 Hi guys, this is Jason Zak from Nathaniel School of Music. In this lesson, I am going to introduce you to 5 comping techniques or accompaniment styles if you will, which can accompany a variety of music. I have 5 broad techniques which I am going to share with you, so do stay tuned till the very end. We are going to start with some very simple but popular ones, we are going to try and explore this particular strategy on different time signatures, in different eras of music, different genres of music, different fields or time grooves if you will and at the end of the lecture, we are going to focus on a very catchy Indian groove as well, which I think some of you watching this video might really enjoy or everyone watching this video I hope you will enjoy and to supplement or to support all of these particular variations, I have for you notation which is available as a downloadable PDF along with MIDI files on our Patreon, so you could slow this down, import it into your favourite MIDI software and we also have my handwritten notes which I have strategically written in a way to kind of position all the hit points very well for you to easily see, match the beats and play along with me. Okay, so you may want to pause the video and get yourself a copy of the notation and the notes and the MIDI files if you wish and yep, before we get cracking, we have a subscribe button as most YouTube channels do, so it will be great if you could hit that subscribe and hit the bell so you get a ring whenever we go live, release a new premiere or a new riff which we do pretty much every day on our channel, right guys? Let's get cracking. So I have chosen a rather interesting chord progression which I think you will enjoy, so the chords used are D minor, F major, C major and the last chord would either be G minor or G major if you want a more braver vibe, so D minor, F, C, G major or G minor. I figure this progression will be nice because most of the chord progression exercises used by teachers, me, myself included are boring things like the 1564 or the 6415, so I think this vibe will work and if you do it with D minor, F major, C major, G major, it's actually all the white keys on the piano and you could argue that this forms the Dorian scale because the Dorian scale of D will have a flat third, F, not F sharp, F, a natural or a normal sixth, major sixth, a flat seven not C sharp but C because it comes down so the chord progression could be thought of as 1 minor, 3 flat major, C major which is the 7 flat, G major which is the 4 major, so D minor, F major, C major, G major, a very popular chord progression. Just making stuff up or maybe I've done a few popular songs, whatever but I hope you figure that it's quite popular, especially in rock songs. Now that last chord, G major could be converted to G minor and that would make it into a D natural minor chord progression that could be read out as 1 minor, 3 flat major, 7 flat major, G minor which is the 4 minor which are all part of the D natural minor. D natural minor will contain the same chords as its relative major. The relative major of the D natural minor would end up being F major. You can move up a sixth from F, you'll get yourself D. So all the chords which F major had, D minor will now have or maybe you don't even need to know that, you just know the chords of D natural minor. So let me now show you how I'm playing the chords so we don't change that throughout the lesson and I just get down to rhythmic business. So I'm playing D minor with whichever inversion, I guess this inversion works, it's A, D, F, I like this around middle C is where I normally play my chord so A D F, A C F, G C E, G B flat D or G B D remember Dorian or natural minor depending on what you choose A D F, A C F just played along with me four times each G C E, G B flat D or G B D one more time A D F play the roots of the chords F major A C F the right hand C major C in the left G C E in the right G minor G in the base G B flat D in the right or if you're playing G major it'll be G B D so chords try to kind of muscle them to a point that you're not really even looking at the right hand when you play them four times each for now just minimal finger movement right see the notes if you have any doubts so I'm playing it like this but you could feel free to even play it if you like a higher vibe upper or inversion if you like the sound of that also you could gravitate to this because each inversion highlights something different at the top and so it gives you a different vibe or different melodic context or a different flavor the mood kind of stays the same because it's still the same chord quality so that's about the theory behind all this stuff so those are my chords I'm playing the roots in the left and before we get started with the patterns it'll be nice for you to be able to understand what are the fifths of each of my chords so D minor the root is D its fifth is A and to get the fifth of a major as well as a minor chord you just need the circle of fifths and just see the next door neighbor clockwise and you'll see that D's fifth is in fact A that's the fifth so we're going to use that in kind of a toggle so maybe a pinky could play D