Hello, and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman.
Today we're learning how to do the F major pentascale.
Let's come on over to the piano, and we'll figure it out.
Okay, on your screen can you point to the note that is F?
If you're pointing right here, you're correct.
For the F pentascale, we're going to need 5 notes.
F, G,
and what's the name of this one?
If you said A, you're correct.
What's the name of this note here?
If you said B, you are correct.
And then one more.
If you said C, you are correct
These five notes are part of the F pentascale.
Let's name them one more time.
Say them with me. F, G, A, B, C.
Good. Now, I'm going to play "Chocolate",
and I want you to point to the note that doesn't quite sound like "Chocolate" to you.
Here we go.
Did one of those notes sound a little bit unusual for "Chocolate"?
Listen one more time.
Point to the note that sounded unusual or different from "Chocolate".
If you're pointing right here, you're correct.
The reason this note sounded a little bit unusual,
is you're recall that MI and FA are best friends,
and they like to be just a half step apart.
Which means there should be no note in between MI and FA.
This black key in between these two notes tells us that they are not a half step right
now.
And in this position, since FA and SO right now are sharing a room,
you can see there's no black key in between, it's going to be FA that we move.
We can pretend that FA and SO, they just don't get along very well,
so they don't like sharing a room.
So we'll move FA here to a note that we'll call B flat.
Whenever you start on a B and you move to the nearest note to the left,
that is a flat. So we call this B flat.
And now let's see how it sounds.
Tell me if this sounds more like "Chocolate" now.
[Playing piano]
It sounds a lot better, doesn't it?
Let's name all the notes for the F major pentascale.
When it has the sound of "Chocolate", we call it a major pentascale.
Let's try naming the notes. Ready.
F, G, A, B flat, C.
Now come back down.
C, B flat, A, G, F.
Good, now try it with the DO RE MI words.
Ready go. DO RE MI FA SO.
Now come back down. SO FA MI RE DO.
Now we're ready to try it with our five fingers.
We'll put finger one, two and three on the three white keys.
In order to help your finger four reach the black key,
you might want to slide up a little closer to the black keys
actually coming in between them if you can.
And that will help your finger four reach that black key,
and then finger five will come all the way up to C.
There won't be any finger touching B, because B became B flat.
So after B flat, then next note will be C.
So here's what your finger position will look like.
[Playing piano]
Great now you try. Push pause to practice that position,
and then push play again when you're ready to try it with me.
Let's play "Chocolate" together. Try to sing the solfa while we play.
Ready go. DO RE MI FA SO.
SO FA MI RE DO.
Good, now let's sing the letter names while we play.
Ready go. F, G, A, B flat, C.
C, B flat, A, G, F.
Great work. Now let's try it also in our left hand.
For your left hand you'll put finger five on F.
Now, can you figure out with finger will be in the B flat?
If you said finger two, you're correct.
Remember in your left hand, finger five plays the lowest note.
Five, four, three, two, will be on the B flat.
Let's try to find F major position, or the F major pentascale, for your left hand.
In your left hand, this is how your position will look for the F pentascale.
Finger five on F, finger one on C, and finger two on the B flat.
Let's try playing the F pentascale starting with finger five for the left hand.
Ready go.
[Playing piano]
Great job.
When you're ready for a challenge, you can try it hands together.
Ready go.
[Playing piano]
Nice work.
Another thing you can try is doing some of our old finger power exercises
using the F pentascale now.
You can do hand over hand chords, hand over hand arpeggios,
and the hand over hand five finger scale.
For an F major chord, we'll need three notes.
F, A and C.
And those three notes put together make an F major chord.
If you want to do the V7 chord in F position,
you have to move this bottom note down a half step,
and the middle note up a half step.
And that gives us the V7 chord for F major.
Now if you're doing hand over hand arpeggios, you'll use these same three notes
F, A and C, but played one note at a time.
Another fun thing to try will be to play any of your old songs in F major.
You can play "Listen for Bells", "Dinah". Try any song you like in F major.
If you'd like to practice more with the F major pentascale,
you can download an activity sheet from our website.
Next time we'll be learning a new song using the F major pentascale.
So I hope you'll practice the F pentascale by playing some of your old songs
in the key of F major, and practicing some finger power in F position.
Hand over hand chords, arpeggios, and the pentascale.
Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time.