Hi Bill! I have watched this video basing on my question I did. You can't imagine how grateful I am for this explainations. This video has exactly anwered my question! Now I can go forward to work on 'Here comes Emily Brown'. Smile. So comments I read makes me suppose that this video has answered many questions so far for what no answer has been provided by so many RUclips-Piano-teachers. My very best thanks and very best regards from Germany! All my thumbs up for you!
I have to point out that in almost 40 years not one person has explicitly explained the tone/step terminological divide. I’m very annoyed it was that simple but thank you very much for saying it. You also managed to explain more and do it more clearly in the first 15 minutes of this video than the TCU music professor The Great Courses hired for their theory course in like 3 whole lectures. Well done. Thank you.
Wow. It took me 5 times to watch this to understand. But my guy told me you were making sense. Thank you a lot. I always felt like I needed to know this. I teaching myself and your vid did help!!
What an amazing video, thank you. I’ve been teaching my self to play and self learning theory. I’ve watched many videos and reading many books, but they way you present the information just clicks with me. I’ve learned so much from this video
Thank You Soooooo Much. It just took the first few minutes of your video saved my chord playing. I knew it was kinda easy but picked right after you mentioned the numerical numbers for the chords. I’m Subscribing for this video.
Great tutorial and excellent refresher, thanks Bill. A reminder that knowing it instantly is much better for real-time playing than having to think about it, even momentarily. The next level, 7ths, particularly minor 7th's and extensions is where I struggle to use the math when sat at the keys.
No problem, Stephen - glad you liked it! The sevenths and related extensions do add a bunch of complexity beyond this, it's true. What I've always found is that deep knowledge of that kind of stuff simply comes from playing lots of different songs - kind of do your "instinctive" learning from playing songs, if you like, then rationalize it all out, post hoc, as it were, using thinking like this - if that makes sense!
Remember to check out my books, How To Really Play The Piano, Seven Studies In Pop Piano and (for good measure!) An Introduction To Cocktail Piano. Links here: www.billspianopages.com/how-to-really www.billspianopages.com/seven-studies www.billspianopages.com/cocktail
Hi Bill , I have both How to really play the piano and 7 studies and was just wondering if you have ever made a video demonstrating all the songs in 7 studies , I would love to see you play them 🤗 , I'm sure you are always busy but it would be nice , cheers Patricia
Hi Patricia - sorry for the delayed reply! There isn't video (at the moment) but there are audio files, linked from the book. They may help at least somewhat - have you found them?
I was born in the US but my family ancestry is from Ipswitch, England. I always used both terms for tones/steps interchangeably. Never gave it much thought before. I also use the "U" in Colour and Labour and it drives my friends three sheets to the wind. Anyway, great lesson. Carry on gov'na, Cheers!
This is a good video but it doesn't quite answer the question for me. I could work all this out from knowing the key but it would have been good to see how to look at or hear a piece of music and be able to work out what chords fit from the notes. This really helps if you know that but want to transpose. I still learnt a lot watching, I'll watch other videos as they may hold the answers I'm looking for. Thanks for the very clear explanations.
So you can take any key on the piano (note) and apply these tones/semitones/Roman numerals of major/minor/diminished/augmented to fit… and it gives you a major/minor scale of that root note ? Like it doesn’t have to be certain notes, you can literally apply these ideas to any note and build chords from there
Always playing alone,I’ve got lazy and learnt everything in C.I use the transpose button to change key if I want to play along to a track in a different key.yes it’s limiting my ability to play in other keys without transposing but it’s been very enlightening learning everything about the relationships of chords and notes in the C key and allowed me to use my ear to learn songs I hear quickly with less frustration. I can’t disagree being able to play in any key is the ideal though, but I enjoy playing so much without stress lol.
Hey, bill! Thanks for your guidance and wisdom! Ironically I learn to build major scale chords while studying sound engineering in a music theory class that I took, but I always wonder how to apply it to a minor key, when you used the A scale for the example I felt so dumb Hah, I was like "well that was always there" considering that I often play the A scale, just because all the notes are also white keys and I get to be less wearied on heating the wrong notes, God bless you, Sir. I hope u know, how cool you are! You've made a person that doesn't have a lot, feel that has gained a lot and somehow will gain lots more with this knowledge! Your tutorials are Wings for me, sir. so I hope u read this and hope you know that your videos are not made in vain, I also hope u still have copies of your books because, as soon as I have a little bit of money saved, I'll buy them both... -Again God bless Abiel Osorio
It makes perfect sense! Basically you can take one of two approaches. First, you can just look up individual scales or buy a book of them (if your music reading is OK). The ABRSM Manual of Scales is the best. Alternatively, you can work them out for yourself by following a pattern of tones and semitones (steps and half steps) from any note. Start on a a note and go up using the pattern tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone-tone-semitone and you have the major scale that takes its name from the starting note. Go up T-S-T-T-S-T-T and you have the natural minor scale. Does that help?
If you can't sing in the current key of the song how do you know the number of whole tones to move and how many would you move by. Do you just move down one whole tone if you can't reach the last pitch of a key and two whole notes if you can't reach the 6th pitch of the key. Is there a general rule as such. Great video thanks. Your two books are very good to!
