Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman, and today it's another finger power day.
We'll be learning how to play two octave scales, arpeggios, and diatonic chords in the key of E-flat major.
Let's come to the piano to get started.
Let's do a quick piano posture check-in. Remember that your bench is a super important part of having good posture.
It's important to not have it too close. Remember that gives you your T-Rex arms which can create tension.
Also of course you don't want to be too far away. Find a position
where your elbows can just be slightly in front of you, comfortably so,
and you want to make sure your bench is high enough
that from your elbow to your wrist is approximately parallel to the floor.
Now if your bench is too low, you may find your arm kind of sloped, too high it may look like this.
So you may have to use blankets or towels folded up,
or cushion, whatever you need to do to get your bench tall enough so you can have great posture.
Your back is tall with relaxed shoulders.
And as you're playing these scales, make sure your elbow isn't flapping like chicken wings.
You want to use a smooth motion.
Your elbow is going to move a little bit. It shouldn't be held stiffly, but it's going to just kind of float, not flap.
Finally, remember the shape of your hand is important.
Those fingers should have a natural relaxed curve, but then as you play make sure this joint doesn't collapse.
Okay if it looks like this, I call that hula fingers, right?
Okay, it shouldn't collapse. You want to have enough firmness that the joint stays curved in the correct direction.
As you play the black keys, there may be slightly less curve, okay?
You don't need to over curve your fingers. It's just a natural curve with just enough firmness that it keeps that shape as you play.
Now, in case you've forgotten how many flats are in the key of E-flat major,
it wouldn't be a bad time to briefly review our ladder of fifths.
Remember, the starting point on our ladder is the key of C major
with zero sharps and zero flats.
That's our C major scale.
Every time we go up a fifth on the ladder, we add one sharp to the key signature.
So, what's up a fifth from C? One, two, three, four, five, G major.
Has one sharp. Go up another fifth: One, two, three, four, five: D major
has two sharps.
Keep going up fifths we keep adding one sharp for every fifth we go up.
Now, if we go down the ladder, we're taking away sharps.
We go down a fifth from D to G, we take away a sharp, back to one sharp, down a fifth to C,
we take away a sharp.
Now what if we go down a fifth from C? We already have zero sharps. Well, if we go below C a fifth: one, two, three, four, five,
there are no more sharps to take away, so now we have to start adding flats.
A fifth below C brings us to F major.
F major has one flat.
Now a fifth below F looks like it would bring us to B, but listen to that:
It doesn't quite sound right, right? It's not a B, it's a B-flat.
Why is that? Well, we were in the key of F before. Remember, there isn't a B.
It's a B-flat. We've flattened it on our ladder, so it needs to stay flat as we go down fifths. So, a fifth below F is B-flat,
and B-flat major
has two flats. See how we're adding flats now?
Now what if we go down another fifth from B-flat?
Remember E-flat was our new flat, so now down a fifth lands us on E-flat.
The key of E-flat major has how many flats?
If you said three, you are correct.
And from our ladder of fifths, we can see that those three flats are B-flat, E-flat, and A-flat.
You may recall that these three flats are also found in the key signature for C minor,
and that's why, let's see C minor:
Remember?
Same three flats, and that's why E-flat major and C minor are relatives.
They have the same key signature of three flats.
So if they had like a three flats family reunion, both E-flat major and C minor would be invited.
So since we're working on E-flat major today, let's get comfortable with where these three flats are.
Can you find and play them all over your own piano? Just find all the E's and B-flats and A-flats.
All the way up and down your piano.
Let's take a moment and play around with those three notes to get really comfortable where they are.
You can improvise a little song.
So, when you're playing scales I sometimes like to think of certain notes as hot lava,
right? When you're a kid, right, you played hot lava games where you couldn't touch the floor.
Well, these are the three keys you can't touch. They've become flat. E, A, and B are now hot lava. As you're playing your scale,
these three keys become the flats, and you won't touch
these three white keys at all. They're the hot lava keys.
Now let's start with our left hand today.
And we're going to start with finger 3 on E-flat, and let's practice our groupings.
We can have a group of three, so with 3 2 1 play a group of three,
and then 4 is going to cross over to this A-flat and then we're going to have two black
and two white keys in this next group of four. So can you play that group of four?
Then play another group of three starting on E-flat one black two white,
and then another group of four. Two black, two white,
and then finger 3 crosses over to play E-flat, then we come back down a group of four, a group of three.
A group of four, a group of three.
So, all together we get this: 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 3, and then we come down using the same fingers we went up with.
Pause the video and work on your left-hand E-flat major scale two octaves, and then press play to go on.
Now let's work on the right-hand scale, two octaves. Start with finger 3 on E-flat.
And then we're going to do a group of four.
Again, with two white, two black, just like we had in the left hand,
and then a group of three,
then a group of four,
then a group of three on top,
then we'll repeat that to come down, group of four,
group of three, group of four, and then you finish by crossing over finger three and then you're done.
Now playing it as the regular two octave scale: 3 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 2 3,
and then back down with the same fingers we went up with.
Your goal should be to try to play this as smoothly as possible.
You want to avoid hitting your finger 1 extra hard. Hear that?
You want to play all the notes evenly.
It's common to play that thumb extra loud, okay? Try to smooth it out if you can.
Pause the video and work on your right hand two octave E-flat major scale, then press play to go on.
