 Hi everyone, this is Jason Zach from Nathaniel School of Music, here is a three part series on how you can play drum like grooves on the piano over a bunch of genres and using all of these patterns we are going to definitely improve our hand independence and we will also be covering a mode or a scale which we don't use that often, we call it the Dorian scale or the Dorian mode if you will, the Dorian is the second degree from the major scale just so you know, so we will start the lesson off with some basics of the scale or the mode, the Dorian, what chords you can get out of it and then the main goal in this three part series is to figure out a set of patterns in the right hand over multiple genres alongside a rather simple left hand which is just going to be a pulse, it's just going to be 2, 3, 4, 1, either you play an octave like this together or you toggle that octave 1, 2, like this, so this would be a toggle pulse or you can go just a together pulse with basically the octave, so everything in the left hand is going to be fairly straightforward or very straightforward, it's just a simple pulse with a drone of the root, you're not even going to change that, it's all about the right hand with respect to the left hand and that's how the hand independence will grow, to have one constant pulse in the left and then to have the groove created with a pattern in the right against the pulse in the left, this will form a very drum like approach towards playing the piano and I hope you stick around for the entire three part series, you might lose track of the video so don't forget to hit that subscribe button and turn on the bell icon for regular notifications and also you'll have a booklet waiting for you on our Patreon along with MIDI files, this will be a pdf download of every single pattern in our entire three part series, so for just $5 a month inclusive of my hand written notes you'll get supplementary resources for this series along with a ton of other videos we've been doing on our YouTube channel, hundreds are there and the Patreon page will definitely supplement all of these YouTube videos of ours, right guys let's get cracking, first of all the essential theory required for this lesson we are going to pick a Dorian scale, let's pick A Dorian so that'll be that's pretty much like a major scale with a flat 3 and A normal 6 and a flat 7 so that'll be A B flat 3 C D E F sharp normal G will be a flat 7 A another way to visualize this is with respect to the minor scale so if you already know the natural minor A minor all the white notes right of the piano the Dorian would be it raises the six so raising of the six with respect to the natural minor or the D or the sixth degree now coming to the chords well you you'll have my notes available but just to show you the available triads would be A minor which is the one minor 2 minor which is the B minor 3 flat major which is the C major 3 flat because it is the flat 3 roman numbers will include a flat because it's flat with respect to major that's how it all works so watch my video on roman numerals we'll leave a link in the description so A minor 1 degree B minor 2nd minor C major 3rd flat major 3 flat major then you have 4 major you can even add a dominant to that and make it 4 dominant but that's the very Dorian movement 4 major resolving back to A minor okay so 1 minor 2 minor 3 flat major then you have your 4 major then you have a 5 minor okay then we have a 6 diminished that's F sharp diminished then we have a 7 flat major and then back to A minor so I'm going to use pretty much all of these chords throughout the lesson and throughout the the module or this series if you will so practice those triads and incidentally A minor is no stranger of a scale it's the second mode or the second degree as we say from the G scale so G is G major scale second degree is A so A Dorian so F sharp and then A minor right so that's the essential theory needed for this lesson also in the description we leave you a link to an exhaustive study on the Dorian scale using a lot of my compositions and if you want to dive into the theory of modes how to build them from different perspectives again we leave you a link in the description so do check it out so coming to the first rhythm pattern first off let's maintain either this kind of a pulse in the bass which is one two three four one two three toggling between the root and the octave with my pinky finger and my thumb okay another option could be just slam them both together okay and the chord or the chord progression is going to be A minor G major D major and then coming back to A minor I'm doing it in an interesting way I'm playing it from the root position A minor dropping down to the root of G then descending further with an inversion of D major so and then ending with a different inversion of A minor in this case the second inversion because it's just under the root position so let's do that climb down so A minor D G major with a D on the top D major with a D on the top A minor A minor with a C on the top while the chords are A minor G major D major A minor but with that top not focused so the left hand is doing pulse one two three four let's see what the right can do first let's first hit one two three four one two so I'm counting this as two bars of four so the first bar will have minims which is A minor the new chord G the new chord D and A minor there we go way to start get that inversion get these inversions going and once you're done with that you can even change this starting position instead of playing A C E you can do E A C so E A C D G B D F sharp A C E A so that's the second inversion and then you journey downward so similarly the other shape of A minor so you have three exercises just to practice inversions right now before we get to the rhythmic stuff okay now I'm going to keep the same pulse and the first rhythm challenge for you would be to start triggering or getting to be acquainted with the off beats so so the first challenge now well we've done the on beats that was a nice challenge now we are going to go into the off beats one and two and three and four and one and so all these ends let's start off by dividing the beat by two two and three and four and so maybe apart from the one the first chord one and two and three and four earlier what were we doing one and two and three one and the three what if we now do one and two and three and four one and two and three basically all the ends four and one and two and three and or at least the alternates and four and one and two and and