Transcripts
1. Promo video part 4: Hi, you're now in part four
of my course series with the name the ultimate
piano keyboard course from total beginner to advanced, where you will learn how to
play the piano or keyboards, how to play by ear, and how to read music. My name is Martin Cohen. I'm a jazz, blues
and rock musician, composer and piano teacher, and I teach already
more than 25 years. In this fourth course, you will learn to
minor scales and the minor courts in
older inversions. And of course, you will
also play songs in those minor tonalities and use the minor courts
in several songs. Also, we will add the minor tonalities to our
circle of fifths so that we get a total overview of all the major and
minor tonalities in one circle of fifths. So if you've done the first three parts
of this course series, then this is the right
place for you to continue. If you're a total beginner, please start in part one
of this course series. You will find a link
in the description of this course to part one. If you're already a bit
more advanced player, you might benefit from a
later course in the series. That case. Have a look at the description of this
course where you will find all the ten courses of the
series with links to them and decide yourself in which of the courses you
could eventually begin. So I finally would like to thank you for
checking out my course and I hope to see you soon in this or another course
of this series.
2. Introduction - The A minor scale: Hi and welcome to this
section about minor scales. Now very important
before you go on, it's important to download
the resource files that come with this course
and that you will meet with a lot of
lessons in this course. To do so, go to the Projects and Resources
tab of this course and done download this
file that says link to the resource
files part for dot PDF. Once in the PDF file, you'll find a link that
enables you to download all the resource files so that you can store them
on your computer. Now, before we start to do
our fierce minor scale, for this, there is
only one minor scale, like there is only
one major scale. But there are three
different minor scales. You have the natural
minor scale, the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale. In this course, we're only looking at the
natural minor scale, since that's the most
important minor scale. And the other minor
scales are more important for if
you're more advanced, if you're doing jazz or other
more advanced music styles. So we're only doing the
natural minor scale. So that being said, let's start with our
first minor scale. The first minor scale, natural minor scale we're
seeing is the a minor scale. The a minor scale. Well, because it's the
easiest minor scale, the a natural minor scale consists of only white
keys on the piano, which means that the, a natural minor scale is exactly identical to
the C major scale. The only difference is that
it doesn't start on C, like the C major scale, but it starts on a, but it consists of
exactly the same nodes. And the root note is not C, like in the C major scale, but a because it's the, a natural minor scale. So that means that the notes of the a
natural minor scale, or simply a, B, C, D, E, F, G, a. And played on the piano, it sounds as follows. Now of course, you could, like we did with
the major scales, also make a minor scale formula. Now, you can do that yourself. You just follow the notes
from the a minor scale, from a to the a, an octave higher and see what the distances between the
consecutive notes are. The formula would be one half 1111 or whole-tone, halftone. Hold on, hold on. Halftone, whole-tone, hold him. But to be honest, we will not really use
this formula since we're going to derive the
minor scale In other way. Now, let me compare the a natural minor scale
and the a major scale, which you now both know. As you know, in a major scale, the distance between the
root of the scale and the third note of that
scale is a major third. In the case of a major, That's the distance
between a and C sharp. The distance between a and C sharp is that
of a major third. When we look at the a
natural minor scale, we see that the distance
between the first and the third note is the distance
between the nodes a and C. C is a halftone
lower than C-sharp. So that means that
this distance is a minor third as you learned
in the interval lessons. Now, this is typical
for minor scales, not only for natural
minor scales, but also for harmonic and
melodic minor scales. And that's the distance between the first note or the root. And the third note of the
minor scale is a minor third. Now, as I said before, the a natural minor scale and the C major scale share
exactly the same notes. They just start on another note. And you can see that clearly
here in this diagram where I showed the a natural minor
scale and the C major scale. And you see that they
have the same notes. But today just start
on another note. Indicates of a minor. K is the root. And in
the case of C Major, C is the root. Since a minor, C major of
exactly the same notes, we also say that their
relative scales, we say a minor is the
relative minor of C major, and C major is the
relative major of a minor. You can see that the roots
of a minor and C major, or a minor third away, since the distance between a and C is that
of a minor third. Now, this is always the case
between two relative scales. So this actually means that when we're looking
for a minor scale, we can always derive it from
its relative major scale. And the relative major scale
has a root that starts a minor third up from the root of the minor
scale you are looking for. Now let me give an
example of this. Imagine we would like to
know what the nodes of the E natural minor scale are. To know this, we need to find the relative major
scale of E minor. To do this, we go from
E minor third up. So how do we go from
E minor third up? Well, you could first look
at the E major scale. The third note in
the E major scale, which is a major
third, is the G-sharp. To find a minor third, you just go a half
tone down to G. So G is a minor third up from E. And other ways, of course, to go up three semitones or
three half-tones from E, then you arrive also to G. Anyway, G major is the
relative major of E minor, and E minor and G major share
exactly the same notes. So when you know the notes
of the G-Major scale, you also know denotes
of the E minor scale. Another example, we want to know the C natural minor scale. Well, from C go a
minor third up. Well, as you know, in
the C major scale, E is the major third. So that means that
E-flat is a minor third. So that means that D
E flat major scale is the relative major of this
C natural minor scale. Both share exactly
the same nodes. So if I know the notes of
the E flat major scale, I also know the notes of
the C natural minor scale. They have the same
notes to C minor scale only starts on C
instead of an E-flat.
