 Hi everyone this is Jason here from the Nathaniel School of Music. In this lesson we are basically going to look at the pretty much the world's most popular rhythm what we call as the pop clave or what they call as the thresio right. Basically a group of three beats which come together in a very very interesting assortment to create just something which will make you get off your chair and start moving or dancing may not be dancing in specific but some form of movement will happen when you hear something like this right. You'll find it in pretty much all the modern day pop hits of the last I guess 10 to 15 years you could say right. So I'm just going to call it the thresio for this lesson or the pop clave. We first look at how we are going to count the thresio then we've developed a nice little chord pattern which is quite popular so you'll already find that it sounds similar to stuff you've been listening to you know if you listen to modern day pop music then we look at what the left hand is going to do with some roots thirds fifths develop some stuff there some interesting left hand arpeggios as well which we'll work on and then we are going to look at the contrast the main point of today's lesson is to show you the contrast between what I'm calling as the slow thresio and the fast thresio or the normal groovy EDM thresio if you will right. This is something which I found is not covered that often even we've done a couple of lessons on the thresio rhythm in the past we've done I think two or three using arpeggios using the hits using a variety of songs also but in this lesson I want to focus a little bit more attention towards the speeds of the thresio even though it's the same tempo one speed will access eighth notes and the other speed will access sixteenth notes more on that obviously in the lesson if you are a beginner you're going to find this useful if you are an advanced player or an intermediate player you need to follow along till the very end and even if you're a beginner there may be some things which you can't play but maybe there'll be things which could inspire you train your year improve your hand coordination for sure understand chord inversions understand a few aspects of music which are very rudimentary very important very essential and so on right guys so before we get started it'll be great if you could subscribe and more importantly there is a bell icon next to the subscribe somewhere there hit that as well because we do a lot of lessons a lot of regular lessons over the weeks and the months and we've been averaging quite a few you know at least over the past two three years so make sure to hit the bell because whenever we release a new lesson you'll be notified and immediately you can watch it or save it to watch later or download it or use whichever feature of youtube you enjoy right so let's get cracking so first off let's count the thresio the way i do this is first off let's do it with eighth notes so the way it works will be one and two and three and four and it's over four beats three and four and one and two and three so the first thing would be the hit points which would be one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four the one and of the two on of the four one and of the two on of the four so this is using an eighth note flavor now if you have to divide this into more units we call them as 16th notes essentially we divide the pulse into four so that would be one right four one and two and a so a good way to count it popularly would be one and a two and a three and a four one so same hit points thresio one and two and a three and a four one and two and a three and a four yeah no one and a two and a three and it's essential also to count it initially use any form of counting but the one I am sharing is like a standard so might as well use that right. So, with the quicker speed and you tap it maybe for today's lesson with your right hand because I am we are going to generate some chord hits in the right hand okay more on the left hand maybe in another video. So you go 1-e-n-2-e-n-3-n-4-e-n- this is the thresio 1-e-n-2-e-n-chikapoom-chikapoom-chikapoom-chikapoom-chikapoom-chikapoom-chikapoom-chikapoom Now, if we slow this down 1-e-n-2-e-n-3-n it would pretty much be the same hit points 1-e-n-2-e-n-3-n-4-e-n-1-e-n-2-e-n-3-n-4-e-n-4-e-n-2. So I would encourage you to practice it with the AND and 1-e-n-2-e-n-3-n-4-e-n-3-n-4-e-n-2-e-n-3-n-4-e-n-4-e-n-3-n-4-e-n-4-e-n-4-e-n-4-e-n-4-e-n-4-e-n-4-e-n-4-e-n-4-e-n-4-e-n-4-e-n-4-e-n-4-e-n-4-e-n-4-e-n-4. There you have more access to the beats or the sub-beats there is more beats in the beat which is what we call as a sub-beat thach-ch-k-k-k-t-t. Also, let's study the other thresio, which is the more poppish one or the EDM one, which actually both are popular. So I honestly don't know what to call them. Maybe there's an official name for it. You can help me out in the comments. So you go now, this is the pop thresio or what I'm calling now as the EDM thresio. So pretty much the same hit points, but it's just gotten a bit faster. So you can look at it as a spacing of three beats, another three and then another two, adding up to an even number, three plus three plus two equals to eight. So it goes one, two, three, one, two, three, one. So some musicians like to actually count it as the, you know, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, or maybe using conical, you could say, right, or using the official beat symbols, you go So it's a two beat phrase, right over two beats. If you do it as 16th note, so one, one, two, three, and four. Sounds pretty much like all the songs out there, right? One, one, two, three. So you need to feel a sense of energy and excitement at the off beats, which are at the Earth or the ease, or even the ends. If you choose to do the slow thresio that ensures that you create a very human performance with a lot of feel and it doesn't sound so robotic as some of the programmed music tends to sound sometimes. So on the piano we want it to be with your own personality or your own feel. Okay, so slow thresio. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Sorry. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Now the fast one. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. And later on in the chapter or in this lesson, we are going to look at various things to do to make the fast or the pop thresio a lot more exciting like or maybe stuff like that, which we are going to talk about very, very shortly. So make sure you watch the whole lesson. There's a lot which is going to happen in this lesson in not too long a time, but watch the whole lesson. Okay, so now I'm going to choose a chord pattern which is super simple, D minor, D major, A major and E minor. I'm not going to spend too much time on the formation of these chords. It's written out for you in our handwritten notes. I've written down every inversion and the mapping of every chord to every chord with the most efficient way possible. So if you start from here, you go B minor to D major, always train yourself by playing the roots of the chord in the base unless otherwise mentioned unless they say it's a slash chord or something. So B minor, D major, A major, E minor. I kind of like even E major. It's also nice. It gives you a more rock Dorian feel, but we'll stick with the E minor. Each chord for two beats would be nice. But if you want, if you're new to this stuff, you could do each chord four times. So learn your chords with the respective inversions, which have been put out for you. Or if you know inversions, great. So right now I'm playing it in a very sort of ballad accompaniment style. You could say it works great if you're just doing like a slow, emotional or uplifting kind of music. But if you want to groove with this, we have to now play it in the style of the Thresio. That's what this whole lesson is about. So let's just start with the same hit points which we learned earlier, one E and a two E and a three and a four E and a same hit points. But now obviously without my tapping of the leg and the shaker, by the way, I would always recommend some kind of percussion to keep you going. A shaker, maybe a tambourine, maybe a bongo, which is really nice for piano. It's a great simulation or just your body. You could just do like a kick or your left hand simulation here and your right hand there. That's what I do. You could figure out something or whack something in your house without destroying it hopefully. So you go, the inversions are mapped out. Now let's whack the chords of the right hand with the Thresio rhythm grouping or the structure of the Thresio. So slow version. There we have it. And what is my left hand doing? Basically pulse. That's one, two, three, four. Always recommended to maintain a steady pulse. Maybe as your first rhythm, which you'll ever do, you know, just to get the wiring right. Pulse is very, very important. It ensures that you're going to be on time with your band. Okay, with the Thresio now. A two E and a three and a four E and a one E and a two E and a three and a four E and a one E and a two E and a three. Or I count one and two and three and four and one and two and three and right depends on how you want to count. This is the slow version. So you can get away with just one and two and three and four and one and two. Or you could just practice these 16s because the fast Thresio is coming up. So one E and a two E and a three and a four E and a one E and a two E and a three and a four. There we go. And what I like to do in my left hand to not get a very aggressive sound is don't whack both the root and the octave together. Maybe you could start with the root and the octave together at the one and then dissipate it. So one, two, three, four, one. So it's only thumb. So pinky thumb at the one and only thumb. That's four hits. And you can play around with this later because you've kind of worked on the isolation of the pinky and the thumb, which is very important for groove. So check that out in the left. Also, if you can make the thumb of the left a little softer, not gets a bit annoying, I guess. So keep the thumb of the left nice and soft, mellow and hold the pinky. If you observe the pinky of my left is held a little faster with some dynamics would be awesome. Right. So now let's do the exact same thing. But now with the fast ratio. What was the fast ratio again? Let's do that. So left hand again pulse. So a nice practice would be to kind of snap the left hand or maybe tap it here. One, two, and so I'm only doing one, two, three, four with my left hand, which is eventually so this is a great simulation for what's going to happen on the keyboard with the chord roots of each chord B for B minor, D for D major, A for a major and finally E for E minor. So you go play everything basically six hits. So Tresio now becomes sort of shortened or fastened, fastened or faster. That's the right word. So you go. So you need two Tresio points or two Tresio sections, one, two and again, repeat. You could change it faster, but for now let's just do each chord for an entire bar of four. There we have it. Don't bring in your left hand until you've got the pulse on either your body or maybe on your leg somewhere or a table or you could