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Keyboards there's a million varieties and no matter what kind of keyboard you have there are a few basic things you need to know about playing
Hi, my name is Larry Steelman and welcome to the ultimate beginner series for keyboards in the next half hour
We're going to talk about body position and talk about fingering
Few chord progressions, we're going to learn a little bit about the keyboard, but there's a lot to learn
So if you're ready, let's go back to the studio and get started
The first thing we need to talk about is body position
It's very important for you to be comfortable your body depending on the length of your arm should be about two feet from the keyboard
Keep your back straight. Don't slump your feet should be flat on the floor
And if the height is correct of your seat or your bench
Your forearm should be parallel to the floor
Notice that my elbows are in line with the side of my body
You should keep your shoulders and elbows loose at all times and the fingers should be curved as if holding a ball with a light
Grip use the top part of your finger to strike the key
The whole body should be loose and relaxed
The first thing we need to talk about are the positions of the keys if you look at the keyboard
You'll see that there's a pattern of black notes two three
Two and three and if I talk about direction playing up means to the right
And playing down means playing to the left
Now we're going to find our home key
Which is middle C on some keyboards you may find a mark that says C on an acoustic piano
It's generally in the middle of the keyboard and just to the left of these two black notes
So let's name the notes now C
D E
F
G now we start over with a
B and repeat C. This is the musical alphabet and that is an octave from C to C
You may have noticed that I only use the white keys from C to C
That's because in the key of C. We only use the white keys you may ask well
What do I do with the black keys and later on in this video and in video two?
I'll explain more about how to use these black keys
The inside of a piano is amazingly complex. It's like a clock take a look at this several hundred pieces are used
To make the hammer hit the string that allows you to have more expression as you play harder a
Synthesizer has a completely different action from a piano
You can see in this one that they're simulating a piano weighted action
But the main advantage to a synthesizer is that you can make so many sounds
Now that we know the names of the notes we're ready to start playing
First we need to learn about chords. We'll start with triads triads are chords that are made up of three notes
Let's find middle C again with your thumb
By the way the fingers are numbered one two three four five
Same with the left hand one two three four five
So we'll use the thumb to play middle C
And then we're going to find E which is two notes over so C D E
And we're going to play that with the second finger then we're going to go two more notes over and play F
G with the fourth finger so play it with me
once again
one more time
you
Using that same shape we can build triads on any of the scale steps. Let's start with C
move up to D
E
F
G
a
B and
Then once again C at the octave
Now as I play these triads I keep the same shape of my hand
But I'm using my thumb as the reference point so let's do it once again
C triad and I use my thumb to point to D same shape
once again, we're going up to E thumb and the hand stays in the same position and
Here's F
a
Okay, we're going to just concentrate on three triads now
You've seen all of them, but we're just going to concentrate on C F and G. So let's find those again C
Then we're going to go up
to F
And then back to C
Let's try that again C to F to C
C
Keep the same shape
thumb on F
and back to C
Okay, let's try one more now. We're going to go from F thumb on F same shape
Up one step to G thumb on G same shape and back to F
Let's try that one more time
F
G
F
Now let's try this we're going to do C F G
So the thumb on C same shape
The thumb moves to F same shape and up to G
Now let's go back to the home base C triad
Let's try those three chords again C
F
G
Back home to C
one more time
C
F
G and C
Now you might notice that those chords were built on scale steps C is the one chord because it's built on the first scale step
Then the F triad is built on the fourth scale step. It's called the four chord
Then as you might imagine the next chord up is the five chord. It's built on the fifth scale step
And then we returned to the one chord
Practice these chords C F and G back and forth until you're really comfortable with them if you need to
Rewind the tape and watch that segment again
These chords are used in so many songs and styles that by learning them you open the door to playing many familiar tunes
Now let's take a look at the left hand
Now with the left hand we're going to count down from middle C
Let's find middle C with your left hand and it goes this way C
B A
G F
E
D and once again here is C now you want to put your fifth finger on C
That's the pinky in the left hand one two three four five
Now we need to play G with the thumb so we'll count up C D E F G
Play that with me
All right now we're going to move up to F
So if you will just follow up with the same shape using your pinky this time as the reference
we go D
E
F
There you go, okay now let's play C and F the way we do with the right hand we go back to C
Now move up to F
Try it one more time
See
F now let's take it one more step up to G
Same shape using the pinky as the reference point back to F. Let's do that a few times
F
G
F
G
Now let's try all three of them back to C
up to F
up to G
and back to C
Let's try that a few more times C
F
G and back to C
Now practice that several times left hand alone until you're comfortable if you need to stop the tape do that
And the next thing we're going to do is put the left and right hand together
Now we're doing the same thing that we did one at a time right hand left hand
But now we've put them together
So it's a little more complicated what you want to do is once again target the right hand with the thumb
Target the left hand with the pinky and move them together. They stay the same distance apart, and they just move parallel
Let's try it together
Once again
Now if you need to you want to stop the tape again and try this until you're really comfortable with it because the next thing we're going to do is use these chords in a song
Now those three chords that we just learned are the basis for the blues progression
I'm going to show you how to put them together in the right order here we go
C
F
Back to C
And play C again
To F
Play F again
And back to the one chord C
And back to the one chord C
And back to the one chord C
And back to the one chord C
Once again C
Go to G
And down to F
And back to C
And to G
And then we go back to C
That's the blues progression. Let's try it now with some rhythm
Now we get to the really fun part which is playing with a band. The problem is you have to keep up with the bass player and the drummer. And it might be a little fast for you. So what you want to do is use a metronome and slow the tempo down until you can play the chords very cleanly without any mistakes.
