''FREE STYLE PIANO '': The art of playing songs INSTANTLY

1. Presentation of the course: Hi and welcome to this course. For the structure of the course, each lesson is organized in the same way. It contains a new pattern, which is explained verbally and with diagrams and with the piano. Then there is a short demonstration of the pattern performed with an excerpt from a demo song. The student can watch the score scrolling across the screen. And finally, the last section allows the student to practice this new pattern with the same excerpt, but with stores to let the student assimilated before going to apply it to his own song. It is an essential part of the process that the student has to do to master the pattern before taking the next lesson. Because H pattern has a difficulty level a bit higher than the previous one. But listen, explain step-by-step process, how to do this right after the first patterns lesson. Finally, after studying, practicing all these patterns individually, student learns how to apply them to his favorite songs to create beautiful and interesting arrangements of these songs despite their simplicity. So pick up a few songs to work on signing up and let's get started. 2. Pattern #1: To play this first pattern, play the root note of each chord on the first beat of this one or play the specified bass note instead when it's written in the chord symbol. If so, it's written on the right side of the slash We play them for the full lenght of the chord, here in whole notes. We play these bass notes in the lower 2 octaves of the piano In the lower registers, beginning at the left end of the keyboard until around the C-note that is located 1 octave below middle C. 3. Practice sheet preparation: As I have already mentioned in the description of this course, what will make you evolve quickly in this playing style it's the application of these patterns to your favorite songs between each pattern. It will motivate you to practice each day and to master them before moving on to the next pattern, which has a difficulty level a bit higher each time. And with the different rhythms and melody of these, you will quickly get hands independence and you'll read chord symbols more rapidly. So after each lesson of a new pattern, take two or three of your favorite songs and you apply this pattern to the chords of these while you play the melody in the right hand. In this lesson, I will explain how to prepare your scores to make your practice time simple and effective So the 1st step is to digitize or to take a picture of the 1st page of your score in an image file format, such as .bmp, jpg or .png for example. If you don't have any sheet music yet, and you don't want to invest for now in the purchase of the full score, you can search on internet previews of it with the name of your song, in the picture category, and you should find quite easily different 1st page versions of sheet music for this song which is more than enough for practicing these patterns. then choose a version in which the melody is written in a simple way, with easy note values and rhythms in which you can easily play a few bars to allow you to concentrate yourself on the left hand patterns, Then take an image capture of it by pressing together the Windows key, the Shift key, and the letter ''S'' and by selecting by dragging the mouse on the part you want with the left mouse button, then release buttons and save the picture. Actually, what we want to do, is to just keep the staff of the melody here and the chord progression above it and erase everything between this staff and the next chord progression here. To do so, save the capture image, and close all the windows. Then open it in a drawing software, such as the Paint application, supplied with Windows, and you open the image file of this sheet music. To delete or to hide the unnecessary part, we just draw a white rectangle over this part that we don't want. So, we choose the rectangle shape here, then we choose the smallest pencil size here for the outline of the rectangle, then as for the screenshot, we place the mouse cursor in its upper left corner and we drag with the left mouse button until the right bottom corner and we release it. We can now adjust the rectangle with the small squares to frame everything we want to erase. Then we change the outline color here in white and we click on this button to fill the rectangle and we choose solid color for filling the rectangle in white then we repeat with the next staff if we want to practice it too. If so, since the 2 rectangle colors are already chosen, just draw the rectangle and everything is fading away. Then we draw a line under the staff So we choose the black color here for the outline color, and we select a line, right here in the shapes category and we draw a line under the staff by pressing left mouse button and by sliding it until the end of the line You then save the new score, and when you practice a pattern, you print a copy of it and you can add personal notes on the line to help you in your practice session it can be note values of the pattern to see where it fits with the melody notes, or pattern degrees, or their fingerings And after practicing a few times these bars with the pattern, you try to play again the song but without any notes on the line to make sure that you got it right if so, you can go to the next lesson, therefore to the next pattern. 4. Pattern #2: To play this pattern, play the root note of the chord on the first beat. or the specified bass note if there is one in the chord symbol. on the 3rd beat, play the same note, 1 octave higher, which we write with the symbol ''8va ''. The 1st note is played in the bass register of the piano. And its octave, the 2nd note is played in this register or a bit higher depending where we have played the 1st note 5. Pattern #2a: an alternative for pattern #2 when the melody is played below middle C, is to play the 2nd note of the pattern 1 octave lower than the 1st note. by the way, the symbol that tells to play 1 octave lower is ''8ba''. So we play the 1st note of the new chord as usual, and we quickly change it with the thumb, for letting the note ringing, then we complete the pattern by playing the note 1 octave lower, with the 5th finger. And we can also vary this pattern, by alternating the octave higher and the octave lower, for every chords or randomly, at the discretion of the pianist. To do so, when the pinky is already on the 2nd note of the previous chord, such as the change from bar 2 to bar 3 here continue playing the tonic of the following chord with the closest finger, here finger #4 then replace it with finger #5, without releasing the note, and finish the pattern as usual, with the thumb. 