Transcription
A lot of professional pianists actually use very simple piano patterns to create beautiful sounding music. When I showed any of these patterns to my beginners, I just love seeing their eyes light up. You know, it was like a real "whoa" moment. "I can sound amazing too!" So, in this video, I'm going to show you five of these patterns, which are perfect for beginners, and you can simply apply them to any chords you like or any chord progressions that you want. So, let's get started with pattern number one.
I absolutely love teaching this pattern to beginners because it's just that one step forward. You know, we add that movement, that fluidity to our chords, and all of a sudden, we sound really nice and beautiful. Made famous, of course, by someone like Adele. So, we've heard this countless times before. Now, um, but the first thing I want you to do is just take a C major chord like this, nice and relaxed at the shoulder, all the way down to the fingers. Keep your wrists up, and all we're going to do is strike bottom, middle, top, middle, like this: C, E, G, E. And that's the pattern, and we just keep repeating that over and over again: C, E, G, E, C, E, G, E. Okay, so that's the very first thing to do. I want you to take this as slowly as you need to. Um, and, you know, it might take you a while because if you haven't done anything like this before, then there's an element of finger coordination to get used to here, right? We go in thumb, middle, little finger, middle, like this, you know? So, spend a bit of time, try and get used to that as a technique, and then what I want to do is show you a chord progression to apply this to, so you can walk over to any piano, uh, sit down, and play something that sounds really nice. And we're gonna take a standard chord progression, a C, G, A minor, F, uh, chord progression for this, and, um, let's see if we can learn it.
So, um, I'm going to play both hands together, but the left hand first of all. You don't need to play the left hand, but if you wanted to, I'm going to keep this really simple. We're focusing on the right hand, so all I'm going to do in the left hand is accompany myself with single notes, and that's it. I'm not going to worry about it so much. So, our first chord, C major, okay? And let's play it. I'm just going to play a C in the left, and I'm going to play twice round the C chord like this. Okay. And now we're going to go to a G chord, and I'm going to play the G here, which is called an inversion chord. It's called the first inversion. This one, if you don't know about inversions, then do not worry, just copy the notes I'm playing, it's absolutely fine. But I've put a, um, a video in the information box for you if you want to get up to speed with chord inversions. So, in the right hand, we're going to go B, D, G, D, B, D, G, D with thumb, um, uh, second finger, fifth finger, second finger, okay? I'm gonna play that twice. And then we're gonna go to the A minor chord like this: A, C, E, C. And all I'm doing, remember, I'm just playing these single notes on the left, uh, twice around the A. And then move here, and we've got our thumb, uh, on the A, our first finger, second finger on the C, little finger on the F, okay? And we've got an F chord. So, if we put that together, we get something that sounds like this. Really nice, nice and smooth, okay? Beautiful. Okay, so that is a right-hand pattern number one. Let's move on to pattern number two.
[Music]
Now, I wanted to include this pattern for a few reasons. The first one is, it's got that sort of classical vibe to it, so it can be quite fun to play, you know, this kind of, um. But, uh, we're gonna play that pattern in the right hand, uh, but also, it's got one step further into finger coordination. It'll be a real challenge for you, and so you're really gonna learn something from this pattern. So, um, it's very similar to pattern number one, except instead of playing, uh, uh, bottom, middle, top, middle, like this, we're gonna play bottom, top, middle, top, like this. Okay? And I think the reason why it's a little bit tougher is because it makes more use of our weak finger here, this, this, this little finger. So, there's that, it just, I'm not sure why, but there's just that extra element of, uh, of toughness to this for you to get to grips with. So, can be really interesting for you to try. So, the pattern again, we'll just use a C major chord, C, G, E, G. C, E, G, E. Okay? Take it as slow as you need to, but just stick with the one chord, loose at the shoulder, all the way down to the wrist, keep the wrist up and level, okay? And just get used to it.
Now, um, for our example for this pattern, I've got something that sounds really cool, a bit, a bit sort of a bit popping. Use a bit cheesy pop, okay? And all we're going to do is, we're going to take C's in the left hand. I'm going to do octaves, but single notes is fine. And we're going to play a C major chord, okay? And we're going to play that twice. And then we're going to stick with the C's, except I'm going to play a G chord. Okay? See the difference there? It's got that sort of, um, uh, tension going on. Now, that there's a, there's, there's a different note than a G in the left hand. We're going to stick with that C, okay? Um, and then I'm just going to move to an F chord in the, in the right hand, and an F, C, F, like this, okay? And then back to the G, okay? So, really nice and slowly, our chord progression here, break it down, do this in your own time. Sounds like this. I really like this one because, you know, it's one of those things that you can just walk over to any piano, sit down, trot this out, and people will go, you know what, you're doing that, that sounds pretty good. So, anyway, that is pattern number two. Super useful for coordination, sounds really good. Anyway, now let's move on to pattern number three.
