Natalie: Hello, this is Gigajam, what does that mean? Well it means thirty minutes of learning, playing, analysing, but most importantly having fun. Oh yes, this is the first lesson of the essential keyboard skills course part one, and maybe you've already seen our introductory lesson. If not, don't worry, because myself, Natalie Barrass, and our tutor, Terry Gregory, we're gonna be taking it step by step. Isn't that right Terry?
Terry: That is right, yes
N: Okay, and as its Gigajam we have first of all our lesson objectives. What are they for today?
T: Our lesson objectives are, as usual there's a bunch, very carefully chosen to help us step through the content of the essential keyboard skills lesson. And lesson one is about, introducing the keyboard
N: Dan-da-da-daaaa!
T: So keyboard orientation, familiarising ourselves with the layout of the keyboard. What the names of the notes are, the keys, that kind of stuff. That's the first objective
N: Mmmhmm
T: Our next objective will be how those notes are represented on the stave. That's where we write the music, where musicians write the music on the stave. They're using this system of notation, so that's an important one
N: Mmmhmm
T: We're also gonna be looking at some, they're pitch issues, how high and low a note is, and the name of it. But we're also gonna be looking at some rhythm issues So we're gonna be looking at the length of notes, how long they last inside a bar. So we'll be looking at time, the length of each bar, and how a note each long lasts within that bar, so whole notes, half notes, quarter notes
N: Good stuff, so starting at the beginning
T: Yeah
N: But quickly, are we gonna be doing some playing?
T: There's gonna be lots of playing, yeah, and in the second half of tod…this lesson, we'll be looking at how to play some chords, not just some notes. We'll start with some notes, and then we'll step through carefully with that knowledge, build that knowledge up, assimilate it all, and push forward to the peak of this lesson, which is about chords, playing triads…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …there are a couple of triads we're learning…
N: I like it
T: …on the chords of A and G, yeah
N: Terry, let's push forward
T: Let's go, yeah, let's look at the keyboard, Well, we should start at the very beginning, and the very beginning of the alphabet is…
N: A
T: A. So that's where we'll start our musical alphabet. We'll start right at the very beginning, which is A, and we'll find where A lives on the keyboard. As everyone, I'm sure, is aware there are black and white notes, and A is a white note
N: Right
T: So, and there's where, that's where A lives. And I'm playing A there with my first finger
N: And that's, where abouts is that in relation to the other notes?
T: Yeah, I mean that's an interesting thing isn't it? We talked a little bit about that in the introductory lesson, about how the keyboard is organised, so orientating yourself on the keyboard, getting a feel for the layout of the keyboard, getting familiar with it. A is there, so if I hold that with my left hand…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …and then we use that to get our bearings on the keyboard. We talked in the introductory lesson abut the fact that the keyboard is really on sector which is then copied up and down to create a big keyboard
N: Mmmhmm
T: This A note lives there, inside this sector, the sector we call one octave. So A, B, C. Now we found that C on the keyboard was quite easily identifiable because it's the one that lives immediately before the two black notes…
N: Yes, I remember you saying
T: …so it's kind of already wrecked my system this black and white system. So A is just down from that. I can locate the A cos my finger's still on it…
N: (Laughs)
T: ..but also I can kind of remind myself with this black and white system again that I've got three notes here, and the A lives just after it
N: In between the second and third…
T: Yeah
N: …black note, when there's the group of three black notes
T: Yeah…
N: Okay
T: …and to help you visualise that, the lesson, as represented on the software if you scroll through, there's a great picture of a keyboard there…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …which shows you exactly where the note is. There's a little red blob…
N: Fab
T: …which says, there you go, and the letter right underneath it is written in big black ink, it says A, and there it is. So it also spells out all the other notes on the keyboard…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …so slowly as we go through it, we'll become more familiar with where all those notes live. You're scrolling down to the next section, which shows you where that note would be written on the stave. So thanks for that Natalie. Introducing the musical stave
N: Yeah
T: We've got what we call the treble clef, that's that funny squiggle
N: Yes, that's very difficult to explain that symbol, isn't it?
