 Hi everyone, this is Jason Zak from Nathaniel School of Music. In this lesson I am going to talk about three very organic things you need to do as a musician which are not really there in textbooks or most syllabi or most methods of teaching and for some reason I find these three methods probably the most important for my journey as a musician to play music professionally with a variety of artists with a different set of genres and even during recordings to bring out that emotion into what you're doing. So what this lesson is going to take up are things which matter beyond the chords, beyond the notes you have to play, beyond the technical stuff like the scale, the pattern, the rhythm, the arpeggio, what should the left hand do, what should the right hand do, when should they both intersect with each other, you know. So we are not going to get into those technical things, it's more the general things which you need to do beyond the given things which you read in sheet music or which you listen to in a song. So whenever you watch a video on how to play a song or any concept or even when you read a piece of sheet music, yes it does give you the information but it doesn't necessarily get you to play like a pro to get you to play in a way which arguably most of the professional piano players or in general all musicians have in common. Anyone who reaches a certain level on their instrument tends to inculcate these things into their practice. Now when I'm saying this I'm not trying to say that the concepts covered in this lesson are going to take you years and years. It's just some things I've learned over time as an artist which I feel I should have probably done when I was new to the piano. Instead of focusing on the technical stuff maybe I should have gotten more of the obvious natural organic general stuff. So in this video we are going to look at the three natural or organic things which I want you to do while playing the piano and this is a great set of three checklists or bullet points if you will. Whenever you're playing a song before you want to perform it in front of people, before you want to record it and showcase it to your friends, family or your own YouTube or Instagram channels these are the three things you may want to checklist before you actually put out that song because sometimes when we record our music on any instrument we really don't know whether we played it nicely or poorly or if there's room for improvement and so on and so forth. Sometimes you play something with a lot of heart with a lot of energy and then after a good night sleep after the adrenaline settles so to speak you wake up and then you realize oh man I have to redo this take or if only I had played it better before it made it made it into the final recording and so on. So here are a few things to ensure that that will not happen that the moment you played you can feel that yeah I am going somewhere and I have the right vibe required to execute this particular piece of music on the piano or pretty much any instrument even if you're a drummer or a guitar player this lesson should perhaps help you. Now before I get cracking it'll be awesome if you could hit that bell icon and hit the subscribe on our Nathaniel School of Music YouTube channel that will help us go a long way and you can also support us on Patreon at different tiers you could also consider a course at our school a semester program for six months at whichever skill level you're at so let's get cracking with the lesson. So the first thing you need to understand with music are what I call the three dimensions or the three axes of music which we are in control of whenever we play our instrument first off as we all probably know time so time is generally looked at in the X or the X dimension and we time is generally followed in a micro level or at a macro level so at a micro level you're looking at okay I have a note how long should it be played for should it be 1 2 3 4 or 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 or 2 1 2 1 2 or 1 1 1 3 or even half 1 2 3 4 or you know triplets 1 2 3 4 so time is always a factor for your note because you can't just play a note you have to figure out how long is the note and also is it a subdivision of the beat right because the beat is generally what the audience are going to feel when they listen to you playing the audience is not going to get into the technicality of what note you're playing how long is your note and they're not going to move their body to that they are going to move their body to the natural pulse which you give them and then all of those notes would be governed by that natural pulse so if the pulse is this 2 3 4 you would either be on the beat you'd be multiplying the beat 3 4 in this case I'm playing minims or you'd be dividing the beat 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 and so on so this is how you look at or target the X axis the X axis is basically how long is each note and then at a macro level you tell yourself that the X axis will be moving at a certain speed that's what we call the tempo of the song that's the rate of flow of the beat 1 2 3 4 versus 1 2 3 4 versus 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 you see that right so that's what we call the tempo and also the X axis or the time axis will be governed by the cycle length or what we call as in music meter or time signature is it 4 beats per cycle or measure or is it 8 beats per cycle or measure or is it 7 6 5 9 13 17 31 or whatever so these things considered that's your X axis the Y axis is very easy you just figure out what note you're going to play is it G is it F sharp is it a chord is it a note is it a melodic phrase or is it a harmonic phrase so the Y axis is telling us pitch is the pitch played together or is it played one by one one by one be melodic together would be harmonic in nature so you combine the Y and the X and you pretty much have music it's like which note should I play among the palette of 12 right a b c d e f g and then the five sharps and flats and then you figure out should I play those notes melodically or harmonically then you figure out how long should each of these notes be should they be for half a beat or should they be for a whole beat or should they be you know multiplying by 3 or multiplying by 2 and so on and so forth so now the next dimension or the what I call is the Z axis will control the level at which the Y and X are going to showcase themselves now the Y axis at a very micro level could be looked at which note to play but then at a more macro level you would try to argue with scale because you don't play all the 12 notes in a composition right you will be playing seven notes or five if it's pentatonic maybe seven it's a scale so the X axis you look at micro macro even Y axis you look at it in a micro macro way micro as in which note macro as in which is the set of notes am I in the major scale am I in the minor scale and in which