3. House of the rising Sun in A minor: Okay, so in this lecture
we will do House of the Rising Sun and
very nice melody. You surely know it. And if not, well, look
it up on YouTube. This song is in a minor, which means that we will use only white keys like C Major. Only that the root
is not C but a. It's a song in the
key of a minor. When you listen
to it on YouTube, you will see that it will be a little bit different, perhaps. Perhaps I don't play the melody exactly like they do on YouTube. So I adapted it a little
bit for this lecture. Okay, now what I wanted
to say is that I will not ask indicates for
all the major skills. Now, do a song for
every minor scale, because as you know, the minor scales are derived
from the major scales. So you use the same notes as
the relative major scale. I just wanted to show you
a song in a minor key. So that's why this song in a minor House of the Rising Sun. As usual, we will play it in the next lecture with the band, and we will play it at a temperature of 212
beats per minute. Now, don't think that
it's very, very quick. You will see that it's okay. In this lesson, we
do only the melody. In a later lesson, we will also learn the courts, but that will be when
we learn minor chords. Okay, let me play the
whole melody for you. That's all. So there's no verse
chorus, just this melody. Okay, I will break it up in
four pieces, in four lines. So let me start with
the first line. That's the first line. And it consists of
the following notes. A, B, C, D, a is a little bit
quicker as you see. So that's the first line. Then for the next line, you go to the high a. So that's denotes a, G, E, D, E. Let me play the first and
the second blind together. Okay, then we have
the third line. So that's denotes a. G. Da, DA, DA is again quick G. So let me play the
first three lines. This brings us to the last line, the first line, which
is very simple. And which are the nodes a, C, B, a, B, C. Let me play the
whole melody again. So that's the whole melody, that's the whole song. So what about two
finger positions? So let me break it again
up in the four lines. So the first line that was. You see, I only use the five fingers here
on those five nodes. 123-412-3541. Then for the second line, you go with your little
finger to the high a. So that's five on a 55 432-355-4323. Done again for the
third line again with your little
finger on the on the a 55 432-155-4321. And the last line, very simple. 132-311-3231. Okay. Now, of
course, if you have your own finger
positions that go that's fit better
with your hand. That's all right.
As long as it's s, you can play it fluently. So di denotes together, don't leave a gap as you learned in one of the first lessons. Now of course, if you go
from one line to the other, you can leave a little gap here. So that's the end
of the first line. You can leave a little gap
and then go to the next line. And of course, you
played at a two times. So you have to leave
a little gap there. New line. You can leave a little gap. If you want. New line, you can leave a gap. So you don't have to play
everything together, especially when you go
from one line to another. Okay? So we have to play with the
metronome for the rhythm. So as I told you to hundreds, 12th beats per minute, looks as if it is very
quick, but it isn't. One other thing I have to say
is that the song, isn't it? Six, eighth time? Not we don't have to know
yet what that means. Because times, signatures
and all that stuff, we will do it when
we do reading music. But it might be
important to know that in this song you
can count to six. Now you know that most
songs you count to four, that's the so-called
fourth-quarter time. Quite a lot of songs are
in three-quarter time, but it hasn't been
fourth-quarter time. You count to four. One-two-three-four, one-two-three-four, which
is for most songs the case. Three-quarter time, you count
123123 in six eighth time, you count 12 345-612-3456. Let me just put them the metronome on here so that
you can hear what I mean. So you hear clearly that
it does a high click, 12 345-612-3456, a high click every time you're on beat one and the other beats. So 2,345.6, it
sounds a bit lower. Here. This is already on
212 beats per minute. It sounds like very quickly, but you will see it
will not be debt quick. So what I will do
before starting is let it play two times, six counts and then I start. So let's go. Okay. So you see
it's not back Week. One other thing I'd like to say is that when
you do the quick, so in this first line, e.g. the, the, the, the D is on a beat and the a
is not on the next beat, but in-between the beat where you play the D
and the next beat. So it goes very quickly. It goes in-between two
beats, 12 345-612-3456. It's a bit difficult to
count when I'm playing, but the D is on, count, is on the beat and the a. So it's in-between that
beat and the next bit. Okay, I think that's about it. Um, I would say start
slowly as always, played line per line
and try it quicker, puts it in a metronome
higher and higher till you leave it till you
reach the level of 200s, 12th beats per minute. And in the next lesson, we will play it with a
bent at depth symbol.
