G Major & Minor Pentascales - Piano Lesson 34

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph
Hoffman. Today we're learning how to play
two new pentascales, the G major and minor
pentascales, so let's come to the piano to
get started. Here I have what should be
by now a super familiar pentascale to
you, the C major pentascale. Can you sing it
with me in solfège? DO RE MI FA SO. Now
which of these are the half step in the
scale? If you said MI and FA, you're
correct. So I'm actually going to swap
those out with a different color.
Remember what makes these a half step is
there is no black in between, so they're
actually closer together in sound than
any other step that we have. Now when we
move that up to the D major pentascale
that's why we have to make this an
F-sharp to maintain that half step
between MI and FA otherwise it wouldn't
be major. If we have that, it's D minor, but
for major, MI and FA have to be just a
half step apart. Now we have DO RE MI FA
SO. Now the question for today is what
about G major? Taking a look at the G
pentascale, do we need to use a black key
to make MI and FA happy, to keep them a
half step apart?
What do you think? No we don't. Look,
there's no black key in between, so we're
already all set to go. So if we tried out
these five notes you'll hear the sound
major. ♫ Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. ♫
It's just getting kinda high, so you might
want to sing it down an octave, like down
here. ♫ Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. ♫
Now can you help me name all the letters
of the G major pentascale? Let's try to
say the letters together. Say it along
with me.
G A B C D. Now can you say them stepping
down by yourself? Try it.
The correct answer is D C B A G. Now
let's try placing both hands in the G
major pentascale. Remember, it's all white
keys, and let's try to play "Chocolate"
which we learned way back in Unit one,
with both hands, like this. ♫ Yum, yum, yum, ♫
Both hands together.
Try it with me, ready, go. ♫ Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, chocolate I have some. ♫
Nice job, now let's try and figure out G
minor. I've marked the G major pentascale
one more time.
Now can you point to which note I would
have to change to make it G minor? It's
always the third note, so if you're
pointing right here you're correct. I have
to take MI and lower it a half step to
make it ME. A half step below B is B-flat
so we would call this key B-flat.
Let's name them now by letter and say
them with me. G A B-flat C D. Good, and now
with the B-flat we get that minor sound.
Let's cover up G minor with both hands
now and we'll try and play "Monster Feet."
Remember, it goes like this, ♫ Creep, creep, ♫
♫ creep, creep, creep, ♫
♫ little monster feet. ♫ Can you try to play that
with me with both hands? Ready, go. ♫ Creep, ♫
♫ creep, creep, creep, little monster feet. ♫
Nice job. Now let's try to play "Stepping
and Skipping," a finger exercise we learned
in a previous lesson, using G major first.
That's going to sound like this,
♫ Stepping up and stepping down and skipping up and down. ♫
And then we play a chord.
I'm using this new chord we've recently
learned, the three note chord, with DO MI
and SO at the same time. You can also
substitute, if that's not working for
your hands, or maybe younger or smaller
hands, you can just use DO and SO for
the chord.
Ok, let's try together. Try "Stepping and
Skipping" with me. Sing the words as we
play. Ready, go. ♫ Stepping up and stepping ♫
♫ down and skipping up and down. ♫ And
play the chord. Good, now, quick reminder,
about your piano posture. Remember pinky
should be playing here on its tip, not
collapsed flat like this, but standing up
like this. All your other fingers should
be in a good curve shape of course, and
let your hand just kind of drop into
each key. Your fingers shouldn't be
flying up in the air, but resting on the
keys as you play.
Ok, now let's try "Stepping and Skipping"
in G minor. I'm going to be playing with
both hands, but if you're finding that's
too hard feel free to do right hand
alone, left hand alone. You can press pause
to work on that, and then when you're
ready to try it with me you can press
play to try it hands together, so
"Stepping and Skipping" in G minor
starting on DO, let's sing the words, go
♫ Stepping up and stepping down and skipping up and down. ♫
Chord.
Nice job. Let me introduce you to a
couple of new terms. What we've been
doing so far in "Stepping and Skipping" is
called similar motion, and similar motion
is when both hands are moving in the
same direction at the same time. So both
