Natalie: Hello and welcome to Gigajam. This is lesson three of our essential keyboard skills course part one, with myself Natalie Barrass, and of course Terry Gregory our tutor. Terry, how are you today?
Terry: Fine thank you
N: I'm feeling very good, yes. Okay, let's get cracking, lesson objectives…
T: Yes
N: …what are they?
T: Lesson objectives, yeah today's lessons all about developing scales and triads
N: Mmmhmm
T: So a lot of that in the first part of this lesson will be using the left hand
N: Ah cos so far we've only used our right hand
T: That's right, so developing scales and triads using the left hand. That'll mean bringing the scale down an octave, and that will involve us having to learn a little bit about ledger lines
N: Ledger lines, okay
T: And a little bit about the bass clef
N: Alright
T: Looking forward to that, that'll be good
N: Good stuff, alright where do we start?
T: Well the other objective is also this concept of transferability which we'll also talk about. Now that we've gone to such lengths to learn notes and shapes and patterns for scales and triads, and we've developed this kind of consistent fingering…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …we're gonna use that, and make sure that we're able to transfer it to other starting notes
N: As always with Gigajam, kind of taking what we learn, moving it on and…
T: Yeah
N: …integrating it with something new
T: Yeah, well said
N: Good stuff, okay so where do we start?
T: Well you know I'm very left-handed so let's…
N: (Laughs)
T: …just dive straight in with the left hand. So there's our A, we were playing the A major scale
N: Yeah
T: So let's play that again, only this time with the left hand. So if I start playing A with my left hand I'm gonna start with my little finger…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …because it's an ascending scale so I need all my fingers ready to play those notes as we go up the scale
N: That was the lowest note that we played in that scale, yeah
T: That's right, yeah, the starting A, there it is. So I know I've got five digits, so I know, I remember that I needed some kind of thumb under or finger over technique, and I'm gonna need that again. So it's looking at how that works for the left hand really. So if I started the scale, A, B, C, D, E, there's my five digits used up, and I know that the other notes are F sharp, G sharp and A
N: Mmmhmm
T: I need three more, so I'm gonna need these three. So I if do the finger over
N: Yeah
T: Then I should have enough. So let's just review that starting with the little finger, A, B, C sharp, D, E and then that finger over there's…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …the trick. So it's kind of the shape we had in the right hand, descending…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …so that's kind of in reverse, the reverse pattern, it's the one that we use for the right hand, I'm gonna confuse everyone here…
N: (Laughs)
T: …going down, it's the one we use for the left hand going up. And there we go. If we were to come down with the left hand
N: Mmmhmm
T: We'd use three, and then thumb under…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …you alright? You follow that ok?
N: Yeah, following that…
T: Good
N: …it's what feels comfortable isn't it? It's a logical progression
T: Yeah, and it's just that trick, isn't it? That flip there, getting…
N: Mmm
T: …that finger over. So I'll practise that plenty of times, so that I, it becomes kind of automatic, I don't have to think about it. I mean at the moment I'm thinking about it…
N: Yeah
T: …and of course when I'm playing different rhythms, or different notes, them I'm, I wanna make sure that it's a little bit more automatic
N: Okay, well…
T: Good
N: …I've got the notes up there in front of me. That's got the diagram if you're following with the notes at home, where you place your fingers
T: It's very clear, and there's the exercise I was just playing, so you can maybe, and there's the fingering written out starting with the fourth finger, maybe you can track through with me…
N: Yeah
T: …so we play A, B, C sharp, D, E middle finger over, F sharp, G sharp A. And then we start with that A again at the top of the scale and come back down, thumb, one, two, thumb under
N: Mmmhmm
T: So it's just practising that technique as long as you need until you feel that you can dash up and down with it
N: Okay, so if we can feel we can do that, let's move on. You were talking about playing an octave lower
T: Yeah, what we've done so far is, today is play the A major scale ascending…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …and descending. So the A major scale starts there and finishes there
N: Yeah
T: So if I use two hands you can see where the low A at the bottom of the scale lives…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …and where the high A at the top of the scale lives. And we talked in earlier lessons about the symmetry of the keyboard, and the fact that it's kind of one sequence copied. So if you can see that A here
N: Yeah
T: And that E there, A there sorry, you can probably see, if I hold those two, that there's gonna be another A down here
N: The same amount of keys
T: There it is
N: Yeah
T: So what we're gonna do now is instead of playing from there to there, is drop the whole exercise one octave and play from there. No technique, no difference of technique required of course…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …in the left hand, it's just a different place on the keyboard. But if I played that there, then I should be able to play that there. And if I want….