4. House of the Rising Sun - Playing together with the band: Okay, it's time that you
play the melody that you learned in a previous
lecture with the bend. So in this lecture
I will tell you how to play with the bent. No, the bend, first
place, an intro. I think that the
best thing to do is to just listen to how I play it. And you will see yourself
when to start playing. The melody that you learned
is played three times. When you go from the first time you play the melody
to the second time. And from the second
time you play the melody to the third time, you don't play directly
after each other. There is between the first
and the second time. The second and third time, bend the place so you don't
play there during awhile. But you will hear that
once I play it for you. As I said, it's the metronome
is on 212 beats per minute. So you should have learned
that in the previous lecture. You should be able to play
it on 212 beats per minute. The metronome, Well, actually there is no metronome because
it's the band who plays. That's your metronome. And it's in six eighth time. That's what I explained
in the last lecture. Play along file is as always, into resources of this
lecture so you can download it and
play along with it. So I would advise you
to first listen well, to look well at how I do it, and then try it out yourself. So I would say, just have fun.
5. The other minor scales: So we've seen now our
first natural minor scale, the a natural minor scale. What about all the
other minor scales? Well, that's what we're
going to do in this lecture. Well, I showed you already
in the last lecture, that's the E natural
minor scale has the same notes as
the G major scale, and that's the C
natural minor scale, has the same notes as
the E flat major scale. Let me put all this in a table. On the left side of this table, you can find the minor scales with flat notes in their scales. And on the right side, the minor scales with
sharps in their scales. You'll see also that
most of the table is empty because we haven't
seen those skills yet, but we will be filling all the empty spaces
in this lecture. Now concerning this
a minor scale, you'll see it displayed
twice in the left table, in the right table, table
with the flip notes and at a table with the sharp
notes. Now why is that? Well, as you know, a minor has no sharps and flats. So I can put it as well
in D-flat table just with zero flats as into sharp
table with zero sharps. So that's why you
see it two times. So let's first have a look at the right side of this table, the site with minor
scales with sharps. In the first row. We see of course, the a minor
scale with zero sharps. On the second place, you see the E minor scale
with one sharp. Now, how do I know that the
E minor scale has one sharp? Well, in the last lecture, we saw that the E minor scale exactly the same notes
as the G major scale. And of the G major scale, we know that it has one sharp. So let's just look which nodes
are in the E minor scale, the natural minor
scale, of course, but very often, I
don't say natural, I just say E minor to
G major scale is here. And D E minor scale has
exactly the same nodes. So here you have the E minor scale and you'll
see there's just one sharp, the same sharp, of course, as indeed G major scale, the F sharp. So that's easy. Let me look now at the
left side of the table, the site where the minor
scales with flipped nodes are. And you see that on the
place with three flip nodes, we have the C minor scale. Now, how do we know that to C minor scale has three flats? Well, of course we saw that
in the last lecture because the C minor scale has exactly the same notes as
the E flat major scale. And we know that the E flat
major scale has three flats. So C minor has also three flats. So what is the C minor scale? Well, first you see here the E flat major scale and C minor has exactly
the same notes. It's just starts on C
instead of an E-flat, so that's C minor. Okay, so for the rest, we do exactly the same thing. We just compare the minor scale with its relative major scale. So let's have a look. I will first go to the right
side of the table so to site with a minor
scales with sharps. So we've seen already
a minor and E minor. So we go to the next one, the one that has its relative
major scale, D major. Now, what is the
relative minor scale belonging to D major? Well, just go with minor
third down from D. Now you can do that by
going three semitones down. You can do it yourself. But a minor third
down from D is B. B minor is a minor
scale with two sharps. Now you see the D major
scale already displayed. So to be minor scale has exactly the same notes,
only starting on B. The next one with three
sharps is the a major scale. A minor third down from
a brings us to F sharp. F sharp minor has three sharps, and it has exactly the
same notes as a major. One with four sharps. E major, going down from E
major brings us to C-sharp. C-sharp minor has four sharps, and here you see the
C-sharp minor scale, this plate, five sharps. B major has five sharps. Minor third down from
B takes us to G-sharp. G-sharp has also five sharps, and here you see the
G-sharp minor scale. The scale with six sharps. We know that it's F-sharp. We only just don't know what the F sharp major scale is yet, but we can derive what
its relative minor scale. So the minor scale
with six sharps. So easily go. A third is done from F sharp, and this takes you to D-sharp. Of course we cannot
fill it in for now. We have to leave it open. But we know that the D-sharp
minor scale has six sharps. Let's go to the table, the left side with
the flip notes. Let's go to the scale
with one footnote. We know that the
major scale with one flip note is F major. A minor third down
from f takes us to D. So D minor has one flat note, and here you see the D
minor scale, this plate, it has exactly the same
notes as the F-major scale. Next one, too flat
notes is B flat. Now, going down from
B-flat minor third, or three semitones,
it takes us to G. So G minor is a minor
scale with two flip notes. Here you see the G minor
scale displayed with exactly the same notes as
the B-flat major scale. Okay, the C minor
scale, we've seen that. So we go to the scale
with four flip nodes. Node a major scale with four flip notes is the
A-flat major scale. We haven't seen the
A-flat major scale yet, but of course we can easily see what its relative
minor scale will be. A minor third down from
a flat takes us to F. F minor scale has four
flats, five flats. D-flat major scale. Also here we don't
notice GO BAD. We know that a minor
third from D-flat, it takes us to B-flat. B-flat will be the minor
scale with five flats. And finally, the
minor scale with six flats as its relative
major scale, G flat major. Now a minor third down from
G-flat takes us to E-Flat. So E-flat minor has six
fled notes in its scale. Now those last three
minor scales with flat nodes and the last minor
scale with one sharp node. We will do that later
once we've done those relative major scales corresponding to
those minor scales.
