Hey Bill. I'm a guitarist and songwriter, but your piano videos are so educationally sound and fun to watch that I watch them and scavenge them for information I can use. Thanks so much for your hard work!
You're welcome, James - funnily enough, I often watch guitar tutorials for the same reason (despite being the world's worst guitarist 😂). Anyhow, thanks for the kind words!
I'm a piano Noobie and Bill's channel is always a great resource. I love his teaching style. I also listen to other instruments since music is music. I've learned a lot from a guitarist and especially a saxophone player. I'm going to see if my video about exercises and self-treatment for piano players (and other musicians, LOL) will be edited soon. I might set up my own channel. I'm a Chiropractor that had to adapt my techniques because of a major shoulder injury. But the nice thing was that I developed techniques for the shoulder, and the whole arm. Great for finger strength. Stay tuned.
Merci beaucoup for this video. Great idea and it will be put into practice. One thing I do when I try to work out the fingering changes in other keys, I play a C chord in the other hand and mimic the finger changes. It helps me. I'm going on 6 months playing the piano after my retirement. Tomorrow I will have coffee with a good friend and patient who is a Professor at our local Conservatory. He had to scramble recently to replace a group that cancelled at the last minute and did a concert at a music festival. He did a great job on 3 days notice. I met several of his students and colleagues and they all talked about their piano injuries. I have an idea about doing videos for exercises and self-treatments and this might be a possibility.
That's interesting, Lawrence - I've often thought about making a tutorial about avoiding and dealing with injury. Problem is I'm a piano player rather than a doctor or a physiotherapist, so everything would have to be hedged around with "remember to get professional advice because I'm just a guy who plays" etc etc etc
Absolutely fantastic tutorial. I am a beginner - starting off at age 60 - and so many things said in this video go over my head. I still learnt a lot, though. I really like the way you explain things. Thanks, again.
Glad it was helpful, Reuben. If you need anything explaining in more detail, or have any questions at any point, just let me know. I sometimes take a while to reply (I get a lot of messages!) but I always do!
I really need to become "use to" and start using the inversions of each chord! Mastering that would be of great benefit to me, I know. Thanks for the information!
Bill, as you played those three chords in inversion, I recognized that the sound is reminiscent of the group Styx, in "Come sail away." I have only been working on piano for the past 13 months, and every so often, I get a little nugget like that!
I do try to bury little Easter eggs in these things sometimes (the previous tutorial had a bit of Radiohead…) but in this case that wasn't planned at all. I don't even know the song, so I'm going to go and listen to it now…!
@@BillHilton In 1978, when I was what Brits call a "radio presenter," the Styx album was very popular...so much so that my ear connected those chord sounds immediately. I am certain you will recognize it!
Playing around with this can vastly improve my possibilities, and spark more imagination. Appreciate ways of practice which do not lead to boredom, so this tutorial is very welcome Bill. Fixing this in my mind will maybe stop me wandering off and forgetting which key I'm in! Thanks for not being 'hard sell'. Jen.
Bill...excellent video! I’m a drummer and needed an outlet during the Covid-19 mess with a lot of time on my hands with no gigs. Thank you! I like the “stagnant” left hand chords which definitely helps with my concentration with my right hand .
Really glad it helped! As a drummer you should find that hand coordination comes relatively easy to you (by "relatively" I mean "easier than it does for most people"!). Give me a shout if you have any questions about anything as you keep moving forward.
I only learned to read and play piano not actually understanding the dynamics...now in my 50s I wanna be able to just create and play a simple piece so this was really really helpful. Wish I had learned these methods in the 70s but I'm still grateful that I can read and play piano sheets. Thanks for skillful lessons. Highly Appreciated.🇯🇲
been learning piano lately and I literally said to myself "dang I want to be able to practice/learn a simple chord progression in all the keys"...came to this Playlist & this was the first video I saw 😂🙌🏾 thank for the help man
You’re welcome! I’m currently working on a tutorial on the 1564 chord progression that you might find useful, too, so watch out for that. And any questions you happen to have, just give me a yell in the comments - always happy to help if I can! 🙌
Another very useful vid, thanks a lot Bill! This is sort of how to learn the 1-4-5 by putting in the work but without it really feeling like work. It's more play. I'll be giving this a go! :)
Excellent - glad you like it! It's certainly supposed to be enjoyable and satisfying, but remember to keep challenging yourself, too: it should feel enjoyable in the way a good workout is enjoyable, if you see what I mean!
