In the Key of White

In my last blog entry I talked about improvisation as a foundation for composing instrumental piano songs, and I suggested using the black keys (the pentatonic scale) to begin experimenting with this technique. Today I'd like to talk about improvising on the white keys using either a major or minor scale, and I'll introduce some basic patterns I use when improvising.

A scale is simply a group of notes drawn from the chromatic scale, which is the mother of all scale and includes all 12 notes used in western music. There are a number of different types of scales that can be built on each of the 12 "keys," but the most common types of scales are major and minor. If you play each of the white keys from one C to the next, you're playing a C Major scale:



If you play each of the white keys from one A to the next, you're playing an A Minor scale.

The C Major scale, like all major scales, has a set of accompanying chords built on each of its notes. All major scales contain 3 major, 3 minor and one diminished chord. These chords can be referred to generically by roman numerals (which can be applied to any key), but they also have specific names. Upper case roman numerals denote major chords, lower case numerals indicate minor chords, and a degree symbol indicates a diminished chord (however, since I don't know how to type a degree symbol I will simply use the letters "dim"). The key of C major contains the following chords:

I - C Major (C)
ii - D minor (Dm)
iii - E minor (Em)
IV - F Major (F)
V - G Major (G)
vi - A Minor (Am)
vii(dim) - B diminished (Bdim)



The order the chords are played in can make all the difference in the world, and in my next entry I'll talk about chord progressions in more detail. For now I want to introduce a few common patterns I use while improvising. The first pattern is the "block chord" pattern and simply involves playing the notes of any chord from the C major or A minor scales. This pattern is quite simple and can be a good place to start:



The only problem with the above pattern is that it can become a bit tedious and boring after a while. If you want to mix things up a little, here is another pattern that I use quite often. I call it the "root-fifth-octave" pattern:



This pattern can be used with any of the chords. So for the C chord it involves hitting a C, then hitting the G five notes above that, then hitting the next C above that. The rhythm may vary and it doesn't matter which order the notes are played in. The advantage of this pattern is that it isn't likely to "clash" with any of the right hand melody notes, since it is somewhat indeterminate (neither major nor minor). It can be a good pattern to use when you are focusing on writing a melody and just need a generic harmony foundation to build on so you can get a general idea of what the song you are writing will sound like.

Finally, the pattern below is one that I call the "ballad" pattern, and it works well with slower songs: