Natalie: Hello, welcome to Gigajam. This is lesson five of our essential keyboard skills course part one, with myself Natalie Barrass, and the man who can, Terry Gregory. Terry how are you today?
Terry: Fine thanks Natalie, and you?
N: I'm feeling Gigajam groovy
T: Good
N: If that's a word. Okay, where do we start? Lesson objectives
T: Lesson five, yeah we're halfway to grade one now
N: Mmmhmm
T: So that's quite exciting. And today's lesson is about introducing inversions, so that's a new concept
N: Yeah
T: No real new notes or chords or scales, or any of that stuff today, it's ways, new ways of playing those things, more convenient ways of playing them. So introducing inversions is the first learning objective
N: Right
T: And, you know, practically developing that, talking about economy of movement. If you remember in the last lesson we had quite a lot of chords…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …and I was jumping around all over the place, so there's a way around all that
N: Okay
T: So, and doing that with both the left hand and the right hand, developing how we play triads…
N: Mmm
T: …using inversions, so that we can be more smooth and fluent, and the music is flowing
N: That's what it's all about
T: Yeah, and then at the end there'll be some exercises in the second part. Some chord progressions, to allow us the opportunity to put all that into practice
N: Good stuff, okay where do we start?
T: Well, inversions really. Yeah what we've done so far is we've spent a lot of time in the first four lessons of the essential keyboard skills course learning quite a lot of information. And we've learned about different notes, A and G and C and D. We've learned to play scales for each of those notes, and we've learned to play chords for each of those notes, in either hand, and we've actually worked in the last lesson on developing two hand coordination. Playing a chord, a triad, and a scale at the same time
N: I remember it well
T: Yeah, tricky stuff. So, and as I said earlier, we found that that was okay if we practised carefully. But there are a couple of difficult moves. So this inversions idea will give us the economy of movement to work around those difficult moves. So if I can explain
N: Yeah I was gonna say, when you say difficult moves, was then when we were changing up to the A, cos that was quite a big leap?
T: That's right you get some chords, if you're always playing chords in what we call root position, that's to say if the chord is A, the root of the chord is the note of A. So, so far we've always been playing chords in root position, so if we play a chord of A, it's got an A at the bottom of the chord, whether that's in the right hand or the left hand. And the same, if we play the C chord, it would have a C in position at the root, at the base, at the bottom of the chord so…
N: The lowest note
T: The lowest note in the chord, yeah. So, that's a good way to learn things, it, to start out with because then you know what the name of the chord is
N: Mmmhmm
T: And you can learn your shapes, and you can get consistent fingering and patterns, and all that stuff. So, the next layer of learning is to say, well that's fine, but now that I've got maybe four chords involved in my chord progression, I need to get some tricks here to make changing between those chords more smooth, more…
N: Right
T: …economical
N: We wanna get smooth
T: Yeah, wanna get, wanna get smooth. So inversions help us to do that. So, for example, exercise one looks at an A triad
N: Mmmhmm
T: Moving to a D triad
N: So A is there in blue, if you're following along with the notes
T: Yeah
N: And D is there with the red
T: Right, so if you think about it, if you're, if I'm playing this with my left hand…
N: Yeah
T: …in the bass clef, then my little finger is gonna be on the A, middle finger's on the C sharp, and the thumb is on the E. So my hand is there, and you can see where that lives on the stave, in the bass clef
N: Mmmhmm
T: Yeah? The bottom space is the A, so, and that and the keyboard diagram show you that when you gotta change, you've gotta lift the hand up and move it all the way up there
N: Yeah
T: There's quite a lot of distance to cover. I'm not gonna measure it, but musically that's quite a long distance. I've gotta move to the D, and the F sharp and the A. So you can see on the keyboard that kind of triad triangle, as indicated there in as blue for A, and D for, red for D sorry
N: Yeah
T: There's quite a lot of physical movement, quite a lot of distance to cover
N: Mmm
T: So, and you can see that on the notation as well. And I can play it…it's okay, there's nothing inherently wrong with it…
N: No
T: …it sounds fine. But musicians have worked out methods of changing from one to the other more smoothly. So the important thing to focus on here, and that's why we need to know about the names of the notes inside the triads, is you need to remember that A is an A, C sharp and an E
N: Mmmhmm
T: Okay? And that the D chord is a D, an F sharp and an A
N: Yeah
T: Now what I'm gonna do is look for similarities between those two chords
N: Mmmhmm
T: Look for common ground, notes that are common to both those chords
N: Okay, well I mean looking at the diagram…
T: Can you see one?
