Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman. Today we are learning how to play the left hand of "Black Snake".
Let's get started by taking a look at the score.
Let's analyze the left hand part.
It looks like we start with a chord.
We've got these notes stacked together which tells me we play them all together. Can you tell me the letter name of this bottom note?
If you said D you're correct, and then what's this middle note?
You can see that we skip up to the next line which would be F, but there's a sharp symbol in front of it.
It's important to notice, what does this sharp line up with?
You look through the line that goes through the center of the sharp and it's lined up with this note head. So you know the sharp belongs with the F.
We have a D, F-sharp, and on top, what letter on top?
If you said A, you're correct.
And since we're in the key of D major, that's our I chord. DO MI SO Let's try to play it on the piano.
Okay let's place our left hand in the D major pentascale,
and we're going to play the I chord using DO MI and SO
two times and you'll notice it's marked staccato. So remember to give a nice lift with your wrist.
Two I chords, one, two. Now you try.
Great, let's come back to the sheet music.
Now let's go through our score and hunt for all the I chords,
and in your own music at home I'd like you to mark maybe choose a color, and I'm using
green, and
mark all of the I chords. This one doesn't have the F-sharp. Remember, when we're in the same measure that sharp
continues on so this F is also sharp, so here's another I chord.
Looking down line one can you find any other I chords?
Point to them.
If you're pointing over here you're correct. So in your own music, mark these with a roman numeral I.
Which is a capital I.
That's how the Romans wrote the number one. And now on line two can you find any more I chords?
If you're pointing here and here, you're correct. So let's mark those as well. Pause the music if you need to,
sorry, pause the video if you need some time to mark these in your own music.
Otherwise let's go on and check out this next chord.
Now, what I like to do when I have two chords in a row and the next chord is different, I look at
how each individual note moves. Like I may notice that this bottom note
stays the same as I go from this chord to this chord, and that's a useful clue. So I know that that D didn't change,
but then I see that this middle note, the F-sharp steps up, and this top note the A also steps up. So what does that give us?
See how those top two notes step up, the bottom notes stayed the same. So that's the I chord, and we go to the IV chord.
Let's try to play that chord progression on the piano.
All right, make sure you still have your left hand in the D major pentascale.
For the IV chord, we're going to need these three notes. Remember the F-sharp and the G,
sorry the F-sharp and the A stepped up to G and B.
How we'll do that is we'll use finger 2 to play G, and our finger 1 will slide over to B.
Like this, so we'll have two I chords, then thumb finger 1 slides up and then two IV chords.
Now can you try playing two IV chords with a nice staccato wrist lift? You try.
Good, now let's put two I chords together with two IV chords. So we'll have I, I, IV, IV. Now you try.
Good, now let's come back to the score.
Okay, now I'm taking a different color and you can do this yourself at home,
and I'm going to mark where all of the IV chords are, and remember the Romans had a special way of writing numbers.
They used IV and they like to put these
funny lines over and under their letters. I guess they thought it made it look fancy. So this is a Roman numeral IV.
IV chord, IV chord can you find any other IV chords on this line?
Point to them.
If you're pointing over here, you're correct.
So in your own music you can use any color you want, but try and find all the IV chords.
Do you see any more IV chords?
Let's look down on line two. Do you see any down here?
Hopefully you found here and here, so let's mark those as well.
Pause the video if you need a little extra time to mark those in your music,
otherwise let's go on and figure out this chord.
Can you tell me the letter name of the bottom note?
If you said D you're correct. Once again our bottom note hasn't moved.
But this time these next two notes have changed quite a bit.
It looks like we're just a step away for this next note what's the letter name?
A step above D that would be E, and then what's the letter name for this top note of the chord?
If you said G, you're correct so we have a D E, and G all in the same chord. That's a new kind of chord
that's called a ii7 chord.
Let's try to play it on the piano.
All right, make sure your left hand's still in the D major pentascale.
The ii7 chord is made up of these three notes: D E and G, and you're going to use finger 5, 4, and 2.
Let's practice that chord a few times. It feels a little bit awkward at first perhaps.
Just keep a nice curve in your fingers, a relaxed hand position.
Let's play it five times. One, do it with me, two, three, four, five.
Great.
Then you'll notice in this measure after the ii7 chord, we have these notes stepping down starting on SO. SO FA MI with the rhythm TI-TI TA.
So let's practice going on the ii7 chord, 1 2, two beats on the ii7 chord, and then TI-TI TA.
Try it along with me, ready go:
1 2 TI-TI TA
Let's try it one more time. We play the ii7 chord, and then going on from there, go:
1 2 TI-TI TA
Great, now let's come back to the score.
