 Hi guys, this is Jason from Nathaniel School of Music and in this lesson, I am going to give you guys a few exercises on the piano in order to develop your groove and how to build it and also how to get a solid groove and be able to sort of control the rhythm section of your band. A lot about keyboard players generally is we tend to follow the singer or the drummer and other such musicians but it's also very important for us to have our own sense of time and by that I mean natural sense of time, a time in the sense your body has to really feel it and that has to be devoid of the metronome. So I'll be giving you a few techniques to develop that and also by building groove on an instrument like the piano since it's a two-handed instrument we will also be developing independence. So independence of the hands is something which most of us tend to struggle with however that can easily be sorted out when you have practiced your parts well and when you can count well and when you can feel time. The phrase feel time is really really crucial here. It's not about knowing time it's about feeling it and it starts yes by a little bit of knowledge but after a while your body has to react it has to feel it and it has to be pretty much like how a dancer goes about their business. Dance is also very very rhythm driven music dance would not happen if it was not for music. So just like a dancer is effortlessly able to feel the rhythm of the song you should do even with the most complicated passages. So for this exercise I've chosen four chords. So the chords are B major, D D sharp F sharp E minor and D major which is D F sharp A G major and as you can see I'm playing it with inversions. So it's a sort of unconventional chord progression. I sort of chose it deliberately because it's the rhythm pattern I want to teach you tends to have a little bit of a Latin vibe. So I think these chords go quite well for that. It's not that happy. So you go 2 3 4 E minor 3 4 D 2 3 4 G 2 3 4. So what I would suggest if you're not able to shift the chords well first try and give yourself four counts each and then try to move be very flexible between the four chords D major 2 3 4 E minor 2 3 4 D 2 3 4 G 2 3 4 right and now coming to the rhythm pattern. So whenever we feel time and whenever music grooves right whenever people dance and whenever something makes you want to you know move your body we generally divide the beat. We generally cannot make people dance if we don't divide the beat. If you do things like 1 2 3 4 music like that may not make the audience move. So the basic principle is to divide the beat more. So if you divide by 2 we say 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and that means you're dividing the pulse 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and so you could have the option to play two notes or two chords or two strikes for every pulse. The other way to divide the beat is to divide by 4 or you can divide by 3 or you can divide by pretty much anything. So in this exercise I've chosen a division of 4 which is a very popular division system called the 16th note system. So the way we count 16th notes are 1 E and 2 E and 3 E and 4 E and 1 E and 2 E and 3. So it's easy on the tongue 1 E and it's easy to say so that probably makes it easier to relate to and amidst counting this what will then happen is you need to strike your instrument at any of those 16 beats. 1 E and gives you 4 2 E and gives you another 4. So 4 4s are 16 in a 4 beat per bar kind of time system. However when we play notes on the keyboard or any instrument if we were to play all the 16 the groove is really not there. So when we divide the principle which I tend to follow is always divide more and then play less. So in other words divide by 4 you have yourself 16 options but then play less. Don't play all the 16. There's nothing wrong with playing all the 16 but you're not going to make the groove really cut through. So the basic principle is if you have 16 16th notes you can play at the same speed but try to cut out a few for example that actually sounds quite popular. I think that's the same groove used in shape of you in a few of those other dance songs. Anyway so what I did just now was basically hit at the 1 1 E and 2 E and so I out of an available 8 beats till I hit the E of the 2 I ended up just striking 3 hits and then I repeated it 3 the E of the 3 and the and of the 4 1 E and 2 E and 3 E and 4 E and then you can play your chords accordingly. So for this lesson I've chosen a very very very cool 16th note groove at least I found it very cool and it'll be on the screen so you can follow it as you go along and basically where I've ticked is if you take 1 E and E as 1 beat I have given you the hits or the accents at the 1 and the and so 1 E 1 E and 2 E and right. Now then if you look over to beat number 2 which goes 2 E and I've chosen the E of the 2 and the E of the 2 so that'll be 2 E and E 2 E and E right. So if we put beat 1 and beat 2 together try clapping it with me 1 E and 2 E and 1 one more time 1 E and 2 E so oops sorry 1 E and 1 E and 2 E and 1 E and 2 E and so try to get that groove felt by yourself so that's your 1 E the 1 the and of the 1 the E of the 2 and the E of the 2 and then when it comes to the beat number 3 we do the E of the 3 3 E and E and we flip it around 3 E and a 4 and 3 E 3 4 3 4 3 E and a 4 E and so on and so forth so we put the whole thing together 1 E and 2 E and a 3 E and a 4 E and a tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue tongue so if I take that with the chord now and play B major with that E and 2 E and a 3 E and a 4 E and a change E minor that's the D chord 4 E and a E and a 10 right and it's important to also feel the pulse while you play so maybe one hand initially could just try and count the pulse maybe here E and a 2 E right so I would suggest to maybe pause the video and just spend some time practicing this rhythm a little more and after you practice it maybe by clapping or by tapping your leg or here or someone else's head or anyone anything any object for for that matter once you get used to it then you come to the keyboard and then start playing try to avoid the piano unless you're able to tap it with your body right so once you're done with that we'll then move on to the next part right so now that you're confident with clapping the rhythm and also perhaps playing it in at least the right hand as follows 1 E and a 2 E and a 3 E minor I'm basically playing all the 4 chords D major right so that's what you need to be able to do before we move on so the first stage or the first independence exercise if you will on the piano is try to divide these hits among the two hands that's a very very basic and a very very fundamental thing which percussionists do you try to manage your frequencies the low frequency shouldn't be over whacked and similarly the high frequency shouldn't be over whacked it's the same reason why a drummer