Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman,
and in this lesson we're going to learn how to play a traditional folk song "Lady, Lady".
Let's have a listen.
Thank you Princess for singing today.
You're welcome! Come on Baby, want to help me do some more sweeping?
Sometimes a student asks me why does the song say 'buy a broom for my baby'?
Babies don't use brooms. Can you imagine a baby sweeping?
Okay, well most babies don't know how to use a broom.
You're a pretty special baby.
Yeah!
But here's what this song is really talking about.
This song is a folk song from long ago
when a poor mother would go out in the market every day with brooms she had made by hand.
This mother has a baby and not even enough money to buy food.
So to try and sell more brooms, she sings to all the ladies walking by about the broom and all it can do.
She also sings about her baby so people will feel sorry for her.
Even if you don't really need a broom, she asks them to buy a broom for my baby.
In other words, please buy my broom so I'll have enough money to feed my poor baby.
Hungry! Buy broom for me!
Oh, poor little thing. I'll buy a broom.
Thank you.
Here's our score for "Lady, Lady".
So take just a minute and see what you notice.
You might notice we're in our grand staff with the treble and bass clef.
What's our time signature?
If you said 3/4 you're correct.
What else do you notice?
You might notice a repeat sign.
Lots of flats.
You also might notice a new kind of symbol.
Now this looks a lot like a tie,
but you'll remember that a tie connects two of the same pitch.
Are these two notes the same pitch?
To be the same pitch you have to be in the exact same position high and low on the staff.
You can see this note skips down.
Two different pitches connected by a curved line it's called a slur.
A slur is a curved line connecting two or more notes of a different pitch. Like,
you'll see this longer slur over here that
actually goes so long it goes off the edge of the page and continues over here to connect all of these notes.
Notes connected with a slur are to be played legato.
Legato is a fancy music word for smooth means the notes will go:
Very smoothly from one note to the next.
Let's find all the slurs.
We've got one here, here, this is a long slur that goes off the edge continues here. A slur, a slur. Now
before I go on to these last two lines, I'd like you to hunt for it. There is one
and only one tie in this song.
Can you look through, most of these are slurs, but can you find and point to me,
point out to me where the tie is?
If you're pointing right here at the end you're correct.
Notice that these are two of the same pitch and that's the rule for it to be a tie
even though this curved line really looks similar to all of these. It means something totally different.
Remember ties you hold that one note
for the value of both added together. 3 plus 3. So we hold this note for 6 beats.
All of these curved lines simply mean to play these notes legato.
Now let's figure out the rhythms for this song.
We're going to write in counts like we've done before to help us with the rhythms, and try to line up the counts
with the notes in the measure.
So if you haven't already, pause the video
and download and print out your sheet music so you can write the counts into your own music,
and let's just go up to
how about we do it up to the repeat sign. Right in the counts
1 2 3 beats per measure, and then press play and we'll try it together.
Alright here's what the count should look like. Again just going up to the repeat sign
Let's tap our rhythm while we count the beat out loud.
I'll count 3 beats to get us started and then we'll start here on beat 1.
Ready, tap it with me and count the beat out loud.
1 2 3
and let's skip the repeat just to save some time.
Now pause the video again and can you write in the counts for the next
eight measures. So let's stop right here now.
Okay here's what the count should look like.
Now let's try and tap and count.
So count the beat out loud. We're going to start right here after I give you 3 beats to get ready.
Here we go 1 2 3
1 2 3
Last thing I'd like to do before we try playing it, is to figure out the solfège for this first section.
This song is in the key of E-flat major.
Now in the key of E-flat major
we need to figure out what note this is in solfège, but first let's figure out the letter name.
Can you tell me the letter name for this pitch?
If you said B-flat you're correct.
Now thinking about the E-flat major pentascale, what is B-flat?
Well, in the E-flat major pentascale B-flat is a SO.
I'm going to write an S for SO over that note
and then we skip down from this line, skipping down to the next line
would be what solfège syllable?
If you said MI you're correct.
SO MI, then what are these next two solfège syllables?
If you said SO MI you're correct.
Then we step down.
What's a step below MI?
RE
And then it repeats RE
Then what would we have here?
If you said SO you're correct.
A fourth above RE is back to SO, or you might have remembered oh that's B-flat
which is our SO again. SO SO SO
RE RE SO SO SO
Now here is tricky because we're going down a line, so you have to remember
where you were here up on line three.
It skips down to line two, so what syllable for this note?
If you said MI you're correct, then it skips down again.
Remember skip below MI.
DO
Remember we're in the key of E-flat major, so when you see an E-flat you know you're on DO.
Let's try singing this in solfège together.
Here's SO, ready go.
SO MI
RE RE SO SO SO
MI DO
Let's try to play it.
"Lady, Lady" is in the key of E-flat major. So I have the E-flat major pentascale here.
Can you point and name each note for me using letter names. Try it, go.
The correct answer is E-flat F G A-flat B-flat.
So let's go ahead and place our right hand in the E flat major pentascale.
Remember our double stuffed Oreo here. So we've got black, white, white, black, black.
Can you play with me?
Let's play stepping up. DO RE MI FA SO, go.
DO RE MI FA SO
Now look at the first four measures of "Lady, Lady" and let's try and play it.
Notice we've got a SO, which is on B-flat,
and then it skips down to MI.
3 beats on each note for these first four measures.
Let's try and play it together. Ready go.
