Hello, and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman. Today we are going to learn a song called
Listen for Bells. But first, a true story for you. Many centuries ago in Europe, before
people had watches, or clocks, or iphones to tell time, there would often be near the
center of town a church with a steeple. A steeple is just a pointy tower on a church,
and that steeple would have bells that would ring to tell everyone in town what time it
was. If it was three o'clock you would hear three bongs of the bells. Or six o'clock,
six bongs. So as I play Listen for Bells for you, try and imagine that you're living in
a little town with a church, hundreds of years ago, trying to tell what time it is.
Listen for bells in the steeple to ring. Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding.
All right, let's learn how to play listen for bells. First we need to know if the song starts
low or high. I'll sing the first few notes, and I want you to tell me if the notes are
low or high. Here goes. Buh buh buh buh buh buh. Was the first note low or high? That's
right, it had three notes down low, can you show me with your hands? Let's do it together.
Sing it with me. Buh buh buh buh buh buh. Then what do you hear next? Buh buh buh. The
next three notes go up high. Let's try it together. Buh buh buh. Good listening. Now
let's skip to the end of the song, see if you can show me with your hands how these
last four notes are moving. The last for notes are buh buh buh buh. Show me with your hands
what the notes did. If you did this, buh buh buh buh, you're correct. Now let's sing the
whole song together, and pretend that we have bells in our hands. And we'll ring the bells
low for the low notes and high for the high notes. There will actually be some notes in
the middle too, right here. Okay, here we go. Sing along with me, and ring your bells,
low or high. Ready go, listen for bells in the steeple to ring, ding ding ding ding ding
ding ding ding ding ding. Great, let's sing it one more time, this time with solfege and
hand signs. This song uses skipping notes just like frog in the middle. We only need
DO MI and SO. So let's try singing it together with solfege and hand signs. We start on DO.
Ready, go. DO DO DO SO SO SO DO DO DO SO SO MI DO SO MI DO SO SO SO DO. Okay, please hold
up your right hand like me. Remember for Listen for Bells we're only using DO MI and SO. Can
you wiggle your finger that plays DO. If you wiggled your finger number one, you're correct.
We have DO, then MI here on finger three, and then SO will be here on finger five. I'll
sing a pattern by myself, then you sing it back to me and move your fingers. My turn
first. DO DO DO SO SO SO. Your turn. Good. My turn again. DO DO DO SO. Your turn to sing
and move your fingers. Good. You'll notice so far we're just going back and forth between
DO and SO. But now we get to a part where we're going to be skipping down like this.
SO MI DO SO MI DO. Your turn. Good. So we do that pattern of skipping down twice. SO
MI DO SO MI DO. Then it ends with three high SO's in a row. SO SO SO DO. Finishing with
one last DO. Now your turn to try it. Go. Good. Now let's come to the piano keys and
try it on the piano. We're going to learn Listen for Bells in the D Major pentascale.
So DO will be on D. MI will be on this F sharp played by finger three. SO will be up here
on A played by finger five. We won't need a RE or a FA for this song, but those fingers
will still just hang out. So here's DO, MI, and SO. Lets place your right hand in the
D Major pentascale. I'll play a part of the song first, then you play it back. My turn
first. DO DO DO SO SO SO. Your turn. Good, my turn again. DO DO DO SO. Sing and play,
go. Good, my turn again. SO MI DO SO MI DO. Your turn. Good. SO SO SO DO. Your turn. Good,
now let's try the whole song with words. If you're ready to try it with me, you can,
but if you want to just watch once, that's fine too. We're going to try it with the lyrics
now, play and sing. Ready, go. Listen for bells in the steeple to ring. Ding Ding Ding
Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding. Since this song uses finger five a lot, I'd like
you to notice how finger five is supposed to play. Please don't play with a flat pinky
like this, because that collapses the whole hand. You want the pinky to play near its
tip. Like this. And your pinky, if it feels like a weak finger, you can use the weight
of your hand, and kind of the bounciness of your wrist to help that note go down. Like
this. Listen for bells in the. Another thing I'd like you to remember about this song,
is that there's one note you hold extra long. It's the word ring. You probably noticed it
already, but you hold it for three counts, like this. Steeple to one two three. So instead
of ring you can think one two three because it's a long note. Now I'd like you to press
pause and practice Listen for Bells on your own. Several times, singing the words as you
play. When you're ready, press play again and we'll try it together.
Okay, let's try playing Listen for Bells together. You're going to just worry about the right hand in
the D Major pentascale. I'll play along with you here, but my left hand will add some interesting
notes which we call an accompaniment, which will make it sound a little cooler. Okay,
ready, set, go. Listen for bells in the steeple to ring, ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding.
Great job learning to play Listen for Bells. I'd like to to practice this song along with all the other songs you
know, and your finger power, hand over hand exercises every day. You can try Listen for
Bells in your right hand and your left hand. You can also try transposing it to the key
of C. That means DO would be on C, MI on E, and SO on G. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time.
Listen for bells in the steeple to ring. Oink, cheep, moo, oink, cheep,
moo, oink, oink, oink, moo. [APPLAUSE]