The Free Weekly "Chord-Color Magic" E-Newsletter
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"Learn-a-Chord-Color-Magic-Technique-In-One-Minute-Flat-Video"
The "Straddle-The-Inside-Note" Technique
This "Straddle-The-Inside-Note" technique creates a wonderful, full sound when used as a filler, and can even be used as a harmonization technique under a melody. Pretend that you are walking down the middle of a highway and your left foot is on one side of the white line and your right foot is on the other side. You are straddling the line. (By the way, this is not recommended by 9 out of 10 doctors as being a healthy exercise.)
All you do is leave out the middle key of a triad -- so instead of playing C, E, G for the C chord, you leave out E (the middle key) and just play C and G. Then invert the chord upward or downward, and do the same to each inversion, leaving out the middle key. This produces an open sound rather than a closed-voicing sound.
On 4 note chords, such as Dm7, instead of playing D, F, A, C, you would just play every other note of the chord, and then invert up or down.
(By the way, while I didn't invent this technique (pianists have used it for ages), I did name it back in 1977. I kept asking piano players what the technique was called, and nobody called it anything, so I named it "the straddle technique" in one of my publications, and the name has caught on. I notice lots of piano players and teachers use the word now. Guess I should have trademarked it!)
Watch the "Learn-a-Chord-Color-Magic-Technique-In-One-Minute-Flat-Video" by clicking on the piano below:
Next week we will demonstrate the "Teeter-Totter Rock" technique, which builds on the "Teeter-Totter" technique, but turns it into a rock or jazz riff, so look for that in your next "Chord-Color Magic" E-Newsletter.
If you learned something from this 1-minute video, just think what you'll learn from our video tapes, many of which are up to two-hours long! Click on the video below to learn more about them:
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