6. Essential Notion: As I have already mentioned in the description of this course, what will make you evolve quickly in this playing style it's the application of these patterns to your favorite songs between each pattern. It will motivate you to practice each day and to master them before moving on to the next pattern, which has a difficulty level a bit higher each time. And with the different rhythms and melody of these, you will quickly get hands independence and you'll read chord symbols more rapidly. So after each lesson of a new pattern, take two or three of your favorite songs and you apply this pattern to the chords of these while you play the melody in the right hand. In this lesson, I will explain how to prepare your scores to make your practice time simple and effective So the 1st step is to digitize or to take a picture of the 1st page of your score in an image file format, such as .bmp, jpg or .png for example. If you don't have any sheet music yet, and you don't want to invest for now in the purchase of the full score, you can search on internet previews of it with the name of your song, in the picture category, and you should find quite easily different 1st page versions of sheet music for this song which is more than enough for practicing these patterns. then choose a version in which the melody is written in a simple way, with easy note values and rhythms in which you can easily play a few bars to allow you to concentrate yourself on the left hand patterns, Then take an image capture of it by pressing together the Windows key, the Shift key, and the letter ''S'' and by selecting by dragging the mouse on the part you want with the left mouse button, then release buttons and save the picture. Actually, what we want to do, is to just keep the staff of the melody here and the chord progression above it and erase everything between this staff and the next chord progression here. To do so, save the capture image, and close all the windows. Then open it in a drawing software, such as the Paint application, supplied with Windows, and you open the image file of this sheet music. To delete or to hide the unnecessary part, we just draw a white rectangle over this part that we don't want. So, we choose the rectangle shape here, then we choose the smallest pencil size here for the outline of the rectangle, then as for the screenshot, we place the mouse cursor in its upper left corner and we drag with the left mouse button until the right bottom corner and we release it. We can now adjust the rectangle with the small squares to frame everything we want to erase. Then we change the outline color here in white and we click on this button to fill the rectangle and we choose solid color for filling the rectangle in white then we repeat with the next staff if we want to practice it too. If so, since the 2 rectangle colors are already chosen, just draw the rectangle and everything is fading away. Then we draw a line under the staff So we choose the black color here for the outline color, and we select a line, right here in the shapes category and we draw a line under the staff by pressing left mouse button and by sliding it until the end of the line You then save the new score, and when you practice a pattern, you print a copy of it and you can add personal notes on the line to help you in your practice session it can be note values of the pattern to see where it fits with the melody notes, or pattern degrees, or their fingerings And after practicing a few times these bars with the pattern, you try to play again the song but without any notes on the line to make sure that you got it right if so, you can go to the next lesson, therefore to the next pattern. 7. Pattern #3: To play this pattern, play the root note of each chord as a half-note, Then play the fifth degree, on the 3rd beat. If there is a specific bass note play this one on beat 1 Then on the 3rd beat... play the nearest chord tone of the fifth degree of this specific bass note. In this example, the specified bass note is the note C# because it's written on the right side of the slash bar So, we find its fifth degree, 7 semitones higher which gives us the note G#. And we're looking for the nearest chord tone of A major so we have here the note A, that we play on the 3rd beat, to replace the real fifth degree of the chord. Again, we play in the bass register, and we can exceed it a bit to play the fifth degree. For the fingering, play the 1st note with the pinky and the 2nd note with the 2nd finger, the index finger. this fingering is also the basis for many ballad patterns for more advanced player. Also, to avoid repeating a bass note when the tonic of a new chord is the same note as the fifth degree of the previous chord, play the tonic of this new chord 1 octave lower. To do so, after playing the 2nd note of the previous chord with the index finger, put right away your thumb on this note, and then play the tonic of the new chord, 1 octave lower, with the 5th finger. 8. Pattern #3a: This pattern is a variation of the previous pattern, pattern #3. PLay the tonic of the chord on its 1st beat, and play its lower fifth on the 3rd beat, so its 5th at the left side of the tonic, which gives the formula ''8-5''. this pattern is often used to avoid notes and fingers crossings when the melody in the right hand is around the middle C or lower. That's why we often play this pattern instead of the native one, pattern #3 or other ascending patterns, so as not to exceed too much the bass register when the previous patterns bring us to play in the upper part of this register. The most effective fingering for playing this pattern is to play the 1st note, the tonic, with the thumb, and its fifth with the 3rd finger, the middle finger, to be able to play the 1st note of the following chord, further down the register, with the 4th or the 5th fingers or to play it higher on the keyboard, with the thumb if you have to go to the right of the keyboard. The following demo uses both patterns this one and its native one, the pattern #3. 9. Pattern #4: This pattern is another variation of pattern #3. So again play the tonic, the first degree on the first beat in half-note. Then play the fifth degree, on the 3rd beat, in quarter note. And finaly play the octave of the 1st note, the tonic on beat 4. Its higher octave If a bass note is indicated in the chord symbol, play that one on the 1st beat, on the 3rd beat, play the nearest chord tone to the fifth of this note, as we have demonstrated in the video of pattern #3. and finally on the 4th beat, play the octave of the 1st note. its higher octave. we still play the 2 first notes with finger 5 and finger 2 then we play the 3rd note with the thumb on beat 4. We start to play the pattern in the lower part of the bass register, for keeping the highest notes of the pattern away from the lowest melody notes. 