Thanks very much, and thanks for buying the book! The short answer to your questions is "you guess"! - Well, not quite. Typically what I'd do is work out the highest note of the melody and work downwards until I found a note I could sing that was within my range, and had the kind of timbre I needed (for some songs you don't want to be really stretching for the high notes), all the while making sure the lowest note in the melody wasn't dropping out of my range. So really it's a case of trial and error: you kind of figure out how to do it quicker with experience, though!
Thanks for the great reply. Hope you don't mind as I have another question that I am having a real issue with. I am working on ear training using the program functional ear. Which plays the tonic and then a random note. I am doing okay with it and nearly get 100% but I can not still identify pitches in songs. Someone suggested sight singing will help. Well I have started doing that and I like it, as nice to be able to sing from the stave. But will it help me recognise the note distance from a tonic in songs. My goal is to hear a tune and write notes down without hesitation. Any other suggestions at all on developing ones ear would really be welcome.
hi, great video as i've said already. I like the bit about key changing. I'm not sure i follow it 100%. Do you have another video that explains it in more detail. Its something i would really would like to under stand more. I don't know how you went from f to Flat, & why you chose Eflat to transpose to from F. (Time frame around; 5min) thank you
So. In major key scales. tritone is the half, or semitone. A minor would be the B and F. And in C major, it would be F and B. That is tritones, correct? Works in all natural minor and major scales
You’re certainly right that a tritone divides the octave in half, Patrick, and B to F and F to B are indeed tritone intervals that occur in A minor and C major. I’m not sure where you’re getting the semitone from, though?
@Bill Hilton Bto C. And E to F. As in A minor scale. A,B,C at the semitone B to C. Then again at the 6th E to F. Hence at the semitones of both major and minor is where these tritones are . At half steps or semitones. Odd. But I looked at all major and minor scales. It happens in all of them. Right at the 2 to 6 of minors and 4 and 7 of majors. If removed we get minor pentatonic and major pentatonic.
Bill can you explain a bit, which chord progresions are being used in the natural minor scale most? Is it same as by major sccales f.e. 1-5-6-4 is most common... THX
Yes, to some extent, though it varies a lot depending on the song. Quite a few "minor" songs flirt heavily with the sound of the relative major, which means using the III and VII chords quite a bit. E.g. if you're familiar with the score of "Hamilton", the opening chords are I-Vmaj-VI-III-Vmaj - very typical of what a lot of pop songs do with the minor tonality.
I watched like 20 videos already.. and 100% of the videos is based on major and/or minor keys (Scales) only I think what Andreas did not find about "finding chords" in different "keys" is like finding chords in dorian, phyrgian, lydian, mixolydian, aeolian, ionian (forgive me if I mistyped any of them) like you got this nice pattern you can learn for major "I ii iii IV V vi viio" How this pattern looks like in a #c myxolydian scale or a Bb lydian scale... etc... is there a general way to find keys? I just select the 1st 3rd 5th "note" in the scale for start?
Most of the tutorials you're going to come across on RUclips are going to be focused on major and minor keys, Crusoe, simply because the majority of songs and pieces of music are in major or minor keys. Modal music, although there's still a huge amount of it, isn't as popular, and including modes in a tutorial like this would just make it way too long. It is, however, one, I might think about making in the future! In terms of doing what you're trying to do, I think you're heading in the right direction in the final line of your comment. The principles that I've discussed in this tutorial you can basically apply to any scale. So if you want to know the modes of, say, the Dorian scale, you just need to look up what that scale is and then build a triad off each note of it. If you create those triads by building a third on top of the root note, and another third on top of that, going up the scale to find those notes each time, it should become pretty clear whether each particular called he is going to be major or minor (or diminished, or augmented). Does that make some kind of sense? I'm painfully aware that trying to explain music theory in writing can make it sound much more complicated than actually it is!
How does one learn to find the chords of each key and play them so instinctively? is it just practice and repetition and learning them by heart? because obviously as you're improvising you dont really have time to "think about them"
Not exactly, Hans. I've just replied to a similar question with this: "What I've always found is that deep knowledge of that kind of stuff simply comes from playing lots of different songs - kind of do your "instinctive" learning from playing songs, if you like, then rationalize it all out, post hoc, as it were, using thinking like this". So in other words, the best way is to work on getting it all instinctive "in the wild" as it were, by playing lots of different stuff. Flat out memorization would get boring and demoralising quite quickly, I reckon. Do you see what I'm getting at?
@@BillHilton Thanks for the reply Bill. I think i see what you mean... Reason why i asked is because i have been playing for 4 years. I learned how to play via RUclips by just looking up tutorials of songs i liked. However as time passed i wanted to know what i was actually doing rather than just playing songs mechanically. That's when i saw all these videos (some were yours) and articles about how knowing your scales and chords makes everything easier. So i learned all 12 major and minor scales by heart as well as the major and minor chords...Now i have these tools and well, I do not know how to utilize them :-/
I have 1 question and i am looking for some help because i can't find a video that answers my question. I have note sheets in front of me and the scale of the song is F-maj, now the problem is that i am supposed to play a G-maj chord. Do i play g b and d, or do i play g b-flat and d? Because if i play it in the first way i would play b, which is not even in the scale, and in second way it becomes a G-minor chord because of the b-flat, so i am a bit confused what to play now.
