In this post, I’m going to show you how to easily play fast piano songs with one simple tweak to your playing.

Playing fast songs is a skill that will immediately open up your song options while also boosting the energy in any room you're playing. Imagine the confident feeling of playing upbeat songs while having total control, plus adding new rhythms to your playing.

Unfortunately, many musicians struggle with fast songs due to never taking the time to work out one of the many creative options available to them.

You're working too hard to play fast songs

When you play a fast song you might find yourself tensing up or not having a plan for how to perform the song. Meanwhile, your brain & hands are doing their best to keep up with the chords coming at them.

Instead of just trying to gut it out and play faster or barely getting by and feeling less confident in your playing, let's try a new technique that can open up numerous options for you, such as:

• fun & interesting rhythms

• new chord voicings

• fuller sounds + space for others to play

• increased strength

• time to think ahead in every song

Step 1: Learn power chords

Power chords are game-changers and the beginning of improving how you play fast songs.

You might be asking - what is a power chord? For this, we're going to borrow from our guitar friends as this chord type is one they're very accustomed to playing (and why should they have all the secret musical knowledge?).

A power chord typically consists of just two notes: the root note and the fifth note of the key in which you're playing. You can also add an octave of the root note to this chord, making it three total notes being played.

Ex: If you have a s song in the key of C, your main power chord will be C - G - C. Try playing this in your right hand. If that's too big of a stretch for your hand, simplify by playing C - G, as this will also work.

Step 2: Why use power chords?

The structure of a power chord makes it sound strong and full. It's technically a very simple chord and one which doesn't include the third note. So, its beauty is that it can be used as a major OR minor chord.

But why is this so important? It can immediately reduce your hand movement, which not only conserves your energy but also increases your precision and speed. This gives you the opportunity to add in different rhythms and to play the piano percussively.

It also allows you to take up less "sonic space" in a song because your chords are more open, leaving room for the rest of the band to play without muddying up the sound.

Step 3: Begin using power chords

You've already seen one example of a power chord (C - G - C). Now pull up a fast song that you'd like to play. Find the key of your song, identify the 1 chord of that key, convert it into a power chord.

So, if your fast song is in the key of A, your 1 chord would be an A. Normally you'd play the 1 chord of A as A-C#-E, but you want to convert it to a power chord. Remember a power chord is the 1st note, the fifth note, and the octave above the 1st note. So, in the key of A this would give you a power chord of A - E - A.

It sounds almost too simple to be useful or even good, but try playing through your song using that chord. Can you hear the strength of it? Even better, try playing through your entire fast song by holding that power chord in your right hand and only moving your left hand/bass note for the chord changes.

The song might not sound exactly correct, but give it a try. This will stretch your ear & creative muscles, prepare you for how we'll expand this idea next week, plus you might be surprised to hear it works better than you imagined.

Next week, I'll provide you with a few short video examples of how to turn the power chord into one of your new favorite go-tos during uptempo songs. Play around with it this week, and I can't wait to show you some more tips & tricks to keep growing your skills!

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