 Hi everyone, this is Jason from Nathaniel. In this lesson, let's learn the amazing intro of the song A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton. An incredible song and an awesome video. I'm sure all of you have seen that video. It's probably my best music video of all time. And that's what probably drew me towards the song. So it has an amazing intro and a few of my students actually did it. And that kind of propelled me also to learn it, which was really cool. And it's quite easy, but at the same time really intense in terms of what she's doing rhythmically and with the arpeggio and how she makes an arpeggio sound melodic. That's I think something we can learn from this lesson. And also the bass line or the bass notes which she's created are incredible. So what we've gone ahead and done is we've notated this entire thing with the chords and all of the points of accents and where the two hands are aligning in our notes and notation, which you can find on Patreon. If you're a reader of sheet music, you could figure that out. Otherwise, like any of our lessons, you don't really need to know reading to learn them. Reading is just an additional skill. So first off, let's get into some theoretical basics. We are on the key of B major. B major, as you probably should know, has five sharps and it may be helpful to write down the scale, write down the available chords and so on and so forth. Before you start anything in song learning or before you start practicing anything. So B major, B, C sharp, D sharp, E, F sharp, G sharp, A sharp, B coming down. So these are your degrees. This will become your chords and so on. So this song, let's first look at the left hand because I think the left hand is recurring and that's easy for most people to catch and a little confusing sometimes because they are not the actual roots of the chords. She uses a lot of slash chords in the composition, which we'll dive into. So first off, E, F sharp, D sharp, E. That's all you do. That's pretty much it. The chords change fast. So one E and a two E and a three E and a four E. So that goes with the tune. So just note that the first one is on the beat, on the one. One and two and three and four and one and two and three and four. You can count it with quavers, but I think what we've notated uses semi-quavers. So with semi-quavers, a good practice would be to say one E and a two E and a three like that. It will help you count better. So one E and a two E and a three E and a four E and remember we come back to E. So E, F sharp, D sharp, E and with the... I like to just count like three virtual beats in my head. It helps when you speed it up, you know. I'll talk about the right hand very shortly, but I hope the left hand is sorted. one e and a two e and a three e and a four e and a one e and a two e and a three e and a four e and a one e and a two e and a three e and a four e and a one e and a two e and a three e and a four the very last e she does this really cleverly that's seriously clever piano playing she goes one e and a two e and a three e and a four e and a so it kind of pulls you into the verse the verse, which a lot of these players do really well in their intros. Fine. Now coming to the right hand, so I hope the left hand is sorted. With the right, so first of all keep your hand like this, thumb pinky on the B octave. You can keep your middle finger on the F sharp, which is the fifth. So I'll play you line first part could use your ring finger for that A sharp right there. It's quite easy. The hand hold is not too big a deal. Just for those of you who are not sure with your ring finger, my suggestion is kind of push your wrist a little bit so that it gives your ring finger more muscular impact. See some people can't whack it independently and that's the way the ring finger is. It's biologically challenged. So you'll have to use some other part of the hand. What I like to do is turn my hand like you're opening a door, you know, just unlocking a door and you can get some power for that note with the ring finger. I don't see any other option. How will you avoid using the ring? It's just next to the pinky. So okay, you could play along with me or read the notation. Let's do that. And with the bass, let's only do that slowly. Just do that only. Then finish the race D sharp C sharp B, okay, it's always good to know your intervals, right? To be honest, you could actually do this and this would sound really cool as the intro. You know, you could play this as fast as you can. But then if people knew this song, they would get angry with you because you're not doing the whole intro. That's what we have to do in this lesson. So watch along. So line one is sorted, I hope. Remember that gap? Read the notation. A little three in there. Okay, now for the tricky part, the second line, the second section, okay, so she does that's three times of F sharp B, F sharp B, F sharp B. So that's gamma gray, D sharp, E D sharp, C sharp. So whole thing again, it's an incredible melody. It's also interesting to note that this is a very piano melody. You know, why I say that is for you to try this out on a guitar or the human voice, it's going to be an Herculean task to even try to, if you try singing this, it's really tough, at least for me to be able to. So this is a very piano melody. You can't really, you want to do it just on the keyboard and not on any other instrument. So she's composed it, you know, it's just bringing out all the bells and whistles of this instrument. And the piano, what makes it very different than all the other instruments is the ease of playing intervals. So you can skip notes, no problem. If you do that on a horn or a voice, very tough. So we take advantage of that and try to make it unique. Now there are a lot of things which a violin or a trumpet will do, which the piano just can never do. That's why we have so many instruments in the first place. So you go, so just count three again there, but two, three without stopping. One, two, three, one, two, three, okay. But now we have to play something in that three, one, two, three, one, two, three four, which is four semi quavers at the end. Maybe tough to get the bass with that, but try and it'll come over time. This may not happen overnight. So you need to keep trying it out. And day after day, you're going to get better and better till you master it. Let's do that again. What I like to do when I play it is add some dynamics to that, to that build up and get a bit louder. This will only be possible if you're relaxed and if you focus on your breathing, focusing on your breathing is one of the most important things I talk about whenever I teach as some of you may already know. So when you breathe, the dynamics comes in. Dynamics in simple words is volume control, so versus both options could exist, right? Okay, line one, line two, wait. The third line is same as the first line, copy paste, third line. And then the fourth line is super easy. So, twice of that, D sharp, C sharp, B sharp, C sharp, F sharp, C sharp. Now some of you may be wondering, why do I say these are swaras or Indian intervals or names of notes, which seem to be more common in the east, places like the subcontinent. We use these. Why you may argue, well, I think it's common sense, really. You'd rather not sing D sharp, C sharp, B, D sharp, C sharp, B, F sharp, C sharp, may sound nicer to do. And yes, you also have an equivalent, which is the soul-fedge language of the west, do re mi fa so. But I am from India, from Bangalore city, so I don't know that stuff. This is how I learn with the musicians I get to jam with. So if you're an Indian musician, you should practice it with the swaras. If not, well, I would encourage you to sing it with some kind of soul-fedge. The western do re mi fa so la ti or the Indian sa re gama padhani. It'll help you hear it better and latch on to the notes, okay? So, go re, go re, go re, whole story again and then we will conclude. It may now attempt it at, like, somewhere close to the normal speed, move your head to the pulse. Very important. One of my favorite intros of all instruments. Lastly, before I conclude, I hope you've got the hands part. There's also the foot part. So try to keep your pedal on, as you can hear. The sound continues. So use the sustain pedal, which is the right pedal on most pianos. Hold it until you shift your chord. So if ever you're using the pedal, don't hold it forever, then it becomes counterproductive. So you need to lift it really fast so you could watch the graphic where you can see it moving. Now, I'm not sure how Vanessa Carlton times her pedal lifts because you don't get to see that in the video, but this is probably what would make it sound decent. This is without the pedal. Sounds good as well, if you ask me, but the pedal makes it sound more dreamy and bigger and fuller because it adds, well, what it physically adds to the sound is it adds additional harmonics to the piano, which in simple words is more layers over the fundamental frequency. So instead of B, you'll hear many other notes, which the pedal is holding when it sustains. That is because the resonance created by the piano in general. All instruments have their resonance, but the piano has some serious overtones as we call it. Thanks a ton for watching the video and if you can, it'll be great if you can smash that like. 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