Lesson on On-Off Chords

In this lesson, we're going to look at on-off chords.

You'll remember from the second lesson, we played off-on chords where:

• The first chord was off the beat
• The second chord was on the beat

We're now going to reverse that and play:

• The first chord on the beat
• The second chord in between two and three.

Tapping Exercise

If you want to, tap that on your knees:

1, 2, 3, 4.
1, 2 and 3, 4.
1, 2 and 3, 4.
1, 2 and 3, 4.
1, 2 and 3, 4.

If you can do that, you should be able to do it on the piano. I'll play barrel house with my left hand while using an inverted F shape.

Chord Positions

• Root position: F chord
• First inversion:

We'll just use this rhythm in a 12-bar sequence. Notice how the second chord is in between the notes of the left hand. It's also held, so:

• Staccato: first chord
• Held: second chord

Remember, just because you're playing a staccato chord in the right hand doesn't mean you play staccato in the left hand as well. The left hand should be legato.

Full Sequence

I'm going to do this round the whole sequence. To save jumping, I'll use:

• Root position B flat
• Root position C
• F chord in first inversion

First inversion chords always have the third on the bottom, so remember to put your thumb on A for the F chord.

Accompaniment Pattern

Here's the whole thing. This is another accompaniment pattern (if you like) of on-off chords.

If you want to make that a little more melodic, let's add some right-hand ideas, alternating them with the on-off chords. We'll use five finger position ideas.

Five Finger Position

There's our five finger position in F, and we'll play this phrase just with one F on the thumb by itself. The rest is in thirds.

When playing in B flat, you need to work out the five-finger position with the first five notes of the scale.

Important Note: In the key of B flat, you must have an E flat. This might feel a little awkward; practice that until you can play the notes cleanly.

Alternating Ideas

So let's go for those on-off chords, alternating with short ideas like that in every bar.

Adding a Classic Blues Lick

You noticed I played a new phrase there towards the end. This is a classic blues lick, sometimes called the famous lick. It's based on an F triad in second inversion with the blue third in front of it, then it encircles the third (the third being a part of the F chord).

We're playing B flat above and below it, coming out onto the third on the first beat of the next bar.

Transitioning to C Chord

The interesting thing, though, is that the F phrase is played over the C chord in the second C bar. Did you notice at one point in the 12th bar, I played an octave C and put the pedal down to let the resonance build up?

This is the simplest way of playing a turnaround.

Do you remember before, we did so? That was in C, and we went to a G chord. Now, we're in F and going to a C chord, just playing the root as an octave in the left hand.

This is something you can do to break up the 12 bars to send you back to the beginning again.

Summary

In fact, the simplest way of playing a turnaround is just to hammer out some octaves in the left hand.

In the next clip, we're going to move on from triads and start talking more about sixth chords.