Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman
and in this lesson we're going to learn some techniques for improvising with
"Mary Had a Little Lamb". Let's come over to the piano to get started.
Here I have our E major pentascale which we'll be using to improvise today,
but we're going to make some slight modifications.
We're not going to use FA.
It just will sound better to leave that one out for this improvisation, and
I thought it would be fun to add in kind of a bonus note that would also sound
fun in this improvisation,
and it's this note a skip below DO, which is called LA
We have DO RE MI RE DO LA DO
And you'll find that that note might sound pretty fun in this improvisation.
Now you're wondering, how will I play that note?
Because you don't have a finger on it, well that's okay.
As we get to more advanced music, we're going to do some shifts
that allow you to play notes that are outside of the pentascale.
So you'll notice you can have just your regular
position for DO RE MI and SO, but if you want to do LA,
I would leave your thumb, your finger 1 as an anchor on DO and your finger 2 can just glide over
to play that C-sharp and then when you're done with it your fingers can just come back
to where they were before. DO RE MI RE DO LA DO.
Why don't you try that on your own piano. place your finger 1
on E and let your other fingers find the E major pentascale,
and try playing DO RE MI RE DO LA DO Now you try.
Good, now if that's uncomfortable you don't have to use that note.
Remember, this is an improvisation so you're making up the music there's no right or wrong.
So I'm just showing you some options basically, and for improvising we're going to
put on our creative hat and make up any words we want.
Like it doesn't have to be 'Mary had a little lamb' we could be like,
♫Mary had a dinosaur♫
or ♫Mary was late to school one day♫
♫school one day, school one day♫
I'm just making up anything that pops into my head.
It doesn't have to be about Mary at all. You could do it about your favorite color.
♫I like red, I like red, yeah I like red, a whole lot♫
Whatever you want. You could talk about your favorite food or your pet that's so cute,
Whatever you want is okay. I just want you to get comfortable
taking these notes DO RE MI and SO and then this bonus note LA, and mess around with it.
So pause the video and just make up some words. It can be silly, it could be serious,
whatever, and practice improvising with those notes. Then press play to go on.
Now I'd like to try with you something that I call an improvisation conversation.
When we have an improvisation conversation it means we're going to be improvising together
just like we're in a conversation with each other.
Now what makes for a good conversation?
When you have a conversation with someone you're listening to each other,
and you're taking turns talking. You both can't be talking at the same time.
Just like when we improvise together, we'll take turns improvising.
Now also when you're in a conversation, if someone asks, hey what did you have for breakfast?
And you say, Wednesday, well that answer doesn't really make sense, right?
We have to listen and make our answers make sense. If I say, what did you have for breakfast?
You'd say, waffles.
Right? So the same is true for music. We're going to listen,
take turns, and try to make our notes sound like they're part of a conversation.
We don't copy each other. We don't have to say the exact same thing, right?
We're going to be playing different things but responding to each other.
So let's try a conversation on the piano.
Go ahead and place your right hand in the E major pentascale.
Both being in the same pentascale
makes it so we're having a conversation about the same thing. Like if I'm playing
in C major and you're playing an E major,
it's kind of going to sound like we're talking about two totally different things.
So in our conversation if I play something like this:
Then you will want to answer in some way that kind of makes sense with that. Like you might go:
Did you hear how that answer kind of had a similar rhythm and a similar style,
but it was different. I wasn't just copying it.
Again, there is no right or wrong.
You're not copying, you're just responding. You're listening and having a conversation.
Okay? So let's start our conversation. I'll play something to start us off,
and then you take a turn to play something back, and we'll just take turns for a little bit.
My turn first.
Your turn.
Again, don't worry about a right or a wrong we're just talking to each other.
There's nothing right or wrong you can say in a conversation,
where we're just hanging out and talking.
Your turn.
Great! Now feel free to rewind and try that again if you like, or find a friend
maybe a family member, and try having a conversation with them on your piano.
One person can put a hand down low, one can put it up high,
and just practice talking to each other and see if you can make your notes
sound like they're having a conversation.
Now let's try some improvising where I'm going to play an accompaniment pattern like this:
Basically what I'm doing is I'm just taking the I chord
and I'm doing the notes one at a time DO MI SO, and then I'm using this LA that I showed you,
remember that C-sharp? In E major that's LA, which sounds kind of fun in a jazz style.
See how I just crossed over there? Now you don't have to try this in your left hand. I'll play it for you today.