and you could toggle that D and it's A then you do F major don't get confused don't see A is here so I should play A no I should be playing F here unless otherwise mention play the chord roots in the left so that's its fifth F to the fifth C C root its fifth is G G minors the last chord and its fifth is either D G major its fifth is also D so get acquainted with the fifths and now let's figure out pattern one which I call as the umpa style which most of us call as the umpa style and here's how it sounds sticking with the G minor for now you see what's happening if you just break down the mechanics of the two hands it's almost as though they are marching together almost like a march pass you know left right left right with the hands not with the feet so left right start with the left what is the left going to play first the root then the right hand will be playing the chord then the left hand goes to the fifth of the respective chord A which you've kind of plotted out already I hope and then the same old chord so D chord A chord root chord fifth chord root chord fifth chord and we say this as umpa umpa umpa umpa umpa umpa umpa umpa umpa from the articulation point of view play the left hand a bit legato or long and play the right hand a bit more staccato or choppy and where are the hits you might ask look at the left 1 2 3 4 that's how our head is moving so we say 1 2 3 4 while the right hand appears to go inside the beat 1 2 3 so we could argue 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and and okay speed it up if you don't like an overdose of staccato in the right maybe mix it one staccato one legato or bring in the legato wherever you wish let that not compromise the left hand also you don't have to play the upper fifth all the time you can even play the lower fifth if you like to explore the other remaining note of the chord which is the third feel free and you create a nice bass line movement but if you're new to the instrument or if you're just getting cracking with this accompaniment style I'll be very happy for you if you can just go root fifth and the fifth could be lower now let's do this across the entire chord progression umpa again so I wouldn't play the chords for too long I would play it for about a bar you could start with two bars per chord but one bar would be nice for this progression at least so let's see how that goes D minor in the umpa going to F major going to C major going to G minor for now and D and C G minor and F major G major the end of G minor A D-Muff Major. Try to play along if you wish. A H-C Major. G Minor. Very nice if you want to accompany a singer. Or the singer could be you. Or in a band context. This will go very well with the drums. Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na Technique or any piano accompaniment pattern you need to be very independent with your brain when doing it. Your brain shouldn't be focused too much on the piano. It should be focused on the bigger picture of the song. Like your singer. What is the singer doing. Or you being able to follow the drums or at a concert, you being able to entertain the crowd probably by giving some interesting facial expressions or getting them to clap or do something cool. So you need to focus more on the bigger picture, the song, the gig, the performance, and this needs to run at the back end, fine? So that's the umpa and before we move on to pattern two, you can spice up the umpa with a few passing elements like this, for instance, just before you want to go to the next chord, you can, you can find a connecting note. Now I want to go from D to F, so I'll connect and go via the E. So D, D, E, F, the next chord is C, so I can do F, A, B, flat, C, or E, D, C. So I can either go down to the C, which is my next chord root, or up to the C, diatonically, which is still my chord root. I'm just deciding to play it up C or the lower C. So D, D, E, F, E, D, C, or A, B, flat, C, then B, flat, A, G, F, E, D, F, E, D, or B, flat, C, D, assuming it's natural minor in this context, A, B, flat, C, E, F, G, G, F, E, D. You may be figuring out by now that if you try the base movement, your right hand sort of stops sometimes when you do the base movement going up. I don't encourage that. You need to practice with your right hand consistently there. Otherwise the entire song kind of loses its momentum. Pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum. Right, so that's the final embellishment you could do with umpa by climbing up or climbing down. And the umpa in my next pattern, which is very similar to umpa, will just convert itself into a waltz or a three by four. So for a three by four to happen, all you're doing is you're adding one more hit in the right hand. So it'll be something like one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. One, two, three. Okay. Stuff like them. The song's like that. Sounds a bit evil-ish because of the minor stuff I'm playing, but you can be very lazy waltz, you know. It's also dependent. The mood you're feeling is based on the chords. And I generally tend to like these, you know, rock music chords or the mood you're playing. And I generally tend to like these, you know, rock music chords or the