Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman.
Today we are going to learn about the music alphabet.
But wait Mr. Hoffman, we already know the alphabet!
Well, the musical alphabet is a little bit different from the regular alphabet you already
know.
Let's come and take a look at how it works.
I'm going to lay out the letters of the musical alphabet,
and as you see each letter let's say it together.
Here we go. A B C D E.
Wait Mr. Hoffman, this still looks like the regular alphabet!
I know just wait, we are getting there. F, G. Now let's pause.
Here's where things start to get different.
In music, the next letter after G is A. And then it starts over again.
There is no H in music.
So after A comes B and let's keep going C, D, E, F, G.
Now can you think of the letter that comes after G? If you said A, you are correct.
It starts over again. A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Then what should come next?
That's right, another A, but I'm out of cards.
On your piano though the notes keep going higher and higher.
Every time you go up a letter it's going up one note higher on your piano.
Now let's take a look at the whole thing.
Here we have the whole musical alphabet that we've drawn today.
Let's try singing the musical alphabet song.
Now I'm warning you, try not to sing H. Remember there is no H in music.
Let's see if we can do it. Ready. Here we go.
A B C D E F G, A B C D E F G
Great job. Now, to review what we've done today, let's play a couple of games.
This first game is called alphabet towers.
I've drawn the music alphabet starting with A at the bottom,
but there are a few missing letters that I'll need your help to figure out.
Let's say the letters together. A, B. What letter should go here?
If you said C, you are correct. C, D, E. What letter should go here?
If you said F, you are correct. F, G.
Good let's sing the whole thing from the bottom.
A B C D E F G.
Great job.
Now in music you can start with a different letter on the bottom if you want to.
So let's try another tower with D on the bottom.
This time there are even more missing letters.
So we are starting on D. Now can you think of the note that's a step above D?
Just think of the next letter of the alphabet.
What is it? Let's see. If you said E, you are correct.
If you couldn't remember that, just start on A and in your mind think A, B, C D
and then you can think that the next letter is E.
Now what's the next letter after E?
If you said F, you are correct.
Then we have G. And what comes after G?
If you said A, you are correct.
And then what's next? If you said B, you are correct.
Let's do one more tower.
Now here's an alphabet tower starting on F. This time there are no cards showing!
You're going to have to figure them all out.
So let's figure it out together.
What's the next letter a step above F?
If you said G, you are correct. What comes next?
A, then what?
B, then C, then D.
last one is E.
Great job helping me figure out that alphabet tower.
Let's do one more quick game.
Okay this next game is called before and after.
I put a letter in the middle, which is C,
and you have to figure out the letter that comes before C, and after.
Let's start with this one. What letter belongs here?
If you said B, you are correct.
Try to answer before the time I flip it over. What letter goes here?
If you said D, you are correct. Let's try another one.
Here's my next one. E is in the middle.
What letter comes before E?
If you said D, you are correct. The note a step before or below E is D.
What letter goes here?
If you said F, you are correct. A step above E is F.
Now I have G in the middle. Can you think of the letter a step before G?
If you said F, you are correct. What about a step above or after G?
If you said A, you are correct. You didn't say H did you? Good.
Remember there is no H in music. After G is starts over again.
Okay last one. The middle letter is D now.
What's a step below D?
If you said C, you are correct. What's the letter after D?
If you said E, you are correct.
Great job on those games.
If you'd like more practice on the musical alphabet,
you can get the complete materials for my lessons one through twenty from our website.
In those materials, you will get activity pages
and practice instructions to help you with each lesson.
The musical alphabet is so important to master,
so I'd like you to keep practicing it every day.
Here's one more fun way that you can practice the musical alphabet
even when you are driving around in the car.
Choose any letter in the musical alphabet
and then try to say the musical alphabet forward starting on that letter.
Here's an example, let's try one together.
Maybe your Mom or Dad says,
"Okay, try the musical alphabet starting on the letter D."
So you have to say, "D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D."
And when you get back to D, you win.
Let's try one more. A musical alphabet starting on the letter F.
Try to say it with me. First think of the letter after F.
If you thought G, you're right. Let's try it together starting on F.
Go. F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F.
Great, now that's level one.
When you are ready for level two you try to say the musical alphabet backwards.
Even harder. Let's try it once. We are going to start on G and go backwards.
Go. G, F, E, D, C, B, A, G. When you get to A, now you are going to go backwards
to G when you are saying the musical alphabet backwards.
That's another fun way you can practice, that's level three.
That was level two, sorry.
Level three is trying it backwards starting on any letter like this.
Starting on C it would be C, B, A, G, F, E, D, C.
I know I was doing it really fast. You'll work up to that.
Okay so practice the musical alphabet a little bit every day
until you have it totally mastered forwards or backwards.
Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time.
Let's practice the musical alphabet. Okay.
I'll be Mr. Hoffman and you say the answers. A, B, C, what comes next?
Uh, D. If you said D, you're correct.
E, F, G, what comes next?
H! Who put that there? Not me. Don't tell Mr. Hoffman about that.
I won't tell. I didn't see any H. Much better, A. Let's get out of here.