T: It is
N: It's that sort of upside down squiggly 'and' sign, but not really
T: Yeah, I'm sure people have seen something like that, people use that musical symbol to represent all sorts of things, don't they? In life you see it all over the place…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …the treble clef. Now I'm gonna play the treble clef notes with my right hand on the keyboard. And the treble clef, other instruments in treble clef would be things like guitar. The bass clef, we're not doing anything at the moment but we will soon, stick around…
N: Oh good
T: …the bass clef is usually controlled by the left hand. That's a bit of an over simplification but it'll do for our purposes at the moment
N: For the moment, yeah
T: So we're playing this A note in our right hand, on the treble clef, and as you can see, the note of A is represented on the second space. So you either write a note on a line, or on a space. This happens to be represented in a line. So again, there's quite a lot of information…
N: Mmm
T: …to assimilate here. Where the note lives on the keyboard, and where the note lives on the stave
N: Okay, good stuff. So if we scroll through, we've got introducing and understanding whole notes
T: Yes
N: And then we've got an exercise, exercise one
T: Yeah, we've got an exercise there so the whole notes says, okay we're gonna play this A, we're gonna play it in the exercise, but we need to know how long the note lasts
N: Absolutely
T: We could just play, and you think 'is that long enough?', or 'should it be a bit longer?' So there are rules governing that, and the conventions are that music is divided up into bars
N: Into bars, right?
T: Into bars, music's divided up into bars, and each bar has a certain length. So the most normal, the most usual, common, a common length of a bar, is four, four beats in a bar. So, I mean, if you were expecting to count the band in, you'd probably hear people saying 'a one, two, a one…
T & N: Two, three, four'
T: Okay, so that's normally the length of it. And that means there are four beats in each bar. That's the most usual, and most normal, or common time, time signature we call it
N: And that's what it's called, common time
T: It's called common time because it's the most common one. And that's represented on that exercise one there, by that big C there…
N: Oh
T: …it doesn't mean the note of C because we know that's the note of A. That C there represents the time signature, and it tells you that that space between the front and the end of this example, the two bar lines, will last four beats
N: Mmmhmm
T: So whether you count that in quickly like I just did then, a one, two, three, four, or, you count it in more slowly, that note would last the same time. So, if I count it in quickly…
N: Yeah
T: …a one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, they…
N: Keeping the…
T: …both last that long
N: …same speed as you've done the count in, so…
T: If I count…
N: …it's a question of tempo
T: If I co…yes, tempo, that's the word Natalie, yeah very good. If I count it in slower and go, a one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. So that's a bar…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …at those two different tempi, tempo's. A faster one, and a slightly more gentler one. But the note which is a whole note…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …it's called that because it lasts a whole bar
N: Ah I see. Alright so what do we do in exercise one then?
T: In exercise one, we look at the exercise and we are aware that it's this A which I'm, and I know where to find that A on the keyboard
N: Mmmhmm
T: I need to decide which finger at the moment I'm comfortable with. The exercises will usually tell you, advise you which finger or fingers you should be using
N: Mmmhmm
T: So I'm gonna play it with my thumb for the time being. Thumb of my right hand. And I know it's an A, because we've been learning an A note and it's written on the second space. And I need to play that A as a whole note lasting four beats, so maybe what I'll do just to check that I've got everything right, is have a look at the video clip
N: Mmmhmm
T: And see somebody else playing it, just to make sure I know exactly what I'm doing. So thanks Natalie…
N: That's alright…
T: …you are…
N: …so this is the left hand icon, with the picture of the camcorder on there
T: That's right, first icon, here it comes
N: And here it is coming up
(Video starts playing)
T: Okay, so
N: One, two…
T: So I can copy that
N: …three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two…
T: Okay, so no…
N: …three, four
T: …movement at all…
(Video stops playing)
T: …the hand resting nicely on the keyboard, just nice and gentle
N: Mmmhmm
T: And just that thumb moving up and down. We've talked about this a lot in all of the other essential skills classes, whether that's guitar, bass or drums, about economy and, you know, putting the energy into the playing
N: Mmm
T: And not moving the hand around unless you absolutely have to
N: Okay
T: So I think I'm ready to, to go for it. What do you reckon?
