Tom has really got the ability to put over in the most simple terms, the whole thing. I'm a pretty less than average player, but in a couple of lessons I've figured out a whole lot. It's true what he says: I can remember when I was a 7 year old trying to understand what my harridan of a piano teacher (she with the ruler if you didn't hold your hands up, no wonder we all quit in droves) was trying to teach me. The only things I remember were A cow eats grass etc etc. I knew kind of the chords, but major, minor, minor, major, major, minor diminished were never explained. Great.
I'm happy to hear you've found this video useful, this one was shot over 10 years ago before we even had a TH-cam channel it was the video that formed the foundation of our harmony method classes at the London Contemporary School of Piano.
Tom, you are a very talented tutor who switched on a bulb in my novice musician head. You helped me linking some dots in a very logical way. That vii° chord still remains something hidden in the dark. Everywhere I hear the same hints: "leave it alone", "do not use". This is intriguing me. I have to make some research on my own. 🤔
Great point about the diminished chord. Here is a tutorial I dedicated to this topic alone. th-cam.com/video/RSK8VvsTf2w/w-d-xo.htmlsi=_8yfov7WOeNftFIo
@@contemporaryschoolofpiano Another excellent presentation, another lit light bulb in my head. In my adolescence I heard that people don't like classical music because they don't understand it. What?? Of course, I didn't "understood" music, but even complicated prog rock pieces of Genesis or Pink Floyd penetrated to the core of my soul. Classical why not? How to learn classical music?? Listened once, twice, ten times and still remained untouched, cold, bored and disillusioned. Now I understand. I should have learned music *theory* to prepare my ear and my brain to those abstract diminished chords to feel Beethoven closer. 🤓
This was an outstanding lesson for a beginner. What seems so enormous and overwhelming was simplified greatly. You don’t have to wait 3 years to sound like a piano player! Thank you so much.
Brilliant ! Perfect introduction to the Harmony Principle!. Will never see Scales in a tedious way ever again. Every Scale will be practice along with all it Harmony Patterns!
Wow! You are such a good teacher. It really didn't work out for me as a kid, but you have given me hope and encouragement here. My mom bought me a piano when I was a kid. Long story short, I hated the boring songs I practiced, and the piano sat for 30 years. Along comes my son who could play by ear. So, I sold my piano and bought him a baby grand! He now has his baby grand in his1 house and I have his keyboard. I am excited that I can start to make some beautiful music just for me to enjoy! Thank you so much
Many thanks!!! Glad you enjoyed the tutorial! Please check out our website for more videos: www.contemporaryschoolofpiano.com We also do offer online piano lessons. To book a one-off 90-minute online piano discovery session with no obligation to continue, please follow this link: www.contemporaryschoolofpiano.com/home/online-piano-discovery-session/
Wow! Wish I knew all this years ago. Have always regretted giving up piano lessons as a youngster!! But, I’m back and I’m going to have fun making music 🎶 ( Thanks from South Africa)
Thank you. It's nice that you promote experimentation/discovery as opposed to regimental training. Music should be fun and that is what you seem to go for.
This is fantastic new information Which makes so much sense rather than memorizing all kinds of cords without implementation .I regret that I did not discover you before thanks 1 million
I'm glad these musical shapes have helped you gain more inspiration! Simple things like this are the most powerful, but I still find this useful. Water is simple, but we need it!
He's the best - lucky enough to be one of his students. Not only does he live and breathe the piano and music and play it so beautifully, but he is so humble and speaks 'your' language. Great guy.
@@contemporaryschoolofpiano Precisely what I meant is that your discovery class is $125 Pounds, so I am talking being at reach for the rest of the world, as a third world country living being I just can´t afford to pay it, it is just a 2 week full salary for one class, so my petition is to actually think big and create all your system in a way hundred of thousands will pay let´s say 19USD a month and have full access AND : 1) You will earn way way much more than you do right now, 2) we all humans who live in a completely economic disadvantage can connect, give and receive along with you, 3) your private classes can be payed even higher you charge now because you are already offering it as an online pre recorded course, so in person online will have a higer value, and as your audience grows thanks to the onloine model I am suggesting, you will have the welthiest clients looking for that special one on one class 4) we embrace as nature evolves in a model of mutual cooperation. That´s what I meant in my post. I really hope you catch the energy and intention of this message. I dream me and my kid could learn from you.
Hi Tom, how can you say "there are 7 chords in western music"????- what about: augmented, diminished, major & minor 7ths, suspended chords, ninth chords etc???
