It’s easier than you might think to learn how to go about matching the melody notes (the tune) of any song to the
appropriate chords. It’s really a simple 2-step process, once you understand it, but if you don’t know the secret, you can
wonder about it for years. But if you learn it now, you will know it the rest of your life.

Back when I was a teenager learning to play the piano, it used to puzzle me which chords to use with which melody notes:

“I wonder how those top pianists know which chords to use? I mean, they don’t always use the C chord to harmonize the
C melody note, or the D chord to harmonize a D in the melody, and so on — so how do they do it?”

A few years later I had the extremely good fortune to find a teacher in Hollywood by the name of Dave. He was THE
teacher — he taught many of the recording artists and names you would recognize — plus a young aspiring piano player
named Duane (me). And he showed me how to go about matching the melody notes of any song to the appropriate chords.

That changed my musical life. I didn’t have to wonder any more — I knew for sure which chords went with which notes,
and when and why.

It’s really a simple process once you understand it, and it has to do with knowing just 2 facts:

Fact 1: There are 3 basic chords that will harmonize any note, and that note is a member of all 3 chords;

Fact 2: These 3 chords rotate as the melody moves through the song, so pick the chord that has that melody note in it.

These 3 chords are known as the “primary chords” for a reason: they are the “home boys” for that song. Lots of other
chords can be used in a song, but you can get by with just these 3 “home boy” chords.

Then once you master them, you can widen your scope to “cousin chords” and “neighbor chords” and “color chords” and all kinds of other exciting variations, and then the sky is the limit in terms of improvising and making up your own musical sounds.

If you’re anything like me, you would love to learn how to “fill up the empty spaces” with scale fragments, chords, broken chords, and so on. Techniques such as 8th note runs , 16th note runs, 32nd note runs, triplet fills, and many combinations thereof — some so fast you can’t even see which notes are being played. Techniques such as “cascading waterfall runs”, the fabulous “pro straddles”, the exciting “tremolo-fired runs” and lots more. Learning how to “fill it up” with runs and fills would certainly take your piano playing to the next level.

After listening to countless pianists in all genres, I compiled a list of six types of runs and fills that they often use:

1. “Cocktail” runs –The lightning fast runs used by the great “show” pianists. One hand runs, two hand runs, open-octave runs, tremolo-blasted runs, cascading waterfall runs and more. Made famous by such names as Eddy Duchin, Carman Caballero, Liberace, etc., but also used tastefully by many others, such as Roger Williams and many “pop” piano players.

2. Embellishments — Mordents, inverted mordents, trills, turns, tremolos, grace notes, glissandos, etc. These are the “finesse” techniques that give your piano playing class and grace. Virtually NO amateur piano players use these, so the pianist that learns these is putting herself or himself in a class usually reserved for professional pianists.

3. Piano tricks — How to make your piano sound oriental, or make it sound like a drum or a music box? A bell? Latin? Country?

4. Evangelistic runs — These are the octave runs and fillers used by the great gospel pianists of past and present such as Rudy Atwood and other evangelistic piano players.

5. Jazz & blues runs — Using the “blues scale” up and down the keyboard, blue note-crunches, slides, etc. These runs are very useful not only in jazz and R & B, but also in “black gospel” (I hate to use that term because it sounds racist, but people use it to describe a certain type of gospel music, so I reluctantly use the term…but only in that sense of the word), fusion, and many rock-pop songs.
6. Fillers galore — Filling up an empty measure with a counter-melody; creating an intro; creating an ending; developing “turnarounds”, plus chromatic fillers, fillers based on the Dorian and Lydian scales and other “church mode” scales used by contemporary jazz and fusion artists.

It is exciting for any pianist to picture himself or herself playing those LIGHTNING FAST runs up the keyboard and back down in time for the next chord, or playing CASCADING RUNS down the keyboard for a WATERFALL of wonderful sounds, to say nothing of using mordents, inverted mordents, trills, turns, tremolos, grace notes, glissandos, fillers galore, cocktail-piano runs, plus gospel-style runs as well as “blues runs” based on the blues scale!

Is it worth the effort to learn some or all of these techniques? It certainly has been for me, but every pianist will have to make that judgment for himself or herself.

In fact, with the influence of jazz on modern pianists and tutors, improvisation is now considered to be a huge part of learning how to play piano. It hones the beginning pianist’s feel for her instrument, and it strongly reinforces what the student has learned about music theory, keys, and scales.

The best advice for a beginning improviser is to just start playing — and to have fun with it. However, for students looking for a little more guidance, here is a brief tutorial on piano improvisation.

Three Points:

1) Learn and practice your keys, chords, modes, and scales. Outside of certain advanced jazz music forms, most improvisations work within a pre-decided key. For practical reasons, C Major is the first key most beginning pianists learn, because it includes all of the piano’s white keys, and no black keys. Even if C Major is the only key you’ve learned so far, you can use it to improvise for hours. Meanwhile, for a moodier improvisation, the pianist who can play in C Major can play just as easily in A Minor. To do so, simply shift the focal point of the improvisation from the C chord to the A- chord.