N: I think definitely. I've got the Xtractor here…
T: Thank you
N: …which gives us the Gigajam backing band
T: Right
N: Which makes it…
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: …more interesting, and keeps you in that tempo as well
T: I get four clicks to count me in
N: Yeah. One, two…
T: And I'm playing the note
N: …three, four, one, two, three, four…
T: And you're helping me count
N: …one, two…
T: That's cool
N: …three, four. So it's lasting for those whole…
T: You've gotta keep…
N: …four beats
T: …the sound down
N: Three
T: And I don't take my hand up any earlier than I need to, because if I do, like to get ready
N: Mmmhmm
T: The sound will stop and that's not a good idea
N: Okay
T: So I keep my thumb down. Great, okay good
(Xtractor stops playing)
N: Okay I mean that's quite an easy exercise just to get us into the swing of it…
T: Yeah
N: …we're already playing it now
T: Easy one to warm up to and as we explained in the introductory lesson, we would then probably record the lesson, pressing the red button for record, and then analyse that lesson, look at my performance, see how I did…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …whether I was hitting the note right on time, whether I was keeping the note length. And if not then I can do another recording and correct those kind of issues
N: Just keep looking back at what we're doing, and then moving forward. Alright, talking of moving forward, in exercise two
T: Yeah
N: We're looking at a different type of rhythm
T: Absolutely, we're looking at half notes. So we talked so far about a whole note, taking up the whole bar, so all four beats of our common time. What we need to do now is cut that, chop that in half, divide that in half. So instead of one note that lasts the whole bar…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …i.e. four beats, we have two notes each of which lasts two beats
N: Good visualization actually there…
T: You like that?
N: … with the fingers, yeah, yeah
T: Good
N: That makes sense
T: And each of those notes will now last for half of the bar, so…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …guess what they're called?
N: Half notes?
T: Genius, yeah
N: (Laughs)
T: So it's a very logical system. Sometimes there's a lot of names, lot of terminology and labels for things, but just stop and think about it for a second, work through the exercises and the examples…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …and it should help you to understand all that gobbledegook
N: Alright, so in exercise two…
T: Yep
N: …which note are we playing? Still the same one?
T: In exercise two it's still A, we haven't got anywhere. We've just changed the rhythm…
N: Yeah
T: …but the pitch remains the same. So we're just gonna play A using half notes, thumb on the right hand, the same A, same place on the keyboard, same place on the stave, just using half notes
N: Alright…
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: …let's have a listen to how that one sounds then. So this is exercise two
T: So I can hear the virtual keyboard, one, two. So I need to go..
N: One, two, three…
T: Okay…
N: …four…
T: …practising, and I'm gonna…
N: …one, two…
T: …join in…
N: …three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four
T: Great
N: One, two, three, four
T: I'm happy, I'd be happy, I think…
(Xtractor stops playing)
T: …to have a go at recording that
N: Yeah?