N: …if you're following at home, yeah. And also, if you're following this just by looking at your keyboard, you've got with the blue one there which was the chord of A…
T: Yeah
N: … it starts on an A
T: Yeah
N: And then the chord of D, it's highest note is an A
T: It finishes on an A
N: Yeah
T: So why am I going all the way from that A, running all the way up the other end, to pick up the same note effectively?
N: Mmmhmm
T: Okay, it's in a slightly different place, but an A belongs to the A chord, and an A belongs to the D chord
N: Mmmhmm
T: So you know what? I'm gonna take a leap of faith here, I'm gonna take a shortcut, so that when I'm changing chords, I'm gonna look at the next chord if I can
N: Mmmhmm
T: See what notes are coming up, and if any of the notes that I'm currently playing in the first chord appear again in the next chord, I'm just gonna leave them alone
N: You're allowed to use them
T: You're allowed to do that, yeah. And that's called an inversion. So what that means is, I wouldn't have to move my hand all the way up there, for that chord
N: Mmmhmm
T: And again, the con…the consistent nature of the keyboard and the rules governing, you know, notes and chords and scales and music means that that's consistent all the time. And if that works for this chord change from A to D
N: Mmm
T: There must be other occasions when that's gonna work. So if I keep my eyes open, I'm gonna find a much more economical way of moving between chords
N: Can you show me on the keyboard, and then we'll sort of refer that to the diagram as well
T: Yeah so there was our original A chord
N: Mmmhmm
T: So I know that when I go to the D chord, I have to go all the way over here for D, F sharp and A
N: Cos those are the notes that you want to play
T: They're the notes that I need for the D triad
N: Yeah
T: So now we've already established that the A stays. So when I change from the A chord to the D chord, I'm not gonna play that A
N: Mmmhmm
T: I'm gonna leave the A where it is
N: Right
T: So instead of having to move my whole hand, I can leave my hand there, and just change to the notes in the D chord
N: Mmmhmm
T: Which don't live in the A chord
N: Okay
T: So those two notes are D and F sharp…
N: Yeah
T: …so I need to find my D, which is there
N: Mmmhmm
T: And I need to find my F sharp, which is there, so they haven't changed, they're still the same. The difference is instead of playing the A there
N: Yeah
T: I'm playing the A down there
N: Right, and we can see that as well on the diagram if you're following your notes at home
T: Yeah
N: There we've got the colour coding system, which really works actually. You've got the blue notes being A, and then the red being D, and then seeing that that's your common note, so therefore you're just changing that. So you're spreading the fingers a little bit more
T: Yeah
N: To cover that, but you're not having to move the hand
T: Yeah, I'm moving the fingers, but I mean I've got those digits there, they've only gotta move across a little bit, rather than pick up my whole hand
N: Mmm
T: And obviously in the course of a song, if you've gotta do that for every chord that comes up, you're gonna…
N: Yeah
T: …get tired. So, really good economy here, you…
N: Alright, well…
T: …can see
N: …why don't we have a practise of this?
T: Yeah sure
N: As we're here at exercise two
T: Yeah
N: If I load up the Xtractor
T: Okay
N: You talk us through the exercise that we're doing
T: Okay you can see on exercise two it's written in the bass clef. A is the first chord, the A at the root
N: Mmmhmm
T: Being in the first space. So that, that is a root position chord, that's as you'd expect it. The second chord, you can still see it's got an A at the bottom, so slightly confusing here we need to make sure we understand this
N: Mmmhmm
T: It's got an A at the bottom of the chord
N: So that notes…
T: But it's…
N: …still the same
T: …not an A chord
N: No
T: So we're taking a leap of faith here, this is a big, big concept to understand. The important thing I think to focus on is the fact that the chord happens at that moment, and as long as all the notes of the chord are present inhat moment, it isn't so critical which order they're in. Does that make sense? As long as the notes of the D triad are present
N: Yeah
T: It doesn't matter that they're the wrong ways up, they're inverted
N: How would we know that that is the chord that we're playing, the D chord, for example?
T: Well that's why you need to know the names of notes and the names of chords and the names of scales, and how they related to one another…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …because it would be very easy to get confused, and look at that second bar which has got an A at the bottom and think oh it's some kind of A chord
N: Yeah
T: Cos until now that's certainly been what we've found, so…
N: And also, I mean, I suppose how it sounds is gonna be an indicator as well, so…
T: Yeah, you're definitely gonna hear a change, so let's see if we can do it. It's quite low down on the keyboard but, shall we give it a whirl?
