{"id":940,"date":"2020-05-04T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/?p=940"},"modified":"2023-01-12T15:17:57","modified_gmt":"2023-01-12T23:17:57","slug":"sound-jazzy-piano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/sound-jazzy-piano\/","title":{"rendered":"“Jazz Up” Your Piano Playing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<< Download your FREE jazz music here >><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes a song sound \u201cjazzy\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And how do you get it to sound that way? Sam is back with another fantastic jazz lesson that will show you some very simple ways you jazz-up pretty much any song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To prove that this works, he\u2019ll show us how it\u2019s done using \u201cTwinkle, Twinkle, Little Star\u201d. Here\u2019s the first line of the song before we do anything fancy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As you can see, we\u2019re in the key of C major and we\u2019ll be playing chords with our left hand and the melody with our right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But before we make any changes, we need to answer the question at the start of this post. What makes a song sound \u201cjazzy\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, there are a few things, but one of the biggest is this\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7th Chords<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

7th chords (or seventh chords) are the backbone of jazz music. Pretty much every chord you will ever see or play in jazz is some sort of 7th chord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019re so popular that many jazz standards don\u2019t even write \u201c7\u201d on the music. It\u2019s just assumed that you know it\u2019ll be a 7th chord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So for our jazz version of \u201cTwinkle, Twinkle\u201d, we\u2019ll be turning all of our regular chords into some sort of 7th chord. So our first line will now look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If this looks a bit much, don\u2019t worry. We\u2019ll show you how to build all of these chords for \u201cTwinkle, Twinkle\u201d in the key of C. The important thing to remember is that we\u2019ll be using only white notes for every chord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019d like a more in-depth lesson on 7th chords in general, simply click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Major 7th chords<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll be building two different major 7th chords for this song. The first one is the first chord of the song, which is C major 7 (also written as C maj 7).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our normal C chord has a C-E-G. These notes represent the numbers 1-3-5 when we count up from C (C is 1, E is 3, G is 5). So to make a 7th chord we need to count up 7 notes from C to find the note we will add, which is a B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So our C major 7 chord now has 4 notes (C-E-G-B) and it looks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s called a C major 7 chord because all of the notes in the chord are naturally found in the C major scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now we\u2019ll do the same thing for our F chord. Remember we are in the key of C so we need to use all white notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our F triad has the notes F-A-C. Can you guess the extra note we\u2019ll have to add? Counting up 7 notes from F gives us an E. So our chord has the notes F-A-C-E:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is also an F major 7 chord because all of the notes in the chord are naturally found in the F major scale (even though we are in the key of C).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s only one more chord we need to learn, and it\u2019s not a major 7th\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Dominant 7th<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is the chord we will build from the G triad. We\u2019ll use the same principles as before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So our G chord has the notes G-B-D (1-3-5 counting up from G). If we count up 7 notes from G what note do we get?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

F!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So our chord is G-B-D-F.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But here is the problem!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are in the key of C major, which means we\u2019re using all white keys. But the F note is NOT in the key of G major (it\u2019s F#). So this chord is NOT a G major 7, because it is not using notes from the G major scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, we call this a G dominant 7. In music, it\u2019s just written as a G7. Now why it\u2019s called the dominant 7th is a lesson for another day (it\u2019s kind of complicated). But notice how it creates a really unique sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In music, we use these chords to build a feeling of tension and uncertainty. The chord feels \u201cunfinished\u201d and sounds like it wants to resolve. It\u2019s a very powerful technique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Note on Chord Inversions<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In this lesson, you will see Sam play a weird-looking chord in measure 14. In music it looks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And on the keys it looks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While it may look confusing, this is a G7 in 2nd Inversion. All that means is we are taking all the notes in a G7 chord (G-B-D-F) and arranging them in a different order. In this case, that order is D-F-G-B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the notes are still the same, and it\u2019s still a G7 chord. Watch this lesson<\/a> for more on inversions with 7th chords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So now we have the chords. But there\u2019s still one more thing to add to make this song a jazz tune.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rhythm and Swing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jazz songs have a certain rhythm and swing to them. They\u2019re not straight on the beat, boring 4\/4 tunes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So try adding a bit of rhythm and playing some of the chords on the “off” the beat to create that jazzy feel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This can be tricky for new players, so don\u2019t feel upset if you\u2019re not at Sam\u2019s level after one try (he is a pro after all).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Start simply by playing one chord on the “off” beat. Then when you can do that, try adding in another one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rhythm can be a challenge. We have a lesson here<\/a> with some fantastic tips on how to improve your rhythm that will help you with your piano playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And you\u2019ve done it! You\u2019ve changed \u201cTwinkle, Twinkle Little Star\u201d from a boring old lullaby into a swinging jazz standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What other songs could you try and make jazzy? Comment below to let me know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have fun!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Make anything sound jazzy with these simple tips<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":5251,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[507,524,509],"tags":[1088],"class_list":["post-940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chord-theory","category-styles","category-technique","tag-ch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10783,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940\/revisions\/10783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pianote.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}