Anti-pop anti-diva Lady Gaga rocked the

airwaves with Just Dance. With the help of

producer RedOne (see the Oct 08 issue of
Keyboard for more on him), Just Dance
throbs with synth bass and lead lines that
have the power to rock a dance floor, but are
simple enough to learn quickly. If you can
split your keyboard, do so at middle C, and
dial up an aggressive synth bass tone in the
lower half and a trance-y lead tone in the
upper half. Then shut your playboy mouth, go
through the examples below, and just play.
PLAY I T! POP
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LADY GAGAS JUST DANCE
by Michael Gallant
Ex. 1. Heres how your right hand should lie on the keys to play the signature
synth line from Just Dance. To get the notes in the right sequence, play the
keys under your fingers in this order: 2, 4, 1, 5, 4.
Ex. 2. Place your left hand on the keyboard as shown to play the bass line for Just
Dance. To get the order of notes right, play the keys under your fingers in this
order: 4, 2, 5, 1, 2.
Ex. 3. Before playing the right-hand synth line for Just Dance, go through this
exercise to get a handle on the timing. Its all eighth-notes, which is simple
enough. The accents are key, though. Turn on the metronome and tap out these
rhythms, being sure to tap extra loud on the accented notes; these are the points
in the phrase where the melody changes unexpectedly.
Ex. 4. Go through this exercise to cop the timing for the left-hand bass line in
Just Dance. Again, get the metronome running and tap along to the rhythms.
Ex. 5. Once youve gone through all the other exercises, put the pieces together
and try the full excerpt, transcribed here in traditional notation.
Whats your most floor-pounding synth bass line?
Post a link to it on our forum at keyboardmag.com
and you may end up featured in print or online.
2
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1
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4
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C#
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Just Dance, Words and Music by Stefani Germanotta, RedOne, and Aliaune Thiam. Copyright 2008 Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, House Of Gaga Publishing Inc., GloJoe Music Inc., RedOne
Productions, LLC and Byefall Music. All Rights Administered by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, 8 Music Square West, Nashville, TN 37203. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved,
Reprinted by Permission of Hal Leonard Corporation.
40 K E Y B O A R D 0 9 . 2 0 0 9
When it comes to rock keyboards,
chops and speed often should take a back
seat to parts that can cut through the
band and drive the music. Check out John
Lennons churning and broken chords,
Elton Johns moving gospel inversions and
crashing left-hand octaves, or Roy Bittans
driving right-hand patterns, and youll hear
how simple and clear chord movement,
strong inner melodies, and parts with com-
pelling forward motion have become the
essence of modern rock and pop piano.
One way to amplify your right-hand
chordal playing is to use your left hand to sup-
port the top note melody. This technique is
the first step in unlocking the left hand from a
limited bass-only role, and will give your play-
ing more sound, power, and dimension.
PLAY I T! ROCK
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UNLEASH THE LEFT HAND
by Scott Healy
Ex. 1. Start with a clear chord progression, like the I-IV-V shown here. The Eb chord momentarily moves down to the Bb chord over an Eb bass, then back to basic Eb,
then to the Ab (the IV) and finally the Bb (the V). The top notes of the right-hand chord are a strong melody. The off-beat syncopation is repeated in the second bar and
gives the whole phrase continued forward motion. Add the left hand playing octaves and you have a simple and direct sound.
Ex. 2. As shown in 2a, break the right-hand chords into eighth-note groupings of three, three, and two, and the phrase suddenly has drive and forward motion. Accent the
first note of each grouping and change the pedal every time the chord changes. Try a variation in 2b: three, two, and three. The quicker chord change on the and of
beat 3 gives the phrase more syncopation, and a slightly different feel. In the heat of battle, you might be switching at will between many variations. Add the right-hand
thumb on the accented beats in 2c, playing a chord tone under the melody. Here, the interval of the sixth on the accents works well, and as long as the damper pedal is
down, the thumb note will ring through, so quickly re-striking the thumb wont sound or feel odd.
