Fast Piano Lessons Blog

This lesson is a quickie!!!

1. Play along with the video.
2. Then play through all 12 major chords in one hand. Time yourself!
3. Then work on all 12 minor chords in one hand. Time yourself again! Try to beat 30 seconds. I know you can do it! I’ve had a few 5 year old piano students of mine accomplish this!
   

This will help you become one of the fastest piano players in the west!!! …or the east if thats where you live. If you live in the south, sorry you’re out of luck.

You don’t have to be able to play all those chords in 30 seconds, but it does help when you try an learn a new song. When learning a new song, you don’t get stuck on how to play the chord among the 50 million other things you have to learn, your only worry is what chord comes next. So just time yourself and make sure that you can find each chord in both hands fairly quickly!

How long does this take to learn?

I remember that it took me quite a few weeks to practice this and see a lot of improvement. Some of my piano students who practiced a little bit everyday have accomplished this goal to be able to play all their major triads in under 30 seconds in one week though!

What order should I play all the chords in?

They usually play them in this order because its fast: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, Ab, Bb, Db, Eb, F#. That’s useful, but eventually you’ll want to challenge yourself so you keep improving your reaction time and you’re not just practicing a routine. The circle of 5ths shown below is another pattern that you can play your chords in!

The Circle of Fifths:

The image below is the famous circle of fifths. It is a great way to make sure you get through all 12 keys when you’re practicing. Its called the circle of fifths because each chord is a 5th apart. Its a good challenge to find chords that leap so far apart.

There is a great technique that will add some cool new sounds to your playing and improvising. It plays with adding tension and then resolving it, taking a note that sounds really bad at first and then switching to a new note. Your ear forgets about how bad that first note sounded because the new is so refreshing!
 

Minor Chord to Major Chord:

We’ll get started by sliding from minor chords into major chords. The only note that changes is the 3rd, the middle one, so slide off with your middle finger. That might take some coordination practice so you can also use index finger at first if you need to…
 

The C Blues Scale:

The C blues scale has the notes C Eb F F# G Bb C. The Cminor chord fits perfectly over that scale. All of the notes in the blues scale sound great over the C minor chord.
 

 
To transpose this scale to another key, you should think of the scales structure rather than the note names. Rather than thinking C Eb F etc. try and remember [Root, b3rd, 4th, #4th, 5th, b7th, Octave].
 

Scales & Chords:

What scale to use on which chord is pretty easy to figure out for minor chords. On a C minor chord, use the Cminor scale. Lesson: Use the scale with the same name as the chord.
 
On major chords its a little different. On a C major chord, if I wanted to use a blues scale, my first choice would be A minor blues scale.
 
It has the notes A C D Eb E G A. You’ll notice that all the notes of a C chord are in the A blues scale and also that one black note we are sliding off of in the video, the Eb.
 
So the lesson for major chords is to remember, “If I play C minor, I want to go down the interval of a minor 3rd to find the correct scale, the A minor blues scale for improvising.” The structure is the same for all chords and scales, so think down a minor 3rd from the chord you’re in to find the appropriate blues scale.
 

PIANO LESSON REVIEW:

• If you’re playing in a major chord or key, slide off the flat 3rd of the chord or key.
• If its in a minor chord or key, slide of the #4/b5th of the chord or key.
• These notes are borrowed from the blues scale.

This piano lesson is much easier to learn the song from.
I slowly walk through the whole song with a lot more clarity… The video also covers a different way to use your left hand on Great Balls of Fire. That left hand bass line is easier than in Great Balls of Fire: Part 1 and closer to what Jerry Lee Lewis actually does on his recordings.

Be sure and watch how my right hand embellishes the basic C, F and G chords in the bridge with a standard blues lick. (Although its very fast here, the lick is broken down on other videos on the blog).

Another key lesson is to thicken up any melody you play by doubling the notes in two hands, or even playing octaves in one or both hands.

*My health is doing much better, thank you all so much for all the great comments and get well soon messages! It really made my day! I have ulcerative colitis which can be very debilitating.

*This was made thanks to a a paid request!!! It received priority over the list of “suggested” requests for video lessons.

This is the first piano lesson in the chords 101 video component of the course.