Your videos help me a lot. I find you as one of the best piano teachers along with Assaf of Mangold Project and Kent Hewitt. But your earlier tutorial on 145 is more helpful to me as for harmonisation of a song is concerned. There you showed different left-hand finger positions.
Thanks for the kind words, Pradeep - yes, I can understand you getting more out of that old video if harmonisation is what you're interested in. This one is much more aimed at people trying to develop strong foundations for piano improvisation skills. Do let me know if you have any ideas or requests for future tutorials: I have quite a long backlog at the moment but stuff that I know is in demand often gets bumped up the list :)
I like this . I'll stick to C major for now but I can see the value of the rest. Enjoyed the i-vi-V sound, new to me! The discovery approach is marvelous.
*Remember to check out my books - How To Really Play The Piano, Seven Studies In Pop Piano and An Introduction To Cocktail Piano! Links here:* www.billspianopages.com/how-to-really www.billspianopages.com/seven-studies www.billspianopages.com/cocktail
Thanks, Bill, another great lesson. You mentioned that some keys are more common than others. I suppose it depends on the style of music, but what would you say are generally the most used keys? I'd like to start with those. Cheers
You're welcome! It kind of varies by style. C, F and G (and their relative minors, Am, Dm and Em) are universally common. Then pop and rock tend to use a lot of "sharp" keys like A, D and E (because they're guitar-friendly) whereas in jazzier stuff flat keys are more common (because they're more comfortable on a lot of wind instruments, and indeed on the piano), so that's things like Bb and Eb - plus all the relative minors. Does that help?
@@vysakhpviswanath6258 I'll bear that one in mind, Vysakh. If it's of interest, I already have several tutorials on the art of "comping" - ie, accompanying oneself or others while singing. Here's a playlist: ua-cam.com/play/PLpOuhygfD7QncJYGo0b-lQXYlmwIVoMfe.html --- some of these are quite old, so I might do some remakes soon!
This is really nice, thank you! I know you didn't want to go into depth on why the five chord in a minor key isn't most often minor (in accordance with the diatonic chords, if I've understood right), but if the answer is too long to explain in a comment, could you please tell me where to search for the answer? Again, thank you so much for these lessons. I will most likely subscribe to your Patreon once I'm picking up the habit of practicing again. The reason I lost motivation to practice was that I was lacking a "step by step" practice plan that included the kind of theory that you explain as well as practical steps. Do you think your practice packs will give me this kind of practice plan?
It's to do with cadences. Basically the motion from a major V to the I (whether the I is major or minor) has a much stronger sense of motion and completeness than it does if the V is minor. I think it's a lot easier to hear if you play around with 7 chords - try using the diatonic i7-iv7-v7 in a minor key, notice how it kind of doesn't feel like it's going anywhere. Then replace the diatonic v7 with a dominant V7 chord (major triad with a minor third added on top), and just hear how much nicer it sounds. You can actually do this substitution of a dominant 7th chord any time you're going to move harmonically down a fifth to create a strong sense of motion and anticipation. Take any chord you want to "go to", and insert before it a dominant 7th chord a fifth above it, regardless of whether it fits in the key or not. That's called a "secondary dominant", they show up a lot in jazz and sound really nice! Another (maybe less confusing?) way to think of it is in terms of note distance. Look at A minor: the I chord is A-C-E and the diatonic V chord would be E-G-B, or G-B-E if you invert it. Now compare the notes when you go from the V to the I - they both have an E; you have a G moving to an A which is motion by a whole step; and you have a B moving to a C which is motion by a half step. Now, if you were to make that V chord major instead of minor, that means raising the third, so the G becomes G#, and now that whole step movement becomes half step movement. So all the notes of the two chords are either staying the same or moving by a half step. That feels a lot "stronger", because half steps inherently have more tension than whole steps, and interesting harmonic movement is about tension and release. Maybe this is more confusing, I'm not sure!
