 Hi guys this is Jason Zach from Nathaniel School of Music. In this lesson we are going to look at the topic of accents and how you can improvise using accents. Now the controllable properties of music would be pitch. You can decide whether you want to play high stuff or low stuff. You can also control volume so that would be loud, soft, loud, soft. You can also control the durations of notes. Long note, short note. These are the three controllable things. So in this lesson we are going to focus on the topic of pitch and we will take note groupings and the note groupings are going to hail from a nice scale. I like minor a lot so if you like minor you're definitely going to enjoy this lesson. So stay tuned till the very end because alongside our note phrases or our melodic phrases in the right hand we are going to bring in the left hand to build up or boost our hand independence and combination skills and at the end of the lesson you're hopefully going to have a new perspective towards improvisation which uses a lot of maths concepts strangely enough. Improv is not just playing without a thought. You have to have a thought, you have to plan and you have to focus on something, some aspect of music which can inspire you. So if you don't have something in mind you can't really improvise and sometimes we tend to overthink about improvisation. Improvisation if you ask me is just fast composition. Similarly composition could be called as slow improvisation. So the two things you do in music are pretty related or pretty similar. And don't forget to get yourselves a copy of the handwritten notes and the staff notation. It'll give you pretty much all the patterns that this lesson has to offer and if you haven't already don't forget to turn on the subscribe button and the bell icon for regular notifications. Let's get cracking. So the first note set I have for you in the right hand will be the first five notes of the C natural minor scale or pretty much any C minor scale if you take the natural harmonic minor Dorian or whichever it's C D E flat F G. You could do this on any minor. I just like minor more than major when I improvise. So these five and the groupings are going to be based on sets of two, three, four, five and maybe even six but I'm going to stick primarily with two, three, four, five. A good way to get acquainted with it is using a counting method which we use a lot in India called Conocoal. I'll get to that shortly but what is a set of two notes? If you look at these five, this is a set of five. So to make it two, you just do C and D to make it a set of three, C D E flat, C D E flat F that would be a set of four, C D E flat F G. So set of two, set of three, set of four, set of five and from the purpose of piano fingering or even any instrument it could be guitar fingering or whatever you have all the notes in your radar so to speak. So you have these five and set of two we'll just use first two, set of three we'll use the three, set of four we'll use the four, set of five we'll use the five. Now to bring all of this together we will use some counting principles and then add those numbers together to become time signatures and thus creating some interesting accents or accented groupings or phrases. So if you take the two group first of all the one group is also there but it's rather boring we can say tha, tha, tha but if you take two which is C D you can use thak, thak, thak, thak so the thak kind of becomes the accent while thak, thak the k becomes a more diminished kind of beat at least the way we speak it thak, thak, thak, thak now if you do thakita which is three thakita, thakita there needs to be some emphasis on something more so the tha of the thakita, thakita, thakita one two three one two one two three one two so we have tha, thak, thak, thak, thakita, then we have thakadimi, thakadimi, that's set of four thakadimi, thakjunu, thakadimi, thakjunu, thakadimi, thakjunu that's your set of four you can say the thakadimi or thakadjunu, thakadimi, thakjunu, thakadimi, thakjunu, thakadimi, thakjunu, thakadimi, thakjunu, tha okay and then set of five there are a few options tha, ka, gi, na, to that's a five word with those syllables tha, ka, gi, na, to or tha, di, gi, na, to you can do that all tha, di, gi, na, to, thak, gi, na, to there's just unique syllables given to each of your phrases and each note of the phrase and it just sounds and feels good and more importantly doesn't become a tongue twister for when you count it out imagine saying one two three four five one two three four five very fast it's very difficult you would rather use these syllables which are easy on the tongue so to speak so you can if you're confused with thak, gi, na, to you can make it as two plus three equals five or else three plus two equals five so thak, tha, ki, to, thak, ga, na, to thak, ga, ta, the whole word thak, ga, na, to thak, ga, na, to, thak, ga, na, to, thak, ga, na, to, thak, ga, na, to, thak So, before we get to combining them and improvising with them, let's look at other note sets or note combinations. I've already thus far introduced you to C, D, E flat, F, G which is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 of the C minor scale. The other note set I have for you would be the simple minor pentatonic which we use a lot during, you know, solos and improvisation and even melody making in general. So that would be root, 3rd flat, perfect 4th, perfect 5th, minor 7, that's these 5 notes right here. C, E flat, F, G, B flat, okay and a nice thing about the pentatonic scale is you can invert it as well. You can start on the E flat or on the F which is the 4th degree or the G which is the perfect 5th, okay. For now I'm just going to start with the root, okay so how do we build our phrases, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka, Thakka. So that's your next combo of notes, C flat, F, G, B flat, now another combination I have for you would just be a chord. So let's start with a C minor chord. So a C minor chord you can play it either like this, thumb middle and pinky or else thumb, index and middle. and middle will be nice because you can add two more notes with the other waiting fingers. So you can play Takka, Takka, Takka, which is 2, Takka, Takka, what about Takita 3, Takita, Takita, Takita, Takita, Takita, Takita, Takita, Takita, Takita, now for 4 it gets very interesting. You can do Takadimit, Takadimit, you can add that Aeolian 6th or the minor 6th, Takadimit, Takadimit, Takadimit, Takadimit, or you can go minor 7th or you can just go a full octave. C, E flat, G, C, right? C, E flat, G, C, so that's your full octave. Takadimit, Takadimit, Takadimit, Takadimit, Takadimit, Takadimit, Takadimit, so you can go flat 6th on the top, flat 7th on the top and the perfect octave. And if you are doing a note combination of 5 notes, you can add your pinky to play the octave there and you can float around with either the A flat ring or the B flat ring. 1-2-3-4-5, 1-2-3-4-5, 1-2-3-4-5, okay? So again the minor chord, 1-2-1-2, 1-2-1-2, 1-2-3-1-2-3, 1-2-3-1-2-3, 4 combos, 5, Takadimit, Takadimit, Takadimit, Takadimit, Takadimit, Takadimit, Takadimit, Takadimit, Takadimit, Takadimit, the words are very helpful, it keeps you in the loop. Okay, so now the fun is going to begin where I'm sure you're guessing it already. We're going to put these numbers together and try to get something going on the piano and I'm also going to introduce you to some left hand patterns. Our left hand has been rather sleepy so far. So let's start with our original set of notes which are these five and let's tell ourselves okay the most common time signature is four by four. Let's play it with eighth note. So then you're going to have eight beats in a cycle right. Now how do we group those eight beats normally if you're given an option you're probably going to go one two three four one two three four one two three four five six seven eight. Now that's one way. This is nice if you vary maybe the top note between the four and the five but it's very repetitive and very redundant and there are no offbeat accent hit points right it's just one on on on so to improve the process we can use these conical syllables or different groupings so just do the math eight could be grouped as three meets three meets two three plus three equals six six plus two equals eight so what is the three group CD E flat so two of those one two three one two three one two so the one two will be CD so let's do that one two three one two three one two three one two three one two three one two three one two three one two three one two three one two three one two so you're automatically getting some interesting melodic movement going on and if I just complimented with a drone in the bass, starting off with a C perhaps, there we go, I think a lot more interesting than doing, well that's also nice but that would be 4 plus 4, so to do this, while what we did earlier, 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 what about flipping those numbers around a bit, let's do the 2 at the beginning now 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 or so earlier we did or what if we put the 2 in the middle, that's interesting and this will all sound nice when you do the pulse and different patterns or groupings in the left hand as well, I'm going to show you that very shortly, so let's do that slowly 2 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3... now feel it in the head So the accent is created using the pitch because you are always coming back to unity which is C and that C is the repeating motion and that creates the accent at those points. Accent means change, change with respect to everything around it, at least in music that's what we call, that's what we understand an accent by. So an accent could be defined as a change with respect to everything in and around it before and after. So in this sense accent is pitch change because you are always coming back to unity and then adding the other notes. So another way to look at eight could be maybe three meets five or five meets three. So we have a set of five notes as well right and we have a word also, Thakka Geenato. So let's do five meets three. One, two, three, four, five. One, two, three One, two, three, four, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two We've looked at 2, 3, 3, we've looked at 3, 2, 3, now we've looked at 5 meets 3 or 3 meets 5. Now with all this, how do we reinforce the sound or the vibe of the music with our left hand? There are three options for you to try out. First off, if you're rather new to the piano and you're finding this a bit daunting to keep the counting going in the right hand, I would suggest just maintaining a simple drone in the left hand. So something like, maybe we pick four notes, C, Ab, Bb, F, C, Ab, Bb, F, and I set of notes part of the natural minor. So if we are doing 3 meets 5, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, just hold it down for the whole 8 beats or the whole bar of 4, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, so 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and it is getting a bit boring in the bass, right? So change it around to those notes we mentioned. There we go. Okay, let's do this across the other note combinations. Let's see how it sounds in the minor pentatoning. A is also pretty nice. There we go, the three meets five right and maybe it's over the minor chord which we demonstrated. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Try to roll it as best as possible so that's your drone in the left hand. And now moving forward, we can also replicate the accent where the pattern gets recycled at that point. So if it's 3 meets 5, it's going to be 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or where are the ones and where is the th of the phrase. So thak it, thak genotho. So all the thas are played in the bass for now in this next increment for the left hand. So that's the next option, copying the accents as we call it in the bass. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And you can have some interest here, you can do staccato, lagato, staccato, lagato or lagato, staccato. Both have their own unique flavor. And based on the pattern you've chosen, so if you're doing 3 meets, 3 meets 2, then you'll have 3 hit points in the bass because thak it, thak it, thak, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, 3 thas or 3 ones or 3 accent hits. But when you do 3, 3, 2 as per our exercise, 3 will be a set of these 3 and 2 will be a set of these 2. Just to keep it in an exercise format, you can obviously explore a bit further once you've conquered the exercise which I've told you. So don't run too much with it, try to follow exactly what I'm saying, get yourself a copy of the notes. Once you achieve what I've conveyed properly, then you can try and do your own thing. You can obviously improvise further, which is the point. Once you control the basics. Okay, so the next thing in the left hand would be to generate a pulse no matter what. All of this 8 can just be played as 1, 2, 3, 4. You can ignore all the accents and have an incredible contrast of, and that's what creates a groove when you have something repeatable and then something which is groovy here which has an accent or these focuses on the offbeat hits. So this will be a bit tough to practice so I would suggest move your head with the pulse, 1 and count, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and then count the conical. Tuck it, tuck it June, tuck it, tuck again, tuck it, tuck again, tuck it, tuck. I'm doing 3 meets 5 now and now 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, there we go. No matter what there's a pulse going on. So things you need to practice in the bass would be drone accents. You can put them in the same package, the pulse could be used as a build up, the drone could start perhaps. The accents provide that energy and the pulse makes it very epic. These are the 3 things I wanted to practice in the left hand with all the note groupings of the right hand. So to give this a spin in the right hand with the other note sets you can do it over the minor pentatonic. Pulse in the bass, accents, 3 meets 5, tuck it, tuck it, tuck in, tuck in. You can also do it over the minor chord. You can also do something completely unrelated in the left hand. Maybe more on that in another lesson. Right guys, so we've pretty much conquered the time signature of 4x4 where we have 8 groups of notes. We can also do 16 groups of notes. That will want to add some semi quavers as well. For example, 1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,4. So 3, 4s are 12 plus 4 equals 16. So you can explore 16 and just tell yourself how do I use the numbers 2, 3, 4, 5 to eventually equal to 16. So maybe you can do 4 meets 3, let's see 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3 and then meets 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, so how much have we got there, we've got 12, so end with a what, 4, right, 12 plus 4 is 60, so 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, see you can build your own patterns just by doing the maths just by having, any way you have the note sets, you just use the numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, use conical to help you count better and skies the limit in terms of the number of patterns you can create, you just need that end number, so for example even if I take a smaller number like 6, you can do 6 as 4 meets 2, right or 2 meets 4 or 3 plus 3, so let's see how that goes, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, so that's your 4 set, that's your 2 set and I'm embellishing the music with the accents in the bass, you can also do the 2 meets 4 or the rather boring 3 meets 3 has its flavor, let's look at a 5 time signature what am I doing, right or I can flip that around and do Let's pack up with maybe a seven beat phrase, which could be One, Two, Three, Four, One, Two, Three, Four. That's four meets three, or I can do three meets four. And to do the pulse with seven by eight, you'll have to imagine it as crotchet so it'll resolve only after two bars of seven by eight or you could look at the left hand as a seven by four so and it resolves only after two cycles of seven by eight right and now it's actually more important to combine pitch accents which is that pitch grouping alongside volume otherwise you won't feel it much you know so accents can also have the combos you can use all the properties of music pitch is what we've been doing in this lecture for the most part but you can also do volume and when you whack the left hand with its accents anyway volume is coming into the party so there's pitch there's volume there's also the length of the note duration of the notes so all of this can create change or in simple words these are literally the only controllable properties of music if you think about it if you're playing an instrument what can you possibly control if you ask me just the volume of what you play the pitch of what you play so volume will be how loud or soft you're asking that question pitch would be again pretty binary I want to go higher or lower right at the at the outset and then you have duration which is how long or short the thing should be right guys so do consider getting yourselves a copy of the handwritten notes it'll break things down better for you because I've included the note set in the right hand or the note sets the three of them and the patterns in the left hand we also have some staff notation which will help you with a lot of the patterns covered in this lesson thus far thanks a ton for watching the video catch you in the next one cheers