Wow! Great video! Reminds me of how my former teacher Claude Frank liked to warm up by playing arpeggios. Playing the arpeggio progression starting on the black keys is challenging! The hand learns to optimize the motions, especially if the RH 5th finger has to play an upper voice while the lower voice contains an arpeggio, such as the two layers of sound the RH plays in the first movement of the Beethoven Moonlight Sonata. I was thinking of practicing the arpeggios with this harmonic sequence, going up chromatically: C Major: I i bVI6 vi6 IV6/4 iv6/4 bII --> Db M I, and the cycle continues.
My Russian teacher who taught me this arpeggio exercise, insisted that we should start always with the thumb. Even the chords that start with a black key. This makes the exercise of course much harder but extremely effective! And she was so right about it ......
After letting my arpeggios and scales wither for many years, I saw this video and was intrigued. Showed it to my teacher and he agreed that it looked really useful. I'm having so much fun doing these now, and enjoying seeing my arpeggios slowly come back. I tried moving it to D (as the bass note) today. That didn't work out so well. So I'll keep working on C for now. It's so nice to have something so relatively simply that still makes learning fundamentals like arpeggios fun. As far as arpeggios go at least...
Very useful exercise ! I also practise the triads in groups of 4 notes, and the seventh chords in groups of 3 in order to avoid accenting the same note in the figuration. I think letting go between hand positions and breakibg legato is very hard to do, as it sounds terrible at slower tempos... but the relaxed feeling and movement are really necessary at fast speeds. Thank you for the tips !
Yeah that's a brilliant idea, I was explaining a bit about leaning points for avoiding those accents in the previous video as well. That's definitely a good question "to break or not to break" legato in a slower tempo. I guess when playing slowly I try not to, but of course give up on that in the faster tempo since all these connection movements are not healthy and cause tension in a faster tempo..
This was absolutely great my dear Denis, what a very beautiful and profitable information, a real and important piano class. Thank you so much for sharing 💖
interesting drill I will have to try it out on guitar, It reminds me a little of a triad arpeggio drill I created a couple decades ago (to help my inversion playing) I've never done it on piano but would probably sound cool. Basically I stay in 1 key & still use the same low note to play a root, 1st & 2nd inversions (in key) then move up 1 note and do the same till I've done it off all the notes in the entire key this way by the end of the drill I've played all the major, minor & mb5 in the key in root, 1st & 2nd inversions. & to make it flow better on guitar the 1st position I start by descending the 1st inversion of F (ending on A), ascend & descend the root position Am, then ascend the Dm (2nd inversion starting on A) this puts me 1 position higher & I do the same for a B low note till I've moved up the neck through all the notes. I do have a video in which I demonstrate this called Play 3 Triad Arpeggios Off Each Note In A Key Using Inversions (21 Arpeggio Drill) anyways thanks for posting I subbed & will check out your other videos 👍
Good exercises to play on the piano. I call arpeggi by it's proper name. It's an Italian thing. I had an Italian piano teacher in college and she didn't like calling them arpeggios, arpeggi is plural. Well they are good exercises and to get a clean sound you must practice them daily and not just 10 minutes a day like my technique book I had. I drove my regular piano teacher crazy saying I'm practicing them 10 minutes a day like the book said I wonder how many piano teachers didn't like the title. Creative Technique ten minutes a day. 73
I prefer to play them brilliantly, not caring too much about how they are correctly called, because I wasn’t lazy to practice as a kid😎 La vita è quella che è.
@@DenZhdanovPianist like I said music uses Italian notations. The modern rock and roll is infiltrated the classical arena. It's a comment not law. Sorry to offend if that's the way you see it. 73
@@DenZhdanovPianist yeah me too. One day I hope to be able to pronounce the name correctly, writing the computer or phone can do that. As where this all came from was my teacher in college she was Italian and knew piano or score notations. I sure miss her I even turned her harpsichord when she first got it. 73
I find the arpeggios in the Ocean etude from Chopin also very helpful, they appear again in his Ballade 4 before the coda, and in one of the waltzes, in the E minor Brown Index 56 posthum.
Hee thanks for this video. I saw you have sheet music of the other key signatures. But i cannot read notes, do you have a chord progression overview of the other key arpeggios thnx
Hello Denis. I see. On the inversions you are just moving the C up the scale on the inversions to A-F-D each time. I was confused by trying to copy the minor triades into the Dom. 7’s.
(DENIS ZHV )E UM VERDADEIRO BRAVO , BRAVISSIMO , UM DOS PRIMEIROS A TRAZER NOVAS ABORDAGENS EM FORMA ADVANCE DE EXERCITAR SCALAS , ACORDES E MUITO MAIS , NOS TRAZENDO SUPER LIÇOES ACESSIVEL "REVELANDO SEGREDOS" QUE OS MESTRES E PROFESSORES SEMPRE ESCONDERAM AGORA AO NOSSO ALCANCE ATRAVES DO ( bravíssimo Denis Zhdanov) , Os nossos sinceros Agradecimentos . PARABENS PIANISTA DENIS-ZHv .
Excellent ! I’ve trained on that exercice that a Latvian friend gave me. I didn’t know actually that it was mostly done in Western European countries as you say. Indeed, I had never seen anyone doing that in France. Great exercice !
