Piano Chords VS Guitar Chords

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illapino

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I've played piano since really young and took exams on performance and theory for over a decade of my life, but have trouble relating the correlation between piano chords and guitar chords. Guitar Chords can consist between 5 to 7 notes in one chord, while piano chords are only as long as our outstretched hand-size which usually are only 4-note chords (basically being the Dominant 7ths). How do you correlate guitar chords and piano chords? Do any guitar chords actually EQUAL piano chords?

And if a producer is using a keyboard to emulate a guitar strumming, how would they go about doing it when 7 notes in a chord is impossible to play live on the piano, and often the case being that 'above-basic' guitar chords span two octaves which is impossible to play on the piano, unless maybe you're Shaq or the 6'6" Rachmaninov.

It's just that I've seen guitar chords (with the same name of a certain piano chord) has two extra notes more than the piano chord of the same name. This is what got me confused ...

Thanks
 
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it should not be a problem just play and record the note u could not play in the same pattern or just do some thing else.
 
no, that's what I'm trying to avoid rellz. I'm a musician who'd prefer the organic recording, not computer edits and C-Major scales done with an arpeggiator. I think it's important for music to be as original as possible, or else, where's the talent? ......

Anyone else care to read the first post? thanks
 
huh?

piano chords can only have 4 notes max? are u sure you been playin since you were little? that statement doesnt make sense. you have 10 fingers and you can only press 4 keys at once? Do you seriously think that piano players are limited to chords with only 2 to 4 notes in them? Get serious go listen to some Jazz and Neo Soul and you will hear chords that will blow your mind that consist of alot more than 4 notes. You are too wrapped up in the technical aspect of the instrument. confined to the paper. ill give you the solution, they other 2 notes? PLAY THEM WHITH YOUR OTHER HAND. its really not that hard but people who are classically trained generally have a harder time breaking out of that mindset and trying things a completly different way. experiment and im sure that you will find that you can play piano chords with far more that 4 notes.
 
hotbeatz247 said:
piano chords can only have 4 notes max? are u sure you been playin since you were little? that statement doesnt make sense. you have 10 fingers and you can only press 4 keys at once? Do you seriously think that piano players are limited to chords with only 2 to 4 notes in them? Get serious go listen to some Jazz and Neo Soul and you will hear chords that will blow your mind that consist of alot more than 4 notes. You are too wrapped up in the technical aspect of the instrument. confined to the paper. ill give you the solution, they other 2 notes? PLAY THEM WHITH YOUR OTHER HAND. its really not that hard but people who are classically trained generally have a harder time breaking out of that mindset and trying things a completly different way. experiment and im sure that you will find that you can play piano chords with far more that 4 notes.
Click to expand...

word on everything stated in this post!
 
Yeah piano chords can have as many notes as you want, in fact generally as a guitarist, I try to only use four note voicing, drop 2 and drop 3 voicings. As a pianist, depending on whether it's accompanying or solo, I'll switch up how many notes I use as well as the voicings.

But I've always felt less is more, sometimes three notes can sound ****ing sweet. But on guitar if I have to play extentions or alterations, I'll either leave out the fifth or the root, or leave out one of the alterations/extentions.

I mean on piano you can play a chord with a b5 and #9, those kind of chords are hard to play on guitar, you can't play the same notes as you would on a piano, so you have to sacrifice. But it's all based on whether you're playing alone, or 'comping, or in a band etc. It's just playing to taste, situation, and the given tune.

Anyway, with the drop 2 voicings, you take the second highest note of the chord and drop it down an octave. This makes it more playable on the guitar or violin for example. These voicings tend to be played on the middle/top four strings, and are good for accompanying and chord soloing.

So if you have a C7 chord, C, E, G, Bb. You'd drop the G down an octave, to give G, C, E, Bb. So that's how you'd play that chord as a drop 2 voicing on the keys.

With a drop 3 voicing, you take the third note from the top and drop it down an octave. These sound quite full and tend to be better for rhythm. So with the same chord, it'd be E, C, G, Bb. If you look at both these voicings on the keyboard/guitar, you can see that the drop 3 voicing is a lot more spread out.

Anyway, google these voicings if you want more info, there's lots out there. Closed voicings aren't really used on the guitar because they're quite hard to play and involve big stretches, although some people do and they do have their time and place.
 
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It really doesnt sound like you have been playing piano for as long as you say, because when you learn piano you learn about music theory as well. Chords are chords, you can play the same chords on the guitar as on the piano, the inversions might be a bit different, but they are the same chords.......
 
guitars only have 6 strings btw, therefore a guitar chord will only have a max. of 6 notes.

hope that makes it easier to translate chords between instruments.
 
Lets say you load up a guitar vst, and play a triad chord on your keyboard. Would that chord sound like the same chord played on a real guitar?
 
Besides, 7-12 notes "chord" would be basically just palming all the keys on the keyboard. Is that really a chord or "a mess"? lol
And doubling the same notes up and down the octave is not done as much for the harmonic variation as for the fullness of sound. So basically those notes don't count.

On the guitar, there are 6 strings, as someone already said.. lol
And at that, you only have 4 usable fingers. There are some tricks like barring chords, but to me it was always like transposing the same chord up the scale.

And even though I'm a beginner myself, I suggest you learn more about the technical aspect of piano AND the guitar and also learn more how these instruments are played. Not trying to sound offensive, but this only my advice to you.

zerrat: If the notes are the same, why wouldn't it?!
 
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Most guitar chords are strummed right? So when I play a triad on my keyboard, it wouldn't sound like a "normal" guitar chord, since a strummed chord has 6 notes in it?
 
zerrat said:
Lets say you load up a guitar vst, and play a triad chord on your keyboard. Would that chord sound like the same chord played on a real guitar?
Click to expand...

C MAJ chord on piano - C E G
C MAJ chord on guitar - C E G C E

so you could play the additional C and E on the piano (using 1 hand and some practise/stretching).
 
Thank you so much. Does triad chords work on all instruments (no, not drums...I know)? E.g. organs, violins, synths?
 
zerrat said:
Most guitar chords are strummed right? So when I play a triad on my keyboard, it wouldn't sound like a "normal" guitar chord, since a strummed chord has 6 notes in it?
Click to expand...

not all guitar chords incl all 6 strings

some use 5 or even 2

barre (spelling??) chords use 2 notes if im not mistaken. its been about a year since i played guitar so if im wrong can someone correct me please

hope that helps.

google a guitar chord chart if you want to know what notes and strings are played for each chord
 
Is it always the root and the third note that is played "double" in a guitar chord compared to a piano/keyboard?
 
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