Piano Lessons - Slash Chords and Straddles: Major 9 Chords

Piano Lessons continued from previous page...

Let's go back to the D Major 7 chord - from bottom to top in closed position it's D, F#, A and C#. To transform it into a slash chord, we simply play the root in the left hand, and in the right hand we count up 5 notes (in the scale of D) and build a major triad (A Major).

Now when we apply the straddle technique in this piano lesson, the left hand won't change on the piano at all. You'll just continue playing the D (or a couple of D's) in your left hand on the keyboard.

The straddle technique will apply to your right hand - if you've watched the first video piano lesson on straddles, you know that you can play any inversion of A... anywhere on the piano, but then to transform it into a straddle, you simply leave out whatever note happens to be in the middle of each inversion.

It's very simple - just remember to change a standard closed position Major 7th chord into it's slash chord equivalent, play the ROOT on the piano with your left hand, and then simply play a triad a 5th higher

Once you apply the straddle technique to open it up, all of a sudden you're all over the keyboard playing really nice Major 7th chords... or rather Major 9 chords!