How to Play Neo Soul Chords

Join Sweetwater's Jacob Dupre for insights on how to play neo soul chord progression types on keys. This in depth piano lesson will help musicians on any level understand how to play neo soul chords, and add another tool to their arsenal.
You can purchase the Novation Launchkey 61 keyboard here: www.sweetwater.com/store/deta...
The Zoom F8N Multitrack Field Recorder was used to record the audio in this video, and can be purchased here: www.sweetwater.com/store/deta...
#Sweetwater #NeoSoul

[@alterualteru4766]

Notice how all the artists he named in the start of the video either worked with J Dilla numerous of times or was inspired by his work HEAVILY. Even being part of a collective together with jay dee ❤️🍩

[@travismccoy8316]

If you’re newer to this stuff, 8:33 is one of the most important points you can gain from this whole video. Gives you a solid “left hand vs right hand” plan when playing complex chords.

[@eduardocaradine3322]

This thanksgiving,I am THANKFUL for people like you who share so much knowledge selflessly and scholarly.

[@SoundingSix]

Solid music theory lesson.

[@Diamond88keyz]

Love it

[@johnchill]

A great lesson, very unpretentiously and generously delivered. Thanks Jacob

[@Diamond88keyz]

I couldn't say it better! Perfect!

[@William_sJazzLoft]

Neo soul makes very profuse use of clusters and upper structures to accomplish its interesting and colorful arrangements. It's an extension of the jazzy R&B vocabulary. Excellent video

[@StratosFair]

Appreciate you guys making such high quality information available for free.

[@abrahamgb1]

Man you are one of the best teachers in the world , I’m not joking , you are awesome bro 🙌

[@chaliechuong9780]

I feel the same way :)

[@J.MK10]

By far the best video on here explaining Neo soul. Only video on here that's gone deeper into the theory of it and easiest to understand ha! Much clearer understanding of it all. Thanks Champ, well done!

[@jackpao9322]

Best lesson on the youtube!

[@rickhood]

You are a great teacher, thank you. Also, Sweetwater is the best. For others interested in this I also found Noah Kellman's KZbin channel very useful.

[@neilwright729]

Kudos to Sweetwater and Jacob for this video! It’s wonderful to see a company like Sweetwater, putting out more educational videos instead of just things that are equipment oriented (which is totally understandable, of course!). I enjoyed the video very much, and just wanted to point out to Jacob, that all the chords in his entire lesson can be heard in a much older tune by an artist, that he may not know - Steely Dan. Check out their tune “Aja” and hear all these harmonies being used back in the 1970s, decades before the people who are getting credit for innovating with them now. Of course, Donald Fagen didn’t invent them either, and they can be found in jazz music before Steely Dan hit the radio, but to my knowledge Steely Dan was the first group who brought these chords into popular use. Hell, Bartok used this kind of dissonance built into harmonies way before that. As they say in the arts: “nothing is ever truly new“. 😊 Thanks for well done and very enjoyable video!

[@eessek]

So much better than those "put your fingers on these keys to play this cool sounding chord" videos that are flooded in youtube. The theory and context behind the music is just as important and is often missed in alot those videos. Thanks Sweetwater for filling in the gaps.

[@MrigendraBhusal]

Thank you Jacob.. I am an amateur jazz pianist from Nepal..learned until now on my own reading and practicing alone.. This was absolutely amazing.. So much learned and internalized.. Thank you..

[@gbemigaoluwatuyi8849]

Thanks boss. You are the 1st to simplify this, other tutorials are quite confusing

[@geoffstockton]

Beautiful; track at the end. That flugelhorn solo was so delicious. Really nice lesson. One thing I ran into that immediately struck me as good neo-soul material was the maj9 common-tone chord-family or at least that's what I call it for lack of a better name. In C, it would be, Cmaj9, Dbmaj9, Eb69, Fmaj9, Abmaj9, Bbmaj9, (Spicy options: Gbmaj9#11, Emaj9#5,). They all have C in them so they work against rhythmic single pitch drones quite well together and it seems that no matter what order you put them in, you can hear a clear gravity toward C because of its omnipresence. You can do the same with min9/11 chords also but somehow, I don't like the arrangement of the bass notes in relation to the tonic as much as with the maj9s.

