Learn to Play Piano and Create Your Own Music Part 2 - Creative Piano and Improvisation Course

1. Presentation: Welcome to our creative piano and improvisation course part 2. In this series of classes. We show step-by-step how to play piano and how to improvise and compose music. You will also receive nine lovely piano pieces, that Martin wrote for this class. You can find them for download in the resource section of this course. They lead you on your way to master the instrument. You will be shown how to play these compositions and how to create similar piano music on your own. You will be shown the staff music notation and you will discover how to use harmonies. You will make progress in piano improvisation using chords and also tones that do not belong to chords. Hello, I am Martin and I am Stella Martin, can you tell us more about yourself. I studied at the Universities of Music in Vienna and the Mozarteum in Salzburg. I received a master's degree in organ and degrees in piano, piano pedagogy, and orchestral conducting. And what about you? Concerning music, I have two Master degrees, One in musicology and one in music education. But presently I focus more on developing art activities as art teacher and surface pattern designer. But I always love playing different musical instruments, such as piano, organ, harp and even accordion. But you know, Martin, I really fell in love with your method of teaching piano through improvisation and creativity. Can you tell us more about the music you compose and improvise yourself. I often perform improvised music in concerts, church services, silent movies and other events. I improvise in many different styles. That could be in classical or popular style, or crossover between various styles. I also composed and recorded several albums of music for relaxation, meditative piano music and music that creates a calm and loving ambience. Many of my recordings are on YouTube and can be found over my websites. I know you have many students that learn with you piano improvisation and composition. How do they make it? isn't hard to accomplish. Piano improvisation is not difficult. Just enjoy every step of the process. And with the time, you will surprise yourself with what you are able to do. Many of my piano students achieved great success in piano improvisation and composed beautiful piano music. By practicing, you can reach a level that listeners will believe that your music is written by a great composer. It is much easier to achieve , than many people believe. And beside this: All who like to play from sheet music will enjoy the music Martin wrote for this class. Great. I can't wait to see what you will teach us. Let's go inside of the class. 2. Materials: Martin, before we start, do we need something special for this class? You will need a keyboard or a piano. Any keyboard works? You can start out with any keyboard. But for continued progress, it is helpful to have a keyboard or digital piano with sensitive dynamic piano touch and a pedal. Acoustic pianos of cause are always great. Thank you Martin. That's all we need for this course. Please notice that we can also prepare some additional resources for you and you can download them from the project and resources section of this class. You will find the button just below this video player. See you in the next video. 3. Class Project: The project of this class will be to play one of the little piano compositions of this course, or one of your own improvisations using what you have learned in this course. You can record yourself and and upload the recording on YouTube or another platform you are familiar with. Then share your link in the project section of this course. We will be happy to provide feedback and to answer your questions. 4. The Pentatonic Scale and the Piece Chinese Garden: In the first part of our series "learn to play piano and create your own music", we played and improvised music where left and right hand alternate. Now let us play music. where left and right hand play together. For our first piece, we use. the pentatonic scale. Chinese music often uses the pentatonic scale. The pentatonic scale uses five tones, when the tone C is the fundamental tone. then the other tones are D, E, G, and A. When you compare the C major scale with the C pentatonic scale, then you see that the C major scale has two more tones, the F and the B. First let us learns the piece "Chinese Garden". You find all the music of this class in the resource section of this course. We wrote the letter names of the tones below the notated melody. In this way, you can easily piece. The staff music notation we will explain in the next video. Let us first listen to the music. It will be helpful to observe the fingering included in the music. The little numbers in the notated music show which finger to choose for playing. In the first part, the left-hand alternates the tone C and G. They right hand plays the melody. A good approach for learning the music Chinese Garden is to first practice the right hand alone in measure 1 to 8. And then the left hand by itself in measure 9 to 16. When you are secure in playing measure one to eight in the right hand and measure nine to sixteen in the left hand, then we play both hands together. Let us do it first in a very slow speed. I demonstrated this piece played in a very slow speed. Sometimes one finds spots, that need more attention. Especially to reach a good timing. For example in the spot from the end of measure one to the beginning of measure two: The second eighth note, the tone A before the bar-line. This note should not be longer than the first eighth note on the tone E. Both eighth notes should have the same length. We find the same note values at the end of measure 3 and 5, in the middle of measure six, and also at the end of measure seven. Also in the second part from measure number nine to 16, you find several spots where we have two eighth notes followed by a beat, where both hands play at the same time. When you are happy with your playing in a slow tempo, then it's time to increase the speed gradually until you finally reach the tempo of my fast demonstration of the music Chinese Garden. It could be helpful to watch the demonstration of my playing several times. After