10. Pattern #4a: Another simple variation of pattern #4 which is useful when you want to bring back your pattern a little lower, more on the left side of the piano when we got too close of middle C or when the melody goes a little too low, is to play the same pattern but in the opposite direction, therefore from the right to the left of the keyboard. Which gives the formula 8-5-1. To do so, we start playing with the tonic of the chord in half-note this tonic will be the octave, the 8th degree of the formula therefore we expect that we will play this note 1 octave lower on the 4th beat, so we play this first tonic a little higher in the bass register or by exceeding it a little bit Then, on the 3rd beat, we play its lower fifth, so at its left side Then finally on the 4th beat, we finish the pattern by playing the tonic, which is also a little further to the left. So we get the degrees of the formula of the previous pattern upside down, with the 8, the 5 and the 1. A fairly common practice is to play these 2 patterns consecutively on each chord or when the situation is more favorable to alternate them. I will demonstrate here this alternation with each chord of the extract, but that's only one possibility among many others... 11. Pattern #5: This pattern is a variation of pattern number four. The only difference is that we replace the node that will play it on the fourth beat with the tonic of the chord or with the specified bass note in the chord symbol. If there is one, the formula is 151 instead of the formula 158 of pattern number four. So we'll play the tonic of the cord at each chord change as a rough node. Then the fifth degree on the third beat as a quarter note. And finally on the fourth beat, we play the same note that we played on beat one, either a tonic or the specified bass note. This pattern has a fairly short range because after having played the five, we come back to the left of the keyboard to play the first note. Again. It's very convenient for avoiding the crossing of ends or fingers when the melody is to be played below middle C. And as for the majority of the patterns that begin with a single node, we also begin this pattern in the buffer register. And we'll play the fifth degree, the second note of the pattern in the same register, or a little higher around the genome, which has below middle C. For the fingering of this motif, which is the second finger, the index to play diatonic on the first beat of the pattern. Then we play the fifth degree with the thumb, finger one. And for the next note, the tonic of the fourth beat. We have to make a choice by anticipating the tonic of the next chord we will play. For example, if we decide to play it lower on the keyboard or to the left of the node that we still have to play on the fourth beat. We take fingers, number two or number three to play this one in order to have the fingers 45 ready to play this tonic chord, the next chord lower. On the other end, if we plan to play the tonic higher or at the right of the last node that we want to play under false feet. Then we can take fingers, number four or number five, and keep the index finger to begin the next pattern again and continue playing its fifth degree with the tongue as expected. 12. Pattern #5a: A variation of pattern #5. which is also useful when the melody is to be played near middle C or below, is to play pattern #5 in the opposite way, with the formula 8-5-8. So we play it like pattern #5, beginning on the tonic of the chord or the specified bass note, if there is one, then we play the lower fifth of the tonic. and we come back to play the first note In terms of fingering, we start with the index finger, to allow us to play the fifth with the little finger, finger 5 and come back to play the tonic on the 4th beat with the index finger if the tonic of the next chord is on the right side, or with the thumb if the tonic of the next chord is on the left side. 13. Pattern #6: The next pattern is a harmonic pattern, since we play more than one note at a time. So we play the tonic, the fifth and the eighth degrees of each chord simultaneously on the piano keys. The formula is 1/5/8 For the fingering we will take the 5th finger, the index finger and the thumb and we play them with the tonic, the lowest note, in the middle part of the bass register. We play them as whole notes on the first beat of the chords and we let them ringing until the next chord. 14. Pattern #7: This pattern introduces us to a more advanced technique, named ''stride piano'', and to many other intermediate and advanced level techniques. Very simple to set up and assimilate, it is even used with this simplified version by pianists of all levels. So we play the tonic on the 1st beat, as half-note... and we complete the bar, by playing the fiffth and the 8th degrees on the 3rd beat, These last 2 notes are played simultaneously which is called ''harmonic interval'' The formula is: ''1-5/8''. On the piano, it is played around the middle register since the harmonic intervals and chords sound better when they are played on this part of the piano, For the fingerings, we play the tonic with the pinky finger on the 1st beat and fingers 2 and 1, the index and the thumb play the 5/8 harmonic interval on the 3rd beat. 15. Pattern #7a: This pattern is rarely used alone. It is normally used to complete the previous pattern, pattern #7 when it's used with the ''stride piano'' style. So unlike the patterns already seen so far, this one begins with the fifth degree on 1st beat of the chord, seven 00:00:31.766 --> 00:00:34.733 followed with the harmonic interval, ''8/12'' that is, the tonic and its fifth 1 octave higher. we play the fifth degree on 1st beat with the pinky finger and we play the 8/12 harmonic interval on 3rd beat with fingers 3 and 1 And as I said earlier, we mainly use this pattern to complete the pattern #7 in stride piano style. So if the chord only lasts for 1 bar, we play the pattern #7 on the 1st half of the bar by playing the 1st degree on the 1st beat and the harmonic interval ''5/8'' on the 2nd beat, and on the 2nd half of the bar, we play this new pattern with the lower fifth on the 3rd beat and the harmonic interval ''8/12'' on the 4th beat. And depending on the context or where we played the tonic on beat 1 we can interchange the harmonic interval, which arrives on the 2nd and 4th beats of the bar. So