key am I in the key of B or a flat or C major or F minor and so on now the Z axis or the Z axis what I also call as the volume axis is something which will come into play once the X and the Y are sorted once you know okay I have to play this note for this length but then how loud should you play that note of that length right so you play a C can also argue with C higher lower or whatever you say okay the C should be for two counts one two three but you're not arguing how loud should it be so that is the dynamics or the volume axis now even volume can be at a micro or a macro level at a micro level you're saying play the C super soft but then you generally look at volume over a phrase or over a few bars of music or maybe over a section of a song so during one section you say play soft and then build up and then go to the next section which is louder so that's how volume can happen right one section you do it soft the other section you do it loud so as you journey forward learning your desired instrument or your chosen instrument you tend to realize that these are the three things which need to be more and more within my control time pitch and volume so I have these three strategies which I think will help you or in your journey to play not only a polyphonic instrument like a piano but pretty much any instrument you you put your hands to so the first thing I would encourage you to do is when you're playing music or a piece of music or a song is move your head or move some part of the body to the pulse now I know I've said this a lot like a broken record in a lot of the previous YouTube videos by making this first point very very clear you need to if you are playing a piece of music you need to be able to deliver the pulse not only for your audience first first for yourself because if you want to play your instrument with conviction let's say you have a pattern you have a I'm playing a lot of notes but what's holding this together is if you observe my head it's always moving to the pulse and why I recommend head for piano is because your legs are generally going to be taken over by the pedals especially if you play the piano for a few years your your foot is now playing the sustain pedal so you can't really tap your foot as we tend to tell guitar players guitar players I would recommend you to tap your foot but you can also move your head if you're watching this video if you're a singer it may be tough to move your head and sing so then you can tap your foot if you're a horn player if you're a violin player I think the foot will work so head or foot or some part of the body which is triggering the pulse of the song now this can be helpful in so many ways one is it helps you as a composer if you're making a song your song automatically has purpose you may have a song you may have a riff you may have a lick you have a small phrase or whatever it may be it gives you purpose and the other thing with the pulses it gives you confidence if you play music you know it's like if I can move my head with my own piano real-time I know I can play with anyone on planet Earth and it's very very true so you have that confidence to walk into a jam room environment or even in a concert and be like I can play this gig or I can play with these musicians and playing on the pulse is as a recording artist as a musician who records a lot in a studio myself included you are always uncertain of time you're always not knowing am I on time am I with that metronome we hear that metronome tick tick tick tick going on a lot during our recordings right so you try to argue am I with that metronome in the first place and a good way to be you know not so self-conscious when you're recording and be solely into the music having the metronome should just be this electronic friend which is just a reassurance that you are on time now you need to have your own natural sense of timing before you walk into a studio you we don't use the metronome to be slaves to it we use the metronome just to be with the DAW with the production software and to be aligned with all the other tracks which we are working on right so you need that natural sense of time and I feel that that needs to come from you from within and what better way to get it out than your own body so as you play music whatever you play as simple as it may be and the head moving the head or the body kind of also backfires or gives you something as a reward so to speak on an instrument like the piano or the bass or the guitar by moving your head your body is kind of sending music to the instrument we always wonder I'm sure how do we make music right it's a huge huge mystery but if we let our subconscious ecosystem drive our fingers or drive our you know limbs to play our respective instruments that's a lot better than being told what to do so I don't think you can compose when you're told what to do when you have to stare at a piece of sheet music or stare at a brief when we make art we are always in the dark if we are starting from scratch from a blank canvas so the only place to seek guidance or to seek direction is from within from our own body or our own subconscious mind so moving the head is something I would encourage you all to do right now whatever you're learning whether it's a song whether it's a recording or even if you're a teacher or a regular musician you you need to always come convey your ideas to whoever it may be your student your audience or whoever it may be with your head whatever you want to ever play for anyone you should be able to play it with your head moving or leg or some part of the body sometimes I move my entire torso so that could also help with the music I play a lot of rock so it kind of works on stage as well as you sometimes see a lot of rock musicians do we move a lot we jump headbang I'm not suggesting that you do all of that fancy stuff if you want to feel free but just move your body a little bit here in there okay let's move forward now how do we get the y-axis into play how do we control the y-axis as a composer as an improviser or as a student of this amazing field of music you need to sing so what I mean by that is if you play the piano let's say your right hand is doing or let's say your left hand is playing a chord progression something like this now you want to get something going in your right hand try to sing it before you even decide to play it in the right hand and it's a bit tricky but try to match that try to match what you're singing on the keyboard on the piano you can do this even on the guitar so this is where you're playing with purpose you're playing what you want to play rather than play what you can play with what your fingers end up doing and this is also a good practice tool because as we I'm sure you probably agree or you would have been told this and you would have told many other people this in many walks of life good practice is always doing something you don't know right so when you practice