 Hi guys, this is Jason Zach from Nathaniel School of Music. In this lesson we are going to learn how to improvise on the piano and pretty much any instrument or maybe you are a producer or an arranger using a DAW watching this. You can use this technique for any kind of improvisation or composition with just two notes in a beat. So the rule for this entire lesson, what I like about improvisation is when you set a very very simple rule for yourself, you are kind of stuck in that room and you are made to work and you are made to create something. So the rule or this kind of jail cell which I am putting you in for this particular lesson is going to be one beat and two notes. So one beat you are not allowed with one note, you are not going to do three, you are not going to do four, you are not going to have nothing either. Well you could have nothing if you want to take a break which is nice at times but one beat, two notes. So a beat of music doesn't mean it should have a sound. A beat is basically a time container for a musical event. A musical event could be a note, a chord or anything that produces sound for a human or hopefully other animals as well. And inside that beat you can even have subdivisions if ever you choose to divide those. So in a beat you don't have to necessarily have one note. You can have nothing, you can even have a rest but you can divide that beat into two. You can divide it into three, you can divide it into four and then that container starts having many more subcontainers. Sort of like now if you divide by two you can have maybe the same container with salt and pepper but imagine mixing the two together. That would be horrific, isn't it? So the container concept used in music is very applicable and useful because the length of the container or the volume or the area or any which way you look at the container it's an amount of time which elapses. So if music has a tempo of let's say 60 beats per minute then every beat is going to flow at the rate of one second. So your container is one second. In that one second you can do whatever you want. So in your software if you do 60 BPM or in your app or metronome application if it says 60 BPM you're basically moving like a clock. If you're saying 120 BPM which is a commonly used BPM in recording you could say that the speed of the beat is 500 milliseconds or it's moving half of a second. Now using all of that we're going to just take two notes and in that beat we're going to look at all the different ways of playing the two notes using the beat divisions. Nothing other than beat divisions and then we'll try and get some poetic framework into play and see how we can combine all these binary rhythm patterns together using very simple poetic concepts. So stick around till the very end of this lesson because there'll be a good stepwise flow as we go along the lesson. Right and before we get started all my handwritten notes for this lesson are waiting for you on our Patreon page. Do consider heading over there and checking it out. You'll also get staff notation, MIDI tracks not only for this lesson but all of our lessons that we have been doing for years and years on our YouTube channel. And don't forget to hit that subscribe and turn on the bell icon for regular notifications either right now or else after the lesson would still be great. Cheers and let's get cracking. So in order to improvise over this system where you have one beat and two notes two notes in other words, note one, note two, you know two of those hits, two sounds we need a scale right. So let's just take a simple scale which we all tend to enjoy for improv the pentatonic scale. There are two kinds of pentatonic scales the major pentatonic which is one, two, three, five, six octave and it comes down or else you can do the minor pentatonic which we'll focus on in this lesson. I'm on the key of A, so A minor pentatonic would be A, C, D, E, G, A, A, G, E, D, C, A. If you build that intervallically, root minor third of flat three, perfect fourth, perfect fifth, minor seventh or dominant seventh or flat seven. The octave just finishes the climb, okay. So A minor pentatonic, we'll use this for the lesson but you can use a chord set of chord tones. You can use another scale, you can use a pattern of notes, you can do thirds of some scale. It could be major, minor, Dorian or whatever. So the lesson is not about too much of theory. I don't want to get too much out of rhythm because rhythm is the forefront of today's lesson and I believe very strongly that if you know your rhythm in and out, if you can bring it out instinctively, you can improvise on the spot, you can do anything on the fly. While a lot of other things like harmony and scales, you can just do it by reading the chord charts, you can do it by practice, regular scale exercise and patterns but rhythm is something you have to internalize. Once you get all of those patterns into your system, it just comes out magically in some assortment which a lot of people including yourself will enjoy. So let's just take A minor pentatonic and start with a simple framework wherein I need two notes in a beat. So what should I do? I have to divide the beat at least by two units, isn't it? If I don't divide the beat, then I can have a max of one note or I can have two notes whacked together in a harmonic way but in this lesson it's about melodic movement. So if I have to get in two notes, I have to divide the beat into two units at the bare minimum. So to divide by two, I can say one and two and three and four and one and two. Now I can use the word and three to signify the subbeat and you're gonna get one permutation, one and two and three and like this, right? One and two and three. So you'll get two notes, but you have a pentatonic scale so you can move around the scale. Hmm. 