6. Exercise: The first 9 natural minor scales: Okay, in this lesson you're
going to do an exercise with the a natural minor
scales that you know. To do. So you go to the PDF file that belongs to discourse. So you go to the
resources that you download it before and
you open the PDF file. And I have it opened here. As you see, you just click on the link,
minor scale exercise. Now for DOS, who have done already a
course in his course series, knows how it works. So, so if you know how it works, you don't have to look further. But for DOS, who entered in this part
of the course series, I will quickly explain
how this works. So you see highlight the notes of the next minor
scale on the keyboard. So you have first have
to click on Start Quiz, and it asks for the D
natural minor scale. Well, of course, you're going to highlight the notes of the
D natural minor scale. That's it. That's D, E, F, G, a, B flat, D, and E. If you make a mistake
and you say e.g. a, C sharp or D flat,
say, Oh, mistake. Just click it again and it's
not highlighted anymore. So when you think you're ready, you just click on
Show answer and yes, you have the right answer. And you click on Next question. C natural minor scale. Okay, you go on and on. Well, how long should you go on? Well, as you know, there are nine different natural
minor scale soda or just nine questions. Now, the computer picks up
the questions that randomly. So it's possible
that you have to do more than nine
questions before having done old and minor scales,
that's going to happen. If you click on
Next question that you have two times
the same question. And that's great case. Click again on the next question to get to the next question. Again. How long have you go out and
have do you have to go one? Well, as long as you think is needed, you can go on and on. Of course, the computer goes on picking
randomly questions. You just go on till the
moment you think, okay, I know it's more or less I master it and then you
stop the exercise. Okay, That's it. So just open a PDF, click on the link
and do the exercise. And I see you in
the next lecture.
7. Circle of fifths with minor scales: The circle of fifths
with minor scales. So here you see again
the Circle of Fifths. For a better overview, I draw a circle around it and I divided the major
scales in segments. Remember, each step
clockwise is a fifth up, and each step
counterclockwise is a fifth down or a fourth up. Starting from C clockwise each step it gives a one
more sharpened scale. And each step counterclockwise, also starting from C, gives one more
flat in the scale. As you can see in the figure, I also put a number
of sharps and flats. Now, we can complete
the circle of fifths, what we learned before
with the minor scales. Since each major scale has
its relative minor scale, it's easy to put the minor
scale in the circle of fifths. So in my circle of fifths, I will make an inner ring
for all the minor scales. E.g. since a minor is the
relative minor of C major, we can put them in
the same sector in the circle of fifths. I can do that for all
the other minor scales. So E minor is the relative
minor of G major. So they are both in
the same sector. The sector with one sharp, B minor with two sharps, will be in the same
sector as D major. F-sharp minor goes with a major, C-sharp Minor with E major, G-sharp minor with B major. Now let me know first complete the minor scales with flats. So the minor scale that
has one flat and is the relative minor of
F major is D minor. G minor is the relative
minor of B flat major. C minor goes with E flat major, F minor with a flat major, and B-flat minor
with D-flat major. Now, the relative minor of F-sharp major is D-sharp minor, and the relative minor of G
flat major is E flat minor. And our circle of
fifths is now complete. And of course, D-sharp minor, E-flat minor are exactly
the same scales. Since D-sharp E-flat are
enharmonic equivalent, like is the case for
F-sharp and G-flat. Of course, nodal sort of put everywhere a little m to indicate that it's
a minor scale. So this is the completed circle of fifths with minor scales. In the outer ring, you see the major scales as
you already learned before. And in the inner ring, you find them minor scales.
8. Introduction in minor triads - The A minor triad: We've seen in this course
already quite a lot of major courts
will major riots. But we haven't seen any
minor triads or courts yet. But now that we've
done the minor scales, it's time to do
also minor triads. And it works in exactly the same way
as with major triads. You take the first, the third, and the fifth
note of the scale. In this case of the minor scale. The first, the third, and fifth are in disguise, the root, the minor
third, and a fifth. So let's see how that works
in the case of a minor. Since, remember, that's
the a minor scale. The, a natural minor scale is the easiest minor scale
with only white keys. Here we go. Here you'll see the, a natural minor scale. So the first, third, and fifth notes of that
scale are a, C, and E. So D, a minor triad
Is a, C and E. I know the piano. You can play it as follows. Now, exactly the same
as with major triads. You can also make inversions. This is of course
the root position. Since the court
is at the bottom. When I take a at the
top, I get this court. This is still a minor, since I have still
the same nodes. This is the first
inversion of a minor. Now the minor third, C is at the bottom. I can repeat that trick. I can take the minor third, C at the top is still
an a minor chord. This is the second inversion
of the a minor chord. Now the fifth E
is at the bottom. And of course, exactly the same thing as
with major triads. When I do the same
trick one more time, I'm Vic in root position. So also with minor triads, I have three positions. The root position, first
inversion, and second inversion.
