How To Improvise When Playing Piano & Keyboard
By Lee Gabor
4/5
()
About this ebook
You can learn to improvise by substituting 6th, minor, 7th, major 7th, augmented and diminished chords in place of basic chords. Graphics illustrate chords and voicings and all 12 Keys are shown as scales plus 2 chords probably used in a song (IV and V) plus "maybe" chord. Sample songs are included. One is "When You Need Me I'll Be There" and coupon code in book lets you obtain sheet music free.
Lee Gabor
I am first and foremost inquisitive, always wanting to know what goes on globally and locally and wanting to understand WHY! Being a newspaper reporter was the career with which I began. Then, as a pianist and vocalist, I spent a number of years entertaining throughout the U.S. I also owned a talent agency during that time. After those 25 years, my next career was in public education, which was something I never intended to do. Getting "drafted" into teaching and the time I spent as an Academic Coordinator were very interesting and I do so love the students and teachers, administrators, and staff members I met. I'm very proud of our students. After six years, I left teaching and moved near my son and his family. I became a Master Gardener and Master Composter, joined local organizations, and have been able to enjoy more time with my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. I am thrilled that my professional focus now is limited to writing. I will be publishing both fiction and non-fiction works and begin that in new venture in 2012.
Read more from Lee Gabor
A Tribute to The Cellar Door Piano Bar Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSheet Music How Can I Make It Through Christmas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSheet Music The Birthday Song Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClassroom Success Through Creativity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSheet Music (Two Guitars, an Old Piano) Hank and Elvis and Me Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTwo Parody Songs About Umpires Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTexas Bootstomp Boogie Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSheet Music Black Creole Eyes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSheet Music When You Need Me I'll Be There Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPig Tales Volume 4: Two Parties In One Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSheet Music Love Never Dies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBad Day At Eagle Rock Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Southern Cooking: Recipes for My Favorite Fried Foods Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Shirt Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSheet Music Round On A Carousel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPig Tales: Volume 3 - The SMART Board Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSheet Music Magic Lights Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSheet Music All I Want For Christmas Is An Angel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSheet Music Old Fashioned Sunday Afternoon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPig Tales: Volume 2 - The Pigs Win the Contest Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPig Tales: Volume 1 - The Stinky, Skinny Wolf Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSheet Music All The Angels Aren't In Heaven Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Tribute to the PIGs Clubs of Madison WI and Houston TX Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSheet Music My Love, You're My Every Day Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSheet Music (My Paradise Is) Just A Wedding Ring Away Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAstrology Fun Sun Sign Song Parodies with Birthdays of Famous People Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSheet Music I See Love Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSheet Music You Make Life Better When You Give Your Best Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTexas Trilogy: 1.The Legacy, the Screenplay Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to How To Improvise When Playing Piano & Keyboard
Related ebooks
Becoming a Great Sight-Reader–or Not! Learn From My Quest for Piano Sight-Reading Nirvana Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Blues Scale for Piano/Keyboards Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Piano Chords One: A Beginner’s Guide To Simple Music Theory and Playing Chords To Any Song Quickly: Piano Authority Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLearn Jazz Piano: book 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Playing the Piano By Ear Means Never Having to Remember The Notes When You Tickle The Ivories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5teach yourself...Jazz Piano Comping Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Learn Jazz Piano: book 4: How to solo Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 7 Theory: Discover the Secrets to Hearing Music & Playing Music Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHorton's Ways Around the Piano Keys (Made Easy) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Intro to Music Theory: The Nuts and Bolts of Music Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Easyway to Read Music Treble Clef: The Easiest-Best-Fastest Way To Read Music - In One Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hal Leonard Pocket Music Theory (Music Instruction): A Comprehensive and Convenient Source for All Musicians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blues Play-a-Long and Solos Collection for Piano/Keyboards Beginner Series Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Play Jazz Piano Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSelf learning Jazz Harmony Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Play Piano: A Beginner’s Guide to Learning the Keyboard, Music, and Techniques Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYour Training Notebook On Pop Music Special Chord Progressions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Learn How to Play Piano Keyboard for Absolute Beginners: A Self Tuition Book for Adults and Teenagers! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gospel Riffs God Would Love To Hear for Piano/Keyboards: Gospel Riffs God Would Love To Hear Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Memorize Music –A Practical Approach for Non-Geniuses Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Easyway to Read Music Bass Clef Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Musical Guide To Magical Songwriting Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMelody: How to Write Great Tunes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gospel Riffs God Would Love To Hear for Organ: Gospel Riffs God Would Love To Hear Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKeyboard Skills for Music Producers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to compose songs in 30 minutes using your iPhone or iPad Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Music For You
The Circle of Fifths: Visual Tools for Musicians, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Music Theory For Dummies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Weird Scenes Inside The Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & The Dark Heart Of The Hippie Dream Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Easyway to Play Piano: A Beginner's Best Piano Primer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Learn Your Fretboard: The Essential Memorization Guide for Guitar (Book + Online Bonus) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Me: Elton John Official Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Everything Songwriting Book: All You Need to Create and Market Hit Songs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Strange Loop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bowie: An Illustrated Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Songwriting: Essential Guide to Lyric Form and Structure: Tools and Techniques for Writing Better Lyrics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hal Leonard Pocket Music Theory (Music Instruction): A Comprehensive and Convenient Source for All Musicians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Meaning of Mariah Carey Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Learn Guitar A Beginner's Course Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Singing Coach Secrets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5More Myself: A Journey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Singing For Dummies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/588 Piano Classics for Beginners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Play Ukulele: A Complete Guide for Beginners Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Open Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Songwriting For Dummies Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Music Theory For Beginners Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Can I Say: Living Large, Cheating Death, and Drums, Drums, Drums Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guitar For Dummies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for How To Improvise When Playing Piano & Keyboard
13 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It's the basic, open and easy approach one should have to teach whoever is willing to learn.