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 three and four and one. Now if you'd like to go in thirds, maybe minor scale thirds and two and three and four and one and two. Now one way to make this interesting is just look at it in a binary way. You have two notes. They are going up. You can also take the same notes and go down. So A, C, C, A. So in a binary sense in terms of pitch, you either go up pitch or down pitch. So you can do a lot of interesting things. However, the rhythm is rather same, isn't it? 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. Now if you play this for a long time, that's going to sound rather monotonous and also confusing at times because if you play too many notes, then one and two and three and you won't remember. There's no full stop or there's no sentence separators, you know, like full stops and commas and punctuation. So we need to create those gaps and the gaps right now are non-existent. You could also do one and two and three and four, one and two and three and four. You can combine the two quavers, one and two and three and four and one and two with some pauses, four, one and two. And now there's some, there's a story being told. There are some sentences being constructed, one and two, three and four as opposed to one and two and three and four and one and two and three. So basically stop whenever you want is what I'm trying to say. You're dividing by two and whenever you get the chance, you're adding two notes in that beat or else you can just do one note in the beat or do nothing like busier with all the beats filled up some gaps. Now it's making a statement with that gap with some build up, I guess without gaps with gaps. It's more anthemic, right? It creates the hook of the song so to speak. Okay, so rhythmically speaking that's all you can do. You can have some gaps or don't have the gaps but the division system is still two. So I'd like to have more options. So what do I do? I can divide further. I can divide by three. I can divide by four. I'll come to three later in the lecture. But if I divide by four, I now have four mini containers in the space of that one original container which I had one, two, three, four. The container became one and two and three and four and now it can become one and two and three and four and so more spaces, more slots to squeeze in different kinds of ingredients which if you now place them at one and two and and now just observe one and two and three. It feels different to put a note at the end. One and two and three. It feels remarkably different to put it at the ear now. One and three and four. So what was once? One, two and three and four will now be one. And even the E sound different. One E and a two E and a three and a four E and a one E. So every subdivision has its own personality, almost has its own energy or emotion if you want to use the word. I would say personality or energy. There's a different kind of energy. If you play on the beat, one, two, three, it feels normal. One, well, one and two and three. Now some motion. One and two, some excitement while one E and a two E and it's almost like a shock you got when you play the E or perform the E. One E and a two E and a three E versus one E and a two E and a three E and a four E is very groovy. It almost if you want to catch it, you have to move to in order to use that in your in your improvisation. So now if I do some displacements because I've already done divided by two. So I have one and into the play. Now what do I want to do? Start dividing by four. One E and a two E and and now instead of doing one and why don't I do one? I can do things like that. So I'm now shifting one E and so one on and then the let's see how that goes with the A minor. And because it's irregular, you don't have to take too many gaps like we did with Quavers. Quavers are actually getting boring because they're very symmetric rhythmically speaking. So every note is you're talking in a very monotonous way with no gaps, with no punctuation. While with the sixteenth note usage now where we use a dotted Quaver one E and then a semi Quaver or a sixteenth note, it gives you that sense of rhythmic excitement. One E and a two and I don't even need gaps on the pentatonic or some other scale. Notes are not very very important in this lesson just to pin ourselves down. I've given us a minor pentatonic. So we did, we displaced the and and moved it to the A one E and a two E and a three E and a four E and a one E and to compare with normal Quavers and a two E and a three and a three and a one E and so what if we combine that Quavers dotted. You don't even need pauses because there's a lot of variety you know. So what did we do? We moved the and to the E we can