your music Chinese Garden, you could improvise with pentatonic music. The first step is to form melodies with the tones C, D, E, G and A I invite you to try out the various rhythms for these melodies. For most people, it will be easier to play a melody with the right hand. After your formed your melodies, you can add the tones C and G is the left hand. You will notice that the tone D in the melody harmonizes together with the tone G. And the tone A in the melody is better together with the C in the other hand. 5. The Grand Staff: In the first part of our creative piano and improvisation course, you learned the name of the notes and the different note values. In this video, you will discover the grand staff that we use to write the notes and their values. The grand staff is a combination of two staffs. Each of them has five lines and four spaces that are in between the lines. The note heads are either on a line or in a space between the lines. Their position on the staff shows us which tone should be played. The piano keyboard has a bass and a treble range. Therefore, piano music uses two different clefs. The treble clef shows the notes in the higher range of the keyboard, and it indicates the tone G. In treble clef the tone G is on the second line of the staff. The bass clef is used for the bass or the lower range of the beyond. The bass clef indicates the tone F. The tone F is on the fourth line of the staff. In treble clef, the 5 lines of the staff show the tones E, G, B, D, F. The spaces show the tones F, A, C and E. In the bass clef the lines have the tones G, B, D, F and A In the spaces the tones A, C, E and G. On the grand staff most of the time, the higher staff is for the right-hand, and the lower for the left-hand. But there can be exceptions. The right-hand can also play tones on the lower staff in case it is easier to do so. Or the left hand could reach into the higher staff. Often we find the treble clef in the right hand and the bass clef for the left hand, But it could also be different. The treble clef could also be in both staffs. And sometimes even the bass clef can be in both stuaffs. Therefore, it is always necessary to read what clefs are used before playing notated music. Notice that you can also find notes where the note head is placed higher than the top line of the staff, lower than the lowest line of the staff. For going higher or lower, notated music uses additional little lines. We call them ledger lines. Here are some examples. In the treble clef, the tone above the highest line is the G. On the first ledger line will be the tone A, then B. And on the second ledger line we have the tone C. In the bass clef at this position we find the toes B, C, D and E. Let's see now the notes below the lowest line. In the treble clef we find the tone D under the lowest line. C on the first ledger line. Below, we find the tone B. And the tone A is on the second ledger line. In the bass clef below the lowest line, we have the tone F, then E, D and C. You'll find all of the notes of the grand staff on this chart. You will find the chart in the resource documents of this course. It is helpful to memorize the position of the middle C in both treble and bass clef. In treble clef, the middle C is on the first ledger line below the staff lines. In the bass clef, the middle C, which is the same note, is on the first ledger line above the staff lines. We invite you also to memorize quickly the position of some other notes. For example, the tone B on the middle line of the treble clef, and the tone D for the middle line in the bass clef. 6. The Sixteenth Notes: Let us divide the eighth notes into two faster notes. This will lead us to the 16th notes. The 16th notes are stated with two flags or two beams. Four 16th notes have the value of one quarter. There exist also sixteenths rests. You can see it here. You can find a chart we the note and rest values in the resource section of this class. 7. Create Melodies Accompanied by a Bourdon: We all know the bagpipes of Scotland, The piper plays on one pipe and and three other pipes sound at the same time. These three static pipes don't change their pitch. The tones from these pipes form the drone. The drone is also called the Bourdon. Let us look at the piece, "The bagpiper from Elgin". To help you read this music easier, we still include the letter names for the right hand melody. But with time it would be great to learn to read from the staff music notation. The Bourdon is played with the tones C and G. We repeat these notes in every measure. This piece includes the 16th notes. I demonstrate this piece. When you are learning this music, it could help to first play the right hand alone, before adding the Bourdon in the left hand. You could also improvise your own bagpipe music, with the tones C and G in the left hand. The right hand could start out with the tones C, E or G. Or if you use a pickup, the first strong beat of measure number one could have the tones C or E or G. We should end improvisation with the tone C It is easier to first improvised music that has no 16th notes. But then when you are comfortable doing this include the 16th notes into your improvisations or bagpipe compositions. 8. Triads: Music is built on melody, harmony and rhythm. Let's look at harmony. Harmony in music is built on chords.. The name chord is derived from the French word accord, meaning to agree. Three or more tones played together form a chord. A three-note chord built on thirds is called a triad. What is a third? The third is an interval, or a three note distance between two keys, including the first and the last keys. We will speak later about intervals. For the moment, just remember, that the interval of the third has the span of three letter names. For example, from C up to E, we have the interval of a third. From E to G, we have another third. The C major chord is made of three notes built on thirds above C. That is why we call it a triad. Now we are ready to build triads on every single tone of the scale. Let us look at the C major scale. And we will start by putting a number under each tone of the scale, from one to seven. We call these numbers degrees of the scale. Let's go and form trials on every tone of the C major scale. The triad on the