will always complement the kick drum with the snare drum and not play them both at the same time that the thought of it is very ridiculous right so let's look at the new pattern now on the screen which I'm going to which I've written down as K and S so K essentially means a kick or what I'm imagining is the kick and you can play the kick with your left hand since it's a low sound playing the root of the chord and the snare could be playing the chord right but the rhythm is actually right but I need to split it across my hand so what I've written down there for you guys to practice is kick snare kick snare snare kick snare snare so that's left right left right right left right right okay and while you do this you really need to be counting and you need to have the pulse so what I try to do is always tap the pulse with my foot in this case you can hear my foot with a little tambourine attached to it so while you're doing this feel the all the sub beats one e and a two e and a slow it down if you wish one e and a two e and a three e and a four e and one e and a two e and now try playing kick snare one e and a two e and a three e and a four e and right let's slow that down e minor d major right so the pattern I've written was sort of my own pattern kick snare kick snare snare kick snare snare but keeping the same accents you guys could also mess it around and try to create your own for yourself so I'd encourage you to change it around different combinations with your hand and the problem I found when people try this syncopation of two hands is we tend to lose the pulse so with whatever you do do not lose the pulse that's why I I showed it with my leg doing the pulse and it is very very important if you're not feeling the pulse it's it's you're you're definitely not going to be able to lead the band with time and also recording in a studio environment starts becoming tricky because of the need of the metronome you have to use a metronome for a studio recording right so you go left right left one more time right so that's one variation you guys can try out doesn't really have a lot of independence you could say more syncopation coordination if you will between the two hands and the second pattern is also very very similar very rudimentary as well it's something you may have already done but the second idea or the second way of playing this progression or this pattern on the piano is where both hands play the pattern together so it's identical hits let's try that as well four one two three four it's essentially both the hands going down together it's a skill which is not practiced enough a lot of students like to get the hands going differently that's always a lot of fun but you need to start with it doing the same thing especially with rather challenging 16th note patterns like this right so make sure you try that as well both hands playing the pattern together with counting counting is extremely important either count with your mouth saying one two three four if that is tough for you always keep the leg going right so the pianos uh the the main the lifeline for playing piano is always your leg doing the pulse so make sure you guys follow that and perhaps pick up a foot tambourine as well and try to hear what you're doing or maybe do it with a with a shoe right so moving on the next pattern is also something very very important for pianists wherein you do the exact same thing in the right hand the same pattern in the right hand and try and now implement the pulse in the left hand the first thing I like to do is snap the pulse get your body familiar with it another thing I try to do is hit it here it's quite a nice bass sound which I like you can also do the pulse with your leg so basically pulse pulse pulse focus on the pulse and get this hand to slowly do what your leg did in the earlier in the earlier exercise make sure the left hand is always holding the pulse so once you do that execute it on the piano and don't look at it as the left hand has to play this beat with respect to the right hand or vice versa try to feel both of them completely separately or try to do it subconsciously right after a while you guys are going to nail the right hand so slowly but surely your brain is losing focus or losing its consciousness on that right hand it's focusing on something else right so that focus could be now shifted to the pulse in the left hand so three four one two three start e minor d g and whenever you struggle on the piano if you're not able to get the pulse exactly take your hand away from the piano and try to maybe whack the surface go back to snapping or tapping your chest or any other such thing right try to feel it and snapping it can really help tapping your chest or maybe just hitting the side of the piano where it doesn't make a melodious noise and try playing it at a speed which you can control control meaning what you're looking for is to play it more and more and more if you had a four minute song and if you had to do this in the four minute song you should not really be making any mistakes during that entire four minute passage right so let me just demonstrate left hand playing the pulse while the right hand plays the pattern again and if your left hand is getting quite simple and easy you can try toggling between the root and the octave with the same pulse so okay so that's you get a nice pitch variant here you have the root and you have the octave so you're still playing the pulse but the left hand's a lot more exciting it's slowly getting to be something like a bass guitar something like what a bass guitar would do and last but not least in the left hand another variation you could try would be the root the fifth and the third played one octave higher because if you play it lower it's going to sound very muddy so so root fifth and third this is basically spread voicing of that chord if you haven't if you're not aware of this sort of voicing do head over to one of our other lessons where I've talked about spread voicing and closed voicing in detail okay so let's do this now on the pulse so essentially you're going one two three four one two three four sounds really simple right but when you do it with the right hand things start grooving very very quickly and I really like that idea about groove you're always trying to do something very fancy and very very signature like in one hand while the other hand supports the hand which is doing all the cool stuff so that's generally the principle behind grooving you don't want to do crazy things with all your limbs and even if you want it to it'll be really tough so the whole principle about groove is to at some with some limb of yours to try and do what the audience is inherently going to do if they like your song they are going to clap they are going to move to the pulse they are going to tap their feet snap their fingers and whatnot so it's good if you are doing the pulse as well so the audience will