Piano Lessons
Mixolydian mode ballad piano improvisation with sus4 chords
This is a pretty cool piano improvisation that uses four chords – including the sus4 – and mixolydian mode, one of the alternative piano scales that has a very distinctive, epic kind of sound even when used in a ballad format. The improvisation itself is pretty straightforward but can be made quite complex with arpeggios, chord substitutions and more.
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Another key aspect of this improvisation is the relatively free and easy approach you can take to tempo, slightly speeding and slowing the beat and using effects like rubato to add musical richness.
In the tutorial, as well as demonstrating how the improvisation works on the piano and walking through it, I explain some of the underlying music theory principles, including the structure of mixolydian mode and the potential use of the sus4 chord to fulfil a dominant function (the V chord in the mixolydian scale has a minor third, and so resolves less strongly to the tonic than does the major V chord).
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