don't miss the pulse of the left hand sometimes when we play this might end up happening you know you lose the sight of you lose the knowledge of the pulse to begin with so one and two and three and four one and two and three there we go one and two and three and four and one and two check that out and two what if we do everything off except the one one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four and three now even the one has gone off so just practice this idea of what we call is rhythmic anticipation and while you're at it you could also do rhythmic delay where you delay the onset of the chord by a sub beat later in time we anticipate it now we are going to delay one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four one and so that the default landing was three now we are going to make that 3.5 or three and one and two and three and four and one and two and three and four so basically explore the ends explore the subdivisions we are dividing the beat by two and just to perhaps give ourselves a taste of 16th notes you can do things like one and two and three and four and one and two and one and two and three and four and one and two and three and one and two and one so let's do that again i'll try and break that on even more slowly one and two and three and four and one and two and three and one and two and three and at the very end one and two so now you'll perhaps have to get into the mode of saying one e and a two e and a because we are going even more deeper into the beat right one and two and three and a four e and a one e and a two e and a three and a four e and a four e you can do things like three and a four e three and a four e three and a four e or you can do three and a four e three and a three which is more salsa so slowly we get into that 16th note domain and that's where the funk is okay that's where the groove is and that's where the that's why people dance because of those 16th notes okay so we've covered the basic chords we've covered playing those chords on the offbeat which are those eighth notes and then are sort of an intro to 16th notes so I want to now journey forward into a eighth note a funky eighth note groove I'll play it's what you heard in the intro video I just played again so what I'm doing here is of course it's still Dorian chords but different than what I taught you earlier I'm not I'm doing something different so the the hit points one and two and three and three and is gonna be a b minor so it's generally in this lecture series it's going to be a three or a four chord progression and if we are lucky maybe even a two chord progression but not one chord that's boring one and two and so one two three and four and one and two and three and four and so you see there's a lot of these and and hit points coming up one and two and three and four and one and two and three and you can see the notation two and three and four and and look at the left hand it's an ever faithful pulse one and two and three and four and one and two and three very drum like in nature any drum groove will always have one thing which is consistent and then the logic would be to kind of add spice with an actual groovy pattern one and two and three so let's first snap the rhythm one and two and three and four and one two and three and four and one and two and three and four and one two and three and now you can probably squeeze this groove into an improv as well alongside those chord movements stuff like that keep the pulse though okay i'm getting carried away with some of the other patterns which i'm also going to teach you so stay tuned so let me do that slightly slower for you and one and two and three and four and two and three what you could also do to make things interesting first cycle you're doing that's a minor b minor c major b minor second cycle you can do a minor g major d major with an f sharp in the bottom d major and then come back to a minor for some spice c major b minor a minor g major d major a minor i'm just keeping a in the base these are all slash chords slash a you could say a b c b a g d a with the pattern keep the pulse consistent in the left hand okay and before i sign off i'd like to do something in a more swung feel so all through so far we've been doing straight one and two and three and four and what if we now make it something like one and two and three and four and one that also promotes the use of some broken chords so let me play you the swing groove and then teach you so what's going on here that's a minor g major d major a minor but instead of playing full chords i'm doing i'm breaking that down and now one way to do broken chords would be to kind of transfer the weight between this side which is just a c in this case and there are the two but what i like to do keep this held down and i'm playing this on an ep or an electric piano patch which sounds really nice when you sustain the piano so so the pulse as always and the right hand let's just do this with one chord okay a minor now you could also do it straight but it doesn't sound so good i think this groove will be best when it's swung so one e and you could do 16th note swing with all the chords so that will be the a minor swing g major swing d major swing a minor it repeats you can explore other inversions starting with the second inversion of a or root position of a there we go in fact for flavor you can start off with different inversions and obviously if you're confident with the Dorian chords you can explore them so in part one of this three part series we've done like a very basic set of chord movements to help you practice the inversions then we explore the off beats first off with the eighth notes then we move to those 16th notes then we looked at a nice funky eighth note groove then we did some swing okay and to prepare you for the next part we are going to develop a lot of genres in the next part we're going to study some reggae some funk some glam rock some disco as we move forward we are going to get into some latin dance styles and bring in some salsa so stay tuned and in part one if you if you like to send me your recordings of what you've done feel free to leave us a note or tag us on our instagram profiles either jason zack on ethanial school and we'll be happy I myself would be personally happy to listen to it and also share it on my stories and whatever else one can share things on right thanks a ton for watching again don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell because the next part might be forgotten and wait the next part is coming cheers