music notation showing the 2 to 3 and 6 to 5 floyd cramer resolutions

Floyd Cramer Licks: First Lesson

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–I, IV, V.

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…

piano-ology-country-school-floyd-cramer-licks-the-first-lesson-pentatonic-scale-chords-c

Listen to the 2-3 resolution for a C chord…

Listen to the 6-5 resolution for a C chord…


piano-ology-country-school-floyd-cramer-licks-the-first-lesson-pentatonic-scale-chords-f

Listen to the 2-3 resolution for an F chord…


Listen to the 6-5 resolution for an F chord…


piano-ology-country-school-floyd-cramer-licks-the-first-lesson-pentatonic-scale-chords-g

Listen to the 2-3 resolution for a G chord…

Listen to the 6-5 resolution for a G chord…


learn more…
Floyd Cramer Licks: 2 to 3 Resolution

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