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Hi, I’m Stephanie from Tomato’s House of Rock and I’m going to show you how to play minor 7th chords. To find a minor 7th chord, there’s going to be one formula and once you know that formula, you should be able to find it in any key. So what we need for a minor 7th is first just a minor triad down below.

So let’s start in A, because it’s all white keys. It’s nice and easy to see. So we’ll have one, three, five. There’s our minor, A-C and E. Then for the 7th of a minor, we’re going to find that 7th by going up an octave to the A on top and then coming down a whole step. So we don’t want to come down a half step, which would be part of actually the A major scale.

To keep it in that minor sound we have to really come down the full whole step. So we’ll have A-C-E and G, which is also the one, the minor three the five and then flatted seven. So there’s a minor 7th chord, just to hear the sound one more time. There is is. Let’s try the formula somewhere else just, so you can see what it looks like.

Let’s try something a little bit more interesting. Let’s try an F minor. So I’m going to use the same formula. I’m going to find my minor triad. So there it is, just an F, an A flat and a C, which would be the one, the minor or the flatted three and the five. Now I’m going to find my seven by going up an octave from that F and then down a full whole step, which in this case it’s going to be the E flat. So let’s hear what that all sounds like together.

I really like the minor 7th. It’s got a really cool tone to it. It’s actually surprisingly pretty considering how dark it is. So once you’ve got that, then we can start to mess around with the order, now that we know the formula. So try to get really comfortable with the actual notes that make up the minor 7th chord. So for instance if we stay in F right now, I know I’ve got an F, an A flat, a C and an E flat.

Now I’m just going to try it in a different position. So maybe I’m going to put this F up on top. So that means that I would start with the A flat on the bottom. Now I’ve got minor three, five, flat seven and the one’s up on top. So it just creates a little bit of a different sound and it gives you a little bit more movement, depending on what chords you’re coming from and what chords you’re going to.

You can keep doing this. You can keep reordering. So maybe next we’re going to go up to – now we’ll start on the five, which is the C, so we’ll go. So now I’ve got five, seven, one and now our minor three and flat three is on top. These can also just be a lot more comfortable in your hand if you change the order of the notes.

Because sometimes if we have it in root position, it can feel a little bit of a stretch. Yeah, so just try to get comfortable with the makeup of your minor 7th chords, and then find which inversion’s feel like they’re best for you. That’s how you play a minor 7th chord.

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Hi. I’m Stephanie Sanders from Tomato’s House of Rock. I’ve been playing piano since I was about 5 years old and I studied jazz piano at the New School in New York City. From that point on, I’ve been playing gigs in and around New York City, up and down the East Coast, also doing a lot of teaching, doing it all around Brooklyn, all around Manhattan, private lessons and also at the school Tomato’s House of Rock. At Tomato’s House of Rock, I run 2 programs right now. One is a Gem program and the other is an All Indie program; and those are both for middle school, high school age students.

I love music, I love playing music, I love listening to it and I really love teaching it. I’ve worked with really talented kids and adults and I find it really inspiring to see somebody start with nothing and start with the idea that they really can’t do much and really turn that around into something that feels really liberating and exciting to them. It’s really fun for me to see the progression happen and to see the joy that I can give them through music. If you’d like to know more about the classes that I teach privately or group at House of Rock, you can contact us at tomatoshouseofrock.com

Transcript

Hi, this is Stephanie from Tomato’s House of Rock and I’m going to show you how to play an A flat major pentatonic scale.

From our A flat major scale, the scale tones that we’re going to pull out are going to be the 1, the 2, the 3, the 5, and the 6, and we’ll put the A flat of the octave on top as well. In the key of A flat those notes are actually going to be A flat, B flat, C, E flat, F and A flat back on top again.

A good fingering for this is actually you’re going to start with your 2 on the A flat, that’s going to give us a nice place to cross the thumb under so we’re going to do 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 5 for the A flat. Coming back down we’re going to have 5, 3, 2, 1, 3 crossed to B flat, 3, 2. And that’s how you play an A flat major pentatonic scale.

Transcript

Hi, this is Stephanie from Tomatoes House of Rock and I’m going to show you how to play an A flat minor pentatonic scale. So, in the A flat minor scale the tones that we’re going to want to pull out are going to be the 1, the 3, the 4, the 5 and the 7 and again, because it’s a minor scale our 3 and our 7 are flatted. Now a good fingering for this is going to be 1, 2, 3, thumb crosses to the E flat, 1, 2, 3. Coming back down that’s going to be 3, 2, 1, 3 crosses to the D flat, 3, 2, 1 and you’re back. That’s how you play an A flat minor pentatonic scale.

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Hi, I’m Stephanie from Tomato’s House of Rock and I’m going to show you how to play a G major pentatonic scale.