N: Alright…
T: Okay
N: …here's the Xtractor
(Xtractor starts playing)
T: So A first in root position, and then up
N: Yeah, that's the A
T: So you can hear quite a lot of change
N: There's the D
T: But there's absolutely minimal effort here
N: Mmm
T: In going from there to there
N: So that's A, to D
T: Yeah I move my hand up, up into the keyboard a bit
N: A
T: If I sit right back here I'm gonna have a difficulty
N: To D
T: Playing that F sharp cos it's only a short note…
N: A
T: …the black notes don't go all the way up, so..
N: Mmmhmm. D. I see you're moving you're hand up…
T: Yeah, I'm gonna…
N: …the keyboard, yeah
T: I'm moving my hand in that way a little bit, towards the keyboard so I've got that flexibility
N: So you can make sure you hit that black note
T: To pick up the notes. Cool
N: And it doesn't matter where you hit the white key, does it?
(Xtractor stops playing)
T: No, the white keys come all the way out, it's those black ones I've gotta make sure I just move in a little bit to pick them up otherwise I'm not gonna have any note to hit
N: Okay, fab
T: Good
N: Let's push on
T: Yeah, so economy in movement, you know, that's what these inversions give us. So if we move on a bit further
N: Mmmhmm
T: And look at some more chords, cos it's gonna work for many, many chords. You just need to make sure you look at the first chord, and the next chord, and if there's any common, any similar notes, any notes the same, then you can use them. So we've got a G chord, which has the notes of G, B and D
N: Mmmhmm
T: And in the next exercise that's followed, exercise three, that's followed by a D chord
N: Yeah
T: So, as before, that's quite a lot of physical movement for me. G down there, low down on the keyboard in the bass clef, and D up there. If I think about the notes of the first chord, G, B and D
N: G, B, D
T: You've got it already. And I think about the notes of the next chord there
T & N: D
T: F sharp and A. Okay, fine, I can keep the D
N: Yeah
T: All I need to do is find, from where I am, which is on G, B, D, I just need to find an F sharp and an A. And you can do that all sorts of ways, either by finding out where they were for the D chord, and then dropping them the octave. I happen to know that they're right next door. So instead of going from there, all the way up there, I'm gonna do this
N: Mmmhmm
T: So that's very little movement for my hand, just my fingers moving around a little bit
N: Mmmhmm. And exercise four, that we've got there on the screen, is one to practise
T: Yeah
N: So let's just quickly run through that…
T: Okay…
N: …without the Xtractor
T: …so that would be one, two, three, four, D, and that's just going from G to D using an inversion of the D chord
N: Good stuff, Terry. Great explanations
T: Okay
N: That's it for part one, join us back here for part two
Natalie: Welcome back to part two of lesson five. This is the essential keyboard skills course part one, with myself Natalie, and him over there, Terry. Terry…
Terry: Yeah
N: …what are we doing in part two?
T: We're trying to put it all together again, it…
N: I like it
T: …sounds familiar doesn't it? So what we did in the first half was triads…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …using inversions. So the first triad we played, for example, A, was in root position
N: Yes
T: And then the second triad, the next triad in the chord progression was in inversion, with not the root at the bottom
N: Mmmhmm. Using that common note we were practising changing between them, weren't we?
T: Sure, yeah it's a nice device. So inversions and economy of movement. Okay, fine so we did A to D, and then we did another exercise which was D to G. So what we need to do now is link those two exercises together…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …and do an exercise that goes A to D to G to D
N: Good stuff
T: So making both moves and the important thing is that everyone understands why we've been harping on about knowing the names of the notes inside the triad because…
N: Why is that so important?
