Hello and welcome back! I'm Joseph
Hoffman. Today we're learning how to play
a new kind of chord called the V7 chord,
then we'll see how we can use this chord
with the song we've already learned,
"Dinah," so let's come to the piano to get
started. Here I've drawn a pentascale. Can
you tell me which pentascale this is? If you
said G major,
you're correct, and this is the pentascale
we use for Dinah, and it's the pentascale
we'll use to figure out the V7 chord, but
first let's talk about a chord we've
already looked at, the I chord. A I
chord is built on DO, MI, and SO, those
three notes together make
the I chord. Now the I chord, I want you
to notice the quality of its sound. It's
a pretty stable sounding chord, so try
playing a I chord on your piano. Notice
that stable, steady sound.
The I chord is like your home base. Now to
build a V7 chord we're going to use the
I chord as a starting point. There's
different ways to play the V7 chord, but
I'm going to show you the easiest way to
get to the V7 chord from the I chord.
You want to take your DO and move it
down a half step, and we call that note TI.
It's always just a half step below DO,
which is this F-sharp if DO is on G.
Now we also take MI and move it up a
half step which lands on FA. SO stays
the same.
This makes the V7 chord. Now to play the V7
chord you're going to need finger 1 and
2 of your left hand, and if you can reach
it comfortably your finger five will land on
that F-sharp. For smaller hands you can
modify this cord by just playing finger
1 and 2. If you can reach the F-sharp
then go ahead and add that as well.
Now listen to the sound of the V7 chord.
Does that sound as stable and
comfortable as the I chord?
Most people find that chord, that it
sounds a little bit restless, like it's
it's got to get back to home. Do hear how
this one has some tension, but it's
because these two notes are just a step
apart, and that kind of creates a rub
and a little bit of dissonance, is what
we call it in music. That adds even a
little more distance, but that resolves
when we come home. So we'll hear those
chords a lot over the years as we play
music, so I want you to get familiar with
not just the sound of them but also get
comfortable with playing them. Now you
might have noticed that the symbols we
use for chords use Roman numerals. Now
Roman numerals you might see some time
on clocks or for copyrights on movies.
They're not used that often, but in music
we use them for chords like the I
chord has that Roman numeral I to
represent the I chord, and the V7 chord
is a little weird because the five part
is represented with the roman numeral
V, and then you'll see a regular
Arabic number seven
following that, so it looks like "V-seven,"
but you really would say that "five-seven"
in music. Later on we'll explain exactly
why it's structured that way, and what
that five and what that seven means, but for now
we're just going to leave it at that. So
on your own piano let's try that V7
chord. So again you're going to cover up
with finger five the F-sharp, and then
fingers one and two are taking care of C
and D, so you have these three notes
played with one, two, and five.
Try that out.
Good, and then try going back to a I chord.
Good, for the I chord your finger
five has to shift back into the G
pentascale, so we're getting a little bit
fancier, now coming out of the pentascale
for that TI. Now let's try it with our
right hand. Cover up the G major
pentascale with your right hand.
Let's try one chord with fingers one, three, and
five. Good, now this one's a little bit
harder to play the V7 chord because you,
your finger one, it's your shortest
finger, and to reach that F-sharp you're
actually going to slide your hand
forward so your fingers four and five
are going to be playing up inside the
black keys, but still playing the white
keys, but sliding in between like that, we
can play like that. Fingers one, four, and five on
the V7 chord, so try that a few times, and
again for smaller hands you can modify
by just playing these two notes. Slide
forward on the keys so your thumb can
reach that F-sharp. Good.
