Hello and welcome! In this lesson, we are going to be doing something crazy:
We are diving into music theory! Now, I promise you everything that you're about to learn is
going to help you to be the absolute best piano player you can be... You're going to learn how to
play any major skill any minor scale, any major or minor chord, and then how to put all of that
information together using rhythm to play songs that you love! So what more could you ask for this
is gonna help you be the best you can be let's dive in we're gonna begin by building our very
first scale and there is something called a scale formula which is really simple to learn that will
let you build a skill anywhere on the piano so you learn this you can play any skill ever it's
awesome but before we do that so it makes sense we need to learn what is a whole step and what is a
half step so if i pick a note and you know let's go with g a half step is simply the step that is
to the next possible note so from g to this guy here this black key i went up a half step here
to here that's a half step from here to here is a half step even though there's no black key because
it's the next possible note a whole step is simply two halves together because two halves make a hole
so from here to here is a whole step because we've got half step and a half step
from here to here is a whole step from here to here is a whole step because we need that half
step in between so that's how those work now the formula for creating any major scale is whole step
whole step half step whole step whole step whole step half step so when we're playing a scale let's
begin on g we can know exactly what ingredients we need to build this scale by using that formula so
from here to here is a whole step whole step and then we have our half step right there
and now we've got a bunch more whole steps whole step whole step we need another whole step that
brings us to this guy right here it's a black key whole step and ends on a half step you just played
and built a g major scale which is so exciting we're gonna just say the note names g a b c
d e this is f when you go to the black key above a note it is called a sharp so f
sharp g that's how you build a g scale let's do the same thing but this time let's begin on f so f
we're gonna go whole step whole step half steps let's talk about that for just a quick second
f g a this white key would be called b but it's the black key just below it so we call that b flat
so flats are the black keys that are referred to below the notes sharps are the black keys
when you're going up so f g that's our whole step whole step here's our b flat half step and then
here is another whole step whole step whole step whole step half step f major scale
that's how you play a major scale now this is so exciting because scales
are the ingredients for all things amazing at the piano once you learn
scales i'm just gonna give you a little preview of what's coming you can play
chords and then chord progressions and then songs so that's where we're headed with all
of this theory so just bear with me so now you have what you need to play a major scale on any
note on this piano using that formula and there are two different main scale types major scales
which we just built they sound kind of happy and then there are minor scales which sound
kind of sad so let's talk about minor scales for a moment every major scale has a relative minor
they're related and what that means is that they share the exact same notes
so this is what's exciting you don't actually have to memorize the minor scale formula we'll
include it in the download below this lesson but if you can just memorize that major scale
formula figure out the notes of the major scale you can play the relative minor using the exact
same notes they just have different starting and ending points so let's take a look at that let's
go back to our g scale for a moment we had g a b c d e f sharp in g that's the major that's the happy
one the relative minor of any major can be found by going down three half steps from the first
note of the major scale so the first note is g and we're gonna go down three half steps one two three
boom the relative minor of g is e so now we're going to take the exact same notes that we played
in our g scale which were all white keys except for the f that one was a black key
and we're going to play a scale using those ingredients so e we get right to f so we're
going to go to f sharp and the rest are going to be white keys and now i'm playing an e minor scale
and it sounds so moody so good so now you can build any major scale and it's relative minor
so whole step whole step half step whole step whole step whole step half step is the formula for
the major go down three half steps from that major note to find the relative minor and then use the
exact same ingredients that you used in the major scale and you'll be able to play at that minor
scale it gives things just like a sad sound and you've got it you've got your scale theory down
all right next up we have chords and this is where things get so exciting
because the scales are going to give us the ingredients we need to play the chords and
once we learn chords we can play chord progressions and then we can play songs
yes okay so let's go back to our g scale for just a moment you already know the ingredients
so in order to build a chord you're going to use three notes i'm going to start with g and
i'm going to play my thumb and my middle finger and my five finger and if you're new to the piano
this shape can feel really complicated at first and your fingers might try to like smoosh down
the wrong way just give yourself time and patience wrist up one three and five that's called a triad
you just make a little claw shape and then play the chord like that so if we take this shape
and move it up the scale just one three five then you move everybody perch one three five same thing
remember the ingredients though f sharp is coming up so don't play this f play f sharp
and move it up you move it up some more and keep going you're just building the shape on every note
you've just played all of the chords that belong to the g major scale and they all sound good
together happy g i call happy g it's actually just a g major chord so let's take a look at this chord
major chord has a formula two so let's talk about it so the distance between the first two notes
one two three four half steps the distance between the top two notes went to three half steps so the
formula is four and three and you've got yourself a major chord and you can take that formula
with and practice it on any note on this entire piano and you'll be able to build a major chord so
if i wanted to just for example pick a black key i would go one two three four and one two three
now i've got an f sharp major chord it's so awesome it's way easier than you think it is or
it would be but it is it's simple once you learn the formula so let's get let's get back on track