Hi. This is a very interesting video. Can you tell me how a beginner should practice each one of these arpeggios by hours or days before you move on to another one? What would be a sufficient amount of time per day to spend on each a arpeggio. I am now retired and I am trying to play the exercises in the Hanon book every day for about two hours a day. I have only gotten up to page # 50, so far. I really want to play arpeggiated chords like I saw you run the regular 11 arpeggios. I don’t have a teacher any more because she now has dementia. Any advice you can offer me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for doing this video for us. I wish you continued success in all of your music endeavors and much more financial prosperity. Have a wonderful day.
I was spending not more than 30mins per day on exercises, scales etc when I was learning piano. But I was a kid then, it’s different! Of course you can dedicate more time than that, but I personally would not be obsessed with exercises, you can master many skills directly from pieces that are also enjoyable in the artistic sense. BTW I have a special video and a course on Hanon: ua-cam.com/video/76gVBrwNx08/v-deo.html
Hi Denis, can you explain what to do to avoid wrong notes or muddy arpeggios? my fingers not always fall on the center of the keys. even for simple piece like the Chopin A minor waltz I feel like walking on a rope when playing the E major section. sometimes my thumb plays two notes or sometimes my middle finger hits the sides of g# and falls.
Practice! 😅 There is not much I can say without working with you. Apart of hundreds if not thousands practicing hours one needs to be specific to one’s particular situation and physiology. Maybe you hold tension somewhere in the hand compensating the lack of stability in the nail joint. Maybe you have problems with positions change. Maybe you just have a not trained metacarpal bridge and nail joint. Maybe you just didn’t train the ability to focus your mind yet and point your attention to the tips of the fingers. Most probably a bit of everything. Check out my video on a rhythmical learning, I wonder if that helps: ua-cam.com/video/HbqmY0Fch3g/v-deo.html
There’s no secret to arpeggios. Just practice them in every key, with both hands in octaves, slowly, and increase speed till you get them where they’re smooth at high speed, and do that about 1,000,000 times over a period of months or years. It’s the dirty truth! In addition to the ones Denis has named, practice major-major 7ths, minor-minor 7ths, and half-diminished 7ths. This will force you to learn most finger patterns that you’ll ever encounter. Oh yeah… there’s one secret: relax your wrists, arms, fingers, and everything else. Got them relaxed? Relax some more. Now relax more than any human has ever relaxed. Don’t think of “hand“positions” but instead think of “flow.” Got it? Good. You’ll own arpeggios in a few years.
Great video! These arppegios are from a Russian Book Technic , Scales and Arpeggios, or something like that right? Can you please tell me the exactly tittle of the book? I'd like to search the whole book 😊
I have been thinking of making a video of these exercices myself because I haven’t found any clear video on this subject before I came across this video, and now I will share it with all my students and my piano friends. I have been practicing the 11 arpeggios (from every white key), with major, minor chromatic scales in 8ve, 3rd, 6th and 10th, in parallel and contrary motion, for the last 3 years after studying with a Russian teacher for some time and my technique has transformed ever since. However, I think these aren't only "technical exercices" because they are much more helpful... They will make repertoire, sight-reading, improvisation and everything much easier, especially if they are mastered in 12 keys. I wonder if you have an alternative solution for the black keys fingering of the 11 arpeggios, though! Thanks again, Denis!
Thanks for the feedback and sharing your experience. Well in my opinion, playing these from black keys starting with the thumb IS alternative fingering, just for practicing purposes. Otherwise, what we usually do when come across an arpeggio that starts from a black note - use a fingering that would use a thumb on a white key. In other words if you got a piece with an arpeggio let’s say g#-b-d#-f#-g# and so on, you’ll surely play it 21234 or similar (thumb on b), and treat it just as an inverted arpeggio b-d#-f#-g#, which you have surely practiced enough if played this exercise from b. So basically practicing them from just white keys is sufficient, because there are not so many arpeggios around that contain just black keys, and such passages might be mastered separately if there is such a need.
Lovely exercise! May I just point out something in your introduction that was a bit confusing? You explained the sequence as major triad, minor triad, first inversion of the major chord, etc. However, in the C major sequence you didn't play the first inversion of C, which I was expecting to be E G C, you played Eb Ab C which is an Ab chord. Then we get into F min and so on. Of course you labelled the chords correctly on the score. I understand that it must be so in order to be able to start on the tonic note each time, but it took my poor brain a bit of convincing that I wasn't going mad!
Yes, you play an exercise from C but the exercise itself has nothing to do with the C Major. Those are just basic chords and their inversions that START from C. I know, the theory behind might be tough for many, but explaining it in detail would extend the video and drive it away from its purpose... I provided these slides with demonstrations just for most curious ones and those who actually learn theory (because many people don't). Because another way is just to memorize these patterns without much theoretical analysis.
@@DenZhdanovPianist Denis, I grew up in Poland, and this exact same exercise was taught by our teachers ! There was even a book “ Gamy i pasaże” (Гамы и пасаже) where this exercise was outlined. It’s an excellent one indeed, because it covers like 60 percent of all possible arpeggios playing in entire literature ! You can expand the exercise to include all 4-note chords (minor 7, major 6, minor 6 and augmented) !
