Chords for Prog Rock Keyboard Riffs tutorial (Part 1)

Hey guys, my name is Christian.
I'm a piano teacher based in Vancouver.
Today I'm going
to show you a few progressive rock keyboard riffs that I wrote and I'm going to explain
what's going on in terms of the harmony and the scales and the thinking behind them.
So hopefully you'll find them useful for your own compositions and you'll get some ideas out of them.
All right, so I'm going to show you the first riff.
I'm going to play it quickly
and then I'll deconstruct it to show you what's happening
_ step by step.
So here it is.
[Em] _ _
_ [Gb] _ _ [Em] _ _ _ [Ebm] _ _
_ [Em] _ _ [Ebm] _ _ _ [Em] _ _
[Ebm] _ [Gb] _ _ [E] _ _ _ [C] I'll explain step by step my thinking behind riff number one.
So first you need to know both modes I'm going to be using.
The first one is an E Phrygian.
[E] It means we play from E to E.
_ _ [A] _ _ _ [Em] _
[Bb] It has that very special dark sound
because of the [Ab] semitone, the half step [Em] at the beginning.
[C] _ _ _ _ _ [B] And I'm actually only playing the [Em] first four sounds of it.
_ [Dm] [E] Then the second mode I'm using or
scale is an E diminished.
_ [G] _ _
[Db] _ [E] _ _ [G] _ _ [Gb] _ [E] _
It's a whole step half step diminished scale.
They're called Symmetrix
or Octatonics in classical music because they have eight different sounds.
Once you repeat the octave
then they have nine.
[G] _ _ _
[Am] So you got to do is [E] play a whole step [G] then a half and then repeat it.
Whole,
half, whole, [Ab] half and so on.
[G] _
So for the first portion I use the Phrygian a little bit of the
scale alternating going upwards, _ [Em] _ _ [E] stepping [Em] _ _
[A] _ _ _ [E] down _ [Eb] and then I play the scale approaching it from
below the tonic of the scale [E] _ _
[G] _ [Db] ending _ _ [G] _ _
on the third.
[Eb] So going up and down ending on the third.
_ [Gb] _ [G] _
_ [E] _ _ [Ab] _ _ [G] _ _
That's the second element.
The third [D] a little piece of the riff is an E flat minor chord in
[Ebm] second inversion.
_ _ _ _ First inversion, second inversion. _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ [Ebm] _ _ _ _ So _ _ [A] if I put it all together it sounds [E] like this.
_ [Em] _ _
[E] _ _ _ [A] _ _ [C] _ _ [Gb] _
_ _ [Db] _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _
_ [E] _ _ [Em] _ _ [E] _ [Ebm] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ So it's a pretty cool riff using two [N] different sounds or sonorities.
When you switch from one to another it creates a different mood,
kind of like a nice effect.
So once you add the harmony in the left hand it sounds a lot better.
What I have here is the outline of a diminished seventh [A] chord based on [C] A.
[Eb] _
_ [Gb] _ _ _ [Ab] Do that one [A] more time.
So A, E [Gb] flat, G flat.
I'm just [E] playing a fifth on each.
_ [G] _ _ [Eb] _ _ [Gb] _ _
So once you add the harmony then the scales can be thought of A [A] minor starting on the fifth.
That's root _ _ [E] and I'm just going up from the fifth of the scale. _ _ _ _ _
And when you play the symmetric _ I'm harmonizing with [Eb] E flat.
[Ebm] E flat seven.
So you can think of
the scale as an E flat symmetric half step whole step.
Which is essentially the same thing,
just starting half step below as what I mentioned before. _ _ _ _ _
[B] Okay so put it all together.
[Em] _ _ [C] _ _ _
_ _ _ [Db] _ _ _ [Em] _ _
[C] _ _ _ [Ebm] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _
[Gb] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ [Gb] _ _ _ _ _ I play the symmetric scale very quickly going downwards.
So I'm going to play it twice _ [E] just _
_ [G] _ _ [Gb] to have steps to [E] end.
Just so the meter stays the same and you
play within the time signature, the feel we had before.
So if I play quickly now this is what you
have.
[C] _ _
[Ebm] _ _ [Em] _ _ _ [Ebm] _ _ _
[Em] _ _ [Ebm] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ [Ebm] _
_ _ [E] _ _ [N] So improvise with the scales, use the patterns as the guideline.
Don't take things so
literally.
Play your own versions of it _ and I hope that's useful.
So I'll see you