Don forget to take a look at my Piano Packs - each one with its own dedicated walkthrough video - over at www.billspianopages.com/pianopacks and my ebook bundle deal at www.billspianopages.com/bundle. You can find out more about my new book, How To Be A Better Musician at: www.bettermusicianbook.com And here's the link to my Patreon page: www.patreon.com/billhilton - remember, if you sign up to support me on Patreon you get the Piano Packs at no extra charge!
Another fantastic video but the chromatic mediants can only be a major or minor 3rd apart from the tonic chord. In your example it would be a diminished 3rd apart (G## to B). I think that A should rather be interpreted as the 1st chord of a double plagal cadence (A E B).
Thank you! And thanks for watching far enough to get to that point! Re: chromatic mediants... tricky. Wikipedia says "...there is not complete agreement on the definition of chromatic mediant relationships", which, based on the wildly varying interpretations I've come across, is something of an understatement 🤣. I've always thought the best interpretation was a mediant or submediant that has been chromatically altered - ie shifted up or down a half step and possibly had its tonality inverted (I've never quite bought the idea that tonal inversion is enough, because then you're into discussion of secondary dominants and suchlike). Although the only chord that your definition excludes that mine permits (if I've got this right) is the major or minor built on the minor seventh - ie a whole tone/step from the tonic rather than any kind of third. I guess we're in the same territory as the "is it a second or is it a ninth?" debate...!
So much good stuff in this video, thanks Bill. I especially like that you didn't utter the phrase "All the white notes" once. 🤣 I'm so bored of seeing piano videos in C Major. (You're actually way less guilty of this than many others) P.S. For anyone thinking of buying any of Bills books I promise you won't regret it. You always get a huge amount of good knowledge for your money! (Bill didn't pay me to say that, it's genuinely true :) )
Thanks very much, Col, and thanks also for the recommendation! I'm trying to do more stuff in a variety of keys, because the temptation is always to go for C or F or G or what-have-you. I genuinely don't think the black-note heavy keys are tremendously more difficult, and people can get a lot out of working in them!
I really appreciate these videos! Stretches the brain for sure, and a perfect complement for those of us mostly doing more "traditional" piano lessons...
This is great Adam! Got me to pick up my harp and play for the first time in a while. Would really like to keep ramping up the difficulty with you in this!
Bill, I’m always thrilled when you have a new lesson and this one is no exception. I was getting frustrated with hand independence and this lesson gives me a fresh approach. Thank you.
Thank you - I'm really glad you liked it! Have you seen my Train Your Piano Brain series from a few years back? There are a couple of useful things on hand independence in there. Here's the playlist... ru-vid.com/group/PLpOuhygfD7QnKq5P3mf7TiofvItxhuM2i
Great video, Bill! Couldn't believe how good I sounded after breaking it down alongside the video. I really appreciate your improvisation rhythm exercises and would love more! I've been playing 2-5-1-6 progressions in my improv practice but have gotten a little stuck by gravitating to what's familiar/easy; using the same whole/half note rhythms playing octaves in my left hand and randomly pulling from pentatonic scales in the right. Do you have any tips to expand on this? I've been playing in C, would changing keys (maybe to B) be enough to shake it up or what would you recommend?
Glad you liked it, Jack - thanks for the kind words! As to expanding on, I'd certainly try doing more chord work in the right hand rather than just pentatonic notes: even if the effect you get to start with sounds more like an accompaniment than a melodic improvisation, you'll find it's a good way of developing your sound. Taking right hand chords and just having a go at shifting notes around to see what happens (as I do in this tutorial) can yield some good effects. As always, the best approach with this kind of thing is to experiment on the keyboard first and then try to make sense of it in music theory terms, rather than trying to work outwards from theory. I'd also agree that moving away from C major is a good idea! Have you seen this tutorial? It goes into improvisational approaches to the 1 5 6 4 progression in a bit more depth --> ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pBaaNCCfvrU.html -- let me know how you get on!
I'm kind of new to this. Still watching and then running over to piano lol. Do most people watch lessons on a large tablet of some kind and keep it on the piano sheet rack? Do any of those tablets have good speakers/ volume. How are most people learning this way?
I can give you some actual stats there! Over the last 28 days, 61.7% of all views of my tutorials have been on a mobile phone; 24.9% on a desktop or laptop computer; 8% on a tablet and 5.4% on a TV. That will be somewhat skewed by the high view numbers for Shorts (which are almost entirely watched on mobile). So I'd guess that of views of actual full-length tutorials, around 50% are on mobile, 25% on a computer, and the remaining 25% split between tablets and TV, probably weighting heavier towards tablets. Of course, that's all viewers, including the ones who turn up, watch for 10 seconds and then click out: anecdotally, I think tablet usage is much higher among committed repeat viewers. Personally, when I follow someone else's tutorial (or one of my own to remember what I did in it - happens fairly often 🤣) I just put my iPad or my iPhone on my piano's music stand and work from that. The iPad obvs gives a slightly better view, but the phone is good enough (if I wear my glasses...!). Does that help?
I like to know where you put the wright fingers on the piano keys. When reading sheet music. Expecially the low end and high end of the keyboard. Can you you do a video to explain this please. Ty from Terry
Yes that wright Bill. When I read music notes. I do not know where on the keyboard to put my hands and use the wright fingers. When they are in the center of the stave I have not got a problem.
Any chance of the 'How to be a better musician' being released as a real book? I've bought your other books as real books but bought the piano packs as a pdf and it's just not the same lol.
Yes indeed - I hope to have it in print later this year. The reason I didn’t do a print edition straight away was basically cost: the Ukraine war and various other global economic factors have rocketed the costs of paper, production and distribution for small publishers like me - especially when using a print on demand model, as I do - and it just wasn’t worth it. I’d have spent weeks of work typesetting the book into print format for minimal returns. Things in the sector seem to be improving, though, so I’m hopeful we’ll have one soon. I’m desperate to get it actually in my hands - to me it’s not real until it’s in print!