Hi Emanuel! Basically, Grant's explanation (below) is very good. Shout if you have any more questions arising from it, though. On the Piano Packs, the first one don't contain a practice plan as such you certainly could use it to structure your practice, and the next five (or more, if I keep going after February) I'm going to structure with practice routes more clearly in mind. I'd be delighted to see you on Patreon, but I wouldn't want you to sign up unless you're sure it's right for you - so drop me an email if you'd like a preview of the first pack :)
Hey Bill, this is not related to the video, but more of a suggestion, could you please make a video on horror chords/progressions for the month of october. i figured it would be fitting for a video on creepy and horror melodies/harmonies. again, thanks for the video!
hI Bill, been watching your vids for a long time I also have one of your books, what makes it difficult for me is not seeing straight away what keys you are playing ? other vids use a software so that viewers can see what you play.This helps enormously.. could you not do this too ?? ps I don`t know if this has been asked before. bye and thanks for all your hard work and enthusiasm.. take care now in these strange covid times..
Thanks for the kind words, Brian! The "keyboard on screen" thing is something I've played about with over the years, but I've yet to find a way of doing it that I really like. I also think there's something to be said for making viewers do a little bit of work to figure out which notes are being played (I know it seems cruel, but bear with me...!) because it sends them to the keyboard quicker and makes them use their ears. I may be wrong and I may change my mind about that, so watch this space...!
Bill Hilton thanks Bill for the prompt reply, and yes you are absolutely correct...I am too lazy to replay the video at a slower speed and see what your playing.. sometimes cruel can be kind :-)...take care now ..
Hmm..."Master" seems slightly hyperbolic for what seems to be just "play through the chords however you like and listen to them". Love and truly appreciate all your tremendous (and free!) content. IMHO this one just seemed a little aimless.
A very fair point, Quentin, and one I'm very much in sympathy with, even though I wrote the headline! The problem is that the current dynamics of UA-cam, and of social media in general, are such that slight (or more than slight...) hyperbole is necessary to make an impact. I'd like to return to my former, modest ways ("you might find this quite useful..."), as I personally very much prefer people and businesses who undersell and overdeliver. Unfortunately, though, I'm competing for clicks with a lot of channels that are happy to oversell heavily... and, in some cases, not to deliver as well as they might. This has resulted in a kind of headline arms race that I don't much like, but which I'm sort of stuck with. With a bit of luck the culture will shift again soon. Sorry, too, that you find it aimless! I'm going to have to put that one down to not being able to satisfy everyone all the time, which is pretty much impossible now that I'm at 250k+ subscribers. TBH it didn't feel quite "right" when I was making it, so I'm quite relieved that quite a few people do seem to like it. With a bit of luck something will come along soon that you'll like. That said, I like to stay on top of what people are looking for - so what sort of tutorials do you like best?
Glad you liked it! I do - when I get notified of them. For some reason my FB lets a backlog of the things build up before notifying me. Will check now...
I realise ads are annoying, Christian, but I would respectfully point out that you're not paying for these tutorials otherwise. I, on the other hand, need to pay my mortgage and feed my family. That means I can either (a) work full time and not have time to make these tutorials; or (b) advertise my stuff in order to make an income, and therefore have time to make them. I very much sympathise with you wanting to get straight on with stuff - I'm the same when I'm watching anything - but until money starts growing on trees, this is the model we're stuck with, I'm afraid!
@@BillHilton I fully understand the model, I'm just pointing out that it's not a good idea to talk about your patreon at the very start. Just start with the juice. Great video btw!
@@disenchanted3724 Thanks! Yes, I find the Patreon-at-the-start thing awkward: it's just that if I put it towards the middle or the end I find it gets far less take up, and I'm trying to grow my Patreon community at the moment. One good thing is that those ads are, hopefully, temporary: I've positioned them so I can easily cut them out with YT's editing tool once my Patreon recruitment campaign is done. So you're going to see them crop up in quite a few videos between now and early next year, but after that they should magically vanish!
