Thank you for watching! Get in touch with us so that we can help you liberate your piano playing and join our Flagship course, Complete Musician Course with Tom Donald: lcsp.samcart.com/products/the-complete-musician-essential-course-2024/#/sc-checkout
I like the encouragement to engage directly with the instrument. When I hear a song that moves me, I don't have to read it's notes on a sheet to hear and feel it. The thing I uncovered with starting to improvise was how directly I experienced and felt the sounds. Great tute. Thank you Tom.
I love improvising but Ive reached a dead end. I have never seen it explained in this way. Reading sheet music becomes frustrating as I am not a fluent reader. So watching that video has made me feel like I am on the right track. I didnt realise my improv was neo classical. I do want to play blues n jazz sounds maybe and pop of course. I think the course would be helpful to free me up a bit and to make it feel at least possible for me to play my fave styles of music as covers or interpreting or creating. Thankyou so much for your relaxed attitude. It took me a long while to ween myself off sheet music n just a let myself play anything. Now I want to play more of anything because I can learn the how to here. This is great. Thankyou Tom. I will def consider signing up for further study. Attitude to playing now feels a lot less strained. Thankyou vvv much. I have hope my playing can improve without the pressure of a weekly teacher. 🎉Hooray! Nice. Looking forward to it.
I enjoyed this immensely and learned so much. Even at my beginner level, I never feel truly relaxed and free unless simply improvising and allowing a free flow of creativity and expression. This video was a reminder. Letting us know that your left hand had slipped, that this happens to the best, and how to respond, completely disintegrated any teacher/pupil barrier and created trust and a bonding. Thank you.
This young man is very much down to earth. The Best Advice ever. We all tend to make things difficult, with rules, and regulations. This tends to take the pleasure of learning music out of the picture. (Open your hearts and Minds.)
This was a great lesson and a eye opener to how beneficial knowing scales and how to apply to improvisational ideas…would love to see this type of thing with a Slow blues and Jazz improv with pulsating left hand rhythms etc…with some scale patterns and licks❤🎹🎶…thanks Grant
Many thanks, Grant, we have a few videos on our channel that move into the realms of jazz and these concepts in jazz and blues. Perhaps a good one to start with is the video on Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage. It's a bit older in terms of production but the concepts should be useful. ua-cam.com/video/TSmhTHAvSx0/v-deo.htmlsi=3a7RyK_gF78zx2UD
Messed around with a piano over the years, but learned major chords the other day and have been practicing those as a base to build my learning. I found someone who was able to tell me them in a way a musically illiterate person can know and i prove with them whenever I practice. It makes learning and practice fun removing the rigidity out of the tedium.
Absolutely brilliant! I love improvising albeit a late beginner/early intermediate adult returner; but you have definitely given me more to incorporate into my journey. I am very lucky to already know all scales and relative minors so now I will further my piano joy ride! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
This is an interesting exercise which I will try to use. I have received your intro pack thank you. I have not played the piano or anything since July 2023 following a severe disablement The offending disc has been removed from my neck but progress is very slow. I am trying to find something that will help me to feel the piano under my hands again gently and progressively
This is really fantastic! Very clear and so reassuring that improvisation doesn't have to be complex and unattainable. I'm working on my octaves mind! 😂
Yep, so many piano students, like me, are stuck reading the page. I'm working my way away from that. It's fun moving around the chords. Thank you for this video🎉
Hope you don’t mind a piano curious guitarist offering unsolicited suggestions? One of the most fascinating improv practice routines I enjoy is to play a chord progression or focus on a new spicy chord on loop and simply hum/sing syllables over it. So much fun and a fantastic method for forging that connection between what you can hear in your head and your fingertips. Hope it’s some use to you.
@@contemporaryschoolofpiano I have to confess, I cribbed this idea wholesale from Aimee Nolté Piano some time back. Over time it has seeped into my improv. As for specific chord progressions, I initially focused on anything that follows the circle of 5ths. ‘Hey Joe’ for example, and fleshed out simple triads with a very intuitive approach to singing/ humming. Recently I’ve taken to experimenting with triad pairs, whereby, I play one triad harmonically and sing arpeggios from the other over the top. Thanks for the content by the way. 👍
@@dixieworkerDo give it a go. I’ve even tried this with non musicians whereby they make up a ditty over one chord. They’ve all taken to it. It’s also amazing listening to them intuitively develop a motif and then effortlessly modify it when I change to another chord. I’ll be playing like this until I push up daisies. Warning! It’s a very easy way to become lost in your practice for hours. Happy practicing. 👍
Dear Tom Donald, I am more than glad that you are sharing your music and piano knowledge with us. You enabled me to elevate my understanding of playing the piano and I wanna thank your for that! Excellent video again!