appreciate what you're doing even more and the bond between you and the audience will be a lot stronger so moving on the another variation you could try in the left hand the same as how we did the pulse is the double pulse so the double pulse is where you can do eighth notes where the beat gets divided by two while the right hand plays exactly the same pattern so you go what was once is now going to become double in only the left hand the right hand is not changed thus far slightly busy right and if you feel this is a bit too thick you can toggle between the root with the pinky and the octave with the thumb or with spread thirds as I taught earlier with the pulse right so the last thing I wanted to talk about which could be the start of other crazy things you guys try on your own would be basically do another pattern in the other hand while the right hand plays the same thing you've just been dealing with all through this tutorial and the other rhythm will be something other than the pulse other than something consistent like one and regular repetitive things so one thing which I'd like you to try is the salsa rhythm where you hit the on of the one then the of the one and then the and of the two one e and a 2 e and one e and repeat that between three and four we've written the pattern down on the screen so do watch that as well this is the groove and I've chosen to play spread triads or I could do all together so once you get a hang of that try to go back to this with octaves and then you can do it with spread voicing if you remember the introduction video which which you would have heard at the start of the lesson that's pretty much what I was doing I was doing the salsa pattern in the left hand used with a lot of popular songs and the right hand plays the same old pattern which we've written down right so that's pretty much the five exercises which I want you guys to do left and right hand share accents number one both hands plate together right don't take that for granted number two then left hand plays pulse while right hand plays pattern number three left hand plays eighth note pulse while the right hand plays the same old pattern number four and then number five left hand plays an interesting salsa pattern while the right hand plays the same old pattern right the pattern I chose for you guys is just a cool pattern I like playing so it's not it's not pattern dependent you can develop your groove and your independence with any pattern but it's good to start with something specific so try to do the one which is in the lesson before you explore other things okay so in conclusion I just wanted to talk to you guys about a few points while feeling the groove and what you need to do with your mind and body while doing whatever we just did as I've been repeatedly saying in the lesson you always need to have the pulse running the pulse can be running with either your mind counting inside or with your foot or with another hand very very important to have the pulse and another thing while playing the music which we tend to take for granted is always try to breathe normally and try to relax when you're playing try to focus on the music which is going on and and ultimately you need to enjoy your own music so you need to be chilled out to a point where you are not really thinking about how tough it is you're enjoying what you're playing and as as good as it sounds enjoying what you're playing the path towards that is not easy you'll have to work it out you'll have to practice you'll have to play you'll have to play and play and play right but there will come a point when you have that confidence where you especially when you're breathing is very very controlled and you're very very relaxed about what you're doing right what you're playing is a piece of cake you're enjoying your own music and another way I always try to feel the groove when I practice is to imagine a ghost next to me and that ghost is playing drums if you have a real drummer well and good that may not happen all the time right so whenever you play your instrument especially when you play rhythmically you need to have a drummer beside you by drummer it could be a tabla player it could be a darbuka player a jembe player whatever any kind of drummer next to you and imagine what they are doing right then you have a context on which you're playing what you're playing and another thing I like to do to feel the groove is spend some time away from your instrument you don't need to always try to execute the thing on the piano or the guitar whatever instrument you play try to imagine what you're doing away from your instrument and practice away you can do it in the shower you can just tap yourself and try to recreate it later on the piano or do it when you're absolutely jobless maybe in a cab or waiting for a flight some such thing but definitely it is important to practice away from your instrument you are practicing piano when you're not playing piano right it's very important to know that and once you start using this with your bandmates and once you put it into a song you need to start distancing yourself away from your instrument you need to start focusing on the rest of your band because ultimately you need to make a song which people love and you have to love what you make so the more focused you are on the instrument the less you're going to enjoy yourself and that enjoyment is the most important thing for me right whatever you do before you go on stage and when you play this thing you have to really love it and feel very very confident and very relaxed and or energetic you really want to do it and you're not scared so that again requires practice and there are a lot of myths which people you know take around saying you know nail it master it with the metronome with that thing which makes that funny noise but I mean there is nothing wrong with the metronome don't get me wrong it's a very important thing but for you to feel the groove I really think you need to start without the metronome let your body be the metronome let your mind be the metronome and then when you actually use a real metronome you'll realize that it's an absolute walk in the park right so try to don't spend too much time on the metronome yes it's a good tool for us to be focused I definitely understand that but you need to also enjoy what you're doing there's a bigger picture as well right it's the band you're playing with the song the groove and just having a good time overall and the metronome doesn't I don't think it gives you a good time all the time right so anyway so I hope you found the lesson useful if you did please share it around with all your musician friends and what else can you do you can give us a thumbs up like all those things and also perhaps you can hit the bell icon there's a bell icon for further notifications so whenever we release a new video if you want to stay in the loop you'll get all the updates right cheers