Time for a little Q&A about Crucial vs. Non Crucial Chords.
Student John asks:
“Hi Tim-I had a question about seventh chords. I noticed on your crucial chord chart that they are all listed as “non crucial chords.” However, when I find my own chord and lyric charts to play from, I find that virtually every song seems to have seventh chords in it. Are they considered “non crucial” in the sense that you could get by with the regular chord if you had to? Because it certainly seems like they’re everywhere. Thanks John”
John is correct. Seventh chords are very popular and obviously crucial to the songs he wants to play.
But in the Layer Method Of Piano world they are an additional layer to the root chord. So once you learn G, then G7 is a breeze.
Now…not the G7 isn’t a breeze anyway, it’s just the way we do it.
The other thing is this…
… I want you learning chords when they make sense to you for a song you want to play.
There is no need to learn a triple augmented sus 7th with a cherry on top chord if you won’t ever play it.
Get my drift?
If you start to learn songs that require the super complicated chords, then you can learn those.
But why spend hours trying to learn chords you probably won’t play?
I don’t like to waste time like that.
Now before we go we need to address something in Johns email.
This is what the Layer Method is all about.
John, wanting to play songs he likes, is going out, finding the chord charts, lyric charts, learning the chords, and then playing the songs.
That is the beauty of the Layer Method Of Piano.
You will have the skills to do this and then ask great questions like John about seventh chords when you keep running into them on the stuff YOU WANT TO PLAY!
Really cool. Don’t you agree?
If you aren’t sign up for the Layer Method Of Piano…
…Click on the address below and by the end of the weekend you could be playing something (maybe with both hands):