So, in the key of G major, the scale tones that we’re going to want to pull out is going to the be 1, the 2, the 3, the 5, and the 6; and those are our 5 notes, that’s the pentatonic scale but we’re going to add the G back on top just to give it the full octave. So, those notes on a G major scale are going to be G, A, B, D, E and G on top again. Again, all white keys so fingering is going to be easy; we’re just going to do 1, 2, 3, thumb under to D, and then just 2, 3. Or, you may prefer to use 2, 4; whatever feels more comfortable. We do the same thing coming down so 4, 2, 1, 3 crosses to B, 3, 2, 1. And that’s how you play a G major pentatonic scale

Transcript

Hi, this is Stephanie from Tomato’s House of Rock and I’m going to show you how to play a G minor pentatonic scale. For a G minor, coming from the scale of just a pure G minor, the notes you’re going to want to pull out for a minor pentatonic is going to be the 1, the 3, the 4, the 5, and the 7; which in the key of G minor work out to be G, B, B, C, D, and F. An easy fingering for that is going to be 1, 2, 3, thumb under to D, and then you can do 3, 4 is actually the most comfortable. Coming down, it’s just going to be 4, 3, 1, 3 crosses to C, 3, 2, 1. That’s how you play G minor pentatonic scale.

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Hi, this is Stephanie from Tomato’s House of rock and I’m going to show you how to play an F sharp major pentatonic scale.

F sharp major pentatonic is pretty fun because it’s going to be all black keys. From the major scale, we’re going to pull out the scale tones 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and the 1 back on top again. In the key of F sharp those notes are going to be F sharp, G sharp, A sharp, C sharp, D sharp and F sharp again on top. Good fingering for this one is just going to be 1, 2, 3 thumb under the C sharp, 1, 2, 3.

We’ll do the same thing coming back down; we’re going to have 3, 2, 1, 3 crosses over, 3, 2, 1. It may feel funny at first when you’re playing all black keys if you’re not used to them but I think soon they’ll become some of your favorites, just like they’re mine. That’s how you play an F sharp major pentatonic scale.

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Hi, this is Stephanie from Tomato’s House of Rock, and I’m going to show you how to play an F-sharp minor pentatonic scale. For an F-sharp minor pentatonic, coming from the F-sharp minor scale, the tones that we want to pull out are going to be the one, the three, the four, the five, and the seven. Because it’s a minor scale, it’s a flat at three and a flat at seven. And those notes work out in the F-sharp minor scale to be F sharp, A, B, C sharp, E, and F sharp. To finger this one, you should actually start with your second finger, which is a little bit different. So we’re going to go two, three, thumb to B, and then we’ve just got two, three, fourth finger on that octave. So, the same thing coming down. We’ve got four, three, two, one, three crosses, three, two. That’s it. That’s how you play an F-sharp minor pentatonic scale.

Transcript

Hi, this is Stephanie from Tomatoes House of Rock, and I’m going to show you how to play an F major pentatonic scale.

For and F major pentatonic scale the formula is going to be 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 and we’ll put the 1 on top again. In the key of F those notes are going to work out to be F, G, A, c, D, F and F. And a nice easy fingering for this one, being that it’s all white keys, we’re going to do just 1, 2, 3 thumb under to C, 1, 2 and let’s use the 4 on top, it’s pretty comfortable, it should be what’s right underneath your finger that way. So, coming down we’re going to have 4, 2, 1,3 crosses to A, 3, 2, 1 and you’re back. That’s how you play an F major pentatonic scale.

Transcript

HI. This is Stephanie from Tomato’s House of Rock, and I’m going to show you how to play an F minor pentatonic scale. So, when you’re in the key of F minor, the scale tones that we want for a minor pentatonic are going to be the 1, the 3, the 4, the 5, and the 7. An F minor, those notes work out to be F, A, B, B, B, C, and E, B. A good fingering for this scale is going to be 1, 2, 3, thumb under to C, and then 2, 3. Coming down, we’re going to do the same thing, so we’ll have 3, 2, 1, 3 crosses to the Bb, 3,2,1. That’s how you play an F minor pentatonic scale.

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Hi, this is Stephanie from Tomato’s House of Rock and I’m going to show you how to play and E-major pentatonic scale. For the pentatonic major scale, we’re going to pull tones from the E, just regular major scale.

Those tones that we need for the formula of the pentatonic scale is going to be the one, the two, the three, the five, the six and the one back on top again. In the key of E-major, those notes are going to be E, F sharp, G sharp, B, C sharp and E. An easy fingering for this one is just going to be one, two, three, thumbs going to cross under to be and then 2, 3 up to the top. We’ll do the same thing coming down, so we’ll have three, two, one, three crosses to G sharp, three, two, one. That’s how you play an E major pentatonic scale.

