't want to make to guide us towards the promised land of what we do. And I think chords being potentially such a kind of esoteric area in terms of like one hand of voicings, two-handed voicings, are we comping behind? Are we playing three zones and all these different sort of questions is a perfect sort of place to look at this. Yeah. And if mistakes makes you Brussels, if thinking about it that negatively makes you Brussels, just consider this as like some boundaries to put on your practice, just to get some new ideas. But I do think that these three things are common ways that especially... These three things short and simple. These are common ways that beginners and intermediate players can kind of get stuck in their chords. And there are other

options for, I think, the sounds you're getting at. And let's get right into number one, Peter. So the first big mistake that you might make with your chord, that's very pretty. This sounds like a studio Ghibli movie. Sounds like the legend of Zelda. Should we check this out? Can we see this? Can we see a visual? Look at that. There it is. Now, okay, key of C. We've got some flag about key of C. Right. We don't have any other options.

Well, we do. You can put it in the key of D. But that would be. But we're just adding accidental to the key scene. This is an atonal situation. So, but basically we've got, look at the keyboard at the bottom. If you don't like the top. So I've got a D major seven root position. So you might say, oh, the first big mistake is that it's root position. But root position is not always bad. No. Or at least not, not only root position, but.

building off of the root. As we'll talk about later. Is that two different things? That is two different things. Yes, I think so. Okay. But the idea is here that we're going to take this, which is fine. Like there's a world where that left-handed voicing works nicely,

even with the root on the bottom in this kind of alto tenorish range. But what we don't want to do is everything is just stacked on top of each other, double, taking away the power and the beauty. Yeah, if you are, and, you know, in certain situations, obviously this works great as orchestration. However, if you're playing, you know, jazz piano and you're playing like a 251 in the key of D major and you do this, right? You do big stacked seventh chords. Nothing sounds stage band like that. I'm just doubling like this by itself is fine.

But to double what you're doing there, not great. This is not like the doublement commercial twice as twice as nice. What you can do with this is, no, it's not. Don't double your pleasure. It doesn't double your fun. What you can do with this is to take some of the notes, which is what you did in the intro, take some of the notes that are here,

and you can move it up the octave. So the C here, right? The C, it's right in the middle. We can take that up an octave. And even just that here. Now this is, we'll call this an A-flat major 7, right, just for our purposes today. But just that up an octave, right?

That C. We've got a whole new. thing, right? We've got a whole, whole different kind of chord. And then don't forget that, like, if you're playing an A-flat major seven chord in the key of A-flat here, you have all of the other extensions, right? Maybe this, right? And that's, look, you're starting to think, oh, you must be doubling something you're not. He's just still additive. And think about how strong, so that was the last voicing you played there, right? So it's like a, like a, A-flat major-7-6-9. That's right. Yeah. Now, I'm just going to add one doubling note that's, that's a, that's a new thing. That's

the original third. Like some people might be like, oh, that sounds pretty good, but so much weaker and, I mean, weaker, that's, it's all subjective, but I think that this has such a more interesting, you wouldn't think it would make that much difference. It does. But this has such more ethereal kind of modern sound. I don't know. What would you call that?

Well, in general, yeah, it is a little slicker, a little more angular, a little more modern. And it doesn't mean, again, that you can never double notes or that you should never double the third specifically. but doubling the thirds and the seventh, especially if you have other notes in there, it can be very thick. What it does is like it thickens out the overtone series enough that it actually starts to cancel and thin out the sound of the chord. Now there are exceptions like the Barry Harris chords, but notice that these are very low and there's only thirds and seventh doubled here, right? That's it. There's no other thing.

If you put a bunch of other stuff in here, it gets very murky to the point where it just doesn't mean anything. Right, right, right. So the doubling of the thirds and seven should be done in various, like, think particular circumstances. Yeah, and then other things that we don't have as one of our official core mistakes that people will think about.

And, you know, sometimes we talk about these are like A flat major, okay, if you're going to leave something out, like what do we leave out? The fifth is probably something safe to kind of leave out. And so you might be like, you know, you might be like, well, why do you have the fifth

so prominent instead of doubling the third? And why does that work? We're looking at these kind of like inner shapes that C minor triad, all those force up there, the nice open fifth. So it's never just like one thing that makes or breaks it. These are guidelines. But I think that once you start to hear the difference between them and the pros and cons, sometimes for different situations, it can really open up things. And then when you're not doubling the thirds and you're not, and especially when you're not just, you know, ham fisting double whatever, when you do start doubling notes, it becomes a choice,

an artistic choice to bring them out. And it's not a good choice. It's a great choice. Because you can do things like this. Right? So this has double notes, right? But look what's doubled. So here's a C major nine chord, right?

