 Hi everyone this is Jason here from Nathaniel. In this lesson we are basically going to look at how you can transform a melody using some very very simple steps which most pianists pretty much do and try to transform it and go as far as we can understanding that it's not going to be that advanced it's going to be very playable and I'm going to take it through with a simple melody really really simple melody which you heard in the introduction video so you're going to play that video along with me and then we are going to slowly embellish it add some harmony add some flavor in the right hand develop some left hand rhythm patterns and what you're also going to learn is what to do when a song is three by four this is something which I find lacking especially in the youtube space where everyone who teaches music including me we tend to talk about everything on a four beat per bar kind of system four by four or that sort of a thing but or even six by eight but three by four is a very interesting time signature very common time signature we also call it walls so let's see how we can go by through the lesson now the first thing we are going to do is learn the melody all of this stuff will be notated for you on our patreon page you can also see it in the video as well easily but if you'd like to download it and support the channel you'll have not only the notation also the notes the everything revised and waiting for you there for this one as well as stuff in the past as well and in the future so we'll first learn the tune we'll look at some backing left hand chords then the rhythm patterns will come through in the left hand and finally we'll organically add all sorts of color in the right hand and I told you it's going to help you play three by four it's also going to help you to understand a few embellishments for a melody for multiple genres I'm going to try and teach you some gospel stuff some country stuff some classical stuff some folk tricks just to just to make the melody a little bit more or a lot more spicy as you know as we like it in India so what's very important is you learn the tune you get the hand coordination go step by step in the video and don't forget to watch till the very end because everything is important and it will give you a solid amount of practice right before we get cracking it'll be great if you can hit that subscribe button turn on the bell for regular notifications and that's about it let's start let's learn the tune first the tune I'm playing it around middle C and I'm on the key of G major one sharp F sharp so the tune is basically on three four this is how it sounds one two three one two three one two three one two three one two three so as you can see it's pretty much on the beat but there are one or two sub beats let's try navigate that one two three one so that that was the off beat right one and two and three and at the end of the three one and two and three and one and two and three and and then the second bar you just hold that E very very long so one and two and three and one and two and again one and two and three and one and two and pretty similar so one and two and three and one and two and three one and two and three and one and two and three again let's do that one and two and three and one and two and three and one this is what I want to do one and two and three and one and and the second line is pretty much the same as the first line one and two and three and one and two and now one and two and three and one and two so e f sharp g g whole thing again g f sharp d e e d a b d g f sharp d e f sharp g g you don't have to rely on the notation and all that stuff so much should also encourage you I would I always encourage you to use your ear you know you can watch me hear me see the notation but the hearing part is the most important so now let's try and figure out what's the bare minimum possibility for the left hand let's take the fifth chord which I think you may already know the root the fifth and the octave let's start with that and let's get cracking and we are doing it in a wall so one two three one two three right one two three one two keep that pumping you could even count one two three and now we start don't worry too much about your fingers as long as you start with your pinky I think if you start with the pinky it'll all work out three two three two three just watch out for the independence one two three you don't want to do the D at the three one two three and remember hit the D at the end of the three that's important one and two and three and okay one and two and three and one two three one and two and three and one one and two and three and one and two and three there we go try to also sing it as you go now let's make the left hand a bit more spicy now by adding chords so you go simple chords so G fifth C major just normal default vanilla C major C E G then that's like a D major without the five I'm just bringing the five or retaining the G so it creates a nice add four feel so because anyway the five will come so I'm just clinging on to D F sharp G so the voicings of the chords are C major D add four G D G with the tune and playing the left hand in the waltz style so one more time climbing chords are quite nice now isn't it this is just your left hand you could also sing the tune and only play the left hand so try to stay relaxed but the funny part while I say that is to be relaxed on the piano you need to practice so no amount of you can't just say oh I'm going to relax and play this it's not going to work out when you're not sure about your parts one suggestion I have if you're not getting the hand coordination going is practice as much as you can for about 15 to 20 minutes or maybe half an hour and then when your brain which eventually will start getting fried up because it can't handle so much information with your conscious brain is just stop playing or move to something else or just do something else and don't forget to try that very next morning which I think can really be beneficial to you okay so practice do your thing practice as hard as you can sweat it out as they say stop sleep come back but try it again it's always important to try this again and you will get it definitely in the morning it's sort of like studying for an exam you want to revise it again the next morning always so let's see this whole deal again before we move on played played along with me let me try it again little slow one two three one now let's make the left hand and the right hand more fancy one thing which I like to do is just add a few extra ingredients in the left hand one extra ingredient I think I have for you would be that one so G fifth and you do instead of going to see directly G D G B C E G G D G B C one more time one nice ingredient D okay now making the left hand a bit more rhythmically interesting can happen if you just start adding in some eighth note so default