@@BillHilton I understand. But beware that many will be upset and will not continue with the video if you do it that way. Instead, why not put out a good show, and then put the campaign at the end of the video where they can skip it by choice. Maybe they can make up their minds to support you after a few good watch. Don't worry about the "less take up", what's important is to look professional, and then get a loyal fanbase. I guess that's how it works. :)
@@disenchanted3724 Yes, I know it will annoy a number of people. The loyalty-building model you're describing is something I've done for years now: lots of content, then advertising at the end. It's certainly the way I prefer to do it, but based on results, front-loading the promotional material delivers better returns. It's not exactly how I want to do it, because I'm very much of your mind - but I have to do what works. Thanks for the insight, though: I always think that reasoned criticism helps me do things better!
"Most common" is exactly why I don't want to learn these chords. Every dang song uses them, and they all sound like the same song. It is a darn good tutorial though. So many of these other tutorials are a joke. They will be labeled "beginner" but then the instructor will play advanced with advanced level music theory and terminology.
I feel the same way but at the same time I think the more familiar we are with the “common” stuff, the better informed we are in what ways we are able to break away from it.
I'm glad you liked it, Sparky, and thanks for the feedback - insights like that are very useful. You've actually hit on a couple of really interesting dilemmas that I have to wrestle with every time I make a tutorial like this. The first is that UA-cam contains a large minority of people who want to run before they can walk. If I were being totally straightforward, I'd like to label a tutorial like this as being for "relative beginners" - because that's what it is (albeit the term "beginner" itself is pretty awkward sometimes, as it means different things to different people in different situations). The problem with the "B" word is that it attracts a lot of *absolute* beginners, for whom a tutorial like this isn't necessarily the best starting point, while also putting off the "run before they can walk" crowd - who, don't get me wrong, are often great people, very highly engaged with their learning - and they then head to more advanced tutorials and ask a lot of elementary questions in the comments because they've skipped the basics. The labelling I use is designed to get this thing under the noses of people who need it - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Second, as a UA-cam creator there's also a moral dilemma to deal with. When talking to beginners or intermediate players in particular there is often a gulf between what those individuals say they want and what I (in my role as, I guess, "the expert") believe they need. I could produce nothing but flashy material that flattered my audience (and raked in a lot of cash...) but which didn't give them the kind of training and information they need to make genuine progress. So what I try to do is square the circle and produce stuff that provokes interest and get clicks while also slipping the genuinely useful information in under the radar, as it were. It's a tricky balancing act, and feedback from thoughtful commenters like yourself is like gold dust. So feel free to hit me up with more thoughts whenever you like...!
As in anything, fundamentals need to be mastered before they can be tweaked. Don’t be afraid of foundational material, you have to know the rules before you can break them. All the masters do this, in all forms of art.
Hey Bill. I'm a guitarist and songwriter, but your piano videos are so educationally sound and fun to watch that I watch them and scavenge them for information I can use. Thanks so much for your hard work!
You're welcome, James - funnily enough, I often watch guitar tutorials for the same reason (despite being the world's worst guitarist 😂). Anyhow, thanks for the kind words!
I'm a piano Noobie and Bill's channel is always a great resource. I love his teaching style. I also listen to other instruments since music is music. I've learned a lot from a guitarist and especially a saxophone player.
I'm going to see if my video about exercises and self-treatment for piano players (and other musicians, LOL) will be edited soon. I might set up my own channel.
I'm a Chiropractor that had to adapt my techniques because of a major shoulder injury. But the nice thing was that I developed techniques for the shoulder, and the whole arm. Great for finger strength.
Stay tuned.
This video is worth its weight in gold!!! Learnt so many concepts at once and played along on my piano!!!!!🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Thank you - really glad it helped!
Merci beaucoup for this video. Great idea and it will be put into practice.
One thing I do when I try to work out the fingering changes in other keys, I play a C chord in the other hand and mimic the finger changes. It helps me. I'm going on 6 months playing the piano after my retirement. Tomorrow I will have coffee with a good friend and patient who is a Professor at our local Conservatory. He had to scramble recently to replace a group that cancelled at the last minute and did a concert at a music festival. He did a great job on 3 days notice. I met several of his students and colleagues and they all talked about their piano injuries. I have an idea about doing videos for exercises and self-treatments and this might be a possibility.