we have 4 combinations with these 2 patterns. By taking them as they are, we end up with the formula ''8- 12/15, 5- 8/12'' if we start pattern 7a with the fifth lower than the tonic with which we started the formula So that's why we name the pattern: ''8- 12/15'' , instead of ''1-5/8'' to tell us that we begin the pattern 7a with the fifth degree lower. The 2nd way is to play this pattern 7a higher, so the formula will be ''1-5/8'', ''5-8/12'' The sound is not very good The reason is that the bass note played on the 3rd beat, which is here the fifth degree, happens to be the same note, we play on the 2nd beat with the interval 5/8 So it's not sounding very much as bass note So in this case, to avoid this weak bass sound, we will change the harmonic interval of the pattern #7 on beat 2 by its complement the interval 8/12. the same as we play on the 4th beat with pattern #7a. And the formula will be ''1-8/12'', ''5-8/12''. And finally the 4th way is to play the same interval on the 2nd and 4th beats, but with the interval used on the 2nd beat, so the original position of the pattern #7 interval, with degrees ''5/8'' In that case, we have to play the fifth degree of the 3rd beat of pattern #7a, lower than the tonic played on the 1st beat. 16. Pattern #8: The next pattern is a melodic one, one note at a time. it's the basis for most patterns used in ballads and other styles. To use it, play the tonic of the chord on the 1st beat play the fifth degree, on the 2nd beat, play the eighth degree on the 3rd beat and finally on the 4th beat, play again the fifth degree the pinky finger plays the tonic or the specified bass note, the index finger plays the fifth degree, the thumb plays the eighth degree and the index finger plays again the fifth degree on the 4th beat. This pattern is played in the higher part of the bass register within the 2 octaves preceding middle C. An alternative for not repeating the same note when the fifth degree played on the 4th beat is the same note as the tonic of the following chord, is to replace this fifth degree with the tonic of the pattern. Which brings us back to playing the same note that is played on beat 1, and that gives the formula, 1-5-8-1. This alternative is used in the following demo with the C major chord, at bar 5 to continue with the following chord G major, to which the tonic, the G note is the same note than the fifth of the C major chord. 17. Pattern #8a: This pattern is the inverse of the pattern #8. so on the 1st beat of the bar, we play the tonic, quite high because we know that the other notes will be lower Then on the 2nd beat, we play the fifth of the chord, but the lower one on the 3rd beat, we keep going to the left by playing the tonic, then we come back to the right side and we play the fifth degree again. It's a pattern widely used in alternation with its native pattern, pattern #8. They can therefore be alternated with each chord. But we can also use the same pattern for 2 or 3 consecutive chords and change pattern for 1 chord or more. It's again the pianist's choice In the following demo, these 2 patterns are played randomly. 18. Pattern #9: this pattern, that I named ''the isolated bass'', is also widely used in patterns of intermediate and advanced level techniques. It is used to bring out the bass note, the tonic of the chord or the specified bass if there is one... To do so, we play the tonic 1 or 2 octaves lower than the other notes of the pattern. The formula is: 8va (or 15va)-1-5-8 and its variation: 8va (or 15va)-5-8-12 The patterns choice depends of the chord progression of the song and voice-leading used to play the chords quite close to each other. So we play that bass note in the lower part of the bass register, with the little finger, the finger 5. and we play the other notes in the upper part of this register, or in the middle register, around middle C, by bringing left hand back in this part and playing the last 3 notes of the pattern with the fingering 5-2-1. A quick note before ending this lesson, when playing the variation of this pattern, depending where on the keyboard the chord progression and patterns played before brung the left hand, we cannot always have the ''1 or 2 octaves'' apart between 1st bass note and the other notes of the patterns For example, this situation occurs in this demo, in the 3rd measure, on B minor chord... I played the B note on the 1st beat in this lower part of bass register to keep it near the bass note on the first beat of the previous chord, the A note... which I had played right here, on the left side of B. Here again, it's the pianist choice, depending on what kind of bassline he prefers. 19. Pattern #10: This pattern is an harmonic variation of the previous pattern, pattern #9. So we play the isolated bass, the tonic on the first beat of the chord, then we repeat this note 1 octave higher on the 2nd beat, as we played to begin the pattern #9. but this time we play the next 2 notes of this pattern together, so the 5th and the 8th degrees of the chord are played on the 3rd beat and we come back to play the tonic on the 4th beat. It's like a balance between the tonic and the harmonic interval. The formula is: 8ba (or 15ba if we want a lower bass note)-1-5/8-1 or its variation: 8ba-5- 8/12-5 20. Pattern #1 and #6 Adaptations: With the pattern #1 we have played the tonic during the whole duration of the chord, so for this pattern it's the same with different durations of the chord symbols. The duration is defined by the location of the symbols above the bars, and the beat of the melody note written below it For example, at bars 1, 4 and 6. there is only one chord, as we have seen for the previous patterns, so the chords and their tonics last for 4 beats. while in bars 2 and 5, we have 2 chords in each bar, the first chord is written just above the 1st beat of the bar, right above the first melody note or the first silence, as in bar 2. And the 2nd chord is written just above the melody note on the 3rd beat So all the tonics of these chords last for 2 beats. And finally, at bar 3 we also have 2 chords, but the 2nd one is not written in the middle of the bar, it is the first reason that lets us suppose that chords have different durations. To check this, we verify the melody notes written just below the 2 chords. the first chord, the C major chord, is written above the 1st melody note, which is written on the 1st beat of the bar and the 2nd chord, the B major chord is written just above the Eb note, which is written on the 4th beat. So the first chord lasts for 3 beats and the B chord, lasts for 1 beat, on the 4th beat. But to use patterns in an easier way with binary time signatures as 2/4 or 4/4 We divide chords which last for 3 beats, and we treat them to make 2 chords, 2 times the same chord, the 1st will last for 2 beats and the 2nd one, will last for 1 beat. Which gives us for example on this bar, one C chord on the 1st beat, that last for 2 beats, and the other C chord that we add on the 3rd beat of the bar to complete the real duration of this chord of 3 beats, and the B chord, which remains on the 4th beat and lasts for 1 beat. And we play the tonics for the durations of these chords, repeating the tonic of the C chord on the 3rd beat like it was a different chord. We can also play pattern 6, which consists of playing in harmony the tonic, the fifth and the eighth degrees, following exactly the same steps. 