In this video, we go over everything you need to know about half steps and whole steps.
This is one of the first theory concepts you should really learn on piano. Because then we will be able to count out chords and scales with whole and half steps on the piano.

Practice finding half steps and whole steps from every key like I do in the video.
Here are a few examples below:
C to D = whole step
C to C# (sharp) = half step
B to C = half step

Now that you’ve learned all about half steps and whole steps, you are ready to learn the formula for building the 2 most common chords, Major triads and Minor triads. All triad means is a group of 3 notes… As far as what major means, think of it as a chord quality. Major means happy. A minor should be thought of as a sad sound.

Here are the key points in this video:

There are 12 major chords and 12 minor chords, 24 total.
They all look different, white keys, black keys, etc. so don’t learn them based on the color patterns.

SHORTCUT: To find each chord, count up the half steps:
Major Chords = 4half steps + 3half steps
Minor Chords = 3half steps + 4half steps

It’s easier to remember all the major chords by counting up 4 half steps for the distance between the first 2 notes. Then three half steps for the distance between the second two notes. This works for every major chord. Minor chords are the same way, but you have to think 3 half steps and then 4 half steps.

The fingering in the Right Hand for the C major scale is: 1231234.
(ON BOTH HANDS, Your thumbs are finger 1, index = finger 2, middle = finger 3
and pinkies = finger 5).

This is probably one of the first things you should learn on the piano. Not because it sounds good or is showy, but this exercise can teach you the basic method of moving your fingers around on the piano. Crossing under with your thumb is the smooth and fast way to span large distances on the piano.

While you’re playing, make sure that your fingers are relaxed and not lifting up from the keys. If you’re playing a note with your index finger, your pinky should still be touching the keys.
Practicing scales not only helps give you more control over your fingers, it helps you understand harmony and improvising better.

On the left hand the fingering is 54321321

The notes in alphabetical order:

HERE IS THE SHORTCUT!!!

If you use these mnemonic devices or memorization tricks, your reading will become much quicker. You won’t have to be counting up all the time! This is also a good tool for helping kids remember the lines and spaces on the grand staff of the sheet music.

In the treble cleff (the top staff) use this (PDF - JPG Print Out):

“FACE is for the Space” (This one rhymes)

“Every Good Boy Does Fine is for the lines” (This one is rhyming as well)

or “Elephants Go Bouncing Down Freeways”

Rhyming will help you with the memorizing.

In the bass cleff (the bottom staff) use:

Spaces: “All Cows Eat Grass” or “All Cars Eat Gas”

Lines: “Good Burritos Don’t Fall Apart” or “Good Butterflies Don’t Fly Away”

These are the 12 most common chords use on piano. You’ll find them used over and over again in many published song books… so it makes sense to practice them! (I’ll post a better image as soon as I make one!) Piano and Guitar each have keys that are easier to play in than others because of the shapes of the chords and how they lay out over the keyboard or fretboard. Sharp keys like E, A and D are very popular on guitar, and keys with lots of white notes or low numbers of sharps and flats are easier on the piano.

There are 24 triads total to learn. 12 major triads and 12 minor triads.
Each one has a different look and shape (black white black etc) But they all are the same distance apart:
So to find each chord, just count up half steps:
Major Chords = 4half steps + 3half steps
Minor Chords = 3half steps + 4half steps

The 12 chords that have white keys as the roots are the ones you should learn first. This is because they happen more frequently than other chords in fake books.

The dots show you where to put your fingers.

I give my private students timed tests to see how quickly they can play these. The goal is all the major chords in 30 seconds.

The piano keys and scale! This shows exactly where the notes are related to the staff. If you want to go higher on the staff, just keep going the same direction skipping a line and a space each time.

Heres a link to a PDF with instrucitons:
The Scale: Piano Keys and Grand Staff

Print off the pdf and keep it by you’re piano. There are also some instructions attached for teaching beginners or 4-5 year olds.

Please check your email for the password and the link to the Free Chords 101 course.

I don’t share your address with anyone. But that is how I keep you up to date about all the different piano sites I’m working on and lessons I’m posting around the web.

THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO PIANO:

If you want to learn piano quickly with lots of video and audio demonstrations, I really recommend the Rocket Piano course below. Its taught by Ruth Searle who take you step by step from easy lessons all the way to more advanced topics like gospel and jazz: