 Hi guys, this is Jason Zach from Nathaniel School of Music. I'm super excited to share with you, in this lesson, five Michael Jackson riffs. If you don't know Michael Jackson, the king of pop, come on, where are you, which planet are you on? Go and listen to these songs right away if you haven't already, but I'm sure I get a feeling you have. So we are going to cover five of his classics, but not to necessarily teach you how to play the melody line of the songs. This I've curated as a piano exercise to digest the riffs or the bass lines or the guitar phrases, which make the songs really, really catchy or those sort of things we are going to play on the piano. So this will be great if you are accompanying yourself or playing with a band or showing this off with your friends and family or maybe making another YouTube video of your own and you should share that with me. We are available on Instagram, we are available on YouTube, you can write to us. As I said, I'm from Nathaniel School of Music, we are a nice community of musicians. So what we are going to do with the Jackson songs is I'm going to show you the riff first, which I'll try and play with both hands and I would encourage you to do so. After that, the right hand is going to play the chords as well as the chord pattern of the songs and that's pretty much it. The chord pattern would be what's there in the actual song, which you might find and the left hand will be the riff. So in a sense, you're following two instruments as one human being on the piano. So you're following probably the bass guitar player in the left hand, the guitar player in the right hand or the keyboard player in the right hand or some chord pattern player in the right hand. So let's get cracking. The first one I have for you is beat it. So beat it is on the E flat minor key. So here's how it goes. Something like this. Okay, so the chords are that's E flat minor first and D flat major repeats back to D flat. In fact, that's the first thing you could do. You could play the chords in your right hand while the bass line is happening in the left hand. Let's get the fingering correctly for this riff. And first of all, we are starting at the, at a pickup. We are not starting at the one of the bar. So one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and one and two and three. You can see the notation. It's there for all the five riffs, which I'm going to share with you one and so starting at the end of the four, one, two and three and four and one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and always the end one and two and two. It's good to count one, two, three, four and then one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four. So we start on E flat flat G flat or F sharp B flat skip to G flat or F sharp come back to the octave. Let's get that first two and three and four and one and two and three and four. Now your thumbs right here thumb index middle middle first you hit first bar you hit the middle finger twice. Second time you hit D flat just once and that's the riff. So I'll just support it with the chords, try to play along with me a few staccatos along the way. So maybe let's keep all the C sharps or D flat staccato pretty much like how it is in the song. Two and three and four and one and two and three and again, again, could also play the same riff with both your hands and I like this. This hammer on kind of sounds nice to me. Use your ring to jump in the right hand if you can get the hammer on or the glide. The other option is, yeah, as I said, you could play chords now on the right hand, what will really be the icing on the cake and more push your hand independence to the next levels would be if you can maintain a nice pulse of the two cards. So E flat minor, this is how I'm playing it, playing it in the second inversion. I think that's what I'm hearing in the song, B flat, E flat, E flat and then A flat, E flat, F staccato with the riff three and four. Remember to start at the end of the four in the left hand. That's the challenge. Left hand needs to now play the riff coming up one now try to sing. At least the riff that'll help you stay in time very slowly. And since the songs dividing the beat by by two, actually, then to try to keep that one and two and three and four and in the head, right. So that was beat it. Let's now move forward to probably a more famous song or I don't really know which one's more famous. They're all equally famous, I guess Billy Jean. Let's do it. So Billy Jean's on the F sharp minor scale, a relative of a major. So it has three sharps, F sharp, G sharp and C sharp. So the bass riff will basically be this. This is what I'm hearing in the tape. There's like an F sharp with an F sharp octave. Of course, this is all probably done with synthesizers and a bunch of other production elements. So we're hearing like this deep F sharp with the riff. The riff is basically. That's the loop F sharp, C sharp, E F sharp, E C sharp, B C sharp. But I like to play it with a combo. I could go. The lower F sharp, C sharp, thumb, cross your index finger. It's quite easy to play as you can cross your index or your middle. Or you can stab the octave together. Try this way. Copy in the right. In the right, I would cross my, I would stretch out my thumb and index finger