It basically comes down to knowing your intervals, and how chords are structured in intervallic terms (or as steps in a scale). So, for example, if you know that the first, third and fifth notes of the scale of Ab major are Ab, C and Eb you've got the chord in root position: likewise if you can find a major third above Ab (C) and a minor third above that (Eb). Does that make sense?
Nope, this is about finding the diatonic chords of a key - a really important music theory concept. If you want to work out the chords to a song, you need this tutorial --> ruclips.net/video/ilcfgQ3lZus/видео.html - let me know if there'a anything else I can help with!
it's probably harder to PLAY on a KeyBoard... but KEY are just PITCH. So it''ll be the SAME no matter the KEY So you want to get the Chord degree and MODE Terms..Down Pack and KNOW Modes...becuase they simply IDENTIFY INTERVALS for you. If for some reason..you decided to play E min7 add b9...It's just notes from E Phrygian, A min add b13 ( Aeolydian) , F Maj7 add#4. That's the BASIC.. ( Dont separate the RELATIVE...C MAJ/Amin...Keep it SIMPLE. Becuase there's OTHER SCALES...such as HARMONIC MAJOR, HUNGARIAN MAJOR..ect C Harmonic MAJOR = ion b6...D dor b5...E phy b4...F lydian b3...G mix b2...A #2, #4, #5 B loc bb7......KEEP it SIMPLE like that. A Harmonic min A aeo, maj7, B loc maj...C ion#5, D dor #4, E phy maj3. F lyd #2, G locb4bb7 The MODE TERMS simply tells me whatever the heck note of the CHORD..I built from a MODE... but start off with the BASIC ALTERING the 1, 4, 5 CHORDS...from MAJOR to min or visa versa....because you can PUSH and PULL...towards the PARALLEL MAJOR or min....in other words....C MAJOR towards C min....and/or A min towards A MAJOR C MAJ.......F MAJ....G MAJ C MAJ F min G MAJ Cmin F MAJ G MAJ C min F min G MAJ C min F min G min And A min......D min E min A min Dmin E7 A min D7 E7 A MAJ D min E7 A Min B7 into E7 into A min or A min B7 into E Major ( A lydian b2/E Harmonic MAJOR) A min B7 into E min ( E Harmonic min).. But I coupld simply play A min B7 into the E min chord or C Maj....D7 G7 into C MAJOR.....ect Then simply MEMORIZE....the 2, 4, b6, 7 chord degree ( it is what it is) are ALL POSSIBLE FULL DIMINISHED. whether you count from C Harmonic MAJOR or A harmonic min. or C Harmonic min or A HARMONIC MAJOR.. D, F, Ab, B....or B, D, F, G# augmented....C, E, Ab.....or E, G#, C ( they too are symmetrical) ITs VISUALLY EASIER to SEE and PLAY the other SCALES on the Keyboard in C/A.........The 5 BLACK KEYS..... Ab........Eb........Eb,Ab.......ect b6 = Harmonic MAJOR b3 = melodic min b3, b6 = Harmonic min b3, b6, b7 = Natural min b2,b3 b2, b3, b6 b3, b5 b3, b5, b6 b3, #4 b3, #4, b6 Ion #6 Ion #2, b6 ( harmonic MAJOR #2) that's 11 different scales =77 MODES = 77 different CHORDS. to me..it's still under 100 chords. but I play the GUITAR....I can use the fret board like a SLIDE RULER to play in different KEYS.....EASY. I dont play the key board..or not good at it.lol I do appreciate GOOD KEYBOARD players..thou. There's other scales....such as WHOLE TONE or FULL DIMINISHED WH/HW Harmonic min b5 AND Melodic min b5 ( BOTH..b6 and maj6 ) = full diminish W/H it's 4th MODE D dorian b2, #4 AND D lydian b2, b7 ( BOTH b3 and maj3) = full diminished H/W or like this.........b6 = aeo...........Maj6 = dorian Aeo.........................dor Harmonic min melodic min Harmonic min b2 melodic min b2 Harmonic min b5 melodic min b5 Harmonic min #4 melodic min #4 or like this..... Aeo maj7 = Harmonic min dor maj7 = melodic min phry Maj7 = Harmonic min b2 mix Maj7 = ion loc Maj7 = Ion #6 these are just modes from the other scales..with b7. Im simply going to raise b7 to a LEADING TONE. Notice the PATTERNS or structure ???? dor b2 maj7 dor b5 maj7 dor #4 maj7 aeo b2 maj7 aeo b5 maj7 aeo #4 maj7 mix b6 maj7 = Harmonic MAJOR While in C MAJOR/Amin Play the C double HARMONIC min......you'll get the Ab and Eb note... be it italian...german or french or you can play A harmonic min b2...or A melodic min b2 The Bb ...chord..... Bbmaj7...Bb7...Bb aug...Bb dim.... or play D double harmonic min...Bb min7... or you can apply it after the C MAJOR or min C MAJR Db....whatever...C7 into F min...E7 into A min :-P or C Maj Db dim into D7 into G7 into C MAJOR :-P Lets say....I play A min B7 into E MAJOR/C# min... Here's my OPTIONS from C# min....using the N6 or double harmomic min Notice the COMMON chords...back to C MAJOR/Amin..or A MAJOR C#...D dim....E7 C# D maj ...E7 C# D7 E7 C# D min....E dim into F min chord....G# dim into A min..or G7 into C MAJOR :-p or I can play D maj7 to B min...into B7 into E7 into A min again..lol or apply the C maj7 after the B min chord....whalla C MAJOR/Amin :-P
It would have been great, if you would have started with the easy things first, like finding the keys of a scale. I've paused the video at minute 2 or so, just to find a different one to learn the scales before finding out that you were explaining it later on in the video.
