How To Combine Chords And Melody In Pop Music

Welcome to our piano tutorial on how to play piano chords with melody! In this video, we'll break down the essentials of combining piano chords and melody to create beautiful arrangements for your favourite pop songs.
In this tutorial, we cover:
- Understanding and using chord inversions on piano to create smoother transitions when combining chords and melody;
- Effective piano chords practice routines to strengthen your technique;
- Strategies for producing a harmonious sound by adding chords to melody in the right hand;
- Detailed steps on how to play chords with melody to create a fuller arrangement;
- Techniques to harmonize melody on piano and bring your performances to life;
- Pop song arrangement tips to help you craft professional-sounding pieces;
- Examples of popular piano pop songs to apply these skills in real-world contexts.
By the end of this video, you'll have the tools to confidently play and arrange your favourite pop songs on the piano, combining chords and melodies like a pro!
If you like to know secrets for playing pop music on piano, watch this video next:
• Secrets For Playing Po...
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• How To Combine Chords ...
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[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Thank you for watching! Get in touch with us so that we can help you liberate your piano playing and join our Flagship course, Complete Musician Course with Tom Donald: lcsp.samcart.com/products/the-complete-musician-essential-course-2024/#/sc-checkout

[@Beebsentrance]

A cool and generous teacher. Not judgmental and not pretentious, lucky to found you through KZbin suggestion. Thanks for the video.

[@MaPa60]

I am a songwriter guitarist who dabbles in keys, but I feel this approach is also transferable to guitar. Also makes sense when songwriting, dabbling around playing some chords a certain way, liking it enough to record it, and then add a vocal on top. Seems just reverse from the process you just showed so brilliantly here. Your teaching style is so entertaining, I love the musical issues you bring up as part of this! Thanks

[@alexc2259]

I really look forward to every time Tom puts out a new video! I loved the example with only playing two notes in the right hand for the Bohemian Rhapsody. Such a nice melody, it sounds even more intimate when simplified. Thank you for calling out the chords and writing them out at the bottom of the screen. Maybe also list the chord numbering?

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Will do a Bohemian Rhapsody one soon I hope

[@martinleonard77]

The ultimate in relaxing piano teaching videos. Like having lessons with a friend sitting in a tropical beach cocktail bar. You just need a Hawaiian shirt. Well done 🌴🌴🌞

[@bernardbadois965]

I love your sentence " the journey is more interesting than the destination because the destination is not easy to reach !" Every little thing that I discover after having been playing and searching musical combinations on my piano makes me happy ... thank you Tom !

[@elvisottmann3315]

Thank you Tom . You validate my approach to Piano and music structure .

[@kirstenfruehling2868]

You are an incredible teacher, your enthusiasm shines through every word and chord! Thank you for another amazing free lesson, this is exactly what I always thought piano playing should be. Free from sheet music with a deep understanding of chords and the base behind the melody!

[@DrewTretick]

Tom, your videos are so engaging... thank you for sharing your inspiring musicianship with us! 🤗

[@afihaileywibowo1095]

Yes you are right, combining chords and melody are the ones always on our intermediate mind! Thank you for this lesson, Tom

[@NigelWood-sz5gm]

Love your work Tom, every bit a good as Adele’s voicing. Thanks again for an amazing tutorial.

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

A video that lasts 32 minutes and takes about 32 years to put into practice. I'm learning the ukulele also, and my piano teacher is happy that I'm trying to use Thoroughbass to learn chord inversions. This lesson fits right into that idea. I haven't learned the CAGED system, but having root, 6 and 6/4 chords is just another option.

[@YJWoadWarrior]

Thanks for the video, this is really helpful! I like your piano style.

[@ChadDippyDora]

I’m learning so much from your videos. Not what you are teaching, much more fundamental than that - it’s the things I never really understood that are now clicking into place. Thank you.

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Many thanks, I'm glad that this is helping you find those fundamentals. Music is a heck of a journey, isn't it!

[@user-oz1oq2gc1v]

Thanks Tom. Your teaching makes so much sense. Love your master classes

[@rainbowchild63]

Thank you!

[@user-lb2cd5ms5e]

Thank you so much Tom for this amazing insightful video on blending melody and chords. Not only is your content invaluable but your voice is so delightful to listen to., it's what I tune into if I can't sleep at night! THANK YOU

[@paulydpaulyd9746]

You have created an awesome lesson here ; I'm starting back playing again. It's so invaluable to show how the Melody requires Chords to make Songs sound great 👏👏👏

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Absolutely, it's all about the chords!

[@ianhowlett4682]

Loving it!

[@JohnTaylor60]

Inspirational and thoroughly enjoyable; thank you.

[@diogosimao]

This vídeo is pure gold. Amazing.

[@geralynpalacol3764]

🎹Wow!!! EXCELLENT Lesson!!!🥰🥰🥰. THANK YOU!!!🎉🎉🎉

[@kamranhamidfar1725]

You are a brilliant musician. Thanks for your helpful videos ❤

[@Miguel-hu6nr]

Thanks!

[@stevejarvis1366]

Brilliant 😊

[@kimhebert9905]

Excellent Videos🎶🎶👍

[@rebanelson607]

Thanks for this instructive and beautiful video!

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

You're very welcome!

[@matthewphilip1977]

I accept everything he's saying, but, as a beginner, I do like playing the odd tune in the right hand with simple block chords in the left. But I'm excited about progressing, gradually, to this kind of thing. Sounds so good. And the guy's got a sweet touch.

