Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman. Today I'd love to show you how
you can have even more fun with "Listen for Bells" by doing some improvising.
Remember improvising means making up your own music in the moment. There are
no right or wrong notes.
All that matters is that you like it. So here's how it's going to work.
You'll have your right hand in the D major pentascale and first you'll hear
the accompaniment begin. When the accompaniment starts don't play,
just listen. Here's what you'll hear.
As it plays, listen for three clicks, like this.
That's your cue to start playing listen for bells,
just like we learned it. Once you've finished playing listen for bells
then there'll be some time for you to improvise. You'll keep hearing the
accompaniment,
but you're going to make up your own melody using any of the notes in the D
Major pentascale. If you hear a note you don't like, just step up or down to the
next note. As you improvise be listening for three clicks again because those
three clicks are the cue
once again to wrap up your improvisation and play listen for bells one last time.
I only have three guidelines for your improvisation. Number one, use the notes
of the D major pentascale. That's the position you will already be in anyway
for listen for bells. Number two, just play one note at a time.
Number three, listen listen to the sound of each note and enjoy how your
improvisation flows along with the accompaniment. And that's it!
Remember there are no wrong notes. It's your creation.
If you're not happy with your improvisation just go back and try it
again as many times as you need to be happy with it.
Ok, let's give this a try. Your job, remember, is to put your right hand in
the D Major pentascale. I'll play the accompaniment.
You're going to wait. Don't start playing right away. When you hear three clicks,
you play listen for bells. Then once listen for bells is done you improvise.
Then when you hear three clicks again you play listen for bells one last time,
and then we're done. Here we go.
I'll do the accompaniment. You're in position to play listen for bells.
Here we go.
Ready, set, go. Listen for bells
in the steeple to ring.
ding ding ding ding ding
Now improvise.
One, two, three, listen for bells in the
steeple to ring
ding ding ding ding ding
How did it go?
The fun thing about improvising is it's different every time.
No two improvisations are ever exactly the same.
It's a fun and useful skill to develop, so I hope
in addition to practicing your songs every day you'll also practice some
improvising every day. If you'd like to get an mp3 file with this accompaniment
for playing and improvising with listen for bells
you can download it as part of the complete materials for unit one from our
website.
Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.