 Hi everyone! This is Jason here from Nathaniel and in this lesson, we are going to take commonly used arpeggio patterns and then convert them into something unique, original and very very long lasting so that you can leave a stamp on your music. I've developed a lot of patterns over the years which I really want to share with you and I've divided it video by video in this series. So let's get started with the first approach to developing unique sounding arpeggios, what I call as subtractive arpeggios. Okay? So if you haven't already, do check out my two-part lesson on how to take commonly used arpeggio techniques. I've talked about a lot of them and then how to make them sound professional. So I'd like you to watch that two-part series if you haven't already or if you're an intermediate learner, if you've played the piano for a few years, I guess you could just watch this and go on. Please don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel, turn on that notifications. We'll be doing a lot more lessons day after day, week after week. Let's get started. So we have four chords for this lesson E minor, G major, D major and finally A major. So a commonly used arpeggio pattern to play these chords would be something like this. So what's happening here? You're starting from the low note, low, middle, high, middle. So you're just creating a loop or a round robin of notes. So you go L, M, H, M, L, M, H, M, L, M, H, M, L, M, H, M, L, M, H. So I started from the low note. I could also start from the high note. High, low, middle, low, high, low, middle, low. And we also had another pattern called high, middle, low, middle. So get used to those patterns first because the whole lesson series is going to be based on changing those patterns and making them sound like something which is original to your music. So the first thing we do with this subtractive arpeggio technique is we count. Counting is very important. So you can count one and two and three and four and one and two and all arpeggio patterns need to have an on beat which is one, two, three, four and off beats because they are inevitably played faster than the pulse. If you play arpeggios with the pulse, it will start sounding very strange and it may end up being melodic in nature and then it defeats the purpose of what you are doing with arpeggios which is actually embellishing chords. So you want to play them quite fast, so at least double of the beat. So in this lesson we are going to look at dividing the beat by two and we say one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and right. So what happens here is the one, two, three, four becomes the down beat, the relaxing beats while the ands become the off beats or the beats which cause a sense of excitement to the listener and to you yourself, the player. So be aware of that. One and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and one and two and right. And now that you are aware of these beats, the on beats and the off beats, we then basically cut off one of them. We just subtract one of them as I call it. So let's get started by subtracting the three which I think is quite cool. So that will be one and two and three and four and so at the three you have to stop what you are playing. So if I arpeggiate the chord E minor one and two and three and four and you see this E came at the three. So I will cut it off one and two and three and four and now what happens here is you can mess up the pattern a little bit and have some fun with it or you could retain the shape of the pattern. You could do one and two and three and four and but what I like to do is to revisit the pattern or revision the pattern if you will. You can go one and two and three and four and and four and right because I did not hit this E where it should have come. So I want to hit it at the end of the three which is the next available beat. So one and two and off and four and also try to make it a bit melodic. Sing it. So this according to me sounds a bit more original and you can sort of use this as an intro or an interlude and people when they hear you playing this will be like oh it's that song you know as opposed to you playing a commonly used arpeggio technique where that will be sort of a bed on which the vocalist will sing and then you will only remember the song once the riff happens or once the singer starts singing the lyrics. Okay so this is the pattern. So I'm going one and two and three and four and there are so many permutations you can even do that E G B G B G E okay you can even do so by subtracting that one beat you actually end up being a lot more creative you have so many more choices as opposed to something just up and down or in a loop. Not that the loop is bad you could use it here and there but this is definitely going to have a very original flavor. So you could also look at accents you could take one of those notes and make it slightly louder and and I would encourage you if you haven't already to watch our earlier lesson series where I talk a lot on dynamics of these arpeggios making them really shine and sound pro okay so the volume can change. I'm also using the sustain pedal to give it a lot of harmonic content one two and three and four and so now I'm doing the same pattern with all the four chords let's see how it goes and try to play along if possible E minor G major D major A major E minor let's take it a bit slower three four and two and three and four and one and two and three and one and two and three and four and one two and played with some dynamics volume should never be consistent volume should always change over time let's take a little faster a little softer last the volume this could really inspire a melody as well or something you could compose on top of this line okay so now that we've subtracted three let's try and get used to subtracting something else maybe the three and a half or the three and as we call it so that'll be one and two and three four and one and two and three and that and will not be played okay one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and okay visualize it imagine it and then play otherwise the piano becomes a little tricky so you go try to mumble something with your voice it really helps get the timing going right and that's your subtracted three and now let's subtract the four again sing it that's the four one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four okay you subtract the four let's see how that goes everything has a different flavor doesn't it right and then of course you can subtract the and of the four so that'll be giving a nice breathing space at the end of the bar okay so we subtracted three three and a half four four and a half now let's let's keep going down what shall we subtract next the one before three which is the two and okay so again sing it one and two and that's the end of the two right so one and two one and two and and feel free to jumble the notes the order and the patterns of the notes are yours to do you can either follow a cyclic order or jumble it either low middle high or high middle low go up come down as you please now let's subtract the two which is one and one and two and three and four right so let's remove the two quite like that right and within the patterns of notes you can make it even more original okay then what do we do let's subtract the one and so that's always vocalize it with something and then initiate it on the piano so that's the end of the one and last but not least we just remove the one itself and it'll be one and two and three and four one one will be off one one so that one is coming in the left hand right and once you're done subtracting one one beat out of the available eight where you have four on beats and four sub beats or off beats you can then maybe subtract two maybe I'd like to subtract the one and the three really love that right so you could start moving forward so I'll leave that maybe for another lesson or you only could do it once you've subtracted one beat you can do it right guys again this is Jason here from Nathaniel thanks a ton for watching the lesson and if possible and once you've finished learning this lesson head over to the next lesson and keep learning the series on original sounding arpeggios I will catch you in the next one don't forget to subscribe to our channel turn on the bell icon and support us in any which way you possibly can cheers