Harmony and Composition
Four Melody Writing Tricks (Primer on Non-Chord Tones)
In today’s episode of PianoTV we’re going to be looking at melody writing tricks. These tricks all center around non-chord tones – and if that makes no sense to you now, it will soon! With our Songwriting Workshop in full-swing, I’ve had melody on the mind. We talk quite a bit about melody writing in…
Read MoreMy favorite chord progression (2 chords only, i-VI)
In today’s video, I wanted to talk a bit more about songwriting and share my favorite chord progression of all time. The nice thing about this progression is it’s only two chords, so it’s an incredibly easy one. It’s the i-VI progression – but if you don’t know what that means, fear not, we’ll be…
Read More5 Songwriting Tips for Beginners
I want to start this video on songwriting tips by saying I’m not some authority on songwriting. I’m just sharing tips with you from the perspective of someone who has been writing songs since I was a small child (probably 5 or younger).
Read MoreSongwriting Inspiration: 5 Classical Composers Inspired by Nature
In today’s video, we’re going to get some songwriting inspiration. We’ll take a look at five composers who have been inspired by nature and the outdoors, and listen to a specific nature-inspired piece by each of them.
Read MoreSongwriting Basics: A Pentatonic Song
Today we’re going to dip our toes in composition and look at some piano songwriting basics. I’ve written a tune with the very unique title of “Pentatonic Song”, which you can download below. You can learn it, or study it, or use it as a launching point for your own composition. I wanted to build…
Read MorePentatonic Scales: The Handiest Jamming/Improv Tool
Hey friends! Today we’ll be chatting about pentatonic scales, which is an extremely useful scale to know if you’re into jamming and improvising (even if that’s just something you do by yourself). We’re going to talk about how to figure them out (the theory), listen to a few examples of songs that use them, and…
Read MoreWhat is an appoggiatura? Melody Writing
Today’s video tackles the common melody embellishment, the appoggiatura. What is an appoggiatura? How do they work, and how do you pronounce them? We’ll figure that all out today, without getting way too technical. In a previous video a long time ago, we talked about how to harmonize a melody with thirds and sixths, to…
Read MoreNote Stems and Note Stem Direction: PianoTV Q&A
Today’s video is a pretty straight-forward and simple one, but it’s something I see done wrong all the time – and that is note stem direction. As musicians, we read a lot of music, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we know how to notate it. This video doesn’t get into songwriting in the general sense –…
Read MoreWhy Transposing is an Essential Piano Skill (And How To Do It)
In today’s video, we’re going to talk about transposing, and why transposing is an essential piano skill. We’ll also talk about how to do it, so you can apply it right away. To accompany this video, I’ll put up a couple graphics that we’ll be using – cheat sheets for major and minor chords. If you’d…
Read More12 Amazing Key Changes in Pop Music
Hi and welcome to another episode of PianoTV! Today we’re going to do something unusual for this channel, and turn our focus to pop music. We’re going to talk about key changes, also referred to as modulations in pop music, and why they’re so awesome (and sometimes so cheesy). We’ll look at 12 amazing key…
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