slightly. That'll allow me to play this F sharp with the ring finger. No need of pinky in the right hand. Sing along. Nice finger exercise actually. If you think about it, this is on the F sharp minor pentatonic. I don't want to just leave you with this. Remember in the song, there's a nice. That synth part is there, right? So the chords in the right hand will be F sharp minor, G sharp minor, A major and G sharp minor. But they'll all be with an F sharp bass. So all staccatos, but the timing is cool. One and two and three and four and one and two and try to keep it staccato. One and two and three and so the on of the one, the on of the bar, one of the bar, one and two and in between two and three, you have your and again, we're dividing by two, one and two and get this going. Maybe try to snap on the two. Then start singing the riff and and whenever you're ready, slow it down and go. Playing a bass line with with the chords in the right hand or anything in the right and I think is the best feeling you'll get on the piano. It beats. I think it beats melodies there with arpeggios there. Of course, it's just what I think, but it's a lot of fun. Trust me. So get this going. If you need to work this hard, slow it down. Don't forget the fingering of the left hand. And I'm teaching you these songs on their original scales. You could play along with the track later after watching the video. This is Billie Jean. You could even play together all the best with that. Now let's move forward to song number three. Remember, these are five of the best or the top MJ riffs you'll find. The next one you have is smooth criminal. I'm sure you would have heard that again. Very, very popular. And what happens with smooth criminal is very similar to what he does in beat it. At the end of the four, you're going to start first off. We are in the key of B flat minor, which is a derivative of D flat major five flats. Okay, so you'll go. The riff is something like this. Almost whatever Michael Jackson is singing. Okay, let's break down the riff. One E starting on B flat at the end of the four. So one and two. And you need to count 16 notes because the beats get divided into 16s. That's one E and a two E. And you'll, so you'll find some notes at the ease and the urge of the bar. So let's break it down starting at the end of the four. One, two and three and four and one and so two ends and of the four and of the one. And two and three and four and one and two E and a three E and a weight and a one E and a two E and a three E and a four E and. Okay. And. That's the riff. You can play it with both hands. It's quite easy. Just these D flat, C D flat. And then coming to the minor seventh A flat. So. What I've also done with these riffs is I've handwritten a grid where you'll find exactly where the hit points are. I've circled it. So this is over two bars of information and two and three and four and one and two and three. Sometimes it's tough to say the numbers while playing even I find that tricky. So rely on my notes on Patreon. You're going to get the notation of all these five riffs. And you're also going to get my handwritten notes where I circle all the divisions and any other information regarding the song. Theoretically, of course, chords and inversions. All of that is waiting for you on Patreon if you'd like to supplement the learning. So now coming to the chords. The chords would basically be. First off B flat minor. That's C minor. That's D flat major. Come back to C minor. Jackson prefers this chord progression. I get the feeling. So I'm playing B flat minor in its first inversion D flat F and B flat. With the bass coming up now. So I'm playing this pretty much as minims in other words every two beats and then I'm changing the chord. Three at the one and the three of the bar. Now if you want to kind of play it exactly at the one you could do that otherwise you could line it up with the first note. You're playing in the left hand which is B flat. Now on the beat. We will talk about the rest of the song shortly in another video. Do leave us a comment if you want us to. So the final hurdle with smooth criminal would be to play the chords as pulses like what we did with the other songs. Now you're like in a stage ready way version you could say. So that's how I would recommend you to play smooth criminal on the piano of all instruments because there's no piano I think in any of these three songs so far including the remaining two if I'm not mistaken. So let's journey forward and the fourth song I have for you is the incredible song given to me which among all my Michael Jackson songs I think that is my favorite maybe along with dirty Diana you should check out given to me and dirty Diana. All these are incredible songs so given to me I have this hybrid arrangement where you will play both the guitar part as well as the bass part. So let's check it out you can first maybe focus only on the left hand and first off the chords in the right hand are. It's on E minor E minor is derived from the G major scale I keep saying derived because Michael Jackson is preferring the minors in most of his songs and so it makes them sound really gives us that emotion I guess so E minor is very same as G major same notes the relative minor would be the sixth degree from the