Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph
Hoffman. Today we're going to learn a
song called "D Journey" using some of the
skills we recently learned for great
piano posture. To get ready to play "D Journey,"
let's go down the piano posture
checklist together. One is your bench in
a good position, make sure you're not too
close, not too far, and that your bench
height allows your forearms to be level
with the floor. You'll also have a
footstool if you need it so your feet
can be resting flat on something solid.
Two, make sure your back is flexibly tall.
Three, check in with your arm weight by
picking up your arm, dropping it on your
lap, and finally, four, let your fingers
find a naturally curved and relaxed shape.
Okay for starters let's take your right
hand finger two, pointer finger, and find
any D on your piano. Remember D is found
in between any two black keys which we
learned about in a previous lesson. Now
using arm weight you're just going to let
your arm drop into the D. Watch me a
couple of times. I'm taking my pointer
finger of my right hand and just letting
gravity fall into that key.
You'll notice my other fingers are
staying relaxed. They're not sticking up
like this, which means there's some
tension there. Just let them kind of dangle
and hang out as your finger two does
all the work of supporting your arm
weight which falls into that D. Now I'd
like you to press pause and practice
that a few times on your own. Just
practice using our way to fall into D
with your pointer finger while the other
fingers just stay really loose, so if a
friend came along and picked up your arm
it would just look limp like a dead fish.
Ok, sorry for all the morbid aquatic
metaphors. How about like a wet spaghetti
noodle?
Ok, so maybe a friend will test you by
just picking up all your fingers should
be floppy, your thumb should be floppy
anytime they want to test, but your
finger keeps that curve shape so it's
just firm enough to support the weight
of your hand as you drop. Press pause and
practice that a few times, then press
play when you're ready to go on.
Ok, now let's take this to the next level.
We're going to add rhythm. I'd like you to
play D and hold it for four beats like
this. We'll count out loud as we play, 1 2 3 4,
and every time you say 1 you're going
to play a D. 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, and we'll do that
four times.
Ok can you try it with me? I'll count four
beats to get ready, and then you'll play
D on 1. Count out loud with me please.
Ready, 1 2 3 go.
one-two-three-four one-two-three-four
Good, now every time that you lift to
play the next D remember to have that
kind of wet spaghetti noodle hand.
Ok so as you lift up around beat 4 to
get ready to drop on the next one, your
forearm is going to lift and then you're
just going to fall back down really
relaxed, just enough firmness in that
finger to keep that curved shape.
Let's try one more time, ready, 1 2 3 go.
one-two-three-four one-two-three-four
Nice, alright let's make this sound even
more cool by adding a rock accompaniment.
You're going to hear four beats of drums
to get ready and then we'll start. Let me
show you what it will sound like.
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4
All right now, you try it
along with me.
We're going to do it one more time, here we
go, get in position.
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4,
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4. Nice job, now let's
try that same thing with the left hand.
Take your left hand pointer finger, place
it on D, keep that same nice shape and
we're just going to drop on that D, same
idea, but with the left hand now. Here we go.
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4,
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4.
Good, if you ever need to press pause to
practice a little more on your own
that's fine. Ok, my last challenge for you
today on "D Journey," and this is actually
why it's called "D Journey," as I'm going
to start on this middle D and then I'm
going to go on a journey.
The next time I play D I'm going to come up
to this next one, and then go up one more
to this one, and then one more so you
actually need to measure out, make sure
you've got room on your piano to do four
D's. All right and then we go back and we do
that one more time.
Ok let me show you what that will be
like once. Here it goes.
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4,
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4.
You'll notice as I was doing that, as I
was moving from D to D, I kind of lift from
the forearm and again my hand kind of
goes limp as I'm getting in position for
the next one, and then gravity. I support
myself with that finger and then I float
up and I drop, I float up, drop, always
keeping that hand really super relaxed,
just enough energy in that fingertip to
keep that curved shape. Now press pause
and try that once on your own, counting
out loud, going one-two-three-four
one-two-three-four one-two-three-four
one-two-three-four, come back to it again
one-two-three-four one-two-three-four
one-two-three-four one-two-three-four. Of
course don't count it like that.
Count with a nice steady beat. Practice
that a couple times on your own and then
when you're ready to try it with the
accompaniment press play and we'll do it
together.
Ok let's try "D Journey" together with the
accompaniment. We're going to start on
our middle D, go up and then one more
time counting out loud with great piano
posture, nice curve fingers.
Let's hit it. 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4,
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4,
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4.
Great job learning "D Journey" today. I
encourage you to practice "D Journey"
every day using the piano posture
checklist so you are building really
good habits from the start.
Some people say practice makes perfect
but I think a better saying is "practice
makes permanent." The way you practice
today and tomorrow will affect how you
play year and 10 years from now, so
practice smart and build those great
habits of good posture so you can be
ready to play even more advanced songs
down the road.
Thanks for watching and happy practicing.