21. Pattern #2 and #3 Adaptations: Pattern #2 consisted of playing the tonic for half the duration of the chord followed by its higher octave for the second half of the bar. Here, for measures 1, 4 and 6 we play them as a half note, as we did in explanation of this pattern. In bars 2 and 5 the chords having equal durations of 2 beats each, so the tonics will be played on the 1st and 3rd beats of the bars in quarter notes because the chords last for 2 beats, and we play the octaves on the 2nd and 4th beats. In bar 3, the 1st chord, the C major lasts for 2 beats, we then play the tonic on the 1st beat and its upper octave on the 2nd beat. And on the 3rd and 4th beats, C major and B major chords each chord lasts for 1 beat, so we divide the duration in 2 for playing the 2 notes of the pattern, we play them as eighth notes. And for patterns 2a, 3 and 3a, it's exactly the same principle. The only difference is that pattern notes are not exactly the same notes but their durations, explained here, remain the same. 22. Pattern #4 and #5 Adaptations: Pattern #4 consisted of playing the tonic for half the duration of the chord, the 5th degree, followed by the 8th degree, which lasted for 1 beat each, because the duration of the chord was 4 beats. So here it will be the same values for bars 1, 4 and 6. So tonics of the D, Bb and A major chords are played on the first beat, the fifth degrees on the 3rd beat and their eighth degrees on the 4th beat. In bars 2 and 5 all chords last for 2 beats, so we divide the values of previous notes in 2. we have the tonics on 1st beat and 3rd beat of bars as quarter notes, and their fifth degrees followed by their eighth degrees as quavers on the 2nd and 4th beats. And at bar 3, the first chord C major which lasts for 2 beats, the notes will have the same durations ​​for the pattern, the tonic as a quarter note and the 5th and 8th degrees in quavers on the 2nd beat. On the 3rd and 4th beats, to avoid playing the pattern with sixteenth notes and making it a bit lighter and easier we will borrow pattern 1, which is to play the tonic for the duration of the chord, so we only play the tonics of the chords C and B for 1 beat each. And patterns 4a, 5 and 5a, which are variations of this pattern, can be played with the same note values. 23. Pattern #7 Adaptations: Pattern #7 in which the tonic is played for half the duration of the chords, and the other half by playing the fifth and eighth degrees in harmony. So here, we keep these values for bars 1, 4 and 6. which have only 1 chord and last for 4 beats. The tonics of these chords will be played in half notes, on the 1st beat, and the interval, the fifth and eighth degrees will be played on the 3rd beat, in half notes. In bars 2 and 5, chords last for 2 beats, so the tonics of the chords will be played on the 1st and 3rd beats, as quarter notes, and the interval on the 2nd and 4th beats, in quarter notes too. And finally in bar 3, the first chord also lasts for 2 beats, and will therefore has the same pattern values, the tonic on the 1st beat in quarter note and its fifth-eighth interval on the 2nd beat. And on the 3rd and 4th beats, to avoid playing the interval in 8th notes because the chords only last for 1 beat, here again, we play them with pattern #1 and we play C and B chords' tonics in quarter notes. 24. Pattern #8 and #8a Adaptations: the pattern #8, in which we played the notes in quarter notes, with the degrees 1-5-8-5 on each beat So here we keep the same pattern for bars 1, 4 and 6. which only have 1 chord, so last for 4 beats. In bars 2 and 5, the chords last for half the duration, so we also divide the note values ​​of the pattern, and we play these notes as 8th notes on each chord of these bars. And finally on bar 3, the first chord lasts for 2 beats, so we play the 8th notes pattern too, and on the 3rd and 4th beat, we can play pattern 1, so we play the tonics of these chords in quarter notes. Here again, in the pattern 8a, which is the reverse of this pattern, we can play all the same note values. 25. 3/4 Adaptations: Explanations : In this lesson we will see how to adapt the basic patterns with the 3/4 time signature, which is usually associated with classical waltzes, is also commonly used with popular style waltzs. The main pattern for this time signature is to play the root of the chord on the 1st beat, the strong beat here and to play the chord on the weak beats, the 2nd and 3rd beats. As far as we are concerned, to simplify a bit this pattern and to assimilate more easily the basic patterns, instead of playing the full chord, we'll play for now, its harmonic interval ''5/8'' as we do with all these basic patterns. So we have the tonic of the chord, played in the bass register on the 1st beat of the bars and the harmonic interval ''5/8'' on the 2nd and 3rd beats. We play the 1st beat, a little louder than the 2nd and 3rd beats. And as we did with pattern 7 and pattern 7a. When chords last for 2 bars, a common practice to vary the pattern is to play the fifth degree on the first beat of the 2nd bar instead of the tonic So we'll take patterns already seen and we'll adapt them to this time signature. we will see the ones that are most used and therefore most effectives. So we begin with the easier one, the ''1-5-8''. In 3/4 time signature, we play each note as a quarter note. The next pattern is its reverse pattern, therefore the pattern 8-5-1. It is generally used in pairs with the previous pattern when the chord lasts for 2 consecutive bars On the 1st bar, we play the 1-5-8 pattern, and on the 2nd bar, we play the 8-5-1 pattern. And finally, 2 other ways to play the basic patterns for 3-beat bars, are to vary the rhythmic figures in the ''1-5'' pattern, one of the first pattern that we've seen in this course. we played it with 2 half-notes in 4/4 time signature and with 2 quarter notes with chords lasting 2 beats. Here with 3-beats bars, we play them with the following rhythmic patterns: the first one: half-note, quarter note, so the tonic is a half-note on the 1st beat of the bar and its fifth degree is a quarter note on the 3rd beat. and the 2nd rhythmic variation is quarter note- half-note, the tonic as a quarter note on the 1st beat and the fifth degree as a half- note on the 2nd beat. 27. 