T: I feel ready to do a recording
N: And then you coulda done like an analyse? Alright, good stuff. Terry it's the end of part one
T: Okay
N: Coming up in part two we're gonna be looking at some chords. See you in a few minutes
N: Welcome back to part two of lesson one. This is the Gigajam essential keyboard skills course part one, with myself Natalie Barrass, and our tutor Terry Gregory. Terry, I couldn't almost say your name then, I'm so excited that you're here in the studio with us
T: (Laughs)
N: Alright then before the break we were learning the note of A
T: Yeah
N: Now we're gonna learn a chord
T: Absolutely, yeah just get straight on with it, you know, let's get straight into it. This may not be the way you would learn if you were learning piano…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …in the conventional manner. But hey, this is Gigajam, this is contemporary music…
N: We're not conventional
T: …essential keyboard skills. We are certainly not conventional, and we're just getting ready to get through the course and getting ready to play with other people. So…
N: Alright
T: …we're going now for the chord of A, which is of course is built on the note of A. We know where the note of A is, it's there, we've played that with the thumb
N: Yeah
T: And we remember locating it, there's the three black notes together, there's the two, oh okay, fine there's A. So we need a couple of other notes to make the chord of A, and that's A, C sharp and E. So I shall explain a couple of things about that
N: Absolutely
T: A is okay, I guess E is okay, you'd probably, if you were gonna count on the keyboard through the alphabet, can you count an alphabet? I'm not…
N: Yeah, well you can say an alphabet
T: You would go A, B, C, D, E and so on, I guess, through the alphabet. So the fact that we need this note means that doesn't fit into that system. So rather than that being called, what would it be called? A, B, C, rather than that note being called B, sorry, rather than that note being called C, it's called C sharp
N: Explain to me sharp, cos I know sharp and flat but in relation to keys on the keyboard
T: Yeah, usually the way it's described is that the black notes have usually got sharp and flat names. Normally we start on, we've started on A, so you could count up the rest of the letters, and that would all be A, B, C, D, as we've said and so on. So when you want to play a note outside of that, like we need to for this to make the chord of A, to make the triad of A, it's called a triad, because we play three notes together at the same time…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …as a chord. Because we need that note, and not this note, we describe that note in terms of its nearest neighbour. So we would have thought A, B, C, well I want that note, so I think of that as some kind of C note. It's a C but it's slightly higher than a C
N: Yeah
T: So it's kind of a big C or a high C, so we call it C sharp
N: Okay
T: So usually we think about sharp being the next one up, next door, so you can think about sharpening up a pencil or something
N: Ah yeah, that's a good way to remember it cos it's also next to D isn't it…
T: It's also next to D
N: …and that would be D flat
T: You know all about this, you've been paying attention in the essential skills lessons
N: Always Terry
T: So if we were going to think about it in another way, in another exercise perhaps, we might think about that name as being a function of D because, as you rightly say Natalie, it is right next door. In which case we would think about it going down, and that would be D, and so this would be little D, it's below D, less that D, we call that D flat
N: Almost like a flat tyre…
T: There you go…
N: …going down
T: …that's the analogy. So sharpen up and flatten down. So we've got A, C sharp and E, and they're the three notes we need to play our triad, and they're on the illustration in the Gigajam software
N: Mmmhmm
T: Red dots to show you exactly which notes to play and big note names so you can't possibly get confused. Fingering, I'm still using my thumb for the A, and my middle finger for the middle note, the C sharp…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …and my little finger. And I need to make sure that I'm comfortable with my hand position, because I'm gonna need to play this in a rhythm in a second, with the exercises here. Either as a whole note, or as a series of half notes, and I wanna make sure that, pretty much, those notes all fall together. There are other exercises later on, because we'll need this skill as we develop as a keyboard player, where you might play those notes separately. But at the moment, we're looking at playing them all simultaneously, so they all fall at the same time
N: Alright, let's…
T: So this…
N: ...have a look at…
T: …is exercise three
N: …exercise three
T & N: Yeah
T: There's the three notes
N: Mmmhmm
T: How they're written on the stave, in the treble clef in the right hand, with…
N: All stacked up on one another
T: All stacked up so that they all occur at the same point. If there were gonna be played at different times of course, they would literally appear after one another. But they're all at the same time, that means they're all to be played simultaneously, at exactly the same time, the A, the C sharp, and you can see that sharp sign, that kind of criss-cross thing
N: Mmmhmm
T: That's how we write a sharp sign in music notation. So it's A, C sharp, and then the note on top is E, the top space is E. So we're learning a bit about reading as we…
N: Yeah
T: …go, cos it's a very important skill for musicians, you know
N: And the positioning of that symbol, that's right next to the C note. So is it where that falls, that is the note that is sharp?
