 Hi guys, this is Jason here from Nathaniel and in this lesson, let's look at five things which you need to do in order to become a professional pianist. So the assumption is, all of you know your scales, you know some theory, you've probably listened to a ton of music, maybe played a few concerts and so on and so forth. So how do we go from there to a point where you can do pretty much all the things a professional pianist would do, be it playing in a studio, be it performing on stage or even teaching, perhaps. The first and foremost thing which you need to equip yourself to do as a keyboard player or pretty much as any instrumentalist is to be able to play on all your keys. There are 12 keys in music, right, A, B, C, D, E, F, G then you have your sharps and your flats, sharps or your flats depending on what you want to call it and you have a ton of scales. So for example, if you take the major scale, you have 12 ways to play the major scale. So if you have learnt something, let's say you've learnt a melody like maybe this one, you've harmonized it, you've created a nice sounding product and now you need to do it on another scale like maybe E flat. You need to be able to do that. So this is what I call changing keys on the fly. Another reason why you really need to equip yourself with this skill is when you work with other musicians, especially in an environment like a jam room or about to play a show, those sort of environments are places where you need to make a quick decision. If the vocalist, let's say, feels that the scale of the song which was once D major is too low for her, then you need to pump it up. So where do we go after D major? You'll have to go to E flat major. And then if E flat major doesn't work, you have to go to E major. And you may argue that, can I not put that transpose button on and get this job done? Well, you can, but what happens in this industry is if you play music for about two years or more, you're going to start getting these notes into your system and then it's going to create what I call the clash of the sense organs. Your eyes are going to see something which is not the thing. And in general, it's always good for a pianist to learn multiple scales because every scale feels differently and thus inspires you to create different music. So off the top, let's say you get a song like Imagine, you know. Now, this is very low for my voice. So if I want to release a cover or a video of this, of me singing, I can't do it on E flat. So let me try this on A flat. Let's go a bit higher. Maybe I like this scale. You see what happened? Even for my own voice, I need to learn all my 12 scales so that I figure out what works for me. So in simple words, learn all your 12 keys of every scale as best as possible. Don't be scared of the black scales or this scale or that scale. Doesn't matter. Just do it. It will definitely take you a long way forward. And do not press that transpose button on your piano. Otherwise, I will figure out a way to give you like a shock or something. Okay, moving on. The next thing you need to be very aware of as a piano player is your awareness of all the other instrumentalists around you. In a band environment, you have a drummer, you have a bass player, you obviously have your vocalists, the harmonies, the lead instruments like the guitar, the horn, the saxophone, the flute. So you need to be aware of what they do, not in order to do exactly what they do. I am not suggesting that you go and learn drums or learn the trumpet right now. You know, I am just, what I am trying to say is if there is a drummer playing a groove, you need to at least figure out a way to respond to that. What is the pulse of what the drummer is doing? Obviously, a good drummer will give you a very consistent pulse which you can follow. What is the kick drum doing? What is the snare drum doing? So let's say the drummer is producing something like... You already kind of know what my kick drum and snare drum is, right? So kick is generally played in the bass register of the piano while the snare drum is generally played in the high register. So maybe you could take like a simple chord, F major for instance. Next chord. Now we play chords, the drummers don't play chords. So you need to adapt on your instrument but you are aware of what the drummer is doing, right? I am a very poor beatboxer but you get the idea. I am trying to communicate what a drummer would ideally do. Now you could do this with a real drummer, you could even do this with a loop or anything for that matter. Or you could program a drum beat if you are a music producer and try to play around that. So be aware of the drums, be aware of the vocalist, be aware of when people are just performing softly and loudly and they will be very happy to have you around them, right? So you don't have to be a really advanced player in order to work with people. A professional player I think first and foremost should be able to work with a multitude of people. You need to, yes, you need to be a nice person, you need to be communicative enough but more importantly you need to have these specific skills. So what I am mentioning now is to be aware of what everyone is doing. Be aware of the guitar player, be aware of the singer and you could even transcribe what they do, right? Always focus on your instrument the last. That's generally what I like to tell my students. Primarily because our instrument tends to always be at the forefront of our mind. We always care about what we are supposed to do but forcing yourself to listen to the other musicians and what they are doing can really inspire you on the piano. Being aware of other instruments is crucial for a pianist primarily because our instrument is one of the most evolving and adaptable instruments available, right? It's not as tried and tested in terms of the learning approach as maybe a violin or a flute. Those instruments have a very defined learning curve while the piano is a very inspired instrument. You can be inspired by an electronic song, you could be inspired by a singer, you could be inspired by a drummer. I for one am most inspired when there are drummers around me. So I would highly recommend start with a drummer and then see where it goes from there. The next thing to become a professional pianist is how well you are going to react to the melody line of the song. Now a piano player especially when you want to work with others, you are not going to end up playing the melody. It's the vocalist who is going to do that or the lead instrument be it the violin, the flute or the veena or whatever it may be. So they are going to play the melody and if they came up with the melody first, what are you going to do after that? Your job is going to be harmony and rhythm or chords and the rhythm pattern which you are trying to play. So you have to decide what is the overall mood of the melody. Is the melody like a very soothing calming kind of melody? Is it a very groovy uptempo kind of melody? In other words your rhythm changes. Is the melody sad? Is the melody happy? Is the melody dreamy, mystical, mysterious and what not? So you need to react well from