Carl Thomas "I Wish" - Type of Chords?

[TheBarber]

Yesterday I learnt to play this song, surprisingly I learnt it quite fast, although the song is full of chords I can't even name. It's like it breaks all barriers of the basics from my music theory books, for example using one note of the chord as a bass, instead this song is full with chords that have a bass as note not from the chord itself.

 

Here's the video for the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PmHaVzauhw

 

And this is a piano tutorial by a gifted piano player:

vylp4CKxUns

He can figure out popular songs within 10-15 minutes, I've seen him do it live.

 

What are those type of chords called? What is this for a kinda complicated looking method? And in what key is this song? It's using so many notes, that I don't know which one it is. Btw I'm not talking about the main part, I'm talking about the bridge when actual chords are getting played, in the video tutorial it starts in the middle of the video.

[muses]

Nothing too special, just a simple run down of some pretty typical seventh chords, they're just missing the 5ths.

 

Db MAJ 7

C min 7

Bb min 7

Ab MAJ 7

G min 7

Gb 7

 

I didn't get to the bridge, but this may give you a sense of where it's going. It's just a song in Db, pretty much.

 

Hope this helps.

Edited January 18, 2009 by muses

[muses]

oh yeah, and the next phrase does the same thing, but at the end he adds:

 

F min 7

E7

[TheBarber]

Yeah thanks for that, altho I was talking about the bridge I get the point you're making here, it took me a short while to figure out what you were talkin about lol, I was like that are not 7th chords no way LOL...

 

But it seems that just some notes got left out (as you said the 5th) and the notes that got used have been inversed (re-arranged) - kinda creative if you ask me, if I would try to compose something like that myself it would give me a lot of headache lol

 

So if it's in the key of Db then only the note G got additionally added to it, that's why it confused me so much, it looked like a bunch of notes to me. And I also realize that I was wrong saying it would use bass notes not from the chord itself, because it actually does, it's even the tonic most of the times.

 

Yo muses, where did you learn this type of things? Do you have any recommendations for me to get more serious with piano playing?

 

I have read these three books so far:

Piano For Dummies

Idiot's Guide to Music Theory

Idiot's Guide to Music Composition

 

Unfortunately I can't afford any piano lessons.

[muses]

I took a quick look at the bridge and he uses a lot of jazz harmony there (first chord is an Eb 13 (EDIT: oops, I meant Eb 11) omitting the 3rd, or you could look at it like a Db chord with an Eb bass, jazz harmony is pretty loose, compared to classical harmony, in terms of how one chord is in relation to the next). Very nice stuff, but unless you get some more advanced theory training, you may have a difficult time with those.

 

For me, it took years at uni, as well as many other years of experience. I don't know if I can recommend anything that simply comes out of a book, since I never studied that way. Someone else may give you better advice on that. Nothing beats experience and human interaction with people who know what they're doing, in my opinion, but I know when budgets are tight, it's hard to afford lessons.

 

I'll go through the bridge at some point and write out my opinions on those chords... I say opinions because there is not always a right or wrong with jazz harmony.

[doug941]

Wow!

 

Are you somewhat familiar with this instrument with the black and white keys?

[muses]

Ok, here's the bridge... I was correct with my initial reaction of the first chord: it was an Eb13 (I thought I heard that C up there, I just didn't see his hand play it).

 

Anyway, here goes. Hope this helps you.

 

Eb13 (omit 3)

Eb7 (b9)

Db/Ab

D9 (#11)

Db MAJ 9

Eb7/Db

C min 7

F7 (#5 b9)

Bb min 7

B MAJ 9

Bb min 7

Eb13 (omit 3)