also consider snapping. Also allows you to hear your right hand very well. Can maybe do staccato staccato. The last one could be legato. So you can focus a bit on the right hand, get the way the right hand should feel or how you want to play it. And then the left hand comes in. So long, quite poppish. Okay. Coming to the left hand now. So the same snap on the, with the left hand. chord roots. And for flavor, you could kind of toggle instead of whacking both together, you could go could do root, octave, root, octave, quite like that. So toggle instead of going, pam, pam, pam, pam, pam, you do root octave. Still the pulse, isn't it? You could also toggle root and fifth. There we have it. Starts giving a very Latin vibe, right? Or a salsa vibe. Just that fifth. You could also play around with the third if you'd like. So what's the third from each chord? B's third would be B, D, minor third because minor chord then D, F sharp, because that's a D major, then A to C sharp, E, G. Sometimes I end up doing a major by choice because I like the Dorian. So you go, or you have the best of both worlds, the third and the fifth. You could do something like a arpeggio, what I also call as a slow arpeggio. So that's B, D, F sharp, D, low note, middle note, high note, middle note, you could do that, or you could do low note, high note, middle note, high note, L, H, M, H with respect to the chord. This is the L, this is the M and that is our H. Now, you could also do L, M, H, M. So both, let me show you. All sound nice over the fast thresio. Maybe not over the slow one. Actually, it sounds good on the slow one as well. Yeah, sounds good on both. More commonly on the fast one though, which is keep the feel going. 16s. So chak-chak-chak-chak-chak-chak-chak-chak. So that's about your left hand. Either you whack them both together, or you toggle them, root octave, or you do like a root fifth, root third, or you combine the root fifth and the third with like a slow arpeggio. Right? Right. So at this stage, if you practice both the thresio patterns, the slow one and the fast one, you could use it for a ton of music. You could use it for ballad stuff. You can use it for modern day dance music. You could even use it for some older 80s music or anything for that matter. It by popular doesn't mean it has to be used by a specific group of artists. You could even use it in a rock context. It's used a lot by a lot of rock bands, progressive bands, and so on and so forth. What I thought I'll end this lesson with would be to show you a few ways in which I use these two thresio patterns, the slow one and the fast one. So let me just show you a few of my patterns. You could say my go-to patterns, which you'll find in a lot of my music and the daily riffs which keep coming your way on YouTube. Right? So the slow thresio pattern, the first thing I'd like to consider or focus on would be dynamic chord. So first look at play the same thing with a lot of dynamics. Essentially, think like a wave. Think like you're going up and then down a hill, a very smooth hill, not a pointy hill. So you go with the thresio. You can even practice the dynamics with just one chord I guess. That'll be good. So see it's kind of soft, but the volume is still changing, isn't it? And if you'd like, you can explode. It's like a build-up. Always give your listener a taste of the volume and then when you go to the next section, just blast it out. And this could also be with relation to the drummer. It could be with relation to your arrangement of your song, or most importantly, your singer. You have to see what the singer is up to. Is the singer going softly, you know, something more mellow like in that volume versus now that's going a bit louder. So obviously you need to thus follow the singer. Or if you are a singer yourself, even better, it's kind of easier to follow your own dynamics. So that was dynamics over the chords. Another thing you could consider doing is adding a few ghost notes here and there. Now we've done a lot of lessons on ghost notes. You should definitely follow my powerful, ballad accompaniment YouTube lesson which is used a lot in songs. So there are a lot of these ballad videos which I've done and even stuff to learn ghost notes. So those are the two topics you may find useful along this lesson. So what I'm doing here is just those small little embellishments. Let me just show you one for this chapter and two and three and four. So I'm just adding the and as well. So I'm kind of breaking my right hand chord and just doing one single hit that one. So I do this a lot. Also in the left hand, you could do just before you climb to the next chord and for and so the and of the four could be ghosted. So ghosting is nothing but a chord tone of the chord which you just play very lightly or very shortly like you play it in a staccato manner or in a softer manner. So I'll just show you the right hand ghost and then the left hand ghost just to recap that one is the right ghost with your thumb two and three and four and two and first emphasize one and two and three and four emphasize it and then get it into your system played a bit softer. Now coming to the left ghost there we go. Just before we go to the next chord probably wondering why is he using this term ghost all the time. Well it is a technical term at least for drummers, bass players, guitar players because they have the ability to do these things you know but I'm just taking that language to the piano because I really don't know what else to call it. So anyway that was about ghost notes with dynamics. The next thing we do very often with which I would love to