Excellent video... I am really enjoying all the content.!! Can you tell me please where to find more information about the groove course from inside? Thanks
So with this improvising arpeggio in the left hand 1,5,1,2,3,5,3,2,1 how would you "count" the beat? Not 8th notes because you have 9? Might it also be pointed out you use the thumb on the 1 coming back. Is that for speed? As you can position the pinky much quicker on the lower octave 1?
Great question. For the 9-note arpeggio (1, 5, 1, 2, 3, 5, 3, 2, 1), you can count it as triplets across 3 beats (1-trip-let, 2-trip-let, 3-trip-let) or fit it into a 9/8 time signature. Using the thumb on the 1 coming back helps with speed because it allows your pinky to quickly reach the lower octave without shifting your hand too much
Thanks for another "piano meditation" video! I love this "series" and hope you do more from time to time. They really help me relax at the keyboard and connect to my creative side. I feel like I'm able to develop my technique as well. This type of improv practice works at so many levels. Speaking of levels, I enjoyed the variety of techniques you presented here. You make a good point in that you don't need to have super complex stuff going on in order to enjoy a satisfying musical experience. As for me, the big challenge is to not getting ahead of myself. I'm still in my first year of playing after a long absence, so while my mind and heart want to zoom across the keys to play melodies I hear in my soul, my fingers just can't keep up. So, there is always this tension between what I want to do and what I actually CAN do. Showing how simplicity can be an end to itself is a great antidote to this predicament. I can enjoy being right where I am, then gradually, over time and consistent practice, naturally evolve and grow in complexity and sophistication.
Man, thank you! This is fantastic. I do not read music and am self taught, but i come here occasionally when my playing gets stale and repetitive. You’re approach to the instrument is really refreshing. Thank you, got me out of a musical rut 👍
Thanks, just when I thought I was making progress you throw this at me😅 Kidding aside, this is great stuff. Im working the g minor progression, very slowly, playing the scale straight up and down on the beat. My problem at this point, I can play each chord with the scale at a good tempo but when I try to put all 3 chords together smoothly it blows up. Its like my brain is 2 people who refuse to get along with each other. I don’t know if it’s add, ptsd or the cia but Im having a helluva time trying to synchronize both sides of my brain.
@@charlenemisuraca3473 I realized t Im so rookie, I have to look at both hands while I’m playing, which is impossible unless you’re a fish, so I’m practicing with my eyes closed and feeling my way around the keys, and wouldn’t ya know, it’s working. 10,000 years ago, when I was in high school, there was a blind kid, blind at birth, an outstanding keyboardist. I can’t imagine what it was like for him to learn to play. There had to be someone guiding his hands at the beginning. Just speculating. In a way I think he had an advantage over the rest of us.
Thank you for watching! Get in touch with us so that we can help you liberate your piano playing and join our Flagship course, Complete Musician Course with Tom Donald: lcsp.samcart.com/products/the-complete-musician-essential-course-2024/#/sc-checkout
Thanks to Philipp Glass for the exemple #2 ….😮
@@feg9417 It's definitely got those Glass vibes!
Your lessons are not only piano lessons, they're music lessons and life lessons. Thank you for that!
I like the encouragement to engage directly with the instrument. When I hear a song that moves me, I don't have to read it's notes on a sheet to hear and feel it. The thing I uncovered with starting to improvise was how directly I experienced and felt the sounds. Great tute. Thank you Tom.
Amen to that!
I love improvising but Ive reached a dead end. I have never seen it explained in this way. Reading sheet music becomes frustrating as I am not a fluent reader. So watching that video has made me feel like I am on the right track. I didnt realise my improv was neo classical. I do want to play blues n jazz sounds maybe and pop of course. I think the course would be helpful to free me up a bit and to make it feel at least possible for me to play my fave styles of music as covers or interpreting or creating. Thankyou so much for your relaxed attitude. It took me a long while to ween myself off sheet music n just a let myself play anything. Now I want to play more of anything because I can learn the how to here. This is great. Thankyou Tom.
