Playing with Chords? Oh Yeah!

Here we have a woman playing the music of Debussy - a famous classical composer. Now to most, what she's doing here seems like magic. But to those who understand a little about chords, it's nothing but a woman 'playing' around with certain chords.

Debussy was fond of something called the 'augmented chord.' It's where the fifth note of the scale is sharped. For example, a C augmented chord would be spelled c - e - g#. By using this chord and the whole tone scale, Debussy was able to create a sound that literally has no functional harmony. That is, there is no G 7 to C Major resolution as is found in most western music.

Revolutionary for the time, Debussy wanted something more 'French" and less bavarian. In fact, he disliked the music of Beethoven.

Anyway, the real reason I wanted to show you this video is because in your next lesson, you'll be learning how to improvise like this using chords!