F Major & Minor Pentascale

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph
Hoffman
and in this lesson we're going to learn two new pentascales:
F major and
F minor let's come to the piano to start learning.
To play the F major pentascale
first let's find F.
Can you point to two different F's somewhere in this area of the piano on your screen?
If you're pointing here or here you're correct.
Remember, F is right in front of those three black keys that make
grandma's
house. So here's our F.
Can you point and name these five white keys? This first
one's F, now you name the rest, go.
If you said F G A B C you're correct.
Now I'm going to play "Chocolate" on these five keys and I want you to listen really carefully.
One of these notes won't sound correct.
It won't sound like a major
pentascale and I want you to point
to the key that doesn't quite sound right for
"Chocolate". Here it comes:
What did you notice? Listen one more time.
Point to the key that didn't quite sound
right for "Chocolate".
If you're pointing right here you're correct.
Remember that for major pentascales we have to have a half step between MI and FA.
But right now we have a whole step because of this black key in between.
Instead we've got the half step here,
which creates that really interesting sound that's actually
called a Lydian pentascale.
Well, how would we make this major?
It wouldn't work to go this way, because we still have a half step here and here.
The
solution is to take this B and lower it a half step
to become a b-flat, and now
we have a whole step,
whole step, half step, whole step.
Remember whole step
always skips over one key black or white
So now we have whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, which builds our major pentascale.
Listen to it now.
Oops,
knocked that flat right off.
I'll try that one more time.
You could hear that now that sounds like the "Chocolate" and major pentascale we know and love.
Let's try to name these keys.
Say the letter names: F G A B-flat C
Great, now can you name them
going down? Try it by yourself, go:
The correct answer is: C B-flat A G F.
Now let's take a look at the F major pentascale on the staff.
Here in the
treble staff you can see F G A B-flat C.
Or drawn in the bass clef we could have
F G A B-flat C.
Today let's actually try playing the F major pentascale first using our left hand.
So take your left hand finger 5, and find an F somewhere
below middle C.
And then because we've got to have
finger 2 on this B-flat,
you'll probably find it most comfortable to
slide your hand towards your piano so fingers 4 and 3
are actually
playing in between the black keys here.
See how I'm doing that?
Can you play DO RE MI FA SO with your
left hand? Try it, go.
Good, now let's try stepping down: SO FA MI RE DO. Your turn, sing and play.
Good, now let's try stepping and skipping.
♫stepping up and
stepping down and skipping up and down♫
Now play a chord.
Now your turn.
Let's do a quick piano posture review.
Remember, that if your bench is too close
it's going to squeeze your elbow against
your body.
You want to have your bench far enough back
that your elbow can
float comfortably slightly in front of your body.
Remember that you also want to
use arm weight as you play.
Try taking your left hand, just pick it up with your
right hand and let it drop onto your lap.
Just remember that your arm has a
natural weight to it,
and you can use gravity to help you play the notes.
Especially if you keep your wrist loose
and a little bit bouncy almost like it's
a trampoline.
Okay, your wrist shouldn't be locked down in one place, it should be smooth and level and a little bit bouncy.
Also remember to keep a nice curved
shape to your fingers. You don't want to play flat
or tightly curved, just a
natural curve and keep the fingertip firm enough
that it doesn't go bloop. See
how it's bending backwards like that?
You want to keep it nice and firm in that
naturally curved shape.
Now, pause the video, and with your best piano posture make sure your bench is in the right place,
make sure you're using
arm weight finger shape,
and practice playing 'Stepping and Skipping' in F major
using your left hand, then try right hand,
and then try it hands together. Then
press play to go on.
Now let's review how to find the V7 chord. Here I've got the I chord.
Remember, our I chord is always built
on DO MI SO.
To find the V7 chord, MI goes up a half step to FA.
DO steps down a half step to TI.
And this in F major would be the V7
chord.
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