I will def consider signing up for further study. Attitude to playing now feels a lot less strained. Thankyou vvv much. I have hope my playing can improve without the pressure of a weekly teacher. 🎉Hooray! Nice. Looking forward to it.
I enjoyed this immensely and learned so much. Even at my beginner level, I never feel truly relaxed and free unless simply improvising and allowing a free flow of creativity and expression. This video was a reminder. Letting us know that your left hand had slipped, that this happens to the best, and how to respond, completely disintegrated any teacher/pupil barrier and created trust and a bonding. Thank you.
lovely great exercise
That last third of this video with that left hand pattern and the right oxtaves was fantastic
Thanks Tom!! Tottaly recomend him. The last exercise is gold!
This young man is very much down to earth. The Best Advice ever. We all tend to make things difficult, with rules, and regulations. This tends to take the pleasure of learning music out of the picture. (Open your hearts and Minds.)
so very encouraging ! thank you. love your open, generous work!
A truly masterful way of taking the laborious job of practicing scales and turning it into a fun exercise.
This was a great lesson and a eye opener to how beneficial knowing scales and how to apply to improvisational ideas…would love to see this type of thing with a Slow blues and Jazz improv with pulsating left hand rhythms etc…with some scale patterns and licks❤🎹🎶…thanks Grant
Many thanks, Grant, we have a few videos on our channel that move into the realms of jazz and these concepts in jazz and blues. Perhaps a good one to start with is the video on Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage. It's a bit older in terms of production but the concepts should be useful. ua-cam.com/video/TSmhTHAvSx0/v-deo.htmlsi=3a7RyK_gF78zx2UD
Messed around with a piano over the years, but learned major chords the other day and have been practicing those as a base to build my learning. I found someone who was able to tell me them in a way a musically illiterate person can know and i prove with them whenever I practice. It makes learning and practice fun removing the rigidity out of the tedium.
❤❤love this!❤❤
Very nice, practical, useful, musical, expanding...I could go on. Thanks, Tom. You may break me out of my confining patterns, yet.
Do you also have a tutorial on "The Rule of the Octave." I find your explanations and samples so clear. Thank you.
Your teaching are so intuitive. This video is really eye-opening and changes my view about improvization.❤
Absolutely brilliant! I love improvising albeit a late beginner/early intermediate adult returner; but you have definitely given me more to incorporate into my journey. I am very lucky to already know all scales and relative minors so now I will further my piano joy ride! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Great motivating class. Helps to "loosen us up" on the keyboard. Thanks
Brilliant ways letting yourself go 🎹 🎶🎵
This is an interesting exercise which I will try to use. I have received your intro pack thank you. I have not played the piano or anything since July 2023 following a severe disablement The offending disc has been removed from my neck but progress is very slow. I am trying to find something that will help me to feel the piano under my hands again gently and progressively
This is really fantastic! Very clear and so reassuring that improvisation doesn't have to be complex and unattainable. I'm working on my octaves mind! 😂
Wau! Super good video!
Yep, so many piano students, like me, are stuck reading the page. I'm working my way away from that. It's fun moving around the chords. Thank you for this video🎉
Hope you don’t mind a piano curious guitarist offering unsolicited suggestions? One of the most fascinating improv practice routines I enjoy is to play a chord progression or focus on a new spicy chord on loop and simply hum/sing syllables over it. So much fun and a fantastic method for forging that connection between what you can hear in your head and your fingertips. Hope it’s some use to you.
@@Mike-rw2nh that's a great tip Mike. What progressions do you like to practice?
@@contemporaryschoolofpiano I have to confess, I cribbed this idea wholesale from Aimee Nolté Piano some time back. Over time it has seeped into my improv. As for specific chord progressions, I initially focused on anything that follows the circle of 5ths. ‘Hey Joe’ for example, and fleshed out simple triads with a very intuitive approach to singing/ humming. Recently I’ve taken to experimenting with triad pairs, whereby, I play one triad harmonically and sing arpeggios from the other over the top. Thanks for the content by the way. 👍
@@dixieworkerDo give it a go. I’ve even tried this with non musicians whereby they make up a ditty over one chord. They’ve all taken to it. It’s also amazing listening to them intuitively develop a motif and then effortlessly modify it when I change to another chord. I’ll be playing like this until I push up daisies. Warning! It’s a very easy way to become lost in your practice for hours. Happy practicing. 👍
Dear Tom Donald, I am more than glad that you are sharing your music and piano knowledge with us.