something on the piano in a robotic way just playing what you did yesterday and getting super fast at it I don't think that's practice that's just work or that's just you know using energy or spending energy so I like to spend energy wisely I want to grow I want to improve each time so I think when you bring in the data from your mind through your voice it pushes your fingers to get better and to do things which it could never do and in turn compose music as well play things which you have never played before that is a composition so just a simple set of ideas on this front so you go so try to do this take a chord sing a tune now you can do a call and response at your own pace you can respond quicker or you can respond take your time now you may not be able to do so many notes call and response so then you could perhaps take three notes sometimes you get it sometimes you mess it up and that's the fun of the practice you're always in a spot so to speak so that's another thing I would encourage you to do sing with whatever you can on the piano even if now singing will also help if you're not playing melodies on the piano let's say you're playing a chord progression don't just play this just to play these four chords play it so that it can become a song and if you feel you're not really a singer or you haven't sung before or you know you just can't sing trust me you can and there is no excuse the voice is a free instrument we don't have to spend money for it you know thousands of dollars or rupees to go and buy a new instrument chain strings and whatever other repair work our voice is luckily right there you know so we are blessed with the tool of this musical instrument you should use it there's no excuse so if you want if you haven't get some singing lessons going as well that might also be helpful our school would be a nice start so you go with chords try to sing anything or if you're doing a cover try and do that even if you don't know the words just try and mumble away as you play the chords of something which you're eventually going to play with your fellow musician friend who's a singer or maybe you're playing it for a choir or with a band whatever it may be you should be prepared before you enter that rehearsal room so let's say you're doing an existing song whatever it may be so try and sing along even though you're not the actual singer in the troupe someone else who's better than you probably who's the assigned singer will be doing that particular activity you just be able to sing and I encourage you to be part of a singing group in a in an ensemble maybe take take care of singing some harmonies or background vocals or some echoes here and there that will sound also nice and add value to your a CV as a musician right so singing and playing is a very very important thing and I have one last piece of advice for you so let's move forward so while you play the piano or the guitar or any instrument which allows you to breathe unlike the vocals or maybe the trumpet or other such instruments where you're focusing more on you know you have to breathe in order to get the sound out on an instrument like a piano I would always recommend you to play once you're confident with whatever you're playing let's say an arpeggio once you're okay with doing this try to focus on your breathing so if you just breathe in let's see what happens well what happened was I did breathe in but look what happened to the music naturally I didn't even think here's what happened again so the volume get louder so that's generally what tends to happen as you breathe in I guess it just excites the body or gets the muscles to be more proactive or tense and then you get a louder sound just naturally and if you breathe out I'm sure you'll agree that the reverse process will happen in getting louder out getting softer this is one of the reasons why a musician or maybe your teacher or someone you've observed or who you like is playing the same information as you same chords same pattern same melody same accompaniment but yet they sound so much better I think this is the differentiating factor the dynamics the volume changes which naturally happen with a more experienced musician is what is that difference what makes that person a pro and someone else not so much of a pro because all of us pretty much play the same things scales chords inversions seven chords in the major scale blah blah blah we all play the same stuff pretty much some of us play more notes faster stuff more data than the other but we are all dealing with the same data so I think a pro does that very often and it's part of their DNA to play with a lot of dynamics so I think you can work on your dynamics by breathing and breathing also serves another use it makes you relax while you play the piano because you're focusing on something which is not yourself you know you're just focusing on your breathing and not what you're doing not you're playing not this finger or that finger am I playing the pinky instead of the ring or some other random difficult choice you kind of throw away all that and just focus on breathing so that's something which I've told myself a lot even during a show or during a recording you'll always observe me breathing during the process you may see it in some of the riff videos or other things which we shoot it's important for me it's a it's a conscious thing I don't do it just like that I actually do it because I want to control my volume so I do it for a technical need I want to control the z-axis which we talked about earlier right so breathing allows me to control volume singing allows me to control pitch and moving my body allows me to control time which is the x-axis those are the three dimensions I briefed you guys about throughout the lesson and these are the three tools or the three strategies which don't need any app don't need a book don't need any form of formal education it's just something you possess from within you to become hopefully a much better musician than you are today work on it it should be a work in progress it's not going to happen overnight but I think over time it'll become natural and see what works for you for your body and for your workflow and your ecosystem and these are just three ways to control the three axes of music you can ask other musicians they might have other ways but ultimately you need to be in control over these three dimensions whether you're a musician who's a beginner or at whichever level I think these three axes need to be in control so hopefully these pieces of advice will enable you to play music with a lot more conviction and get your audience to enjoy a lot more right guys this is Jason Zach again from Nathaniel School of Music do consider being our patron on patreon.com slash Jason Zach do consider following us on our Instagram channels we are quite active there and don't forget to subscribe and hit that bell if you haven't already cheers catch you in the next one