That's interesting, Lawrence - I've often thought about making a tutorial about avoiding and dealing with injury. Problem is I'm a piano player rather than a doctor or a physiotherapist, so everything would have to be hedged around with "remember to get professional advice because I'm just a guy who plays" etc etc etc
You’re a great teacher Bill. Thanks for continuing to make thoughtful and helpful content. This is good stuff to practice and play along with!
You're welcome, Kevin - I'm really glad it helped!
Absolutely fantastic tutorial. I am a beginner - starting off at age 60 - and so many things said in this video go over my head. I still learnt a lot, though. I really like the way you explain things. Thanks, again.
Glad it was helpful, Reuben. If you need anything explaining in more detail, or have any questions at any point, just let me know. I sometimes take a while to reply (I get a lot of messages!) but I always do!
I really need to become "use to" and start using the inversions of each chord! Mastering that would be of great benefit to me, I know. Thanks for the information!
You're welcome, Jimmy - keep working away, and shout if you have any questions!
Thank you. Well done.
Thanks John - glad you liked it!
Love your videos Bill. Well-explained, friendly easy going demeanor in your teaching/presentations👏👍.
You're welcome, Jim - I appreciate the kind words!
Bill, as you played those three chords in inversion, I recognized that the sound is reminiscent of the group Styx, in "Come sail away." I have only been working on piano for the past 13 months, and every so often, I get a little nugget like that!
I do try to bury little Easter eggs in these things sometimes (the previous tutorial had a bit of Radiohead…) but in this case that wasn't planned at all. I don't even know the song, so I'm going to go and listen to it now…!
@@BillHilton In 1978, when I was what Brits call a "radio presenter," the Styx album was very popular...so much so that my ear connected those chord sounds immediately. I am certain you will recognize it!
@@arthouston7361 I did!
Playing around with this can vastly improve my possibilities, and spark more imagination. Appreciate ways of practice which do not lead to boredom, so this tutorial is very welcome Bill. Fixing this in my mind will maybe stop me wandering off and forgetting which key I'm in! Thanks for not being 'hard sell'. Jen.
You're welcome, Jen - give me a shout if you have any questions or get stuck anywhere!
This was very helpful for me to learn some theory and connect some dots I didn’t see before. Thank you!
You're welcome Adam!
Bill...excellent video! I’m a drummer and needed an outlet during the Covid-19 mess with a lot of time on my hands with no gigs. Thank you! I like the “stagnant” left hand chords which definitely helps with my concentration with my right hand .
Really glad it helped! As a drummer you should find that hand coordination comes relatively easy to you (by "relatively" I mean "easier than it does for most people"!). Give me a shout if you have any questions about anything as you keep moving forward.
I only learned to read and play piano not actually understanding the dynamics...now in my 50s I wanna be able to just create and play a simple piece so this was really really helpful.
Wish I had learned these methods in the 70s but I'm still grateful that I can read and play piano sheets.
Thanks for skillful lessons. Highly Appreciated.🇯🇲
been learning piano lately and I literally said to myself "dang I want to be able to practice/learn a simple chord progression in all the keys"...came to this Playlist & this was the first video I saw 😂🙌🏾 thank for the help man
You’re welcome! I’m currently working on a tutorial on the 1564 chord progression that you might find useful, too, so watch out for that. And any questions you happen to have, just give me a yell in the comments - always happy to help if I can! 🙌
Another very useful vid, thanks a lot Bill! This is sort of how to learn the 1-4-5 by putting in the work but without it really feeling like work. It's more play. I'll be giving this a go! :)
Excellent - glad you like it! It's certainly supposed to be enjoyable and satisfying, but remember to keep challenging yourself, too: it should feel enjoyable in the way a good workout is enjoyable, if you see what I mean!
Your videos help me a lot. I find you as one of the best piano teachers along with Assaf of Mangold Project and Kent Hewitt. But your earlier tutorial on 145 is more helpful to me as for harmonisation of a song is concerned. There you showed different left-hand finger positions.
Thanks for the kind words, Pradeep - yes, I can understand you getting more out of that old video if harmonisation is what you're interested in. This one is much more aimed at people trying to develop strong foundations for piano improvisation skills. Do let me know if you have any ideas or requests for future tutorials: I have quite a long backlog at the moment but stuff that I know is in demand often gets bumped up the list :)
Thanks so much for another fabulous video. Beautifully explained and very helpful indeed. Heading over to your Patreon page
You're welcome, Christine, and thanks for the support on Patreon!
