 Hi everyone this is Jason here from Nathaniel. In this lesson we are going to learn a lot of things about rhythm, about harmony, about intervals, some simple music theory concepts, so it's sort of like an all-round music lesson. I would recommend it not just for piano players, of course it's going to be taught on the piano but the inspiration actually came from the guitar and the bass and the instruments which can play what we call a spread chord. So instead of playing a triad like this, I'm interested to share with you in this lesson how people play triads like this which is more of a spread chord. So instead of playing like that 1, 3, 5, you take the middle note of the position of that inversion and just drive it up the octave. So where this can really help is when you want to play stuff really low on the piano. So you can go really low. Now if I were to play that same note back to where it was and play a B major chord, this is how B major sounds in the left hand. Sounds horrible right? So a great way to improve that would be to use spread shapes. Could also call them as open voiced chords where I prefer to just call them spread chords because the triad what we normally learn like this is bigger. So I'm going to introduce you to a really cool chord progression. Then we are going to see how we can play that with our two hands developing patterns using spread voicing. Then we are going to try and play that pattern using a lot of interval combos using different intervals and practicing our intervals and last but not least we're going to try and drive this project across different time signatures trying to play it across a 6, 8, 5, 8, 7 by 8 and let's see where that goes from there. Simple exercise lots to learn stick around till the end. There's a lot to do in this one because we are not just talking about some chord pattern or some melody or some independence exercise you could call it like a hybrid of all. 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So let's now get cracking with the lesson I'm gonna first show you the chords B minor D major F sharp minor E major which scale is this all part of it's part of a three sharp scale so you could argue it's either F sharp minor or A major I'm just gonna think of it as A major since knowing the chords of a major scale comes to us a bit more naturally you could say so B minor that's chord number two D major that's chord number four major of the scale F sharp minor chord number six of the scale E major chord number five of the scale popularized by Daft Punk of course lot of their songs have this sort of progression very modern dance kind of chord progression right it doesn't sound very classical or rock like I think it's more dance pop kind of music so how am I playing these chords so let me first share that with you B minor is B D F sharp but I'm not playing it as B D F sharp like that I'm dividing it across my two hands playing B the fifth F sharp and then the higher D okay so instead of playing the D here I'm getting a more open sound root fifth higher octave third now you could also do this with one hand could use your pedal hold the pedal so that you don't choke this B keep the B lingering or keep the root lingering I would advise you to first do it with two hands and then do it with one hand so with two hands I'll tell you the pattern shortly but I hope you got the formation root fifth third upper third or we also call this as the tenth interval tenth meaning to tell us that it's eight nine ten eight being the octave so third above the octave okay first chord B minor played in tenths or spread voicing next chord is D major you just jump the whole equation down to D there we go so D A F sharp why again because F sharp should not be here we spread it out sounds great even lower B minor D major D major sounds really good everywhere even sounds good on the whole piano actually maybe chords were meant to be played this way so B minor D major F sharp minor what's F sharp minor F sharp A C sharp we add the A on the top end as to avoid that clutter remove the A bring it there and resolve it back to E major again the G sharp from here will sit itself there okay whole thing again B minor D major F sharp minor E major that's the progression so now that we've learned the chords B minor D major F sharp minor E major let's now put them into a nice pattern I want to start off with a nice three by four arpeggio sequence with both my hands here's how it sounds one two three one two three one two three one two three one two three one two three there we go okay how did I voice how did I play the pattern one and two and three and so I'm trying to keep my pinky down hold it down for the whole scenario one and two and three and one and two and three and one and two and three and and two and three and one and two not to be confused with six eight six eight will be one two three four five six six eight has two strong beats three by four has three strong beats 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1 and now, okay, now let's build it from there. So we have a 6-8 pattern. Before we build it actually, you may want to pause the video or do it later where you can try and work on dynamics. Dynamics means played with a lot of volume, swells, crescendos as we call it or you know, legatos, staccato, you know, so there are many ways of developing it. One is if I say crescendo, just volume swells, just that get louder over time. Another way to embellish with dynamics would be to imagine a drummer playing with you and target the snare drum and hit the snare drum a bit louder. Or, you know, that could be the drum groove, kick, kick, snare, kick, snare, snare, so wherever you imagine the snare drum would be where you're going to play this stuff a bit louder. So crescendo, following the drummer, the snare in particular, you can also do dynamics by just changing between legato, staccato, staccato, staccato, staccato, staccato, staccato, staccato, staccato, staccato, staccato. Legato coming up. Another thing I like to do is played in different registers. Like, see how each register feels. Maybe you want to play the lower one a little louder. Expand it. See, every register sounds different. That's what I meant by dynamics. So what are the four ways you can incorporate dynamics? May not be now while watching the video, but later on, as you keep practicing, focus on it being crescendo, volume up and down. Target the drum kit. See which aspects of the drums you'd like to embellish. The snare or the open hats could also help. Playing legato, staccato or that way playing in different regions of the piano. That also has a very, very different vibe. Now that we've got the 6-8 pattern with a lot of dynamic content, let's now drive it forward. So I'm going to drive it forward rhythmically as well as intervillically or harmonically, you could say. Let's start with the harmonic aspects. So it's very simple. 