was one two three what if we start saying one and two and three and let's see how that goes one and two and three and one and this automatically sounds a bit more interesting doesn't it three and one two if you want if you're getting a bit confused with the two hands a bit congested played a bit higher you can even add the B there so what's actually happening there is we are adding double of the available set of notes so one and two and three and one and remember it's on a three one and two and three and one and two and three and one and two and three and two three one two three so that's the first thing you should try to do so the original was okay now we're adding that eighth note you can make these eighth notes sound a little bit more interesting as well by not doing in a machine gun like environment like one and two and three and so instead of that you can do one and two and three one and two and three so how will that sound so that makes it a bit more interesting rhythmically it's not a little bit more of your independence workout because this is a slightly different rhythm so maybe a bit easier break one two and three and two and pause and two and three so like this you can have the other left hand rhythms through the binary permutations of playing double or playing single you know you can go this one so long at the beginning and then four quavers or eighth notes pump let's see if we can get that with the melody there's one more binary idea remaining no there's the long crotchet or quarter note in the middle so everything creates some grooves okay so that's pretty much about what I have for you in the left hand for this lesson just to kind of put the icing on the cake if you will in the right hand what you can try and do is embellish the melody now there are many ways to embellish a melody I've done so many lessons this you can check them out on our youtube channel how to embellish and ornament a melody I always tend to use a melody which I compose as an example and then we kind of bring out all the flavors so even with this you can do a similar thing the first thing I'd like to explain to you is packing of notes now the piano doesn't sound as big or as dense harmonically as you know other instruments like a saxophone where the harmonic content or the number of overtones are very very thick they make the instruments so dense and also instruments like violin man you can slide stuff you can glide you can do a vibrato guitar players have hammer-ons pull-offs the list goes on right imagine what a vena player or a sitar player can do so piano is almost like at the end of the food chain in terms of ability to play a melody because you can either just play something or not played or played soft or played loud you don't have this gliding and sliding and increasing volume over time kind of a thing you know just just dying a natural death so what we can do is a few tricks which I think you have to figure out along your way through this melody and then through some other melodies as well so the first thing I do is not stacking so you could go something like stuff like that so so at the starting beat or at the first beat I'm actually trying to stack something what am I stacking first I'm stacking a D which is a fifth so it stacks up well now I'm stacking a C because anyway it's part of the C major chord I like that and then no need of stacking because the melodies are closer so what am I doing again stay on C another stacking possibility could be you could do B C A B B so what were the options D C C B of course B the ending you don't stack anything it's just played as a melody second stacking idea B C A very choral I like that okay then a few things here and there view which you may like one could be I like that that glide almost like a hammer on for a guitar can do you can even couple it with something gospel can do that so then actually the gospel thing works better for the next one which is it's actually a weird minor third but it works well if you use it tastefully right this is a passing mention one more time I like that very country so this was gospel country so and you can do these trills or these embellishments with the the stack of notes you can do that as well see see I like that there and then can end there a nice oblique motion where the soprano or the melody stays its ground and the other part comes down so let's just recap what we've done guys and that's pretty much the lesson so what did we do first we learned the melody starting with a simple left hand fifth chord backing with just single chord first till you get the coordination then the actual cause G major C major with an arpeggio with this simple one up top l m h low middle high with some passing bass then the more interesting eighth note patterns melodic ornamentations or embellishments in the right hand and these melodic ornamentations or anything you you need to really feel this when you play it you know sometimes you see me making some really strange faces on you know pretty much almost every single youtube video that's how it is and that's what comes to me most naturally I don't even know what I do to be honest with my face or any expression but it works and you should just let yourself loose and whatever comes to you naturally is is going to definitely help you so keep your keep your mind very free and keep that energy when you play then the expression and the emotion will always come come through don't try to keep it very serious be a bit playful about the whole process it's okay to fail it's okay to make errors that's the whole point of it and practice and keep repeating the process day after day and give yourself a challenge to get this three by four melody and then well you can do so many things with this you can do pretty much any other three by four song like maybe or maybe another three by four melody with all the expression to try to play happy birthday like that at some point for your friend and let me know how it goes right guys again thanks for all your suggestions this is pretty much what you people have been suggesting all of our loyal subscribers I've been going through your comments in detail so do continue to leave us a comment with anything you'd like to learn share the lessons with your musician friends or anyone you you think would be interested in music it could be a family member as well you could also head over to nathanielschool.com for more regular lessons more structured detailed lessons all the way from ground zero on the piano and whichever instrument we teach you can also reach us through through a form and we'll customize something for you there are also videos on youtube you just have to hit the join button or on our nathaniel website thanks again for watching the lesson do subscribe if possible hit that bell icon for notifications check us out on patreon and i will catch you in the next one thanks again cheers