Japanese Melodica

The Keyboard's Colors

0:01:39 We'll go outside for a few minutes. Come on outside. Let's go. Come check it out. Go outside. Yeah. So, um, Japanese scale. One thing I would like to change on the Chordie keyboard, I do love the colors. Um, are they the full, like, rainbow, though, across the 12 keys? Or are some colors kind of repeating more? Or are some colors sort of repeating more? For example, we have a good five notes that are just red and orange, and they're pretty, like, dark. I was hoping to get some more brighter.

0:03:32 All right. The whole spectrum. You're gonna tear up my favorite Red Wings shirt. Yeah, you just put a hole on it. Thanks. I mean, Twiddle, too much. Go Twiddle. Keys, that's intense. All right. Sorry, Twidds. He doesn't like the melodica.

The In Scale in 12 Keys

0:04:48 12 keys is gonna be hard. See? This is gonna be hard. Third. Third. Half-step. Major third. Half-step. Major third. Half-step. Half-step. Half-step. Half-step. I'm sorry. Major third. One way to do it is to break it down. Just do the first four and all twelve. First three, if you wanted.

0:07:59 Do the five. Five first. Comes a little faster. Shapes are brand new. Takes us some time when they're brand new. Spankin' new. Wow. Doesn't sound right. So it's a lot of ear training.

0:10:49 Tricked my ear. See, I allowed this because that's part of the augmented. It's actually not. It's got a much sharper second, and the fourth is a major. Half-step. Voice note.

Take the Risk in All 12

0:12:32 Hi. These are voice notes for my upcoming course. Melodica Exotica. We're doing the In scale, 12 keys, and the first thing I want to say is that these are brand new shapes, so they're gonna take some time, and they're gonna feel uncomfortable. Make that the second thing. Even before that, the first thing should be, you should take the risk to play them in all twelve. It can feel really dreadful, and I don't want to downplay that.

0:13:11 It can take time, but you should take the risk and go all twelve. That's what we're doing as musicians. That's why we do it. We do things to see the mountain 360 degrees, right? So, let's take the risk and let's do it, and they'll come faster towards the end than they do in the beginning. So those are the first two notes, and then the third note, I want to talk about ear training, that this trains your ear to go through all twelve.

0:13:41 And then I want to put a little caveat that what I wanted to do was continue to go through an augmented scale. And what I had to do is listen very closely and recognize that the fourth scale degree is a major third from the second scale degree. It's not a minor third. So I wanted to point out its connection to the augmented scale, and I wanted to point out its connection to ear training. So those are the three notes.

Building Off C

0:14:10 Fourth note is that I want to say that the way I approached this is I was thinking, I was thinking of, I was building off C to start with, which C is a major third below E. So that I'm building the scales a major third above the root. That's just because I wanted to start on C, and the first In scale with the least amount of accidentals, I guess, I want you to confirm this, is the E In scale. Is it "in" or "een", like sheen or like chin?

0:15:19 So I'm building them a major third beneath the root. And I'm calling that the tonic, which might be wrong, so I might want to change how I do this. Yeah, you got it.

0:16:13 Twiddle, stop. The first note is deciding to do all twelve. And the second note is Twiddle. The second note is ear training, and the third note is the connection to the augmented. The actual number of notes isn't so important. I just want you to keep my notes.

0:18:34 Oh, Twiddle. Come out here and play, buddy. Acting dramatic. I played the melodica and he couldn't stay on the lap. Come on over here, Twiddle. I'm not supposed to reward this behavior, but he will not stop.

0:18:54 Okay, where was I? Okay, so the fourth note is, yeah, because C is really the, um, I always get confused. Should we call C the flat six, or should we call C the fifth of the scale? Because it's the fifth diatonic note.

Remember the Intervals

0:20:46 Okay, so these numbers are not, um, degrees of the scale. They're actual intervals from the root of the scale. Is that correct? Answer it for me, but I have OCD, so I ask for confirmation. Come on, Twiddle. Come on out, baby. Twiddle, come play. Scale degrees, okay.