6/8 Adaptations: Explanations (part I): Another time signature that we encounter in pop and rock music is 6/8. So in this lesson we will see how we generally use the basic patterns within this time signature. For those who are not still very familiar with this time signature, the 8 on the bottom means that the beat unity is a eighth note and the 6 on top means 6 beats to the bar so we can find 6 eighth notes per bar or the equivalent. But since this 6 is divisible by 3. it is called a ternary form, and we have 2 beats per measure, each beat has a dotted quarter note value, which is composed of 3 eighth notes. So we use the patterns of the 6/8 with 2 different approaches, the 1st one, according to the number of beats, here 2 beats per bar, and the 2nd approach, according on the 2 groups of 3 eighth notes which form these 2 beats. we begin with the 1st approach, based on the 2 beats per bar, Here we just take the basic 4/4 patterns, which are composed with 2 half-notes, and we replace half-notes with dotted quarter notes. This will gives us 4 different patterns. The ''1-8'' and the ''8-1'' We also have the 1-5 and its reverse pattern, the ''8-5'' And we have the harmonic pattern, the ''1-5/8'' and its variation, the ''1-8/12''. we can also use their paired pattern with the fifth degree on beat 1, the ''5-8/12''and the ''5ba-5/8'' when a chord lasts for 2 consecutive bars. And the last pattern adapted accordingly to the 2 beats per bar, is the harmonic interval ''1-5'' we play it on each beat of the bar, therefore in dotted quarter note. We can also vary this interval with its reverse one, the interval 5/8 if the context is more relevant. And as we have seen, this interval played alone is stronger or more effective when it is played lower in the bass register. So we avoid getting too close to middle C. 28. 6/8 Adaptations: Explanations (part II): We have seen in the previous lesson, how to adapt patterns in 6/8 with the 1st approach of doing that, according to the 2 beats of the bars. We will see now the 2nd approach and other rythmic signatures with the 8 at the bottom of its symbol. This approach is to play the patterns according of the groups of 3 eighth-notes included in each beat of the bar. To do so, we use the rythmic patterns that we used in the 3/4 time signature which are naturally built for groups of 3 beats per bar, therefore in groups of 3 quarter notes or the equivalent. Here, we change the quarter notes for 3 eighth notes to fill every beats of the bars in 6/8. and as we have 2 beats per bar, we repeat these patterns of 3 eighth-notes on each beat. The 1st pattern we learned for the ¾ is the pattern with the tonic on the 1st beat and the harmonic interval 1/5 or 8/5 on the 2nd and 3rd beats. Here, if we change the quarter notes with eight notes, we have this kind of group, that we play on the 1st beat and that we repeat on the 2nd beat. And to emphasize the 2 beats of the bar, we play the first eighth note of each groups a bit louder. Here as we repeat the chord when there is only 1 per bar, we can play on the 2nd beat, the reverse pattern with the 5th degree on the first quaver, so each bar has this kind of pattern, tonic-interval-interval or fifth-interval-interval. The 5th degree can be played higher or lower than the tonic. But if we play it higher or at its right, it's better to choose the 8/12 interval to avoid repeating this 5th degree on the 2nd beat if that note is the same note that the one we're going to play on the next 1st beat. The other basic harmonic pattern that we can play with the 6/8 is the 1/5 interval and its reverse the 5/8 interval. so we repeat one of these, 6 times per bar, to fill in the 6 eighth-notes of the bar, and we play a bit louder the first note on the 1st and 2nd beats. The next pattern is the melodic pattern 1-5-8. we play the notes as 8th-notes to form the 3 eighth-notes per beat, and we play this on the 2 beats. And finally we have its descending pattern, so the 8-5-1. Here, just as we did with the first pattern, we can also alternate patterns by playing the 1-5-8 pattern on the 1st beat and the 8-5-1 pattern on the 2nd beat. And as I will demonstrate in the following excerpt with the B flat chord, we can also occasionally reverse these 2 patterns by playing the descending pattern on the 1st beat and the ascending one on the 2nd beat, when chord progression brings us too close of middle C or too high in the middle register 31. Arrangement #1: Preparation: In this section of the course, we will see how we can rapidly create an arrangement quite interesting of our favorite songs despite the simplicity of these basic patterns that we'll use. And thanks to their simplicity, you will be able to play them within a few minutes if you can read and play their melodies quite easily. The general approach for this first arrangement for piano is actually to choose some patterns and using them in a song you want to play and decide where in the song you want to alternate them with other patterns. To do so, we will see some possible pattern combinations with our demo songs, and I will demonstrate some possibilities of what can be built with these patterns, to give you some ideas to create your own arrangements. thereby, we'll learn some basic tricks to improve and facilitate the creation of your arrangements. So the first step is the preparation of the music sheet we take for writing these arrangements. We prepare it the same way we've prepared it for the practice session, in the video following Pattern #1 lesson. The only difference here since we will experiment with different patterns, we simply add 2 or 3 lines under the staves, instead of the simple line we added before. We can also open this 1-line sheet music picture file we've made for practice session, and erase this single line, by drawing a white rectangle over it and by adding 2 or 3 lines or more if you have enough space below the staves. 