Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman
and today we're learning how to play the right hand part for "Spinning Song",
which just may be our first song to learn without lyrics.
That's right, there are no words.
Almost all of the songs I've taught you so far started out as folk songs:
songs music that was originally meant to be sung.
But I've just taken those songs and arranged them for the piano.
"Spinning Song" on the other hand was composed not as something to be sung,
but specifically to be played on the piano.
So it's an original piano piece by composer Ferdinand Bever.
Let's get started learning "Spinning Song" by coming to the staff.
To learn "Spinning Song", it's going to be helpful to learn a couple of new guide notes.
Remember, a guide note is a note I want you to know so well
the instant you see it you basically recognize it
and know where it is. It's a good reference to learn any other note,
or to figure out any other note.
Now, I've placed a ledger line here for
can you tell me what note this is?
Because this is a guide note, you probably know right away that's middle C.
Now you also know, I hope by now
instantly what note do you have there?
That's right this is a treble G. We know because it's on the G line.
And what note do you see here?
Bass F
On my piano, here's my middle C.
Here's that treble G, and below you'll find my base F.
Now for "Spinning Song" we're going to extend up the staff so let's find another guide note up here.
You know that this is middle C here's treble G.
Let's keep going up from there we have G.
A on the space, B on the line.
C
So this is middle C, but then we have a treble C up here.
Let me just take away this treble G to get out of the way
so you can easily see that there are one, two, three spaces up to get to this treble C.
Now, it so happens that in the bass clef if you go F,
step down to E, step down to D,
step down to C.
The same pattern holds true for the bass clef.
If you count one, two, three spaces down, you'll also get to a C.
See how these are kind of a mirror image of each other?
'C' how they are a mirror image.. ha, ha
Now, let's find those on the piano.
So here are those same three C's on my piano. We've got middle C in the middle of course.
And treble C one octave up, and bass C one octave down.
Okay, let's play a little game.
It's a C hunt. We're going hunting for C's.
Can you find and point on your screen to all of the treble C's?
Remember, to find treble C just count up three spaces in the treble clef.
If you're pointing here, here, or here you're correct.
Now, can you find all of the bass C's?
Remember, count three spaces down.
If you're pointing here or here you're correct. These are both bass C.
Now, how about all of the middle C's?
Those would be here, here, and here.
Now, let's take look at the five notes that we're going to be using for the right hand part of "Spinning Song".
Can you tell me the name of this first note?
If you said treble C you're correct.
So if this is C, can you also tell me the letter names of these four notes? Try it.
Here's C, now you go ahead.
If you said C D E F G, you're correct.
This is the C major pentascale,
but it's starting on treble C instead of middle C.
Here's the sheet music for "Spinning Song",
which remember you can download from our website as part of the materials for this unit.
Let's check out what's going on here.
We've got our treble and bass clef for a grand staff. What's our time signature?
It's 4/4, and that top number 4 remember will tell us how many beats per measure.
Now, let's check out the right hand part which is what we're learning today.
What's happeneing here?
Can you describe the motion of the notes?
You'll see that the notes are starting here on treble C, our guide note,
and then stepping up, C D E F G, then stepping back down to C,
then stepping back up to G, then stepping back down
to C, then stepping back up to G, then stepping back down to C,
and then finally we get some other stuff happening here.
And that constant stepping up and down and up and down is what creates the spinning feel of this song.
So can you try singing the first two measures with me in solfège?
It will start on DO, ready, point and sing, go:
DO RE MI FA SO FA MI RE
Good, and then that just keeps repeating. Now let's try singing the letter names.
It starts on C. Ready, go:
C D E F G F E D
and then it keeps repeating. Pretty simple.
Now we see that that pattern of stepping up and down
repeats again here, repeats again here once on line two,
and then here we see something different, so let's figure out what's going on.
Can you tell me the letter name of this note?
If you said C you're correct!
Remember, three spaces up is treble C.
Then from here to here, how far of an interval is this?
It's a fifth, and the way I could tell that is it went from a space
and it skipped this space to another space, and a double skip like that is a fifth.
The distance of five notes. DO to SO
So we have a fifth right there. Let's write fifth.
And then what interval from here to here?
If you said fourth you're correct.
You could see it didn't quite make it back down to treble C .
It's just one step above C.
Making that a fourth down. So we have DO SO RE
and then what interval from here to here?
It's a step, which in interval language would be a second.
RE MI, and then what do you see here?
That's right, it's a third down,
which is what we used to call a skip, but now that we know about intervals,
we can say up a fifth, down a fourth, up a second, down a third.
Now, since this looks like the hardest part of the right hand part,
let's learn this first on the piano, and then we'll try the rest.
So, since this is my middle C, remember we're up here in the treble C position.
So, place your finger 1 on treble C,
and remember we said that first interval is a fifth.
So let's try that. We go C, up to G. Now you try.
Good. Now let's add one note.
So we have up a fifth, then down a fourth.
Now you try.
Good, now let's add one more note. So we have:
C G D, then up a step.
Now you try.
Good, now let's go all the way to the end. So we have C, up a fifth, down a fourth, up a second, down a third.
Or C G D E C
Now, press pause and practice those five notes,
thinking carefully about the intervals.
Let's do that five or six times. Get really comfortable with that, and then press play to go on.
Great, now that you've got those hardest two measures knocked out the rest of the song should feel easy.
Let's come back to the beginning.
We've got our finger 1 on treble C,
and let's count the beat out loud.
Again, I chose this song, it's a little bit on the easy side so we can practice our counting the beat.
These are all quarter notes, so basically you're going to play one note per beat, like this:
1 2 3 4
Now let's try it together.
You should have your finger 1 on treble C.
Let's count the beat and play the notes.
1 2 ready, go:
1 2 3 4
Great.
Now, while we're at it, let's also check in with our piano posture.
Make sure that your fingers always have a nice curved shape,
and that your pinky isn't playing flat, but near the tip.
As your notes step up, you can make it sound beautiful by maybe doing a slight crescendo.
Where you get a little bit louder as you go up,
and then get a little bit softer as you come back down.
Now, press pause and practice counting the beat out loud while you play each note.
Also, check in with your piano posture. Make sure your wrist is staying flexible.
That your fingers are in the proper shape.
Always play your very best so you can build good habits of piano playing.
Try this on your own a couple of times, then press play to go on
Now, in addition to the challenge of counting the beat out loud while you play,
I'd also like to challenge you to try using the metronome while you practice this song.
That will help you keep a nice steady beat,
and just learn that skill, that important skill of practicing with the metronome.
I'm going to start with my metronome at 108. So it will sound about like this:
Now, if that's not a comfortable speed for you, you could start it a little slower maybe at 88.
Gradually build up to about 108, or if you want to try to a tiny bit faster maybe up to 116.
Another challenge I have for you is to try singing the letter names or the solfège as you play.
DO RE MI FA SO FA or C D E F G
Use this song as a way to build skills.
As I play this song, I like to imagine
the arms of a windmill
gently, gracefully turning around.
So it's not like supposed to be like a really fast song.
I resist the urge to play this song too fast. It should have a nice, peaceful, happy spinning sound.
Excellent work learning about our guide notes treble C and bass C,
and learning how to play the right hand part for "Spinning Song".
Happy practicing, and see you next time!
C D E F G F E D C D E F G F E D C
eh, dizzy...