Very good question. Think of it like this. Primary chords of music are like the primary colours. What does this mean in music theory. The function of all of these chords collapse just into these 7 chords. Take chord 7. It's the diminished chord. Take a dominant 7th chord it's called a dominant 7th because it is built from chord 5 (the dominant chord of the scale) the minor 7ths are from chords 2 3 and 6 the major 7ths from 1 and 4. Suspended chords they are built from these triads from the scale (except 7 which is diminished as previously mentioned). Chords like Augmented chords lead us to the main triads to create tension. As for Augmented try playing C to Caug to F major. Effectively it's a fancy 1 to chord 4 with a chromatic rising note as if it were like a melody...all in all chords always move back to their primary colours. These primary chords. They are always there.
@@contemporaryschoolofpiano Yes, fine but the problem is you are not playing these chords🤔- they may come from the 7 primary colour chords but have to be played - example: when you played " Let it be" in 2nd video , there is a F6 and F major 7th chord in the opening that you didn't play, resulting in a bland /childlike sounding version??- can you imagine playing Steely Dan tunes and just playing the straight chords and not the major 7ths and 9ths that they frequently use?????'’
@ronanportley4409 I am playing these 7 triads on this particular video. But yes in other videos, I'm playing other chords or adding more embellishments. I'd also play the more complex version if I were gigging with the song. In quality music education we need different videos for different levels or standards and this video is not childlike to one discovering these useful patterns for the first time and even many advanced players haven't learnt to hear the 7 traids which is a valuable reference for how to play by ear. TH-cam doesn't really cover the individual learning plan. There is probably little point to have a less than meaningful discussion about one video vs. another. If one is interested in the idea of primary triads being central to all things Western Harmony, you can also check out Shenkerian Theory. It's an interesting take on western music being built on only 2 chords (the theory is even something as complex as a Steely Dan song can be reduced to just a cadenze - a good SD example comes to mind "Home at last" despite the jazzy progressions its still just a straightforward natural minor chord 1 groove, another great example Wayne Shorters Footprints, highly complex jazz harmonies, but still when broken down into it's core triads, it's just another 12 bar blues) For anyone wanting to play by ear the 7 chords in the scale reference is highly valuable, and it's an extra rabbit hole for those who are interested in this topic.
@@contemporaryschoolofpiano Hi Tom, I was using the word " childlike" in the context of comparison of the easy version to the more complex one , not as any reference to people's view of the 7 triads- thanks for clarifying that you do other videos with the more complex chords etc and for the " heads up" on the Shenkerian theory - I hadn't heard of that👍👍
@@ronanportley4409 yes I understand exactly what you mean by childlike - we wouldn't want to hear the piece at a concert without chord dissonance and inversions! One thing I've personally learned playing music for my whole life (and this is subjective in some ways) is the power of the simple things and the consequence of overlooking them for the complex things. The simple things always come back, in many cases in my own playing they've come back to bite me for overlooking them!!
I know - the YT algorithm doesn't go in a musical sequence! That's why we now use our resources pack you can request one from our website, www.contemporaryschoolofpiano.com it means that people can at least sequence their learning to our materials, rather than TH-cam suggesting it!
Oh my god thank you very much .
@Tom Donald - You are such an inspiration and an amazing teacher!
Tom has really got the ability to put over in the most simple terms, the whole thing. I'm a pretty less than average player, but in a couple of lessons I've figured out a whole lot. It's true what he says: I can remember when I was a 7 year old trying to understand what my harridan of a piano teacher (she with the ruler if you didn't hold your hands up, no wonder we all quit in droves) was trying to teach me. The only things I remember were A cow eats grass etc etc. I knew kind of the chords, but major, minor, minor, major, major, minor diminished were never explained. Great.
I'm happy to hear you've found this video useful, this one was shot over 10 years ago before we even had a TH-cam channel it was the video that formed the foundation of our harmony method classes at the London Contemporary School of Piano.
Tom, you are a very talented tutor who switched on a bulb in my novice musician head. You helped me linking some dots in a very logical way.
That vii° chord still remains something hidden in the dark. Everywhere I hear the same hints: "leave it alone", "do not use". This is intriguing me. I have to make some research on my own. 🤔
Great point about the diminished chord. Here is a tutorial I dedicated to this topic alone. th-cam.com/video/RSK8VvsTf2w/w-d-xo.htmlsi=_8yfov7WOeNftFIo
@@contemporaryschoolofpiano Another excellent presentation, another lit light bulb in my head. In my adolescence I heard that people don't like classical music because they don't understand it. What??