first stone, or the first degree is C, E, G. It is the C major chord. The second degree is D The triad over it is D, F, A. We call it the D minor chord. The triad on the third degree is E, G, B. It has the name E minor. The fourth degree has the triad F, A, C, called F major. The fifth degree will give us the triad G,B, D, called G major. On the sixth degree, we form the triad A C E, called A minor. And the triad on the seventh degree will be B, D, F, which is called B diminished chord. For the moment we will avoid using the diminished chord or the triad on the seventh degree. We will explain the qualification of the chords as major, minor and diminished in the third part of this series. For the moment, we don't want to overload you with theory, and recommend you to focus on playing by using directly the chords of the C major scale. Let us turn back to the degrees of the C major scale. After the seventh degree, we turn back to the first degree, or the C major chord, C, E, G, played an octave higher. We can make a practical exercise by playing triads. There are two ways to play the triads. We could play the three tones together. We call those blocked trials. Or we can play the three tones separately, one after each other. Those are called broken triads. For a beginner pianist, it is easier for the hand to start practicing the broken trials before we experiment with blocked triads, Let us play broken triads going up and down with the right-hand. We use the fingers 1 3 and 5. And then with the left hand with the fingers 5 3 and 1. Let us do the same exercise with both hands together. In the next video you will discover a musical composition built on triads. And you will also learn the importance of the first and the fifth degree of the scale for composing music. 9. Play a Piece Built on Triads: The next step is: To use in our improvisations and compositions. the triads, that we have learned. Let us start in an easy way. We look at the piece "Singing River" We wrote the letter names of the tones only for the left hand. Try to read the upper staff with the treble clef from the staff music notation. It is very easy to read a triad in root position on the staff. All the three tones of the trials are either on staff lines or spaces. I used the word root. The root of a chord is a degree or scale problem on which a triad is built. The root position means that the lowest tone of a chord is the root. In this piece, we use only the root position of a triad. In the composition "Singing River" you find the triads in the right hand, while the left hand plays long tones. I demonstrate playing this piece. It is a good idea to start out practicing slow, as we usually do. Let us listen to a recording in a slow tempo. I hope, you don't tell me it is boring, because it is a good idea to start out playing slow. As we gain security by practicing in a slow tempo. By practicing, you will soon reach the speed of my first demonstration of the piece "Singing River: and you will be perfect in play it faster. The left hand has ties. Remember the tie means, that you hold the tone for the total number of beats of the two tied notes. We explained it in part one of this serious. Measure 22 and 25, use exceptional fingerings for the triads. The fingers 1 2 and 5. It might be a good idea to practice measures twenty-two and twenty-three and also twenty-four and twenty-five more often. Just start out with the measure 22 and play until 23. Also practice measure 25 and 26 by itself. The more you repeat certain spots, the easier it will be to master them. With the time you will smoothly play the whole piece in an equal tempo. 10. Harmonies and Structure of the Piece "Singing River": When you play the music "Singing River" you discover that it has four musical phrases. Each of the four phrases is eight measures long. The first phrase starts with a C major triad and ends with the tone G and B. G and B represented G the major chord, or the chord on the fifth degree. The scale of C major, the first degree is C, and the fifth degree G These two tones of a scale have special names. The first degree is called tonic, the fifth degree is called dominant. The chords built on the tonic and the dominant are the two most important chords. We encircled the tonic triad and the dominant triad. Often music has dominant chord tones as second-last tones before an end on the tonic. As we are in C major, that adre the tones G, B or D. When we look at the end of the piece, we see, it is actually written this way. The piece ends on C. And before that, we find the G major triad, the dominant. Let us have a closer look at the four phrases. The first phrase starts with C major and ends on G majorette dominant. The second phrase: It starts with A minor and ends on C major. The third phrase starts with C major and ends on G. The fourth phrase: it starts in G major and ends on C. First and second phrase are like one group belonging to each other. Often in a group of two phrases, the first phrase ends on the dominant, and the second phase ends on the tonic. The same is with the third and fourth phrase. Both phrases belong to each other with one phrase ending on the dominant, and the last one on the tonic. You hear the difference between the ending of the first group, or second phase on C major with the G In the right hand, and the final ending of the last phrase, with both hands on C. When both hands play C, it is like a final, ending, a musical conclusion. When we play the C in the left hand, but the right hand either with G or E, we feel we have reached our tonic chord, but we are still waiting for the music to continue. Now let us look more on the four phases: We discover that other chords fill the spaces between the start and end of the phrase, We see A minor, E minor and F major. D minor is not used in this piece, but could be part of a phrase, and I invite you to use it in your own improvisations and compositions. 