T: That's right, yeah, very good Natalie. The note is written in the space, and so ideally the accidental should be written, the accidental that's the word we use, musicians, for flat or sharp
N: Mmmhmm
T: So accidentals are flats and sharps. So in this case we're playing the chord of A, which has the notes of A, C sharp, and E
N: Mmmhmm
T: So our accidental is C sharp, and as you say it's written right next to the note and exactly in the same place that the note would be written, whether that's in a space or on a line
N: Alright, well this is exercise three. What I've done, as you can do with the Gigajam software, I've muted out what's known as the default instrument, which in this case is the piano
T: Right
N: So the only piano sound we will hear is you on the keyboard…
T: I'm ready
N: …so we'll see if you've been paying attention to this course
(Xtractor starts playing)
T: Let's rock and roll
N: So that's our count in, so this is for a whole note this chord
T: And this is an A triad
N: Mmmhmm
T: An A chord for four beats, one, two, three, four. It's a whole note and it takes up the whole bar
N: And very important to strike all of those keys down at the same time
T: Yeah, because if you were recording and analysing this, if you did this sort of thing…
N: (Laughs)
T: That would be a bit too sloppy. That's not gonna work..
N: Yeah
T: …and we know how unforgiving the software is, it's really…
N: Keep playing Terry
T: Okay (laughs) it's really very accurate, digital technology so you need to be right on the case…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …you know, you've gotta be on your game
N: Alright well luckily for you we weren't recording that…
(Xtractor stops playing)
N: …but obviously if you were doing that at home…
T: (Laughs)
N: …that's something that you've gotta be doing…
T: Yeah I mean…
N: …and, sort of, checking your progress
T: …we wizz through these sort of things don't we…
N: Yes
T: …quite quickly in these lessons? And of course we've only got half an hour but it would take you much, much more than this if you were doing this at home. You know, you would spend a long time, five minutes at least on each of…
N: Yeah
T: …the exercises. Really make sure you're comfortable before you move, don't be in a rush to get to the next one
N: Mmmhmm
T: The next one won't be any good unless you do the first one right, you know what I mean?
N: No…
T: That sort of thing
N: …good stuff. In this exercise, exercise four I see that we're using half notes…
T: You're a slave driver…
N: …instead of whole notes
T: …Natalie
N: I know, keep going Terry…
T: Okay
N: …keep going
T: …so as you say, playing the chord of A using half notes. It's exactly the same as we did with the notes before but now playing chords. But we're going through exactly the same rhythms, so this is now half notes, two beats each
N: Alright Terry, let's have a listen
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: That's…
T: Two…
N: …our four…
T: …three…
N: …in
T: …four
N: One, two, three, four, one, two, three
T: …That's a
N: …four
T: …chord of A
N: Yeah
T: The A triad
N: Mmmhmm
T: This is A
N: Yeah
T: C sharp, and E and you're helping me count…
N: Three…
T: …the half notes
N: …four
T & N: One
N: Two
T & N: Three
N: Four. And you're playing that with your thumb, your middle finger, and your little finger
T: That's right, and that's the…
N: Two…
T: …triad of A
N: …three, four
(Xtractor stops playing)
N: Beautiful stuff
T: Great, good
N: Let's push onwards
T: Yeah, let's learn another note and another chord to go with it. So we've learnt the note of A
N: Mmmhmm
T: And the chord of A which is made up of other notes. If we think about the musical alphabet, if we go backwards through the musical alphabet this time, back from A, what would come before A would be G
N: Of course, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, yeah
