Hello, and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman. Today we're learning how to play another new pentascale, the
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Yes, princess the E major and minor pentascale, so let's come to the piano to
EEE!
...to get started. In past lessons we've looked at the C major pentascale
also the C minor pentascale.
We've also looked at the D major and
D minor pentascale and
we've looked at the G major and G minor pentascale.
Today however, we're going to put DO on E and
try and figure out the E major and minor pentascale.
So what if we just used all white keys?
We've seen that the C major and G major pentascale use all white keys. Would that work for E?
What do you think? Let's listen to it.
Mmm, definitely doesn't sound major or minor.
Can you find where the half-step is if we were to use all white keys like this?
That's right. The half-step is right here. A half step is when there's no note in between.
Now if you put the half step between the first two notes of a scale, it actually makes a pentascale called "phrygian"
which has that really unique sound.
That's called E phrygian, but today, we're trying to make
E major so we actually need a whole step between DO and RE.
Since this is a half step, we're going to have to use an F sharp
to get a whole step between DO to RE. You can think of a whole step as two notes with one key in between.
Exactly one key. Could be a white or a black key to make it a whole step. So from E to F-sharp
would be a whole step. That's DO to RE
DO RE
Now RE to MI is also a whole step. Right now we've got a half step,
so we need to raise this pitch as well to a sharp. So we have F-sharp and now here
We'll have a G-sharp and now you can see that between F-sharp and G-sharp
this is now a whole step because there is one key in between.
So we have a whole step from DO to RE, from RE to MI, and now for MI to FA is
supposed to be a half step. Remember MI FA, those are our best friends, and
indeed we have a half step here. There's no key in between G-sharp and A, and then FA to
SO is also supposed to be a whole step. Is this a whole step?
If you said yes, you're correct because it has this black key in between we can tell that that's a whole step.
So this would make the E major pentascale
and I kind of talked you through how I found that.
Now let's point and name each note
Using their letter names. Ready, try to say it with me. E
F-sharp G-sharp A B
and in solfège that would be DO RE MI FA SO.
Now do you remember which pitch we have to change to make it minor? In
solfège which is the solfège syllable that we have to change?
If you said MI, you're correct. It's always the third note of the scale that we have to lower
a half step, so we're going to take this G-sharp and make it G natural.
Natural just means the white key, so now this would give us E minor in a minor pentascale.
It's the second and third note or RE and ME
MI lowered a half step becomes ME. Now this gives us an E minor pentascale.
Let's point and name these notes, ready, go. E
F-sharp G A
B.
Very good.
Okay, let's practice playing both the E major and E minor pentascale.
Let's start with your right hand and see if you can cover up E, F-sharp, G-sharp, A, B.
Now because you've got two fingers up on the black keys you might want to take finger four and slide it in between
the black keys a little bit so your hand position feels comfortable. All right, so with your right hand in the E major pentascale
Let's try to play chocolate in E major.
Ready, go.
Yum yum yum yum yum, chocolate I have some.
Good, now let's try it with your left hand as well.
Place your left hand finger five on E. Then F-sharp, G-sharp, A, B.
Two black keys, now, ready, go.
Yum yum yum yum yum, chocolate I have some.
Great
Now let's try to make it into E minor. So now from where your hand was before
we're gonna take that 3rd finger and lower it a half step, so
now let's just do right hand once. We'll have finger 1 on a white key figure 2 on F-sharp finger 3 on G.
So now we can have creep creep creep creep creep
little monster feet.
In our E minor pentascale. Can you try that with me? Ready, right hand go.
Creep creep creep creep creep, little monster feet.
Now left hand in E minor, ready, go.
Creep creep creep creep creep, little monster feet.
Good.
Now can you point to the three notes that will make the I chord in E major?
Remember the I chord is built on DO, MI, and SO.
That makes the I chord, or in minor DO, ME, and SO.
So here would be our E minor
chord, or if we wanted E major we just move the G to G-sharp and that gives us E
major.
Now can you try playing both of those chords? Let's try E major first.
So we've got E, G-sharp, B with fingers 1, 3, 5. E major.
Good, now try E minor.
Good, now let's try that with the left hand. Left hand cover up E, G-sharp, and B with fingers 5, 3, 1, E major triad.
Good, and then E minor.
Good.
Now let's try and figure out the V7 chord, so I'm going to go back to an E major triad.
Remember that a V7 chord is built on TI, and TI is the very nearest note below DO.
So if we are on this E the nearest note down, one half step down, would be this D-sharp, and then
the other note we have is FA. So if we're on a MI
We're gonna go up just a half step to FA so now we have TI, FA,
and SO, and those three notes together make the V7 chord.
Now if your hand isn't quite big enough to reach this
You can just use a one and a two for the V7 chord.
But if your finger five reaches that D-sharp no problem then go ahead and try all three notes.
So let's practice going from, I'm gonna use my right hand now, going from a I chord
to a V7 chord
with fingers one, four, and five, and then back to a I chord.
Because your thumb is gonna play a black key you want to slide your hand forward.
So your finger four may be playing way up in between the black keys, and then back to the I chord.
Good, press pause and practice
switching between a I chord and a V7 chord a few times with both your right hand and
left hand and then press play when you're ready to go on.
Okay, now let's practice playing stepping and skipping using the E major pentascale.
We're going to do it once right hand once left hand and then hands together.
So, starting with your right hand, but go ahead and place both hands in the E major pentascale, and
we'll go at it about this tempo, boom boom boom. Here we go, one two ready
right hand stepping up and
stepping down and skipping
up and down.
Then a I chord, V7 seven chord, and back to I chord. Good, now left hand go stepping up and stepping down and skipping up and
down, I chord, V7 chord, I chord. Now both hands go.
I chord, V7 chord, I chord.
Good.
Now as you play make sure that your fingers are staying in good piano posture, a
little bounce in the wrist as you play each note
will help keep you relaxed and using your arm weight to make each note go down.
Now let's switch and try the same thing again in E minor.
So our finger three in both hands will move from G sharp to G natural so now we've just got one finger on F sharp
in position for E minor. Let's do stepping and skipping right hand first, ready, go.
Stepping up and stepping
down and skipping
up
and down
I chord, V7 chord
I chord.
Let's mention as we've seen before that the V7 chord is the same whether it's major or minor.
Okay, that's the same chord we had before
when we did major. Now let's try the left hand with the E minor pentascale ready, go.
I chord, V7 chord, I chord. Now both hands.
I chord, V7 chord, I chord.
Great job.
Now if you're comfortable with that, and you want an extra challenge, remember, there's also
contrary motion. I'm gonna go back to the E major pentascale. Remember for contrary motion our fingers move in opposite directions.
You start on finger 1 in both hands, and you step out. What's tricky about E major is it's not
symmetrical,
meaning that when your right hand is playing a black key on finger two your left hand's actually playing a white key. You have to
really think about that as you play.
Good, so for an extra challenge you can also try E major or minor in contrary motion.
Nice work today learning how to play the the
E major and minor pentascale.
Be sure to review playing stepping and skipping every day with your best piano posture and
review all the other keys that you've learned C, D and G.
For a super challenge you can try
transposing some of your old songs to the key of E. For example you could try "Wild Horses" in E
minor or "Dinah" in E major.
Have fun practicing and see you next time.
You know I'm not really afraid of ghosts. I just pretended to be to help Mr. Hoffman with this video.
The only thing that really scares me is...
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I think she was about to say butterflies.
Definitely.