Now, this one is a really, really useful right-hand pattern. You can play this with any chords, anything at all, and it works with virtually any style at all. Um, made famous by "Imagine" by a certain John Lennon. Uh, we can also hear it in "The Last Resort" by the Eagles. It's, it's all over the place, is this one. Uh, we'll take our C chord again, and all we're gonna do is, we're going to strike the, uh, middle note, the middle note, and the top note together, and then separate that out from the bottom note. So, we get this: middle and top, and then a C on its own, okay? And this applies with the root position, any inversion at all that we want, okay? So, that would be the C, first inversion, C, second inversion, works every single time. And it's brilliant for start of stringing together, um, slightly more complex chord progressions using chord inversions. So, again, you know, take that C chord, just try and get used to it. It'll be a new, uh, bit of coordination for those fingers. So, take as much time as you need to to get used to that as a fundamental technique. And then the example I've got for you for this one, to make things a little bit different, we're going to go up the piano, and I'm going to strike an F chord to start with, like this. So, I'm striking an, uh, an F second inversion here, so I've got my F and my A, and then the C in the, uh, in the, in the, in the first finger, like this. I'm gonna strike, um, just the F in the left, okay? And then a C major chord, like this. And then I'm going to move down to a G chord, okay, with our D and G, and then the B in the bass. And here I'm using my second finger and my little finger and my thumb, like this. So, second, little finger together, and then the thumb. And then move down to the A minor chord, like this, okay? Um, notice how because we've got a few different kinds of inversions going on here, it's got a bit of a melody poking through.
[Music]
Sounds really cool.
[Music]
So many options with that one, really, really nice that one. I would recommend you spend the most time on, really get to grips with it, because that will serve you so well, reading from lead sheets, piano accompaniment, all sorts, okay? So, super useful. Now, let's move on to pattern number four.
Now, I absolutely love this pattern, guys. This is probably my favorite right-hand pattern, at least in this video, and it sounds so beautiful when you enter a flow with it. So, um, all we're going to do is, we're going to take a, a standard chord, and we'll just use our root position chords for this one, and we're going to strip away that top note, this G here, and all we're going to worry about are the bottom two notes. And I'm going to alternate between those two notes, like this. I'm going to go middle, bottom, middle, bottom, middle, bottom, middle, bottom, and that is our pattern, like this, okay? So, it might get, it might take you a little bit of time. It's generally played a little bit faster, as this one. If you play it faster, it gives a lovely
[Music]
It gives a, it just gives a really nice sort of soundscape, a flow. So, um, if we're going to apply that to a chord progression, I've got a really nice one for you. Works really well with this pattern, but of course, I want you to learn this as a principle and then just have some fun with it. Learn it with countless of the chord progressions. Here's my version. We've got a C major chord, okay? And in fact, we'll play it twice round each one, right? So,
[Music]
And then we'll move to an E minor chord. So, all I'm doing is, I'm just moving up to standard D minor chord, E, G, and B.
[Music]
And then we're going to move to a G major chord.
[Music]
And then an F chord. So, nice, okay? And the things I want you to work on here, really, is, is, um, or should I say, the things that make this right-hand pattern sound good is getting that flow, getting that speed, getting it synced up with the sustain pedal. So, I'll play that again.
Okay, now, um, there's so much that we can do with this pattern. I could do a whole piano course on it, but I'll leave it there. That's pattern number four. Now, let's move on to pattern number five.
This is an amazing pattern to just learn and know because you can apply this to virtually any style. You can apply it to any song that you want to learn. It's so, so useful. It also introduces a bit of coordination, so it's really good for you. So, let's break it down. We're going to strike, let's just take a C chord, all right? We're going to strike the full chord, and then the top two notes, and then the bottom note in isolation. Um, and we need to get a count going for this. So, we strike the full chord on the one. So, it's one, two, and then the top two notes, three, and then the bottom note, four. So, one, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Okay, so we need to try and get used to that first. So, you know, spend as much time as you need to, okay? And then, um, learn this. Sounds super, super good.
So, to learn an example for this, we're going to take a chord progression that we've actually learned in a previous panel. Move up the piano, why not? Sounds really good up here, it'll work down, down as well. Um, but let's take our first chord. So, we'll take an F chord, like this. Um, so, just look at what, what the notes are, what my fingers are doing. I've got a C, F, and an A, one, three, five, and it's an F major chord. So, I'm gonna strike, and then I'm top two notes, bottom note, okay? So, that's to start with, F. And then to the C chord, so I'm just moving these two fingers in to a standard root position C. I'm gonna strike top two notes, bottom note, okay? So, and then I'm going to move down to a G chord, and I'm going to play this G here, so B, D, and G, one, two, five. And then an A minor chord, root position, okay? Such a nice little chord progression to play. Um, so, if I put that together, so try and go for smoothness, don't worry about speed. So, yeah, see if you can learn that, have fun with it. And that is pan number five.
So, those are my five favorite right-hand patterns. But I want to know what you think. What was your favorite pattern? Do you think that you can use these patterns to sound amazing? Please let me know in the comments below. I would love to hear from you. You can download the sheet music for this video down below in the information box. It's totally free. And if you want the perfect companion to this video, then check out my five favorite left-hand patterns right here. Okay? You can combine these two videos together for the perfect left-hand pattern and then the perfect right-hand pattern. Smash it together. So, stay passionate, stay creative, and until next time, peace.