lisa so here's our g major chord now you know the major chord formula i'm gonna move up and go urch
here's the next chord that fits in my g major scale you hear that that's this chord and
they sound different this one's kind of moody and this one's kind of happy so just like with scales
chords have majors and minors it's a different it's a different energy it's a different mood so
let's look at what a minor chord is built up one two three half steps followed by one two
three four half steps so this one's just flipped three and four and now you can
build a minor chord anywhere on the piano so if you take your hand and go back to your g scale
we've got our g chord it's named after the note on the bottom of this little claw shape here
we move it up we've got our a minor chord and i know that because it sounds sadder
and it has that slightly different formula of three to four now we're going to move it up
again again it sounds moody and your ear will develop over time to recognize the difference
use the formula if you're not sure it's three and four here c major happy moving up again d
major also happy we've got the four and the three we're back to minor town which also happens to be
one two three the relative minor of g scale we've got this guy here don't worry about him for now
he kind of is like he he's the rebellious distant cousin he sounds kind of crunchy
but it always resolves back to here where we come to our major chord again exactly where we started
so you know your major skill and you know your minor scale and you also know how to build
any major chord or minor chord using that formula four and three or three
and four and you've also just played all of the chords that belong to the key of g
which brings me to my next very important theory piece for piano players
chord progressions most importantly the one five six four progression because almost all popular
music uses this so let's go back to our scale for a moment we're gonna count we're gonna give every
note in our g scale and number one two three four five six seven and back to one because they're
the same note let's build a chord on the first note of the g scale this is called a one chord
now let's build a note a note let's build a chord on the fifth note of the g scale so we'll count
up one two three four five just to remember the ingredients and make that little claw shape one
three because we have an f sharp and five that's the five chord also known as d major
so one five we're going to go to six next so we're already on five we're just gonna urge six
and then boom four right one two three four and i'm just kind of following with my left
hand and playing the bottom note of the chord so one five six four and back to one and now
basically you have the ingredients to play any pop song ever written it's pretty exciting stuff
so let's let's play with that just a little bit uh let's think of a song okay hold on i'm going under
and this time i fear there's no one to say me i just felt like seeing some lewis capaldi we'll
talk about the rhythm in a moment it's smelling nothing really got a way of driving me crazy
did you just see how theory helped us to play a song which is so exciting so when you can find
a scale a major scale and build it anywhere you like and then you can figure out what chords fit
into that major scale just using those skill ingredients you can use your scale formula for
help if you'd like and then you can find the 1564 of that scale you're ready to play a song in that
key and you can play those in different orders you could start on the six and then you could go
to the one and you could go to the five and then the four now it sounds like a more sad pop song
right you have so many options so the final thing i wanted to look at here with you
is rhythm and this is a really important theory thing and i think especially as piano players
this can get a little bit overlooked and it doesn't have to be complicated so think of uh
someone you left for a moment i'm going under and this time i feel there's no one to save me so i'm
gonna count one two three four and it fits this is all enough and really one two three four so
this is called four four time so we get four beats per measure and that's how the music is felt one
two three four one two three four so what i can do with my chord progression skills
is i could play a chord like this i'm playing four chords per measure so it's gonna sound like this
and then i'll move i forgot the words three four one two and what i'm doing
here is i'm playing what's called quarter notes so a quarter note gets one beat
per i can't sing and play at the same single play so you can't even talk about talking about playing
and talking at the same time without getting amused okay so a quarter note gets one beat in
four or four time so we were just filling these little measures up with four beats each two three
four change two three four now we're going to change two three four and change two three we're
playing quarter notes now i could play something called a half note and a half note equals two
beats so now instead of playing one two three four i'm gonna play and hold one two three four one two
three four one two three four one two three four so i play and hold that chord for two beats and
it's a half note now we could also do whole notes and a whole note equals four beats so we could do
this one two three four one two three four one two three four one two three four and so we have all
of these choices now when we're playing our song and this time i feel there's no one to save me
three four one two three four this all and nothing really got a way of driving me crazy
i need somebody to heal so you have choices now so you know what a quarter note is it
equals one and four four times and a half note equals two and uh whole note equals four
there are other note values which we have lessons on we can link below here talking
about note values and music theory but i wanted to just give you a little bit of an introduction into
rhythm as a part of this theory lesson because i think it's really important to be able to count
i think at the end of the day that's the most important thing is to develop language around
counting one two three four you can hold notes for more than one beat
and that is what will give you the ability to really express yourself as you're playing
so there you go that's some piano theory that's really going to help you out everything we've
done here in the key of g can be done in any key so use your skill formula picking out any note d
use your chord formula chord formula who's your scale formula whole step whole step half step
whole step whole step whole step half step now you got your ingredients white keys except for
these two guys f sharp and c sharp figure out your chords find your one five six four playing
with different rhythms the sky is the limit my friends so i hope that this lesson has been
helpful if you have any questions please don't hesitate to comment below and happy practicing
so