12 Key Improvisation Ideas For Piano: Just 1 Scale 7 Notes!

K-Pop, Early Classical Music, Contemporary Christian Praise Hymns, Folk Tunes, New Age Piano, Country & Western Music: When it comes to improvisation, what do these genres have in common?  Hint: Musicians will often sound “right in the pocket” by creating solos made up of just 7 notes (using only 1 scale) over the entire tune!

For the above genres of music (including certain even eighth note Jazz & Gospel styles), the 7 notes of the major key center scale work well for improvising over the whole piece. It’s an easy concept to keep in mind that may enhance your solos (without having to think of too many confusing options), so you can focus on building nice melodic lines with rhythmic variety. When we build solos upon one scale it’s called playing diatonically – which can sound good, provided the tune’s harmony doesn’t stray far from the home key.

Pianists, keyboardists, and guitarists also have the advantage of being able to build chords diatonically by combining notes built across a scale. In the following video tutorial I’ll show you how to do just that by using the D major scale – the key center of the K-Pop hit Euphoria – sung by 정국  Jungkook of the popular South Korean boy band BTS. Watch how the entire music video (harmonic devices are expained above the bird’s eye view of my hands on the keyboard, followed by all scale and chord building exercise examples), is created with just these 7 notes: D E F# G A B C#:

The 12+ ideas to explore vary from easy to challenging, and are time-stamped  – see the video’s description box (visable underneath on YouTube).

If you want to hear Jungkook singing in the official BTS music videos which inspired my Euphoria Piano Cover Jam plus this Tutorial, check out this 3 chord version (G  A  B-) https://youtu.be/MA6UBcKmeEk

You may also want to check out this Euphoria Piano Version (Jungkook vocals with piano accompaniment) that uses more chord variety (All still related to the key of D major): https://youtu.be/jZtZkdhmceg

Subscribe to my official YouTube Channel for more easy piano arranging improvisation tips!  https://www.youtube.com/c/DebbieDenke

And if you’d like to have something tangible to put on your piano while you practice/listen along, find all 3 of my piano improvisation book/audio methods (The Aspiring Jazz Pianist, Amazing Phrasing – Keyboard, The Complete Church Pianist) see “Books” on my website or go here to order: https://www.amazon.com/author/debbiedenkemusic

Hope you have fun exploring the key of D like I did! – DD

The Old Rugged Cross: Old School Hymn Played Gospel Style with Sunday Mash-Up

Ever notice how certain old hymns have chords and candences like other familiar tunes? (Especially the ones in 3/4 time can sound like Irish or Country Waltzes, Holiday Hits, or early American Songs.) I was MONKeying around with this request for The Old Rugged Cross, getting ready for a memorial service, when I kept getting distracted by other tunes which sounded similar.

Continue reading “The Old Rugged Cross: Old School Hymn Played Gospel Style with Sunday Mash-Up”

The Father of the Bride and The Wedding Pianist: True Tales Part 2

The phone rang late one Thursday evening. A male voice on the line calmly asked, “Are you free a week from this Saturday at 9:00 am to play a wedding for my daughter at the North Mission, and do you know the Ave Maria?”

“Let me see,” I said as I checked my book. I was surprisingly available. Continue reading “The Father of the Bride and The Wedding Pianist: True Tales Part 2”