My Easy Chord Workflow 👌🏼 (No Piano Skills Needed!)

[@sooperheep]

I just space my fingers out and hope for the best

[@sequencist]

This is the way

[@Geekraver]

Another thing obvious in retrospect but that took me years to notice is that the white keys at the top are the same width as the black keys. So if you play a major chord in first position (say), the physical distance between your fingers is constant, regardless of the which major chord it is. That also means counting your intervals is easier if you look at the top part of the keyboard and not at the part that is just white keys.

[@nkozi]

Using 'proper' Music Theory terms is realllllly only important if you're like, in an ensemble and making/reading lead sheets etc. What you're showing here is a lovely method of approaching the keys that uses only the basics of chord voicing to get really expressive, and it's smooth and natural! Great work dude, I'm in support of anything that makes theory concepts more approachable so people can start actually using what they learn to make tunes.

[@alexgrunde6682]

Gap of two then gap of two = diminished chord Gap of three then gap of three = altered chord The irony of these sort of “easy mode” approaches to music theory and composition is that they actually resemble the super complex world of atonal theory. There, everything is about these note sets that are defined by distances away from the root and then that gets translated into traditional sheet music.

[@taosophymusic]

Dude!! Whatever works for you. I learned theory and of course it has helped me, but by the same token it shouldn’t be a barrier to enjoying playing music. That’s also one of the pros of the technology-it has allowed “non-musicians” to create music. Only thing I’ll say is that scales-not practicing them-but KNOWING them is the ULTIMATE music “cheat code”. Knowing scales leads to knowing chords. And what they’re called is irrelevant. Knowing the scale patterns tends to guide your fingers-particularly during improvisation. Not having to think when you play is musical freedom.

[@roadm08]

As someone who has never played piano, this makes a lot of sense! Thank you!

[@SONWU]

Ricky starts rhymin'…what's next? BARS by Ricky? 😉 Great video, as always!

[@jamespingel8730]

That was cool. Personally, I know my major/minor chords and like 3 scales in C, but my superpower is intervals. It can take forever to figure out what I'm hearing because I have to do it two notes at a time, and when I'm doing 4 or 5 note chords that can be a pain if you don't want to just default to inverting the same chord for everything. But knowing intervals lets me pick up certain things quickly. For instance, your "far from me/next to me" method, what is happening is you are inverting the 7th and playing the perfect 4th below the middle note of the chord. The reason it sounds bad when you then move only the middle note or the 7th is that you go from playing the 4th to a tritone as the interval between those two notes. So I like that I can pick that up and I know to work around it I could just move the bottom note two intervals instead of one and be at a perfect 5th. The 3rd in the chord probably can't move because it would either end up as a tritone to the root or the 5th if you go too far, you only get the major/minor/sus4 positions with that center note. The downside is that I've just spent one paragraph explaining a single interval in a chord that is going to be made up of about half a dozen other intervals (the root to the 3rd, 5th, and 7th, the 3rd to the 5th, and the 5th to the 7th). So music theory has it's place in helping codify some of that so you don't have to rewrite the book on theory every time you want to play a chord. I build my chords that way and it takes forever, but I do get to some interesting voicings sometimes. Sometimes I take the shortcut and just stick to majors/minors.

[@timtoney669]

Just a suggestion, if you learn the basic position your hand is in for different chord shapes and their inversions you’ll find it easier to move through your progressions. For instance if you’re doing a two-five-one in Cmaj, you can start the Dm7 in root position DFAC, then play the G7 in second inversion DFGB finally playing the Cmaj in root position CEGB. After a while of doing that, because keyboards are symmetrical you can take those same hand positions all over the keyboard. If I’m in a second inversion position I know that my right ring finger is where that root note is and my right thumb is where the root is in root position, also in the left hand in second inversion the middle finger is over the root and in root position the little finger of the left hand is over the root. It makes it easier when looking at a lead sheet to work through the progression fairly quickly at first. Sorry, keyboard nerd here.

[@nkozi]

I came here to essentially say this same thing

[@timtoney669]

@nkozi Great minds...?

[@barııııış]

Thanks for the tip! Could you recommend any book or resources to study this concept?

[@timtoney669]

@@barııııış That I wouldn't know, sorry, it was just a pattern I noticed, ran by my instructor, who verified it. Although I've seen some folks on KZbin refer to a "claw" technique IIRC.

[@bodhibeats8257]

Nice video! As a music theory nerd, I would say: this IS music theory. You’re using some other terminology that makes it simpler for you to understand, but anyone who follows this video to make some nice chords IS using music theory. For the most part: if you make music and it sounds good to our Western ears, it’s probably because you’re conforming to Western music theory. Even if you don’t know that you are, and even when you’re trying to avoid learning music theory. You’re still using music theory. And it’s awesome to find little tricks and ways to remember things that work for you! That’s what it’s all about! So, while you may not need to learn a lot of the academic music theory concepts and vocabulary to play some dope chords this way - you are absolutely using music theory. Which is dope. It’s easier than you think! 😁

[@jonaseggen2230]

Thank you! I borrowed a piano and played Philip Glass from 40 to 50, from reading sheet music, but I had and still have absolutely no knowledge about music theory. I'm foremost a visual artist, but after that I moved to a place where piano is a no no and started with eurorack instead. But this is so amazingly useful!! And thumbs up for mentioning Sacamoto

[@adamoliver82]

Good info.