Great exercises! I added one cord at place 7: übermäßiger Dreiklang (C-E-G-sharp). I got the idea from Schumann, pianoconcerto, 3. movement. So I play 12 cords.
Yeah, good idea thanks for sharing! Of course there are many additional options limited only by the fantasy of a player, like adding other 7th chords with their inversions whatsoever. Z.B. also Brahms has an exercise for a big Cmaj7 (C-E-G-B natural) among his 51 exercises.
Love your video content. Any way of boosting the audio/adding compression to the audio? You're very quiet when you talk. You could even automate the compression to overlap the sections where you talk since your voice seems to be getting picked up by the same mics to record your piano. Just a suggestion.
Hello Denis. You mention that it is good to play the Maj. scale with the minor. So I started with C Maj.-Am. G Maj. Em. and D Maj. Bm. Going up and down the scales, especially going down, I often end up with the wrong finger on the root note on the Major (not so much on the minor). Are there any tips you can recommend on fingering so that I can always land with the no.5 finger (left hand) back on the root note? Thanks.
I asked several Professors about teaching scales from the bottom up. What would happen if you took a student and taught them the scales from Do Ti La Sol Fa Mi Ré Do? They might have another approach, since the Ti would no longer the leading note taking them back home, but instead leading them away on a journey. One professor who studied at Julliard thought this was for music theorists. Has anyone tried this in your country?
I'm curious as to why you just do the first two inversions for the major and minor chords rather than all 3 inversions, and also why you don't include inversions for the diminished chords. Perhaps the exercise would last for hours upon hours if we do every possible chord permutation!
You are supposed to play a root version and two inversions of a major and minor chord, there is nothing more for a 3-note chord. Yes, there are many other chords which one may include, but I would say playing just this in all keys is already enough in order to boost an arpeggio technique up to professional standards.
Hello Denis: I am confused about your presentation on this arpeggio exercise. On the introduction you show all 11 stages on C chords. Then you present the scale process with Ab and F. When checking the pdf provided, each section is also laid out in one key. Please provide better explanation of this technique as I believe it would be be very helpful for those struggling to understand it. Thanks.
Yes, at that time when I was doing this video I was severely unaware of the average theory level knowledge of my subscribers. These chords start from C, but represent inversions of different chords. For example C-E-A is the first inversion of A minor chord.
@@DenZhdanovPianist Unfortunately, many adult piano hackers (like me) never had lessons and just began on our own. Also lots of so called “teachers” are not good for anything except working at a very basic level. Unless you live in a larger metro area it is often hard to find qualified piano instructors. Another issue is that many people are dealing with the demands of work that have to be prioritized. Love of the piano and classical music still enables us to persevere. Thanks for your help Denis. Best regards, Mark
Hello Denis: I am working on your arpeggio exercise and am trying to figure out the inversion pattern. The C Dom. goes to Ad to F then to D.Dom. The next G inversion appears to me to be Ed to C then to Ad. There has to be a pattern in all the chords but I don’t see it. Please explain, Thanks.
Don’t treat it as a pattern or a chord progression, but rather as an encyclopedia of basic chords and their inversions. You just use all the basic chords and their inversions in a direct order, but building them from the same key CEG - major triad CEbG - Minor triad CEbAb - first inversion of a major triad CEA -First inversion of a minor triad … and so on When you get to the 7th chords it’s also just a root version of a dominant chord CEGBb, then a first inversion of a dominant 7th chord from C (CEbGbAb), and so on.
@@DenZhdanovPianistHello Denis, I know I'm very but I really don't understand how C- Eb-Ab is the first inversion of the major triad wich would ratther be E G C in my understanding of chords inversion. Can you enlighten me on this please ?
Thanks for the video, Denis Zhdanov! For the arpeggios derived from chord inversions, what is your opinion on using the fingering from the chord's "own" key? For example, the 4th arpeggio is made only from notes of the A minor triad (A, C, E). Instead of using the right hand fingering 1-2-4-1-2-4 - for the notes "C - E - A - C - E - A - " shown in your video, I'm thinking of using the A minor scale fingering 2-3-1-2-3-1- for the same note sequence. What are your thoughts on this approach to the arpeggio exercise?
A good question, thanks In a real life quite often we might use the root version fingering for inverted chords, when there is just a short passage or a specific position starting from a black key for example. But when you run them here and there in a loop, you will find out that starting and finishing with the 2nd finger is confusing and limits you as faster you go. Thumb is the best finger to start a passage, it’s like a perfect trampoline. And if the last hand position on top of the passage is so short, since you change it on the penultimate note of the passage playing 1-2 for A C, you will have a certain clumsiness there in a faster tempo. In other words, for an ultimate efficiency the first and the last positions of the passage should be longer than two notes. Also, as you see, this exercise has a goal not only to play these inversions one at a time, but smoothly connected with each other. But with this approach you would need to change fingers on the first note, and this is again loss of smoothness and tempo between different arpeggi.
@@DenZhdanovPianist Talking about fingering and low tension in the hand - fingering is no "dogma" and hands are quite different, so i hope, some adjustments are allowed. But beginning with C over four octaves Ab/c for me 1-2-4 1-2-4 1-2-3 1-2-3-5 is appropriate with low tension. but not with the 1-2-4-5. Is that ok. or do you recommend the fingering of the score anyway to stretch and manage? Tank you.
