 Hi everyone, this is Jason here from Nathaniel and in this lesson as part of our series on how to make arpeggios sound unique And develop an original flavor. I'm going to talk about using accents or you can call them as accented arpeggios Okay, I have done a lot of lessons in the past on arpeggios We will link that up and we've put together a playlist on all these so do check that out It'll be nice to see different ways of approaching arpeggios if you will okay So with accented arpeggios what you're trying to do is divide the beat okay? You cannot do this in fact all arpeggios are played a little fast, so Inevitably the beat will be divided into something so in this exercise I'm going to start with division by two one and two and three and four and and then we'll also attempt division by four Which is one e and a two e and a three and a four e and a So what happens with an accented arpeggio is Instead of playing something in a very looping pattern one and two and three and four and Which sounds rather predictable? What is also happening with this particular vibe is the one? One and two and three and four. It's always the same hit point right the ones one and two and the threes Are the same note so this is where we feel that the music is non-accented or just sounds normal So another way to count it could have been one e and a two e and a three four So you're not changing Where each note is being hit it's always hitting pretty much at the downbeat So by beats I mean one two three four would be the down beats ease would be one e To e then the ands would be one e and two e and then the earths would be one e and earth So if every note is on the same points of the bar or at the same division point of the beat It's not going to sound very original or very accented if you will right so to develop an accent I'll just play what I have to play and then I'll show you from the beginning and we are going to start by Dividing by two so before anything you need to be able to count One and two and three and four and one and try to say that with me Go one and two and three and four and one and two and three and there are two ways to count these things One is you make the one louder or the one two three four's louder and the other ways to make the ands louder So one and two and three and four and or else you could go One and two and three and four and one and you're making the ands louder Okay, or more accented so I'll play you the pattern and then show you Right so you feel that there's a kind of a grouping isn't it it's like one two three one two three one two So these are not triplets or anything This is just a grouping and how was that grouping formed if you ask me it's because of pitch It's because the pitch difference between the notes creates different kinds of cycles So if I go one two three, I've begun from E. So if I begun begin again from E So one two three one two three one two without gaps one two three one two three one two So the E becomes my pivot or my main point of reference if you will for this pattern One one one two and in an eighth note phrase it will be one and two and three and four and So it creates a system where the notes are either at the on beats or it creates a system where the important notes Can sometimes be at the on beats and sometimes be at the off beats, right? So that's the whole idea of an accented phrase. It's not predictable, right? So this could be visualized as a one two three one two three one two Imagining the division of two one and two and you could also strike the Accented points a bit louder Okay, and in this lesson, we are going to look at the four chords E minor G major D major and a major. It's a four chord exercise. So E minor G major starting from the bottom so LMH low middle note high note LMH LM LM H LM H LM LM H LM LM H LM remember for a major. You can play like this or like that. So LMH LM LM LM H LM LM Okay, now I am starting from the low note So the low note becomes my pivot or point of reference for the accent phrases So why can't I start from the high note and then it'll become Right. In fact, there's there's there's a song by Cole play, you know what it is which has exactly this vibe H. M. L Because I'm not playing the Cole play song the video may be taken down. So I'm gonna play the chord progression One two three one two, three one two, it's the same thing, right? But I have now anchored my ear towards the B using pitch high middle Low high middle low high middle So the high note now becomes my point of focus and that creates the accented phrase. So one two three one two one two three one two one two three one two three one two three one two three one two three right So, let's recap you have LMH, LMH, LMH, LMH, LMH starting from the bottom and then starting from the top. You have high middle low, high, H, M, L, H. And what should the left hand do? The nice thing about accents is, in your left hand you can either choose to play those accents. For example, this sounds really nice, very energetic, you can also play it in different styles. For example, legato, ostacato, or a combination of both. So, if you don't want to play the accents or if you want to combine accents with something else, you can combine it with something you have to do on the piano no matter what. That is the pulse. So, the pulse of this music would be or right now I'm snapping at the ones and threes of the bar, one and two and three and one and the three or you can do 1, 2, 3, 4, right. You could decide. If I do a normal pulse, it sounds immediately like a rock song, right, or slow pulse. Something you would like to play in a chorus perhaps, so I'm combining the slow pulse now with the accents in the left hand. Even though it's the same chords, the interest is created because I have two different sections now. One accented and one pulse in the left, maybe this could be in the chorus. So all through this lesson so far we've just looked at three, three and two, right. But if you look at those numbers, 3 plus 3 plus 2 equals 8, that's eight eighth notes in a bar, which is arranged well, otherwise it would be 4 plus 4, which is not accented or 2 plus 2 plus 2 plus 2 which is also not accented. Why not jumble the 3, 3, 2 and do something like what, 3, 2, 3, 3 plus 2, 5, 5 plus 3, 8. It works out quite well. Let's see how that works, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3. So it creates a different tonality. It's good to sing the top note that can train your ear. Play the accents in the left pulse and then move forward. Okay, so that was 3, 2, 3, another variant. You can also do 2, 3, 3, which is 1, 2, 1, 2, 3. So you're just jumbling 3, 3 and 2, you know, and doing 3 options, 3 rhythms. But 3, 3, 2 ends up being most popular, I guess, because you hear it in a lot of songs. So 2, 2, 3, 3 now. 2, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. And observe how I am voicing it on the piano. 