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Personal Piano Professor, Issue#034 -Chord Formulas
August 15, 2014
Greetings keyboard friends!

Please Learn these Chord Formulas

Greetings piano fans.

Once again , thank you for your interest in these free online lessons. I sincerely hope that you are experiencing all the great benefits learning to play keyboards has to offer.

A personal note

Have you ever been looking online for the chords to a song and find a page where chords are given like this? D/F# A C E (this is a D9 chord.)

To me the question is why process 5 symbols when 2 will do?

I must conclude that the person posting chords in that way just is unaware of any chord theory and just plays the keyboard visually. Its okay if you do that but it is very ,very limiting.

A Gal showed up at our church to play in the praise team along with me recently and I asked her can you play a G7 chord.

Although she has some finger skills I could not communicate the chord progressions for any of the songs because she never learned about Chords and learned every thing the hard way. She had to see G/ B D F in order to play a G Chord.

While she can play a few solo pieces that way she cannot communicate with the rest of the band and that is unfortunate.

If you still learn piano that way or have never taken the time to learn the chord formulas in the lesson below I hope you will do so now!

Keyboard Chord Formulas

Hey, I wonder if you could do me a favor and visit and like my Face Book page for Personal Piano Professor. I am really trying to learn the whole social media thing. Perhaps you can help me...lol

Personal Piano Professor on Facebook

For new readers I always include this great intro to the keyboard!! I am hoping that each of you will be able to learn the language of music and find the song in you!!

For Beginners Only

It covers sitting at the piano, hand position, basic fingering and you will even learn 7 important chords that will have you making music quickly.

Click the link below to begin.

First Adult Piano Lesson.

Piano Chord Inversions

I have to give credit to one of our readers for sending in this question on a contact form.

Her name is Dee and she wrote:

"Hi, I'm a beginner adult piano student who found your website in hopes of learning a method for memorizing chord inversions. How do i begin? I'm determined to learn this but sometimes it's overwhelming. Should it take a long time to accomplish? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you."

First, the definition of invert is:

Put upside down or in the opposite position, order, or arrangement.

That is the dictionary definition and it fits well because when we invert a piano chord we simply take the bottom of the chord ( lowest note) and make it the top (highest note).

Click the link below for the rest of the lesson....

Piano Chord Inversions

Popular Chord Progressions

I was playing a gig a week ago when a Guitarist asked if he could play one of his original songs. I said "sure" and asked if he wanted me to accompany him. His concern was that I had never heard the song and he began to play.

He was amazed that I was able to anticipate every chord change he made in the song!

The reason I could do this is that after 50 years of playing popular music as a profession, I have found that a good 80% of all popular chord progressions fall under one of 4 basic progression in this lesson.

Knowing these basic pop chord progressions will allow you to play thousands of songs.

To get started click the link below.

Popular Chord Progressions

Learn the 12 bar blues progression on piano."

Learning the 12 bar blues progression is basic to understanding the roots of American popular music.

When you see a group of musicians getting together to play everyone seems to know what to do almost magically.

This is because at one time or another they learned the 12 bar blues progression.

While there are lots of variations of this timeless progression the most common is a three chord 12 measure version explained in this lesson.

The 12 bar Blues for piano

4 Steps to Learning How to Play Any Song on the Piano

1. Determining the melody - Melodies determine what chords will be played. If you can use your ear to figure out what notes are being played in the melody, you are 1/4 on your way to learning a song! More resources on learning how to determine melodies

2.Harmonizing the melody - Once you have figured out the melody (using some of my techniques on the resource page), it is time to harmonize it. This is simply choosing various chords to accompany the melody. There are several techniques and tricks to doing this. More resources on learning how to harmonize melodies

3. Altering Chords - This is the best part! Now that you have strategically figured out the melody to a song and have harmonized it, altering your chords to produce certain sounds is the next step. If you were playing gospel music, you would alter your chords differently than if you were playing classical or country music. More resources on altering chords

4. Listening - After you have determined the melody, harmonized the melody, and altered some of your chords, there are various techniques you can use to make sure that your song sounds right. More resources on listening techniques

I personally recommend "The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear" 300-pg Course and through my relationship with Jermaine (the author of this course), I've been able to get him to throw in a few bonus items (3 additional piano software programs). He has taught literally thousands of musicians how to play the piano by ear. If you understood just half of what he discussed above, you'll definitely benefit from his 300-pg course. Click here to learn the secrets to playing absolutely any song on the piano in virtually minutes! I highly recommend it.
Learn Jazz Here!!

Best Gospel Course for Ear players

Introducing GospelKeys 101...

Now In Less Than 2 Hours, You Can Jump Start Your Piano Playing With These 3 Easy Steps!

Dear Friend,

Jermaine Griggs, the pioneer of the award-winning GospelKeys learning system, has come up with 3 simple steps so that you won't waste any time at all. In fact, it'll virtually cut your learning time in half! I copied and pasted the most important parts below so you can get a general idea.

HERE IT GOES...

Step One: Determining the Melody

Step Two: Harmonizing the Melody

Step Three: Adding the Bass


These three steps are not super complicated theories that require several years of experience. In fact, they were designed for the total beginner with absolutely no musical experience.

What most people don't understand is that most songs follow patterns. If you've been mistakenly learning songs, one by one, you're only exercising your ability to MEMORIZE chords --- and
that's exactly why it takes SO LONG to learn just one song.

BUT...

If you concentrate on LEARNING PATTERNS, you'll never go wrong because songs are built on repeating patterns. You should NEVER EVER have to memorize dozens of songs when they all share the same exact CHORDS, PROGRESSIONS, AND PATTERNS.

So head over to their site and let me know what you think

If you have any questions, feel free to reply.

Talk soon,




P.S. - You might find more interesting information, techniques, or resources just by clicking around on their website..
I want to remind you that many of the ideas for lessons come from those of you who contact me with questions. I encourage you to let me know what you need.

Also you can find a contact form on the site and suggest a song for a future lesson. Don't be shy. Let me know how i can help!!

I am grateful for all of you, and wish you the best success in your playing!!

Thanks, Greg

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