Hello dear Denis! I submit 2 mail to you for personalized piano course I am looking so much to hear from you!! 🙏🌺💐🍀You remember may be, I had carpal tunnel on my wrist. I had 2 injections and my fingers are quite well now. I use robber band and rober stress bolls for my broken finger it works almost very well now with a little bit time delay but it improves everyday😊🙏👍🏻🍀🍀🍀I sent you my web sit's adress but I improved my playing quite a bit since I made those videos. They dont represent my current playing. I play chopin balade g minor nowdays but since I did not play for 23 years I play awful I think. I applied for your course twice-fist one was last week- but have not got any answer from you yet. Please let me now if you cant give course to me.. ..I have been looking so much to be able to get piano course from you🙏🍀💐🌺🌟Hoping to hear from you soon dear Denis Thank you very much in advance🙏💐🌺🍀💐🌺
Okay this is breaking my brain. You start on c major, then play c minor, but then say that a flat major is the first inversion of the major triad... But I thought we were talking about c major, which a flat major isnt an inversion of. What am I missing? 😅 This exercise sounds great, but I'm lost.
We play all the chords from one starting key: C (not C major, but a keyboard key C). The first inversion of a major chord built on C is the first inversion of Ab major, which is C-Eb-Ab. The second inversion of a minor chord built on C is the second inversion of a F minor chord which is C-F-Ab. That’s the principle of this exercise
Mr. Zhdanov, you give comprehensive lessons about music and have great technique and skills on the piano, but this is too advance for me. I'm just not ready for this lesson because I don't have a clue about what you're teaching! I was expecting to learn about the broken notes of chords being played up and down the piano in proper movement and execution. However, I'm not criticizing you or your lesson, I'm just not ready for this lesson right now!
As told in the video, in description is a PDF with the score for students who don’t know music theory. If you can read the score you can nevertheless learn this exercise using it, even-though I wish you to gain a useful theory knowledge about chords and their inversions.
@@DenZhdanovPianist What a pleasant surprise to hear from you. Thanks. As you've mentioned, I checked out additional information of yours. Yes. I too am very much interested in gaining a good degree of music theory knowledge. As I stated earlier, I'm clueless about certain things you speak of, but there are other instances, that I understand and agree with you loud and clear. I love your playing and comprehensive or holistic approach to piano-playing, that I am eager to purchase and receive your "basics" book!
… as do major major 7th chord, 9th chords, minor 7th etc. You can play any other arpeggios including Tristan and Prometheus chord because why not, but this is just a standard conservatory exercise I had luck to be tortured with.
@@DenZhdanovPianist Very true, Denis, I was just having a bit of fun. 😉 Thank you for your videos, you're doing a great service and even as a seasoned pianist I look forward to what you have to say next. Cheers!
This is a fansastic way to make arpeggio practice more musical. Promotes both dexterity and theory at the same time
Wow! Great video! Reminds me of how my former teacher Claude Frank liked to warm up by playing arpeggios. Playing the arpeggio progression starting on the black keys is challenging! The hand learns to optimize the motions, especially if the RH 5th finger has to play an upper voice while the lower voice contains an arpeggio, such as the two layers of sound the RH plays in the first movement of the Beethoven Moonlight Sonata. I was thinking of practicing the arpeggios with this harmonic sequence, going up chromatically: C Major: I i bVI6 vi6 IV6/4 iv6/4 bII --> Db M I, and the cycle continues.
Dennis thankyou so much my friend....whoa what a great lesson....God bless you.
My Russian teacher who taught me this arpeggio exercise, insisted that we should start always with the thumb. Even the chords that start with a black key. This makes the exercise of course much harder but extremely effective! And she was so right about it ......
Yes!
How come though?
@@Nerestsmy question, too
My teacher assigned me this exercise a month ago. It's really fun, sounds surprisingmy good and is really effective. Amazing!
Glad you like it!
You are a gift to mankind. Thank you. so informative.
After letting my arpeggios and scales wither for many years, I saw this video and was intrigued. Showed it to my teacher and he agreed that it looked really useful. I'm having so much fun doing these now, and enjoying seeing my arpeggios slowly come back. I tried moving it to D (as the bass note) today. That didn't work out so well. So I'll keep working on C for now. It's so nice to have something so relatively simply that still makes learning fundamentals like arpeggios fun. As far as arpeggios go at least...
Try moving to G first, and only then to D.
★★★★★ Denis, I've been looking for just this lesson for a long time. THANK YOU!
Ah, I recognize this exercise! I’m a flutist with unimpressive piano skills and we do the same arpeggio etude on the flute as well.
Watching for the umpteenth time …
So inspirational love love love 🖤
Very good video thank you! Learning CZERNY and Cramer etudes full of arpeggios so this is super helpful!
Just great, thank you. I am highly impressed by your detailed instructional skills and demonstration.
As always, your professional advice is unusually helpful and really appreciated.
Fantastic video, Denis. You're a very good teacher. Thanks!
Thanks for commenting, I appreciate that!
Very useful exercise ! I also practise the triads in groups of 4 notes, and the seventh chords in groups of 3 in order to avoid accenting the same note in the figuration. I think letting go between hand positions and breakibg legato is very hard to do, as it sounds terrible at slower tempos... but the relaxed feeling and movement are really necessary at fast speeds. Thank you for the tips !