T: Well, because if you know that then you can see, okay I've got these notes in this triad, X, Y, Z or whatever they're called, and then I know that in the next triad, okay at least one of those notes is coming up again…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …so I can keep that. If you don't know that information you won't really be able to use inversions to their full extent, you know…
N: Yeah
T: …derive their full benefit
N: Well it may seem boring at the time, learning all the note names
T: Yeah, and it kind of holds…
N: Gonna help…
T: …you up…
N: …you though
T: …and everything. But that's why people always have this tradition of saying you need to know what you're doing so that you can progress comfortably
N: Okay, well let's progress on to exercise five
T: Yeah, which is only whole notes, so plenty of time to get our moves together. We've got four chords, the first chord, A…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …is in root position. And the fingering for that is four, two and thumb. And then the second bar is a D chord
N: Mmmhmm
T: So I don't move my hand except just to, enough to get the fingers in
N: Mmmhmm
T: For, one, two. So the notes are A, C sharp and D, in the first bar, A, D and F sharp in the second bar
N: Mmmhmm
T: The next bar we've got a G chord, so we've got B, D and G. So this is again an inversion…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …of the G chord, and then back at the end. So what it means is, instead of having to move around from A to D to G and back, I can use the inversions and really I'm keeping in pretty much the same area, the same location…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …on the keyboard, and I'm just doing that and moving back and forward
N: When you look at the musical stave you can kind of, I suppose, that doesn't work for all of them, but you can tell it's using this inversion because the notes aren't together, it isn't one, miss one, one, miss one, one
T: Great observation Natalie. Yeah we talked about that earlier didn't we? The fact that when you start on, for example, the A triad, the A is written in the first space of the bass clef, and so since we've got in triads a play one, miss one kind of technique, you can see that the next note above A is gonna be in a space as well. Whereas when you look at the D ones…
N: Yeah
T: …really good observation, that shape has been disturbed somewhat, and that might tell you that, oh okay that's a triad…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …because there's three notes there but they're not in the root position order that you'd normally find them
N: Okay, good stuff. So…
T: Yeah
N: ..this is exercise five if you're following along at home
(Xtractor starts playing)
T: Two, thr…so that's A. Followed by D, G coming up, back to D, and then start the whole process again. A triad root position, D triad inversion, G triad inversion, D triad inversion
N: Back to the A
T: A in root position. You got it?
N: D, I've got it, have you got it Terry?
T: I think so, I think I'm there. Getting in the groove
N: Let's do it one more time Terry…
T: Okay…
N: …take it…
T: …once for luck
N: …to the end
T: A root position, D first inversion, G first inversion, D first inversion, and back home
N: Mmmhmm…
(Xtractor stops playing)
T: Great
N: …and of course you'd keep practising that wouldn't you? Loop it round maybe?
T: I would, yeah, cos there's quite a lot going on and it's easy to clip another note going through and forget which one you should be playing so
N: Mmmhmm and also try the Analyser
T: Yeah definitely, and see how you did, and then you can disassociate yourself from the performance thing and just review what you did, and then go back in and try it again
N: Mmmhmm
T & N: Okay
N: Scrolling down here I see developing fluency
T: Yes, so it's the same thing only a bit quicker. It's something we talked about earlier with people who play video games, and games consoles…
N: (Laughs)
T: …and stuff, once you've achieved a certain proficiency at that level, you go through to the next level. So I achieved a reasonable proficiency then with whole notes, it's time to get on to the next layer which is half notes. So this is gonna be coming around, the change is coming around just that little bit quicker
N: Mmmhmm, so this is….
T: Same chords
N: …the same A to D to G to D, but playing at half notes like you said, so we're getting a bit speedier
T: Exactly
N: Alright, here we go
T: I'm ready
(Xtractor starts playing)
T: Two, three, four, A, D, G, D
T & N: A
T: Root position
T & N: D
T: Inversion
T & N: G
T: Inversion
T & N: D
T: Inversion
T & N: A
T: Root….inversion
N: G
T: Inversion
N: D, I'll count the…
T: Inversion
N: …beats, one…
T: A
N: Two…
T: D
N: …three, four…
T: G
N: …one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, keep going Terry
T: Thank you
N: I'm almost wanting to sing it along with you
T: Go ahead, you got any lyrics?
N: You can really see, or really you rather can't see, this lack of movement, there's a total economy of movement there
T: At a loss there
N: And a few bum notes (laughs)
T: You didn't record that, did you?
N: No I wasn't recording
(Xtractor stops playing)
N: Brilliant, I…
T: Good
N: …I distracted you didn't…
T: That's fine
N: …I, by talking to you?
T: That's alright
N: Right if we move on?
T: I was waiting for you to start singing
N: (Laughs) No, wait on
T: Okay
N: Okay, adding the root note to your inversions
T: Yeah, it's got quite confusing, hasn't it really? Because we've been doing all this in the left hand, all right down at the bottom end…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …of the bass clef, and we've been using inversions. So we've been playing a D chord
N: Mmmhmm
T: Without a D at the bottom
N: Yes, and that might be confusing…
T: Bit confusing
N: …when you're looking at it or listening
T: Yeah and in fact in reality probably what a keyboard player would do is, if a keyboard player was doing that, the bass player in the band would probably be providing the root note underneath it to anchor, give a good foundation
N: Oh really?