Of course, I didn't "understood" music, but even complicated prog rock pieces of Genesis or Pink Floyd penetrated to the core of my soul. Classical why not? How to learn classical music?? Listened once, twice, ten times and still remained untouched, cold, bored and disillusioned.
Now I understand. I should have learned music *theory* to prepare my ear and my brain to those abstract diminished chords to feel Beethoven closer. 🤓
This was an outstanding lesson for a beginner. What seems so enormous and overwhelming was simplified greatly. You don’t have to wait 3 years to sound like a piano player! Thank you so much.
Dear Jerry, that's exactly it: feel free to visit our website www.contemporaryschoolofpiano.com to find out more about our piano community
Brilliant !
Perfect introduction to the Harmony Principle!.
Will never see Scales in a tedious way ever again.
Every Scale will be practice along with all it Harmony Patterns!
Hi Tom, please see my question above - thks!@@contemporaryschoolofpiano
@@ronanportley4409 I can't see your question in the thread, can you write it again?
Awesome 👏 Congratulations 🎉 and THANK YOU 🙏 SO MUCH 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Wow! You are such a good teacher. It really didn't work out for me as a kid, but you have given me hope and encouragement here. My mom bought me a piano when I was a kid. Long story short, I hated the boring songs I practiced, and the piano sat for 30 years. Along comes my son who could play by ear. So, I sold my piano and bought him a baby grand! He now has his baby grand in his1 house and I have his keyboard. I am excited that I can start to make some beautiful music just for me to enjoy! Thank you so much
Many thanks!!! Glad you enjoyed the tutorial! Please check out our website for more videos: www.contemporaryschoolofpiano.com
We also do offer online piano lessons. To book a one-off 90-minute online piano discovery session with no obligation to continue, please follow this link: www.contemporaryschoolofpiano.com/home/online-piano-discovery-session/
Wow! Wish I knew all this years ago. Have always regretted giving up piano lessons as a youngster!! But, I’m back and I’m going to have fun making music 🎶 ( Thanks from South Africa)
Thank you. It's nice that you promote experimentation/discovery as opposed to regimental training. Music should be fun and that is what you seem to go for.
Music is for everyone
Thanks Tom
This guy just might be the best beginner-teacher on the web
He gets people playing actual music from day one.
Thanks, I'm glad you've found this helpful and useful
Absolutely fantastic
Am happy your teaching approach or methodology is easy to follow despite technicalities that is associated with
Many thanks!
This is fantastic new information Which makes so much sense rather than memorizing all kinds of cords without implementation .I regret that I did not discover you before thanks 1 million
So much information in such a short clip! Thanks!
good morning , I wanna say you again, that you a very good teacher!!! I am a beginner and your kind to teaching is very trickie ;-) thanks
Just amazing and so well presented, thank you loving my piano now when as a child I loathed it , so sad that my lessons didnt inspire me back then 😢
That's often the case with children, but now in later life, we can choose to play! It's never too late to really embrace it.
This is amazing!! Thank you so much!!!
Fabdelicious. I'm composing songs! This as an amazing new experience. Thank you.
Wonderful! That's great to hear
brilliant tutorial, I have been struggling but I feel it has really helped me and motivated me to persevere with my learning. Thank You..
I'm glad these musical shapes have helped you gain more inspiration! Simple things like this are the most powerful, but I still find this useful. Water is simple, but we need it!
Fantastic
You're awesome Tom... love your teaching.
Thank you! Great tutorial 🙏☘️🎵🌷
Thank you too!
Love it
Gracias, muy bueno!!!
Awesome! Thanks Tom...
thanks Tom. very helpful.
Hey what a change!
Great stuff - many thanks!
You are very welcome!
Thanks Tom, for not being stuffy and simplifying chords in the keys.
Thank you Charmian! Feel free to check out more of our videos on piano chords.
He's the best - lucky enough to be one of his students. Not only does he live and breathe the piano and music and play it so beautifully, but he is so humble and speaks 'your' language. Great guy.
Sadly I was looking forward to playing Mary Had A Little Lamb.
LoL
Actually this was a great explanation, merci.
Well now you can play Mary Had a Little Lamb in every key 🔑😉
Hi Tom, How can I express my best regard to you? it was 2006 when I came to you to get jazz lessons. Best wishes to you
Thank you Shahram!
