Ad-Lib Piano & Songbird

When I first began this musical adventure of taking requests then learning brand new songs and posting them on youtube, my piano skills were a bit amateur.

I can read music. 

I can memorize written arrangements. 

I can sight-read (though a bit right-hand focused). 

I can learn by ear. 

What I could not do, when I started this, is chord. I didn't even know what it meant to chord. 

So I learned. 

I essentially read my music like a guitarist reads music. I see the words and then there are chords written above the music: 

D   Bm.  G.   A

This is a common chord progression, used for songs like Heart and Soul, Santa Baby, and thousands of hit songs. 

With chording, the basics are that you follow what is in the triad of each chord in a progression. So for D, my left hand sticks to D F# and A, for Bm it chords B D and F#, etc, etc... Changing when the chord written above the music changes

That part is simpler. 

What was next, what I wanted to improve upon, is the movement in my right hand to fit the music in between the chord changes. This became more tricky. Essentially, each chord is seen as an entirely new key. This means that, on the fly, I have to imagine all of the possible notes in the key of D, then Bm, then G, then A - quickly - and I can then improvise. 

This improvisations, these moments of ad-lib instrumental interludes, are often what result in iconic riffs. Like the instrumental ad-lib in the middle of a song that becomes a piece of iconography in the music world - the intro to Sweet Child Of Mine, the end piano solo in Sweet Home Alabama, or the trills, runs, triads, or octave changes in the accompaniment that gives the phrase an entirely new feeling. 

Below is what I have written out for the song Songbird by Eva Cassidy. 

I recently shared a live clip of my cover of this song. For this particular song, there is no specific riff that I am attempting to emulate, there is no planned set accompaniment, and I have never played this song in exactly the same way twice. It is different every single time because I focus on the chords and intentionally improvise instead of memorizing a particular arrangement. It keeps my mind sharp, it helps improve my understanding of the specific keys and chords, and gives the tune a sense of direction, along with my own personal and momentary spin. 

Click here for my live clip cover of this tune from a few Christmases ago, and click here for my cover from 7 years ago. 

I love My Musical Life!