How To Dress Up "Naked Music" On The Piano

How To Dress Up "Naked Music" On The Piano: "
Back To Snippet
Back To SITEMAP
How To Dress Up 'Naked Music' On The Piano
Author: Duane Shinn

What in the world is �naked music?�
You know it when you hear it, but the words that describe it sound strange, don�t they? We�ve all heard of popular music and rock music and gospel music and jazz music, but naked music?
Naked music is simply the notes on a piece of sheet music. It�s �naked� � not dressed up or arranged at all. No fills, no slurs, none of the ingredients that make a song come to life.
Not a single professional musician plays the music exactly as it appears on a piece of sheet music. Instead, they use the written music as a map, or an outline, and then proceed to do their own thing with it. They twist it, bend it, add to it, subtract from it, put fills in it, change the key, change the words, change some of the melody notes, and on and on.
So when you hear your favorite artist perform a piece of music, if you look at the written sheet music while they are performing it, you will see it is MUCH different and MUCH better than the plain old �naked music!�
So how can the average musician dress up naked music? There are many ways, but here are seven of my favorites:
1.Change the chords slightly by adding color tones. What are color tones? Color tones are notes added to the basic chord, usually expressed as 6ths, 7ths, 9ths, etc. For example, instead of playing just a straight C chord as it is written � C, E, G � try adding a color tone to it, such as a 6th (A) or a 7th (Bb) or a major 7th (B) or a 9th (D). In fact, try adding a couple together, like a 6th and a 9th. So instead of being a plain vanilla chord made up of C, E, and G, you�ve made it a tasty variation "