an emotional and a movement perspective as well as you need to know what chords go well with the melody. So if I sing something like this for instance. You try to figure out some chords which go with that. So I try this technique out a lot of instances with my own voice because I feel that I may not be a professional singer but at least I can hold pitch and for all of you pianists that's the main skill. You need to be able to just hold a basic pitch, work on that, work on singing that will really help you to harmonize with yourself and then when you encounter a vocalist or another melody instrument you know what to do. So react well to the melody. In other words you should know what chords go well with that melody and what rhythm patterns go well with that melody. So this will really allow you to collaborate with a lot of people along the road. So the next thing which I wanted to point out with regards to being a professional piano player is how you can send information to your audience in the best possible way or even send your music to the band members who you play with in the best possible way. Now if you are trying to convey something to a drummer or a vocalist you are not expecting them to play exactly what you play. What you are trying to do with your performance is get them to move, is get them to just bob their head, clap their hand, tap their foot, you know snap their fingers, you know and for you to be able to do that you yourself should be able to move to the music. So you having an inbuilt pulse almost like a tuck tuck tuck like a clock running inside of you is extremely crucial towards going pro so to speak. So anything you play on the piano if you feel you've practiced it hard enough think again you need to do it with you moving to the pulse. For example see my heads doing its best to go with the music. So obviously you get the feeling that I am enjoying myself but actually it's also because I have practiced quite well to a point that I am communicating the pulse to you the listener and it's a great way to validate whether I myself am playing it well or not. It's very easy to know if you are playing the wrong chord or the wrong note here and there but it's very difficult to know if your rhythm is good or not so good. The best way to feel that is you yourself need to move. So focus on the pulse either use your leg to keep the pulse I understand some of you use the pedal so even if you don't use your leg use the head bob your head always when you play I think that's the easiest thing to do you know you don't have to count just move your head or even something funky you know with whatever I am doing I may be I may have gone into a 16th note time feel but I am still maintaining that one two three four steady pulse or if the songs on three my pulse will be on three. So all this stuff about knowing the time signature knowing the accents knowing the exact pattern may be important but I think the most important is just getting that pulse going so make sure you do that and keep that at the back of your head. So the last suggestion which I have for you guys in order to go pro as a pianist is to keep dynamics in mind dynamics means change of something over time so as you play your instrument you may have a chord progression let's say this one sounds familiar right so right now I'm doing my job I'm playing the chords I'm shifting well I know my inversions I know which finger has to go where but there's one thing lacking what is that dynamics so what I'm going to try and do now is to show you a little bit of volume changes in my sound softer going louder now I reach a peak bring it back down right so dynamics well the easiest thing you can control on your piano is volume the word piano itself means soft the other thing you need to be aware of when you're playing the piano is where you play what you have to play so if you have a chord progression like what I played if you played here sounds very deep and thick and rich and powerful right but if I played here now how can you use this maybe you could use this in the intro or the beginning part of the song or maybe at the tail of the song and maybe go in a more epic sound at the chorus where you play a bit deeper in the middle register of the piano right and it's the same chords just playing in different registers and knowledge of pitch is also important when you're playing with other people so if the guitar player or the lead instrument is really top really playing the high stuff you don't need to be there you may actually annoy that that what they are doing so if they are playing high you play low if many people are playing low you play high or if you want your music to stand out more play high if you want to support and serve as an atmosphere for the music play low the other thing to keep in mind with respect to dynamics is obviously try to get used to the sustain pedal that can be very useful to make the sound broader and longer versus a little bit more choppier also be in control over your legato's and staccato's play nice and long legato staccato and also take a call as a piano player as to when you want to go really intense or where you want to play with a lot more density and where you want to keep it simple so even if you take a chord progression like this this feels a bit simple but I could take the same chord and add some other elements to it just trying to drive the density more trying to add more filler notes to the chord we have done a lot of lessons on this as well which you should definitely check out on our YouTube channel so this is a more dense feel while this is a bit more simple same chords density right and there is this one bonus point if you will which I have for you all is whenever you're generally trying to play a song or doing any task on the piano and if the task is not given to you exactly like no one gives you the sheet music which tells you exactly what the right hand and left hand is doing let's say if that has not been given to you on a platter you need to create an environment for yourself on this really amazing instrument where you showcase every single aspect which music has to offer be it the melody the harmony as well as the rhythm so you need to figure out a way to become a one-man orchestra let alone one-man band this is a huge instrument this can do a lot the sky is literally the limit on the piano so whenever you play the piano to do justice to what you're learning it's always nice to figure out some way to play a song which you're supposed to play in an environment where you produce every aspect of music the melody the harmony and the rhythm so these were the things which I had in mind in order to become a professional pianist which will hopefully allow you to get into the studio work with a ton of people also go on stage and work with a lot of artists or bands which you want to play with and also perhaps even become a teacher hope you guys found the lesson useful if you have please like the video share the video subscribe to our YouTube channel if you haven't already turn on the bell and anything else you'd like to do for us and I will catch you all in the next lesson cheers