The B flat Major Chord
How to play the B flat Chord
The B flat major chord is the very first chord in the B flat major scale. This scale is very much used in Jazz, soul and R&B. It has a very colorful and emotional vibe to it and sounds very jazzy when improvised over. It goes well with the G minor chord.
On the piano, the B flat Major Chord is play using the following keys:
Bb D F - although for a jazzier soulful feel to it, its always best to add the 7th (A) is this case, which leaves you with Bb D F A.
The B flat Minor Chord is Bb Db F
For piano improvisation I find it very useful to use a power chord for the b flat major. A power chord is simply extending the chord with your left hand so that the key (Bb) and the 5th (F) are like bass notes. e.g. A power chord b flat major would be, left hand Bb, F right hand would be Bb, D, F, A. You can easily improving on the right hand using random voicing patterns. See the picture below.
B flat Major Scale
As mentioned above, the B flat scale has a jazzy sound and feel to it and sounds impressive when improvised on, it is also easy on the finger when playing the keyboard or piano. Please see below for a list of all the chords that belong in the B flat Major Scale.
The notes are Bb C D Eb F G A
- B flat Major
- C Minor
- D Minor
- E flat Major
- F Dominant / 7th
- G Minor
- A Diminshed
Please also note that keys outside these scales can also be used, however they must be simply "passing" notes to create that jazzy mood. A phrase should never end on a key outside this scale. e.g.C Dd D is ok, however D Eb E is not good. Ending on an E will sound wrong.
The fundamentals for Jazz/Soul or even other genres is the 2-5-1 chord progression. From the above that would be Cmin, Fdom/7, Bb Maj. Play it and see how natural it sounds. Another combination is the 3-6-2-5-1.
Happy playing!!
- Improvise R&B using the key of F
The key of F is a popular scale used for jazzy r&b and is very simple to learn on the keyboard. - The C Major Chord
The C major is the the root or first chord of the C scale, the easiest scale to learn. It is bascially all the white keys, CDEFGAB. This is the easiest scale for learning your fingering and runs up and down... - Basic Piano Chords
The above piano shows which notes are being played for each key There are a huge amount of chords that are possible, but most of them are more complex, and many pianist may never even use these complex chords....