0:22:46 And then, um, the next thing I want to say is that it really does go faster. And, um, the key to making it work is you remember the intervals. It's a half step, a major third, a whole step, a half step, a major third. If you remember that, um, you can start to get through these much quicker. And also, also, um, the, what this is training your brain to do is to think in intervals. You can think of intervals on the fly.

0:23:25 And the more you do exotic scales, the more you can build quick intervals. So, um, that's the next note. Thank you. And then what else? I got to take care of Twiddle.

0:23:42 Come on, buddy. Make a cat bed. Make a cat bed for you. How about we make a cat bed right here where you can sleep? Yeah, you're going to love it, Twiddle. You're going to love it right here. Look, you could be part of the family. See? Yeah, I'm going to put this blanket. Oh, sorry, Luna. Put this blanket right here. I could be with us. Just like we did at the house. See? Yeah, you can walk on the keyboard. That's fine.

0:24:45 You're going to sleep on this, though, Twiddle. So you feel like you're part of the family. Come on. Boy, come over here. What do you do? You want me to get your comb? You sleep here. While I do my lessons. You sleep right here. Oh, I'm going to get a spray bottle so you don't follow me to the desk. You're going to sleep right here.

0:25:40 Come over here, Twiddle. Come over here, Twiddle. Come on, Twiddle. Come on. Come on, Twidds, that's your spot. Come on, Twiddle. I'm trying to train Twiddle. Twidds, Twiddle, here. Yeah, that's how he starts. They told me to ignore him. To ignore him. I can't reward him. That's so hard.

Intervals, Not Scale Degrees

0:26:59 No, I don't really want to call them scale degrees. I'd rather call them intervals. I get confused. What's the best way just to easily say it to people?

0:27:16 Okay, go back. Can you give me the full spectrum, please? And just very slightly bias them to the Eternal Crane palette.

0:29:00 Can you confirm that our Twitch is live and it's in the right category and it has all the right tags? But I feel like I should say the second scale degree is F. The third scale degree is A. The fourth scale degree is B. The fifth scale degree is 5. You know what I mean? And then I could say the flat 6 interval, the perfect 5th interval. Like if I were to teach the C blues scale, I tend to say 1, flat 3, 4, tritone 5, flat 7, 1.

0:29:55 So I'm basically telling them the intervals. If I were teaching C major scale, I'd say C is 1, D is 2, E is 3, F is 4. That's the only one where I don't say intervals. I'm using scale degrees. I think that's because we tend to treat the C major scale as the common scale that all others are built from.

0:30:32 I think that's where I'm getting confused because what if we don't want to treat the major scale as the God scale, right? And also when you say flat 2, F, is that a flat 2? Because it's a flat 2 from E major, which is F sharp. Or do they just happen to work out the same?

0:31:57 I'm just trying to find the simplest way to talk about it. If you're drawing me charts, I think I should say 1, flat 2, 4, 5, flat 6, 1.

0:35:53 And we're talking about intervals. And if I say the fourth scale degree, am I referring to A or am I referring to B? Yeah. 1 is E, the 2 is... There is no 2. The 2 is a flat 2. That's... That was tripping me up.

0:37:00 Oh, there's some cat thing happening. Back it up. Come on. Okay. Teaching, I would say the 2, but there is no 2. It's flat 2. 1, flat 2, 4, 5, flat 6. Okay.

The Flat Six as a Mental Root

0:37:31 Okay, so continuing the notes. What I want to do then is I want to go through all 12. Starting on E, and then I basically go up the scale using the interval approach. And then I end on the flat 6 octave beneath. I treat the flat 6 as the root. It's like a mental root. It's not the actual root, and I don't think of it as the root. I'm sort of just building off it as like a mental step.

0:38:22 Debatable if that's useful. But that's how I'm going to teach it, because that's what I did. So we go through all 12, basically. So now they've gotten all 12. That would be on the melodica, and then I think I'd do it on the piano. And when I do it on the piano, I think it's hands together, and then contrary.

0:38:49 Contrary would be a bitch. I'm not gonna do fingers. My teaching for fingers is you'll find your own way. Whatever works for you is the best way. Go through.

