Pro Voicings For Simple Pop Progressions: ideas from the convoluted Hal Leonard R&B Keyboard Book

The R&B Keyboard Book by Mark Harrison has excellent ideas for pro-level pop piano playing (including neo-soul), but OMG they present them in a really complicated way!

[@marshallsmith1366]

I don't think Mark Harrison is overly confusing. He has video series for the first seven chapters of his Pop Piano Book where he explains this stuff. He does like progress these structures in a circle of 4ths or 5ths manner to get a good sound when alternating several triads over a root. Also internal resolution of the inner second or fourth is easier in upper structures if we think of then as a chord. Eventually it all becomes quite simple I would guess. But thanks for your video, I do like to hear other people's thoughts on these voicings. Thanks.

[@Khayyam-vg9fw]

I love a lot of the content of Mark Harrison's books (although I'll pass on most modern pop and all of smooth jazz!), but they are not well presented pedagogically (I write as someone who has regularly faced the struggle of teaching music for over 40 years) and the material could be greatly condensed without loss of rigour (if not revenue). Likewise, I have dozens of volumes of music theory (classical, jazz and pop/rock) whose essence could similarly be distilled into a single, fairly short book.

[@pianothingsmusic]

Really cool chord progressions

[@HeartofthePiano]

Thanks, was concerned I rambled on a bit in this one 😝