major. So E minor the chords used are E minor C major D major C major given to me given to me C major D major so now we get that riff with the chords. Okay so let's break that down very easy on the counting front is just eighth notes one and two and three and four and all that's a super glamorous way of playing E minor we use eighth notes. Beautiful pattern that's one five octave crossover probably a middle finger on the ninth or the second interval up top F sharp minor third G and then we come back. F sharp G F sharp B B. Now we need to come to C after that so I've designed it fingering wise end with the pinky save your ring for C C major not really C major it's more like a C sus two. Beautiful chord D major with a major third and a sus four you could call it a D D major add four C sus two D add four that's the pattern and if you observe the notes are ringing that's because I'm holding down my pedal that's the secret see without the pedal doesn't sound so bad doesn't have that bite there we go now you could also kind of comp this if you want if you want some low notes you can play E and C together so if you want more bite or if you want more depth in your performance you can play octaves of the chord roots whenever they land E is not needed but for C C D anyway your pedal is held but you need to lift the pedal lift off the pedal before the C and before the D because you can collide all the notes right it's going to sound very weird. There we go so you need if you're not able to get the pedal control just do it the way I taught you earlier which is that's more than enough with pedal C octave you need to immediately jump your hand D jump again. And again that's the riff and coming to the right hand I have two options for you in the right hand one is just some simple chords the other thing would be to actually play the same melody but in a slightly different way check this out so it's almost the same but it's the tune which Michael Jackson is singing. And then a small variation a sixteenth note. The second bar is one E and a two E and a three almost like a trisio there one E and a. So the left hand is going to do a lot of independence with the right hand and the first bar is almost the same except you knock off the one. Let the one be just for the base. Let's do that pretty much the same except that we don't play the one. And then the next time it repeats you're anticipating that G by playing it in the sixteenth note prior. So normal melody anticipated and I hear Michael Jackson singing both versions so I just thought it's good to learn both in the treble. And then the left hand is going to the right if you want that octave or you could just stick with chords as well. And I like to play C major like this nice open sound E G D you can see the notation it's given there. Nice cluster chord used a lot in gospel music. Let's do that again altogether. So that's given to me so I have saved the easiest for last and I guess the coolest of them all bad by MJ again. So the riff is super easy let's first get that. So I think that the entire song is on the A blues vibe. So you could fool around with A minor blues but the overall bigger picture scale I think would end up being the A Dorian scale. Which is a major scale with a flat three and a flat seven. Leave the six as major sixth. So the chords are. That's a minor D major a minor D major. Riff played with two hands. That's a C D D sharp E also known as E flat. So then in terms of intervals root minor third perfect fourth tritone perfect fifth. In the second bar you kind of delay that A or the starting root a little bit. And in the song they do something like you can do that. So what am I doing the right and one two three four one two four one two three. Basically at the two and the three you're playing G with C F sharp with C. Little bit of independence because you're starting only at the you're playing only at the two and the three right. Slow it down and bring it back even improvise if you. So these are the five MJ songs for you. I hope you have fun learning all of them. Try to maybe use our chapter markers to kind of show you exactly where each song is that may be helpful. It's in the description. If you like to learn more songs by you know the best of the best artists where I dissect them. Explain to you the intervals where the hits are why they did what they did. Hopefully we've put a playlist for you in the description. It's called Play Great Songs on Piano. So you could check that out. It kind of historically shows you whatever we've done in the past and whatever we are going to continue to do. And to help you learn the lesson there's MIDI and there's notation waiting for you on Patreon. And if you're also a guitar player or a bass player I have demonstrated the same Michael Jackson riffs on the bass guitar. So you could learn it if you play the strings. So do head over to another video which we link up in the description if you'd like to learn all these five riffs from a guitar bass perspective. Right guys again this is Jason Zach from Nathaniel. Hope you had fun watching the video. And if you like the lesson do consider hitting the like button leaving us a comment. And don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already and hit that bell. Cheers and catch you in the next one.