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. Starting from the top, 2, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. Or I can start from the bottom. 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. Okay. Pricing it, it'll really help with your ear. And as always, the left hand has the opportunity to play the pulse, slow pulse, normal pulse, as well as the accents themselves, which are created by the pattern you're making in the right hand. Okay. So moving on, now that we've sort of divided the beat by 2, what more can you do? We can do something like 5 plus 3, right? Or 3 plus 5. That's also quite cool. So how do I get a phrase or an accent sequence of 5? 2, 3, 4, 5. 2, 3, 4, 5. So a good way to do it would be to not repeat the main note, which are accenting. So if I go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. See, I never repeated this for the entire 5. So 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And now 1, 2, 3. I do a normal 3. So I'm using my low as my anchor. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1, 2, 3. So I'm still dividing the beat by 2, but I've voiced it as 5 plus 3. I've created the accented phrase as 5 meets 3. So it sounds like this. 2, 3, 4, 5. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. 3, 4, 5. 1, 2, 3. 2, 3, 4, 5. 1, 2, 3. Let's try it from the top. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. 4, 5. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. 1. You can also shuffle the numbers 3 plus 5. 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. So just remember if you're doing it over 3 or over 5 or over 4, whatever the number of the accent is, don't repeat the first note or the anchor note. Let the anchor be as it is. 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. Now it's just 3s. So let's move forward now to a completely different division system altogether. Let's divide the beat by 4. In other words, 16th note. So now you have 16 sub beats or 16 beats in a bar if you look at it. That'll be 1 e and a 2 e and a 3 and a 4 e and a. So just using maths, you can just do something like 3 meets 3 meets 3 meets 3. How much is that? 12 plus 4 equals to 16. So you could look at your order of notes that way and you get something like dabbadadabbadabadadabadabadabadabadabadabadabadabadabadadabadabadabadabadabadabadabadabada. 1, 2, 3, 4, taqitita taqitita taqitita taqadimi. Taqitita taqitita. So that's a nice 16th note phrase. Let's try that out. I'm starting from the top note here. 1. So if I count it in numbers, it'll be 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1... Sounds also like that Brian Adams song, I'm sure you've all heard it. Okay, so, what else can we do now that we're in a world of dividing by four. we have a lot of options. It's too much actually to be covered in one video. But another thing which I'd like to share something which I enjoy playing is five meets five meets three plus three or five plus five plus six. Yeah. So you go something like I'm starting from the low note. Remember that's my five accent one two three four five one two three four five one two three one two three. So five plus five plus three plus three. Let's see how it works. That's how it sounds. I'll count it one two three four five one two three four five one two three 1, 2, 3, repeat. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 2, 3. Really love it, this is my favorite, so I wanted to share that with you, so 5 plus 5 plus 3 plus 3 and again, if you You start combining a system in your left hand where you play accents of 5, 5, 3, 3, follow only the accents and then move over to the pulse. You create two sections of a song immediately or automatically. You don't have to even change your chords. You can keep the same chord progression. Whenever you play the pulse, it can always be for a chorus. It can be the more epic or the more uplifting part of the song. And whenever you play accents, it can be more for the build-up or the busy part of the song or maybe for a bridge or something chaotic perhaps because if you play accents here and there in the bass, chaos does creep in. We've talked about accents. We first divided by 2, we've looked at all these phrases 3, 3, 2 which is very popular. Then we jumbled it, then we get 2, 3, 3, 3, 2, 3 and then we also ended up coming up with 5 meets 3, 3 meets 5, then we said we'll divide by 4 because that gives us even more possibilities or the 16th note domain if you will, 1e, 2e, 3e, 4e and then we can look at accented patterns. And ultimately an accent is nothing but changing the order of the fingers, not making it very predictable and not letting the same fingers strike the same beats or the same fingers strike the same subbeats. So as long as you develop a way around that, perhaps you could start with this lesson to jump-start your journey into accented arpeggios. After that I would highly encourage you to make up your own patterns and ultimately that's the point of this series, it's to make your arpeggios shine, become original and sort of be the hook of the song. In a way if you were to play the arpeggio pattern before your vocalist comes in or before you come in with the main song melody, people should know, oh it's this song, this is the song which we enjoy because of what the piano player played in the beginning. And what are we doing? We are just taking chords. Now if you played them in a normal loopable manner, people will just say, oh that's a pianist playing the piano. But the whole intention of this series is to make your arpeggios a song and use it and make it original so that it's yours ultimately. 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