Hello and welcome back I'm Joseph Hoffman.
Today we are going to learn the left hand of "Oranges and Lemons",
and then we'll check out how to play it hands together.
So first let's come over to the staff and look at the notes we'll be playing.
Here we have the grand staff with the first chord your left hand needs to play drawn on it.
You recall that when you read from the grand staff, your right hand will play all the notes on this top staff
and your left hand is in charge of any notes on this bottom staff which is usually a bass clef.
Now, can you help me figure out the names of these three notes?
Look at the line right here.
What would you call this note in letter names?
If you said F you're correct.
Then a skip above F, since we go from a line to the next line, we know that's a third
or a skip up. What would this letter be?
If you said A you're correct.
Now we need to skip up one more time and that lands us on the middle C line.
When you see notes stacked on top of each other like this, that means to play them at the same time
simultaneously in a blocked chord.
So you're going to play F and A and C together in a three note chord.
On the piano those notes would be here, here, and here.
Assuming that this is middle C.
In "Oranges and Lemons" since we're in the F major pentascale,
F will be DO and so using solfège we would call these notes:
DO MI and SO which together make what's called a I chord.
Sometimes called a tonic chord.
Now there's another kind of chord in "Oranges and Lemons" that we'll also see.
And that's this chord. You'll notice that this MI which was on A
moved up a step to B, because of this key signature and the pentascale were in,
this will actually be a B-flat.
So when we play that chord,
instead of MI we'll actually play a FA, which in the F major pentascale is on a B-flat.
When notes are just a step or a second apart in a chord there's not really room to put them in a
in a totally straight vertical line and so that's why
when we need a C and a B in the same chord we kind of have to tuck
one of the notes, the one that's a step below, a little bit off to the side.
But we'll still play them all simultaneously.
The name of this chord
is the Fsus4 chord.
It's a kind of suspended chord. So sus stands for suspension or suspended.
And a suspended chord just means a chord that's, you know, it's kind of in transition. It's an F chord,
but this B-flat is called a suspension because it kind of keeps us in a little bit of suspense
or suspension because our ears want to hear that B-flat go back to the A.
Now let's come to the piano and find these two chords in the music.
Okay, let's check out the bass staff for "Oranges and Lemons".
Here we've got the I chord with a DO MI and SO.
What I'd like you to do is take an orange pencil or crayon and let's circle all of the I chords.
We have one here.
Here
Is this a I chord?
No, that's our Fsus4 chord.
And then here's another I chord.
If you download this music from our website you can try this yourself at home.
Let's find all the I chords on the next line as well.
Good, and then with a different color, I'm going to use blue, let's circle the Fsus4 chords.
Can you tell me how many beats we will hold this chord?
If you said 3 beats you're correct. This is a dotted half note chord,
and so each chord will be held for 3 beats: 1 2 3, 1 2 3
Now, let's try to play these chords on the piano.
Okay, our I chord will be played with fingers 5 3 and 1 in the F major pentascale,
and we're going to hold it for 3 beats and we'll do two of those in a row like this:
1 2 3
and then we will need an Fsus4 chord using fingers 5
2 and 1 this time since our finger 2 is on that B-flat
when we're in the F major pentascale for our left hand.
Gently lift fingers 3 and 4 to play the Fsus chord.
That's also 3 beats long, and then we go back to the I chord.
So now once again fingers 5 3 and 1.
2 3
Now let's try the whole line without stopping.
Here we go, ready, start:
1 2 3
Fsus 1 2 3
1 2 3
Good, if that was going a little fast for you,
just press pause and practice it several times on your own.
Then rewind and try it again with me.
Now let's go back to the music and check out lines three and four.
Down here on line three you'll recall that the right hand shifts down to the c major pentascale
Let's take a look at what the left hand does.
Once again you can tell we have a blocked chord because the notes are all stacked together.
However, now we're in a different position.
Let's try and figure out what notes we have.
What is the letter name for this top note?
You can see that it's a step above the F line, so what would it be?
If you said G you're correct.
Now these bottom two notes are all just a third or a skip below.
So a skip below G is E, and then a skip below E is what?
If you said C you're correct.
So we have a C E G chord which is C major.
So that tells us that our left hand also will be moving to the C major pentascale.
So let's scan this line and check out all of the chords. We have a C major chord.
Another C major.
Now here, aha, we have something different.
Looks like that middle note moved up a step from E to F.
So now we'll have a Csus4 chord.
And then back to one more C major chord.
This is the same pattern we had up on line two.
F major, F major, Fsus4, F major.
Now this time we're just down in C position.
C major, C major, Csus4, C major.