[@itsruiguerreiro]

Brilliant! Always fun to learn music theory.

[@robertmyers6518]

This is incredibly helpful. I'm sure I'll be re-visiting this video over and over again. Thanks!

[@Contang0]

The church of Scientology piano course advert guy is going to be all over my feed after watching this… but thanks Ricky!

[@Farmatique]

I'm not a pro, but the thing that "enlightened" me in terms of chord creating is the Ableton Push with its grid. Especially in chromatic mode

[@wesmincic6462]

I’ve learned everything I know about music theory from using the push.

[@YoungG704]

Thx bro

[@MyMagicalPeanut]

Love your work Ricky

[@cooksoni.a]

I took lessons for 16 years, and you explained this really well. Great tip for those who don't have a piano background

[@iancain6647]

Thanks for sharing this bro. It reminds me of the ⭐ star music in Mario a bit at 2:38

[@musetux]

Super awesome! Thanks for sharing!

[@Quais32]

Thanks man, this is helpful. I was just enjoying some Ryuichi Sakamoto, so good.

[@Pheekofc]

WoW thanks man! Simple and effective !

[@7Wounds]

This was very helpful and clarifying

[@MitchSound]

More teaching videos please

[@mapomaraca]

Love this simple tutorial, very useful and extremely easy to learn and apply yourself!

[@ipainthouses3084]

Man , i been learning of and on aswell for last year , and your tip for the 7th (far from me/next to you) is amazing , not only because its a inveraion but for people like me with small hands is easier.

[@jasonesty3880]

One of the coolest things I learned early is on the subject of modes. If you know C major (all white keys from C to C) you know all the modes, All you have to do is play the same notes but start and end on anything in that scale that's not C. Like E to E or G to G. Each of those are a mode of the key of C major. The same goes for all major scales. Fun fact the minor scale is a mode of a major scale. ;)

[@djjuno106]

Superb video ❤

[@orrin-manning]

Top tier music content right here

[@HIFI1965]

My advice - Understand the makeup of the top 10 or so common chords. Play them in some key, in all inversions. Now, can you hear how they sound different? Can you tell the difference? I wish there were some musical flash cards that would play a chord and then you have to identify them. The goal is get *the sound* of the different chords in your head. It will take time, but be patient and have fun. Do learn some theory as it can be helpful. But don't let anything get in the way of making music.

[@shannonia81]

If someone has made some music that moves you, does it even matter how they learned to make it?

[@XanderEwald]

That’s a cool hack, thanks!

[@DawlessHouseMusic]

House demands theory.

[@synthsoniq]

Awesome video. Another easy way to look at it is with the intervals between notes, including the next note that you're playing. For example a +4 would be four notes up from the note where you start. C +4 would be E. A major chord with 5 notes has the pattern 4-3-4-3. A minor chord has the pattern 3-4-3-4. Meaning that a C major with the pattern 4-3-4-3 is C +4 notes (E) + 3 notes (G) + 4 notes (B) + 3 notes (D). A C minor chord is the 3-4-3-4 pattern so C +3 (E-flat) +4 (G) +3 (B-flat) + 4 (D). That takes you to the "9th". Then you can move any notes around to make it easier to play or to make it sound how you like!

[@Quais32]

Great explanation, thank you.

[@synthsoniq]

@@Quais32 Yeah, no problem! The practical side of it is really cool. If someone said their favorite chord for house music is G# minor 9th, you could easily play that in two seconds. Just play G# and then the notes +3, +4, +3, +4 and that's it.

[@renevanderkraats3811]

Nice lessons, much appreciated, but I'll need a lot of pausing...too quick for me as someone who has absolutely zero music education.

[@Kevinschart]

Ricky is trying to make this accessible to people who are putting off learning the keys. But honestly if you're going to work hard on Rickys version of music theory you might as well take the time to learn it properly. Practice playing the major scale in all keys. Practice how to build major triads. Practice how to play arpeggios. Practice intervals. Practice your seventh chords. It honestly doesn't take a lot of work and everything will make more sense.

[@mavfan1]

No. I won’t. You used the word “honestly” twice which makes me think everything else you say is a lie and I won’t take advice from liars. 😆

[@RollrightKnights]

Hipster nonsense. Chord device. Ableton. Push. Unless you're dead set on having someone follow you around with a Super 8 film camera? 😑

[@BoopPOPO]

1st