demonstrate with the slow thresio is something you would have heard very often. So you take there we have it arpeggios but following the thresio feel which is one two three one two three one two so your accent points one and two and four will be the thumb of your right hand or the highest finger of the right hand I'll come to that. So with the thumb one two three one two three one two these are not triplets you're just grouping the accents that's what creates the accent right one two three one two three one two three one two three one two three one two three one two three or start from the top fool around with the top note as well. So I've done a lot of these quite a few lessons you can check out a video we have called thresio arpeggios which we'll put out in the description. We've also done well I've taught the Coldplay song clocks which you can check out the entire lesson for a lot of songs have the thresio in them so do check it out. Okay so another thing which you could do is at the end of the bar you could squeeze in or sneak in a 16th note which would sound like this. Okay so at the very end one and two and three and four and a right you hear that one and two and it's easier actually to do this with an extra note so you could do and add that as well and now you can get the flutter better. Nothing in the left it's just the right right so that's the arpeggio 16th arpeggio flam or filler you can add now let me just show you a few things I would do over the fast thresio just to revise that one right one and two and a three I've already told you about the left hand with the fifth or the third or the octave toggle but the right hand here now this could start getting a bit boring maybe you're going you're repeating the same chord over and over again so it kind of gets a bit boring so let me just show you the pattern and then explain it it'll definitely make the existing EDM thresio a lot more exciting so that'll be okay you saw what happened there at the one I'm slamming the chord at the three I should have also slammed the chord because the thresio is sort of copy pasted at the three and the four beats of the bar so normal thresio now so where did I whack it there I whacked it at the E of the three okay one E and a two E and a three E and a four E and a four E and a two E and a four E and a two E and a three E and a four E and a four E and a two all the chords you can even you can add that flutter at the end which you learned for the slow thresio so make sure to use the correct inversions right and just to give you a hint maybe it'll inspire us to do another lesson in the future you can kind of combine the thresio with a few more hits and not do you've heard that a lot right very familiar rhythm so you can do things like the song clave or you can do something like the bossa clave or the bossa nova clave which could be so if you can you could add that as well that was the playing with the E of the three but now if I do the claves so the thresio when augmented with the clave becomes a very very interesting phrase it's like tension and resolution in rhythm which is a bit weird but very true it's that's the resolution so chords don't tense and resolve it's not tension resolution only for intervals and chords you even have the same equation the same emotion for rhythm just rhythm okay so anyway that's pretty much what I plan to do in today's lesson explore the two speeds of the thresio which is very inspiring and very important the slow one fast one right then we'll so after we learn both the speeds we then looked at the chord progression D minor D major A major E minor learn it with the correct inversions then we looked at some left hand toggling techniques with the slow thresio the fast thresio then we looked at some of the patterns which I use a lot in my music like adding a lot of dynamics a lot of ghost notes splitting it up instead of chord hits doing arpeggios adding some 16th note flavor and then creating more variations over the beat since making it more or less monotonous instead of doing we did and so on and so forth right guys I hope you found the lesson useful this was about the thresio watch our other stuff on the thresio rhythms and we have a playlist called rhythm chops so check that out as well in that playlist you'll find all the lessons which I cover topics on in the rhythmic domain right so check that out and some of them I understand are for more intermediate learners some of them are maybe a bit more advanced but a lot of them can be digested by all of you I hope right and even if you can't play it as I tell students you need to get inspired and moved by the sound you will eventually play it you can't play something unless you love it you know it's very difficult you have to find a way you have to listen to it and just enjoy the music and then you're more motivated towards learning the subject again this is Jason here from Nathaniel if you haven't already don't forget to subscribe to our channel all of these notes are available on patreon as as always not only this lesson stuff in the past and the stuff which is going to hit your way if you'd like something more regular and structured you can consider our foundation course foundation piano course which includes theory and ear training that will also be on youtube we have members only videos if you'd like to watch them or if you'd like to learn with me in person you can follow the form which is in the description and hit us up and you can join one of my courses at whichever level would suit you best and don't forget to hit that bell very very important hit the bell now if possible cheers this is Jason