Transcription
Hey guys, Joseph Saar here from Creative Piano Academy. And today, we're looking at ramping that fun all the way up to 11, and, uh, how we can explore melody and be super melodic using only one simple chord. You'll be able to play this if you're a beginner, so let's roll that intro and get [Music] cracking. Check this out. [Music]
So, I hope you like that. It's, uh, it's a bit of an example of what's possible using this principle I'm about to show you, where we can take just one chord position and just play around with a few little notes, but, but basically staying within one chord. So, if you like the sound of that, as well as other techniques and, uh, principles I explore on this channel, you know, melody-based and getting you inspired, then do smash that subscribe button if you haven't done so already, as well as that notification bell next to it, so you know when I upload new videos. YouTube do seem to like that.
So, the first thing we need to do is get our right hand into this position right here. We've got an A, a D, and an F sharp with our thumb on the A, second finger on the D, and our fourth finger on the F sharp. Okay? Now, this is going to be our position throughout pretty much the whole technique. Okay? I get loads of comments, uh, on YouTube and by email, you know, "Please, why is everything you're doing in the key of C? Get out of the key of C. Why are you in the key of C all the time?" So, um, this is my answer. We're going to go up one key to D major instead of C major. So, the good thing about D major is there are only two sharps that we need to worry about, two black keys that we need to worry about. That's the F sharp and the C sharp. Okay? So, D major has F sharp and C sharp in it. All the, all the rest of them are white notes. Now, for the first part of this, we're going to, you know, we're only going to be interested in this F sharp, really. Um, but towards the end of the video, might introduce that C. Let's see how we get on.
So, the very first thing I want you to do, if you are a beginner or if you're just starting out, then I just want you to play around with this D major. Get used to how that feels under your fingers. I want you to just move up and down those notes, just get used to making sure you can strike the right keys, making sure we're not, you know, hitting the, hitting wrong keys like this, and just how does that feel? Stab the chord like this, nice and relaxed. Move up and down and generally just get used to those three notes within that position because if we, you know, that's a, that's essential, an essential foundation for, for what we're about to do.
So, from here, once you've got used to that, I've got a little exercise for you. What I want you to do is run up and down these notes. Okay? So, I want you to get into this position now. I want to put your little finger on the G, okay? And your third finger on the E, as well as the, the notes that we used to. So, we've got the A, D, E, F sharp, and G. Notice how our fingers just lie on those keys like that. Okay? And the idea behind this technique now is we're going to just use whatever notes we feel like to start creating melodies. But to do that, we need to be used to those notes first. So, I just want you to run up and down those notes like this, okay? And just get used to how that feels. You want to be nice and relaxed at the wrist. We don't want to be like this, you know, and the fingers underneath. We don't want to be tense. We just want to have a nice structure, a nice arch all the way down to the fingers, structuring the fingers as well. So, don't collapse the fingers like this. We don't want this, okay? So, a nice arch down to those and just run up and down like this. Try and get a really nice flow, okay? Gentle. Let the, um, let the keys flow. Let the, let the, uh, the notes flow from the fingers, okay? So, spend as much time as you need to on that, and then we're going to start exploring how we can create melody.
Now, as you know, my channel is called Creative Piano Academy, and there's a reason for that. I firmly believe that one of the best ways to develop yourself as a musician, and particularly develop your musical ear, is to get creative. Okay? And this is a perfect example of that. What we can do is we can take these, we can confine ourselves to just a few notes like this. So, we're not going to overwhelm ourselves, just a few notes, notes, and then get creative within that sort of, within that boundary. So, our boundaries are obviously these five notes. So, now it's entirely up to you, okay? So, we can stick that pedal down, and what I want you to do is just start playing [Music] around. How does this sound? How can I create these nice little flowing melodies? [Music] Sounds quite nice. There's a lot you can get out of just five notes here. And a little tip for you is to just, uh, set a metronome going, um, and hopefully your metronome will have a like a downbeat on the one. And if, if, if your metronome goes something like one, two, three, four, one, two, what that'll do is it'll keep you in time so that you know you're sticking to a proper musical pulse, a proper musical grid. So, for instance, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four.
Okay, so the main core of the idea here is you exploring your musicality, your creative expression, and trying to see what you can come up with just using these little five notes. So, this is where we can really ramp up the fun because once you've got used to that, uh, creating patterns and your fingers are generally all right moving around that little position that we've got now, we can just add a few notes in the left, and all of a sudden, we can start turning this into actual music that sounds really, really nice. So, what you can do is you can play around with just, um, D's and G's like this. So, D's and G's. Now, in the key of D, that is a one and a four chord sequence. So, it'll be one moving to four, moving to one, moving to four. So, if I play something for you, this is what I mean. So, if we just add a D in the left, change it to D, now the harmony [Music] changes, and you can start, you know, and if you are just starting out and, and you're not comfortable with octaves, then, you know, just get your, get your left hand into this position here. So, your thumb is on the D, and your little finger on the G, and then you don't even need to move that left hand. You [Music] know, just move between them. Yeah. Two, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. So, two bars on each is a good starting [Music] point. I'm breaking out the box.
Okay, so basically, that's it, guys. It's about getting creative with your right hand, getting used to those notes, you know, locking yourself down to a certain set of notes, and just getting creative with that. Create your own patterns, uh, create, throw away, create, throw away. Add in the left hand and see if you can turn into some really nice music. Now, for those of you who are a little bit more ambitious and want to take that just a tiny bit further, we can add a few more notes in this right hand. So, if you remember, these are our five notes, okay? Now, what we can do is we can use this C as well, and we can just hop this finger between the, between the C as well. So, if we add that [Music] in, we've got a new little dimension there, okay? And then we can also, we can also start moving this thumb between the G down here, that's a little bit of a stretch, and the B here. Now, notice that all of these notes I'm using are in the key of D. Okay? Only do this if you're comfortable. Don't overwhelm [Music] yourself.
So, really quickly, just playing around with those extra notes. [Music] So, you can see how those extra notes just add, had a bit more dimension to it. Don't stress yourself out over that, you know, just get used to these, these notes to start with and play around with it. You know, create, throw it away, create, throw it away. Engage that creative muscle. So, that's about it for today, guys. I really hope you've enjoyed that. Um, don't forget, if you want to put this technique, this principle, this idea into a proper structured piano practice routine, go to creative piano academy.com where you can grab hold of the best adult piano practice plan. It's a plug-and-play piano practice framework for you. So, go to creative piano academy.com, grab yourself a copy, like this video if you liked it, subscribe to the channel, and I will see you, I'll see you in the next video. [Music]