 Hi everyone, this is Jason Zach from Nathaniel School of Music. In this piano lesson, I am going to help you develop control over your scales while practice ascending and descending and also improve your musicality by playing those scales with a lot more rhythmic awareness and eventually we hope a lot more musical freedom along the way. And for this lecture, I have chosen a rather tricky scale so do stay tuned, don't run away because as some of you know those of you who subscribe to our channel, we do not like C major. There is a problem with C major. Anytime we speak the word C major in a good way, some problem happens to the video. I don't know why, I think it's a YouTube algorithm. So we are going to choose E flat and generally speaking whenever we do scale drills, most of the videos out there will focus on major scales and C major scale. But in this particular lesson, we are going to focus on a black note key, namely E flat and we are not going to do the run of the mill major concepts. We are going to explore all of this stuff on the E flat natural minor as you heard me playing. Now a lot of us would have this fingering available to us in a you know piano scale exercises book or when we do an exam, examinations would have the fingering written with one, two, three, four, five fingering. Now it's good to read that practice that sit for the exam so on and so forth. But what I find with even a lot of students who I've observed and some of them who I've taught after they've completed a lot of these grade examinations, you know all of those boards which offer and the first thing the grade examinations will tell you is play your scales up and down. Now whenever I observe these students, I notice yeah they're doing it but they think they are flying, they want to play it fast but they have no control, things are slipping and there is no growth as a musician while they do those scales. So that's what I'm here to figure out with you in this particular lesson. We have a lot of other scale exercises videos in a playlist, we leave that for you in the description so do check that out. And before we get started supplementary resources for this particular lesson including everything else we've done in the past and in the future going to be done would be on our Patreon channel at the moment just for a $5 subscription a month, do consider heading over there and getting yourselves a copy real quick. And also don't forget to subscribe, hit that like button and turn on the bell icon for regular notifications. Right so first let's deal with playing E flat natural minor up and down one octave okay E flat minor natural minor is derived from its major cousin namely G flat major a good way to figure that out is well remember it mug it up use the circle of fifths or just tell yourself E flat's third is F sharp or F sharp's descending third is E flat also known as D sharp and similarly F sharp is also known as G flat. So E flat minor is the minor we are going to focus on its notes are E flat F G flat A flat B flat C flat which is a bit debatable because it's actually B but officially we have to call it C flat D flat E flat coming down D flat C flat or B you can just call it B B flat A flat G flat F E flat okay not to be confused with the harmonic minor or the Dorian or other minor scales like the melodic minor as well okay not to be confused there it's a natural minor also known as the relative minor built out built from the sixth degree of the major scale the sixth degree is also known as the sub mediant mediant being three sub means lower in the olden days of writing musical intervals so the sixth degree is called as the sub mediant it's also good to write down the scale in a neat sheet of paper also draw the piano worms which is a good way to visually picture the scale even if you're away from the piano keyboard okay so let's look at the fingering index thumb index and then continue with these three fingers cross over your thumb whenever white follows black and then continue so when the thumb crosses and tucks under and then finishes the note bring your entire hand like a wave back to normality so there we go there we go one two three four five six seven eight and then in the left hand start with your middle immediately cross your ring cross your middle again when it's when the white note comes cross your ring here that's important right let's venture into two hands okay so that's about your scale done industry now to develop control over this exercise of practicing scales up and down what I like to do is give different or assign different volumes to different notes don't just play everything loud or don't play everything soft play certain things loud and certain things soft for example this rendition it ends up actually being a seven by eight time signature which is grouped as one two three four one two three one two three four one two three one which is kind of weird but very often what you do when you practice major scales ascending and descending if you just to dumb it down to c major that's actually a seven by eight movement did you know that maybe not see one two three four five six seven one two three four five six seven so the act of playing scales up and down is logically speaking isn't it seven beats in a measure however some of us will do one two three four five six seven one two three four five six seven eight take a break you know one two three four five six seven or we repeat that note which anyway you can't do if you want speed so the same story I'm doing here three one two three four five six three four five which is another thing I like to do from time to time play the scale one two three four five six seven eight one two three four five six seven eight and just do one extra so that one extra makes it an eight by eight cycle or a four by four played as semi quavers or quavers as you however you look at it in the notation two three four five six seven eight one two three four five if so if you're a fan of four by four you may have to do one extra in the ascending direction one two three four one two three four one two three four one two three four one two three four three four or you may have to do one extra in the descending direction three four five six seven eight one two three four five six seven 8, 1. So I did the descending, the lower minor 7th there. