- Hi.
Welcome to lesson seven.
In lesson six, we introduced the bass clef
which we use for the left hand at the moment.
So, there's the bass clef, just to remind you,
here's another one down here.
And we just put this thing called the clef
at the beginning of the stave, remember the stave,
the five lines of music.
And if we see a treble clef at the beginning,
we know we're playing with our right hand.
If we see one of these bass clefs,
we know we're playing with the left hand.
And, in the last lesson we were learning
about this note.
Middle C in the bass clef.
So middle C, as we now know, is this note,
right in the middle of the keyboard,
the C nearest to the middle.
And we said that we're going to play
middle C with the left hand thumb.
And, in today's lesson we're going to learn
one new note in the bass clef.
And it's this note.
Now you can see that middle C is on this extra line
above the stave, and this note
that we're going to learn about today,
is in the space which is between the extra line
and the top line of the bass clef stave.
So it looks as if it's one note lower than C.
Do you see, as we go from C to B,
we're just taking one step down, one step lower.
And remember what we've said before,
that when the music goes higher,
we go to the right on the keyboard,
and when the music gets lower, we go to the left
on the keyboard.
So if this note's C, and this is maybe just one step
to the left, then you have to ask yourself,
"What comes before C in the alphabet?"
Because remember, when we're going to the left,
when we're going down, we're going backwards
through the alphabet.
When we're going to the right, and we're going up,
we're going forwards through the alphabet.
But now we're going to the left, we're going down,
we're going backwards through the alphabet.
So, if this note's C, well have a little think,
what comes before C in the alphabet?
Well it's B, isn't it.
A, B, C.
So, C, B.
And the next note down would obviously be A.
And we'll be learning about that very soon.
So now we've got C, and B.
Now if you have a look at the tune
that I've written up here for us to play today,
you'll notice we've got a mixture of notes
that are C's, lots of C's in this piece.
And B's.
Here are the B's, you see, dotted around the piece as well.
So let's have a look through the piece,
and just get used to reading these letter names,
so we know which note's C, and which note's B.
Here we go.
C is the first note, then we go down one to B.
We come back up to C, we go down one to B,
we come back up to C.
And this time we play C again.
And then, we play C once more.
Then we come down to B, back up to C,
down to B, and back up to C.
So those are the notes.
And you might just want to get happy
about finding those notes on the piano
before we do anything much else.
So, just get your left hand on the keyboard
in the way that we've talked about positioning it,
and try to play C
with the thumb, and then find the white note
that's one to the left,
one lower than that C.
And play that with finger number two.
And that's the note, B.
So you've got C
and you've got B.
And you can see a picture of this on the screen now.
There's the C, and there's the B.
And again you can just practise going between C and B.
So we have a lovely smooth exchange between the two notes.
And we don't play C
and then we put B down
while C's still down, so there's a bit of a clash
of those two notes.
And then maybe C comes up some time later.
And at the moment, we're not trying to play C
with a gap, before we play B.
So we're trying to play smoothly
by joining up the notes and just exchanging them.
So get used to this.
C, B.
And then get used to going B up to C.
And you'll soon be comfortable doing that.
Remember, don't press hard on the keys at all.
You don't need to press the keys, you just need to put
the keys down, what we call, depress the keys
without having to press on them.
Just make sure you've got enough weight on the keys
for the notes to sound.
Okay.
Well, let's see how we get on if we actually play
the notes of this piece.
Now, without worrying too much at the moment
about counting the rhythm, the number of beats
that we need on each of the notes.
So we're just going to do the letter names for now.
Here we go.
Okay, so here's the first note, C.
Let's try and find that, there's C
we're going down one to B,
back up to C,
down one to B,
back up to C.
Then we're going to play C again.
Then we're going to play C, again.
Down one to B,
back up to C,
down one to B,
back up to C again.
Okay.
And if you want to rewind at this point
and just practise doing that, that's absolutely fine.
It's a good thing to be really sure about it
before we go on.
Because the next thing we're going to do,
is we're going to play those notes,
and we're going to count as well.
So, I'll count four for nothing, remember this four
at the beginning is telling us
that there are four beats in each of the bars.
Here we go.
One, two, three, four.
Again, you can always rewind at this point,
and practise that until you're very comfortable with it.
Okay.
Well, let's see if we can play today's duet.
So be all set with your left hand, with the thumb
on middle C.
I'll count four in, and here we go.
One, two, three, four.
And you can practise that until you're very happy
about playing that particular tune.
Now, when you're happy about it, you might just think
about this idea.
That music, at the moment, looks as if it's just a whole
series of notes.
We've got the first note, then the second note,
then the third note, then the fourth note.
But if you play it like that, it tends to sound
a little bit boring.
It's a little bit like this.
If I speak to you going from one word
to the next it is very boring.
You wouldn't think of speaking like that, would you?
So, we try to speak in a way that makes it clear
that our words are organised into sentences.
Music's just the same, actually.
We don't just go from this note, to that note,
to the next note, to the next note.
We try to think in sentences.
And musical sentences are called phrases.
Let me just write that word down.
So, phrases, or a musical phrase.
So what's a musical phrase?
A musical phrase is like a musical sentence.
And the way we show that in the music is like this.
Because when you look at this piece,
really, it's got one sentence
that takes up the first two bars.
And then it's got another sentence that takes up
the second two bars.
So, let me just play that piece to you,
just have a listen to it for a moment.
And instead of hearing all these separate notes,
see if you can hear two sentences.
So, here it goes from the beginning.
One, two, three, four.
So you have once sentence,
and then you have another sentence.
So if you see these lines going across the top of the music
like that, these kind of, arches across
the musical sentences, you'll know
that they are phrase marks.
And they're saying,
try to play this so it sounds like
the first sentence of the music,
and then you might just come up off the keys for a tiny
fraction, and then start another musical phrase,
another musical sentence.
And when you come to the end of musical phrase,
you kind of take a musical breath.
Without wasting time, you just lift off the keys
very slightly and start the next sentence.
Like this.
One, two, three, four,
one, two, three, four.
Lift.
One, two, three, four,
one, two, three, four.
And then you lift off at the end.
So, you get this idea of playing the music
in two phrases, in two musical sentences.
So, just to finish this lesson,
we're going to have another go at playing this tune
with C's and B's in it.
And we're going to have a good listen
to how we're playing it, and see
if we can get this idea of two musical phrases,
two musical sentences.
So, let's get set with the hand on the keyboard,
ready for C and B,
in the left hand, on fingers one and two.
Okay, here we go.
Two musical sentences.
One, two, three, four.
One, two, three, four,
one, two, three, four.
Lift.
One, two, three, four,
one, two, three, four.
Lift.
I hope that begins to make slightly more musical sense.
It feels a little bit more expressive doesn't it,
than just playing the notes one after another.
So, not only are we now reading notes in the treble clef
and the bass clef, but we're starting to be expressive
with the way we're making music,
and that's all very exciting.
So, get happy about all of that,
and when you're ready to come back for lesson eight,
we'll learn another new note in the left hand,
and carry on thinking about how we can be expressive
in our playing.