more rarer chord progressions. So for what do we do for waltz? We just add one extra hit in the right. And a nice way to count out waltz would be to say umpa, pa, umpa, pa, umpa, pa, umpa. And if you see my articulation, I'm doing umpa, pa. What does that mean? Umpa. The first pa can be played staccato, pa, lagato. So umpa, pa, umpa, pa, umpa. All the other concepts hold root and fifth toggle, and it becomes a three by four, as you'll see in the notation. Pa, pa, umpa, pa, f major, umpa, c major. G minor, and D minor, f major, C major, g minor, pum, pum, pum, pa. You can do the passing notes as well. You get an extra beat to do the passing notes, like G, G, F, E, D. So in a sense, the left hand is behaving more like the creative hand, and the right hand is just supporting with the hit points at the two and the three of this three by four meter. So start with the root, upper fifth or root, lower fifth. That's always the case in this lecture. You can go up to the fifth, you can go down to the fifth, and that fifth movement is primarily to emulate what a bassist would do in an ensemble. Playing the root and the fifth is kind of a very, very important thing to do as a bass player, because you can't stay stagnated on the root. It's going to then kind of pull the song back or hold the song back from grooving. Waltz and the articulation, the right. Staccato, legato. Staccato, so to get a nice staccato, you can kind of jump your wrist and then trampoline it down, almost like you're on a trampoline. There we go. So I like to flick my wrist up using my forearm and the wrist and then it naturally, because your arm naturally wants to come down, that's its resting spot. You'll get this articulation. There we go, that's your Waltz. So we've covered umpa, which is used for a variety of music, old school country, rock and roll, pop songs, children's songs, folk songs. You can do a lot with umpa and even Waltz. Another thing which is more specific to, I guess funky music or more particularly reggae music, could be this pattern. I'll just play it for you and then break it down. Very similar to the umpa. Now umpa was this. The reggae pattern which I'm proposing is umpa. So I'm now having an extra division where it's one e and a two e and a, but I'm swinging that because generally that's what happens in this groovy reggae music. Doom pa cha ka, doom pa cha ka, doom pa cha ka, doom. That's one e and a two e and a three e and a four e and a one. That's the general flavor. Everything's gonna be all right. That's swinging. You're not doing ta-ka ta-ka ta-ka ta-ka ta-ka ta-ka, you're doing one e and a two e and a three e and a four e and a one. So you get that vibe into the piano for anything which is swinging. Where are my hit points? One e and a two e and a, the e will be my ghost note played by the fifth. You can even play it a bit quietly or staccato, just flick it. You can even say along with me, oom pa, oom pa, oom pa, oom pa, oom pa, oom pa, oom pa, stuff like that. And what I like with reggae is you can use another passing note at the end of the bar, which is the G or the third note of the chord, in this case F, which is a minor chord. That adds a nice quality, a nice ghost note quality. So let's do the whole chord progression with the reggae feel, with a swing. And we're dividing by four, so 16th note notation. Slow it down F major. Without any passing notes, very simple. Play along, follow and count with me one e and a two e and a one e. Speed it slightly. This sounds so sad, like everything's gonna be all right. Same pattern, everything's gonna be all right now. Stuff like this. Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, one big family. I have no clue of the lyrics, but you get the idea. Now, you can also find so many songs like Buffalo Soulja. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. Okay, I'm running out of songs in my head, but I think if I spend another few minutes, I'll come up with at least five more. Maybe you have a few more in your head, leave them in the comments. So you go, the right hand always plays and, while the left hand has those ghost notes. One e and a two e and a three e and a, and an a at the end of the fourth. So that's your reggae pattern, guys. So now the fourth pattern I have for you is something more modern for all of you newer gen people, or for those of you folks out there who like the newer modern day popular stuff which is running the internet wild. So this is how it sounds, and then I'll teach you very slowly. It'll be something like. So I call this as the thresio pattern because the groove is one e and a, and one e and a, and one e and a. The hit points are one e and a, and a three e and a one e and a three e and a one e and a, and one e and a, and one e and a three e and a, that's the thresio. Right? Na na na na na na na na na na na na na. Na na na na na na na na. Almost every modern day hit is generally on this kind of vibe. Na na na na na na na na na na. So two patterns for you. One is could be just the normal thresio, which is left, right, right, left, right, right. And the second time you hit the left, it'll be the fifth of the chord. The first time you hit the left will be the root. One e and