After the student begins to learn keys that incorporate more sharps and flats, improvisation is a great way to internalize those keys. For instance, after you learn which notes make up the G Major key, try improvising within G Major, using no notes that don’t fall within the key. After a while, G Major will be burned into your mind. Although playing scales is still an important way to internalize keys, improvisation is an equally valid way to learn, especially after scale-running becomes boring.

Modes usually come later in a pianist’s development, and one doesn’t need to know about them in order to improvise. Essentially, modes shift the focal point within a key. For instance, when you improvise in C Major, you’ll find that your ear naturally wants your improvisation to return to the C chord. However, in the Dorian mode, for example, the improviser resists the urge to return to C, instead using the D- chord as the focal point. Each of the conventional modes — Ionian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Dorian, Phrygian, Aeolian, and Locrian — is associated with a unique emotional range, which provides the improviser with a set of short-cuts to desired musical moods.

Again, the beginning improviser doesn’t need to know about modes, but they will become very useful down the line. Find a chord progression. After you have chosen a key — and if you only know C Major, it’s as good of a key as any — either find or create a chord progression within that key. For example, a common chord progression in blues and folk music is C F G C, which is simply repeated over and over. In general, the best way for beginners to improvise is to play the chord progression with the left hand, while improvising with the right hand. You’re probably already used to this dynamic, as most piano pieces for beginners utilize the left hand for chords, and the right hand for melodies.

2) To internalize your chord progression, simply play it over and over. The goal is to be able to play the progression without any conscious thought, as automatically as breathing. Once you’ve achieved this, you’re ready to improvise.

3) Improvise. If you’ve done the first two steps, this one will not be as difficult as it sounds. In fact, more than anything, it will be fun. The key to remember is that there is no pressure, and that you’re not playing for an audience. In other words, once you have your chords down, you can spend hours upon hours exploring the harmonic and melodic possibilities of your chosen key and chord progression.

It doesn’t have to sound beautiful right off the bat, but if you’re doing it right, it won’t sound terrible. For example, if your key is C Major, practically anything you play on the white keys will sound okay — that is, it won’t sound like you’re making any huge mistakes. Many improvisers think of it like talking; just sit down at the piano, and say what’s on your mind.

Now, as your piano playing skills progress, you’ll learn more theoretical and technical tricks to incorporate into your improvisation. However, the important thing to remember is that improvisation is possible at all skill levels. Whether you are just learning the ins and outs of the C Major scale, or you are learning to appreciate the emotional qualities of the various modes, improvisation is always a productive and useful skill.

I’ve got some good news for you.

It is possible. Not 100%, but somewhere on the order of 75% to 85% accurate.

That’s because music has FORM — like the skeleton that holds your flesh, muscles, and skin up. If you had no bones — no skeleton — your flesh and all the other parts of you would fall in a heap on the floor. Not a pretty picture. But because you DO have a skeleton, you are able to walk around and pretty accurately predict which way your next step will take you.
It’s the same in music. Music has FORM — a skeleton to hold it up, hold it together. And that skeleton is made out of chords — harmony — the tonal center of the song or piece.

In any given key you can play in, there are PRIMARY CHORDS — chords that occur way more than other chords. They are like family members of that particular key.

At your house, let’s say you have 3 people in your family — your spouse, your child, and you. On the same block, but down the street a few houses, lives your cousin and her family.
At any given moment, who are the most likely people to be in your house?

Steve Martin? John McCain? Barry Bonds?

I don’t think so.

It’s possible, of course, but not too likely. If I had to guess, I would say it would be either you, your spouse, or your child. It might be your cousin down the street — there’s a much better chance of that than, say, Mel Gibson — but my best odds would be to guess that the family members would be there.

It’s the same way with chords. In any given key, there are 3 “family members” that are residents of that key — the I chord, the IV chord, and the V chord. They are far and away the most likely chords to occur in any given key.

For example, if I am playing in the Key of C, and the first chord is the C chord and I have to guess what the next chord is, I would guess that it would be either the F chord or the G chord. Why? Because those are the other “family members”. So we have narrowed the odds a great deal just by knowing who the members of the family are.

So how could I tell whether it should be F or G?

If the melody is a “B”, then the chord is probably a G chord. Why? Because “B” is in the G chord, but is not in the F chord.
If the melody is a “A”, than I would guess that the chord is F. Why? Because “A” is in the F chord, but is not in the G chord.
Does that mean that there are always just 3 chords in a song?

No, but there are literally hundreds of songs that are made of just 3 chords.

What if there are more than 3 chords in a song? What then?

We’ll take that up in part 2 of this series of articles.