11. First Improvisation Built on Triads: You have heard me talk a lot about my little piece "Singing River" It is, time for you to improvise with trials. We invite you to use various combinations of trials. For the first step, it might be helpful not to think upon a structured piece with phrases, but just try out and play different combinations. You might want to include also measures, where the right hand does not play a broken triad. I did this in measure 13 to 16 of the "Singing River". If you want, as next step, you could create music, that is similar structured to the "Singing River" 12. Learn Another Composition Built on Triads: In this video, we learned that song built on trial. I gave it the name of the app. You find the sheet music for download. As in the music of the previous video, bleeding through on these electrode names of select tag. Try now to read the left-hand from the staff music notation used selected names only as how it's necessary. Before we places some of the different fingering, further trials, we will use the fingers Yvonne, fall. Contexts of music accomplish the mission. Really traumas. Use figures 135 fought, try it via to demonstrate, we assume. And now you can watch the triads BC fingers thought to one in the left-hand. Next we played both hands together, use even button to fall. Now let us listen to the song. View is it will be half-full to the figure we treated waste in music. You will discover that the music of the sum of the Alphas, again based on triads. Triads is right, just in a different order than before. The right type of place in middle node of the trials first. Sometimes the triads up plate going from the top down. Again, I suggest that you play it first slowly. Demonstrate playing this piece in a slow tempo. It will be helpful to watch the demonstration of my playing, the sum of the self-settled times. Probably you will prefer demonstration of the fastest speed. After GF learn some of the, you could go ahead and improvise mom music built on trial. You could use a trial in a similar way as I use them in the sun. 13. The Dominant Seventh Chord: The chord we will learn today is called the dominant seventh. It sounds complicated, but it is not. Let us go to the fifth tone of the C major scale. It is the tone G. Remember that the fifth tone is called the Dominant. Now we play the triad over G. This is G, B, D. In order to form the Dominant Seventh, we need to add the seventh tone over g, which is the f. The whole chord together is G, B, D, F. The chord G B, D, F is also called the G7 chord. The Dominant Seventh chord is used a lot in music. Often it is followed by the tonic chord. 14. Learn the Piece "Melodies from Bavaria": The next piece includes the dominant seventh chord. I gave this piece the name "Memories of Bavaria", as it is in the style of Austrian of Bavarian folk music. Let us listen to the piece. in order to learn it as usually we start out by learning it in a very slow tempo. I demonstrated it. In measure three to six we play the chord with the fingering 4, 2, 1. We rehearsed this fingering in video ten. The right hand shifts position in measure nine and also from measured ten to 11. When you take some time to practice measures nine to 11 for themselves, you will be able to play them easily. We aim that oll beats are equal in time. When we play a piece for the first time, this usually does not work. But when we practice the more demanding spots more often, we will soon accomplish to play the entire piece in the same tempo. It is helpfull to discover the chords that I used in this music. In this way, you will understand the harmonies and you will be able to improvise and compose your own music easily. As the chords are distributed over both hands, we need to look at the left and right hand at the same time. Start reading the chord from the button note. In the first two measures, you will find the tones of the C major triad. Remember, the C major triad is the chord over the tone C, And has the tones C, E, G. The tone C is in the left hand, while E and G are in the right hand. In measure three to six we play the dominant seventh chord, G, B, D, F, also called the G7 chord. The tone G is in the left hand, and B, D, and F are in the right hand. Then measure 7 and 8 go back to the C major chord - C in the left-hand, E and G in the right hand. In measures 9 and 10, you will find the F-major triad. Remember the tone F is the fourth degree of the scale. You find the F in the left-hand, and F, A, C in the right hand. You see that this music uses only three chords, C Major, F major, and the G7. This is typically for the folk music from the Bavarian, or Austrian Alps. These three chords, C, F, and G or G7 are the main chords belonging to the C major scale. 15. Improvise Using the Dominant Seventh Chord: Now it is your turn to include the G7 chord in your improvisations. You could do it as I did in my piece, "Memories of Bavaria". Just use the tones of the chord. You could play them in the right hand in broken form with various rhythms in an order that you would enjoy. In the left-hand, you could either play the root of the chords, or if you want also other tones of the chord. Remember, C is the root of C major, F, the root of F-major and G the root of G major, and also of the G7. When you limit the chords to C, F, G, and G7. The music may sound similar to certain European folk music. When you include other chords, the music will get another character. Just go on and improvise and try out various combinations of chords and see how the music will sound. Best is to end the music on the tone C both in the right and left hand. First try out very simple with C, G, G7 and the F-Major chord. We start out with the C Major chord. I always use the root in the left hand. What did I do there? I started out with C, then G7 and then C again. I play it again. Now the music wants to go somewhere else. Let's go to F Here the G7 again - now again F. Now let us try out to also include the D minor, the A minor and the E minor. Now, let us include some syncopation. Remember the syncopation was first an eighth notes, then a quarter note, and then again an eighth note. 16. Helpful Tips for Improvisation: When learning improvisation, it is helpful to try out many different combinations. Don't be disturbed. If some of your improvisation don't sound perfect in the beginning. That is normal and part of the steps of learning. We explain in the next videos of this class, several non-chord tones. We invite you to learn all the elements we explain, experiment with them and make them part of your own. Later, when