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Hi this is Stephanie from Tomato’s House of Rock and I’m going to show you how to play an E minor pentatonic scale.This is a great one, it’s all white keys and if you’re playing with guitar players, they love to play in the key of E, so this is going to be a great one to try out with them. From the minor scale, the notes that we want to pull out, or the tones from the scale, it’s going to be the 1, the 3, the 4, the 5, the 7 and the 1.So, in the key of E minor those scale tones, their key names would be E, G, A, B, D and E. A nice easy fingering for that is just going to be 1, 2, 3, thumb under to the B, and then just 2, 3 on top. We’ll do the same thing coming down; we’re going to do 3, 2, 1, 3 crosses to A, 3, 2, 1. And that’s how you play an E minor pentatonic scale.

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Hi, this is Stephanie, from Tomato’s House of Rock, and I’m going to show you how to play an E flat major pentatonic scale. So, in an E flat major scale, the notes you’re going to want to pull out for a major pentatonic, is going to be the one, the two, the three, the five, the six, and the octave, which is the E flat back on top again. So that can also be the E flat, the F, the G, the B flat, and the E flat. Those will be our one, two, three, five, six, and octave. And a good fingering for this is just going to be two, three, thumb to G, and then two, three, five for the E flat on top. And we can do the same thing coming down again. So we’re just going to have five, three, two, one, three crosses, three, two. You’re there; and that’s how you play an E flat major pentatonic scale.

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Hi, this is Stephanie from Tomato’s House of Rock, and I’m going to show you how to play an E-flat minor pentatonic scale. This is a really fun one, because it’s actually all black keys. So from the minor scale we’re going to want the one, the three, the four, the five, the flat seven; because it’s minor, and the E-flat, the octave back on top again. So those notes are going to work out to E-flat, G-flat, A-flat, B-flat, D-flat, and E-flat on top again.

What we’re going to do for the fingering is just one, two, three, thumb under to B-flat, and then just two, three on top. Coming down it’s going to be three, two, one, three crosses to the A-flat, three, two, one. And that’s how you play an E-flat minor pentatonic scale.

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Hi this is Stephanie from Tomato’s House of Rock and I’m going to show you how to play a D major pentatonic scale. In the key of G we’re going to want the 1, the 2, the 3, the 5 and the 6, those are the tones that are going to make up our major pentatonic scale. In the key of D we’re going to have D, E, F sharp, A, B and we’ll put D on top, just to have the full octave. So this one is pretty easy to finger, just a nice comfortable one, we’re just going to do 1, 2, 3, thumb crosses under to A and then just 2, 3 on top. Sometimes it’s nice, if it’s more comfortable, you can play 2, 4, whatever feels like it’s within reach right there. Coming back down again we might have 4, 2, 1, 3 crosses over to F sharp, 3, 2, 1. And that’s how you play a D major pentatonic scale.

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Hi. This is Stephanie from Tomato’s House of Rock, and I’m going to show you how to play a d minor pentatonic scale. For a d minor pentatonic scale, the scales tones that we’re going to need are is the one, three, four, five, and the seven, which is a flatted seven because it’s a minor. So in the key of d minor, those notes are going to be d, f, g, a, c, and a d back on top again.

This is a really fun one just to get under your fingers. It feels really easy. It’s one of my favorites. So all we’re going to do for this one, all white keys, is: one, two, three, thumb under to a, and then just two, three on top, right underneath your fingers. Coming down, it’s going to be the same thing; three, two, one, three, two, one.

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Hi, I’m Stephanie from Tomato’s House of Rock and I’m going to show you how to play a C sharp major pentatonic scale. This is a pretty fun one because when we pull the tones out of the C sharp major scale, we’ve got mostly black keys. We’re going to need the 1, we’re going to need the 2, and we’re going to need the 3, 5, 6 and then 1 back on top again so really the only white key is going to be this F.

So this is the place that we’re going to use our thumb for the crossover which means we’re actually going to start with our 2 on the C sharp. So, we’ll have 2, 3, thumb to F, 2, 3 on the G sharp and the A sharp and then pinkie back up on that C sharp again. Then we’ll come down the same way so we’re just going to have 5, 3, 2, 1. 3 crosses over, 3, 2, you’re back. And that’s how you play a C sharp major pentatonic scale.

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Hi, this is Stephanie from Tomato’s House of Rock and I’m going to show you how to play a C sharp minor pentatonic scale. So in the key of C sharp minor, we need to find the scale tones one, three, four, five, seven which is a flattened seven when it’s minor, and we’ll put the one on top as well so we have the full pattern there.

So in the key of C sharp, those notes are C sharp, E, F sharp, G sharp, B and C sharp. So, now let’s find a comfortable fingering for this one. It’s a little bit tricky, but what we’re actually going to do is a fourth finger crossover. Which takes a little bit of times to get used to but once you’ve got in your fingers it really allows you to flow and it’ll be useful for a lot of the other scales that you’ll be practicing.