Ex. 3. Add the left hand in two stages: First, use the left hands thumb in the middle register on the accented beats, as in 3a. This third note completes the chord, and
moves in tenths with the melody. Consider the thumb of your left hand as part of the right hand structure, with everything moving together. Playing like this can get you
out of the piano songwriter rut where the left hand only plays roots and the right hand only plays chords. Spreading the triad between two hands and playing in larger
intervals like this is a much different sound than the close voicings of Example 1. When youre ready, add the bottom: a root in the fifth finger, held down until the chord
change. If youre feeling brave, lift your hand and give a quick pickup note or phrase to take it to the next change. If youre pedaling right, youll never notice the gap.
The same principle can apply in a more chordal style, as in 3b, where the left hand thumb is moving into the right-hand range to support the top voice. The fifth
finger of the left hand can play the bass note, and maybe even slip in some embellishments.
Does your left hand play some mean, outside-the-box rock piano?
Post a link to your work on our forum at keyboardmag.com and you
may just end up featured in print or online.
42 K E Y B O A R D 0 9 . 2 0 0 9
The whole tone scale consists of six
notes separated by whole-step intervals.
Since this scale has no half-step leading
tones and is symmetrical, it doesnt give
a strong indication of tonality, and there-
fore doesnt have a strong tendency
towards resolution.
There are only two whole tone scales,
since transposing them more than a half-
step results in a duplication of the notes.
Composers from Mozart forward have used
the whole tone scale in compositions to
varying degrees. It was Claude Debussy
who first made extensive use of the scale,
and in doing so eventually influenced jazz
pianists of the 20th century like Art
Tatum and Thelonious Monk. Legendary
saxophonist John Coltrane also began to
play it in his improvisations; as a result, his
pianist, McCoy Tyner, used it for both
comping and soloing.
The whole tone scale in jazz improvisa-
tion can lend an air of dissonance, ten-
sion, vagueness or ambiguity of tonality,
and an intensity that no other scale can
impart. Its easy to dismiss this scale,
because on the surface it seems so sim-
ple. But thanks to creative applications by
so many innovative players, the bound-
aries of whole tone scale usage have
expanded. Lets take a look at the whole
tone scale, and explore some ways to uti-
lize it in your own playing.
PLAY I T! JAZZ
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WHOLE TONE TIPS,
PART 1
by Andy LaVerne
Ex. 1. Augmented triads in C and D put together form a C whole tone scale, as in 1a. Db and Eb augmented triads put
together, as in 1b, form a Db whole tone scale.
Ex. 2. To play the whole tone scale quickly, and for an impressionistic effect, distribute the notes between two hands, as in 2a.
The left hand crosses over the right, then the right crosses under the left. The C whole tone scale (and its derivatives) fits the
hands nicely when played as triplets, since its distributed with three notes on the white keys and three notes on the black
keys. You can accomplish a similar effect in 2b when playing the whole tone scale as eighth notes.
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Ex. 3. The distribution of white and black notes is a bit different in the Db whole tone scale, shown in 3a. This time, its two black notes and
four white notes. The right hand crosses under the left, then the left crosses over the right. Play the Db whole tone in eighth notes in 3b.
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Ex. 4. By taking two augmented triads a ninth apart, we can create a nice series of two-hand voicings that walk up and down the whole
tone scale, as in 4a. Feel free to skip intervals as well. These are good comping voicings, especially over 7aug chords. The structures in
4b contain minor sevenths, tritones, and major thirds. The right hand plays the chords up a ninth from the left hand.
Share some of your own killer whole
tone playing on our forums at
keyboardmag.com and you may just be
featured in a future issue of Keyboard!
Want to learn more
about whole tone
scales?
CDs: John Coltrane, One
Down, One Up (Impulse);
Wayne Shorter, Ju Ju
(Blue Note)
Book: Chords in Motion,
Andy LaVerne (Jamey
Aebersold Jazz)
For audio examples of this
lesson, visit keyboardmag.com.
44 K E Y B O A R D 0 9 . 2 0 0 9