32. Arrangement #1: Verse : So once the melody and the chords of the song are transcribed on the worksheet, the score, we can begin the arrangement. There are different ways to approach an arrangement , the easiest and very effective way for a 1st approach, it's to choose a pattern to play throughout the verse, and another pattern for the chorus, This already gives good results in general and that way you can learn and memorize the song in a few minutes if you master these 2 patterns and if you can easily read the melody, of course. And if you want to create an arrangement a bit more varied, more complex it's the same principle, but this time we divide verses and choruses in sections it can be in 2 or 4 parts for example and you choose different patterns for each one. And that's the way I'll create this arrangement to give me the opportunity to give you more ideas for choosing patterns. So first we make a general planning of our arrangement. For example, with this song, there is an 8-bar verse, and an 8-bar chorus too, a fairly standard structure for a pop style song. So I'll give it a calm mood to begin with the verse, by choosing patterns that have longer note values, and for the chorus, I'll give it a slightly different style by taking a little more harmonic patterns and maybe a section more agitated, by taking patterns with shorter note values, therefore faster then i'll finish the song with a calm mood by taking patterns which have long note values, either in single or harmonic notes for the last bar or the last 2 bars. So with this planning done, and my 2-beat patterns diagram, because most of the chords of this song has a duration of 2 beats, I can choose my patterns by eliminating some of them. For example, for the verse, I know that I have to choose patterns with longer notes values, so, I eliminate eighth-notes patterns, and for bringing a contrast in the chorus section, in which I decided to choose harmonic patterns, I eliminate the harmonic patterns too. So my patterns choice for the verse will be reduced to these. For the 1st bar, I will begin simply and slowly with the pattern #1. with tonics for the full duration of the chords, so here in half-notes. To remember your choice, you can just write ''pattern 1'' or the specific degrees of the pattern with note values, So I play the demo to check if I like my choice or if I prefer trying with another pattern. It's not so bad for the beginning of the song but since this song has a fairly slow speed, let's say I keep pattern #1 for the first 2 bars only, and I take another one which moves a little more among my 5 choices of patterns for the verse So I try with the following pattern: the pattern #2. for the C chord, at bar 3, then its reverse pattern, the pattern #2a, the ''8-1'', with the A minor chord, and I come back with pattern ''1-8'' on the Dm chord I alternate between these 2 patterns to avoid big note jumps when I change chords. So that's not so bad but I can also keep this pattern #2 for the 2 bars and it should still sound good. So as you just heard, both ways sound pretty good. Here on the G chord, since melody begins a new musical phrase by playing the same 3 pick-up notes, that are notes which precede the 1st bar which are played without a chord, I'll just play the tonic, so the pattern #1. it's a personal choice. Then for the 2nd half of the verse, for varying the mood a bit, I will change the pattern, for pattern #3, the ''1-5''. As you may have noticed, for the C chord at bar 8. I have played its tonic, one octave lower to avoid repeating the same C note that I had on the 4th beat of the previous bar, which is the ''5th degree'' of the F chord. And for the next chord, the G chord it's the same thing, I still have to play its tonic one octave lower so as not to repeat the G note that I played on the 2nd beat, which is the ''5'' of the pattern ''1-5'' of the C chord. But as I find the G note a bit too low, I prefer keeping it 1 octave higher, as expected. I will rather change the pattern in the previous chord, the C chord with a similar pattern, the pattern #2, so I will avoid playing the G note on the 2nd beat and I will play again the pattern 1-5 as I played for this 2nd part of the verse. And for the last bar of the verse, I stay in the bass register with the '''5th degree'' of the C chord, I will play it lower, so with the pattern #3a, the ''8-5''. And for playing the same kind of effect with the end of the verse, since I still have these 3 eighth notes in the melody, reminding us of the pick-up at the beginning of the song, I will play pattern #1, the tonic of the C chord, but I will play it with a quarter note, for hearing mostly these 3 eighth notes in the melody, to imitate the beginning of the verse, eventough this time they lead us to the beginning of the chorus. I play this full arrangement of the verse before moving on, in the next lesson, for the arrangement of the chorus. 33. Arrangement #1: Chorus: In this lesson, we'll create the arrangement of the chorus. According to my general plan, I have decided to go with harmonic patterns for the 1st part, therefore, I choose among these 3 patterns. I take the pattern #7. which moves a little more than the pattern #6 and I will play the harmonic part either with the 5/8 interval or the 1/5 interval, to make me sure that from one chord to its next chord, my intervals are not too far apart and that they don't go too low on the keyboard. At bar 13, the G major chord lasts for 4 beats while its previous chords last for 2 beats, so, a trick for playing the same pattern with the same note values, is to repeat the chord on the 3rd beat and to consider these 2 ''G chords'' as 2 different chords. So I can continue with the pattern #7 with the first one, for 2 beats and on the 2nd G chord, since it still have these 3 notes in the melody, which imitate the 3 notes pick-up that we had before at the beginning of the verse and that we also found in bar 5 and bar 9. I will play the pattern #1, its tonic in half-note. So it seems to ''sound'' pretty good Let's arrange the 2nd half of this chorus. This time, according to my planning I have decided to play quicker patterns that have shorter note values And to put an harmonic pattern for the last 2 bars with longer note values. The F and G chords in the bar just before the last bar last only for 1 beat, I take this opportunity to play the static harmonic pattern, the pattern #6, with a quarter note value. And I will also play this pattern on the final chord, the C chord but with a whole note because it's the only chord of this bar. And for the previous bars, I will play the patterns #8 and #8a to make a slight contrast with the previous patterns, and with the pattern #6 that I will play in the next bar. I play this 2nd part of the chorus to check if I like my choices and if there are any problems. So the patterns sound pretty good with the chords. I will now play the complete arrangement, verse and chorus, with all these patterns 34. Arrangement #2: part I ''Right-hand technique'': In this lesson we will