9. The chords in "House of the Rising Sun": In this lesson, we
will learn how to play the courts in House
of the Rising Sun. In a former lecture, you already learned how
to play the melody. So now the courts will first play it for you so that
you can hear how it sounds. And for now, I will play
it with the melody. So that means that I
will do the courts now with my left hand. Later on. I will do them
also with my right hand. Okay, So to start, first only differs line. So for now, don't concentrate
on the right-hand. Concentrate only
on the left hand. I played four different courts. I started with a minor. Then I played see in
second inversion. But you can actually choose
any inversion you want. After debt, I played
the D, try it. That's the first inversion, but you may also
play it like this. And after that, the F triads, in this case in root position, but you can also
play it like this. So a minor, C, D, F. I will play it once
more with the melody. Okay, one more time. So after the first line
comes, the second line. So that starts with
the a minor chord. And that's when the high
a in the melody plays. Then C, and that's when you
have the G in the melody. And finally the, dry it when there is the
E in the melody. By the way, for now, you don't have to
play the melody. It's about the courts. So again, don't look too
much to the right-hand, really fix on that left
hand on the courts. So again, this second line, and the courts are
a minor, C and E. Okay, the third line. So you see that it looks a
lot like the first-line. Actually the courts
are the same. So E minor, C, D, and F. So when you have in the melody, dose two quick notes, da, than you play as courts. First the d and then
later on the F. Okay, the last line now. So that's a minor. E minor. A minor. E minor. Okay. Yeah, I'll play
again everything. Okay, If you remember well, from the lesson
where you learned the melody of House
of the Rising Sun. Between the melodies, there are also places where
the band plays, where you don't play the melody. Let me call those
intermediate dose. So in the intermediate zone, when there is no melody, you can play chords. So when you finished
your play the melody, and this last line is, as you know, on the exact moment that
there's a in the melody. So this last in the melody. At that moment, the
intermezzo starts. And that's intermezzo also
starts with an a minor. So here the intermezzo starts. So that's actually the a minor that I wrote before in red. And after debt, you have
actually a chord progression that's very much like
what we have seen before. Only that when I
play the Internet. So I usually play the a minor a bit higher
in other inversion. So that's the first
inversion in this case. I actually do that because it lifts the whole
thing a little bit up. There's no one's singing. So you have to place to be more, a little bit more on the
foreground. So you have. And then you start
intermezzo with the a minor plate a
little bit higher. So one day after that you have actually a similar
chord progression. You have a minor, C, D, F. So they're actually the
same chord progression as in the first and
the third line. So again, a minor, C, D, F. And after that, so you've got a
minor, a minor, E. And that is the
whole intermezzo. So again, when you come from
the melody, E minor, C, D, F, a minor, E minor, E. And then after that, the melody starts again, etc. So as I said, when I play this intermezzo, I play the a minor in another invasion
a little bit higher. And it's even so
that when I play the intermittent for
the second time, that I play the a
minor even higher. So then actually I played
on all the courts in another inversion a little bit higher up so that
you can lift up this second intermezzo
even a little bit more. After that, when you
play again the melody, I'll play it again so that you are not in
the way of the melody. So when I paid for
the second time, so let me play this
last line of melody. I could play it here, e.g. a minor, C, D, F, a minor E. Hey minor E. So it's infect the same chord progression is
the first internet. So, but I played other inversions
a little bit high reps. So to lift up the
whole thing even more. So the advantage is
also that you'll learn all the inversions
of the courts. So, and after this intermezzo, then you come from
this high court. And after that you have the
melody again, et cetera. Okay, So as you saw, I played the whole
time the courts with my left hand so that I had my right hand to
play the melody. But you do it with your
right hand. Of course. You also have to know
what with your left hand, if you want to play it together with the melody so
that you can play, so that you have your right
hand to play the melody. But start with your right
hand to play the chords. A minor, C, D, or E eventually
could play it here. You can also play it here, etc. Now, what you could
eventually do is when you have
started learning the courts in your
right hand is to take the bass notes with your
left hand at the same time. And that's of
course not possible when you pay the courts
with your left hand. But if you've played the
courts with your right hand, wind is play the bass
notes with your left hand. With your left hand, just
pay the roots of the courts. Well, you, so that's first, I played the E here and then
there. That's the same. Of course that doesn't matter. Okay. I will show you how
I played with the band. I will actually not play
the courts with the intro. So you just start playing
when the melody starts playing, like this, etcetera. Okay, after onetime melody, you get the intermezzo where you can play the a minor and all the other courts
of the Internet. So a little bit higher
in other inversions. Then again, you
get the metallurgy and after the melody,
that second intermezzo. And in that intermezzo
you could play the courts even higher in
other inversions like this. I forgot. Again the melody. By the way, if you want to take other inversions like here
or here, It's up to you. You can choose it yourself
so you can try them all out. It actually also depends
on the sound you have on your keyboard or just,
or acoustic piano. So just try it out. Anyway, it's a good way of
practicing all the courts. So in this lesson, the only minor chord is of
course the a minor chord. In next lessons, we will also practice
other minor chords. Okay, as always,
you can download that play along file in the
resources of this lecture. Okay, It's finally time
to play. Let's go.
