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

[@Khordmaster]

Same lol

[@dhrmslb]

that's jazz, babyyyy

[@jaysgood10]

I just space out.

[@TwoTwoGo]

Thats what she said

[@yourobson]

Please make more of such videos. Thanks!

[@user1756]

Even though you're just a beginner at the piano , you're a great teacher at heart. The fact that I want to grab a keyboard and immediately try it out myself speaks volumes for your teaching skills. Thanks Ricky!

[@Bilpokat]

2-3 minor Jordan 3-2 major Johnson

[@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.

[@teemunnee]

I love your distinction between practicing and knowing. I took piano lessons as a kid for 7 years. I am not a good pianist, but I know the way it works well enough to sequence fun chord progressions without having to play them live, and that's enough for me for now!!

[@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.

[@primechords]

Enrique my guy, this hits home for me as a guitarist who fell into the synth world. Don't want to shill over here, but my channel is all about this idea. I made a 40 minute video explaining the essence of harmony through the lens of a dotted paper strip that can help you visualize chords in all keys. It took me a year to make, I go through scales, modes, chords, chords in other modes, seventh chords, non-diatonic chords and even modulation. I'd love to hear what you think.

[@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. ;)

[@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.

[@F1NG3RS]

Yeah man, little sayings like "far from me" are gonna be the things that lock in the patterns in the brain. Whatever helps you recall it. Thanks for making these!

[@OtisMacMusic]

thanks for using my track

[@roadm08]

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

[@adamoliver82]

This video really is great, fantastic work. It's taken some of the guesswork and frustration out of music making for me and sped things up a bit so I can concentrate more on the fun stuff, and that's what it's all about.

[@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.

[@user82938]

See, when people start talking this way, I just can't understand it. Something about the way Ricky explained things made way more sense to me.

[@magicalsynthadventure3216]

You're doing really well :) I have some ideas about writing with arpeggios in the right hand and changing the bass in the left, if you ever wanna collab!

[@lofi-dave]

Nice technique and easy to remember! Basically once you know C Maj scale you can transpose to any key. Once you know A min scale you can transpose to every other key. And now a bonus I realized lately: Playing all the white keys starting from D: Dorian scale. All white keys from E: Phrygian scale. All white keys from F: Lydian scale. All white keys from G: Mixolydian scale. All white keys from B: Locrian scale.

[@robertmyers6518]

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

[@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

[@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.

[@MrJonBertsch]

I know next to nothing about music theory but chords are truly fascinating, I've got a booklet from Radio Shack "Exploring Chords" circa 1980s, I love it because it has pictures of the keyboard and not just notes lol

[@roman2374]

When I started teaching myself to play as a young teenager one thing that really helped me was: At first I just wanted to play songs I like and I quickly realised playing chord by chord sounded weird. So I started trying to find what inversion of each chord would allow each of the lines to stay as stable as possible (eg if you come from C F major, the Finger playing the C can just stay) and I quickly became more comfortable with understanding how to break chords over different inversions. Wishing the best of luck to all beginners out there, I wouldn’t have the patience a second time 😅

[@jantohoffmann9604]

Amazing advise ! ❤

[@iamsimonmorris]

Right up my ally. Thanks so much really helped me on my way.

[@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.

[@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! 😁

[@itsruiguerreiro]

Brilliant! Always fun to learn music theory.

[@lomzart]

Thank you!

[@mapomaraca]

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

[@timeconsumer325]

I wish I had learned piano BEFORE guitar as a kid. I feel like the linear relationship of the notes makes intervals and inversions so much more intuitive than the more idiosyncratic ways you can play these chords on guitar

[@richnosworthy2497]

This is a nice technique, having been learning for the last few years, this makes sense but never though of it like that. The way you space out the voicings or then reverse engineer them, kind of just made it all click. Thank you for this

[@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

[@djanishanand]

Thanks for this. Really Easy

[@MyMagicalPeanut]

Love your work Ricky

[@kiyosegawa]

thank you

[@techlab7]

Love this, so helpful

[@7Wounds]

This was very helpful and clarifying

[@toi_techno]

Cool vid As a kid I did to Grade 7 (which involved lots of technical pieces no one has ever heard or would reply want to hear 😄) but never really learned how to rough our a tune using chords Now as a 44 year old I'm finally trying to gain working knowledge of chords

[@alexgrunde6682]

Gap of two then gap of two = diminished chord Gap of three then gap of three = augmented, not 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.

[@depersonalised]

3+3 is Augmented, not altered.