3 by 4 pattern, 1, 2, 3 and. So 1 and, 2 and, 3 and. At that end or the last beat of the 3 by 4 or the last sub-beat which is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. The sixth beat or the end of the 3. You're not going to play the designated chord tone. You're going to play a new note. And the new note, you'll have to look at your top finger. In this case D for 5, 6. And now start deciding intervals with respect to the top note of each chord. So first I want to play the second degree. So what is D's second? E. And these are not just any seconds. They are diatonic seconds. So they're diatonic to the A major scale. You may want to check out the chart which we have prepared. Where we have written down pretty much all the intervals. The seconds, thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths and sevenths. It's all on Patreon. Second, 2, 3 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 1 and 2 and 3 and. Got it? Now we need to continue it with the other chords. And then the fun will really happen. 1 and 2 and 3 and 1 and 2 and 3 and and 2 and 3. So remember you don't want to do. That's not part of the A scale. That's like an accidental. So we go. That's a G sharp which is very much part of the A major scale. That's why check out the chart. It'll help you. Okay. That's another second degree. Another second from A, diatonic to A major. You'll get a B and you'll get an A cluster after G sharp. One more time the whole thing. This is with a second embellishment at the top. With respect to the top note of the chord. D, E, F sharp, G sharp, A, B. D, G sharp, A. What I also like to do if possible is stress on that note. Make it a little more longer. Sounds beautiful I think. Just making that note a little longer. Requires a little bit of finger juggling as I call it. Like that. You may have to do that. Or use the pedal. But the pedal squishes it up a bit. That's clean up. Don't worry about your fingers getting messed up or looking a bit unorthodox or ugly if you want to call it that. It's what matters here. So the ear has to enjoy it. So do whatever it takes. See if you can make that last note ring. And now that the second degrees are done, let's now move to the third degrees which is D to its F sharp. F sharp to its A. A to its C sharp. G sharp to its B. One more time. At the end. Slowly. Let's try fourths which sound very, very interesting. D's diatonic fourth is G sharp. So, now the fourth. I kind of like the fourths the most. Sounds a bit unpredictable. Now let's look at fifths. That's not part of the A scale. So, you'll then be choosing a diminished fifth instead of the perfect fifth. There'll be one diminished fifth in every major scale, right? Seventh to its diminished fifth. So you go fifths. Then we can try sixths. Again try to sustain it if you can. And then we end with sevenths which is the last interval. Very artistic. D, C sharp, F sharp, E, A. Very big jump, right? A to the G sharp, G sharp to the F sharp. That's your sevenths. So we've covered all the interval degrees. So it's a great tool to, I think, help you learn your intervals of a particular scale. In this case, A major scale. And consider practicing it on a few more scales over your weeks or days of practice. I'd like to leave you guys with one small thing from the rhythm department because we cannot do a lesson on this YouTube channel without talking about rhythm, right? So I've saved that for last. So do stay tuned and if you haven't already, do consider a copy of the notes which will be available on Patreon. There'll also be a MIDI track of whatever it is I've played. So if there are any intricate things which you found useful in the lesson and you wanted to really dive in and digest what exactly I played, you can import that MIDI file into your computer program which could be a DAW recording program or an app like Synthesia which allows you to, you know, just see each note as it's being played, right? The YouTube videos are obviously a good resource but then you have these other resources which may help, okay? So the last thing rhythmically would be to add or make this or convert this into different time signatures. How do we do that? I'm going to show you one. There we go. So how do I count this 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. So what do I do? I'm just changing my pattern a little bit but I also don't want to get confused with this new time signature which is 7. So I will prefer to count it like 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1. You could also say, So it's easier to break up such a big number 7. It's not that big a number but it is big compared to 4. So 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, Or you could do 7 as 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, Both have a different groove, isn't it? So let me show you both. Let me show you 4 meets 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3. Remember what I said the last note could be changed. Now let's flip that around 3 meeting 4, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, There we go, you can convert this exercise to 7, you can also do 5, 3, 4, 5, 1, 3, 4, 5, just 5 is 6 minus 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or you can do any time signature really, it's a big number, like 9, you can say 5 meeting 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, quite like 9, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, tak, tak, tak, tak, tak, we have these konokol phrases as well, I am thinking of doing a detailed lesson on konokol phrases and how we can use that for accents, grouping, beat divisions and so on so do stay tuned to the channel there will be more lessons on that front. So let's just recap everything and then conclude the lesson guys we've taken four chords in spread voicing B minor D major F sharp minor E major then we've made a pattern out of it started off with six eight brought in a lot of dynamics into the party then we looked at interval embellishments at the very end of the last beat twos threes fours fives six seven and then we put it together this is fours for example and at the very end of the lesson I talked about these odd time signatures as they call it like seven so you can do seven five nine I think I demonstrated here so do check it out do practice it hard do check my notes which will help supplement your learning on patreon and if you found the lesson a bit more advanced for your liking I hope you enjoyed it still but if you found it a bit advanced and you wanted a bit more structured kind of learning you can always consider our website we have structured video curriculum at a foundational level at an intermediate level we have theory year training and it's ever growing the it'll keep getting populated and if you prefer learning with me or our faculty any instrument virtually or in person you can get head over to our website nathanielschool.com fill up a form and you can have a call with one of our course advisors thanks a ton for watching the lesson I'm looking forward to doing the next one really soon and don't forget to share the video like the video leave us a comment subscribe if you can to the channel the bell icon needs to be hit for regular notifications and you can also follow us and find us on instagram my channel Jason Zach and the school's channel Nathaniel school thanks a ton for watching this lesson thanks for all your support for our channel and we'll catch you soon cheers