Frank J Peter Country School

Country School: Floyd Cramer Licks: The First Lesson

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Let’s explore the basic ingredients of that quintessential country piano sound made famous by pianist Floyd Cramer…

Cramer’s ideas are based on the Pentatonic Scale-Chord Pairs for the “big 3” chords.

The driving melodic and harmonic force of each scale-chord relationship is that “the 2” of each scale/chord wants to resolve to “the 3” and “the 6” of each scale/chord wants to resolve to “the 5”.

Here they are for the “big 3” chords (C, F, G) in the key of C Major…

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2 to 3 Resolution for a C chord
6 to 5 Resolution for a C chord
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2 to 3 Resolution for an F chord
6 to 5 Resolution for an F chord
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2 to 3 Resolution for a G chord
6 to 5 Resolution for a G chord

learn more… Country School: Floyd Cramer Licks: 2 to 3 Resolution

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