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Yes, it can work too on certain ballads - though you just might often find playing left-hand chords and right-hand melody even harder than learning how to add fantastic grooves to chord patterns But there are many ways to do this. Best of luck with it.

[@matthewphilip1977]

@@contemporaryschoolofpiano Cheers :)

[@reynoldpineda3186]

New subscriber here, thanks for this woderful video it really helpful its great thank you brother m from Phillippines.

[@matthewphilip1977]

This is great. And, a bonus, his hands look great too, the curvature of the fingers, no pinky in the air, like an English artisto drinking tea from a China cup (or Eric Bristow going for his double 16). And no flattened fingers. Class act.

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Thankyou - that comment made my tea taste so much better today....

[@matthewphilip1977]

@@contemporaryschoolofpiano Ah, you're welcome. Thank you for the inspiration.

[@pg18723]

Bom dia. Os seus vídeos são espetaculares pois usa uma linguagem acessível mas ao mesmo tempo muito elucidativa do que pretende transmitir. Você usa uma humildade de tal forma transparente que motiva qualquer um para experimentar. É impressionante. Obrigado por desmistificar a forma como se pode tocar bem sem ser um pro.

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

Muito obrigado 😃

[@olivierfisher9832]

Thank you so much for this video, the best one on KZbin ! My difficulty after trying to find chords, arrange the melody with the chords and trying the best I can and for hours my arrangement, is to be able to play it several days later because it is difficult for me to remind, memorize what I have done. Do you have any suggestions please ? Do I absolutely need to write and learn to read the score of my arrangement in that case (I don’t read music) ? Thanks 🙏

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

No I don't think you need to write out your own arrangements - it goes down to the four pillars I discuss in many of these videos. 1 Chords 2. Groove 3. Melody/Improvisation 4. Arrangement and Integration Getting some good study of these areas makes a difference, but ultimately you want to just work with the lead sheet - just the chord progression combined with the melody. That's all the info you need to build a useful arrangement. The rest is training in these four areas.

[@talandis]

Thanks so much for this one! This is EXACTLY the topic I'm most interested in, how to add melody to my favorite songs in a satisfying way. I appreciate the example songs you provided, and I'll get to learning them. One question: when you are considering a song to learn as a false beginner (like me), what are some points to keep in mind? For example, your first example, featuring Hallelujah, was very simple in structure and therefore accessible. I tend to be overly ambitious in the songs I want to learn, and I get stuck easily. Any other songs you'd recommend that are suitable to those of us just really getting started?

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

I would be focusing on getting good at playing chord progressions first!

[@talandis]

@@contemporaryschoolofpiano Thanks! I'll get to it. This video has been saved, and I'll be back when I'm ready.

[@jeremyjames3190]

Thank you for the knowledge. I have a question, does the way you play chords in the right hand (without putting melody notes on top), can be used as piano accompaniment for singers?

[@andikasavana4539]

can you share with how to do song writting

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

I recently did a seminar on how I write songs! We will upload this shortly!

[@andikasavana4539]

@@contemporaryschoolofpiano nice thank you sir

[@Cazwhaler]

Great job with this video. It occurred to me while watching that the piano is a digital device. it cannot mimic vocals exactly as an analog instrument like the guitar is able to do. Just an observation. Please do the video on Bohemian Rhapsody, I suspect that many of us would appreciate that one.

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

One very important correction here. The piano is not a digital device, even this tutorial was made on an acoustic grand piano, digital pianos have only existed for the last 50 years and still doesnt surpass an acoustic piano in terms of sound quality. The acoustic piano centuries longer. Bohemian Rhapsody was famously recorded on a Bosendorfer Grand Piano. An acoustic piano requires no electricity or power the sound is still today even after centuries, a hammer hitting strings. There are other reasons why you can't mimic the voice perfectly on a piano or guitar (the guitar is even less flexible in this regards). But it's not for those reasons.

[@Cazwhaler]

I meant digital vs analog which is not the same as electronic vs acoustic. On a piano you have specifically defined notes so you are not able to continuously ‘slide’ between the tones as an analog device like voice or a guitar is capable of doing.

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

@Cazwhaler ahh yes. Sliding notes. Exactly right we can do that on the piano. There are a few cheeky ornament tricks that help create the impression of a slide note but it's not the same.

[@Stephen-kf8um]

Can't you use one of those apps which show exactly what you're playing? I know that sounds a very negative thing to say when your content is so good.

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

I'm not sure how that would help though, because those apps don't have any good musical arrangements of these songs, in fact, most of the arrangements on these apps are chords in the left-hand melody in the right, have no groove, and sound terrible. So, far they haven't really achieved anything. I like new technology, I just haven't seen any thing really that works because these core issues of integration of melody and chords and never addressed!

[@stoik-ek5zu]

@@contemporaryschoolofpiano Hi, i suspect that the commenter misworded "apps". I think he was referring to some sort of midi visualizer. Cheers!

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

@@stoik-ek5zu Ah ok if that's the case, I would recommend using Classroom Maestro, if you just want to see what you are playing. It's great software. Sorry if I misunderstood the statement.

[@rachelsmename6]

I’m assuming that what you call “chord stacking” is adding one or two chord extensions to the right hand melody and chord tones.

[@alexc2259]

Thanks!

[@contemporaryschoolofpiano]

That's too kind Alex. I owe you a beer now when you are next in London 🎉