So, for this we’re going to go one, two, three, four, thumb crosses under the fourth finger to B and then we’ve just got one, two on top. So, coming back down again, we’re going to have two, one, four crosses over, four, three, two, one and that’s how you play a C sharp minor pentatonic scale.

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Hi, this is Stephanie, from Tomato’s House of Rock and I’m going to show you how to play a B Major Pentatonic Scale. So in the key of B Major, we’re going to want the one, the two, the three, the five, and the six to make up our Major Pentatonic Scale. So in B Major that’s going to be a B, a C sharp, a D sharp, an F sharp, a G sharp, and then the B back on top again. As is always true in the Key of B, the fingering can always feel a bit funny. That’s also true with the Major Pentatonic. So what we’re going to have to do here is cross where your thumb is actually going up to the F sharp, which is going to feel a little awkward at first, but you’ll get use to it if you just keep doing it over and over slowly. So here is the fingering as you can see broken down. We’ve got 1, 2, 3, thumb under to the F sharp, 2, 3, and coming back down is going to be the same thing. So it’s going to be 3, 2, 1, cross, 3, 2, 1; and that’s how you play a B Major Pentatonic Scale.

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Hi, I’m Stephanie from Tomato’s House of Rock and I’m going to show you how to play a B minor pentatonic scale. So, in the key of B minor we’re going to want the 1, the 3, the 4, the 5 and the 7 which is a flatted 7 here so it’s going to be our A. In B minor all of our notes together, we’re going to have B, D, E, F sharp, A and a B back on top again. So, the best fingering for this one actually has you starting with your 2 on B, it’s just going to allow the easiest movement. So, we’re actually going to go 2, 3, thumb crosses under to E, and then 2, 3, 4. Then we’ll do the same thing coming down, we’re going to have 4, 3, 2, 1, 3 crosses 3, 2. And that’s how you play a B minor pentatonic scale.

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Hi, this is Stephanie from Tomato’s House of Rock, and I’m going to show you how to play a B-flat major pentatonic scale. So, for our B-flat major pentatonic, from our B-flat major scale we’re going to want the one, the two, the three, the five, the six, and then the one back on top again. So, in a B-flat scale, that’s going to be B flat, C, D, F, G, and B flat back up on top again.

So those are all of our notes. The fingering for this one, because we’re dealing with the B flat, is going to be a little different. We’re going to start with two on B flat, so we’re going to go, two, three, thumb under to D, two, three, five on B flat again. So, slowly. Same thing coming back down again too. So, always thumb on the D. And that’s how you play a B-flat major pentatonic scale.

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Hi, I’m Stephanie from Tomato’s House of Rock and I’m going to show you how to play a B flat minor pentatonic scale. In the key of B flat minor the notes that we’re going to pull out, we’re going to need the 1, the 3, the 4, the 5, and the 7; which is a flatted 7 in a minor scale. That’s going to work out to B flat, D flat, E flat, F, A flat and B flat. This one is a lot of black keys so the fingering, whenever that comes up, if you do have a white key oftentimes, that’s where you’re going to want to do your crossover because it kind of gives you a comfortable place to do that. A good fingering choice for this one would be 1, 2, 3, thumb under to F, and then just 2, 3, back to that B flat again. Coming down again we’re going to have 3, 2, 1 crossover, 3, 2, 1 and that’s how you play a B flat minor pentatonic scale.

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Hi, I’m Stephanie from Tomato’s House of Rock and I’m going to show you how to play an A Major pentatonic scale. So to find the notes from pentatonic scale, we’re just going to use the major scale and pull out the specific tones from that. The combination for a major pentatonic scale is going to be the 1, the 2, the 3, the 5 and the 6. So if we’re in the key of A Major, that’s going to be A, B, C sharp, E, F sharp, and A. And that’s actually a good fingering to use right there, so you’re just going to bring your thumb under to the E, cross over there and you’ve got a full octive. So, slowly it would be; and then a little faster we just have; and that’s how you play a A Major pentatonic scale.

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Hi this is Stephanie from Tomato’s House of Rock and I’m going to show you how to play the A minor pentatonic scale.This is a nice easy one; it’s all white keys because it’s actually the relative minor to C major which means C major, all white keys, A minor is going to have all white keys. So, from our minor scale which, like I said, would be all white keys going from one A up to the next, for a minor pentatonic scale the formula that we want is the 1, the 3, the 4, the 5, and the 7; which is a flatted 7. So, in this scale it’s going to be A, C, D, E, G and of course A. Now a convenient fingering for that would just be 1, 2, 3, thumb under to E, and then 2, 3 on G and A. We can use the same thing coming back down again, that’s just going to be, A, G. And that’s how you play an A minor pentatonic scale.