Ok, now I'm just using the closed lid of
my piano, but you can use any flat
surface, and we're going to practice the
finger change going from the V7 chord,
which you're going to use with one, two, and
five, and then switching to one, three, and five,
which makes the I chord, in "Dinah"
when you have, "me I know" you have to
quickly shift from the V7 chord to the
I chord, and so I'd like you to
practice going back and forth V7, I. So
basically when you change from V7 to I
you're just shifting from a finger two to
a finger three but fingers one and five
stay consistent. V7 chord is one, two, five, and then
one, three five. So take any flat surface and for a
minute or so, until you're really
comfortable with that, practice that
shift touching one, two, five, then one, three five. V7 chord to
I chord. Press pause and practice that
for a little bit, then press play when
you're ready to go on.
Now let's practice alternating those two
chords with our left hand. That's the
hand we're going to use for chords in
"Dinah," and our right hand is going to be
playing "me I know,"
and on the words "me I" we're playing the
V7 chord, and then on the word "know" we
shift back to I. So let's practice
going back and forth slowly several
times.
Ready, go. Me I know. Keep going back and
forth, ready, V7, I. Try this with me, go V7 to I.
Again go V7 to I.
Good, now if you're not quite able to
keep up with that I'd like you to press
pause and practice that several times on
your own until you're really comfortable,
or even if you are comfortable with it
go ahead and press pause and work on that
shift until you can do it really
confidently this fast, me I know, and then
press play when you're ready to go on.
Ok, let's go through and try to play all
the chords from "Dinah." I'll go ahead and
play both hands, but I'd like you to just
play the left hand. You'll notice that
Dinah start with the I chord. We have,
no one in the house but, and then another
I chord, then another I chord, then, me
I, on me I we shift to a V7 chord, and
then on the word know it goes back to
I chord. Now listen to all of that
together.
Now we're going to try that together. Can
you play the left hand chords? I'll play
the right-hand melody, but you just do
the chords. Ready, go. I chord, I chord,
I chord. Now get ready,
V7 chord, I chord. Good, now what I'd
like you to do is press pause and try
that a few times on your own. Instead of
playing the right-hand part, just sing
the right-hand part while you play the
chords that go along with it.
Press pause to try that, then play when
you're ready to go on.
Good, now let's look at the next line. On
this line we have, no one in the house
but, then the V7 chord for, playing on the
old banjo. Let's keep going. Then we
have I chord, V7, I chord, V7, I, I chord, V7,
I chord,
V7, I, then DC al fine means what?
That's right, we go back to the start and
we do it again.
Good, now press pause and try going
through all of those chords with the
left hand while you sing the melody.
Don't worry about playing, it just sing
the melody while you play the chords and
then press play when you're ready to try
it with me.
Ok i'll demonstrate the whole song for
you. If you like you can try playing
along just chords, or if you want to just
listen that's fine too. I'll go a little
bit slower than normal speed just for
practice, and then on your own
I'd like you to be practicing the chords
until you're ready to add in the
right-hand yourself. Here we go, ready,
start.
Great job learning how to play the V7
chord today. On your own,
I'd like you to practice the V7 chord
while singing Dinah until you feel very
confident, then try playing the melody
with your right hand while you play the
chords in your left hand. Getting the
song hands together with chords is going
to be a challenge, but don't give up. Just
keep on trying it over and over again,
always with your best posture, until you
have it mastered. Once you can play "Dinah"
with both hands, chords and melody,
confidently, with great piano posture,
make a video for me and share it with me
on our website or on facebook.
I'd love to hear your playing. So happy
practicing and see you next time!
mm-hmm looks like Mr. Hoffman left his
blue little circle things on the piano.
Hey, I know, I'll pretend to be Mr.
Hoffman and you out there watching
pretend to be the student. It will be fun.
Okay tell me what chord you see. If you
said the what? What the? V7 chord? But how
could this be?
Just fix that. Okay, tell me what chord
you.. aha! Monkey, it was you!
Hey Monkey, I've got an idea. You wanna
help me make a really hard one?
Okay come with me. Oh, let's, yeah! Alright!
What chord do see now? If you said 11,924
chord, you are correct!
Oh boy. Come on, Monkey, you want to get a
banana or something? Alright.
Come on.
Oh, the 11,924 chord. Nice.