Piano Lessons - Slash Chords and Straddles: The Major 9 Chord

Today, we're going to combine a couple different techniques from previous piano lessons to create something totally new.

Specifically, we'll use the slash chords technique as well as the straddle technique that we studied earlier to create lush Major 7 chords up and down the keyboard.

Major 7 chords are very "clean" sounding, bright chords that can really gloss up the sound of your piano playing.

In our blues piano lessons, we frequently use the Dominant 7th chord, which imparts a more "Gritty" or "Bluesy" sound, but Major 7 chords tend to sound "open" and bright, especially when you add the straddle technique to them.

Just for review, let's take a look at a Major 7 chord. Now I'm going to assume that you've already gone through the original piano lessons course titled "Pattern Piano and Keyboard". In that course, you'll learn simple patterns that will enable you to construct every conceivable type of 7th chord, including the Major 7 chord we're looking at today.

Let's take a look at D Major 7. From bottom to top, the notes are D, F#, A and C#. When they're stacked from bottom to top, from the root of D up to C#, that's called a "closed chord voicing".

In this lesson, we're going to apply two different techniques from previous lessons to this Major 7 chord: the "slash" chord technique and then the "straddle technique".

First, the "Slash chord technique..."

To play a Major 7 chord as a slash chord, simply play the root in your left hand, and then with your right hand, play a major triad built on a note that's a 5th higher. Here's the great part - you can play that Major triad anywhere you'd like on the piano in any chord inversion.

All of a sudden you have a real simple thing to play on the piano because your mind is only thinking of that simple triad (three note chord) in your right hand and the root of the chord in your left hand.

In truth, you're actually creating a Major 9 chord, because this slash chord formula introduces the Major 7th as well as the 9th into the chord, so you're instantly getting some delicious higher chord extensions for free!