Recommended viewing...
As the year comes to an end, I thought it would be a good idea to look back on the many videos I made for you and pick out my favourite ones (not the ones which necessarily got the most views). They are provided below, from earliest in the year to most recent, with a little explanation as to why I have chosen them. Enjoy!
As the year comes to an end, I thought it would be a good idea to look back on the many videos I made for you and pick out my favourite ones (not the ones which necessarily got the most views). They are provided below, from earliest in the year to most recent, with a little explanation as to why I have chosen them. Enjoy!
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Most songs are composed 'diatonically', meaning that the melody and chords used are 90%+ in the key of the piece, so they use only the notes of the major scale of that key. Pop more often that note only uses major and minor triad; it's jazz which uses all the fancy chords, so it's a good idea to get used to the triads first. You simply go through the notes of any key and apply either a major or minor triad. The results are as follows: Major, minor, minor, Major, Major, minor, diminished (a b3 and b5, very rare in pop but common in jazz). This video gives some mastery exercises to help you.
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This is the link to the free PDF of Liszt's Technical Exercises. What I do in this video, and what I recommend you do with exercises from any source, is personalise them! I chose three at random and made them my own. There are many ways to personalise exercises: rhythmically, different keys, various finger combinations, eyes closed (as much as possible), tempos, different octaves, applying rhythms and time signatures, blending two exercises together, ... many ideas! I think you'll benefit a lot from this video.
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A lot of people want to be able to play Boogie-Woogie piano so I made three videos on it to take you through common left hand and right hand components, including the blues structure. Nothing too complicated. I also have videos like this for Ragtime, part one here.
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This idea starts with taking 4 notes randomly then, with progression of
difficulty, choosing chord types to play based on them. The second half
of the video is choosing chords which contain the note but not as the root note. Chords are so, so very important that I have an entire playlist of videos dedicated to chord mastery here.
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This is really good. Often, people ignore the black notes because they aren't in the oh so common key of C major but that's like ignoring a few strings on the guitar! You just can't play it properly. This video brings together a few favourite and useful exercises using only the black notes. They're a little thinner and shorter than the white notes so it's great for precision. Close your eyes while doing them for enhanced precision.
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For you jazzheads, this video is probably the most important one you'll ever watch. You see, 80%+ of jazz repertoire is based on, meaning, not too different from even when it isn't exactly this, the 362514 progression. You may get 12341 then a 251 to somewhere. It could be 25 25 36 36, 251... so I encourage you to see jazz repertoire as one fixed chord progression and then you only need to remember the variations which make each song unique. Please trust me on this; you'll save yourself a lot of time while feeling pretty proud of yourself for being able to learn lots of jazz songs pretty quickly!
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I really wish more people composed. Not to become the next Chopin but for the sheer enjoyment of doing it. You may think you need loads of theory and technical skills but you really don't. I propose three ways of composing and this video demonstrates each one for you. First, you hit random notes and find any chords that fit, write them down and there's your composition. Basically a 'pretty chaos'. Secondly, you compose within rules (either established theory or your own confines such as structure, key and chord types). Third, which is how I do it, is to listen within and as melodies and chord types arrive naturally, play them at the piano then write them down so you don't forget. Please have fun with this!
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I always wanted to learn Blue Danube but I wanted to play it my way, not according to some strict black dots on a piece of paper. How does one go about doing that? You listen to the song a lot of times so it's burnt onto your internal jukebox, then you work it out at the piano, basically! In this video, I do that live for Blue Danube. No cheating, just using my ears and anticipating chord types. Melodies are usually quite easy to hear but chord types require a bit more practice. Part two is linked in the video itself...
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Knowing chords is one thing. Remembering which comes next while playing is a whole other problem! In this video, I propose that you get used to alternating between just two chords (in two different keys) and slowly adding another and another. You can also write a chord progression down and memorise it numerically away from the piano and then come and play it multiple keys. The more you do this kind of exercise, the better you will become and the more fluently you will play! Often, it's not that you can't play the piano or don't know the piece, it's that you don't remember what chord comes next! So, let's fix that.
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Another 251 progression mastery video but in this short one, you are forced to play along with me through the 251s but ending on going up a 4th, as we therefore go round the circle of fourths! Starting on C, we'll play Dm7, G7, CM7, FM7... the the 251-4 of F (Gm7, C7, FM7, BbM7)... then from Bb, etc. You need to know these because they're in every single jazz song, so take this video as an opportunity to get them down once and for all!
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It wouldn't be right not to end with a Christmas song tutorial and performance so why not try to get this lovely classic, full of 251s (!!!) into your fingers!
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Thank you for your support by watching my videos and for considering to contribute to my Patreon page or getting involved in my Water Pianism Syllabus.
Happy 2023!
Happy 2023!