Okay with orange, I'm going to mark ii7. Now because the ii chord is minor, you know if we had a regular II chord it would look like this:
But it's a ii7 chord, which is why we have that extra D in there, and we use just a regular number 7. ii7
When it's minor, we use lowercase roman numerals which is just little i.
Now we don't need those lines over and under, so that's how we would mark a ii7 chord.
Is this a ii7? I almost marked that one.
Nope, that one's not a ii7. Do you see any other ii7 chords in "Black Snake".
Look on line one and on line two.
Yep there's one right here.
ii7
And do you see any others?
Looks like that's it for ii7 chords.
So we have just one chord left. Can you find the only chord we haven't analyzed yet?
If you're pointing here or down here you're correct. Let's figure out what chord this is.
Now remember I'd like to see how the notes are moving. So we had a D on the bottom, and then it steps down to a C-sharp.
This middle G stays the same, and the top B steps down to A.
Put that all together what do we get? C-sharp, G, A. What chord is that?
That's our good old V7 chord. So let's mark these last of all.
You do a V for five, and the number 7. That makes a V7 chord.
Can you find where the other V7 chords are?
Point to them.
All right, here so we have V7.
V7
Let's come back to the piano and we'll try and put all these chords together.
Okay, let's position our left hand in the D major pentascale, and then for the V7 chord,
remember our finger 5 always goes down a half step to TI.
And we get the V7 chord on these notes right here with finger 5, 2, and 1 in the left hand,
and once again it's a half note, so we'll hold it 2 beats: 1 2, and just like before we have TI-TI TA.
So let's practice that. Play the V7 chord, and then the next three notes, go:
1 2 TI-TI TA
Good, now let's put all of these measures together from the beginning.
Place your left hand in the D major pentascale, and we'll take turns. I'll play a measure, then you play a measure.
Here we go, starting with measure one. My turn: I I IV IV Now your turn.
Good. Next measure we have the ii7 chord. 1 2 TI-TI TA Your turn.
Good, now going on to measure three. I chord, I chord, IV chord, IV chord, your turn.
Good, now we need the V7 chord: 1 2, TI-TI TA your turn.
Good, now measure five just like measure one. I chord, I chord, IV chord, IV chord, your turn.
Good, now the ii7 chord, 2 TI-TI TA, your turn.
Good, now it's time for the last two measures.
You'll notice we start off with two staccato V7 chords, so let's try that. Your turn.
Good, and then next we have SO MI RE DO.
Can you play that?
Good, now let's put that together. We have V7, V7, SO MI RE DO, your turn.
Good, and then you'll see we have two notes that are lower
than our lowest finger on the piano, which tells us we're going to have to shift our hand.
So take a look at this next note, and can you tell me its letter name?
If you said A, you're correct.
It's this A right here: a step above ground G. I call the bottom line of the base clef ground G because it's at the bottom,
and then one step higher would be A, and the score tells us to use finger 1 on A.
And now take a look at the last note, and can you can you figure out what note that is?
It helps to use the bottom line, ground G,
as a starting point, and then if you just count down line, space, line, space, you'll see that this note hangs below
the line a skip below ground G. Here's ground G, skip below that
would be E, and then step below that is D. So we end with a A D. One octave lower than we started.
So watch that once. I'm going to start at the two V7 chords. We have: V7 V7
SO DO. So basically you're moving from this D major pentascale, down to this
D major pentascale to finish with a SO DO, two staccato notes.
One more time you have, V7, SO MI RE DO SO DO
Now you try.
Great job. Now I'd like you to press pause, and now that you know all of the left hand,
try going through it three or four times, and then when you're ready press play and I'll play it with you all the way through.
Alright I'm going to play the entire left hand. You're welcome to play along with me, or just listen.
I'll count off 4 beats, and then away we go:
1 2 3 4
Great job learning the left hand of "Black Snake".
These chords take most students several days of careful practice and lots of repetitions to master.
Be sure to stick with it every day. Be patient with yourself, and once you have the left hand and right hand mastered hands alone,
then you'll be ready to put the hands together in an upcoming lesson.
Thanks for watching, and happy practicing!
Do you see that black snake anywhere?
No I think we lost him.
I wonder how he got out of his cage anyway.
I know, I'm sure he just scaled the wall. Hahaha
That made me think of another one.
What did the snake do when it started to rain?
I don't know, what?
He turned on the windshield viper! Hahaha
Someone still needs their good night hiss.
Aaah, run!