T: Yeah. So what we're gonna do now is emulate that by, instead of playing triads in the left hand, play them in the right hand. And we're gonna use this inversions concept we've just been working on. So we're gonna play the triads in the right hand
N: Mmm
T: Exactly the same approach, going to keep the note the same when it moves to a new chord if we can etcetera and try and use as little movement as possible. And we're gonna use our left hand as a kind of bass player to play the root note, the root letter name of the chord. So that when we play a D chord with our right hand, even though we've got an inversion
N: Mmmhmm
T: Without a D at the bottom, we can correct all that by putting a D underneath it
N: Yeah, so then our bottom note really is that D
T: Right
N: Okay
T: And again it's this two handed thing. So we're only playing one note in our left hand and a triad in our right hand
N: So this is exercise seven
T: Okay
N: Here we go
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: So first of all
T: A, D, G, D
N: A, D, G, D, so that left hand there, playing the A, D, the G, the D, the root note
T: Great, I'm concentrating on what…
N: G
T: …I'm doing
N: D
T: Trying to do a good job
N: Yeah. It really does anchor that, the sound
T: Makes it a bit fuller
N: Mmm, and developing…
T: The left hands doing a bit of work
N: Yeah, this left hand, right hand playing together
T: It's almost like having your eyes looking in different places
N: Mmmhmm
(Xtractor stops playing)
T: Great
N: Talk me through quickly how you were playing the chord, the root notes with your left hand, the fingering that you were using
T: Yeah I was, again we've been talking a lot in this lesson about economy of movement so I've been trying to continue that concept, develop that concept in my left hand as well. We've been talking about that with inversions, but you can do that with the root notes as well, so I know that I was played A there, and then D there, and then G there
N: Mmmhmm
T: And then D. So I'm trying not to run around with my hand, I'm just trying to stay around and let my fingers do the walking. A, up to D, G, D, cos if I move my hand then in order to make sure that it's relocated…
N: Yeah
T: …properly, I've gotta look
N: Mmmhmm
T: I don't really have time to look at that, I've got quite a lot going on in this hand. I may be having to read the music, look at the other guys, look at the singer, whatever. So if I can minimise the movement
N: Mmmhmm
T: It's gonna make my life just…
N: And yeah, if…
T: …that little bit easier
N: …if your left hand, if the fingers are over those keys already
T: Mmm
N: You don't have to think, you just need to know I need to play the thumb, you know, the third, the second finger and then the fourth
T: So I'm just trying to make life a bit easier for myself really
N: That's what it's all about. Alright, exercise eight here, which is the last exercise…
T: Okay
N: …for this lesson, talk me through this
T: Yeah, this one looks pretty frightening doesn't it?
N: (Laughs)
T: There's a…
N: I'm glad you said that, not me!
T: There's a lot going on there and again it's going through to that next video game level as…
N: Yes
T: …it were. Having proved that you can play inversions and change chords in the progression and do that with whole notes and half notes
N: Mmmhmm
T: The next level inevitably is to go to quarter notes. So what I would like to do is probably practise it first…
N: Yeah, good idea
T: …as ever without the Xtractor and then maybe even when I put the Xtractor on, I would go to a lower tempo than I normally do, maybe back it down to sixty…
N: Mmmhmm
T: …which is one beat per second. Because thre's no point trying to rush through it, the important thing is that I can actually do this, you know, that's the important thing. I need to get my performance together so I'm gonna check what I'm doing, which is A, D, G, D. So there was one successful bar, all I've gotta do now…
N: (Laughs)
T: …is replicate that, and so I've gotta go…
N: All you've gotta do is that
T: Yeah! A, D, G, D
N: It's vital you, you know, you've been practising the other exercises
T: Yeah cos you won't be able to just come in at this level and go, yeah okay fine, you know
N: Yeah
T: You've gotta work systematically through, take your time, we always whiz through the exercises but you don't have to…
N: Mmm
T: …take your time
N: Alright, well I'm gonna…
T: Okay…
N: …start…
T: …give it a go
N: …the Xtractor for you
T: Thank you
(Xtractor starts playing)
N: So you can play us out to the end of the lesson. A, G, D, A, D, G, D. This is, is it fair to say Terry, pretty serious playing that we're doing here…
T: Sounds…
N: …after only…
T: Yeah it…
N: …you know…
T: …sounds good…
N: …this amount…
T: …doesn't it?
N: …of lessons?
T: Sounds like…
N: Terry…
T: …quite a lot…
N: …keep going
T: …of songs. Okay
N: Guys, join us next time where we'll be talking about the chord and scale syllabus