Yeah. I've got C, E, B, D, G, D. So our nine here is doubled. Right. But this actually makes it pop, like, so we could do this. Or we can do this. Yep.

But if we want that nine on top, now we have it filled up. Listen to the day. difference between having the nine doubled or having the third doubled. Yeah. This is corny somehow. Yeah. I don't know why, but this is cornier. That is glassier. Yeah. That cuts better. And it, and it sort of highlights the notes that we want to highlight in the chord. Interesting, though, like, if you do that, that was your last one. Yeah. But we do have the third in, a little corny. But look, move that top ninth down. A little better, right? Oh, yeah. Well, now you're, it is a little better. Yeah.

The balance of it is a little better. Still not as strong, I don't think, is this. Like, when you double the third or double the fifth or double the root, any of those primary, especially with like a major seven, major six, nine thing, like that's going to bring, it's going to, it's going to bring prominence to one of those, in this case, thirds in a way that you might not want. Now, if that's sort of the melody, be, be, be, bo, boo.

Like, and you're doing some kind of inner thing, then then you would want that. But, like, there's that, and then there's, Like that's screaming out. Yeah, I mean, you can hear the difference even if we just took away the third here. That's with double thirds. How much crystal clear? Right. And that's not jumping out as much as when you're doubling it.

Because of that octave, like when you have an octave or a double octave, that top note of that octave, especially if it's sort of a one three, five, one of those is going to really jump out. Yeah, true. And kind of be a little bit incongruent sometimes, I think is what it is. Our next big mistake might be a revelation, especially for like, players that have been playing a long time, and especially if you grew up, sort of when we grew up, and when we grew up, there was a lot of pianists who were teaching that you should never play rooted voicings, especially when there's a bass player involved. And if you look at the evidence of

the greatest piano players in history, it just doesn't add up. Oscar Peterson. Roots on his voicings a lot of the times. Witten Kelly. Roots on his voicing a lot of times. Not all the time. Red Garland. Definitely roots on his voicing. Bud Powell. Frederick Chopin. Roots like crazy. Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, Hank Jones, like McCoy Tyner, you name them. There is roots going on all over the place. Yep. You know, it's a big part of it.

So, you know, I... It's like understanding what they sound like when they work, how they're going to affect the music. And this is bass player or no bass player. Base player or no bass player. It actually doesn't matter. What you don't want to do is to really like walk a, you don't want to walk a baseline when you have a bass player.

Right. You don't want to sustain big double-off. octaves on a big piano. But like, Peter, let's play a C blues here. Okay. You want to I'm going to do a chorus without roots and then I'm going to do a chorus with roots. You want me to walk. You walk a baseline. One, two, three, and this is no roots on my chords. It's going to sound good. And it's a good, good. And it's a good to good. Add roots and let me know if this bothers you. Not only does it not bother me, I enjoy it. It's good, right? It fills out the chord. It's actually harder to hear on the road sound.

You try it, Peter, you try it. Rootless first. So, sound great. Like, you need to have both, is the point. There's been this sort of myth that you can never have roots on your chord when there's a bass player, that you should only be playing rootless voicings when there's a bass player. And it's just not true. And in fact, it just sounds so good to a lot of times, especially in this baritone region,

to add roots to your voicing. It just, there's this sound, and then there's this sound. Yeah. And if you're on an acoustic piano especially, you are not going to be able to overpower a bass player unless you're really banging hard with double octaves way down low, that baritone region played with dynamics. Yeah.

Even down here, you know, you're going to be fine, man. You're going to be fine. Yeah. And I mean, really, what about a combination? That's kind of where the matter. Well, that's what actually happens. I mean, we're not advocating for never playing rootless voicing at all. Don't make that mistake because they are,

extremely handy, but that's not the only story, right? That's not the only thing that we can do. We can definitely tell a story with some lower voicings with roots on them. It fills out the chord. It just makes your chords a little bit punchier. I highly recommend listening to players like Hank Jones, like Bud Powell, and what they, and Thelonis Monk and what they do with roots and many, many others. McCoy Tyner.

Yeah. And when you're going root, root, root, especially with solo piano where you can kind of control this a little bit more, once you go rootless, that can be a really special moment, right? Totally. Like that can be a kind of dramatic thing and that's why it's like, you know, or even comping when there's a bass player. I think there's a lot of sort of register or melodic, you know, content derived stuff that reasons why you would leave the route for a second and come back as part of your dramatic kind of cordial story.

