This is Section #1 of 2 of the online video overview
taken
from the "Chord Voicings Vault"
[Partial Transcript of this piano lessons video below...]
Let's dig into the main screen of this program. Right away you can see that there is a settings bar. It says, "Choose a chord type".
Inside, there are all kinds of music chords that show up: all the way from triads, which are simple three note chords - and don't forget that if you grab the bar over here and scroll all the way down, you'll see many different piano chords all the way down to advanced jazz alterations and higher extensions. It's like a university in a box!
Let's start really simple with a major triad on the piano and see what happens. All of a sudden you get another drop down box that says "Now choose a chord voicing". This is what makes this program unique.
There are lots of different books and programs out there that will show you many different kinds of musical chords that can be played on the piano or the keyboard. That's fantastic, but this program goes way beyond that. Not only will it show you all of those chords that can be played, but then it will also show you suggested voicings for each chord. "Voicings" are what make piano chords come to life!
Now here's my musical disclaimer: these suggested chord voicings are not all of the voicings that exist. These are piano chord voicings that as a piano player of many years I've found are very effective with these chords. Let's take a look at that...
At the top of every list of suggested voicings there's one entry that says "Non-voiced". This is the common way that the vast majority of piano and keyboard players play chords: stacked from bottom to top, just like you find in the music theory books.
So once we've made a choice, we get a third drop down box. We'll study the third drop down box in just a moment, because that's the section where you learn to take all of these piano chord voicings and really get them under your hands. But for now, let's ignore the third drop down box.
So far, I chose "Non-voiced". Now let's play the keyboard and see what happens.
[keyboard playing]
Like you saw there, the keyboard played a major triad. It shows you the root, the third, and the fifth, built on whenever note you played. Now listen to it nice and low on the keyboard. That piano chord is really muddy on the bottom half of the keyboard!
Now let's take a look at the magic of chord voicings. Let's go back to the second drop down box, and choose one of the suggested chord voicings. I'll choose the one that says "1,5:3,1". Notice that there are four numbers separated by a colon. The numbers on the left of the: are notes that are played on the piano by the left hand. The numbers on the right side of the: are notes that are played on the piano by the right hand.
Now I've picked a note on the keyboard nice and low. You'll notice that it's not going to sound muddy like the original "Non-voiced" chord did. All the sudden it sounds rich and beautiful on the piano.
[keyboard playing] Listen to that - the notes are nice and spread out.
Do you see the notes that are being played? You've got a D, and A, and F sharp, and another D on top. If I go back to the non-voiced version of the same chord, I still have a D, an F sharp, and an A. The voicing spreads out the notes of the piano chord and makes it sound fantastic! You can play the same chord on the keyboard, but now you can play it really low and it sounds rich instead of muddy.
In just a minute, we'll talk about drop down box number three, where the real magic of the program happens, so stick with this video, you don't want to miss this. I wish I had this music program when I was just starting out on piano lessons. But now I'm giving the program to you! So stick with it and it'll be a great tool as you study music.
Let's take a look at a music chord a little further down in the list now. In the top section of the first drop down box, you have major and minor triads as well as altered triads. A little further down is a section on seventh chords. We're going to scroll down even further yet. Let's take a look at a major nine chord.
If I play the keyboard without using a voicing, the program will say "Please choose a voicing". Like we did earlier, let's first choose the non voiced version...
[this has been a partial transcription of this video]