Sorry about that, Sibylle! I have to make some tricky decisions about structure when I'm making these things. I like to explain basic principles, but if I do it right at the start it can be boring and distracting for people who already have that knowledge (I know this because they don't hesitate to tell me...!). Now, in some ways RUclips has ridden to the rescue here by introducing the "chapters" feature, which makes it easier for people to skip parts they're already familiar with, which in turn means I can cover lower-level principles early in videos more often. Even so, deciding what to include and what to omit is still a fairly difficult call. Let me know if there's anything specific I can help you with, by the way.
@@BillHilton Thanks for the quick reply, I really appreciate it :) I'm trying to compose my first song on the piano. I've been playing on an off since I was five years old and I wanted to give my boyfriend that song as a Christmas present. Do you have any tips on happy sounding songs which are also emotional? I've only found very sad sounding ones so far, tips only for songs in minor keys, unfortunately.
@@sibyllejunghans1216 You're welcome - I'm afraid I'm not always as quick as that :D - re: songs, I would say start by playing around with a solid, usable major-key chord loop: some like F-->Am-->Gm-->C7... get the chords under your fingers and see if you can improvise vocal lines as you play. Three quarters of songwriting on piano or guitar comes down to improvisation skills, really: it's very much about just messing around, putting in the hours experimenting with stuff like that, rather than setting about it in a very methodical way. Does that make sense?
@@BillHilton Thanks for the advice! I was actually doing this exactly later on the day I wrote my comment and came up with a beautiful song! I'm thinking about writing a part for violins, too in order to make it sound more "voluminous". I'm probably going to upload the result after Christmas. :)
I'm sorry to hear that, Graham! If you're finding this a bit tricky, you perhaps need to revise some music theory basics - scale structure, intervals and so on.
Sadly just not able to take in theory , I can hear what I need to hear and have done for nearly sixty years with guitar , so I just work out chords by ear , still wish I could do better , on a keyboard I just try things out till I think it's right ,it's the best I can do . It would be great to sight read but it's never going to happen .
Hi Bill! I have watched this video basing on my question I did. You can't imagine how grateful I am for this explainations. This video has exactly anwered my question! Now I can go forward to work on 'Here comes Emily Brown'. Smile. So comments I read makes me suppose that this video has answered many questions so far for what no answer has been provided by so many RUclips-Piano-teachers. My very best thanks and very best regards from Germany! All my thumbs up for you!
No problem Andreas - glad it was what you needed!
I have to point out that in almost 40 years not one person has explicitly explained the tone/step terminological divide. I’m very annoyed it was that simple but thank you very much for saying it. You also managed to explain more and do it more clearly in the first 15 minutes of this video than the TCU music professor The Great Courses hired for their theory course in like 3 whole lectures. Well done. Thank you.
Very helpful. Thank you for not sticking to just the C scale. Love your teaching methods.
Wow. It took me 5 times to watch this to understand. But my guy told me you were making sense. Thank you a lot. I always felt like I needed to know this. I teaching myself and your vid did help!!
Thanks! Glad it helped!
This is one of the best piano tutorials on the internet! :)
Thanks Tom - really glad you like it!
What an amazing video, thank you. I’ve been teaching my self to play and self learning theory. I’ve watched many videos and reading many books, but they way you present the information just clicks with me. I’ve learned so much from this video
I'm really glad it helped, Sven!
Thank You Soooooo Much. It just took the first few minutes of your video saved my chord playing. I knew it was kinda easy but picked right after you mentioned the numerical numbers for the chords. I’m Subscribing for this video.
Glad it helped, and thanks for the sub!
Merci for this. I'm just starting out, and I need to study chords more. I'll check out your other videos.
Great tutorial and excellent refresher, thanks Bill. A reminder that knowing it instantly is much better for real-time playing than having to think about it, even momentarily. The next level, 7ths, particularly minor 7th's and extensions is where I struggle to use the math when sat at the keys.
No problem, Stephen - glad you liked it! The sevenths and related extensions do add a bunch of complexity beyond this, it's true. What I've always found is that deep knowledge of that kind of stuff simply comes from playing lots of different songs - kind of do your "instinctive" learning from playing songs, if you like, then rationalize it all out, post hoc, as it were, using thinking like this - if that makes sense!