0:39:28 Yeah, I just want to point out that the method that I'm teaching is first I pick the flat 6 in my mind, and then I build a major 3rd off it. That's how I'm going through all the 12. Does that make sense? So this is really C. The other way is to build it off A minor. The other way is to build it off a perfect 4th, which will give you actually the minor. Maybe it's better to teach it like that, because then they would have the minor. Do you think it really matters? Is it a circle of 5ths like that?

0:41:16 It's like a different exercise on the piano. B flat, major 3rd off it. Pattern. And this major 3rd coming down is hard. I had that challenge when I would learn the augmented. Very methodical. Help. Keep breathing. Once they come, they start to come. Not much at all.

Melodica First, Piano in One Key

0:44:23 But hands apart, is it worth doing it? Okay, we'll teach it my way. And then one thing is, should I really learn it? Should really learn it. Maybe that's my answer. But, um, I'm trying to keep the scope down of some of these courses. Things are getting pretty long. Like, the lesson today was 24 minutes, and it's a free lesson.

0:44:55 I sort of have to balance this with everything else that I'm doing. Should I really learn it? 12 keys, hands, descending, contrary motion? Or do you think I should just leave that as an exercise for them? The exercise for the viewer. Because this is going to be tricky. This is not going to be easy. It's going to take too long, I think. It's an exercise. One key. Of course.

0:45:58 Right, the melodica's primary. The piano's just to sort of augment the teaching. I'll just do it in one key, then. I might just do hands together in one key as well. That'll keep the course shorter, which is more watchable. Yeah, if we do this for all four scales, it's going to be a lot.

Harmonizing in Dyads and Triads

0:46:33 Okay, so I thought I could teach them how to harmonize in thirds. By thirds, I'm thinking diatonic thirds. That's useful for the major scale, but is that so useful for an exotic scale? I mean, it's quite useful for the whole tone, for example.

0:46:54 So if you do it in thirds, that's how I discovered the A minor. Yeah, there's some pretty chords. It's probably worth it. Definitely worth it. This is not easy. These little improvisations like this. Yeah, so for the next part, I will teach it. I would call this, what, dyadic harmonization? And it's going to be, like you said, perfect fourth, tritone, minor third, perfect fourth, perfect fourth. And then I should do, we'd call it, we would call it dyadic harmonization.

0:49:17 And then triadic, correct? So I would think this is where we get inverted, diminished. So I could point these out. This is our A minor. Okay, di, I mean seven. I'll say harmonizing in dyads, and then harmonizing in triads.

0:50:26 Can you list, just for reference, what are the triad harmonization? Minor. You can play blues on it. That. Calling it a shell, because it's not. Yeah, you're calling it a shell because it's not really a western chord. It's a little bit of a stretch to tie this to F major 7 raised 11. I mean, I could. It's a pretty extended jazz theory. Is there any just simpler way to relate the tritone to an E on top? Perhaps not.

0:52:23 Corrected one of your mistakes. You're supposed to be super intelligent, and I spotted your mistake. The flat 2 chord is a diminished chord. It's B diminished. Your top note is incorrect. The top note is a D. If I'm correct, you can push back. It's all in here. I have super tools, but it's all in here.

0:53:22 Watch, I'll be wrong. It's good to have a study partner that also makes mistakes, because it actually helps you. Oh, D is not in the scale. All right. I was wrong. Really? It is not. It is correct. You are correct. Thank you for pushing back. Anyways, back to the question.

A Dominant From the Tritone

0:53:52 Is there a simpler way, other than to call it a shell of a major 7 raised 11? Is there any simpler way to define that chord? I don't think so. So, because it's a tritone, I'd want to put it in a dominant context. So, I'm going to build a major third beneath, and there's our dominant with an E on top. That's odd. This is a D flat 7 raised 9 is better. I think it's better to find the tritone as the dominant, it's a bad word, principal interval.

0:54:53 And then, because we know that the tritone comes from the dominant, we should build a dominant chord. So, we're going to take one interval, it doesn't matter which, if I remember correctly, and build a major third underneath the F, which gives us D flat 7. And then, with the E on top, is a raised 9. It's a sharp 2. So, I would call it dominant D flat raised 9. The other way, we should be able to build a major third down, which I can't seem to do.