you have gained experience with all the elements, that we learn in this class, you don't have to think anymore closely upon individual subjects. You don't have to think anymore. What is this? What could I do there? All is part of your own expression. And you can follow the melody. You can follow the harmony. You can follow the imagination of your heart and your minds. And if something didn't turn out so well, it doesn't matter. Don't stop the piece. Just build the music upon which you have played before. Music can involve. Musicians that are good in improvisation have learned to build the music, upon that, which they played before. And let it just involve as one beautiful piece. No matter whether one little part was so good or not, the whole can still be a very nice music, a very beautiful improvisation. The music that we learn for this class, often has a specific musical form. We learned about the ternary form in part one of this series. In improvising, it is not necessary to give to the music always a certain form. A lot of beautiful music has no form at all, and is very free. In order to improvise music with a certain form. It is necessary to memorize a certain part, so we can repeat or play something similar. If memorizing is easy for you, then it is nice to sometimes include a certain form into your improvisations. Otherwise, just create the music that you like to play and that gives you the greatest joy in improvising. 17. Neighbour Tones: In the compositions of the last four videos, we used only chord tones to build a music. Now, let us explore how to use tones that do not belong to a chord, that is used at a certain time. We call those non-chord tones. One of the non-chord tones is the neighbour tone. The neighbour tone can either be a step higher or lower, than the original tone belonging to the chord. And it occurs between two stable notes. You will find these examples in the download section of this course. Let us first look at example number one. In measure one, the left hand plays C and the right hand E. The tone E belongs to the C major triad. The second tone of this measure in the right hand is D The tone D does not belong to the C major chord. When you play the D together with the tones C in the left-hand, you will hear it is dissonant. That means C and D do not sound pleasant ,when played together at the same time. But by going from the E down to the D, and then back to the E again, the D sounds perfectly good. It is called neighbour tone, because the D is the immediate neighbour to the tone E. Did you find all the neighbour tones in this example? Now let us discover the second example: It has upper neighbour tones. That means we go to the next higher tone and then come back to the original tone. You could also play this example on your piano or keyboard. Example number three has neighbour tones,that are either on a medium or strong beat. Do you remember, we learned about strong and medium beats in part one of our series. If you are not at ease with this notion, go and check our course "learn to play piano and create your own music part one". Back to example number three. You notice here, that those neighbour tones that fall on a strong or a medium beat are on an accented time. You'll hear that the accented neighbour tone on beat one of measure six sounds a little harsher than the other neighbour tones. Let us listen to this example. Now you know everything about neighbour tones. Use them and experiment with them because they are an important element to include in our improvisations. 18. Learn a Piece with Neighbour Tones: The piece, that we learn in this video, I call. the "Flower Song" It is an example of a little composition that has several neighbour tones. You find the sheet music in the download section. Let us listen to it. You discover neighbour tones in measure number 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11 and 13 and in the repeat of the first section from measure 33 on. You will notice: The music has ternary form. The middle section starts in measure 17. The first part repeats from measure 33 on, just played one octave higher. You need to pay attention to the clef change in the left hand in measure number 33. The treble clef sign before measure 33 indicates, that the notes are notated in the treble clef until the end of the piece. That means the left hand plays in measure 33 the middle C. In measure number 45 and 46. you find the tone G below the middle C. When notated with the treble clef, this tone is written below the second ledger line. You could start playing this piece single-handed. That means you first play the right hand by itself, and then the left hand alone. And of cause play this piece also slowly. I demonstrate it played in a very slow tempo It is a good idea to make a special practice for the spots, where the hands shift positions. Especially the big jump in the left hand from measure 12 to 13. One could start out in measure 11 and play until measure 13. You will gain security by repeating this spot several times. If you want you also could place this measure first with the left hand alone. The same practice you could do with the shift of the hand position from measure 20 to 21. In measures 29 and 30, you'll find the tones of the dominant seventh chord in the left hand. The broken chord in the left hand played with fingering five, four, two, one might also need some extra practice until you will play these measures in a smooth equal tempo. In the left hand you find triads in broken form. Broken chords are a good way of accompanying a right hand melody with harmonies. You discover broken chords with quarter notes, for example in measure number 17, 19 and several other measures. Or with half notes and quarter notes, like in measure number 3 and 4. In this piece, we find eighth notes, quarter notes, half notes, and dotted half notes. Our goal should be that we play the whole piece with an equal beat regardless what the note values are. Two eighth notes together should have exactly the same time value of one quarter note. We should pay attention, that the half notes are as long as two quarter notes. After you know how to play the "Flower Song" in a slow tempo, increase the speed gradually until you finally have reached the tempo of my first demonstration of this piece. The "Flower Song" gives to you some ideas how to use neighbour tones. We invite you to experiment with your own ideas. And improvise and compose music, that includes neighbour tones. 