Bonjour et bienvenue. Je suis Joseph Hoffman.
Aujourd'hui, nous allons apprendre une chanson francaise.
Parlez-vous aussi, le francais?
Oui? Bien.
If you can't understand what I'm saying, it's because today I'm speaking in French.
What other languages can you speak in?
If you like you can let me know what languages you can speak by leaving me a comment below.
Well today as you might have guessed, we're learning how to play a traditional folk song from France.
"Au Clair de la Lune"
Let's learn how to speak the French words of this song.
Try and repeat after me.
That means: By the light of the moon.
Your turn.
That means: My friend Pierrot,
It's a name like Peter.
Now try to say this:
That means: Lend me your pen.
That means: To write a note.
The next line. Try to say this:
That means: My candle has gone out.
I don't have any fire or light.
The next line is:
Open your door.
For goodness' sakes.
Now it's kind of a silly song, so don't try to understand the words too carefully.
Now let's listen to what this folk song sounds like when it's sung.
♫Au clair de la lune Mon ami Pierrot♫
♫Prete-moi ta plume Pour écrire un mot.♫
♫Ma chandelle est morte Je n'ai plus de feu♫
♫Ouvre-moi ta porte Pour l'amour de Dieu.♫
Before we look at the score to "Au Clair de la Lune",
can you help me dictate the rhythm of just the first phrase?
Okay, I'll sing the first phrase without words and you see if you can figure out the rhythm for each beat.
What did you hear in rhythm words?
Try to draw that using your own rhythm cards at home.
Here's the correct answer:
We had TI-TI TI-TI TA TA
Good, now let's figure out the next phrase.
What did you hear in rhythm words?
Here it is again:
See if you can draw that on your own heartbeats.
Here's the correct answer:
We have TI-TI TI-TI TWO-OO
That half note takes up 2 beats at the end.
Now can you point to each beat and say the rhythm words with me? Go.
TI-TI TI-TI TA TA
TI-TI TI-TI TWO-OO
Great!
Now let's try to dictate the melody of the first phrase of "Au Clair de la Lune".
Once again if you have these materials from our website you can try doing this yourself at home with
your melodic dictation staff.
First let's establish where DO is
This song will be in the A-flat major pentascale.
So DO is right here. DO
Can you sing DO RE MI with me? Starting on A-flat.
Ready go: DO RE MI
Now on this phrase it only uses those three notes.
DO RE MI are all we'll have, so that's my clue to you.
Now I'll sing part of it and then see if you can sing it to me in solfège.
Here's the first five notes.
Can you sing that to me in solfège?
Let's try it one more time.
Now sing that in solfège.
Now let's try to draw it on our staff.
The correct answer is
DO DO DO RE MI
And since DO is an A-flat
I'll actually put this flat sign in front of A to make it A-falt.
And then we need a flat in front of the B as well.
So now we have DO DO DO RE MI
Now I'll add one new note and see if you can figure out what the next note does.
Can you figure out the solfège of this next sixth note?
Here it is again.
If you said RE you're correct.
It steps back down.
So we have DO DO DO RE MI RE
Now here are the next two notes.
What would those next two notes be in solfège?
If you said DO MI you're correct.
Now here are the last three notes of this phrase.
what did you hear in solfège?
Here it is again:
The correct answer is RE RE, almost out of room, DO, let's scoot these over.
Good.
So now we have DO MI RE RE DO.
Let's try to sing the whole thing in solfège
starting right here on DO. Can you point with me and sing the solfège?
Ready go: DO DO DO RE MI RE
DO MI RE RE DO
Good job.
Now let's try to play the melody of "Au Clair de la Lune" in the right hand.
First go ahead and place your right hand in the A-flat major pentascale.
Now let's play and sing the solfège stepping up.
Starting on DO, ready go:
DO RE MI FA SO
Good, and as we've already mentioned we only need DO RE and MI for this first phrase.
Now I have a challenge for you.
Instead of showing you how to play this, I want you to figure it out for yourself.
Press pause and use your own sheet music which you can download from our website,
or just look at the notes on your screen
and see if you can play this entire line with no missed notes.
Don't worry if you make a mistake. Just keep trying it slowly and carefully until you get it right.
Once you have the whole line correct with no missed notes, press play again to keep learning.
All right if you played it correctly, it would have sounded like this:
Is that what it sounded like when you played it?
If yes, that's great!
If not, then press pause again and practice some more until you get it.
Now it's time to take a look at the form of "Au Clair de la Lune".
We've already learned line one here.