You enabled me to elevate my understanding of playing the piano and I wanna thank your for that!
Excellent video again!
And you're right about tension I've injured myself multiple times because of tension.
Excellent video... I am really enjoying all the content.!!
Can you tell me please where to find more information about the groove course from inside? Thanks
Many thanks. Much appreciated. You'll find more information on the Groove course in the video description.
So with this improvising arpeggio in the left hand 1,5,1,2,3,5,3,2,1 how would you "count" the beat? Not 8th notes because you have 9? Might it also be pointed out you use the thumb on the 1 coming back. Is that for speed? As you can position the pinky much quicker on the lower octave 1?
Great question. For the 9-note arpeggio (1, 5, 1, 2, 3, 5, 3, 2, 1), you can count it as triplets across 3 beats (1-trip-let, 2-trip-let, 3-trip-let) or fit it into a 9/8 time signature. Using the thumb on the 1 coming back helps with speed because it allows your pinky to quickly reach the lower octave without shifting your hand too much
Thanks for another "piano meditation" video! I love this "series" and hope you do more from time to time. They really help me relax at the keyboard and connect to my creative side. I feel like I'm able to develop my technique as well. This type of improv practice works at so many levels. Speaking of levels, I enjoyed the variety of techniques you presented here. You make a good point in that you don't need to have super complex stuff going on in order to enjoy a satisfying musical experience. As for me, the big challenge is to not getting ahead of myself. I'm still in my first year of playing after a long absence, so while my mind and heart want to zoom across the keys to play melodies I hear in my soul, my fingers just can't keep up. So, there is always this tension between what I want to do and what I actually CAN do. Showing how simplicity can be an end to itself is a great antidote to this predicament. I can enjoy being right where I am, then gradually, over time and consistent practice, naturally evolve and grow in complexity and sophistication.
Man, thank you! This is fantastic.
I do not read music and am self taught, but i come here occasionally when my playing gets stale and repetitive.
You’re approach to the instrument is really refreshing.
Thank you, got me out of a musical rut 👍
Brilliant! Eye opening tutorial! Thank you!
Glad you spoke about the importance of creative expression. Great ideas btw!🌟
Thanks, just when I thought I was making progress you throw this at me😅
Kidding aside, this is great stuff. Im working the g minor progression, very slowly, playing the scale straight up and down on the beat. My problem at this point, I can play each chord with the scale at a good tempo but when I try to put all 3 chords together smoothly it blows up. Its like my brain is 2 people who refuse to get along with each other. I don’t know if it’s add, ptsd or the cia but Im having a helluva time trying to synchronize both sides of my brain.
lol
@@charlenemisuraca3473 I realized t Im so rookie, I have to look at both hands while I’m playing, which is impossible unless you’re a fish, so I’m practicing with my eyes closed and feeling my way around the keys, and wouldn’t ya know, it’s working.
10,000 years ago, when I was in high school, there was a blind kid, blind at birth, an outstanding keyboardist. I can’t imagine what it was like for him to learn to play. There had to be someone guiding his hands at the beginning. Just speculating. In a way I think he had an advantage over the rest of us.
Haha😂😅.
That third one was gorgeous! Going to have to try that. Once again, Tom, thank you!
Such enthusiasm, backed up with a lifetime of learning and experience.
How to relax at the piano? I think you've given me the key to the door.
I'm very happy to hear this has opened doors for you :)
Thank you for your professionalism and generosity❤
Thank you for this great video!
I love improvisation. I jam therefore i am. Musicality and artistic sensitivity enables us to express the language, imo.
great content..excellently done. love this school
I like to improv alone 😊❤
Another fantastic video! I can only recommend the Complete Musician Course, it's incredible and I'm so glad I took the plunge!
@@kirstenfruehling2868 many thanks Kirsten. It's great to have you on the program!
Thank you so much Tom. Much love from Miami Florida.
Any autistic keyboard students out there? I think we learn a bit differently. This lesson is excellent!