19. Passing Tones: In this video, we will speak about passing tones. The passing tone is a tone that does not belong to a chord, just as the neighbor tone. The passing tone is used in a stepwise progression and it is played between two different chord tones. Let us look at the examples for passing tones that you will find in the download section of this course. You see that the first measure has tones from the C major chord, C, E, and G. And there are two tones that don't belong to the C major chord. These are the tones D and F. They are in-between the chord tones C, E, and G. The melody progresses stepwise upward. in measure two the tones E and G are the passing tones because they do not belong to the chord of D minor, which sounds in this measure. In measure three, we find the G7 chord. The tones E and C do not belong to this chord. These two tones are also passing tones. But this time in the stepwise downward progression. Let's look now at example number two. Here we find, that the tone F is a passing tone on the accented strong beat one. It is called accented passing tone. 20. Learn a Piece with Passing Tones : Le us go to the music "Melody for Stella " You find the sheet music in the download section. Let us listen to the piece. This little piano compositions includes passing tones as well as neighbour tones. The tones of the triads are often distributed throughout both hands Measure number one starts with the C major triad, C and G are in the left hand. The tone E is in the right hand. So you find all three tones of the triad. The same is the case for the next triad This D minor, D and A in the left hand, F in the right hand. Also here, we have the complete triad, D, F, A, when we consider both hands together. When we look at measure number one, then you find two passing tones. The tone F is the right time, or beat 2 and the tone E in the right hand on beat four. You find many other passing tones in this piece, for example the tone F on beat two of measure number three . It a good idea to learn this piece first single handed. I demonstrate the left hand. It will be helpful to also play the right hand by itself. When you know the piece single handed then play the hands together - first slowly. In measure three, we cross the thumb under the hand. It will help to practice this spot for itself. And also to focus on the move down to the low E in the left hand from measure three to four. In measure six, the hand crosses over the thumb. Also, this spot will be easier to accomplish, after you have play it several times. With the time you will reach the tempo of my first demonstration of this piece. At the end of this composition, you could get a little bit slower. Often music gradually slows down before the final tone. Just as in previous pieces. We find the G7 chord before the final tone C. 21. Improvise with Passing and Neighbour Tones: Now let us see what we can do to improvise with passing tones. Let us try out several different examples. For example, we play things like that, You see. I had the passing tone between E and C And then I jumped up to the G to get the complete C major chord. Here I used the G7 chord starting G and F. So we had a posse tone between F and D And also a passing tone tone between D and B. Let us try out some more option of simple elements for improvisation. Or we include also neighbour tones. And if you want, you can also play a little faster passing tones. What did I do there? I played the tones of the C major chord with two passing tones. Now, the tones of the G7 with two passing tones. For this is a G7, f, d, b, and the g in the left hand. And then I put the passing tones in between. Here C major... And do you remember the syncopation? Let's try it out. It was an eighth note, a quarter and then again an eighth notes. 22. Sharp, Flat and Natural Signs: So far we use only the white keys. Now we will include also the black keys. Let's first see how the black keys are notated in sheet music. There we find two signs, the sharp and the flat sign. In notated music, they are placed in front of the note to which they belong. The sharp raises the note a half step higher, which means that we should play the next key to the right. Usually it is a black key. The F sharp is the black key at the right of the F, The G-sharp, the black key right as the G, the A-Sharp, the black key right to the A. Now, what should we play when we find a sharp sign in front of a B? There is no black key directly on the right of the B. The immediate neighbor key the right of the B is the white key of the tone C So the B-sharp on the keyboard is identical to the tone C. Now, let us look at the flat sign. The flat lowers the note with a half step, which means that we should play the next key to the left. The B-flat is the black key left of the B. The A-Flat, the black key left of the A, the G flat, the black key left of the G, and the F flat is on the keyboard identical to the tone E. Train yourself to find all the flat and sharp signs for every tone on the keyboard. For example, where is the E-flat, D-flat, C-flat. Now, where is the C-sharp, the D-Sharp, the E-sharp. In this class, we will use only sharp signs indicating to play a black key. Here's an important rule. When a sharp or a flat sign appears in a measure, it carries for the rest of the measure, but it is no more valid. after the bar line, I show you an example. In this measure, the sharp sign is only placed before the first G. But as the sharp sign is valid for the rest of the measure, the second G has to be played as G-sharp also, even if the sharp sign is not repeated, The same with an F sharp. In the next measure, the sharp is written only in front of the first F, which means that the second F in the same measure should also be played as an F-sharp. After a bar line starts another measure, and the sharp or flat sign from the previous measure will be no more valid. For example, here, the D sharp is only valid until the bar line. In measure two the fourth note is the tone D on the white key. Now let us look at