Remember to check out my books, How To Really Play The Piano, Seven Studies In Pop Piano and (for good measure!) An Introduction To Cocktail Piano. Links here:
www.billspianopages.com/how-to-really
www.billspianopages.com/seven-studies
www.billspianopages.com/cocktail
Hi Bill , I have both How to really play the piano and 7 studies and was just wondering if you have ever made a video demonstrating all the songs in 7 studies , I would love to see you play them 🤗 , I'm sure you are always busy but it would be nice , cheers Patricia
Hi Patricia - sorry for the delayed reply! There isn't video (at the moment) but there are audio files, linked from the book. They may help at least somewhat - have you found them?
Yes I listen to them quite often and they do help , thanks for the reply , maybe one day we will see you perform them . Regards
What an amazing video thank you so much! You’re an incredible teacher!
Thanks Brian - glad you liked it!
Awesome video! One of the areas I really need to work on. Thanks!
No problem - glad you like it!
I am grateful for this video tutorial
You’re really welcome!
Bill, thank you so much for your classes! Super, super helpful for us the beginners. A big hug from argentina!
You're welcome, Julian - really glad it helps. Give me a yell if you ever have any problems!
@@BillHilton I Definitely will Bill 😂 thank you so much again!!
exactly what i was needing to know. Thank you for a great video thats straight to the point.
You’re welcome, James!
I was born in the US but my family ancestry is from Ipswitch, England. I always used both terms for tones/steps interchangeably. Never gave it much thought before. I also use the "U" in Colour and Labour and it drives my friends three sheets to the wind. Anyway, great lesson. Carry on gov'na, Cheers!
Great solid explanation to a good question, well worth the watch!
Glad you enjoyed it, Jimmy!
Thanks for the video.Very useful and educative.
Quite difficult to follow everything here, but clearly a very useful video...I will watch this many times..many thanks for your efforts Bill 👌
This is a good video but it doesn't quite answer the question for me. I could work all this out from knowing the key but it would have been good to see how to look at or hear a piece of music and be able to work out what chords fit from the notes. This really helps if you know that but want to transpose. I still learnt a lot watching, I'll watch other videos as they may hold the answers I'm looking for. Thanks for the very clear explanations.
Thank you Bill. Very helpful to dive back into some theory every now and then.
Useful and easy to understand Bill,thank you once again for the valuable information you provide to us.
So you can take any key on the piano (note) and apply these tones/semitones/Roman numerals of major/minor/diminished/augmented to fit… and it gives you a major/minor scale of that root note ?
Like it doesn’t have to be certain notes, you can literally apply these ideas to any note and build chords from there
This is an excellent explanation! Sent it to my buddy who is a guitarist learning music theory, this will definitely help him I'm sure.
Thanks Dan!
Hey Bill, you are an excellent teacher. Thanks
Thank you, Bill, this tutorial was really usefull. Finaly I understand the difference between natural and harmonic minor. Greetz from Belgium
No problem Eddie - glad you liked it. Hello from North Yorkshire!
Fantastic. I am a guitarist but now want to learn piano after watching this! Thanks
Great video! Do you think you can touch on arpeggiating and making melodies in your next one?
Thanks Damian! I might do a PQA on arpeggiation quite soon, so watch this space!
Always playing alone,I’ve got lazy and learnt everything in C.I use the transpose button to change key if I want to play along to a track in a different key.yes it’s limiting my ability to play in other keys without transposing but it’s been very enlightening learning everything about the relationships of chords and notes in the C key and allowed me to use my ear to learn songs I hear quickly with less frustration.
I can’t disagree being able to play in any key is the ideal though, but I enjoy playing so much without stress lol.
Very helpfull, thank you mate 👌
You're welcome, Daniel!
what a great quality of this video
Thank you so much for this useful lesson!
You're welcome, Dina!
Great tutorial Bill , well explained , as always , ☺
Thanks Patricia!
I have only 2 year of experience in keyboard..I am understanding 70% of what you are saying..Great video and teaching style...
Hey, bill! Thanks for your guidance and wisdom! Ironically I learn to build major scale chords while studying sound engineering in a music theory class that I took, but I always wonder how to apply it to a minor key, when you used the A scale for the example I felt so dumb Hah, I was like "well that was always there" considering that I often play the A scale, just because all the notes are also white keys and I get to be less wearied on heating the wrong notes, God bless you, Sir. I hope u know, how cool you are! You've made a person that doesn't have a lot, feel that has gained a lot and somehow will gain lots more with this knowledge! Your tutorials are Wings for me, sir. so I hope u read this and hope you know that your videos are not made in vain, I also hope u still have copies of your books because, as soon as I have a little bit of money saved, I'll buy them both...
-Again God bless
Abiel Osorio
Excellent Thankyou !
Glad it was helpful!
Great video , I am still strugling to find the scales . How to know how the scales changes with change in key? I hope my question makes sense .
It makes perfect sense! Basically you can take one of two approaches. First, you can just look up individual scales or buy a book of them (if your music reading is OK). The ABRSM Manual of Scales is the best. Alternatively, you can work them out for yourself by following a pattern of tones and semitones (steps and half steps) from any note. Start on a a note and go up using the pattern tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone-tone-semitone and you have the major scale that takes its name from the starting note. Go up T-S-T-T-S-T-T and you have the natural minor scale. Does that help?