Basic, because it's everything you need to know if you want to play ballads or well-known songs. Or if eventually you want to go deeper.
Open, because it has an eye on the audience, and the satisfaction it brings to play in public.
Easy, because the theory is all there, now go practice... - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It was ok. I was a little to basic in contents.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5the author is very intuitive guide and easy learning...
with simpe song and then step by step example and summary - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ottima applicazione completa e esaustiva la migliore in commercio consigliata
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Maybe usefull if you want to learn the different chords, but it doesn't teach the process of improvisation, at all...
Book preview
How To Improvise When Playing Piano & Keyboard - Lee Gabor
Introduction
This book contains a lot of information. If you're extremely right brain-lobe oriented, feel free to skip all the text, print the graphics, and go to the summary chapter with the chords and learn those you want to learn and then just mess around using various chords in the songs you want to play and I suggest you use various voicings of the chords.
If you're comfortable with text and, especially, if you're just beginning, you will learn something in every chapter. And, every tiny bit helps one to become a better pianist.
The three things I hope you learn well in this book are 1) try some different chords and practice them in songs you like using various voicings; 2) enjoy playing the way you want to and don't get discouraged if, at first, you aren't extremely pleased with the sounds you're creating; and 3) take responsibility for yourself and don't allow others to discourage you or hold you back. God gave us many abilities we don't use. This book is to encourage you to try a skill that can bring you great enjoyment.
Obviously, the more you practice, the better you will play. The more you try new chords, the sooner you'll add those to your repertoire.
Although I took a few piano lessons when I was a child, I play primarily by ear. If you would like to see a video of me playing piano and singing (1987) with very little video of my hands at the keyboard, please go here. If you want to see my hands at the piano keyboard playing bits of a few various songs, go here. The videos are from a quarter of a century ago and I think I play better now, lol! At least, I hope so! BTW, the few minutes of hands at piano was copied from the Master tape on which the other songs were recorded. When I scheduled the recording session in Houston, I ordered two video cameras, one stationary and the other roving, so that a lot of tape could be captured of the musicians and me actually playing instruments. Unfortunately, the recording studio didn't follow through and there was only one camera. After recording whole songs during which time the camera was stationary, the videographer grabbed the camera and walked around the studio to videotape outtakes
that could be cut into the final recording. The video of my hands at the keyboard is one of those outtakes.
One other thought - in this book I mentioned stride
piano style and refer you to a video on YouTube that discusses this. In the video of me playing piano (hands on keyboard), I play Faded Love
in a stride manner.
I am very proud to be a member of ASCAP!
Since we will start our lessons using the Key of C major in this book, here is a graphic of the C major scale on a piano or electronic keyboard. If we played past that B and pressed the next note, we will play a C (invisible in the graphic) and that C makes the OCTAVE or 8 notes.
This next graphic adds the numbers we use when talking about the notes in the scale.
Finally, this next graphic adds the numbers, but in the format of Roman numerals, which are more commonly used to describe the notes in the scale.
Later, you'll learn all the black notes and other 11 Keys IF YOU WANT TO, but I really think to GET THE LESSONS I'm offering, you MUST understand C Major Scale to the first Octave: Therefore, if you aren't already familiar with the C major scale, please don't go further into the book until you know the notes by their letter designations, their number designations, and, if possible, their Roman Numeral designations.
What Is Improvisation
First thing I want to mention is that in the chapter titled Rock of Ages, you'll find lead sheet
music for the old hymn with melody and very simplified chords noted. These are simple triad (3-note) chords. After that, you'll find a sample of the song with full staff (treble and bass clefs). The song is played in an improvisational manner and using some of the chords you'll learn about in this ebook.
A lead sheet
is often used by musicians in place of full sheet music. Lead sheets typically show only the treble clef with melody lines and above that the chords listed. If the song has lyrics, they usually appear below the staff. The melody and chords offer enough information to professional musicians and vocalists, since these people improvise.
I can't emphasize enough that TO LEARN HOW TO IMPROVISE, the best thing you can do is to record yourself playing a song you like and then start messing around with it and recording your improvisation. Not everything will necessarily sound great. That's true for all of us, even for the greatest pianists. The more you work with expressing yourself, the better you'll get. We build what is called muscle memory as we play chords that are more expanded than the simple triad chords. Also, as we play three-note (triad) chords in various voicings,
we develop that muscle memory. These voicings
are explained a bit later. It is that muscle memory we want