another very useful sign: The natural. The natural sign cancels a sharp or a flat. It is always a white key. And in notated music, it is also placed in front of the note to which it belongs. I showed you an example. Let us look at measure four of "Ride Through the Prairies". It is the piece that you will find in the next video. The second tone in the right hand of that measure is a D-sharp. But in front of the fourth tone, we have a natural sign, which means that here we will play a D natural on the white key. Sharp, flat, and natural signs are also called accidentals. Often we find sheet music where accidentals, in particular sharp or flat signs, are notated after the clef sign at the front of the staff. These sharp and flat signs indicate that the accidental is valid for the entire piece. Or as long as there is no change of sharp, flat and natural signs shown. We call this key signature. In this sheet music of an advanced piano composition you see a sharp sign after the clefs in each staff. All F notes in this piece are played as F-sharp. Later, the key signature changes to two sharps, F-sharp and C-sharp. That means from that spot on, all F and C tones should be played as F-sharp and C-sharp. There are measures where one should play an F natural because it is indicated by the natural sign in front of the note. In this class, we play only music in C Major. That's why you will not find accidentals after the clef sign in front of the staff. Keep on going to the next video where you can apply what we have learned about the accidentals. 23. Learn the Piece "Ride through the Prairies": Let us look at the composition "Ride through the Prairies" You'll find it in the download section. Let us first listen to my demonstration of this piece. The piece starts with the C major chord, C and G in the left-hand and E in the right hand. The second tones that we play in the right hand is a D sharp. The D-sharp is the black key between D and E. When you take a close look, you see the D-sharp is a neighbour tone. This time, the neighbour tone is the next black key to the left. This piece has many neighbour tones that use the black keys. In measure two, we find a passing tone on the back key, C-sharp. Actually there are two passing tones connected right to each other. One is C and the other C-Sharp. The character of this piece is formed by the use of neighbour tones and passing tones on black keys and also by syncopation. We explained the syncopation in part one of this series. We find it in measures number one, 11, 12, 15, 17 and 19. Before we learn this piece let us listen to a demonstration in a very slow tempo. It is a good idea to play first, right and left hand single handed before we play it hands together. This piece has staccato notes. The dot under or on top of the note-head shows that we should shorten the notes and detach them to the next one. The slur indicates a smooth connection of the notes. This music has often slurs connecting two notes. That means the first and second notes are sticking together. But the second note detaches to the third note. Let us look at the left hand. It always has two tones playing together at the same time. In this piece, the two tones form always the interval of a fifth. The interval of a fifth is created by counting five tones on white keys We also count the first tone, that we play, and the last tone, that we play. In this piece, we should play this interval with the thumb and the little finger. You discover that these two tones are always first and third note of a triad. The left hand does not play the middle note of the triad. But most of the time we find the middle note of the triad in the right hand. You can discover, that the fith by itself, often sounds empty. But if we have the middle tone of the triad in the right hand, then we have the full complete rich sound of the triad. Measure three has a dominant seventh chord. We find the tones, G, D, F, but not the B. A dominant seventh chord can either be complete, having all four tones, or it could just be three tones, G, B, F, or G, D, F. 24. Improvise with Neighbour Tones on Black Keys: S Next, we could play police stations that a US naval black keys. I demonstrate. The next site. You see in this example. I started out with the left path alone. Live the rest. I proceeded to G major with, as they talk. F major, G sharp as a neighbor tone. Later, I used also the D-sharp. Go on and try out what neighbor tones on black keys you could use in your employees safe. 25. Appoggiatura: In this class, we will speak about another non-chord tone. It has the Italian name of appoggiatura. The appoggiatura is always on an extended time. It always moves towards the CTO by one step or a half-step, downward or upward. Most of the time it moves downward. We call this move Resolution. Contrary to the best asymptote and the neighbor tone. It can also be approached by a leap. By the way, the approach to an appoggiatura is quite free. An example, I will show you the beginning of the piece, little volts, which you can learn in the next video. Let us listen to the beginning of the little vaults. Number to the court. The major, C, E, G. That is the non-court tool. It is an appoggiatura, moving down by a step to the tone G. In measure number three, the court is the G 7th colored with the tones G, B, and F. Hear the tone C is obviously a non-chord tone. It is an appoggiatura, which results down to the tone be imagined number for. The chord is a minor eight CE. The W G is an appoggiatura that results to the sea. In these three measures, you can see that the chord tones are distributed over all the three beats of the measures. As you already know, B12 is an extended time and the appoggiatura, in this example, false on beat one. In all three measures, we find that a melody leaps into the appoggiatura. Whatever we are in full floor time than the appoggiatura could also be on beat three of the measure. When we have eight nodes, then the appoggiatura could be on the first eighth note of a beat. We see in all the examples that the resolution is an a week time. Often the appoggiatura is split stronger and the tone of the resolution software. In the next video, we invite you to learn the piece, little volts. 