This is a real nice explanation of something important in Music Theory. Nice work.
Thanks Bill, glad you liked it!
I like this . I'll stick to C major for now but I can see the value of the rest. Enjoyed the i-vi-V sound, new to me! The discovery approach is marvelous.
Thanks a lot for this video bill!!
My pleasure!
*Remember to check out my books - How To Really Play The Piano, Seven Studies In Pop Piano and An Introduction To Cocktail Piano! Links here:*
www.billspianopages.com/how-to-really
www.billspianopages.com/seven-studies
www.billspianopages.com/cocktail
Thank you Bill, this is great.
You're welcome!
This video is very nice. I'm starting to get back into piano from a big break and a basic tutorial was all I needed. Thanks, m8.
You're welcome - if you have any questions, feel free to ask!
Hi am new and loving this
Thanks, Bill, another great lesson. You mentioned that some keys are more common than others. I suppose it depends on the style of music, but what would you say are generally the most used keys? I'd like to start with those. Cheers
You're welcome! It kind of varies by style. C, F and G (and their relative minors, Am, Dm and Em) are universally common. Then pop and rock tend to use a lot of "sharp" keys like A, D and E (because they're guitar-friendly) whereas in jazzier stuff flat keys are more common (because they're more comfortable on a lot of wind instruments, and indeed on the piano), so that's things like Bb and Eb - plus all the relative minors. Does that help?
@@BillHilton That helps a lot, thanks very much.
nice, thx 🎵 🎻 👏
You're welcome!
Merci!
De rien!
Thank God I found you.🙏 I just want to express my appreciation ,thank you a million🥰
Liwanag 67
You're welcome - glad to have helped!
Make a video on minor chord progression please
Wow I saw you posting 7 years ago on my other account and I saw your channel again lol, keep it up!
Welcome back! Yes, I've kept going, and with a bit of luck there's more to come...!
Wow! Having real difficulty with bmaj in challenge 5! Great challenge though.
Aha, yes - all those black note with a few white ones just to make things stretchy and difficult! It'll do you good though!
Love from #kerala
And from #Yorkshire!
@@BillHilton please do make tutorial for keyboard players who sing like how to backup singing and all
@@vysakhpviswanath6258 I'll bear that one in mind, Vysakh. If it's of interest, I already have several tutorials on the art of "comping" - ie, accompanying oneself or others while singing. Here's a playlist: ua-cam.com/play/PLpOuhygfD7QncJYGo0b-lQXYlmwIVoMfe.html --- some of these are quite old, so I might do some remakes soon!
This is really nice, thank you! I know you didn't want to go into depth on why the five chord in a minor key isn't most often minor (in accordance with the diatonic chords, if I've understood right), but if the answer is too long to explain in a comment, could you please tell me where to search for the answer?
Again, thank you so much for these lessons. I will most likely subscribe to your Patreon once I'm picking up the habit of practicing again. The reason I lost motivation to practice was that I was lacking a "step by step" practice plan that included the kind of theory that you explain as well as practical steps. Do you think your practice packs will give me this kind of practice plan?
It's to do with cadences. Basically the motion from a major V to the I (whether the I is major or minor) has a much stronger sense of motion and completeness than it does if the V is minor. I think it's a lot easier to hear if you play around with 7 chords - try using the diatonic i7-iv7-v7 in a minor key, notice how it kind of doesn't feel like it's going anywhere. Then replace the diatonic v7 with a dominant V7 chord (major triad with a minor third added on top), and just hear how much nicer it sounds. You can actually do this substitution of a dominant 7th chord any time you're going to move harmonically down a fifth to create a strong sense of motion and anticipation. Take any chord you want to "go to", and insert before it a dominant 7th chord a fifth above it, regardless of whether it fits in the key or not. That's called a "secondary dominant", they show up a lot in jazz and sound really nice!