Yeah that's a brilliant idea, I was explaining a bit about leaning points for avoiding those accents in the previous video as well. That's definitely a good question "to break or not to break" legato in a slower tempo. I guess when playing slowly I try not to, but of course give up on that in the faster tempo since all these connection movements are not healthy and cause tension in a faster tempo..
I discovered you only recently but I must say the quality of your video and teaching is of a great level. And to get it for free is amazing.
It sounds wonderful. Way more interesting than normal drills. Thanks for the video.
Great exercise, thanks.
great teaching.
Thank you!
Thank you so much!
Thank you Dennis! What an awesome teacher you are! I got A LOT out out of this 😀👍😎
This is a good technical warm up
This was absolutely great my dear Denis, what a very beautiful and profitable information, a real and important piano class. Thank you so much for sharing 💖
Great lesson 👍
Fun! Thank you!
Thank you!!!!
Excellent delineation.
interesting drill I will have to try it out on guitar, It reminds me a little of a triad arpeggio drill I created a couple decades ago (to help my inversion playing) I've never done it on piano but would probably sound cool. Basically I stay in 1 key & still use the same low note to play a root, 1st & 2nd inversions (in key) then move up 1 note and do the same till I've done it off all the notes in the entire key this way by the end of the drill I've played all the major, minor & mb5 in the key in root, 1st & 2nd inversions. & to make it flow better on guitar the 1st position I start by descending the 1st inversion of F (ending on A), ascend & descend the root position Am, then ascend the Dm (2nd inversion starting on A) this puts me 1 position higher & I do the same for a B low note till I've moved up the neck through all the notes. I do have a video in which I demonstrate this called Play 3 Triad Arpeggios Off Each Note In A Key Using Inversions (21 Arpeggio Drill) anyways thanks for posting I subbed & will check out your other videos 👍
so so clean. nice
Good exercises to play on the piano. I call arpeggi by it's proper name. It's an Italian thing. I had an Italian piano teacher in college and she didn't like calling them arpeggios, arpeggi is plural. Well they are good exercises and to get a clean sound you must practice them daily and not just 10 minutes a day like my technique book I had. I drove my regular piano teacher crazy saying I'm practicing them 10 minutes a day like the book said I wonder how many piano teachers didn't like the title. Creative Technique ten minutes a day. 73
I prefer to play them brilliantly, not caring too much about how they are correctly called, because I wasn’t lazy to practice as a kid😎
La vita è quella che è.
@@DenZhdanovPianist like I said music uses Italian notations. The modern rock and roll is infiltrated the classical arena. It's a comment not law. Sorry to offend if that's the way you see it. 73
@ronb6182 no offense taken! It’s great there are more accurate people in naming things then me!😊
@@DenZhdanovPianist yeah me too. One day I hope to be able to pronounce the name correctly, writing the computer or phone can do that. As where this all came from was my teacher in college she was Italian and knew piano or score notations. I sure miss her I even turned her harpsichord when she first got it. 73
Thank you soo much!! I find this really helpful and informative ,I'll spend 30min of my practice with these arpeggios
You really are a virtuoso
I aspire to learn this the coming year, thanks
I find the arpeggios in the Ocean etude from Chopin also very helpful, they appear again in his Ballade 4 before the coda, and in one of the waltzes, in the E minor Brown Index 56 posthum.
Thanks for providing the pdf sheet without much hassle.
Hee thanks for this video. I saw you have sheet music of the other key signatures. But i cannot read notes, do you have a chord progression overview of the other key arpeggios thnx
Merci for this.
Hello Denis. I see. On the inversions you are just moving the C up the scale on the inversions to A-F-D each time. I was confused by trying to copy the minor triades into the Dom. 7’s.
(DENIS ZHV )E UM VERDADEIRO BRAVO , BRAVISSIMO , UM DOS PRIMEIROS A TRAZER NOVAS ABORDAGENS EM FORMA ADVANCE DE EXERCITAR SCALAS , ACORDES E MUITO MAIS ,
NOS TRAZENDO SUPER LIÇOES ACESSIVEL "REVELANDO SEGREDOS" QUE OS MESTRES E
PROFESSORES SEMPRE ESCONDERAM AGORA AO NOSSO ALCANCE ATRAVES DO ( bravíssimo Denis Zhdanov) , Os nossos sinceros Agradecimentos . PARABENS PIANISTA DENIS-ZHv .
Excellent ! I’ve trained on that exercice that a Latvian friend gave me. I didn’t know actually that it was mostly done in Western European countries as you say. Indeed, I had never seen anyone doing that in France. Great exercice !
Russian school of playing arpeggios.
Thank you very much, and now i am your subsriber... 😅
Hi. This is a very interesting video. Can you tell me how a beginner should practice each one of these arpeggios by hours or days before you move on to another one? What would be a sufficient amount of time per day to spend on each a arpeggio. I am now retired and I am trying to play the exercises in the Hanon book every day for about two hours a day. I have only gotten up to page # 50, so far. I really want to play arpeggiated chords like I saw you run the regular 11 arpeggios. I don’t have a teacher any more because she now has dementia. Any advice you can offer me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for doing this video for us. I wish you continued success in all of your music endeavors and much more financial prosperity. Have a wonderful day.
