Re: Converting from Piano to Guitar
Reply #1 –
G'day carstowal,
NWC won't do an automatic chord analysis for you. That's one you need to do yourself...
For the most part it isn't hard - unless the composer has used some really obscure voicings.
If you can read the piano score well enough you should be able to get a pretty good idea from the bass...
E.G If the chord being played is a C then you'll usually have a C in the bass, in fact, you may only have a C in the bass - depends on the complexity of the song/hymn. you will, of course, need to take into account the key signature... If there's a C in the bass but the key signature has a sharp on the C space then the note is really a C#, not a C afterall. That kind of stuff.
The bass player should be able to work with that pretty well, even if s/he has to write it out as letters before hand.
The guitarist can probably also work from that too. Even if they can't read "chicken scratchings" all the guitarists I've ever met can at least tell you what the name of the chord they're playing is and how to finger a particular chord, so if they know what the bass is playing they're halfway there.
In addition, they can usually pick the progressions pretty well so providing they get a reasonable start then they should be OK.
In the end though, there's really no substitute for spending some time and learning the theory - the basics are really easy, especially if you are fairly comfortable at a keyboard as it's all laid out for you.
E.G. A C major chord is simply C E G. Look at your piano, C to D is a tone, D to E is a tone, so the "gap" between the first 2 notes is 2 tones. Then E to F is a semitone and F to G is a tone, so the "gap" between the second and third note is 1 1/2 tones. This holds true for EVERY major chord. If you want a minor chord, then shift the second note down a semi tone so the gaps are now 1 1/2 tones from C to Eb and 2 tones from Eb to G
Reality check
Now, the reality is that you don't often see a simple major triad, you usually end up with different "voicings" where the C might be the middle note or the last note of the chord, then you also have 7th's added etc. Nevertheless, the basics remain the same. No matter what the voicing, a C major triad is C E G, or E G C or G E C - same 3 notes just different orders or voicings or inversions - analogous, but not quite perfectly interchangeable terms...
Things do get more complex than that and I recommend you look at any of the good theory books that abound both on paper and on the net.
A quick search on google gave me these:
http://www.musictheory.net/
the basic chord lesson from this site is:
http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/html/id40_en.html
This site hase some freebies at the bottom of the page:
http://www.musictheory.halifax.ns.ca/lessons.html
This one also looks like it might be OK:
http://gardenofpraise.com/keybdles.htm
That search took just a couple of seconds - literally. If you don't find those sites helpful there are plenty of others.
One other thing I should mention - with your theory, like playing your piano, the more you practice the better you get.
Topic: Converting from Piano to Guitar (Read 3537 times)
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