Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman, and in our lesson today we'll be adding the left-hand part
part to the A section of Burgmuller's "Arabesque".
Let's get started by checking out the score.
You'll notice if you scan through the left-hand part, that you're playing
all these chords with these staccato dots, and they're all quarter notes so your left hand you can think of
as kind of your metronome. It's keeping the beat for you.
Now, your job is to figure out what these chords are.
I'm going to draw a box around certain chords with my purple marker here,
and what I'd like you to do is pause the video,
and on your own music at home, I want you to write the name of these chords up above the music,
or you could put it right below the chord. Wherever you prefer.
If it's for example, a C major chord you can put a capital C, which stands for C major.
Remember if it's a minor chord, you do a capital letter like if it was C minor capital C lowercase M.
The little M stands for minor.
You'll through it and figure out what these chords are that I draw this box around.
Write the name of the chord up above or below.
Remember, some of these chords may be an inversion.
So watch out for that, and you have to find the root of the chord to be able to figure out the name of the chord.
Now, pause the video, figure out those chords, and then press play to go on.
All right, let's start with this first chord.
If you analyzed it from the bottom note first, you can see that's a bass A,
which is here on the piano, and then here's that middle C,
and then we have another third above that.
You can see these notes are all line, line, line.
When notes go line, line, line, or space, space, space, you know that's built like your regular triad,
which is a root position chord which tells you the root is this A.
That you should recognize as an A minor chord.
So we'd write it like that: capital A little m.
And that's the key that we're in. So we could also say that's the i chord.
So I'm going to write with a lowercase Roman numeral which is an i, little i, which says we are a minor i chord.
It's kind of our home base chord, okay and then we stay on that i chord A minor.
We play it four measures, and then the chord changes, okay if you look at this chord the bottom note is still A,
and then we have a D and an F. What chord is that?
Well, you know it's an inversion because we have this fourth here
with a third. Whenever you have a fourth and then a third
or a third than a fourth, you know it's an inversion. so what if we took this a and put it on top.
See how I just took this A from down here and moved it to the A up here, and that reveals it's a D minor chord, which is our iv chord.
Okay, so we could write capital D little m there, and maybe a little i little v
for the iv chord. Remember we use Roman numerals when writing chord symbols in music.
Okay, so we have A minor then this D minor chord, then what chord is this?
That also is an A minor chord, which is the i chord.
Okay, now what about this chord?
Let's name each note one at a time. The bottom note is G.
If you compare it to the A minor chord, sometimes it's helpful to just compare where you just were.
You can see the top two notes stayed the same. We still have a C and an E just like a second ago,
but now that bottom note step down to G.
So we have a G, a C, and an E. What chord is that?
Once again, we can tell it's an inversion by that fourth. So take the G, move it up to that G, and you can see it's a C major chord.
Well, you use a capital C, and in the key of A minor,
the C chord is the III chord.
So we can use a Roman numeral III to show that.
Now, I have to say this is like college music theory stuff.
So if you're not in college yet, you should be pretty proud. You're learning college-level music theory doing these lessons with me.
Pretty cool, huh?
Now, there's one more chord I'd like to look at with you. We didn't, I didn't assign you to figure this one out yourself, but let's take a look at it together.
It's an interesting chord.
The bottom note stayed the same as before. So that's our G. Now, can you tell me the name of the next note up in the chord?
If you said B, you're correct. So we have a G and a B,
then look we're on a space. We skip a space to the next space.
Whenever you go space, skip a space to a space, that's a fifth. It's kind of like a double skip, okay?
See how these are all spaced notes? G B, skip the D, up to F.
And then way up high in the right hand
we have this D way up there, which I'm going to take down an octave to here.
See how I did that? I just took the D from up high in the treble clef part and moved it down so we can see it's a G major chord with a seventh on top.
We call that a seventh because one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, it's the interval of a seventh, so a G major chord with an extra seventh on top
we call a G7 chord.
Now that we've figured out what these chords are, let's learn how to play them.
Alright, so let's place our left hand. Here's my middle C. So my finger 3 is on that middle C so I can play this A minor chord.
Can you find an A minor chord on your piano right centered on middle C?
Now remember, these chords are staccato, and the music is marked piano.
So this should be a light crisp sound like this, and you want to almost pretend like the keys are hot. So as soon as you play, your fingers lift off.
You're going to keep your hand close to the keys. Don't go flying off. You know it's just like you're hovering over the keys giving it a quick,
crisp, light sound. Keep your wrist flexible, you know.
Floppy wrist so it can have that nice crisp sound. Now you try.
So we do that for four measures. Let's try it together. I'll count 1 2, and then we start.
Eight A minor chords in a row. Here we go 1 2, play.
1 2, 1 2, 1 2, stop, then the chord changes to our D minor chord which is the iv chord.
You're used to this chord. Your thumb just shifts over, and we play the iv chord which is D minor. 1 2,
we just do that from one measure. Now you try.
Good, then it goes back to our A minor chord. Now you try.
Good, then we shift to a C major chord second inversion.
So I suggest use a finger 1 2 5. So your finger 2 will kind of shift over, your pinky will come down.
Try that chord. We do that two times,
and then we get this G7 chord where we have a G, a B, and a F. Can you try that?