Awesome
Whoaaaa :O
PLEASE MAKE YOUR SCHOOL ONLINE SO WE ALL PEOPLE FROM THE WORLD CAN PAY YOU AND AFFORD AT THE SAME TIME TO LEARN FROM YOU
Hi Dhruva, yes we give online classes. www.contemporaryschoolofpiano.com. If you'd like a guest pass to one of our seminars, just ask us anytime!
@@contemporaryschoolofpiano Precisely what I meant is that your discovery class is $125 Pounds, so I am talking being at reach for the rest of the world, as a third world country living being I just can´t afford to pay it, it is just a 2 week full salary for one class, so my petition is to actually think big and create all your system in a way hundred of thousands will pay let´s say 19USD a month and have full access AND : 1) You will earn way way much more than you do right now, 2) we all humans who live in a completely economic disadvantage can connect, give and receive along with you, 3) your private classes can be payed even higher you charge now because you are already offering it as an online pre recorded course, so in person online will have a higer value, and as your audience grows thanks to the onloine model I am suggesting, you will have the welthiest clients looking for that special one on one class 4) we embrace as nature evolves in a model of mutual cooperation. That´s what I meant in my post. I really hope you catch the energy and intention of this message. I dream me and my kid could learn from you.
Hi Tom, how can you say "there are 7 chords in western music"????- what about: augmented, diminished, major & minor 7ths, suspended chords, ninth chords etc???
Very good question. Think of it like this. Primary chords of music are like the primary colours. What does this mean in music theory. The function of all of these chords collapse just into these 7 chords. Take chord 7. It's the diminished chord. Take a dominant 7th chord it's called a dominant 7th because it is built from chord 5 (the dominant chord of the scale) the minor 7ths are from chords 2 3 and 6 the major 7ths from 1 and 4. Suspended chords they are built from these triads from the scale (except 7 which is diminished as previously mentioned). Chords like Augmented chords lead us to the main triads to create tension. As for Augmented try playing C to Caug to F major. Effectively it's a fancy 1 to chord 4 with a chromatic rising note as if it were like a melody...all in all chords always move back to their primary colours. These primary chords. They are always there.
@@contemporaryschoolofpiano
Yes, fine but the problem is you are not playing these chords🤔- they may come from the 7 primary colour chords but have to be played - example: when you played " Let it be" in 2nd video , there is a F6 and F major 7th chord in the opening that you didn't play, resulting in a bland /childlike sounding version??- can you imagine playing Steely Dan tunes and just playing the straight chords and not the major 7ths and 9ths that they frequently use?????'’
@ronanportley4409 I am playing these 7 triads on this particular video. But yes in other videos, I'm playing other chords or adding more embellishments. I'd also play the more complex version if I were gigging with the song. In quality music education we need different videos for different levels or standards and this video is not childlike to one discovering these useful patterns for the first time and even many advanced players haven't learnt to hear the 7 traids which is a valuable reference for how to play by ear. TH-cam doesn't really cover the individual learning plan. There is probably little point to have a less than meaningful discussion about one video vs. another. If one is interested in the idea of primary triads being central to all things Western Harmony, you can also check out Shenkerian Theory. It's an interesting take on western music being built on only 2 chords (the theory is even something as complex as a Steely Dan song can be reduced to just a cadenze - a good SD example comes to mind "Home at last" despite the jazzy progressions its still just a straightforward natural minor chord 1 groove, another great example Wayne Shorters Footprints, highly complex jazz harmonies, but still when broken down into it's core triads, it's just another 12 bar blues)
For anyone wanting to play by ear the 7 chords in the scale reference is highly valuable, and it's an extra rabbit hole for those who are interested in this topic.
@@contemporaryschoolofpiano
Hi Tom, I was using the word " childlike" in the context of comparison of the easy version to the more complex one , not as any reference to people's view of the 7 triads- thanks for clarifying that you do other videos with the more complex chords etc and for the " heads up" on the Shenkerian theory - I hadn't heard of that👍👍
@@ronanportley4409 yes I understand exactly what you mean by childlike - we wouldn't want to hear the piece at a concert without chord dissonance and inversions! One thing I've personally learned playing music for my whole life (and this is subjective in some ways) is the power of the simple things and the consequence of overlooking them for the complex things. The simple things always come back, in many cases in my own playing they've come back to bite me for overlooking them!!
Why I can only see it now but not 10 years ago? Why TH-cam only recommend it to me now? 😶🌫
I know - the YT algorithm doesn't go in a musical sequence! That's why we now use our resources pack you can request one from our website, www.contemporaryschoolofpiano.com it means that people can at least sequence their learning to our materials, rather than TH-cam suggesting it!