Another (maybe less confusing?) way to think of it is in terms of note distance. Look at A minor: the I chord is A-C-E and the diatonic V chord would be E-G-B, or G-B-E if you invert it. Now compare the notes when you go from the V to the I - they both have an E; you have a G moving to an A which is motion by a whole step; and you have a B moving to a C which is motion by a half step. Now, if you were to make that V chord major instead of minor, that means raising the third, so the G becomes G#, and now that whole step movement becomes half step movement. So all the notes of the two chords are either staying the same or moving by a half step. That feels a lot "stronger", because half steps inherently have more tension than whole steps, and interesting harmonic movement is about tension and release. Maybe this is more confusing, I'm not sure!
Hi Emanuel! Basically, Grant's explanation (below) is very good. Shout if you have any more questions arising from it, though. On the Piano Packs, the first one don't contain a practice plan as such you certainly could use it to structure your practice, and the next five (or more, if I keep going after February) I'm going to structure with practice routes more clearly in mind. I'd be delighted to see you on Patreon, but I wouldn't want you to sign up unless you're sure it's right for you - so drop me an email if you'd like a preview of the first pack :)
I couldn't read the cords from your fingers.appreciate you write the cords on the screen.am a beginner tq
Hey Bill, this is not related to the video, but more of a suggestion, could you please make a video on horror chords/progressions for the month of october. i figured it would be fitting for a video on creepy and horror melodies/harmonies. again, thanks for the video!
That's a great suggestion, Jino! Unfortunately October is now pretty planned out, but I might try to sneak something in somewhere...
hI Bill, been watching your vids for a long time I also have one of your books, what makes it difficult for me is not seeing straight away what keys you are playing ? other vids use a software so that viewers can see what you play.This helps enormously.. could you not do this too ?? ps I don`t know if this has been asked before. bye and thanks for all your hard work and enthusiasm.. take care now in these strange covid times..
Thanks for the kind words, Brian! The "keyboard on screen" thing is something I've played about with over the years, but I've yet to find a way of doing it that I really like. I also think there's something to be said for making viewers do a little bit of work to figure out which notes are being played (I know it seems cruel, but bear with me...!) because it sends them to the keyboard quicker and makes them use their ears. I may be wrong and I may change my mind about that, so watch this space...!
Bill Hilton thanks Bill for the prompt reply, and yes you are absolutely correct...I am too lazy to replay the video at a slower speed and see what your playing.. sometimes cruel can be kind :-)...take care now ..
@@brianwallington9744 And you, Brian - let me know if you have any more questions!
Is that a NORD keyboard? I hear a thump as the keys return to rest! Good lesson thanks.
It is - very much built for the stage, hence the "robust" key noise!
Yeah? Yeah!
Sounds like come sail away by journey I think
Thanks Bill. I'd like to know WHY this 1-4-5 works. What is the interval connection or the Music theory that makes this progression work?
Hi I wann to lean piano in proper way can u help me out
Sure thing! Check out my course for beginners - its very old school and thorough! ua-cam.com/play/PLpOuhygfD7QnP46wUgQudOySX_z2UOhXs.html
Hmm..."Master" seems slightly hyperbolic for what seems to be just "play through the chords however you like and listen to them". Love and truly appreciate all your tremendous (and free!) content. IMHO this one just seemed a little aimless.
A very fair point, Quentin, and one I'm very much in sympathy with, even though I wrote the headline! The problem is that the current dynamics of UA-cam, and of social media in general, are such that slight (or more than slight...) hyperbole is necessary to make an impact. I'd like to return to my former, modest ways ("you might find this quite useful..."), as I personally very much prefer people and businesses who undersell and overdeliver. Unfortunately, though, I'm competing for clicks with a lot of channels that are happy to oversell heavily... and, in some cases, not to deliver as well as they might. This has resulted in a kind of headline arms race that I don't much like, but which I'm sort of stuck with. With a bit of luck the culture will shift again soon.
Sorry, too, that you find it aimless! I'm going to have to put that one down to not being able to satisfy everyone all the time, which is pretty much impossible now that I'm at 250k+ subscribers. TBH it didn't feel quite "right" when I was making it, so I'm quite relieved that quite a few people do seem to like it. With a bit of luck something will come along soon that you'll like. That said, I like to stay on top of what people are looking for - so what sort of tutorials do you like best?
In my opinion this step would have a big impact in mastering though.
