Piano Hand Independence and Rhythm: The Subdivision Exercise That Makes One Chord Groove

Duration: 12:51 1368 transcript words EN summary

Video summary

In this lesson from the Nathaniel School of Music, instructor Jason Zach introduces a fundamental exercise designed to develop piano hand independence while enhancing rhythmic groove. The core concept involves maintaining a consistent arpeggio pattern in the left hand—specifically using an E major chord played on low-high-middle-high notes—while simultaneously exploring various subdivisions within the right hand. This approach allows one hand to provide a steady harmonic engine, much like a stringed instrument such as a fingerstyle guitar or banjo, while the other hand accesses faster rhythmic layers that add flavor and movement to the music without disrupting the underlying pulse. The instructor demonstrates how to progress from basic eighth notes in both hands to more complex subdivisions like semiquavers and triplets in the right hand, all while keeping the left hand anchored on specific beat points such as "1" or "e." He encourages players to treat their two hands almost as a single unit by playing them close together initially before expanding into different time fields. By focusing only on certain fingers of the right hand or alternating between hitting the main beats and the off-beats, musicians can create interesting folk rhythms that feel fluid rather than rigid. This method helps bridge the gap between strict metronomic counting and the natural swing often found in jazz and folk music by leaving out middle subdivisions to introduce a laid-back groove. To further enrich the musical texture, Zach suggests adding melodic elements such as diatonic thirds or fifths that float around an anchored note in the left hand while continuing to play scales on specific hit points with the right hand. This technique allows for harmonic exploration where one voice remains stable while another moves freely through different intervals and time signatures like triplets versus straight eighths. The exercise is highly adaptable, permitting players to change chords or experiment with major sevenths and minor sixths as they navigate these rhythmic layers, ultimately fostering a deeper understanding of how harmony and melody can interact independently yet cohesively within the same performance space. Ultimately, this practice methodology serves not only as an effective drill for improving technical facility but also as a creative tool for composition and improvisation that many musicians find personally useful in their own work. The lesson emphasizes that while there are structured patterns to follow, such as rolling through specific note sequences or sticking to certain rhythmic grids, the harmony and melody remain open to personal interpretation. Viewers are encouraged to pause and practice along with a study guide available on Patreon, utilizing various apps for ear training and rhythm exercises to solidify these concepts before exploring further lessons on floating intervals and folk music styles offered by the school's comprehensive curriculum.