Yeah. And don't be worried if you're overlapping with the bass player even. No. Because they have a whole different timbre than we do, right? So they are a lot bigger of a sub-base sound than we have. Unless you're on, the only caveat here is if you are on a keyboard with a bad piano sound and a big amp and you've got the bass cranked on the amp, you can be annoyingly covering up the base. Right. If you start to kind of keep on top. So just be conscious of what you're doing. Make sure to always play with dynamics.

If you're on acoustic piano, you're almost certainly good to go as long as you're listening. Number one. Listen. That's right. All right. Our third biggest mistake for chords. Okay. So this is what I. demonstrated in the beginning, this is not using voice leading. So the most obvious manifestation of that is we're jumping around all over the place, not for kind of dramatic flare types of reasons, which there may be a time to do that, but we're doing it because we only know certain voicings in certain, you know, the permutations, we're limited. So in other words, if I go F-sharp minor here, and then I'm like B7

and maybe I only know this voice which actually would work pretty good but for some reason maybe I jump up here to the B7 sharp 9 flat 13 because that's where I think it'll sound good and that is a good voicing but not after that unless I just wanted to be a little bit

of a random jumbled thing so it's like using voice leading where it takes us to some uncomfortable places maybe with our hands but some comfortable places in terms of tension resolution drama within the voicing. And you could even, you could take it one step further

and say it's a mistake not to use melodies with your voicing, with your comping. Right. And not just on top. I mean, top is the most obvious in your entry point. But anywhere, really, you can use melodies. I mean, you know, when you're doing it right,

every voice that you're playing should be its own melody. Exactly. That's a tall order for most people. But even if you just start, I mean, think about the way someone like Emmett Cohen comps. Yep.

There's melodies happening all the time when he's comping, when he's playing chords. So you could, like, I think where most people sit, Peter, is if we do another C blues. If you want to walk a bass line for me. So this is where most people sit, right? They have a voicing with the root on top.

Nothing wrong with this. This is a set. This is a great sound, right? It's your sound. It's a great sound. Oh, he's making fun. But, like, making melodies, not just with chords too,

but putting single note lines in there. Not in the bass, Peter. I got excited. I got excited. Peter keeps playing melodies while I'm trying to demonstrate it. That's right. Let's do a C blues and this is what you might typically hear when you're just kind of stuck on the one voicing without any melodic content.

One, two, three, and... There's nothing wrong with this again. This is a sound. These little melodies here just staying within one place. It's a decision. It's your decision. It's a good decision. It's a good decision.

But you could also do things like, add melodic content. It doesn't have to be just with chords. It can be actual melodies. Again, I'm comping. I'm hearing an imaginary solo. Call that solo snuffaloficus. All of those things,

just letting your, at least at first, letting even just that top voice sort of dictate a melody to you can be just a really fun practice to add to your practice schedule for comping. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, there's ways, too,

to think about, you know, we don't have to go too deep into this, but this, hopefully, just to get some of you kind of thinking next level as you're practicing, even like, so if we're in C, like, if we go 36, 251, you know, just that. All those kind of allotted things on top. But you can also think about those little melodies. Yeah, but remember you mentioned the beginning of like, ideally all voices being melodies.

So if we say six-no voicing like this, it is a tall order to think about each one independently, like resolving and becoming its own thing. But a little trick on this is like just take three and three, for instance. You could do two and two as well, but we'll go three and three. So there's E minor seven, what is the E minor, 11 kind of thing? And then I'm just thinking about these as triads. I said D triad. So like what triad could I go to for A? And what, you know, for A7.

Right. It gives you, it naturally gives you voice leading when you think about it. Yeah, because not, you don't want every note to move. So we go E minor to C minor in the left hand, D major in the right hand. to B-flat minor, and then maybe do, you know, C major and D minor. And then, yeah, exactly. So that's like, not everything. Love that root on that, too, buddy.

Yeah. Well, then we're not making two mistakes at the same time. That's right. So, you know, happy Halloween, by the way. Happy Halloween, okay. So again, if the word mistake is brusselling, you just consider these a little bit of guardrails for your practice time so that you're trying new things and just know there are other ways to do it,

besides just doubling every note in a chord. There are other ways to do it besides only using rootless voicings. And there are other ways to do it besides just being as close as possible with no melodic content. You can practice, you know, oh, that sounds great. You can practice all of these other ways to come. I think we should leave it here. I think the ghosts have been invaded. Happy Halloween, y'all, a week late.

Oh, spooky. Until next time. You'll hear it. it.