Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman, and in this lesson we're going to be learning how to play "Minuet in C" hands together.
Let's take a look at the score to get started.
When you first put a piece hands together, it's important to see how the notes line up with each other.
You can see that the first note you play in the right hand is played at the same time as the first note of the left hand.
And then you can see that the next note your right hand plays is all by itself.
We have eighth notes in the right hand, and quarter notes in the left hand. So we'll basically play two right hand notes for every left-hand
note played. So we have together, then right, together, then right, then together, then right, and that pattern continues.
Let's try it on the piano.
All right, let's find our position. Here's my middle C. Left hand finger 5 down on bass C. Right hand is up here in this treble C area.
Finger 5 on this high G,
and what I like to do when I'm putting something hands together is just a little bit at a time. Let's just take this first measure,
and I like to review the right hand part once
just to kind of refresh my memory, and then I play the left hand part once,
and then I'll try it together really, really super slow motion.
And I'll do that a couple of times.
Maybe gradually speeding it up as I'm comfortable with it
until I feel like I pretty much got it down.
So now what I'd like you to do is press pause and try that first measure on your own.
Try just right hand alone once, left hand alone once to make sure it's fresh in your memory,
and then very slowly hands together, repeat several times until you feel like you've got it, then press play to go on.
Okay, once you have that first measure down,
you're ready to go on to the next measure. So again, maybe just take the right hand alone once,
the left hand alone once,
and then put it together.
Okay, do that several times,
and then you can link it with the first measure.
So now press pause and see if you can get those first two measures hands together.
Then press play to go on.
Now next in measure three, we've got a half note in the left hand.
Remember, a half note is equal for 2 beats, which is also equal to four eighth notes. So the right hand is going to play 1-& 2-&.
We get four notes in the right hand to just this one note in the left hand.
1-& 2-& 3-&, and on beat 3 we've got to drop the octave down to this C.
1-& 2-& 3-&
Okay, now press pause and work out measure three hands together, then press play to go on.
Okay, now let's link measure three to measure four. We have 1-& 2-& 3-&, then our left hand thumb is going to come to G
while the right hand goes 1-& finger 3 has to cross over 2-& 3
and on beat 3, both hands play together quarter note.
So watch that again. 1-& 2-& 3-&, 1-& 2-& 3
Now press pause and try and put measure three together with measure four hands together,
then press play to go on.
Now, let's listen to all of line one hands together. We have:
So now press pause and try putting all of those measures together, then press play to go on.
Now, let's look at measures five and six,
and let's do the right hand alone once.
same as measures one and two, right?
So now let's look at the left hand alone. We have 1 2 3, 1 2 3
Half note followed by a quarter note. So together we get 1 2 3, 1 2 3
Now press pause and try measures five and six hands together, then press play to go on.
Now, let's check out measure seven. First try your right hand alone.
Now you try.
Good, then the left hand alone is C G, then low ground G. C G G Now you try.
Good, then together we get 1 2 3.
Okay, now press pause and work on just that measure
several times until you feel confident, then press play to go on.
Now, let's connect measure seven to measure eight. We have 1 2 3, and then both hands play a C with finger 1
while left hand comes down G with finger 2, C with finger 5. C G C
Connected to measure seven, 1 2 3, then finger 1 plays C in both hands, G C in the left.
Now press pause and work out measures seven and eight hands together on your own, then press play to go on.
Now, that may be a good place for you to stop for today. If you'd like to just go back and review measures one through eight
the first two lines, that could be enough, but if you're ready for a little bit more then let's go on and look at the B section.
Remember, in the B section it's going to feel a lot like the A section, but now we have these F-sharps.
Then here we use a finger 2 on G. The left hand jumps up an octave.
and while the left hand is doing that,
you have to be shifting your right hand back up to the original position for the A section.
So watch that again. Here's measure fifteen. We have:
G move the left hand up, move the right hand up.
You want that to be smooth without a pause.
1 2 3, 1 2 3
Okay, so now press pause and work on the B section hands together,
which starts right here, and then work on that transition back to the D.C. al Fine, bringing you back to the A section.
Press pause to give that some time, and then press play to go on.
Now that you know the whole piece hands together, let's talk about some advanced techniques for making this sound
and look really beautiful and artistic as you play.
When you play music, it's not just about playing the right notes. It's about how you play it.
You want to always sound and look your best.
So let me show you a bad example. Sometimes I hear students play this piece like they're hammering every note.
Like every note was an explosion. Okay, you want your fingers to move gracefully.
Keep them in a great hand position.
Keep your fingers pretty close to the keys, and use the weight of your arm.
As you sink into each key, you can use the weight of your arm to help control how loud or soft you play.
Like when you have a crescendo, you can lean on a little bit more, and when you want to decrescendo,
you can float your wrists up like at the end of that phrase. Watch.
See how floating up there helps me make that nice decrescendo.
I'm decreasing my arm weight there.
Now let's talk about adding some dynamics to each phrase.
It's important to find ways to bring the notes to life.
So, I like to look for little places like here where we have three notes in a row stepping up,
and that's a nice place to add a little crescendo,
even when the crescendos aren't marked in the music, a great musician will find ways to make the notes sound interesting
by adding some things like, oh some notes stepping up, that's a good place to do a little crescendo,
and then here the notes are stepping up again followed by a skip.
That crescendo is already marked in your music, and then as you come to the end of a phrase especially when the notes are stepping down,
that's a great time for a decrescendo.
You want to connect all of these notes like they're part of one big phrase.
Let's listen to what that would sound like on the piano.
Now, listen to how you can make those notes come alive with those crescendos and decrescendos.
See, that's so much more interesting than playing all the notes the same.
So you can hammer out every note like that, but that's no fun to listen to.
You want to find places you can grow and contract or bring the notes back down.
Like the notes were singing to you.
If you check out the dynamic marking at the very beginning, you'll see this forte-mezzo piano, and what that means
is we'll play forte the first time through the A section, and then when you take the repeat, you'll play it mezzo piano the second time through.
Now let's talk about how we can use the metronome to help your practicing.
When you're first putting it hands together, I recommend going at a really slow tempo.
You might try it at say metronome of about 100 beats per minute, with the click being the eighth note.
1-& 2-& 3-& 1-&
When you can play the entire piece with no pauses, no missed notes at that tempo, then gradually speed it up.
Eventually you'll hit around 200,
and that's when you can turn the metronome back to 100, and now make this your quarter note.
So instead of TI-TI TI-TI, it's now TI-TI TI-TI TI-TI
and then you can work from there up to a final performance speed of about 112 beats per minute.
I also recommend, even once you've mastered it hands together, to every once in a while practice it hands alone
to make sure that you're really using great piano posture and that you're shaping the phrase of each hands individual part.
Hands alone practice can be a really powerful practice tool even once you've mastered something hands together.
Let's hear the entire piece with phrasing, dynamics, everything.
Great job today working on "Minuet in C" hands together.
Once you have this mastered at full performance speed and you can play with beautiful posture, beautiful phrasing and artistry,
please make a video of yourself performing it and share it with me online.
Thank you as always for learning with me, and happy practicing!