Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman,
and today we're learning how to add chords to "Bagpipe".
Let's take a look at the sheet music to get started.
So let's take a look at the score to figure out how we're going to play the left-hand part,
which is down here in the bass staff for "Bagpipe".
Now, as usual as we would expect there's a bass clef down here,
which tells us we'll be playing on the notes below middle C,
but what notes are we going to be playing in the left hand? Let's look at these two note chords.
Do you recognize, and can you tell me the name of this
bottom note of the chord?
If you said ground G you're correct. This is one of our guide notes.
Remember that bottom line of the bass clef represents the ground, or that's just a little trick I use.
I think of it as the ground to remember that that's a G.
And then up a fifth from G, here we've got a line note, skip a line, to a line.
A fifth above G is D.
So we've got this G and D two note chord.
Now, looking all along line one,
do you ever play anything else?
No, it's all the same chord,
and here it is, a half note,
meaning we'll hold each of these chords for two beats.
So as you're playing the left hand, one really easy way to think about this is to just count the beat.
You're going to go: 1 2 1 2 1 2
The tricky part will be making sure that it lines up properly with the right hand.
Remember, when notes are aligned together, it means to play them together.
So you play together
on this D in the right hand with this chord. Then this note you play by itself.
Then here we play together again.
Beat 4 right hand plays by itself.
Here we play together.
These two eighth notes play by themselves,
and then here we are together again
always on beat 1 and beat 3
we're playing together.
Now let's try this on the piano.
So we figured out that the lowest note of our chord is ground G.
So if here's my middle C,
Can you point to where ground G is?
If you're pointing here you're correct.
You have to go past one G, because that's the G a step above bass F which is up
higher on the bass staff.
We've got to go all the way down to the next G
to get to ground G. So here's my middle C, bass F, bass C, ground G is right there so I need a G
and a D a fifth above that so get your hand in this position.
Your left hand that is
and I'd like you to count the beat out loud. So count
1 2 3 4
Can you try this with me?
Ready, go:
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4 stop.
Remember that as you play chords there's a sense of falling, and then floating back up.
You want to keep your wrist relaxed. Drop with the weight of your arm and then relax.
1 2 3 4
Try that with me, go: 1 2 3 4
Good, now I will play both hands.
I'd like you to just play the left hand and count out loud.
I want to hear your voice counting the beat don't just think in your head.
Counting out loud will help. Trust me.
Here we go. Your job is left hand, I'll do both hands. Count the beat, ready, go:
1 2 3 4
You keep counting 3 4
Now piano.
Now forte: 1 2 3 4
Good, now I want to remind you that louder does not mean faster.
Sometimes when we go back to forte
we want to charge ahead, but that's not correct. Softer and louder doesn't mean faster and slower.
Okay? We want to keep one steady beat throughout,
just change the dynamics without changing the speed.
Good, now that you've heard how those two hands fit together,
I'd like to challenge you to press pause and try
playing some or all of it hands together.
I would start just with measure one: 1 2 3 4
In fact, let's try that right now.
Can you play just those first 4 beats together: 1 2 3 4
Place your right hand up here, and the left hand down here,
and let's try it.
Try it on your own, go.
Good, you can press pause if you need some extra time, otherwise let's look at measure two.
Now we have: RE MI FA MI DO
So we have beat 1 2, in beat 2 you've got to play that TI-TI.
TA TI-TI TA TA Now try measure two.
Good, when we put it together it sounds like this: TA TA TA TA
1 2 3 4
Now, I'd like you to press pause
and work on those first two measures hands together.
If you'd like to challege yourself and try even more hands together, you can go for it.
Eventually you're going to learn the whole thing hands together.
So, right now press pause and work on however much you want to hands together,
and then press play to go on.
When you're working on a song hands together,
I encourage you to go really slow,
even if you can play the right hand by itself
that fast, when you first try hands together you want to slow it way down,
because now your brains having to work really hard, so I'm going to put my metronome
at about 72 beats per minute
to start off hands together.
1 2 3 4
1 2
Hear how slow and steady that is? And that will
help give my brain enough time to think about
how the hands need to work together.
Once I can do that with no missed notes,
and without a pause,
then I'm going to gradually speed it up. So maybe then I'd go to 76 beats per minute.
Then maybe 80 beats per minute, then 84, and little by little
I'm only going to speed it up
when I can play it confidently, no missed notes and no pauses.
Eventually I'll get it up to about 112.
But I'm going to get there by starting slow,
and I found that that's the fastest way
to master a piece is by going slow. So slow is fast.
Now a couple other tips for practicing this song:
I encourage you to listen to it regularly on our listening album.
On the listening album, I play the song for you so you can get used to how the
hands sound when played together.
The more you listen, the more you can get the music inside of you, so when you play
you know how to express it.
Another tip is once you have it mastered and up to about 112 beats per minute,
then you'll be ready to play along with our practice album backing track.
Great job learning how to play bagpipe hands together.
I encourage you to practice bagpipe everyday,
and challenge yourself as you practice to always play your best, and with your best piano posture.
Happy practicing and see you next time!
ROAAAAR
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ROAAAR
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Let's try a little something here.
There we go.
meow
SQUAWK