Hello everyone =)
ive been playing the piano for about 7 years and now, after getting into many different styles of music, i got into improvising.
the only big problem is that for the chords, it seems very boring after a while as the most i can change it up is inverting it, power chords *drop the third and only play the 1st 5th and octave of a chord, and sometimes adding a random note in between.
What other ways can i change up the chord so it sounds great ?
ANY suggestions are WIDELY welcome =)

*its basically only melody, chords, countermeoldy right?

THANK YOU!!!! :)

*im in dire need of it now, with it, all my songs will be like 500 percent better haha

:)

Hmm, since you've said many styles of music it really puzzles me why you couldn't have picked up on progressions and 'distinct' chords from that Era/specific styles.

Now, I'm sure someone can actually tell you how to 'variate' chords, but really it depends on the person improvising himself. It's such a subject in which I hold dear actually since it's second second nature to me--improvisation.

To tell you the truth, when you learn pieces from all these styles, do you at least take some technical evaluation on them? Like I said, it really makes me wonder how playing so many styles almost makes you naive about improvising. . .You might also just want to experiment with Minor and Major Sevenths (don't change the 7th, leave it in it's natural state) for a more jazz and even impressionistic/neo-romantic sound. You also may want to try some atonal and contemporary things by just hitting a chord that you hand position at that time might be in; it's quite fun once you make a melody out of atonal stuff like that. :heh:

Good luck, and for the future, when your playing a piece, make sure you analyze the phrases and chords for any patterns or stylistic reasoning for them. ;)

You also may want to try some atonal and contemporary things by just hitting a chord that you hand position at that time might be in; it's quite fun once you make a melody out of atonal stuff like that. :heh:



Atonal music isn't just 'hit a chord', it's so much more complex! Well, asides from that, in my opinion, if you improvise, stay on the safe side and play all tonal chords. Try to memorize simple progressions (I-V-I, I-V-IV-I and etc...) and expand them by prolonging certain chords with various inversions and whatnot. I guess you'll also have to memorize all your scales since different keys affect your improvising thinking.

@Sir- Lol, don't worry, I know how much more complex that stuff is; I was saying to just start out.

~~

Instead of also keeping it simple with chords and a melody, you can actually IMPROVISE without having it sound like a boring song. ie a melody then an actual chord pattern. I hate when people think that's actually improvising. . .it's personal opinion, but try to improvise something that sounds like (for example) a Liszt etude or a Chopin nocturne so to say; people will look at you in a higher manner, and plus it's a lot more enjoyable when you know how! But remember, this takes quite a bit of skill to do from the start as well.

improvising! marvellous! spontaneous composition!
but yeah, chords.

chord altering on piano is pretty much a neverending ocean of possibilities. above all all it comes down to is experimenting at every opportunity and getting used to finding new sounds. Jazz, which is 90% improvised, is about finding new sounds. You can call it a lot of other things as well but that's one easy way of categorizing it that makes yourself feel better about it and more confident.

at this point i'd like to ask, what exactly kind of music are you playing? have you heard of the Real Books? hunt them down because they're all the jazz standards written out in lead sheet form - irresistably handy for familiarising yourself with a variety of traditional chords and chord progressions (II-V-Is, I-VI-II-Vs etc.) whilst having fun with it.

Anyways, first off try just inverting your chords around the keyboard. see how many different positions you can get for the same chord. Add in a major or dominant seventh and play around with voicings for that. Don't be afraid to try every single key, not forgetting minor as well as major.
Once you feel confident with that, add in notes like 9ths and 13s to your chords. Try playing chords with 9ths as the top note in the chord, they're always juicy. Some tasty chord structures i find myself using often are, for example, in ascending order, the third, dominant seventh, and ninth on top; or perhaps a flat nine chord: third, fifth, dominant seventh, and flattened ninth on top.
To reiterate what Mazeppa touched on, major and minor sevenths are also bountiful. major seventh chords with a ninth in there has been known to bring out quite a colourful sound.
So yeah just fiddle around and adventure as much as possible.
i think it was in your situation a few years ago and i remember the overwhelming difficulty at all....try not to rush yourself into it because you'll embed it in your fingers before you know it. Experiment to your hearts delight because there's not anything quite like improvising in the world.

thanks =)

and @ Mazeppa
ive been lately analyzing sheets such as 1000 words and other songs that are catchy and im examining how the composer changed up the chords


once again thanks =)