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 1. Or you can be happy not doing one extra up, ascending and one extra down descending. You can just do 7 by 8 just so you know. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 1, 2, 3, 4. And now practice it with different volumeсти, so I can do it maybe 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3 grouping. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, I can even flip it around and do 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4. So, Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going again! Keep going again! Keep going! Keep going. So the grouping, if you think about it, if I do seven, I can do four plus three. A good thing to learn when you're counting this is an Indian system called konakol. So the four, you can say takadimi or takajunu and the three, you can do taketa, taketa, which is three syllables, right? Takadimi is four syllables. So you can even voice it out before you play by saying something like takadimi, taketa, takadimi, taketa, takadimi, taketa, takadimi, taketa. It's in the zone of seven, so to speak. If you do three plus four, taketa, takajunu, taketa, takajunu, takadimi, taketa, takajunu. Or you can do takta, takta, takta, takta, takta, takta, which is two, two, three or takta. Or this was two plus, three plus, two, or you can do taketa, takta, takta, takta And as I am saying this, it gives you a bunch of ideas, compositional ideas as well. So it's good to start that off on the scale drill and then see where it can take you in the future. Maybe by playing a riff on a guitar or a melody on a melodic instrument. So if I just do it with all those accented groupings as I call it, let's do four meets three as I've been showing. Conocole is great for phrasing like this, it's also great for beat division which I'll come up with later. Okay, then maybe two meets two meets three Sometimes I just imagine a drum kit playing to support me You can even practice this with a drum track on seven You can see this lesson has taken a weird Start itself because normally we do C major 4 by 4 here We are doing E flat minor 7 by 8, but I think you can deal with this So try it out stick stick around till the end of the video. There are a lot more things to come So we have covered this idea of going ascending and descending in accents now What if we just tell ourselves there are many numbers in life? Let's take the small ones so that we don't get confused as hell So let's start with maybe three three is an interesting number. It's not as Quick as two if you do two it'll be one one two one two one two this too much to think your brain keeps sending like an Electric impulse every two so I like three one two three one two three one two first of all one two three feels very lazy Like a waltz or a swing feel you can even count this in a conical like way by saying Tuck it a tuck it a tuck it a tuck it a tuck or as some musicians would like to say One and a two and a three and a four and a one triplet two triplet three triplet four triplet I don't know why people say that because at least for me. It's a tongue twister Tuck it a tuck it is a lot more easier one and a two and a three and a four and a while is also nice Tuck it a tuck it a tuck you can say these things pretty fast. So What I want you to do is play the same scale E flat minor But played in groups of three now when I say groups of three the first thing a lot of my students end up doing would be Which is a nice drill That's what I would call sets of three That's not what I'm aiming at in this lecture I have done sets of three in other videos do check out our scale exercises playlist in the description So this would be the same scale But with a lot of Intention so the intention would be group the note the note grouping should be in accents of three So one two three one two three one two three One two three one two three one two three one two three And you may be motivated to add a few notes along the way so that it feels better But the reality of this situation is I'm just going up and down. It's just So I'm testing you now not just to play scales up and down which is the usual Music exam drill which most students are given but to gain that ultimate control I'm dividing the beat or my phrasing is in threes and every one Everyone one of the three. I'm whacking the note a lot harder or I just played a normal volume and the two and three if I was doing one two three one two three one two three One two three one two three it'll now become one two three one two three one two three one or if I was doing It's gonna be one two three one two three one two three one two three. There's an emphasis on each one So for you to bring out that emphasis on the piano since the direction Arohana and our ohana is the same direction. How do we make the accents come out? Just using one