What can you tell me about line two?
If you look carefully at the notes you'll see each note is identical.
To what we had in line one.
So line one A, and line two we'll also call A.
Since it's an exact repeat.
Now what can you tell me about line three?
That's right the notes here are different so we'll call this line B.
And what about this final phrase?
That's right this phrase matches A, so the form of "Au Clair de la Lune" is A A B A.
Well, since we already know how to play A, let's take a look at this B section.
Can you tell me what note we start on here. Tell me it's a letter name.
If you said B-flat you're correct,
but now let's take a look at the finger number.
Remember, a number over or under a note head tells you which finger to use on that note.
But if we're in the A-flat major pentascale, we would normally play a B-flat with the finger 2.
Here it's saying a finger 5.
That tells us we're going to have to shift our hand position
starting right here in the B section.
So when you finish line two and before you get to line three, you're going to shift
your hand down. Let's come to the piano keys to see how we'll put finger 5 on B-flat.
So we begin the song in the A-flat major pentascale which looks like this:
Then when we go to the B section or line three we've got to move our finger 5 to B-flat.
And that places us in the E-flat major pentascale.
I know it's going to be the E-flat major pentascale, because if you look later on in line three
or the B section you'll see we need an A-flat and an E-flat.
Otherwise I wouldn't know for sure where to put my other fingers, but if you look ahead
you'll see that it's going to be this position.
So let's practice that shift.
Can you place your right hand in the A-flat major pentascale?
This is where you'll be for lines one and two, then on line three shift down to the E-flat major pentascale.
Try the shift.
Good now back again to A-flat major.
We have black, black, white, black, black, and then shift down the E-flat major.
Black, white, white, black, black.
Good now let's take a look at the notes of line three.
Okay let's go through the rest of these notes and see what's happening.
So we start on B-flat, and then can you tell me how the notes move?
What's happening in this measure?
That's right, the notes all repeat. Four B-flats.
Remember, even though you don't see the flat here
the flat's alive all the way through the measure to the bar line.
Now what note do you see here and here?
If you said F you're correct.
We skip down a fourth from B-flat down to F, F,
then it goes back to the B-flat, and then can you tell me how these notes are moving?
That's right they're stepping down through the E-flat major pentascale.
Let's try it on the piano.
Alright, remember for line three we need to be in the E-flat major pentascale,
So go ahead and cover that up with me.
And let's play and name each note
starting on E-flat.
Ready, go:
E-flat F G A-flat B-flat
Remember the pattern is: black, white, white, black, black.
Good now that we're in that position let's try to play line three.
I'll do it first and then you echo it back.
We start off with: ♫Ma chandelle est morte♫ Your turn.
Good, now we step down through each note of the pentascale
♫Je n'ai plus de feu♫ Your turn.
Good, now press pause to practice the entire line by yourself. Press play when you're ready to go on.
Now I'm going to demonstrate the entire song "Au Clair de la Lune".
From the beginning to the end. You're welcome to try playing along with me if you feel ready,
or you can just listen. It's up to you.
1 2 ready, go.
♫Au clair de la lune Mon ami Pierrot♫
♫Prete-moi ta plume Pour écrire un mot.♫
♫Ma chandelle est morte Je n'ai plus de feu♫
♫Ouvre-moi ta porte Pour l'amour de Dieu.♫
As my high school French teacher used to say, Beau travail, mes petit pois.
That means great work my little peas.
You know like little green peas?
Yeah she called us peas.
She meant it in a nice way because she thought peas were cute.
Well, I hope you enjoyed playing and singing "Au Clair de la Lune".
Now you speak a little Français.
Hey let's learn two more phrases today.
Thank you is merci.
Now you try: merci.
Good.
And see you next time is a la prochaine.
Can you say that?
a la prochaine.
Good.
Alors, merci, et a la prochaine.
Au revoir!
♫Au clair de la lune♫
♫Mon ami Pierrot♫
♫Prete-moi ta plume♫
Quoi?
Huh?
Who are you?
I am Le Chef francais, the French chef, and who are you?
Well, I'm just Chef, I guess the American Chef.
Ah, Le Chef Americain. Then you must be my cousin!
Cousin!
Why, we haven't seen each other since we were the little peas!
Ah, you mean petit pois?
Oh, you speak the French?
Yes, oui.
Oh tres bien, tres bien. Come cousin, we must go cook something together and remember the old times.
Yeah like that time you squirted glue in grandma's cake batter.
Oh yes, I thought it was frosting!
It was a rather sticky cake.