12:00 So magic. Got it.
If you can't sing in the current key of the song how do you know the number of whole tones to move and how many would you move by. Do you just move down one whole tone if you can't reach the last pitch of a key and two whole notes if you can't reach the 6th pitch of the key. Is there a general rule as such. Great video thanks. Your two books are very good to!
Thanks very much, and thanks for buying the book! The short answer to your questions is "you guess"! - Well, not quite. Typically what I'd do is work out the highest note of the melody and work downwards until I found a note I could sing that was within my range, and had the kind of timbre I needed (for some songs you don't want to be really stretching for the high notes), all the while making sure the lowest note in the melody wasn't dropping out of my range. So really it's a case of trial and error: you kind of figure out how to do it quicker with experience, though!
Thanks for the great reply. Hope you don't mind as I have another question that I am having a real issue with. I am working on ear training using the program functional ear. Which plays the tonic and then a random note. I am doing okay with it and nearly get 100% but I can not still identify pitches in songs. Someone suggested sight singing will help. Well I have started doing that and I like it, as nice to be able to sing from the stave. But will it help me recognise the note distance from a tonic in songs. My goal is to hear a tune and write notes down without hesitation. Any other suggestions at all on developing ones ear would really be welcome.
Great video! I have one doubt, im sorry if it is mentioned in the video but i just tought of it and had to express it. How do seventh chords fit here?
thank you fucking awesome
hi, great video as i've said already. I like the bit about key changing. I'm not sure i follow it 100%. Do you have another video that explains it in more detail. Its something i would really would like to under stand more. I don't know how you went from f to Flat, & why you chose Eflat to transpose to from F. (Time frame around; 5min) thank you
Very helpful thank ypu
You're welcome 😊
Can’t thank you enough !
You're very welcome!
Thanks... some useful tips :)
You're welcome Richard!
Nice video Bill! Good question! Jazz tunes like Joy Spring don't make it an easy one - the key is often a moveable feast!
OMG! “Twenty Fingers” Hudson is among us! Thanks for the kind words, buddy, and don’t look too closely at some of the playing in these 🙈
@@BillHilton you've always been a wonderful player Bill.. One of my earliest inspirations, BGS buddy.. Keep doing what you do x
@@carlhudson83 **blushes madly**
So. In major key scales. tritone is the half, or semitone. A minor would be the B and F. And in C major, it would be F and B. That is tritones, correct? Works in all natural minor and major scales
You’re certainly right that a tritone divides the octave in half, Patrick, and B to F and F to B are indeed tritone intervals that occur in A minor and C major. I’m not sure where you’re getting the semitone from, though?
@Bill Hilton Bto C. And E to F. As in A minor scale. A,B,C at the semitone B to C. Then again at the 6th E to F. Hence at the semitones of both major and minor is where these tritones are . At half steps or semitones. Odd. But I looked at all major and minor scales. It happens in all of them. Right at the 2 to 6 of minors and 4 and 7 of majors. If removed we get minor pentatonic and major pentatonic.
THANK YOU! ❤
Thank you!!!!
Thank you !
Egyptian mummy theme songs use harmonic minor scales cuz they are spooky/mysterious
Damn one and half year in and that just clicked ..am a slow learner but this video did it ....oh yea am learning guitar ...great video thanks
Glad it helped, Jimmy!
thank you
You're welcome!
Bill can you explain a bit, which chord progresions are being used in the natural minor scale most?
Is it same as by major sccales f.e. 1-5-6-4 is most common... THX
Yes, to some extent, though it varies a lot depending on the song. Quite a few "minor" songs flirt heavily with the sound of the relative major, which means using the III and VII chords quite a bit. E.g. if you're familiar with the score of "Hamilton", the opening chords are I-Vmaj-VI-III-Vmaj - very typical of what a lot of pop songs do with the minor tonality.
Very helpful
Merci beaucoup, Etienne!
I watched like 20 videos already.. and 100% of the videos is based on major and/or minor keys (Scales) only
I think what Andreas did not find about "finding chords" in different "keys" is like finding chords in dorian, phyrgian, lydian, mixolydian, aeolian, ionian (forgive me if I mistyped any of them)
like you got this nice pattern you can learn for major "I ii iii IV V vi viio"
How this pattern looks like in a #c myxolydian scale or a Bb lydian scale... etc... is there a general way to find keys?
I just select the 1st 3rd 5th "note" in the scale for start?
Most of the tutorials you're going to come across on RUclips are going to be focused on major and minor keys, Crusoe, simply because the majority of songs and pieces of music are in major or minor keys. Modal music, although there's still a huge amount of it, isn't as popular, and including modes in a tutorial like this would just make it way too long. It is, however, one, I might think about making in the future!
In terms of doing what you're trying to do, I think you're heading in the right direction in the final line of your comment. The principles that I've discussed in this tutorial you can basically apply to any scale. So if you want to know the modes of, say, the Dorian scale, you just need to look up what that scale is and then build a triad off each note of it. If you create those triads by building a third on top of the root note, and another third on top of that, going up the scale to find those notes each time, it should become pretty clear whether each particular called he is going to be major or minor (or diminished, or augmented). Does that make some kind of sense? I'm painfully aware that trying to explain music theory in writing can make it sound much more complicated than actually it is!
