I've had several students want to learn this song in honor of Eddie. What I find ironic is that they want to pay homage to a guitar player by learning a keyboard part... That said, give Jump a listen and we'll get started.
Either way, this is a classic intro and gives some good examples of some musical concepts. 1) Suspended chords
Suspended chords serve as a method to delay resolution. This is how they were traditionally used. That said, they have been utilized in a much less predictable in modern music. The important thing to recognize is that they are a triad without a 3rd.
The most common spelling is a sus4 chord.
In the key of G our scale is G A B C D E F# G
Our sus4 chord would be: 1 4 5
and would often resolve to G major.
Just like any other triad we can invert them, but because of the ambiguous purpose of the chord, we can reinterpret them from the perspective of the lowest tone.
1 4 5 4 5 1 5 1 4
GCD CDG DGC
1 4 5 1 2 5 1 4 b7
In the middle example we end up with what is called a Csus2 chord. It typically resolves to C major. This is the suspended chord we see in Jump!
2) Ties
The other concept worth mentioning is Ties. They are a rhythmic device that allows us to tie two notes together. This allows us to glue rhythmic values together. We can benefit from this when we want to hold rhythms over the bar line, or when it is easier to read (perceive the beats) when we tie notes together rather than using dotted rhythms.
Be sure to practice counting your 1/8th notes throughout this exercise. Try to hold the notes for their full rhythmic value. Listen to how the ending of the phrase has longer sounding notes than the beginning of the phrase.
Here is a link to download the sheet music.
Take your time, enjoy the process and keep playing.
Christopher
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