Or if you want to give yourself a super challenge later on you can try this pattern too, it's just
DO MI SO LA SO DO MI SO LA SO
And I'll just keep playing that.
I'll take care of this for today that's the I chord, and then when I want the V chord,
I'm gonna come down to this B
and I'm playing SO TI RE and then this MI right here.
And that's kind of a fancy jazzier way of playing the V chord.
Okay, so one more time we got the I chord
or the V chord.
And when you improvise, it's helpful to be able to hear and notice what chord
is being played. So your improvisation can match, right? So,
this time I'd like you to listen and say out loud if you're hearing me play the I chord
or the V chord. Let's just say it out loud. Ready, go.
I chord.
Try this with me.
I chord.
V chord.
Good,
if you're watching me, probably not too hard right? But now
let's see if you can close your eyes and still hear when I change.
So say out loud whether you hear a I chord or a V chord.
Say it out loud while your eyes are closed. Ready, go.
Could you hear the changes?
Good.
Now, let's talk about what notes sound good with the I chord
versus the V chord.
If I'm playing a I chord,
remember the I chord is built on DO MI and SO,
Because those are the notes in a I chord, those notes will sound really good with the I chord.
So if I'm playing I chord.
See those two notes sound good, MI and SO would sound good.
RE can sound okay too
but probably not to like stay on it.
See that doesn't sound very good, but if I pass through RE it could be okay.
See you can go through it just don't stop on it because it's not one of the core
notes in a I chord. Now in a V chord though now a RE will sound good
because RE is part of the V chord.
SO will also sound really good. So RE and SO sound really good with a V chord
because it's inside that chord.
Okay, and you can use some other notes a little bit but you want to focus on RE and SO.
Alright so, now let's do a conversation one more time
and this time we're going to be using I chords and V chords.
I'll take care of this. You don't have to worry about playing this part.
Agina, this is a little bit more advanced.
I'll do the left hand part. All you have to do is
play an improvisation with me. We're going to do a conversation again taking turns
but I want you to try and start listening being aware of the chord that
I'm using so your notes can match.
Again, if you hear that V chord using a lot of RE's and SO's.
And on a I chord using a lot of DO MI's and SO's, and the LA
will sound okay with the I chord too.
Okay? Let's try it. So get your right hand in the E major pentascale,
and let's improvise. I'll take the first turn.
1 2 3 4
Your turn.
Nice.
Good, now lastly I want to show you today is how you can improvise
on your own using the backing track which is on the practice album for this unit.
This backing track has me playing the piano along with a drummer and a bass player.
We do a kind of jazz style. There's a flute player as well, and what you're going to do
is first listen for the four clicks,
and then after that you start playing "Mary Had a Little Lamb".
You can do it with right hand you can do it with left hand,
you do it with chords. You could have both hands playing at the same time the meldoy.
And after you play through the whole song once,
then there's some time for you to improvise
using DO RE MI and SO and then as that bonus note remember you've got that LA.
And you can move higher on the piano, you can move lower.
This is your time to be creative and improvise, no right or wrong.
And then you'll hear four clicks again and you'll finish playing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" one last time,
and maybe that time try it in a different way.
Like, if you used chords before, maybe now both hands play melody.
You've got lots of options.
But you do need to be in the E major pentascale. If you try transposing,
remember the backing track will be in E major and you'll be in some other key
which probably won't sound that great.
Now, let me demonstrate once for you how you can do that with the backing track.
1 2 3 4
And now we improvise.
1 2 3 4
Now you notice at the end I did that little:
All I'm doing is I'm playing SO,
and then DO. I go up to hide DO with my right hand: SO DO
Which is a nice, fun way to end.
You also might have noticed I did a little jazz trick.
Where, instead of just playing MI,
I did a little:
Which you notice sounds really cool and jazzy.
So instead of your fingers staying exactly locked in that position if you
come down to this G natural, and just kind of glide up to that G sharp
with a little twist of the hand,
that can sound fun and jazzy too. So that's some of the notes you can experiment with.
Now it's your turn to try playing along
with that backing track. Remember, you can download it or stream it directly from our website.
Nice work today improvising with me.
I hope that you'll continue to have fun improvising every day.
Improvising is such a great way to learn to be creative at the piano.
Making up your own original music.
Thanks for watching and see you next time!
Hey, uh guys? It actually looks like a nice giant lamb. Come on!
You know, just seeing that big furry guy makes me want to laugh.
Makes me want to play.
Yeah, play time!
Come on guys, jump on!