10. The other minor triads: So now that we know how
to make a minor triad, it's time to look at all
the other minor triads. Now, just for the overview, I have here, again, the circle of fifths with all
the minor and major scales. By the way, I can
use this circle of fifths and they'll
only for skills but also for courts. And that's what I'm going
to do in this lecture. So we see that we know nine
different minor scales. And that's only the three highlighted once
we don t know them. So we can make nine different
minor chords, minor triads. Now, most of them, you are going to find
out because it's a good exercise to illustrate. Let me start to do the
C minor triad for you. So there we go. The C minor triad. I take first the C minor scale. The C natural minor
scale here is displayed when we
take the first, the third, and the fifth note of the C
natural minor scale. Those are C, E flat. And G to C minor triad
consists of those three nodes, C, E flat, and G. Let me now compare the C minor triad
with a C major triad. Now what do we see? Are almost equal. There's only one note
that's different, and that's the third
indicates of the major triad. It's the major third. And in the case of
the minor triad, it's the minor third. The roots and two-fifths
are exactly the same notes. So the difference is only
one node, the third. That means that I could have
made a C minor triad in a much simpler way than
by taking the first, third, and fifth, the
C natural minor scale. I could have taken to C
major triad, C, E, G, and lower the major third, E by a semitone to the
minor third E-flat. That is much simpler. I will give you one more
example of a minor triad. After that, you're going
to do it by yourself. Let me do e.g. the
D minor triad. I first take the D major triad, which are the notes D, F-sharp, and a, as you know. The major third, F sharp. I will lower that
by a semitone to F. This gives me
the D minor triad, which consists of
the notes D, F, a. So the rule is, take the major triads and
lower the major threats by a semitone to the minor third
to obtain the minor triad. And that's all. So here we have our
circle of fifths with the three scales that we
haven't seen yet highlighted. So for all the other scales, you're going to find
yourself the minor triads. Of course, I give the
answers afterwards, but you can pause the
video to find it yourself. Okay. And what's not so very
difficult to, there we go. I will show you only the
root positions for now. The inversions, they're so simple you can make
them yourself. It works always in the same way. I will first go on the
right side of the a minor to the scales with sharps. I know the first place we
have the E minor triads. The E minor triad consists
of the nodes E, G, and B. On the next place, we
have to be minor triads. The B minor triad
consists of the nodes B, D, and F sharp. Then we have the F
sharp minor triad. Those are Denotes
F-sharp, C-sharp. After F-sharp, we have
to C sharp minor triad. Those are Denotes
C-sharp, E, G-sharp. And the last one with sharps is that G-sharp minor triads. Those are Denotes
G-sharp, B, D sharp. Let's do the triads
with flat nodes. So on the left side of the, a minor triad is
the D minor triad. We already saw that. So we go to the G minor triad. G minor consists of the
nodes G, B-flat, and D. We saw already the
C minor triad. So now we have seen
all the minor triads corresponding with the nine
scales that we have seen. Now, the great thing with our very simple
method of creating minor triads by simply lowering the major third of the
major tried by a semitone. We can even apply it to the three Last courts that we've highlighted here
in the circle of fifths. So without even knowing
the minor scales, we can still find the
minor triads, e.g. F minor. Now we know F major. Fac is the major third. We lowered it by a
semitone to A-flat. A-flat is a minor third
in the scale of f. So this F, a flat, C is the F minor triad. The next one,
B-flat minor triad. Well, let's first look at
the B-flat major triad. These are the notes B-flat, D, and F, D flat major thirds. When we make a minor
third out of it, we have to lower it by
a semitone to D-flat. So this is the
B-flat minor trade. B-flat, E-flat. F difference is
the binder third. And finally, the D-sharp
or E-flat minor triad. Now we don't know to
D-sharp major types, but we do know the
E-flat major triad, which is E-flat G, B-flat. G is a major third. When I lowered the
major thirds by a semitone, I get G-flat. So this is the
E-flat minor triads. G-flat is a minor third. So now we've seen all
the 12th minor triads. Now in the resources
of this lecture, you can download a PDF with all those minor triads
in older inversions.
11. Notation of minor chords: So here's a very,
very quick lesson about the notation
of minor chords. It's very simple. You just
take the symbol of the court. So a or B flat or D or whatever, followed by a little m. And that's denotation
of the minor courts.
12. Exercise: The minor triads: Okay, time for the
next exercise. That minor triads, as you know, we can all 12th, not only nine but 12th
because we know now a method how to obtain all
the 12th minor triads. Go to the PDF file
that belongs to this lesson and open it
and you see two links. There are two
different exercises. The first exercise,
because as you see, it's only root positions. So that's a bit simpler. Once you know that you
can do the second one. And there, you're going
to do all the inversions. I don't have to say
to explain how it works because it's the same as the former
exercise that we did. So Bob's do minor scales
had a nine minor scales. So just open a PDF, click on the link
and do the exercise. See you in the next one.