26. Learn the Piece "Little Waltz": In the last video, it just counts the beginning of the piece isn't waltz. Now this is a composition. You find the sheet music is tau seconds. When we look at the sheet music, then we see that the left-hand test, two paths. The lower part is stuck, taped it with stems going downward. The notes of the upper part have the stems going upward. Let us look at measure number two. The notation indicates that we should sustain, denote see that we play on beat one. It should be held until the end of B2. That means it's a C in the lower left-hand part, continuous to sound, plays a second node of the left hand. The total E. The E replay on beat two beat provided we find the rest above the lower node C. This rest shows that's a higher part of the left tag does not pay anything by replay the left-hand see on B2, B3, if I'm to vests, lactate it on top of each other, because both paths have arrest, we can discover similar sustained left-hand nodes in many measures of this piece, I demonstrate the left hand. Best is to learn the left-hand byte itself. And to pay attention to halt the law though it's off the left-hand as long as indicated. In measure eight, we hard to see that replay on deed provided for fly-bys in measure 18, be hard too deep for six feeds. Also, in the following measures, we see that the nodes this is stemmed down but have the value of six beats on the second beat, replay another node. It is a tone, a in measure number 18 on deep to. It is hard for five beats. The same length has an F and B to measure Napa, trend T, and a G in measure 22. It will be helpful to practice the crossing of a measured number line. Also the shift of the hands for measure number nine to ten, several times itself. That's a spot that you might want to practice on its own, is a move of the left tag from ten to 11. And also the move of them might tag it measure 12 to t. In this way, you will get in security of these methods. Let it will be easy to place an entire piece in an equal tempo. This walls has many a project to us. In measure 18, be find an appoggiatura that repeats its tone. A stepwise resolution is in the following measure, 20 been appoggiatura term g is trice, end the resolution chunk f is also twice. We find the same emitted 2020 environment. The upper deck to R times C and resolution in turn be a plate twice. Also measures 2223, a similar tones, F and E being paid twice. This piece has turned away from the mid section stats and measure 17. It pete of section a, stats in measure 30. In the little girls, we have the opportunity to learn dynamics. The piano, Thom, sounds louder when we press stronger and softer and you play Jenga. In our worlds, generally beat rarely split stronger than the beats 23 softer. When we have the appoggiatura, it will be beautiful to plan additional dynamic difference. The aperture two electrons should be strong and the resolution tones soft. Also observes the slurs. It needs to be fancy slash slash money because next project tool to gather. 27. Improvise using Appoggiaturas: Let us includes the aperture to police, say, just experiment these various combination. Play an example. First C major, then G major, C to B. C to B, farmed out. To that. I'd like to again, to upload that to be in the right tab. We see Hall measure, long haul measure, phase it, except the lines. In the middle part, I had several outputs at two hertz. I started out with D to C, an AMI that in the left-hand experiment, this is what you find can be done until I put a 200 is a natural part of your in police stations could create a conversations that have a specific structure. Now let us do it different than the first time when we created equalization is for phrases. Remember at that time we had to first phrase and a G-major, the second phase and on C major, the fat face, and on G-Major. And the fourth phase and C. Now you make different phrase endings. Last phase always ends on see. In the example that I will now play off of phrases and on C major could get its fire as acceptable and create your own. In previous sessions. I used in this improvisation cards into left-hand rebuild on law about lefthand cop peptides. In part three of our CES, you've got to take piano and create your own music. Try out various combinations and practice the Alabama's. Next we have for you out in this class. With time, you will build all the elements and combinations into the massive memory of your fingers. They will become part of you. Your fingers will naturally do. You will get more light, is, is creating improvised music. That you don't have to think any law upon two different elements. You can just follow the flow that comes from within. And your fingers will respond. 28. Final Thoughts: Thank you for watching this class and congratulations, you have completed it. You learned about music notation. You experimented with chords and discovered non-chord tones. You'll also learn to play several PAM or positions. If you have new tools for improvising on the piano, we encourage you to practice the pieces of his class and give you a feel happy. And it is, is playing them. And we invite you to experiment with your own improvisations until they are like little beautiful piano compositions. Don't be discouraged if it takes longer to accomplish certain steps. That is novel. Don't hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions. We also want to invite you to record yourself playing one of the compositions you can learn in this class, or to make your own piano improvisations and upload them in the project section of this course, we'll be happy to provide feedback. Impact free of CSeries, you will learn more about cards, how to use a damper pedal, more about major and minor. And you will discover new piano compositions and further steps to proceed in piano improvisation. In order to be in farm, when we release a new class, we invite you to click the follow button. If you want to discover more about us and margins compositions, you can visit our website under a music art.com and some surprising spirit.com. We also offer individual music lessons for those who would like to have one-on-one in-person or online lessons. We hope you have enjoyed this class and be really happy to see you in some of our awesome USE can have classes.