N: And it would feel more comfortable down there, wouldn't it? Cos that's where your left hand…
T: Cos my left hand's on the left side of my body…
N: (Laughs)
T: …yeah. So that's the interesting thing. When you've organised these techniques and they're consistent, and as I say kind of automatic, you can use it here, you could use it here, you could use that one there or there, or anywhere on the keyboard. You could just transfer it across
N: How do you know which octave you're playing? Is it to do with the musical notes on the stave?
T: Yeah, if you look at the stave there, those notes look very different to the ones before
N: Yeah
T: Still quarter notes
N: Mmmhmm
T: And we know that it's the A major scale, so we know that it's A, B, C sharp, but that A is a very different one. The A before was written in the second space…
N: Yeah, up there
T: …and this A seems to be written below the stave, so maybe I should explain that a bit
N: Yeah, it's almost there's one line that's below the stave, and then there's another line…
T: Yeah…
N: …below the stave
T: …so if you think about it there are, there are five notes in the, sorry, five lines in the treble clef…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …where we can write notes, and some spaces. And then the bass clef there's five lines and spaces, so we've got, you know, I don't know, space to write quite a lot of notes
N: Mmmhmm
T: But if you look at the keyboard we don't have enough space to write all the notes
N: Yeah
T: So where do we write the other notes? So sometimes when you play the notes go off of the stave
N: Mmmhmm
T: They go too high or they go too low. So, those notes there, you can see the first two in exercise two…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …have got a tiny little line on which is called a ledger line
N: Ah, this is what you mentioned in our lesson objectives
T: Yeah
N: These ledger lines which are the lines below the stave
T: Yeah, or indeed above the stave…
N: Ah okay
T: …but I'm sure we'll come, come across that later. All that is, is musicians really being lazy and taking a short cut. What we should have done is written a line all the way through the music. But of course we don't need that extra line where there are no low notes
N: Yeah
T: If you look at the second bar, there's no need for an extra line
N: Mmmhmm
T: So we only actually write that small part, of what we call the ledger line, exactly where we need it. And in fact, over the years, the technique has reduced to just writing enough of that extra line to fit the note on
N: Okay
T: So that's still an A, but it's written down below the treble clef
N: Mmmhmm
T: So if I try and play that with my left hand, perhaps you can track the notes again Natalie…
N: Yeah, sure
T: …if you don't mind. So that's starting with the four finger, that's A, B, C sharp, D, E, and then finger over. And then the A again at the top and back down
N: Yeah
T: So in terms of left hand technique it's the, exactly the same fingering and pattern…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …and shapes that I played up there. I've simply taken my hand from there, down an octave lower
N: Mmmhmm
T: And the only other problem was to actually, as you picked up on, reading the example. But apart from that it's exactly the same
N: Lovely stuff. Okay, so we've done scales with our left hand
T: Yeah
N: What about those triads?
T: The same with the triad. Yeah, we did the triad with the right hand before, and we talked about the fact that triads and scales are kind of related to one another. So let's look at the relationship here the other way around
N: Mmmhmm
T: What we did before was take a triad and turn it into a scale. Let's go back the other way, we've got our scale here which goes A, B, C sharp, D, E, F sharp, G sharp, A. And we know that we need only three of those notes for the triad…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …and I remember the shape of the triad, which was playing… And I remember that from my right hand here, because I played thumb, middle finger
N: Mmmhmm
T: And little finger, and I missed those two out. So if I do the same down here, starting on that A, so in my mind I'm transferring that rela…that shape down an octave to there
N: That's the A, the C sharp and the E
T: Thank you, yeah. And that, in terms of relationship to the scale is, the first note of the scale
N: Mmmhmm
T: Miss out the second one, the third note of the scale, miss out the fourth, and the fifth. So I'm picking up first, third and fifth notes of the scale
N: And is that the same for all triads?