My synthesizer has a metronome built in and I'm going to take it down to about 60 and we'll try four clicks per chord
Here comes C
One
Two
Three
Four
Back to C
C
C
F
F
F
F
And back to C
And back to C
Okay, you want to do this and just gradually bring the speed up until you can play with the band. But you don't want to make any mistakes. Let's try it a little bit faster now.
Here we go, four beats per chord.
Here's C
F
Back to C
C again
Back up to F
F
And back to C
Okay, you want to play the progression that we played before without the metronome.
And bring the speed up until you can play with the track.
Okay, you want to play the progression that we played before without the metronome.
Okay, you want to play the progression that we played before without the metronome.
How's it going so far? You keeping up? I hope so because we're going to add one more new thing.
Okay, so we're going to play the progression that I showed you before. We're going to dress it up a little bit. Listen.
Sounds a little bit more like the real blues guys play. Now what you want to do is back the tempo down and we're going to take the right hand alone. So let me show you what the right hand's doing.
We're going to find the C triad again. Same fingering. But we're going to go up these two notes here with finger three and finger five. They're going to go up to F and A.
Okay, try that just a few times. Going from finger two and four to finger three and five. Now let's alternate with the one finger on C.
Try that a few times with me.
Okay, now let's try it on the four chord, on the F chord. Now in this case we're going to play one of these black notes that I told you about earlier.
And it's just a half step up from the A note. So once again you use finger two and four on A and C. And then we're going to go up to these two notes on three and five. Let's try that.
Okay, the last chord that we're going to use this fingering on is the chord on G, or the five chord. Once again you use the second finger, the fourth finger on these two notes.
And you alternate with the third finger and the fifth finger on these two notes. So let's try that alternating pattern again with the one on G.
Now once again what you want to do is to try this pattern with your metronome set at a slower tempo. And then inch it up until you're up to the tempo with the band. Now let's try the left hand.
Now as I told you before, the fifth finger goes on C and the first finger goes on G. But this time we're going to move the first finger up to A and back to G. So let's do that with C.
That's good. Now let's try it on F. So we just move up to F, the little finger's on F, the first finger's on C, and we're going to do the pattern in this place.
Okay, one more chord, it's on G. We're going to move up to G and do the same pattern.
Okay, practice each of these patterns alone, right hand and left hand, with a slow metronome marking until you can work it up to the speed that we were playing with the band. Then you want to put things together.
Okay.
Now I'm going to show you a different style of playing, using some different chords. Remember how when we played triads we played the same shape on each white key.
In the blues we're only using the C, F, and G triads. Now we're going to add the A and D triads. Here's how the pattern goes. In my left hand I play the root of the chord, C. In my right hand I play the notes of the triad one at a time. This is called an arpeggio.
Okay, now let's do that same pattern down on A. Let's move down to A in the left hand, move the right hand down two steps to the A triad. Let's listen to that.
Can you hear the difference? There's a difference between these two triads.
This is a C major triad. This is known as the A minor triad.
It has a little bit sadder sound to it, or darker sound. Now let's move up to the D triad, which is above C. I play this with the first finger.
Then go back to old friend G with the fifth finger in the left hand.
Let's try that all together.
A minor, D minor, and G. Once again, C, A minor, D, G, and back to C.
Good. Let's play that progression at a moderate tempo. Here we go.
Good.
Now if you can't keep up with me, you know what to do. You need to turn the metronome down and build up the speed until you can play with me.
If you can get the speed up, you can play with the band. Let's do it together.
Good.
We've covered a lot of ground, and there's a lot to practice, but always remember to have fun.
Now if you'll join me in video two, we're going to look at scales and melodies. Until next time, bye.
Good luck.