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[music] Hi everyone, this is Jason Zach from Nathaniel School of Music. In this lesson, we are going to learn something really simple, subdivisions, but accessing those subdivisions that matter, that add groove and flavor to the music in one hand while maintaining something more consistent in the other hand as you kind of maybe have figured out in the intro performance. So we'll just take a simple chord maybe E major. [music] This is E major by the way. E G sharp B and upstairs we'll start with just a single E which is the [music] root. And we are going to look at first of all how we can divide the beat. Then how we can access the subdivisions of the uh music after dividing it. And then we'll play around with a lot of melodic and harmonic things on the piano. We'll keep that very free flowing. So I'll just wing it so to speak. However, there'll be a lot to understand harmonically to interact with the two hands. So it's almost a a lesson where we are trying to emulate instruments like or stringed instruments like the finger style guitar or the banjo even. Okay. So get your pianos out. There's going to be a lot to work on. uh maybe even get your books out and if possible you could pause the video and head over to our Patreon. You'll have a link in the description where you'll get a study guide with notated exercises and everything to help you learn this lesson even after watching this video. So that's about it and this is the Nathaniel School of Music YouTube channel. So, what it needs is you to hit that subscribe, like, share, any button that you find there that you enjoy touching, touch it. Okay, cool. And now over to the lesson. Let's get cracking. So, let's find the E major chord in the left hand. [music] Here you go. And the first arpeggio pattern to deal with is low, high, middle, high. Low note is E, high, B, middle, G sharp, B. And then you roll with a minimum speed [music] of quavers or eighth notes. [singing] 1 and [music] two and this is our left hand engine. What we do in our right hand [music] is to access the subdivisions that might occur within these quavers. So what would that be? Semiquavers. So 1 and 2 [music] and 3 and 4 and is dividing the beat by two while 1 e and 2 e [music] and 3 and 4 e and basically begs to ask the question what to do in between. So [music] what to do at the e 1 e and 2 e and e and e and 1 e. So let's first target just the E and the in the right hand with the single [music] E. So [music] 1 E and 2 E and 3 E and you want to keep [music] your hands flowing such that they almost serve as one hand. So I'm playing them close to [music] each other. 1 1 E [music] 2 E M 2 E 1 E 2 E 2 E Okay. [music] What about the O's? 1 All with the single E with my thumb. [music] [singing] I'd also encourage you to maybe use this as a pattern and maybe hum a melody line alongside this. [music and singing] [music] Of course, we'll change some chords along the way [singing and music] goes on. So that's all that happened. And it may became so much more groovier if you ask me from here to to that uh [music] and all you need is one out of the five fingers in the right hand. So if you do it with your thumb >> [music] [music] >> because it's a very interesting folk rhythm. Or maybe you could do both the E and the ears. Drop it [music] down to maybe a major 7th flat 7, [music] major 6. [music] Another thing I like to do is maybe [music] access different time fields. So if you're going here in the as quavers in the right hand [music] maybe you could consider t. What's that? That's basically [music] triplets. So you don't have to hit all the triplets cuz that'll align here. And [music] there's all three. Maybe that. [music] [music] Okay. [music] Another thing I like to do is maybe change the time field itself. So maybe in the left hand [music] simple way to change the time field is just simple swing. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1. Swing basically [music] will leave out [singing] the middle subdivision. One and [music] a two and a three. So in your right hand, in your left hand, you're doing one uh uh uh where's the end [music] and fret. Just roll with that in the right hand. That that could be the first exercise, you know, just play the E major scale on those hit points. [music] >> [music] >> If you observe, I'm even pivoting [music] my third and my fifth in the left hand and floating around my pinky to play notes of the E major scale in and around here. and also trying my best to you know create a melody on those hit points. In this case, the one and two and three of the triplet. While if I go back to semiquavers and maybe pick the [music] sounds [music] quite cool. Sounds like a melody also, come to think of it. So to add more flavor to this, perhaps you could play thirds in the left hand, dietonic thirds. [music] Like I said, the harmony and the melody is up to [music] you. You can just float around. Keep one note anchored. Sounds [music] very nice. All thirds diatonic third. So the in the E major scale di theatonic thirds are E G sharp [music] F sharp A G sharp B A C sharp B D sharp C sharp B D sharp F sharp E major. [music] Okay, let's get back to the drill [music] with some thirds. [music] Float the thirds. [music] All you need is E. Come to think of it [music] or toggle. [singing] [music] So thirds in the left hand. And on [music and singing] the hit points, I'm trying to create a melody. [music] Let's head over to the triplet world. >> [music] [music] >> all and and and and [music] so the whole idea is to practice those in between subdivision hit points in the right hand in this case a constant left hand arpeggio pattern which in this case is LH MH low high middle high low high middle high and so on okay so I hope you found the exercise useful or the practice methodology useful we've done a lot of other lessons on folk music as well as floating thirds floating fifths keeping one thing as an anchor and then moving this around it's just a style which I personally find useful to my uh uh for my compositions and so on. So do check out some of those lessons. We leave you a link in the description and you'll also get a Patreon study guide which is very exhaustive. It'll teach you all of this really well. And for any of the other practice tools, do head over to our apps repository which has a lot of the practice tools for chords, inversions, rhythm, notation, and obviously ear training which we tend to do a lot on our channel. Okay. And if you'd like to learn a course at Nathaniel School of Music, do consider a semester. You can do our flagship course music method live with online lessons or you can come over to one of our Bangalore centers if you are from Bangalore. Uh you can also if you if time zones don't match or if your schedule is very busy you can consider self-paced learning where we have our everything for life bundle for you to consider. Okay, thanks a ton for watching this and I will catch you in the next one. Cheers. Don't forget to like, share, subscribe.