T: Okay, so there's G, so I'm gonna play the note of G, and I'm gonna, using my middle finger and little finger, I'm gonna pick up G, B with the middle finger, and D with the little finger, and that's my chord, my triad of G
N: G, B, D, and we've got the notes, obviously, with the Gigajam…
T: Yeah
N: …course
T: You can see the red dots moving to the blue dots
N: Yeah
T: Here comes the Gigajam file, there's the notation, the stave, and I'm ready to play a G chord
N: Here we go
T: Using G, B, D on whole note
(Xtractor starts playing playing)
T: Two, Three, four
T & N: Two, three, four
N: One, two
T & N: Three, four
N: One, two
T & N: Three, four
N: These are three whole notes played all at the same time
T: Yeah
N: Lasting four beats
T: That's right, and it's…
N: No flats or sharps in this one
T: No accidentals, no flats or sharps required on this occasion
N: Just G, B, D
T: Yeah. And that's whole notes…
(Xtractor stops playing)
T: …chord of G, G, B, D. Good
N: Okay, let's move onwards, to more rhythm. Let's get more rhythmical
T: Let's get more rhythmical…
N: If that's the word
T: …yeah good idea, we've learnt enough chords now, I think, for this lesson. The next thing will be, in order to allow us to change chords we'll, change between those chords, we'll learn a new rhythm. So, so far in terms of rhythm, we've learned about the time signature, common time, four beats in a bar. We've learned about applying that whole bar as one whole note
N: Yes
T: And then we talked about dividing that bar up into two half notes
N: Mmmhmm
T: Now we're gonna divide it up yet again and take those two halves…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …and go from that, to that
N: Dum-da-da-daaa
T: So that's four…
N: Thus meaning quarter notes
T: …four quarter notes, each one lasting, each lasting a beat. So we've got an exercise there introducing quarter notes with A
N: Mmmhmm
T: So I'm ready to go one, two
T & N: Three, four
N: So…
T: One…
N: …these are…
T: …two…
N: …a lot shorter…
T: …three…
N: …just lasting one…
T: …four
N: …beat
T: One, two…
N: A quarter of…
T: …three…
N: …the bar length
T: …four, one
T & N: Two, three, four
T: And then, I've got an exercise here, exercise eight, thank you for that, is switch…is playing the chord of A
N: Mmmhmm
T: One bar as quarter notes
N: Yeah
T: Then, tricky…
N: Dah-da-da-daa
T: …switching to the chord of G for the second bar
N: Yeah
T: And again playing quarter notes. So if I practise it, it's gonna go, A, A, A, A
N: And change
T: And then I'm gonna change, so move from there to there, and just kinda lock that hand position and move it down
N: Yeah
T: And here comes the G bar, one, two, three, four. So this exercise would be changing from A…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …the triad of A to the triad of G using quarter notes
N: Mmmhmm, so we're practising everything that we've learnt in this lesson. We're just
T & N: Putting it all together
T: Yeah good
N: And we're sounding good I think
T: Not bad, let's give it a whirl
N: This then is exercise eight…
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: …Terry Gregory take it away
T: Two, three, four, A…
N: Starting with A
T: …two, three, four
N: Going to G
T: So these are triads
N: Yeah
T & N: A
N: Two, three, four, G…
T: And we're using…
N: …two…
T: …quarter note…
N: …three…
T: …rhythms
N: …four
T: One
N: Quarter notes being a quarter of the bar, lasting for one beat each
T: Perfect
N: I've been listening Terry
T: You have, yeah, you've done well
N: Okay, changing to G…
T: Yep
N: …two, three, four, stop
(Xtractor stops playing)
T: There we go
N: I have to stop you Terry because it's time for the end of lesson one
T: We've achieved a lot…
N: We have
T: …we've done notes
N: Yes, A and G
T: And chords
N: The chords of A and G as well
T: And rhythms
N: Whole notes, half notes and indeed quarter notes
T: Perfect
N: Terry you've been fantastic. Thank you guys for watching. Join us next time for lesson two where we'll be talking about scales, see ya