@@BillHilton I actually found related videos, how to find chords in different scales:D
How does one learn to find the chords of each key and play them so instinctively? is it just practice and repetition and learning them by heart? because obviously as you're improvising you dont really have time to "think about them"
Not exactly, Hans. I've just replied to a similar question with this: "What I've always found is that deep knowledge of that kind of stuff simply comes from playing lots of different songs - kind of do your "instinctive" learning from playing songs, if you like, then rationalize it all out, post hoc, as it were, using thinking like this". So in other words, the best way is to work on getting it all instinctive "in the wild" as it were, by playing lots of different stuff. Flat out memorization would get boring and demoralising quite quickly, I reckon. Do you see what I'm getting at?
@@BillHilton Thanks for the reply Bill. I think i see what you mean... Reason why i asked is because i have been playing for 4 years. I learned how to play via RUclips by just looking up tutorials of songs i liked. However as time passed i wanted to know what i was actually doing rather than just playing songs mechanically. That's when i saw all these videos (some were yours) and articles about how knowing your scales and chords makes everything easier. So i learned all 12 major and minor scales by heart as well as the major and minor chords...Now i have these tools and well, I do not know how to utilize them :-/
This lesson solved a mystery 😅
I have 1 question and i am looking for some help because i can't find a video that answers my question. I have note sheets in front of me and the scale of the song is F-maj, now the problem is that i am supposed to play a G-maj chord. Do i play g b and d, or do i play g b-flat and d? Because if i play it in the first way i would play b, which is not even in the scale, and in second way it becomes a G-minor chord because of the b-flat, so i am a bit confused what to play now.
In the major key chord. The last chord that is diminished... it's a diminished minor chord?
Do u have cadence and resolution tutorial??
thnx dude
You're welcome!
What is the rules to finding chords instead of remembering every chord there is
It basically comes down to knowing your intervals, and how chords are structured in intervallic terms (or as steps in a scale). So, for example, if you know that the first, third and fifth notes of the scale of Ab major are Ab, C and Eb you've got the chord in root position: likewise if you can find a major third above Ab (C) and a minor third above that (Eb). Does that make sense?
How do a get the chords of a melody, with just the the melody keyd
Good question! I have a tutorial on it here: ruclips.net/video/ilcfgQ3lZus/видео.html
i thought this was about how to find the chords and key of a song you don't know especially of theres no sheet music for it ?
Nope, this is about finding the diatonic chords of a key - a really important music theory concept. If you want to work out the chords to a song, you need this tutorial --> ruclips.net/video/ilcfgQ3lZus/видео.html - let me know if there'a anything else I can help with!
it's probably harder to PLAY on a KeyBoard... but KEY are just PITCH.
So it''ll be the SAME no matter the KEY
So you want to get the Chord degree and MODE Terms..Down Pack
and KNOW Modes...becuase they simply IDENTIFY INTERVALS for you.
If for some reason..you decided to play E min7 add b9...It's just notes
from E Phrygian, A min add b13 ( Aeolydian) , F Maj7 add#4.
That's the BASIC.. ( Dont separate the RELATIVE...C MAJ/Amin...Keep it SIMPLE.
Becuase there's OTHER SCALES...such as HARMONIC MAJOR, HUNGARIAN MAJOR..ect
C Harmonic MAJOR = ion b6...D dor b5...E phy b4...F lydian b3...G mix b2...A #2, #4, #5
B loc bb7......KEEP it SIMPLE like that.
A Harmonic min A aeo, maj7, B loc maj...C ion#5, D dor #4, E phy maj3. F lyd #2, G locb4bb7
The MODE TERMS simply tells me whatever the heck note of the CHORD..I built
from a MODE...
but start off with the BASIC ALTERING the 1, 4, 5 CHORDS...from MAJOR to min
or visa versa....because you can PUSH and PULL...towards the PARALLEL MAJOR
or min....in other words....C MAJOR towards C min....and/or A min towards A MAJOR
C MAJ.......F MAJ....G MAJ
C MAJ F min G MAJ
Cmin F MAJ G MAJ
C min F min G MAJ
C min F min G min
And
A min......D min E min
A min Dmin E7
A min D7 E7
A MAJ D min E7
A Min B7 into E7 into A min
or
A min B7 into E Major ( A lydian b2/E Harmonic MAJOR)
A min B7 into E min ( E Harmonic min)..
But I coupld simply play A min B7 into the E min chord
or C Maj....D7 G7 into C MAJOR.....ect
Then simply MEMORIZE....the 2, 4, b6, 7 chord degree ( it is what it is)
are ALL POSSIBLE FULL DIMINISHED.
whether you count from C Harmonic MAJOR or A harmonic min.
or C Harmonic min or A HARMONIC MAJOR..
D, F, Ab, B....or B, D, F, G#
augmented....C, E, Ab.....or E, G#, C ( they too are symmetrical)
ITs VISUALLY EASIER to SEE and PLAY the other SCALES on the Keyboard
in C/A.........The 5 BLACK KEYS.....