a two e and a, you could also speed up this process. One e and a two e and a three. Earlier, this is doing one and the three. You could also pulse it by doing the one and the two of the bar. So first off, we learnt one e and a two e and a. This is, right hand is always at the one e and a, and a, and one e and a two e and a three e and a four e and a. While the left hand is now variation one was one e and a two e and a three e and a four e and a. At the one and the three root and the fifth toggle, one and the three again, one e and a two e and a three e and a four e and a one e and a. Now you could do it quicker with the more pulse or the more salsa or caribbean style which will be which is 1, 2, 3, 4, pulse in the left hand and if you'd like the third of the chord bring that in as well ok let's do this style with the existing chord progression because I want you to do it with something specific that's why this is not about playing a song it's about playing many songs if you get this specific chord progression down with all the five rhythm patterns so again I'll stop the random singing right now because I know how far this can go so let's stick with the chord progression and that's the thresio or the salsa or the modern pop one a small variation to that could be you play the clave which could be just makes it a bit longer so what are my hit points what we call as the song clave the song clave is a very important Afro Cuban or salsa rhythm pattern which you've got to learn a lot of this material is in a structured manner for you on our website you can head over to nathanielschool.com and consider some of the video courses waiting there where if you want to learn these patterns you know from ground zero absolute zero which covers you know the basics of piano what are the notes how do you form the chords and all the relevant theory step by step you can go there or do one of our regular courses with me as your teacher so after the lesson is over of course now we have one more pattern waiting for you this is for all of you Indian music fans and the secret to this Indian music pattern would be triplets and don't overplay the triplets so the way I'll play it for you and then I'll teach it to you slowly so something like a lot of variations but I'll stick with this for now which is how do we divide triplets in our head it'll be one and a two and a three and a four and a one and a two and a three and a so one and a two and a three and a four and so one and a two and a is how we count triplets you would even do it using there we go what are my right hand it points in this particular phrase one and three and similar to the thresio earlier but I'm in a triplet world there are only three divisions in the beat one and again the left hand could do its usual only on the one and the three toggle which are minims essentially one and one and three you can pretty much convert any song and make it Indian like this you know or very like Eastern if you think about a lot of the Eastern rhythms stuff you get you know in the Middle East and India and Pakistan and a lot of these grooves are very triplet oriented so pretty much convert anything into triplets and maybe even like probably destroy that song unfortunately for some of you who like these songs sorry about that another thing you could do a triplet is make it more groovy as I told you for the salsa play it every beat and toggle between the root and the fifth you could do triplet variations you don't have to do one and a two and three and a four and all the time maybe you could consider just the ends still very much a triplet groove maybe one on the on as long as you have a triplet grid and you whack notes or other chords on those hit points and maintain a nice pulse in the left hand you're gonna have a nice arrangement going on for you right guys so those are the five patterns for you we have umpa we have waltz over the entire chord progression which I did then we have the swung pattern or the reggae pattern then we have the salsa the thresio or the modern pop one all its variations which you could swing back and watch and then we have finally the Indian triplet variation hope you guys like the lesson hope you find it useful and hope it can be part of your regular practice routine over a couple of weeks or so try out how much ever you can again I've covered variations because I don't know the levels of audience I'm catering to I would love to cater to a wider level on the on our channel which is why what you experienced are things for an absolute beginner just someone just starting off with the knowledge of chords I've also kind of jumped it up to the a few more levels by adding walking notes ghost notes and all of these other things so try to follow the lesson again if you need to and make it a point to get yourselves my hand written notation as well as the staff notation which we are waiting for you as a downloadable PDF on our patreon page that will help support our channel and that will also hopefully help you learn this lesson in a very clear cut specific assertive way right guys thanks a ton for watching the video again this is Jason Zach from Nathaniel school of music and I will catch you soon cheers