I was spending not more than 30mins per day on exercises, scales etc when I was learning piano. But I was a kid then, it’s different!
Of course you can dedicate more time than that, but I personally would not be obsessed with exercises, you can master many skills directly from pieces that are also enjoyable in the artistic sense.
BTW I have a special video and a course on Hanon: ua-cam.com/video/76gVBrwNx08/v-deo.html
“Because, obviously, black ones matter” GOLD lol
Not a great piano player myself …
Love your videos 🤍
I feel inspired 🕊
Doing these arpeggio’s every day now …. Improving slowly .. so excited 🕊🤍
Yes they are exercises but sound beautiful and could be played as performance with dynamics
Hi Denis, can you explain what to do to avoid wrong notes or muddy arpeggios? my fingers not always fall on the center of the keys. even for simple piece like the Chopin A minor waltz I feel like walking on a rope when playing the E major section. sometimes my thumb plays two notes or sometimes my middle finger hits the sides of g# and falls.
Practice! 😅
There is not much I can say without working with you. Apart of hundreds if not thousands practicing hours one needs to be specific to one’s particular situation and physiology. Maybe you hold tension somewhere in the hand compensating the lack of stability in the nail joint. Maybe you have problems with positions change. Maybe you just have a not trained metacarpal bridge and nail joint. Maybe you just didn’t train the ability to focus your mind yet and point your attention to the tips of the fingers. Most probably a bit of everything. Check out my video on a rhythmical learning, I wonder if that helps: ua-cam.com/video/HbqmY0Fch3g/v-deo.html
There’s no secret to arpeggios. Just practice them in every key, with both hands in octaves, slowly, and increase speed till you get them where they’re smooth at high speed, and do that about 1,000,000 times over a period of months or years. It’s the dirty truth! In addition to the ones Denis has named, practice major-major 7ths, minor-minor 7ths, and half-diminished 7ths. This will force you to learn most finger patterns that you’ll ever encounter.
Oh yeah… there’s one secret: relax your wrists, arms, fingers, and everything else. Got them relaxed? Relax some more. Now relax more than any human has ever relaxed. Don’t think of “hand“positions” but instead think of “flow.” Got it? Good. You’ll own arpeggios in a few years.
Great video! These arppegios are from a Russian Book Technic , Scales and Arpeggios, or something like that right? Can you please tell me the exactly tittle of the book? I'd like to search the whole book 😊
Yes something like that, but I don’t remember exactly. I think it’s possible to find it using keywords + pdf in Russian
I can't follow it. Could you put up a pdf of the first 2 or 3❓Thanks.
The score is in the description
I have been thinking of making a video of these exercices myself because I haven’t found any clear video on this subject before I came across this video, and now I will share it with all my students and my piano friends.
I have been practicing the 11 arpeggios (from every white key), with major, minor chromatic scales in 8ve, 3rd, 6th and 10th, in parallel and contrary motion, for the last 3 years after studying with a Russian teacher for some time and my technique has transformed ever since.
However, I think these aren't only "technical exercices" because they are much more helpful... They will make repertoire, sight-reading, improvisation and everything much easier, especially if they are mastered in 12 keys.
I wonder if you have an alternative solution for the black keys fingering of the 11 arpeggios, though!
Thanks again, Denis!
Thanks for the feedback and sharing your experience.
Well in my opinion, playing these from black keys starting with the thumb IS alternative fingering, just for practicing purposes.
Otherwise, what we usually do when come across an arpeggio that starts from a black note - use a fingering that would use a thumb on a white key.
In other words if you got a piece with an arpeggio let’s say g#-b-d#-f#-g# and so on, you’ll surely play it 21234 or similar (thumb on b), and treat it just as an inverted arpeggio b-d#-f#-g#, which you have surely practiced enough if played this exercise from b.
So basically practicing them from just white keys is sufficient, because there are not so many arpeggios around that contain just black keys, and such passages might be mastered separately if there is such a need.
@@DenZhdanovPianist thank you for your reply, it is very helpful! That was my expected answer haha
I also play this exercise starting from top to bottom ...
why the minor 7th chords are missing?
I wonder if there is a similar exercise to address Jazz needs (all the sevenths, sixes, perhaps nines). That would be terrific.
You can create it yourself - just play all the chords you want to practice as an arpeggio from the same key all the way up and down!
Lovely exercise! May I just point out something in your introduction that was a bit confusing? You explained the sequence as major triad, minor triad, first inversion of the major chord, etc. However, in the C major sequence you didn't play the first inversion of C, which I was expecting to be E G C, you played Eb Ab C which is an Ab chord. Then we get into F min and so on. Of course you labelled the chords correctly on the score. I understand that it must be so in order to be able to start on the tonic note each time, but it took my poor brain a bit of convincing that I wasn't going mad!
Yes, you play an exercise from C but the exercise itself has nothing to do with the C Major. Those are just basic chords and their inversions that START from C. I know, the theory behind might be tough for many, but explaining it in detail would extend the video and drive it away from its purpose... I provided these slides with demonstrations just for most curious ones and those who actually learn theory (because many people don't).
Because another way is just to memorize these patterns without much theoretical analysis.
@@DenZhdanovPianist Thanks for the clarification Denis. Very useful.