make an arrangement of a song in ¾ time signature Obviously it's the same principle as for arranging for a song in 4/4. except that we choose now among the patterns for 3/4 time signature So I will not explain you again the same procedure without teaching you anything more, thereby we will learn a right hand technique for varying and improving the arrangement So, let's start by choosing our patterns. Let's say I make a quick and basic plan of this arrangement by choosing only 1 pattern for the 1st half of the song and another pattern for the 2nd half. Let's take the harmonic pattern no 7 that we have for 3/4 time signature for the beginning of the song and the melodic pattern #8 for the second half of the song, I play the song to check that everything works well with these patterns. So, for a quick arrangement done in 2 or 3 minutes, it's already not so bad and quite easy to play. Now if we want to add a little variation to the melody to bring it a new sound or a new effect, one of the simplest techniques for the right hand, that we can use is the ''change of register''. This technique, as its name suggests, consists of playing sections of the melody, in another register than the original register written on the score. The pianist plays the melody as it is written on the score and occasionnaly, he changes register to play the following measures and so on. The best places to make these changes are at new musical phrases. So in general, when we see longer note values or rest figures in the melody. But there are no set rules, so the pianist can begins a phrase in a register and suddenly changes register in the middle of it. And once you have tried this to a few places, you notate the ones your prefer by writing above the melody the appropriate symbol, either 8va or 15va if you want it 1 or 2 octaves higher, or 8ba and 15ba if you want it 1 or 2 octaves lower. And you add the dashes that tell you when to comeback to the original register written on the score. Let's say, after I have tried different places with this song I choose to begin with the melody 1 octave higher, I write here 8va to remember this, with dashes until the end of the phrase, then I play the melody as is for the next phrase. Then I choose to play the next phrase 1 octave lower, so I write 8ba or vb, with the dashes until the end of the phrase, then I finish the song with the melody 1 octave higher. I play the song again with the changes I wrote on my sheet to check if I like them or if I prefer to modify them. Maybe you have noticed that by changing the register in the melody, I had to make some changes to some left-hand patterns. For example, at bar 11. the ''8'' of the 1-5-8 pattern. the F note is the same F than the melody note. So I just played a half-note with the ''5th'' degree of this pattern And that becomes pattern 3b. And in the last 4 bars, I changed the left hand of register with the melody to avoid large gaps between the two hands. But depending on the melody, sometimes it's better to keep the big gap and let the left hand play the patterns as we had chosen them at the beginning. 35. Arrangement #2: part II ''Connectors'': In this lesson we will see another technique to improve arrangements. it's not actually a technique that we can see in music theory books It's rather a trick that I share with you because it's quite easy to use and raises the level of an arrangement. So I named it ''the connectors''. in fact, it's one or a few notes played occasionnally with the left hand for connecting 2 chords having more than one tone between their tonics. And these notes are added or replace the last note of the first chord pattern. For example in the previous arrangement, At bar 4, we have the D minor chord followed by the F chord so the gap between their tonics is greater than 1 tone, then we can use this technique. To do so, I remove the last note or in that case the last interval of the pattern and I replace it with the diatonic note that precedes the next tonic, here the next tonic is the F note, so I replace the interval with the E note. We can also keep the whole pattern, and change the value of that last note or interval with a shorter one here with a quaver, and we complete the 3rd beat by playing this connector with another eighth note. we can also keep the 1st note on the 1st beat only and replace the 2nd and 3rd beats with 2 connectors with the same note value. to do so we play the note preceding the tonic of the next chord on the 3rd beat, here the E note, and its preceding note on the 2nd beat, the D note. And finally, we can also replace the notes of the 2nd and 3rd beats with the 2 diatonic notes that follow this next chord's tonic.. Here in this song, the 2 notes following the tonic of the 2nd chord the F chord, are the G and A notes, so I play the A note on the 2nd beat and the G note on the 3rd beat. I'll give you another example here with these 2 measures which have melodic patterns. We have a D minor and a F major chord so the 1st approach, the simplest one, is to remove the note of the last beat of Dm chord, here the 8th degree of the chord and to replace it with the diatonic note preceding the tonic of the following chord so here, the E note. Now the 2nd approach, is to keep all the notes of the pattern and divide the note value of the 3rd beat's note, and we add the preceding note, the tonic of the following chord. So here we change the 8th degree as an eighth note, and we add the E note as an eighth note too. And the 3rd approach for using this technique with these 2 measures, this time we will play the 2 following notes of the next tonic which are the D and E notes, so we play the E note on the 2nd beat of the pattern and the D note on the 3rd beat. And like any other technique it's more effective to use this technique only once in a while. 36. Arrangement #2: part III (full song) and last words: So that's the end of this course. I hope you appreciated it and that it allowed you to begin to create your own arrangements of your favorite songs. If not, I invite you to do so, in a simple way: one pattern for the verse, another pattern for the chorus and a few connectors between sections. The sheet music sold on commercial sites, for beginner and intermediate level are rarely more complex than that And after you have created some arrangements, patterns quickly become assimilated by your brain and your muscle memory and after a while you'll be able to use them directly, almost unconsciously, to your favorite songs without writing these patterns on your score. So thank you again and I apologize for my english that is far from being perfect. and I wish you good luck in your musical journey.