T: That's good, yeah it's the same for all triads. The consistency of the system allows us to remember things like that, whenever you want a triad from a scale, just take the first, third and fifth notes. So there's our A major triad, down an octave as you can see, played as a whole note in this exercise
N: Mmmhmm
T: Me using the fourth finger this time, cos I'm playing with the left hand for the first time
N: Yeah
T: Middle finger. So again, it's exactly the opposite, although it's the same fingering as up here…
N: The mirror image, almost
T: …it's, there you go
N: So this is exercise three
T: Yeah
N: What we'll do is move on to the next section which is transferability. So obviously if you're following this along at home with your notes, take the time on this, and do it yourself. But we're gonna move on
T: Yeah, cos we've whizzed through quite quickly. What we've done so far is play the A major scale in the right hand, the A major scale in the left hand…
N: Yeah
T: …at the same location. Then we've lowered it an octave, learnt the left hand finger over and thumb under technique for the left hand, and now we're already into triads. But, I mean, you should take much more time about doing it
N: Mmmhmm
T: What we're gonna do now, as you say, is this transferability idea, which is what you were just picking up on, which is that once you've learned that fingering and that shape, you can move that anywhere else
N: Right
T: So you could pick another note at random like, quite often a conventional place to start learning stuff is C. So we could find C on the keyboard, which is, I remember, I don't know if you remember, is the one before the two black notes
N: Yes I do remember that
T: And then if I remember my fingering in the right hand, do you remember where we played one, two, three, thumb under….?
N: Mmmhmm
T: And I'm just checking with my ear that that still sounds like Do, Ray, Me, So. Yeah that reminds me of the overall sound
N: Mmmhmm. So that's the C major scale that one
T: With the right hand. And now that I've got my new left hand technique
N: Mmmhmm
T: I can try. Finger over, thumb under
N: Mmmhmm. So those skills that we learnt in the last lesson, in lesson two, we can transfer them
T: Mmmhmm
N: And use them and do exactly the same but with our left hand…
T: Yeah
N: …this mirror image idea
T: And we've got the fingering to do it, so if I wanted to do the triad, I'd take the first note, third note and the fifth note…
N: Yeah
T: …of the C major scale, and there's my C major triad
N: Oh it sounds lovely
T: Yeah
N: What have we got after the break Terry?
T: After the break we're gonna develop this even further and look at a couple of new notes
N: Ooooh
T: We'll see some more ledger lines, and a bit of bass clef
N: Okay, so new notes, are you giving me..? Give me a clue as to what they are?
T: Yeah, we need to finish off the work we've started for C, and the new note will be D
N: Okay, lovely stuff. Join us back after the break, right here, for part two
N: Welcome back to part two of lesson three. Now, in the break myself and Terry were chatting about the differences between this half, and the first half that we had before the break
T: Mmmhmm
N: So maybe we should enlighten you as to what that is
T: And let them in on our discussion
N: (Laughs)
T: Yeah we were saying that, you know, we've spent quite a lot of time in the first few lessons working on technique. Right hand initially, latterly the second…left hand. So we've looked at scales and how to, the notes involved and the fingering, the thumb under and finger over…
N: Yeah
T: …and all that stuff. We've done that for right hand, we've done that for left hand now. We've done that for triads and the relationship between the two. So there's quite a lot of information there. So when we learn a new note, like for example D as we said, it shouldn't be too necessary for me to have to go through all the names of all the notes and all that stuff. You can study that stuff from the notes, and then you can spend plenty of time practising all that
N: Yeah
T: And what we need to do now is really underline the importance of this transferability issue. That all the ability we've got, all the skills we've got, we can use to access all the other notes. In future we'll learn more notes. These techniques will allow us to do that…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …you know. So you'll have more time to practise and get all those techniques under control. So…
N: Good stuff
T: …we were looking at C, weren't we, just before you went? And we, kind of played this, the triad of C
N: Mmmhmm
T: I should play the triad of C with the right hand, and I know that my technique, and this is the, this transferability thing, I know that my technique is thumb, middle finger and little finger. And that's play one, miss one from the scale, play one, miss one from the scale, play one. And there's that shape again for my right hand C major triad
N: Mmmhmm