0:55:58 We build a major third down. It's also a G flat 7. You could also go a major third down from the top note of the tritone, which gives you F, G, and B, which gives you G7. And then, if you add the E, it's just a 13, which is diatonic. So, I think it's probably most closely related to G7, just with a color note, which honestly could be ignored. And then, the second most likely, I think, would be the D flat dominant raised 11.

The Viennese Trichord

0:56:41 And then, yours, I don't know what yours was. I don't want to go that far. 20th century classical theory, the Viennese trichord. They would say it's a tritone with a fourth on top, of course. Because if you're building a fourth. Clever. Clever. Tritone with a fourth on top. Those. I think they were in Paris.

0:57:24 Where was the actual third Viennese school? What country? I know Schoenberg was German. But where were they studying? Was it, um, France? The G7 reading. Yes. And that raised 9. I don't want to read yours, I'm too tired. Sorry, I'm not collaborative today. Powering through this with my glass of ice water. It was in Austria, okay. I always think of Vienna, France. Is that even a, is that even a place?

0:58:21 Oh. Vienna's in Austria, joEy. Strange. I said Paris. I thought it was in France. Hopefully Paris is in France. Or is it in Italy? I just consider Italy and France the same country. Getting a little slap happy. So those Austrians, the Austrians would call this a tritone with a fourth on top. Okay, that's fine.

0:58:57 Yeah, we're just going to limit the scope and we're going to call it a G7, right? Or we'll call it a G13. And add a note that I should show them how to build a dominant from the tritone. Minor. Tritone. With a perfect fourth on top. One. Find it. Yeah. Okay, that's fine. It's right. We should call it G13 because it includes the E. But then I can say harmonically, if you were to compose a piece, you can drop the thirteenth. It's no big deal. Do you agree with that? And then, um, can you give me the harmonizations and triads, please, again?

1:00:05 I'm not quite a spring chicken anymore. But joEy's always tired. Pricorn. Perfect fourth. Really? It finds an octave. I use my brain. No, I'm playing the G. That's why. That's the A minor again. Very strong A minor. You even just play an A minor triad.

Holding A Minor to the End

1:00:52 I'm going to hide that from them. Because the Westerner is going to want to just fill the A minor. That's what I want it to do. I just want it to play A minor everywhere. Everywhere A minor. Maybe we should stay with some other colors. Um, do you agree that the Westerner student is just going to want to crush that A minor? And they're just going to want to treat the scale as A minor like I want it to. And then we might get a little bit more out of the module if I hold that kind of to the end.

1:01:39 And kind of dwell on the other colors. So A minor, G13, B. See, the good thing about being a teacher is you write charts for yourself. And it's easier for you to learn. A, C, F, major. Wow. Fascinating. Because I was playing E minor, F major together.

Stacked Fourths From D

1:03:03 Stacked fourths. Oh, wow. That's exciting. Pretty exciting. That's exciting. A. Because you can go through the whole. You can go stacked fourths. Watch. We'll go from D and stacked fourths. And the harmonization. Isn't that amazing? Let me do that one more time.

1:03:52 Yeah, so we're just going to continue through the course. I'll show them that it's an A minor. I'll do the tritone to get them to G13. And I'll probably just stop there and limit it. And then I'll show them the F over A, which I think is pretty basic.

1:04:15 And then I just want to do something a little kooky. I want to start on D. And I want to go fifths. D, G, C, F, B flat, E flat, A flat, D flat, F sharp, B, E, A. And point out that the very end is the harmonization. I'm basically teaching them that these are stacked. You're correct. They're stacked fourths. They're not stacked fifths. So they are stacked fourths. I'm going through the circle. When I go D, G, C, F, B flat, E flat, A flat, I'm going through the circle of fourths.

1:05:03 So I just want to teach it to them in that odd way. And then the flat six. C sus major 7. We got another. There's the tritone. It's the same tritone. This is the same. For the flat six, I mean, you could call it a C sus4 major 7. But why don't we just consider it the same tritone, right? So it's the same exact harmonic quality as the other tritone. So we'll call it a G13 again. Whatever's simple. I'm very simple-minded. joEy has a dull brain. Dull mind. Didn't let him in the university.