hands are stepping up, and both hands step
down. Now there's another term called
contrary motion. Contrary motion is when
your hands are moving in opposite
directions, so "Stepping and Skipping"
would now go like this, ♫ Stepping out ♫
♫ and stepping in and skipping out and in ♫
Then you can do the chord. Okay, try that
with me. So you're going to start on
finger one in both hands and let the
fingers move out from each other so just
hold up your hands in the air and let's
try this together while you say the
words with me.
Ready, go. ♫ Stepping out and stepping ♫
♫ in and skipping out and in. Chord ♫
So it's kind of like your hands are like this
mirror image of each other, moving in
opposite directions. Now let's try
contrary motion, and we'll come back to G
major, so all white keys again with G as
our DO, but we're going to start on
finger one in both hands, so actually our
left hand will start on D while the
right hand starts on G, and then they'll
move in opposite directions.
Another way to think about it, right hand
is starting on DO and stepping up,
left hand is starting on SO and stepping
down to DO, so it will look like this.
♫ Stepping out ♫
♫ and stepping in ♫
♫ and stepping out and in. ♫
And then a chord.
Good, let's try it together. Ready, finger one
begins in both hands and then we move apart.
Ready, go, ♫ Stepping out and stepping in and ♫
♫ skipping out and in. ♫ And then a chord.
Good. Now press pause and see if you can
figure out how to do contrary motion
"Stepping and Skipping" in G minor. Press
pause, try that on your own, and then
press play to try with me.
Ok, let's try contrary motion
in G minor together, so hands in position
for G minor, and ready, go. ♫ Stepping out ♫
♫ and stepping in and skipping out ♫
♫ and in. ♫ Then the chord. Good. You can also
do contrary motion in our old pentascales
of C major, C minor, D major,
D minor. I'd like you to try all of those
on your own at home after this lesson,
but what I'd like to finish today with
is, first of all, in case you're
wondering why do we learn all these
pentascales, well one of the reasons is
that as you go on in music and get to
more advanced songs, certain songs use
different pentascales, and as we get
more advanced we'll use full octave
scales like this, and going all the way
up and down the piano. Every scale you
learn is like a tool in your tool bag
that gives you the ability to play more
and more songs. Today for fun
I'd like to finish this lesson by
improvising with you in the G major
pentascale that we just learned, so your
job is going to be to make up a melody
that sounds interesting and cool to you.
Remember with improvising there's no
right or wrong notes. You get to decide,
and if you didn't like it the first time
the great thing about these video
lessons is, you can rewind try it again as
many times as you want. While you
improvise i'm going to be playing an
accompaniment kinda like this.
♫
Now one last tip before you improvise.
You've probably noticed by now that
music uses a lot of repeating patterns.
That's on purpose. Our ears like things
we're familiar with, that repeat. So when
you improvise you can take just a really
simple pattern, even just three notes,
♫ Buh buh-buh buh ♫
And then repeat that again and maybe
add on an extra note, ♫ buh. ♫ You can take
Really simple patterns and turn it into
a great improvisation, so don't be afraid
to repeat little ideas you come up with.
Play just one note at a time. If you get
bored of playing in one octave you can
jump up to the next G higher, but for
this improvisation stay in the G
pentascale. Choose one hand and play one
note at a time to make an awesome melody
along with me.
Let's improvise. You can start playing
whenever you want.
♫
Thanks for improvising with me.
It's one of my favorite things to do. I
hope you'll spend a little bit of time
everyday improvising and getting
comfortable creating your own music.
Nice work learning the G major and minor
pentascales. I'd like you to continue to
practice these as well as the other four
pentascales you've already learned, C and
D major and minor. Practice those every
day using the exercise "Stepping and
Skipping." It would also be fun to go back
and play any of your old songs using
these new pentascales, G major and
minor. Thanks for watching, and see you
next time.
Similar motion. ♫ Croak croak croak croak croak croak croak ♫
Contrary motion. ♫ Croak croak croak croak croak croak croak ♫
[kissing]
Awww!

G Major & Minor Pentascales - Piano Lesson 34 - Hoffman Academy

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