13. Exercise Minor and major triads: Okay, in this lesson,
another exercise, and those are the minor
and major triads. So that you can
train this with it. You can exercise with a mix
of major and minor triads. In total, you will have to 12th minor triads that you know, and nine major triads. So to get her 21 different
triads times three positions, root position, first and
second thing versions. So just click on Link. Works in exactly the same
as all the former exercises and drain with the mix of
a minor and major triad. Okay, see you in the next one.
14. The chords in "Aint no Sunshine": In the song, Ain't no sunshine, which you will probably know which because it's very known. Otherwise you look
it up on YouTube. As usual, we will practice
a minor chord is a minor, D minor, and E minor, a minor, we didn't already. But to more minor chords, the D minor and E minor. And by the way, apart from
the three minor course, there's one major chords, that's just G major chord. And that's all the courts
there are in this song. So quite simple. Okay, yeah, I will just play
the first line of the melody so that you
recognize the song. But be aware that I will
not teach the melody here. It's just courts
what we will learn. So that first melody
line goes like this. Okay, with this first line, belong to the next chords, and I actually will play it an octave higher so that I'm not in the way
of my left hand. Okay. So again, we don't look
at it right out there, so don't look at the right hand. I just do it so that we have the melody with the courts that it played with
the left hand. So please look at
the left-hand word. Play the chords
Even if you will, a first-time, do the courts
with your right hand. And once you master it will
with your right hand is of course important that you
also train your left hand. So the courts, okay, so let me do this again. So the melody actually starts, even when there are no
courts yet to play. And then on this note, this last note of the melody, you start to play the chords. Okay, so what are those courts? Those are a minor, E minor, G minor. So watch out there. This
G is a major chord. So this has to be played twice. And I forgot the
melody does this. So what we'll do
that again, okay, So as was the case in
the previous part, you don't play in the
beginning that there's only melody, no courts yet. So first chord, E
minor, D minor. And finally, exactly the same courts as in
the first part. So a minor, E minor, G, a minor. Let me play this
second part again. For dads. You started
again with the first part. Okay. And that's repeated. And then there's this sort of internet zone where there
are no course at our plate. Okay, but you will hear that better ones I played with bent. Just listen well, Luke,
well how I do it? After that, you start again
with those two parts. And totally at the end, you end with several times this in total four times. That's the end of the song. So let's just the chords, a minor, E minor, G minor. So that's actually a whole
time, the same courts. Okay. Yeah. I will
play it in a while on the piano and that way
you can see it better. By the way, I will also
play with my right hand. I play the courts and with my left hand I will
play the bass notes. So the roots of the courts. But when you do it
for the first time, just start with
only the right-hand so that you learn
well all the courts. And then later you can
always add the bass notes, the routes with your left hand. And after that, it's important that you also drain
your left hand. I mean, the courts. So in that case you will
not play bass notes. You play the courts then
with your left hand, so that you also know how to play the courts with
your left hand, not only with your right hand. One more thing, In order for you to learn all the
inversions of the courts. I start here. Later on. I play other
inversions, like here. Then even later on
I play it here. You see that I played the
whole time the same chords, a minor, E minor, G minor, but also here, a minor, E minor, G minor, and also here a minor
E minor, G minor. So in this way you
learn well how to play all the inversions, okay, So that doesn't
mean that you always have to play this
song in this way. So first here and then
the second time there, and the third time here. It's just a way to train
all the inversions. Okay, so let's start
to paint with event. As always, you can
download the play along track in the
resources of this video. So I would say, look well, listen well, and then
have fun playing it.
15. The chords in "Harry Potters Theme": We will do in this lecture,
Harry Potter's theme, we will do the courts
with Harry Potter theme. And it's a great theme to
practice minor chords. We will practice to
more minor chords, the a minor and E minor.
We did them already. They are also in the song, but there are two
new minor courts, F and G minor. And actually, Harry Potter theme consists of almost
only minor courts. There was only one major chord, that's the F sharp. Try it. And now you see, of course, Hey, but F sharp, that's one of the three
courts and one of the three scales that
we haven't seen yet. So how can we know? Well, a little bit later
on, I'll tell you a very, very easy trick how to simply play the F sharp major triad. So what I will do is to
play the courts with the left hand so that I have my right hand to
play the melody. Don't look at the right-hand. Look only at the left-hand because we are doing
only the courts. I will play the melody solid. At least we have the
melody with the courts. But the melody is quite, Yeah, it's not so easy to play. So don't look at the
right-hand, only the left-hand. Know you will first
try the courts with your right hand and later on also with your left hand.