As always, very clearly explained. Thank you. Do you read facebook messages? I sent you one.
Glad you liked it! I do - when I get notified of them. For some reason my FB lets a backlog of the things build up before notifying me. Will check now...
I *think* I've just replied to you....!
Hit me up if you want me to sponsor a video.
Almost 3 minutes of talking about patreon right at the start of the video! Fyi there are 2 ads before the video!
I realise ads are annoying, Christian, but I would respectfully point out that you're not paying for these tutorials otherwise. I, on the other hand, need to pay my mortgage and feed my family. That means I can either (a) work full time and not have time to make these tutorials; or (b) advertise my stuff in order to make an income, and therefore have time to make them. I very much sympathise with you wanting to get straight on with stuff - I'm the same when I'm watching anything - but until money starts growing on trees, this is the model we're stuck with, I'm afraid!
@@BillHilton I fully understand the model, I'm just pointing out that it's not a good idea to talk about your patreon at the very start. Just start with the juice. Great video btw!
@@disenchanted3724 Thanks! Yes, I find the Patreon-at-the-start thing awkward: it's just that if I put it towards the middle or the end I find it gets far less take up, and I'm trying to grow my Patreon community at the moment. One good thing is that those ads are, hopefully, temporary: I've positioned them so I can easily cut them out with YT's editing tool once my Patreon recruitment campaign is done. So you're going to see them crop up in quite a few videos between now and early next year, but after that they should magically vanish!
@@BillHilton I understand. But beware that many will be upset and will not continue with the video if you do it that way. Instead, why not put out a good show, and then put the campaign at the end of the video where they can skip it by choice. Maybe they can make up their minds to support you after a few good watch. Don't worry about the "less take up", what's important is to look professional, and then get a loyal fanbase. I guess that's how it works. :)
@@disenchanted3724 Yes, I know it will annoy a number of people. The loyalty-building model you're describing is something I've done for years now: lots of content, then advertising at the end. It's certainly the way I prefer to do it, but based on results, front-loading the promotional material delivers better returns. It's not exactly how I want to do it, because I'm very much of your mind - but I have to do what works. Thanks for the insight, though: I always think that reasoned criticism helps me do things better!
Pity I cant watch your hands
"Most common" is exactly why I don't want to learn these chords. Every dang song uses them, and they all sound like the same song. It is a darn good tutorial though. So many of these other tutorials are a joke. They will be labeled "beginner" but then the instructor will play advanced with advanced level music theory and terminology.
I feel the same way but at the same time I think the more familiar we are with the “common” stuff, the better informed we are in what ways we are able to break away from it.
I'm glad you liked it, Sparky, and thanks for the feedback - insights like that are very useful. You've actually hit on a couple of really interesting dilemmas that I have to wrestle with every time I make a tutorial like this.
The first is that UA-cam contains a large minority of people who want to run before they can walk. If I were being totally straightforward, I'd like to label a tutorial like this as being for "relative beginners" - because that's what it is (albeit the term "beginner" itself is pretty awkward sometimes, as it means different things to different people in different situations). The problem with the "B" word is that it attracts a lot of *absolute* beginners, for whom a tutorial like this isn't necessarily the best starting point, while also putting off the "run before they can walk" crowd - who, don't get me wrong, are often great people, very highly engaged with their learning - and they then head to more advanced tutorials and ask a lot of elementary questions in the comments because they've skipped the basics. The labelling I use is designed to get this thing under the noses of people who need it - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Second, as a UA-cam creator there's also a moral dilemma to deal with. When talking to beginners or intermediate players in particular there is often a gulf between what those individuals say they want and what I (in my role as, I guess, "the expert") believe they need. I could produce nothing but flashy material that flattered my audience (and raked in a lot of cash...) but which didn't give them the kind of training and information they need to make genuine progress. So what I try to do is square the circle and produce stuff that provokes interest and get clicks while also slipping the genuinely useful information in under the radar, as it were. It's a tricky balancing act, and feedback from thoughtful commenters like yourself is like gold dust. So feel free to hit me up with more thoughts whenever you like...!
As in anything, fundamentals need to be mastered before they can be tweaked. Don’t be afraid of foundational material, you have to know the rules before you can break them. All the masters do this, in all forms of art.