[@baremagicfeet1070]

Great lesson!! Thank you for your clear and thorough explanation. Very down to earth approach, great communication skills. 🙏🏼

[@maduroholdings]

wow I wasn't expecting such a thorough lesson. way to go

[@muchosmasfrijoles]

Well done - this is perhaps the best music theory lesson I've ever seen.

[@choimpet]

Finally I get my Jacob Dupre ASMR video my prayers have been answered

[@benjaminamarosalazar]

Man! Why this video has only 22k views! One of the best lessons that i've found around. Thanks for sharing!

[@lennardcampbell4744]

L

[@Kuronoichig01]

Scrolled past this a couple times and finally gave it a go. Really glad I did! Thorough explanation, thanks for this!

[@johnmiller19925]

Awesome! Thank you! Will definitely rewatch this from time to time. Loved the performance in the end of the video, too!

[@weststarr2046]

GREAT teaching Jacob...like very much this lesson

[@Jim-fb7kd]

Excellent lesson, great teacher. I wasn't looking for this video, but it was exactly what I needed.

[@aswardjnocharles5305]

This video definitely deserves pure ❤️ even if I have to watch this a thousand times I will going to share this with my piano teacher 👨‍🏫 right now greetings from France 🇫🇷.. excellent skills wizard 🧙‍♂️..

[@celnamusic]

What I am totally amazed at is that this guy plays nicely on piano and flugelhorn and amazingly sings with a nice voice... I wanna die...

[@enyakstew7107]

You're a hero.

[@ukiyokenobi7169]

Holy shit!!! Thank you so much, thats exactly what il looked for , for years. now i found it all in one spot , this video is greatly underrated!

[@AfiScruggsplaysbass]

Me too! I stumbled upon it today. I was like, Thank God!

[@audiodopebeats]

I’ve got alot of homework to do 👨🏾‍💻... here I am thinking I’m fine with 7ths & 9ths 😂. Thank you for this video!

[@underwoodunderwood8988]

I'm glad you're evolving, bro

[@William_sJazzLoft]

Those upper structures ( in combination with the standard four note chords ) are where the color and texture are accumulated

[@onlimi338]

I still think Gil Scott Heron was the real originator of Neo Soul. He was performing it back when there wasn't such a thing. Loved the lesson and fat song at the end.

[@kevinalufe7130]

Thanks for this tutorial. I want more Neosoul chords and progressions breakdown.

[@jessicawademusicJ19]

This was very simply explained and to the point. Even though you covered a lot you explained it so well for me to play along. Thanks!

[@linfr8066]

Brilliant, Well explained. Thank you for sharing with us🙏🏼

[@alchonconley16]

great video i love neo soul and it been years looking for more theory of it and you came out with the perfect video for it

[@area49g12]

Thought I wasn't going to learn much, I was very wrong, great vid, Kudos. ;-)

[@AfiScruggsplaysbass]

This is excellent. You broke this down like a pro.

[@humbertoangeles8412]

Great job, congratulations, very clear well structured, helped a lot!!! Cool song at the end loved it!

[@samrudhera]

Such a good lesson. Helped me a lot.

[@Diamond88keyz]

Awesome lesson. Great delivery!

[@rik-keymusic160]

your a great teacher bro ! great info here !

[@steveintentionallyleftblan3398]

"if that word scares you, just ignore it" hey, I like this guy!

[@pedromartins6904]

Great great lesson! Thank so much!!

[@jegoy68]

Finally!! A lesson I can digest!! Thanks a million man!! :-)

[@pianomaster2577]

This really helps me out a lot

[@alexfewtrell1631]

your tune at the end is a BEAST

[@relyae_]

This is phenomenal information. Keep killin it!