@@DenZhdanovPianist Denis, I grew up in Poland, and this exact same exercise was taught by our teachers ! There was even a book “ Gamy i pasaże” (Гамы и пасаже) where this exercise was outlined. It’s an excellent one indeed, because it covers like 60 percent of all possible arpeggios playing in entire literature ! You can expand the exercise to include all 4-note chords (minor 7, major 6, minor 6 and augmented) !
Great exercises! I added one cord at place 7: übermäßiger Dreiklang (C-E-G-sharp). I got the idea from Schumann, pianoconcerto, 3. movement. So I play 12 cords.
Yeah, good idea thanks for sharing!
Of course there are many additional options limited only by the fantasy of a player, like adding other 7th chords with their inversions whatsoever.
Z.B. also Brahms has an exercise for a big Cmaj7 (C-E-G-B natural) among his 51 exercises.
Yes, originally this series has 12 chords with augmented chord, Rachmaninoff mentions this in one of articles for Etude Magazine.
Love your video content. Any way of boosting the audio/adding compression to the audio? You're very quiet when you talk. You could even automate the compression to overlap the sections where you talk since your voice seems to be getting picked up by the same mics to record your piano. Just a suggestion.
Yes that’s an old video, the newer ones are better
What type of piano is thay
Hello Denis. You mention that it is good to play the Maj. scale with the minor. So I started with C Maj.-Am. G Maj. Em. and D Maj. Bm. Going up and down the scales, especially going down, I often end up with the wrong finger on the root note on the Major (not so much on the minor). Are there any tips you can recommend on fingering so that I can always land with the no.5 finger (left hand) back on the root note? Thanks.
You have to keep in mind positions. So despite you press one finger at a time, you think about the whole position 5-1, then 3-1, then 4-1 etc.
I asked several Professors about teaching scales from the bottom up.
What would happen if you took a student and taught them the scales from Do Ti La Sol Fa Mi Ré Do?
They might have another approach, since the Ti would no longer the leading note taking them back home, but instead leading them away on a journey. One professor who studied at Julliard thought this was for music theorists. Has anyone tried this in your country?
Of course, russian style.
I'm curious as to why you just do the first two inversions for the major and minor chords rather than all 3 inversions, and also why you don't include inversions for the diminished chords. Perhaps the exercise would last for hours upon hours if we do every possible chord permutation!
You are supposed to play a root version and two inversions of a major and minor chord, there is nothing more for a 3-note chord. Yes, there are many other chords which one may include, but I would say playing just this in all keys is already enough in order to boost an arpeggio technique up to professional standards.
Your website fails to load. Tried several times to open a page
I know, thanks. I am in the process of transfering it to another platform, smth went wrong, working on it…
@@DenZhdanovPianist can you put the link for this exercise?
@@eltonwild5648 bit.ly/11arpeggio
Do you have this music sheets? Thank you
In the description
Hello Denis: I am confused about your presentation on this arpeggio exercise. On the introduction you show all 11 stages on C chords. Then you present the scale process with Ab and F. When checking the pdf provided, each section is also laid out in one key. Please provide better explanation of this technique as I believe it would be be very helpful for those struggling to understand it. Thanks.
Yes, at that time when I was doing this video I was severely unaware of the average theory level knowledge of my subscribers.
These chords start from C, but represent inversions of different chords. For example C-E-A is the first inversion of A minor chord.
@@DenZhdanovPianist Unfortunately, many adult piano hackers (like me) never had lessons and just began on our own. Also lots of so called “teachers” are not good for anything except working at a very basic level. Unless you live in a larger metro area it is often hard to find qualified piano instructors. Another issue is that many people are dealing with the demands of work that have to be prioritized. Love of the piano and classical music still enables us to persevere. Thanks for your help Denis.
Best regards, Mark
Hello Denis: I am working on your arpeggio exercise and am trying to figure out the inversion pattern. The C Dom. goes to Ad to F then to D.Dom. The next G inversion appears to me to be Ed to C then to Ad. There has to be a pattern in all the chords but I don’t see it. Please explain, Thanks.
Don’t treat it as a pattern or a chord progression, but rather as an encyclopedia of basic chords and their inversions. You just use all the basic chords and their inversions in a direct order, but building them from the same key
CEG - major triad
CEbG - Minor triad
CEbAb - first inversion of a major triad
CEA -First inversion of a minor triad
… and so on
When you get to the 7th chords it’s also just a root version of a dominant chord CEGBb, then a first inversion of a dominant 7th chord from C (CEbGbAb), and so on.
@@DenZhdanovPianistHello Denis, I know I'm very but I really don't understand how C- Eb-Ab is the first inversion of the major triad wich would ratther be E G C in my understanding of chords inversion. Can you enlighten me on this please ?
Is the absence of the legato when passing the thumb intentional ? ...
yep that's the only way to play well in a faster tempo. Check out the previous video about arpeggio technique, link in the description
Thanks for the video, Denis Zhdanov! For the arpeggios derived from chord inversions, what is your opinion on using the fingering from the chord's "own" key? For example, the 4th arpeggio is made only from notes of the A minor triad (A, C, E). Instead of using the right hand fingering 1-2-4-1-2-4 - for the notes "C - E - A - C - E - A - " shown in your video, I'm thinking of using the A minor scale fingering 2-3-1-2-3-1- for the same note sequence. What are your thoughts on this approach to the arpeggio exercise?
