Tension and Release: When Scales Meet Chord Progressions
What happens when scales and chord progressions meet? This little exercise will have a big impact on your improvisation, playing by ear, and songwriting.
Brad Mavin
Posts by Brad Mavin
Tension and Release: Play the Dance of Scale and Chord
Learning to hear the nuances of tension and release in the interaction of scales and chords will do wonders for our abilities to play by ear and improvise.
Playing by Ear, with Brad Mavin: Adding the 6 Chord
Learn to play by ear with this series. Now we introduce the six chord which adds a minor feel to chord progressions and some ear training exercises which help.
Playing by Ear, with Brad Mavin: 1-4-5 Chord Progressions
Want to play songs by ear? This video series shows you how, step-by-step. In the last episode Brad Mavin explained the Cycle of Keys (a.k.a. Circle of Fifths, Cycle of Fifths) and now he’ll extend that concept to “1-4-5” chord progressions, the...
Playing by Ear, with Brad Mavin: Reproducing Sounds
Playing by ear is one of the key musical abilities which ear training can unlock, and Brad Mavin is a music teacher who really understands how to teach it in a practical, relatable way. He’s sharing his approach with a new video series “Learn to play by...
Playing by Ear, with Brad Mavin: Introduction
Playing by ear is one of the key musical abilities which ear training can unlock, and Brad Mavin is a music teacher who really understands how to teach it in a practical, relatable way. He wrote a great two-parter in our “Learn to play by ear” series a...
Learn to play by ear using chord tones (Part two)
Here’s part two of Brad’s article on playing melodies and improvising by ear using the notes of a song’s chords. It’s part of our series on learning to play by ear. You should start with part one if you haven’t already read it! Welcome...