Ab........Eb........Eb,Ab.......ect
b6 = Harmonic MAJOR
b3 = melodic min
b3, b6 = Harmonic min
b3, b6, b7 = Natural min
b2,b3
b2, b3, b6
b3, b5
b3, b5, b6
b3, #4
b3, #4, b6
Ion #6
Ion #2, b6 ( harmonic MAJOR #2)
that's 11 different scales =77 MODES = 77 different CHORDS.
to me..it's still under 100 chords.
but I play the GUITAR....I can use the fret board like a SLIDE RULER to
play in different KEYS.....EASY.
I dont play the key board..or not good at it.lol
I do appreciate GOOD KEYBOARD players..thou.
There's other scales....such as WHOLE TONE or FULL DIMINISHED WH/HW
Harmonic min b5 AND Melodic min b5 ( BOTH..b6 and maj6 ) = full diminish W/H
it's 4th MODE
D dorian b2, #4 AND D lydian b2, b7 ( BOTH b3 and maj3) = full diminished H/W
or like this.........b6 = aeo...........Maj6 = dorian
Aeo.........................dor
Harmonic min melodic min
Harmonic min b2 melodic min b2
Harmonic min b5 melodic min b5
Harmonic min #4 melodic min #4
or like this.....
Aeo maj7 = Harmonic min
dor maj7 = melodic min
phry Maj7 = Harmonic min b2
mix Maj7 = ion
loc Maj7 = Ion #6
these are just modes from the other scales..with b7.
Im simply going to raise b7 to a LEADING TONE.
Notice the PATTERNS or structure ????
dor b2 maj7
dor b5 maj7
dor #4 maj7
aeo b2 maj7
aeo b5 maj7
aeo #4 maj7
mix b6 maj7 = Harmonic MAJOR
While in C MAJOR/Amin
Play the C double HARMONIC min......you'll get the Ab and Eb note...
be it italian...german or french
or you can play A harmonic min b2...or A melodic min b2
The Bb ...chord.....
Bbmaj7...Bb7...Bb aug...Bb dim....
or play D double harmonic min...Bb min7...
or you can apply it after the C MAJOR or min
C MAJR Db....whatever...C7 into F min...E7 into A min :-P
or
C Maj Db dim into D7 into G7 into C MAJOR :-P
Lets say....I play A min B7 into E MAJOR/C# min...
Here's my OPTIONS from C# min....using the N6 or double harmomic min
Notice the COMMON chords...back to C MAJOR/Amin..or A MAJOR
C#...D dim....E7
C# D maj ...E7
C# D7 E7
C# D min....E dim into F min chord....G# dim into A min..or G7 into C MAJOR :-p
or I can play D maj7 to B min...into B7 into E7 into A min again..lol
or apply the C maj7 after the B min chord....whalla C MAJOR/Amin :-P
It would have been great, if you would have started with the easy things first, like finding the keys of a scale. I've paused the video at minute 2 or so, just to find a different one to learn the scales before finding out that you were explaining it later on in the video.
Sorry about that, Sibylle! I have to make some tricky decisions about structure when I'm making these things. I like to explain basic principles, but if I do it right at the start it can be boring and distracting for people who already have that knowledge (I know this because they don't hesitate to tell me...!). Now, in some ways RUclips has ridden to the rescue here by introducing the "chapters" feature, which makes it easier for people to skip parts they're already familiar with, which in turn means I can cover lower-level principles early in videos more often. Even so, deciding what to include and what to omit is still a fairly difficult call. Let me know if there's anything specific I can help you with, by the way.
@@BillHilton Thanks for the quick reply, I really appreciate it :) I'm trying to compose my first song on the piano. I've been playing on an off since I was five years old and I wanted to give my boyfriend that song as a Christmas present. Do you have any tips on happy sounding songs which are also emotional? I've only found very sad sounding ones so far, tips only for songs in minor keys, unfortunately.
@@sibyllejunghans1216 You're welcome - I'm afraid I'm not always as quick as that :D - re: songs, I would say start by playing around with a solid, usable major-key chord loop: some like F-->Am-->Gm-->C7... get the chords under your fingers and see if you can improvise vocal lines as you play. Three quarters of songwriting on piano or guitar comes down to improvisation skills, really: it's very much about just messing around, putting in the hours experimenting with stuff like that, rather than setting about it in a very methodical way. Does that make sense?
@@BillHilton Thanks for the advice! I was actually doing this exactly later on the day I wrote my comment and came up with a beautiful song! I'm thinking about writing a part for violins, too in order to make it sound more "voluminous". I'm probably going to upload the result after Christmas. :)
@@sibyllejunghans1216 Cool - if you do, send me the link and I'll be delighted to hear it!
Piano much easier to visualise than guitar.
So …we just simply say….finger 1 3 5?
Still haven't a clue what he's talking about
I'm sorry to hear that, Graham! If you're finding this a bit tricky, you perhaps need to revise some music theory basics - scale structure, intervals and so on.
Sadly just not able to take in theory , I can hear what I need to hear and have done for nearly sixty years with guitar , so I just work out chords by ear , still wish I could do better , on a keyboard I just try things out till I think it's right ,it's the best I can do .
It would be great to sight read but it's never going to happen .