do something else. Why don't we take the and and move it to the E and you get one E and E and a three E and a four E and a four. Just to compare with the other one with the E, just ending with two two Quavers for that contrast. Now one E, one E, one E and back to one E and a two versus so it's still two notes in a beat and I think the music is getting pretty interesting at this stage especially if you do combinations you know so what do I know so far I know my quavers dotted quaver and then a semi quaver or dotted quaver and a sixteenth note then I have sixteenth note and a dotted quaver all quavers just combining these three we can go pretty much on and on with the same five-note scale pretty much and just these three rhythm patterns but there are more so let's move forward there are quite a few binary options actually there are nine which I have for you in this lesson the nine came about primarily as the maths gave us the nine which is two notes in one beat so let's move forward we can do one E and a two E and a three and a four E and a why not this you call this pattern four and a two E and three and four so I'm keeping that cluster at the end and the E and it's always nice to contrast that with the pulse especially because you don't have a one going on now okay so you have just this gang of notes now created first of all so let's look at those four rhythms together we first have a dotted quaver and ending off with a semi-quaver money and hit points one E and a two E and now we have a cluster at the one in the E you can hold on the E for the till the end of the beat or choke it if you wish but very similar because the hit points are the same then you can have a cluster at the E and the and so you're not starting on you're starting off and last cluster of the 16s will be and okay so that pretty much covers our divisions of four right using 16 nodes where else can we place oh there's one more which I think is the most exciting that would be whacking on the E and the earth so you're giving up the one which is very lazy you're giving up the and which is kind of normal you're hitting only at the E's and the earth so the only way you can play this is to play it with a lot of excitement so if I just take an A minor chord maybe with a pulse you know you get that one E and a one E and a so this will always work well when you do combination so if you come back to quavers and then back to quavers so those of you are into Canada music riffs might like that so so so so I'm what am I doing here I'm doing two quavers one E and a two E and and then ending it off with an E and an earth one E and a two E and a one E and a two E and a three so if not improvisation and making a melody for for the right hand or the treble clef you can also use this to create some low-end riffs okay now if I get out of that mode and do something like what am I doing now one E and a two E and E and in the second beat so pump you can make these little riffs you don't even have to play this on the piano you can kind of fool around in a recording application using your midi editor if you had something very symmetrical and and and or too many notes just remove a few and then move them around and see which one sounds good to you okay these are just permutations for the for the beat at one beat okay so what do we have dividing by four we have five of them we have five rhythm patterns right and dividing by two we just have one one and two and so one E and a two E and a three and a four E and a one E two E three E four E and a and a and a and a E and E and E and E and E so those are the five options which you can start putting together and that's about it when it comes to dividing by four now what what's left we can divide by three perhaps we can divide the beat by anything but why forget three three is a very common division triplets as we call them so one two three four one triplet two triplet three one and a two and so if you get into this wavelength two and a three and a four and a one and we can start doing permutations first start with all three but what was our rule in this lesson two notes in a beat so this is not gonna work so what do we do let's knock off the middle one one and a two and a three and a four and a one and a two and a three and a four and one some might also want to call this swing because it kind of is swinging isn't so we've removed the middle one why not remove the first one so Kitta Kitta Kitta Kitta one and a two and a three you can also remove the last one and do one and one and two and tuck it tuck tuck so what are all my triplet permutations knocking off the middle one then knocking of the last triplet so one and if you play with just the triplets now the idea is to fool around with all those triplet permutations and you have a few more I'm just trying to trap you into only doing you know have a disciplined approach now when you start improvising without a plan you might end up going into your zone very fast the reason you tend to go into that at least it happens to me and it becomes counterproductive to what we are trying to achieve which is to create new pieces of music the challenge is you tend to play what you already know because that's your survival instinct so the first 10 minutes is crucial or first 15 20 minutes