T: So I'm practising that, I could practise it with the files etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I guess what I should do, is take a kind of mental photograph of that shape, of that image, so that I can then move that shape down into the left hand. So if I…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …take the C and copy it down an octave, I could play that there. So I almost can put the two hands next to one another now, this is very interesting that we should come across this now, because in the next lesson we're gonna be looking at exactly this. So far we've been doing this independence
N: Mmmhmm
T: Where the right hand does something, and we put it away, and now we've been looking at using the left hand. What we'll do in lesson four is two handed coordination, so I'm making sure that I can relate my right hand…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …shape to my left hand. So there's gonna be an exercise in the Gigajam notes which shows me the C major scale down an octave…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …in the left hand. So there's that…
N: And that…
T: …C again
N: …exercise is exercise six. So I've got that up there for us now
T: That's…
N: So this is exercise six using…
T: Using right hand
N: …this is right hand
T: Okay, let's do that
(Xtractor starts playing)
T: Three…
N: This is just…
T: …four
N: …a whole note. Three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one…
T: I'll let you…
N: …two…
T: …do all the counting…
N: …three, four
T: …all the hard work
N: (Laughs) One, two, three…
T: And I'm just playing…
N: …four
T: …the C major triad
N: Mmmhmm. Okay, so that exercise we just practised all the way around and…
(Xtractor stops playing)
T: Yeah
N: …just get comfortable with that
T: Yeah, take your time and then make sure that you know how to transfer that shape from this hand, the right hand, to the left hand
N: Mmmhmm
T: You could probably copy that by putting your left hand, maybe, over your right hand. So you can see where the notes are, there they are I depressed them, then get my shape, okay now I can take that shape…
N: Yeah
T: …the left hand C major shape, and move it down an octave, and put it down there
N: Alright
T: It's quite easy to do on the keyboard, on the notes one of the interesting things to point out, is that of course now the notes are so low down that they're fully down into the bass clef
N: Mmmhmm
T: So this is another interesting thing that, we've mentioned this briefly before, that the right hand often is playing notes written in the treble clef cos they're higher up in the sound. And the left hand is often playing notes in the bass clef…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …because they're lower down in the sound. And so far we've only been reading one clef at a time…
N: Yeah
T: …either treble clef, and as you can see here with this example seven, the bass clef. What we'll, what we need to do is become comfortable with this because, as I…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …we mentioned earlier, when we get to lesson four, we're gonna have to be playing with two hands…
N: Absolutely
T: …at the same time. That means reading both clefs at the same time
N: Okay, well let's get comfortable with the left hand
(Xtractor starts playing)
T: Left hand, three. C major
N: Two…
T: Fourth finger…
N: …three…
T: …middle…
N: …four…
T: …finger and the thumb, and if you're looking at the notes
N: Mmmhmm
T: You can see that the note of C is written in the second space of the bass clef
N: Mmmhmm
T: And then the E is above that, and the G is above that. And all the notes are in the spaces
N: Yeah
T: So a good thing about reading triads is, because you play one, miss one, play one, miss one
N: Mmmhmm
T: They fall that way on the stave. They'll either be written all in spaces
N: Mmmhmm
T: Or, if it was a different note they'd all be written in lines
N: Okay, I'm gonna stop this now…
(Xtractor stops playing)
T: Right, fine
N: It's quite visual, isn't it? I mean like you said, it's in one space one key, on the line, next key. So, let's move down to exercise eight we've got
T: Okay, coming up next, so that's an exercise to help you practise this left hand C major triad…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …in the bass clef. So instead of doing what we done before, which is playing, very carefully, all the notes of the triad at the same time, so they all trigger at exactly the same time…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …what we're gonna do now is separate the notes. Play the first one, then the next one, and then the next one and then prove how good we are with playing all three together. So it goes….just like that. And then we carry on looping that exercise, or whatever. Do you wanna play it?
N: Okay, I'm just loading up the Xtractor for us now
T: Thank you very much
N: Here is it
T: And that's C, E, G, I'm just practising and then the triad. One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. C, E, G, triad, C, E, G, it's the same left hand technique you're just using the same fingers as ever. The same fingers as if I was playing the triad together
N: Mmmhmm
T: To play it separately. So no difference in technique, it's simply a different rhythm exercise
N: Okay, well the Xtractor's here
T: You ready for me?
