A Major, A Minor, & Playing Staccato

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph
Hoffman,
and today let's learn how to play the A
major and minor pentascales.
Come on over to the piano to get started.
Since we're learning the A major and minor pentascales,
we need to find where A
is. Can you point to any A's on your screen?
If you're pointing here or here,
you're correct.
So let's go ahead and choose this one to try and build an A major pentascale,
and I'm just going to choose all white keys for right now,
and then let's see what we get.
Now, in solfège we'd have: DO RE MI FA SO, but
remember that MI and FA have to be a half step apart.
They're not going to be
happy here are they because
they have this black key in between. That means we
have a whole step instead of a half step.
What can we do?
We're going to need to take
this third note and raise it a half step
to C-sharp in order to create that half
step between MI and FA.
Now, we have: DO RE MI FA SO. Everyone's happy now.
Can you name the letters of each key for me?
Say them out
loud for me. Go:
The correct answer would be: A B C-sharp D E,
and this would be A major drawn on the staff.
Can you name the notes with me? Point, and let's name these notes.
Ready, go: A B C-sharp D E
Same is true for the bass clef. a B
c-sharp D E.
You might have noticed that A major has this white, white, black, white, white pattern.
The same pattern that we see
in the pentascale we've already
learned D major,
which is also white, white, black, white, white.
Now, let's try
"Stepping and Skipping" using just the right hand.
Finger 1 is on A, and then
you've got white, white, black,
finger 3's on that C-sharp, white, white.
Find
the position and let's play "Stepping and Skipping".
Ready, go:
♫Stepping up, and stepping down, and skipping up and down♫
And then let's do our I chord.
Good, now quick posture check.
As you play, make sure that your wrist stays flexible.
See how I kind of drop
slightly and then it floats back up after each note.
That
helps you use arm weight to play.
Also, check that your pinky isn't collapsing,
and that your fingers are all staying
in their relaxed, curved shape.
Let's try it
one more time now with great piano posture, go:
♫Stepping up, and stepping down, and skipping up and down♫
Chord
Now let's try that with the left hand.
Can you find an A major pentascale with your left hand? So I've got my finger 5 on A.
White, white,
black, white, white, finger 3 on C-sharp.
Ready, go: ♫Stepping up, and stepping down, and skipping up and down♫
Play our I chord.
Good, now where would the V7
chord be in A major?
Can you try and find it on your piano?
If you found these three notes you're
correct
Remember that a V7 chord, if
you're coming from a major chord,
DO moves down a half step to TI, the nearest
possible note to the left,
and MI moves up a half step to FA.
So this would be our V7 chord in A major.
Which you can play with fingers 1, 2, and 5 if you're in the left hand, or fingers 5, 4, and 1 in the right hand.
So when you play "Stepping and Skipping",
a bonus you can do is play the I chord,
then play the V7 chord,
then back to the I chord. That's an optional
extension you can do on the end
for bonus work.
if you want that challenge.
Now, today I want to show you a more advanced technique called staccato.
Staccato is a style of playing, or an articulation they're sometimes called if you want to be fancy,
it's an articulation used to make this kind of sound:
This is called a staccato.
When you play with a quick release of
the note, kind of makes a crisp popping sound.
It can be useful to create certain
kinds of moods or feelings in music.
Like, if you want to sound really mysterious.
Staccato can be fun.
It can also add a lot of excitement.
Now, to play a staccato, I want you to master what's called a
little wrist lift.
So, without playing a single note,
just place your fingers in
the A major pentascale.
Just, you know, resting on those keys,
and then practice giving a little quick
but comfortable lift in your wrist,
and your forearm will
probably naturally come up a little bit too.
Just practice a little quick lift
and then relax, lift and then relax. Try this with me.
Okay, keeping your fingers resting on the keys.
You know, your thumb may come up off the keys a little bit as you lift and that's fine,
but most of your fingers are just going to be resting there. Ready, lift
and then relax, lift and then relax, lift and then relax.
Good, now when you pla ...