The Simplest Dominant

1:06:31 So we're going to do the harmonization in dyads. We're going to do the harmonization in triads. We're going to teach them how to make the dominant chords. And then I want to start with the next section, which is observations. The first observation I want to make is just... I want to start playing at this point. So I want to just show them that I just built an F major over E minor chord. Those are both in the scale, right? That's fair.

1:07:41 Color note is C, which is the 11. Okay. You'd call it G11? Or what's the other one that you would call it? The simplest. Give me something crazy. I think we should relabel to the most simple. And I think the most simple is to look at the tritone and then try to find the simplest dominant chord.

1:08:15 And we should do one or both directions, right? And if it happens to be G on both of them, that's fine. I think the color note is a color note. It doesn't matter if it's an 11. It could be a raised 9. It doesn't matter. I just want to show them the dominant. But we want the stronger dominant, unless they're equal.

1:08:49 For number two, the reason I'm starting on D is because it's the very next note after A, which means we can do the whole stack, and it ends the last three notes of the stack. That's why we're doing D. So now we're going to stay with E. Spoke. We're doing... I spoke correctly. D.

F Major Over E and B

1:09:18 Yeah, so then I want to start to show them some dissonance. A little dark, but it's nice. Yeah, so this next section, I want to show them F major, which is belonging to the scale. And I want to show them... I guess E minor is not belonging because the G is not in there.

1:10:21 I tend to put it in, but I don't want to go too far. So I had to scratch that idea. Okay, let's scratch the idea of the F over E minor. I kind of like that, but we don't want to go too far away while we're teaching it. Maybe I should take a break here.

1:10:50 I need some new ideas. I'm kind of leaning on that. I could just drop the G. Yeah, why don't I just drop the G and just play E and A. Sorry, it's E and B. I'm sorry, E and B. Hold on the... It's both hands. Played major. I'm sneaking it in. D. Joseph. Sneaking stuff in. Good though. I'll just say, treat these as color tones.

1:12:06 Yeah, so at this point, I do really need to start playing. So I want to play a little improvisation of F major over the E and A in the left hand. And then I want to sneak in F major. I want to go from G to G and B flat, which is the 2 and 4 of F. And I want to go down to 1 and 3. And I want to sneak a wink at them and say, that's from F major. But you should just treat that as color. I keep wanting to say non-diatonic, even though there's not 7.

1:12:46 Is there better to say that these are accidentals, that they're non-belonging to the scale? So E and A. I'm going to show them some of this stuff. Both hands. Very nice. Sneak. Sneak in F major. E is the root. Like, it's okay to... But E is the root here. Really emphasize it.

1:13:42 Okay, I'll say outside notes, thanks. It's E and B. But you're right, both belong. And then I want to show them F major inversions. Right hand over E and B in the left hand. And then I want to swap hands and do the inversions in the left hand. Now what was I going to do? Very nice. Wonderful. That sounds really good. Hey, rest. Sound nice too, just going down. Oh yeah.

Little Melodies Around the Tonic

1:14:56 And then the next thing I want to show them is that it's okay to do that 2, 4, 1, 3. That 4 to 3 move in F. But don't linger there too long. Because we're treating E as the tonic. That's what I wanted to say. And then the next part that I want to show them is a great way to emphasize the tonic. Is to make little melodies around the flat 6 and the 1. Or the 5 flat 6 and the 1. Just little patterns that are melodic around the tonic, which is E. I think that's important to show them.

1:15:39 I'm going to stop now. I have to be in touch with what's going on. So I wanted to play the non-scale tone. Outside note. I need to learn to call it outside note. Sort of drifting. It'll be wonderful to improvise.

1:16:18 Okay, well I'm going to take a break here. Can you study this entire conversation and please condense the notes into a study plan. And please spin up sub-agents. And every sub-agent can build the charts please. And start building this lesson out on Stream Deck and OBS Studio. I'm going to stop streaming. So go ahead and end this stream. We will keep this as a study. I want you to name it Japanese Melodica. And I want you to put the word Melodica in 10 different languages.

1:17:05 Tag it with the In scale and just other high engagement tags that you think might be helpful. And please end the stream now. Thank you. That's it. Thanks for watching.