It's a bit of a stretch here. Finger 3 all the way up to finger 1 on F,
finger 5 down there. Now if that's too big of a stretch between your finger 3 and 1, you can also try 5 4 1.
But most hands, in my hand anyways, it feels most comfortable do 5 3 1. You're on these three notes
with 5 3 1. We do that four times,
and that resolves to a C and an E. Hear how that sounds nice?
Now you try.
Good, now let's back up to measure seven.
We have two C major chords, again I recommend fingers 5 2 1.
Doing the correct fingering will really help you shift to this next chord, okay? 5 2 1, 5 2 1, and 5 3 1.
Pause the video, and I want you to just practice going from this chord to this chord. Notice these two notes basically just step out from each other.
We're using fingers 5 2 1,
and then 5 3 1.
You need to be able to do this like in your sleep. So press pause and maybe do it I don't know fifty maybe a hundred times.
I'm kidding, maybe not a hundred, but as many times as you need to to get really comfortable with that chord change.
Pause to practice, then press play to go on.
Now let's also practice this chord change where we go from this chord that you ended on
to this, and I highly recommend finger 1 2 because your 3 is here on the B, so your 2 fits nicely on the C.
So two of these, and then end on the C and E.
Okay, now pause the video and practice that transition.
Okay, now let's put this all together from measure seven. We have two C major chords,
four G7 chords, and then we finish with a C and E chord.
Okay, now pause the video and practice measure seven through measure ten
as many times as you need to get it really confident, then press play to go on.
Alright, now let's back it up to measure six.
We're playing this A minor chord, and then here's the trick: You've got to switch to finger two on C
so your finger 5 can comfortably shift down.
I think it's really important to move to a finger 2 there so your finger 3 can be ready on that B. Okay, so watch here measure six
which is just a regular A minor chord, then we shift down,
then to the G7, and to this. Okay, now pause and work on measure six all the way through measure ten,
and believe me, you'll be grateful that you've mastered these chords carefully with the right fingering.
Then when we add in the right hand, it will be a lot easier.
Pause, work on measures six through ten, then press play to go on.
Now that you know all the left hand part, let's look at how you'll put this hands together.
And maybe you won't be ready to do this today, maybe you need one or two days to just work on left hand alone and right hand alone,
but when you're ready you'll start at a really slow tempo.
Again, maybe we'll use the metronome and put it all the way down at like 80 beats per minute, and this is our eighth note.
So it can be 1-& 2-& super slow. 2-& 1-& 2-&, 1-& 2-&
1-& 2-&, 1-& 2-&, shift
Now, I do not recommend using the metronome when you first try putting it hands together.
At first, you're just going to be trying to make it happen.
As slowly as you need to, and one thing that makes this extra tricky
is that your right hand is legato
while your left hand is staccato. Notice both chords are staccato, but the right hand's only staccato on beat 2. 1 2
So it will feel a little bit like rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time to make one hand legato
and the other staccato.
Try that right now. Why don't we go up to measure three, and go super slow,
and see how legato you can make your right hand while you're making your left hand staccato. In fact,
the first step may be to just try holding down the first note of the right hand while your left hand plays a staccato chord.
See if you can make this hand, your left hand, release while your right hand holds on.
Can you do that? Try it a few times.
Just try to hold down this note while you release with a staccato the other chord.
Now you can add some more notes.
Now you try.
You're just going to keep practicing that until you can make one hand legato while the left hand is staccato.
Another place to watch out for is here in measures seven and eight.
You'll notice some notes in the right hand are legato, but all the chords in the left hand are staccato. So we really listen to that,
and then here notice our right hand holds that note down while the left hand plays a staccato.
So a smooth legato right hand in that section, while the left hand is very staccato, and then both hands have this sforzando.
So again for you're practicing, use slow metronome practice.
Make sure you've mastered the right hand alone, the left hand alone, and then you're going to put it hands together slowly at first,
and then gradually build up speed.
Great work learning how to play the A section of "Arabesque" using hands together.
Thanks for watching, and happy practicing!
Ah, not that way Baby! Wait, Baby!
So, let's come to the piano to--
it's possible that baby ended up going all the way back to the very first lesson!
Does anyone have a bottle? Help?
Well, we're just going to have to go and rescue Baby!
But how will we bring Baby back here to our time?
I know! We can plant a coda symbol here, and bring a to coda symbol back in time with us,
and that can help us teleport from anywhere back to this coda symbol!
Scuba, you're a genius!
Really?
Come on!
The first three notes are ME RE--
Baby, I know you're upset.
But I'm really supposed to be teaching this lesson.
Baby!
There you are!
Princess! Scuba! Thank goodness you're here I'm supposed to be teaching a lesson.
We're sorry. We've got it covered though. We'll take Baby back to the future, and you can carry on.
Wait, you're from the future?
It's a long story.
Okay everyone. Let's plant this here, and then everybody on three walk past the to Coda.
One, two, three!
We made it!
Yay!
Yes, it worked!
Now, I hope we learned an important lesson today, didn't we Baby?
Yeah Baby, what did you learn from this?
♫Hot cross buns♫
Hahaha, oh boy.