# Piano makes guitar make more sense!



## Mark Brown (Jan 4, 2022)

So here we are again with another segment of "Mark's Musical Follies" and this time on the show I bring you 

"Why things never make any sense on the guitar" a beginners guide to why I am dumb.

So, as it goes, I have been brushing up on my musical literature. Trying so hard to take the long forgotten musical theory I have crammed somewhere in the recesses of my underutilized neocortex (I am not sure that is the brainy part that does the thingy, but it sounded good) and bring it back into the light. 

So then I realized, I own a piano. A piano that once upon a time a long time ago I bought to play that now is a work bench. So I started running through chords, and lo and behold, when you can see them all spaced properly on the piano they just make more sense. There is something to be said about the piano for theory and I find looking at it in black and white makes it easier. 

The guitar makes things mildly confusing building chord structures, when you are looking for thirds and fifths and the like, the drop back from string to string makes these things look confusing. 

Cmaj9sus/D makes no sense to me on a guitar, but on the piano I can clearly make it visible and then work it back over to the strings. 

Anyone else working from a piano for theory?


----------



## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

I think piano is a great way to teach and understand theory in general. Piano was my first instrument, but I've put in way more hours on guitar. So for me, it's the other way around. All the theory I learned on guitar, I apply to piano.

I also like piano for writing (as long as I'm not changing keys a lot).


----------



## BlueRocker (Jan 5, 2020)

I totally agree, and keep a 49 key Yamaha around for this exact purpose (although a picture of a keyboard would probably do).


----------



## Mark Brown (Jan 4, 2022)

BlueRocker said:


> I totally agree, and keep a 49 key Yamaha around for this exact purpose (although a picture of a keyboard would probably do).


I bought a Roland Juno-G a few years back in the hopes of being a producer of some ambient electronic. Then I realized two things.... no one uses live synth and I cannot play piano.

I noodle on it like I do guitar... but lately it has become my theory tutor as I try and make my linear brain understand theory better.


----------



## tomee2 (Feb 27, 2017)

I think it was Jeff "Skunk" Baxter in one of his guitar videos from the 80s, that I saw on youtube, said to be a great guitar player start by playing piano for 5 years.


----------



## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

Mark Brown said:


> Cmaj9sus/D makes no sense to me on a guitar, but on the piano I can clearly make it visible and then work it back over to the strings.


Slash chords are like kryptonite for me on guitar. They used to throw me for a loop, but I'm a bit better now.

I think some people go to far with them, though. I can remember a couple of occasions where I got hand-written charts that were nothing but slash chords with triads. No extensions, just slash chords. That gets old real quick. Instead of seeing chord progressions, I'm busy deciphering each chord.

liKE If I sTArTeD wRItInG LIkE tHIs


----------



## Sketchy Jeff (Jan 12, 2019)

both the upside and the downside of guitar is that you can play the same note in a bunch of different places so then in order to get a mental handle on that overlapping grid and not get overwhelmed by analysis paralysis we opt out to standard block chord shapes without understanding the interior construction of each one

piano everything is laid out flat in front of you one option for playing each note in a line instead of a grid and the white/black system of arranging the half tones keeps it organized. imagine if piano was laid out with all the half tones in identical keys side by side it would be a whole different music

j


----------



## diyfabtone (Mar 9, 2016)

This is sort of like what guitar is compared to keyboards but with each keyboard a 4th higher (except the 5th which would be a 3rd higher) - I think this is why guitar is not the easiest way to learn standard music theory?


----------



## Doug Gifford (Jun 8, 2019)

Grab n Go said:


> Slash chords are like kryptonite for me on guitar. They used to throw me for a loop, but I'm a bit better now.
> 
> I think some people go to far with them, though. I can remember a couple of occasions where I got hand-written charts that were nothing but slash chords with triads. No extensions, just slash chords. That gets old real quick. Instead of seeing chord progressions, I'm busy deciphering each chord.
> 
> liKE If I sTArTeD wRItInG LIkE tHIs


Slash chords are for whoever is taking the bass. If you have a bass (or piano) in the band you can ignore the slash note - somebody else will look after it. If you're playing solo look for the logic behind the slash note -- it's usually melodic and you can usually ignore it if it's too hard to play.


----------



## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

Doug Gifford said:


> Slash chords are for whoever is taking the bass. If you have a bass (or piano) in the band you can ignore the slash note - somebody else will look after it. If you're playing solo look for the logic behind the slash note -- it's usually melodic and you can usually ignore it if it's too hard to play.


Really more of a speed bump than anything else. Especially if I'm getting music at rehearsal an hour before we go on.

If someone writes Em/C instead of Cmaj7, I'm going to get annoyed if it's not a pedal tone or descending bass line. Luckily, that rarely happens anymore.


----------



## Mark Brown (Jan 4, 2022)

Grab n Go said:


> Really more of a speed bump than anything else. Especially if I'm getting music at rehearsal an hour before we go on.
> 
> If someone writes Em/C instead of Cmaj7, I'm going to get annoyed if it's not a pedal tone or descending bass line. Luckily, that rarely happens anymore.


Does it rarely happen because you knocked some sense into them  
This is what I pictuer


----------



## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

Mark Brown said:


> Does it rarely happen because you knocked some sense into them
> This is what I pictuer


Close. They just moved away, out of town! 😆


----------



## Thunderstorm (7 mo ago)

Mark Brown said:


> So here we are again with another segment of "Mark's Musical Follies" and this time on the show I bring you
> 
> "Why things never make any sense on the guitar" a beginners guide to why I am dumb.
> 
> ...


absolutely!


----------



## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

I literally learned guitar by sitting on the piano bench and transferring piano scale and chord structure to the fingerboard, comparing notes and intervals by ear. All that conservatory piano, theory, and choral experience meant that once I got the "every string is a row of semi-tones offset by an interval from the next string" thing, I could basically read on the guitar.

My hands were another thing though. It took me longer to get guitar hands, as my piano hands were unwilling.


----------



## AJ6stringsting (Mar 12, 2006)

I play with a great keyboardist virtuoso, Pavel, the guy can do some incredible keyboard antics that Keith Emerson or Rick Wakeman (of Yes ) could do.
One day, at a sound check, he played the symphonic parts of the Moody Blues , " Tuesday Afternoon and " Nights in White Satin " , ELP's" Karneval 9 ", to a tee and the guy is great on guitar too.
He kind of reawakens the theory that buried in my subconscious.

A real big musical inspiration to me and an honor to play with.


----------