Each chord with 3 beats each.
Let's try out those C major chords and Csus4s on the piano now.
Alright, so at the start of the song your left hand will be here in the F major pentascale.
At the end of line two we're going to shift down to the C major pentascale.
Now let's try these chords. Using fingers 5 3 and 1, we'll play a three note C major chord.
1 2 3 now another one,
1 2 3
Now we're going to play the Csus4 chord on C F and G like this:
1 2 3
and go back to the C major chord, 1 2 3
Now let's try it together without stopping.
Ready, go: 1 2 3
1 2 3, now Csus4, 1 2 3
1 2 3
Good, now press pause and practice that on your own a few times.
Practice it in the F major pentascale,
then the C major pentascale, counting the beat as you play 1 2 3.
Then when you feel very confident with those chords, press play again and I'll show you how to
play it hands together.
Okay, let's look at how the hands work together in this song.
You'll notice that the left hand and the right hand both play on beat 1.
So I'll draw a circle between those two hands to show that this
chord and this melody note in the right hand all play simultaneously together.
Then on beat 2 and on beat 3
the right hand continues to play as the left hand simply holds this chord.
Now, they play again together here,
on the downbeat of measure 2.
Downbeat is simply another term for beat 1.
They play together on this downbeat.
As well as on this downbeat.
So essentially the first note of every measure is where
we play hands together, and then these other notes the right hand will play as the chord holds.
Now let's practice tapping that rhythm hands together.
So use your right hand
to tap the treble staff notes, and your left hand to tap the bass staff notes.
And let's count the beat out loud as we do this.
Watch your music, and let's tap and count. Ready, go:
1 2 3
1 2 3-&
1 2 3
The trickiest part of this line
certainly is right here where we have this 3-& 1.
The trick is, as you're playing 3-& with your right hand, you have to be getting the left hand ready
and be prepared in your mind to play this chord hands together on time.
It comes quickly 3-& 1.
And on beat 1 both hands play.
Let's try this again, and make sure that as you're playing this 3-& in your mind prepare for this downbeat.
Ready, go: 1 2 3
1 2 3-&
1 2 3
Good job!
Now, the same kind of mental preparation will apply as we play this on the piano.
As you are playing 3-& in the right hand, I want your left hand to be getting ready
both physically and mentally for this chord.
By physically I mean make sure your finger 2 is touching the B-flat.
And by mentally I mean just being ready for that moment where beat 1 comes so you can play
that chord on time with 'bells'.
Let's come to the piano and try it out.
Alright, let me show you what the first line will sound like hands together.
Now it's your turn. Press pause and try to play line one hands together.
Play it three or four or five times until you feel very confident and then we'll go on to line two.
Good job working on line one.
Now I'll show you what line two will sound like hands together.
Good, now press pause and practice line two hands together.
Press play again when you're ready to go on to line three.
Great job. Now for line three we're going to shift down to the C major pentascale.
Here's what it will sound like with the chords:
And then here is line four:
Just like before, the trickiest part is when you have those two eighth notes,
TI-TI TA, and you go into that sus4 chord,
so you might just practice those three notes: ♫say the bells♫
several times in a row until you're confident.
♫say the bells of♫
Sometimes when I practice I'll do something over and over again like 10 20 even 30 times.
Anytime you're repeating it correctly you're building a good habit.
You want to make sure you don't repeat a mistake because the mistake can also become a habit.
So when you're practicing, practice it carefully make sure you're doing it correctly,
and then once you're doing it correctly just repeat it again and again until it's a permanent habit.
Good now press pause and practice lines three and four,
and then when you feel confident I'll show you the whole thing hands together.
Here's "Oranges and Lemons" from the beginning hands together.
Great job working on "Oranges and Lemons" hands together today.
On your own I'd like you to practice the left hand chords and then try it hands together.
Play it lots of times until you have it totally mastered and you can play it smoothly and confidently.
Remember, when you're adding chords to a song sometimes it may take dozens,
maybe even a hundred tries before you totally master it.
You don't want to just sound choppy like you're struggling through the notes,
you want to be able to play the notes smoothly and confidently.
Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.
Mr. Baker we'd like to play your game.
Yeah!
Okay, everyone take a turn. We'll each do a line.
I'll go first.
♫Muffins and donuts, say the bells of St. Jonas♫
♫Rockets and trains, say the bells of St. Jane's♫
♫Tutus and fairies, say the bells of St. Mary's♫
♫Crickets and bugs, say the bells of St. Doug's♫
Ew, bugs?
Bugs are more interesting than tutus.
Oh, I don't know about that!