[@alexgrunde6682]

@ You’re right, updated it

[@quiddam]

when playing jazzy chords you don't really need the 5th most of the time. There's a nice video of Hearbie H. saying how he learned this from Miles D. , he called it "the butter notes". Another voicing trick is skipping the notes of the main chord alltogether and playing a complete different triad (your two-three/three-two) whilst maintaining the bass. So, instead of playing A(bass/root)-G(7th)-C(minor third), you can play A(bass/root)-G-D... here you are skipping both the 3rd and 5th of your root chord, and instead playing the 7th and 9th. Also, playing the 7th in the bass can have a dramatic feeling sometimes. There's tons of tricks with chord-substitutions but then you are getting more into harmonic functionality and for house/techno this isn't necessary since you are mostly playing the same 2 or 3 chords.... moving around too much harmonically always ends up sounding corny in these minimalist genres.

[@musetux]

Super awesome! Thanks for sharing!

[@Pheekofc]

WoW thanks man! Simple and effective !

[@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.

[@treeface5000]

Given this a Like, and a Save! 😊

[@depersonalised]

Sus chords are generally used to indicate a continuation from the previous chord. So say you were playing an Fm (F-Ab-C) then you drop the Ab and C and add the Eb and Bb and you have an EbSus9 because there is not enough other information to say that it isn't in the key of Eb min which means that the F you sustain is the 9th note in the diatonic scale of the key you are playing in. Sus chords are based mostly in harmonic analysis so everything else you play determines their spelling. I am not an expert on these matters, but i know some things.

[@joepolophotography]

thanks buddy

[@Quais32]

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

[@djjuno106]

Superb video ❤

[@XanderEwald]

That’s a cool hack, thanks!

[@matthewallthetime218]

So there’s root, and then power chord: Root + 5th note The jazzy 7th chords are basically two power chords at the same time. Power chord of the root + power chord of the (major or minor) 3rd.

[@matthewallthetime218]

(Play two power chords with different roots at the same time for all kinds of dramatic rad chords with secret names)

[@darwiniandude]

I love the Amber upright, it's my fave in my Nord. with the pedal down it's super inspiring, just like a real acoustic piano.

[@NovakTheEnjoyer]

Oh, NAILED the thumbnail! "Far from me/Near to you" is so good.

[@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.

[@orrin-manning]

Top tier music content right here

[@adamoliver82]

Good info.

[@iancain6647]

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

[@defjeff2907]

Excellent! Thanks. And now I know Nord keys are loud.

[@ricgl84]

Nice!

[@SantiagoGT15]

I love your stuff Ricky but why not also just recommend piano training? Piano is fun and learning theory is attainable

[@thecalver]

Still use my kordbot. Should learn really

[@MrMarcLaflamme]

Looking forward to next week's track from scratch where you sample those last chords! 😀

[@YoungG704]

Thx bro

[@roman2374]

But I love major chords with a small 7 - and don’t forget about maj 7 minor chords either 😅

[@shannonia81]

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

[@user82938]

I've "learned" parts of this a million times, but this did make it click a little bit more. Like I feel like this will stick better than the many other times I have tried to remember this info. If you come up with any other super practical ways to understand theory, let us know! Like, I've watched plenty of videos about "the circle of fifths," but that never sinks in either :)

[@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.

[@darrellsmith5710]

Cheers, people who know theory may laugh, but I found this really useful

[@MitchSound]

More teaching videos please

[@Contang0]

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

[@reneeschke]

Why did you choose to count the spaces instead of the steps, which to my knowledge is more commonly taught? 3-4 instead of 2-3

[@SONWU]

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

[@roman2374]

Ricky Seuss

[@alecsbuga]

Dope

[@surrealchemist]

i come to these vids all the time… and just realized I wasn’t even subscribed this whole time

[@AaronBowley]

yup this is what i teach to my 5 year old students lol

[@latenightfortunecookie]

avoid playing keys that are directly next to each other.. it will always sound much better to find an alternate octave/inversion of that

[@DawlessHouseMusic]

House demands theory.

[@schmapps1]

I think they said the Orchid intro price is $589 😑

[@draconianrhythms]

Goddamn

[@MaryM-u7b]

Thank you so much, I would always rather improvise, but usually have issues with chords. It really helped me. Thanks 🤍

[@tjdamoogle]

Why don't they just call it the 3,4 lol

[@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. 😆

[@Kevinschart]

​@@mavfan1aaaand that's why you suck

[@tokiboi6777]

did you change the thumbnail to clickbait?

[@matthewgaines10]

Learning an instrument and some music theory is time well invested. As a good as one maybe as a composer/producer/beatmaker, it will make you better. Hacks are great but nobody was ever hurt by picking up skills.

[@earlsfield]

This sounds like bunch of wrong words.

[@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.

[@BoopPOPO]

1st