That's also important. Of course, I will split up
the song in four parts. Let me play that
first part for you. Okay, you probably noticed
that these courts, this left-hand part is really very simple because
it's only one chord, the E minor chord. Now what I do when
we will play it later with the bent,
will actually bend. It's not a real bent,
it's only the melody. So when we will
play it later with the melody on the
play along track, then I will make a little bit of variation
in this E minor chord. I will first plate like this, then this inversion
than this inversion. And then again this inversion. So I actually played four times in three
different inversions. Because that part, yeah, It stays for quite a long time. And not only this
makes more variation, but also you can practice
the different inversions. Okay, so that was the
first part, very simple, only the E minor chord, even if we play it in three
different inversions. Okay, so let's continue
to the second part. So you'll see that
in this second part, there are some more
courts that we use. So I start with
the E minor chord, and then the G minor chord, F minor chord, then a minor. And now comes the only major
chord which is F sharp. And finally, we got E minor. Okay, about this
F-sharp major chord, it's a court did
we don't use very often and we haven't
seen it yet. But you can easily
derive it from the F chord because F sharp is, have its own higher
than f. So that means that all the courts
tones are also a half, a tone higher than the
chord tones of the F chord. So that could be an
easy way of finding out how F-sharp major chord is. The F chord is F a, C, F sharp is a halftone hired and F. So as I said before, every, the court tone of the F
sharp cord is Halftone above every chord
tone of the F chord. The F Court. And then
I raised the F to D, F sharp, a, a sharp, and this C to C sharp. And that's the F
sharp major chord. And as you know, you can
play other inversions like this one or this one. So root position, first
inversion, second inversion. Bec to this second part.
I will play it again. E minor minor, F minor, E minor, F sharp. And finally E minor. Okay, so again, don't look at the melody only at the courts. E minor, G minor, F minor, E minor, F sharp major, E minor. Okay, there are quite
a lot of courts, so perhaps it might be at first sight a
little bit difficult. So perhaps you should
practice that a few times. This part, E minor, G minor, F minor. A minor, F-sharp, E minor. I choose for now to play
those inversions here. Later we will play the same chord progression
in the fourth part, and then we will play
other inversions. Let's go to the third part. And that's again very
simple because it's consists of only
the E minor chord. So exactly like the first
part. Let me play it. So very simple. Only E minor, I'd like you to first part, you will pray
several inversions. Let me play with
the right-hand now. Okay, I played it quite quickly. You got when you play it with the bent or with the
melody, it goes slower. Of course. If you want to play
other inversions up to you, you can do it. But I play this. Okay,
The fourth and last part. And that's exactly the
same as the second part. Well, concerning the
courts, not the melody, but the courts are
important here for us, since we're not looking at
the melody in this lecture. We started with E
minor, G minor, F minor, E minor, F sharp major, and E minor. E minor, G minor, F minor, E minor, F sharp major. E minor. One more time with the melody. Okay, So you have to practice
that chord progression. So by the way, when I
played for the second time, so the fourth part, Dan, I use other inversions. You'll also learn
other inversions. I played it like this. So let's start with
E minor, G minor, F minor, E minor, F sharp, and E minor. So once again, E minor, G minor, F minor, E minor,
F-sharp, E minor. Okay, in this way, we've done than two different inversions. I have not done the
third type of inversion, but if you want, you can
try that also, of course. So I will not play it for now, but you can try it out back. You could e.g. let's
see what did I do? I played the G minor, F minor, E minor here. And the second time
I played it here. So which inversions
didn't we do yet? So that was G minor here, F minor here, and a minor. Which one was it? This one, but they're a bit
far from each other. But anyway, a minor, you practice it already before, so that's not so important now. So, but any way to G minor, you can do it in those
three inversions, the F minor in those
three inversions. So try them all out. Okay, I will, then, when melody plays, play the courts with my right hand and I will play the bass notes. So the roots of the
courts with my left hand. Okay. And when you try it out, I would first tried
without today's notes, so the right hand to the courts, and then you can add the left hand with
the Bates base notes. So e.g. like this, E minor, G minor, F minor, a minor, F-sharp, E minor. And in two parts where
you stay on the E minor, you can leave your left hand
on just these E 0, okay? Um, well, I will play it in
a while with the melody. So as always, listened
well, look, well. Oh yeah, also, this, this song is in
three-quarter time, which just means that you have
three counts in a measure. Even if you don't know exactly what measures and three-quarter time and
all that stuff is. You will learn it later
with music, reading. But for now, just know that it's three counts per measure. So we count 123123. Okay, so for me, for the song starts, I would normally let the metronome count to
three and then it starts. I think it's better to
let it count two times, three counts then
you're better prepared. But there's one little, but that doesn't
start on count one. But it starts a
little bit before one count before it actually
starts on count three. And we call that
a pickup measure. What I will do is let to
do metronome count to 123 and then don't let
it count another 123, but only one too, because on the three,
the melody starts. So you will hear three plus two. So five counts of the metronome before the
melody starts, okay, but since you don't
play the melody, actually for you, it's
not so important, but it's still good to know. Because you could ask yourself, why does it count till five? So now you know that
courts start on the one. So the first melody
note is on the three, and then on the one, the next count,
the court starts. So you'll have 1231231, etc. So but on this e, So that's the first count
of the next measure. You start playing chords. Okay, let me do
it one more time. So like this. And of course you can
download the melody in the resources
of this lecture. Okay, Let's start. Let's go.
Martin Cohen, Teacher, musician and composer
