From the live class

One, two, three, four, five: the pattern that hands you chords

Almost every beginner has played the five-finger exercise. Almost none have been shown what is hiding inside it.

Put your thumb down and play five notes in a row: one, two, three, four, five. Move up, do it again. Keep going as far as you like, then walk back down. That is the whole exercise, and if you have had a single piano lesson in your life you have probably done it.

Now keep the same hand position and play only the first, third and fifth notes — all together, at once.

That is not a coincidence or a trick of that one position. Move the pattern up and do it again: one, two, three, four, five, keep the one, the three and the five — another chord. Move up again. Another. You can walk that all the way up the piano, and every single time it hands you a chord.

Then you number them

Once you have that row of chords, Stephen numbers them — one, two, three, four, five — and that is where it turns into music. Put the numbers in an order and you have a progression. Play one, one, two, three, four, four, three, two and you are no longer doing an exercise; you are playing something.

Notice what has not happened. Nobody has asked you to read notation, name a key signature, or learn what makes a chord major or minor. You are counting to five with your fingers and keeping three of them.

This is the pattern worth taking to your piano tonight. Not to master — just to hear that the chord was sitting inside an exercise you already knew.