[PLAYING PIANO]
Hi, my name is George W. Russell Jr, and I'm
a professor of harmony at the Berklee College of Music.
I'm also a professor of piano.
I started playing the piano a long time ago.
My mother asked me when I was seven years old,
you want to take piano lessons?
I said yes, I certainly want to take piano lessons.
Because I loved music, and I loved the way it sounded.
I started playing classical music.
And when I was around 11 or 12 years old I started playing at my church.
So I had the classical side where I was reading notes,
and then I had the whole gospel church side, where we used no music at all.
And they were kind of in two different camps.
And I wasn't able to really get those two camps together
until I went to college, and I started studying jazz harmony.
And then I was able to mold those two different styles,
and fuse those two different areas of my life together.
So I was able to identify what I was playing,
and it just made life a lot easier.
After I studied in college and in graduate school,
I started doing a lot of playing and a lot of teaching, which brings me here
today, to share with you all the information that we're
going to be sharing in this course.
What are we going to be sharing in this course?
Well, we're going to be sharing a little bit
about the major scale, the major triads, minor triads, major
and dominant seventh chords.
We're going to talk about the minor pentatonic scale.
We're going to define ear training.
We're going to define harmony.
We're going to define a tonal center.
We're going to talk about what intervals are.
We're gonna do a lot of things in this course, and you're going to enjoy it.
Very important thing to remember is that in order for you
to get the optimum out of this experience,
it is imperative that you have a keyboard to practice on.
A piano would be best, but a keyboard would work also.
I want you to commit to practicing 15 minutes every day.
What will you be practicing?
You'll been practicing things like the major scale.
[PLAYS A MAJOR SCALE]
You'll be practicing things like your triads.
[PLAYS TRIADS]
Doesn't have to be fast.
You just need to practice it, and just be aware,
and get your fingers accustomed to playing the keyboard.
All right?
Can you make that commitment for me?
Trust me, you will not regret it.
And one more condition for you taking this class-- it
is mandatory that you have fun.
Those are the rules.
Let's get started.