1 2 3
Good, now for this song I really encourage you to count the beat out loud as you play.
That will help you get all the rhythms correct, and it will make it easier to put it hands together in a later lesson.
Okay, pause if you need to try that again with the counting out loud
Otherwise let's go on to the next phrase.
And let's see if you can figure this one out on your own.
Look at the solfège. We've got RE RE SO SO SO MI DO
So pause the video.
See if you can figure out measures five through eight on your own, then press play and we'll try it together.
alright measures five through eight should sound like this
1 2 3
Now putting that together from the beginning we get:
1 2 3
And then there's a repeat sign which takes us all the way back to measure one, and we'll do that again.
Now pause the video and I'd like you to practice measures one through eight.
Practice counting the beat out loud,
and when you feel confident with that, press play and we'll go on.
Now let's look at measure nine.
Can you tell me the letter name of this first note in measure nine?
If you said A-flat you're correct.
Now in the E-flat major pentascale, what solfège syllable gets a flat?
Remember DO RE MI FA SO can move around, this time DO is on E-flat. So what would A-flat be in solfège?
Let's see. DO RE MI
The correct answer is FA.
FA is A-flat so now here's a challenge for you.
Can you figure out the solfège for measures nine and ten?
What would these three notes be in solfège?
If you said FA FA RE you are correct.
Notice we have that FA, it repeats, and then it skips down. A skip below far is RE.
Let's try and play that on the piano.
FA FA RE Your turn.
Now let's play it together and count the beat out loud as we play.
Ready go:
1 2 3
Good, now let's look at the next two measures.
Measures eleven and twelve.
Tell me the letter name for this first note in measure eleven.
If you said G you're correct.
One of our guide notes right on the G line.
Now what is G in the E-flat major pentascale? DO RE MI FA or SO
If you said MI you're correct.
Now can you figure out the solfège for measures eleven and twelve?
What would these next three notes be in solfège?
if you said MI MI SO, you're correct.
Let's try to play it together. MI MI SO, ready go:
MI MI SO
Now let's try it counting the beat.
Ready go: 1 2 3 1 2 3
Now let's put those four measures together. Back to measure nine
We have 1 2 3 1 2 3
1 2 3 1 2 3
Or the lyrics would be ♫Sweep it low, sweep it high♫
Pause the video and I'd like you to practice measures nine through twelve.
Count the beat loud as you play, and then press play when you you are confident and ready to go on.
now let's check out measures thirteen through sixteen.
Once again we have an A-flat here. Do you remember what that was in solfège?
That's right it's a FA.
Look at measures thirteen and fourteen, and compare that to measures nine and ten.
You'll notice it's almost the same notes, and I love to find these kinds of patterns
in music when I'm learning it because it helps me learn it a lot faster.
I'll know it's going to be once again: FA FA RE RE, and then the next two measures are also very similar.
We've got MI MI MI SO
which is very similar to measures, what is it, eleven and twelve,
which was MI MI SO, but this time it's just MI MI MI SO.
I've kind of got this pattern going on right? FA skips down to RE,
then MI skips up to SO
And then that pattern repeats again just with slightly different rhythms.
So look at measure thirteen again and sing the solfège with me.
We have FA FA RE RE MI MI MI SO
Now pause the video and I'd like you to try and measures thirteen through sixteen once singing the solfège,
and then try it again counting the beat out loud as you play.
Practice that on your own, then press play to go on.
Now let's put this whole section together. Back to measure nine we have:
1 2 3 1 2 3
Pause the video and try putting all of those measures together,
and then press play to go on.
So thinking about the form of this piece,
this entire section up to the repeat sign we could call A,
and then it repeats. So we have A again,
and then this section we saw was different.
The melody's different, the rhythms are slightly different, so we call that section B.
And then when we get to these final eight measures, what does this look like?
If you said another A section you're correct.
And so the form of the entire piece will be A A B A.
As I mentioned, when you're practicing this week I encourage you to count the beat out loud as you play.
That's going to help when we put it hands together.
Because you're going to need to know how long to hold each note in the right hand
so it can stay in sync with your left hand
So count the beat out loud as you play.
Once you feel like you know the notes I also highly encourage that you practice with the metronome.
That will help you keep a really steady beat.
You might start between 100 or 108 beats per minute
1 2 3 1 2 3
And remember that because of these slur marks,
we are trying to play legato.
That means we flow
from one note to the next smoothly.
You don't let go of the note and then put press the next one. The notes
flow right into each other. 1 2 3 1 2 3
And don't go like this:
Sometimes when we have repeated notes we kind of stab them and make them sound staccato.
It's possible to play repeating notes legato as well.
To play legato, you want to kind of stroke the notes and hold it down as long as possible.
Don't leap right off it.
Hear that sound?
That's a legato tone or a legato sound, which is what we're going for here.
Great work learning how to play the melody for "Lady, Lady" today.
If there's one thing I've learned from this song, it's that for hundreds of years
parents have been working hard for their kids.
So please, take a moment today to say thank you to your mom or dad for all the work they do to take care of you.
In fact, to my own parents if you're watching,
thank you for working hard to cook me food, buy me clothes,
and drive me to baseball and piano lessons back when I was a kid.
And to all my piano students out there, don't forget to be grateful.
Say thank you to your parents for the work they do for you.
And as always happy practicing!
♫Lady, lady, buy a broom for my baby♫
♫baby, buy a broom for my baby♫