property of music which is volume because we are not using duration We're not using pitch pitch is already fixed So you want to you want to get your listener to feel the triplets even though the scales are moving up and down So let's do triplets again You can even take a couple of breaks to recover but don't stop moving your head and the way I'm moving my head is One two three one two three one two three one two three one two three I'm moving my head at those Accented points. So If you're uncomfortable doing it with both hands, don't worry you can maintain a nice root here Which is also a very useful practice maybe the root in the base with just one finger or you could even do Octaves or Toggling octaves and don't forget the triplets now Dividing by three Go off to two octaves Make it a bit more obvious maybe with a chord Like a chord rhythm Making it very obviously three now But to get yourself to really feel the accents I would encourage you to Do it just with volume control over two hands if possible You're in that world of triplets Okay. Now. What's the number after three four so You might find four a lot more easier because it's more common Could even consider what you're doing as now semi quavers one E and Earlier you did triplets one and a two and you could even voice it out in a corner call like way by saying One E and a two E and a three and a four E and one E and a two E and a three and a four E and a Toggling octaves And as you can see I Don't have an end goal agenda, you know right towards the right ascending or has to end here Descending it has to end here. I honestly don't care What's in my mind is the accented pattern which is groupings of four or groupings of three which we did earlier Let's do groupings of four again I Imagine a drum groove Okay for I still have that for pumping now. What's the number after four three plus four plus one more five So Five can be a bit tricky, so I wanted to first voice it out in a corner call like manner you can do five as Tuck it Or you can bring it all to one word and say And now let's bring that in I Keep that groove going no matter what You Okay, that's stuck again or so you can even do sixes Simple sixes I See I've gone I finished my entire piano already doing this You know because the goal has never been how far should I go the goal was actually I wanted to complete an even cycle of six So hence I ended up going even more beyond so it's a great practice Because every time you do this you're you're playing it with absolute control you're playing it with the knowledge of music in terms of its rhythmic core of foundations and at the same time subconsciously you're getting damn good at E flat minor and if you get damn good at one scale that how piano scales work is The next scale is going to be ridiculously easy in the circle of fifth So if you're doing E flat minor, which is related to F sharp major F sharp majors Cousins or neighbors in the circle of fifths namely B major and D flat major are gonna be ridiculously easy Try it out And if it took you about a day to get this it's gonna take you maybe an hour to get the other stuff Bear amount of time. Okay. We'll do one more before we pack up Why don't we do seven and we kind of did seven earlier, but let's try and flow it on the keys 5 6 m 1 2 3 4 5 6 m 1 2 3 4 4 and I'm not doing 1 2 3 4 1 That's a bit boring because it's too long so instead of that I'm doing one of our seven groupings from earlier 2 3 4 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 Or 3 plus 4 You can journey forward even more if you'd like So I hope that this idea of practicing your piano scales Which for a lot of students seems either run of the mill, you know, oh it's something I have to do It's sort of like stretching, you know, I don't stretch do stretches that often So it just feels a bit boring because there's no aggression and there's no goal And it's not a sport like environment So whenever you do this, we tend to avoid it because you know, why do it? Oh, yeah, I already know E flat minor I already know this scale Hopefully this will motivate you to to do that to actually practice it because It's now become a lot more musical because your goal is no longer to just play E flat major R. Ohana or ascending or Avarona or descending it's to grow with a lot of other aspects of music and some people also would who are Examination students they will do this up and down and again It'll just be a quick five minute workout before you actually go into your songs or your pieces Which you try to prepare for the exam because your scores in most of these Board examinations they give you more marks if I'm not mistaken for the songs. They don't give Equal or they don't give that much weightage to the exercises to the year training department I guess they should probably focus on that. So that was about E flat minor It could have been any old scale But I just wanted to motivate you by giving you a minor Which probably you don't do that often and a black note minor which you just saw is highly playable And we also looked at it with different rhythmic groupings different grooving possibilities if you will and I hope you found the lesson useful do consider heading over to our Patreon page for my handwritten notes and also the notation for this particular exercise and all the best have fun with the Lesson maybe you can record yourself and tag us on Instagram That'll be a lot of fun Don't forget to like leave us a comment with something you'd like to learn in the future or send us some words of encouragement That definitely helps and cheers and catch you in the next one