is crucial when you improvise have a proper plan write it down and see this is what I have to do do it very diligently in a very textbook way and then roll with it and then go into a creative environment and then you don't have to care but I would say give the first 10 to 15 minutes for music you know for the rules and regulations which music already has for the maths that it possesses okay and then the creativity should naturally happen you shouldn't just play the the keyboard or the guitar and just say oh I'm going to be creative that's not how it works you will become creative if you get into the environment or into the world of music so with improvisation this is what works for me I start with a plan even a simple exercise on the piano could end up being an improvisation and an improvisation could end up being a song because what I tend to tell people and even myself is improvisation is just nothing but fast composition and composition may be called a slow improvisation okay so maybe it's the same thing so we have about nine rhythm patterns right actually we have we have discussed nine there was one with dividing by two quavers five dividing by four semi-quaver involved with a dotted quaver and some rest and that is six and then three triplets so if I want to put this together you could just kind of take it to town do combinations but I don't want to leave you until we have something very defined and very structured so for this look at it like how people write poems or how people build rhyming phrases in general you know even most musical genres if you look at blues for example it follows an aab structure which takes you across 12 bars of songwriting okay so generally you will have things like a b a b or a a a b so if you what is a and b a is phrase one or motif one as I am considering b would be motif two so if I take the an a phrase which is this one one en or two en that's my a phrase if I take phrase b I want to combine them together so let's start with maybe three a's and a b see how that sounds so that triple a was and the b will be something different so a b and you can even do double a double b that'll sound that'll inspire you differently okay or maybe a b a b a quick interchange or everyone's favorite abba a double b a now if you're getting a bit confused to remember what you're composing yes you could record it on your phone but you can compose it such that maybe a is a slightly different direction of movement maybe you could go ascending direction for a that's your up and b could always be down so it's the same abba but you're just making it interesting for yourself okay by looking at different notes different directions of notes what about a triple b how does that work double a b a have we done that no I don't think so so ab a and if ever we bring in a c for some energy maybe I can compose a phrase as a a b c and the c could be that high energy phrase one so maybe something like that's your b then at the three beat and why I did four beats so a basically is a beat with and contained in it is a motif why I did four is because our common time signature is four by four in music so a a b c you can even do a b a c which will be a lot of fun so you get the idea you can do these combinations of notes and see how it goes from there because you need structure whenever you play an instrument and whenever you're composing or creating anything you need an environment to be a very respectful high energy and very inspiring environment for that I like the mats with a lot of options and definitely I would always practice or try to practice with a pen paper or a tablet if you use one like I tend to do sometimes so keep that in mind plan before you play so if you were to take one thing from this lesson it would probably be to plan before you improvise to plan before you get into a creative zone and have all your options on the plate try it out give 15 to 20 minutes to music and then let it do something to you which you have no clue about that's generally how I get into composing or improvising or producing or doing anything in this field always have start with a plan and then see where it goes so in this lesson a plan was pretty simple one beat two notes so then think what is possible divide by two divide by three divide by four how many options nine now when we put them together it'll be like a jigsaw puzzle it'll be too difficult to solve so we want a more poetic structure with some phrasing so things like a a a b and where did all that come from again permutations and combinations because how many a's can you have in a bar of four beats well at the max four a's but then four a's is boring then you just have one rhythm so I need to have what's the what's the math here you can tell me in the comments if you know the NC formula you know when our maths class maybe type it in the comments that'll be fun basically you want a minimum of two a phrase and a b phrase so you don't want all a's and all b's so to speak right guys so that was a lesson on how to improvise using rhythm and using the binary properties of beats and how and the divisions of beats hope you found the lesson useful the notes are there for you waiting for you on patreon right thanks a ton for watching the lesson catch you in the next one cheers