N: Yeah, so this is exercise eight
(Xtractor starts playing)
T: Two, three, four
N: So it's quarter notes then
T: And that may be a bit quick
N: Mmmhmm
T: The first time you do it, so don't feel rushed. You could stop the Xtractor, you don't have to do it now, and…
N: Take the tempo down
T: That's what I'm trying to say…
N: (Laughs)
T: …take the tempo down
(Xtractor stops playing)
T: Great, thanks Natalie
N: Alright so what about transferring to more notes
T: Yeah, that's the key thing, isn't it now? We've spent a lot of time, I wouldn't say, perfecting…
N: (Laughs)
T: …but improving, developing our ability, with these techniques, with right and left hand, and we've been very careful about thumb under, finger over etcetera, etcetera. And about visualising the shapes so that we can do exactly what you said, we can transfer them to different notes. So we can pick another note, the note that's been chosen in the example is D
N: Yeah
T: We just go to D, and I'm now pretty confident that I remember the right hand fingering technique for the scale
N: Mmmhmm
T: And I can relate that to find the triad which goes with D. And I'm pretty sure that when the exercise comes up I'm not gonna have too much difficulty with finding the left hand scale shape for D, and of course the left hand triad shape…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …that relates to it. So I'm pretty sure I can cope with whatever exercises are there. I'll practise them plenty
N: Mmmhmm
T: And I'll maybe reduce the tempos
N: Alright, well exercise nine here is the right hand scale
T: That's the right hand scale for D
N: Yeah
T: Fingering is the same. The exercise doesn't even mark the fingering because it's, you know, pretty sure by now that…
N: Yeah, we should know where we are by now
T: Yeah, we know where we are. If we've been careful to go through it all
N: Mmmhmm
T: So I'm just gonna check my notes first before I play. I wouldn't be rushed. D, there's my D, so I'm just making a note of where D lives for future reference
N: Yeah
T: Obviously it's next to C, and it's between those two black notes
N: Mmmhmm
T: So I know I can locate it there and it's gonna be there at the top. And later on when I have to play a left hand D major scale, I'm thinking oh okay, fine, so…My hand I guess is kind of getting used to this…
N: That sort of stretch
T: …overall, yeah, I mean, my hands are quite large so I'm okay, I can make that one octave stretch. If you can't make that one octave stretch yet, don't worry, you'll be able to soon I'm sure
N: Mmmhmm
T: And in any case you don't need to be able to do that for this exercise because we've got this thumb under and finger over technique
N: Okay, let's have a listen to it just once…
T: Yeah
N: … go once up and down and then I'll put the Xtractor on
T: Okay, yeah good. And it's just quarter notes and it's two bars
N: Mmmhmm
T: So it would go, in D major, one, two, three, four…thumb under
N: Mmmhmm
T: And then back down, same technique as before, finger over. You wanna work out what the notes are called D, E, F sharp, G, A, B, C sharp, D. I'm not gonna dwell on that too much now
N: Mmmhmm
T: That's homework assignment
N: (Laughs)
T: There's…
N: There…
T: …our D
N: …we've got the notes in front of us…
T: Yeah
N: …d'you know what? You did that so beautifully I'm not even gonna do that with the Xtractor
T: Okay
N: But if you're at home, obviously play it with the Xtractor
T: Yeah, you need to play it a lot more times, don't you, so
N: So, exercise ten, is exactly the same as that
T: It's the same thing
N: But with the left hand
T: Yeah, so I mean what I might do, home alone, ahead of this, by way of prep, is I may do my right hand, okay, I whizzed through it then. And I know if I put my D there, sorry, if I put my little finger there on that D there, that's gonna be the same, oh okay. This exercise wants me to transfer that D major scale down an octave…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …so I know that D is there. It's the one in between. There's the low D, so I need to lift up my hand, move it down to the low D
N: Yeah
T: And just copy that technique across, that we've always done
N: And now we're…
T: Transfer it
N: …in the bass clef?
T: We're in the bass clef, thank you for reminding me, yeah. And the D is written on the middle line of the bass clef, that's the root note of the D major scale
N: There it is
T: So I'm ready to play this with my left hand
N: Okay, and here we go, here comes the Xtractor
(Xtractor starts playing)
T: Thank you. Two, three, four, D major. Second finger over, back down, thumb under. So plenty of chance to, plenty of opportunity to keep practising that
N: Mmmhmm
T: To get this technique under control
N: That's the finger over
T: Cos you're gonna need it…
N: Thumb under
T: …for all sorts of other things
N: Alright
(Xtractor stops playing)
N: Lovely stuff, Terry. And those other things would be the G, the D major triad
T: That's right
N: Which you need to be looking at and practising. And also the G major scale which you know already with your right hand, but practise it with your left hand. And you need to do this because in the next lesson, in lesson four, we're gonna be working both of these hands together. Tricky stuff but I know you'll be able to do it. Keep practising, and if you wanna get hold of your Gigajam course notes keep listening for the numbers and website details