[@karthiksathian2931]

Brilliant video guys!

[@akita505]

Excellent video. Thanks so much

[@fatmoh7289]

Fantastic! ✨✨✨

[@sidneylutara9786]

Awesome lesson! 👌🏽 Thx for sharing. 🙏🏽

[@sxipshirey]

This is very good. Thank you.

[@snieznyskuter388]

Thank you for this lesson ! :D

[@OneRequiem123]

Thanks for this!

[@spencercharles6608]

that was great i really like it so much we have to learn keep on

[@bucketofbarnacles]

This is great, thanks.

[@annadual304]

thank you so much! Do more videos!

[@lorieann1386]

Thank you for this! I've been trying to learn neo-soul but I don't know how and where to start

[@hernannieto1]

This is cool . Thanks !

[@israelsprince]

Great Video. Thanks!!

[@thesphericalguy9018]

Great stuff!

[@leonalexandre1451]

This video is amazing

[@lionelcampos9868]

Very very good great 👍 work

[@beausejourrood-jerry4564]

Amazing Brother

[@titov7823]

SOOOO GOOOOOOOOOD!

[@celnamusic]

You are so so so so nice, thank you for your video

[@papepcool]

Very Nice.

[@amackclassic6737]

Thank you so much.

[@jeanlucpetitdebray]

again. thank you.

[@iacopoantonelli1979]

This has so much value. Great, great job and thank you.

[@GOASTWRITTER]

Thanks!

[@ManualPT]

Thanks for teaching in such a comprehensive, thorough and approachable manner.

[@TheDanielFisher]

Great master class! In my head I keep hearing the outro of Steely Dan's "Aja".

[@slowpokeproductions]

Daniel Fisher I thought EXACTLY the same thing. So glad someone else caught that.

[@pascalwoelk1993]

11:30 reminds me of Disney's Recess opening! Great video!

[@frank808cn]

so nice！

[@mawkusr1224]

Only 29k views?! This is gold

[@yogicbeats]

true

[@samuelokereke2938]

Really instructive. Thank you. I wondering if you could be kind to list your video recording gear. It is a really clear video.

[@Charle_Z]

Amazing

[@TubeYouScreen]

Good ‘splaining brah

[@taeyoung1234]

최고에요

[@TheTonyTitan]

Gems 💎 💎 💎

thank you so much man :) 33:44

[@Mk2023..]

More please

[@ethananson277]

hey mate! any chance u could spill the chords on the last song u made really love that progression!

[@vin52ny]

Excellent way to explain this. I can hear "Hey Nineteen" with that C maj9 (#11) chord. This could definitely be taught as a class. Keep up all the great videos..

[@HitMenProductionGroup]

Wow time to practice!! What piano 🎹 software did you guys use in this? Sounds like Keyscape!

[@Rich7714]

Thanks for the lesson. Do you think you could utilise a keyboard display in the future please? That would make it easier to see the notes you're playing.

[@looda10]

Just found out that the 4 right hand notes were actually playing "Oh when the Saints" haha ... nice trick to go down a whole step starting from the minor 7th

[@bobdeluxeandtheideals1356]

🔥🔥🔥

[@agninkrekoumrodrigue7858]

good so if we can do in french it's very good

[@golf-freq]

You should teach at the university level. Bravo!

[@QR_Code]

not your typical sweetwater video...interesting

[@DiegoLopez-nn1ht]

Very nice cool nerd stuff!

[@jacksonamaral329]

fine.

[@benamos3833]

Wow that's all I got

[@spiderlab2526]

Do we know what App/VST he is using for piano and EP sounds?

[@wildnites558]

Steely Dan uses lots of m11 chords all through the song Aja. All those chords you played in the beginning of the video sounded like you were playing parts of Aja.

[@reggiesowell4970]

19:30. On and On sweetwater

[@tgpword]

NICE!! But no midi file...no Midiculous on screen display/ midi virtual presentation? Maybe next time I hope?

[@HenryArko]

Pls what tone are you using?