A good question, thanks
In a real life quite often we might use the root version fingering for inverted chords, when there is just a short passage or a specific position starting from a black key for example. But when you run them here and there in a loop, you will find out that starting and finishing with the 2nd finger is confusing and limits you as faster you go. Thumb is the best finger to start a passage, it’s like a perfect trampoline. And if the last hand position on top of the passage is so short, since you change it on the penultimate note of the passage playing 1-2 for A C, you will have a certain clumsiness there in a faster tempo. In other words, for an ultimate efficiency the first and the last positions of the passage should be longer than two notes.
Also, as you see, this exercise has a goal not only to play these inversions one at a time, but smoothly connected with each other. But with this approach you would need to change fingers on the first note, and this is again loss of smoothness and tempo between different arpeggi.
@@DenZhdanovPianist Thanks for the insight!
@@DenZhdanovPianist Talking about fingering and low tension in the hand - fingering is no "dogma" and hands are quite different, so i hope, some adjustments are allowed. But beginning with C over four octaves Ab/c for me 1-2-4 1-2-4 1-2-3 1-2-3-5 is appropriate with low tension. but not with the 1-2-4-5. Is that ok. or do you recommend the fingering of the score anyway to stretch and manage? Tank you.
@@SeanMcVail which arpeggio do you mean? C-E-A?
@@DenZhdanovPianist No, third bar in score Ab/c C-Eb-Ab (-C)
Is it true that Liszt played, or recommended playing, the black key arpeggios with the same fingering as the white key arpeggios?
Could be. I often do so.
Does this exercise have a name?
Yes, it’s on the thumbnail😃
Hello dear Denis! I submit 2 mail to you for personalized piano course I am looking so much to hear from you!! 🙏🌺💐🍀You remember may be, I had carpal tunnel on my wrist. I had 2 injections and my fingers are quite well now. I use robber band and rober stress bolls for my broken finger it works almost very well now with a little bit time delay but it improves everyday😊🙏👍🏻🍀🍀🍀I sent you my web sit's adress but I improved my playing quite a bit since I made those videos. They dont represent my current playing. I play chopin balade g minor nowdays but since I did not play for 23 years I play awful I think. I applied for your course twice-fist one was last week- but have not got any answer from you yet. Please let me now if you cant give course to me.. ..I have been looking so much to be able to get piano course from you🙏🍀💐🌺🌟Hoping to hear from you soon dear Denis Thank you very much in advance🙏💐🌺🍀💐🌺
This exercise must go through all keys
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My wasted youth, not to have mastered this.
How long do u guys think this gonna take to make my finger fast enough to hit any note?
Im still learning, not in intens like 8hr a day. 😂
Okay this is breaking my brain. You start on c major, then play c minor, but then say that a flat major is the first inversion of the major triad... But I thought we were talking about c major, which a flat major isnt an inversion of. What am I missing? 😅
This exercise sounds great, but I'm lost.
We play all the chords from one starting key: C (not C major, but a keyboard key C). The first inversion of a major chord built on C is the first inversion of Ab major, which is C-Eb-Ab. The second inversion of a minor chord built on C is the second inversion of a F minor chord which is C-F-Ab. That’s the principle of this exercise
😂super
Subtitles please or notes better ! Thx.
There are auto subtitles which are good enough
Mr. Zhdanov, you give comprehensive lessons about music and have great technique and skills on the piano, but this is too advance for me. I'm just not ready for this lesson because I don't have a clue about what you're teaching! I was expecting to learn about the broken notes of chords being played up and down the piano in proper movement and execution. However, I'm not criticizing you or your lesson, I'm just not ready for this lesson right now!
As told in the video, in description is a PDF with the score for students who don’t know music theory.
If you can read the score you can nevertheless learn this exercise using it, even-though I wish you to gain a useful theory knowledge about chords and their inversions.
@@DenZhdanovPianist What a pleasant surprise to hear from you. Thanks. As you've mentioned, I checked out additional information of yours. Yes. I too am very much interested in gaining a good degree of music theory knowledge. As I stated earlier, I'm clueless about certain things you speak of, but there are other instances, that I understand and agree with you loud and clear. I love your playing and comprehensive or holistic approach to piano-playing, that I am eager to purchase and receive your "basics" book!
You gave it the finger. 😅
?
Ebony and Ivory...
There are 12 types of arpeggios. Mr. "augmented" feels very left out right now.
… as do major major 7th chord, 9th chords, minor 7th etc. You can play any other arpeggios including Tristan and Prometheus chord because why not, but this is just a standard conservatory exercise I had luck to be tortured with.
@@DenZhdanovPianist Very true, Denis, I was just having a bit of fun. 😉 Thank you for your videos, you're doing a great service and even as a seasoned pianist I look forward to what you have to say next. Cheers!
👁👁
very low sound level
Black keys matter 😂
I picked that one up, too. Very subtle, nice touch!!!😉
The piano is much too loud and the voice too silent.
Black keys matter lol thank you so much
The elbow bend is forbidden . sorry i am a pianist
I am also sorry for you…
@@DenZhdanovPianist :-)
Can you please make it slow😭
UA-cam has playback speed settings😉
The teaching is too difficult to understand...
Wauv a control you have 👍😁
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