Now when you're doing your left-hand scales and arpeggios,
it's common to want to start in the middle, but then your left-hand ends up going so high it kind of knocks yourself over.
So I recommend when you're doing two octave scales or arpeggios in your left hand,
give yourself plenty of room. So start pretty low on your piano. Let's try the arpeggio.
It's going to be finger 2 1 4 2 1 4 2. Remember, an arpeggio we're just taking this I chord
and in E-flat major this is a what I call an oreo cookie chord. The black cookie with the white cream in the middle right?
But because it's awkward to cross over on a black key with finger 1,
we change the fingering to 2 1 so the 1 can land on the white key, 2 1 4 2 1
4 2 4 1 2 4 1 2.
Let's go ahead and take a look at the right hand. The right hand has essentially the same but opposite fingering 4 1 2 4 1 2
4 2 1 4 2 1 4
Now pause the video and work on your left hand two octave arpeggios,
your right hand two octave arpeggios in E-flat major, then press play to go on.
Now, when I practice scales, I love to use the metronome. It kind of helps me track how I'm doing,
making sure I'm keeping a steady beat. At first maybe you'll just go one note per click.
And then to challenge yourself you can try two notes per click.
You can do the same thing with arpeggios.
Once you've mastered it at a certain speed, gradually speed that up.
Metronomes are a great way to push your speed and challenge yourself.
Now let's figure out our diatonic chords for E-flat major.
Can you play? Let's use both hands. Find the I chord, and let's name these chords. We've got E-flat major I chord.
Now everything's got to go up a step, and remember certain keys are hot lava,
right? I'm allowed to touch them because I'm the teacher.
Okay, if you touch them you'll melt, right? These are the keys we've got to skip over, so if you want to play one of these, don't.
Okay, right? So we just played this:
Now everything's got to step up. We can't step here because that's hot lava. E-flat should step up to F.
G should step up to A-flat, and B-flat can't step to here because that's a hot lava key, that's B.
B-flat has to step up to C.
See how all my notes just stepped up? That gives me the ii chord. So play this. This is F minor ii chord.
Now, can you figure out the iii chord? Take these notes and see if you can have everything step up.
Everything should step up to here. Remember A-flat steps up to B-flat. You can't step up to A. That one's hot lava.
A-flat steps up to B-flat. So here's our iii chord.
And we'd call this G minor iii chord.
Now can you show me the IV chord?
You try and figure it out.
Okay, G steps up to A, B-flat steps up to C.
D steps up to E-flat.
So our IV chord is A-flat major IV chord. Say it with me, go: A-flat major IV chord.
Now, can you find the V chord?
Remember which are flat notes are.
A-flat steps up to B-flat, C steps up to D, E-flat steps up to F.
B-flat major V chord.
Now can you figure out the vi chord? Try it on your own.
Here's the correct answer: C minor vi chord. Say it with me, go: C minor vi chord.
Now can you figure out the vii chord?
C steps up to D, E-flat steps up to F, G steps up to A-flat.
There's the vii chord. Hear how it has that funny sound? That's the diminished chord, so D diminished vii chord.
And that brings us back to E-flat major I chord.
Pause the video and go back through all those chords one time on your own,
say their names out loud as you play them, and then press play to go on.
Now on your own this week, every day I'd like you to practice the two octave scale and arpeggio for E-flat major,
and the diatonic chords. Be sure to use your left hand, use your right hand.
Work on your great piano posture, use the metronome to see if you can challenge yourself to get it up to a good speed.
Now also, I'd like to give you a super challenge, and that is to transpose a little bit
of the second or third movement of the Clementi sonatina that we've been working on.
Opus 36 Number One.
Right? The second movement is in what key?
What chord is that? We are in F major.
What if we were to transpose the second movement to E-flat major?
Well, E-flat is just a whole step below that. So, if we started here before
with this broken F major chord, now we'd be doing a broken E-flat major chord. Instead of starting here on C
we'd start here on B-flat. Everything goes down a whole step.
Right? And here we go down to a second inversion I chord.
So, knowing about inversions is going to help you do this transposition, right?
Whoops.
It's hard for Mr. Hoffman too.
Wouldn't that be fun?
Now you don't have to do the whole thing. I just want you to stretch yourself.
You could also do the third movement.
Right, we're in the key of C.
MI RE DO DO SO. How do you play MI RE DO DO SO in the key of E-flat major?
Try it right now.
Show me on your piano how you would play just those first few notes in the key of E-flat major.
Well, MI RE DO is in the key of C because DO is on C. In E-flat major DO is E-flat. So now it's MI RE DO DO SO.
And the left hand used to be a C major chord so what would it be now? It would be E-flat major.
Right, that's even a little bit tricky for me, but I want you to stretch yourself.
And see if you can play even just the first four measures, the first eight measures.
However much you want to try. See if you can transpose some of the second or third movement to E-flat major
for a super challenge.
Great work learning how to play scales, arpeggios, and diatonic chords in the key of E-flat major.
Happy practicing and see you next time!
Hey, uh speaking of the ladder of fifths, I got a ladder joke for you.
Okay, let's hear it!
Why did the boy bring a ladder to school?
I don't know, why?
Because he wanted to see what high school was like!
Hahaha
Okay, here's one for you.
All right
Why can you never trust a ladder?
I don't know, why?
They're always up to something
Hahaha
Good one!