Adding Chords to Row, Row, Row Your Boat (Unit 5)

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman. So, what would you like to learn today? What was that? Hmm? I'm having a little trouble hearing you, but I'm going to assume you said: Mr. Hoffman, I want to learn how to add chords to "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." Great! That's just what I was hoping you would say. That is what you said right? Please say yes. Okay, let's get started. All right, for "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" we're going to need two different chords. The I chord and the V7 chord. The I chord is built on DO MI and SO of the pentascale. Like this: Let's try to play that with our left hand, which will be in charge of the chords. Place your left hand on the D-flat major pentascale, and using finger 5 3 and 1 try to play the I chord. It should sound like that. Good. Now, I'll place these back to show us the I chord. When we play a V7 chord, DO moves a half step down to TI. in this case a half step below D-flat would be C, and MI moves up a half step to FA, which is in this case would be G-flat. So now these three notes make the V7 chord. Which we'll play with finger 5 2 and 1, like this: Remember, fingers 3 and 4 will float gently in the air. You play it like that. Can you try that with me? Let's play it three times. Ready, and Good. An optional way to play the V7 chord is just using fingers 1 and 2 on A-flat and G-flat. If it's too awkward to add in your pinkie, that's fine. But the full version would be all three. All right, now we're going to try singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" while we play the chords. Basically we'll play a chord every three beats like this 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 The whole song is I chords until we get to ♫life is but a dream♫, on the word 'life' we change to a V7 chord, and then on 'but a' we also are playing the V7 chord and then on the word 'dream' it goes back to a I chord. Let's practice that together. We're going to sing 'life is but a dream,' play two V7 chords, then return to the I chord. Ready, go: ♫life is but a dream♫ Good, one more time. Two V7 chords 'life is but a dream', go: ♫life is but a dream♫ Nice, now let's try the whole song. Sing along and play the chords. Ready, go: ♫Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream♫ ♫Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream♫ Nice job. Now, the next step would be to try playing the right-hand melody while your left hand plays the chords at the same time. Let me show you what that will sound like once. You probably notice that since the left hand had to cross over, you're going to have to take a break from playing the chords during the 'merrily, merrily, merrily' part, but then it's back in place in time for ♫life is but a dream♫ Great, now press pause and try that on your own. You're going to play chords in the left hand while your right hand plays the melody. You'll only play chords on beat 1 of each measure. so you'll notice sometimes the right hand will be playing a note while the left hand doesn't play anything. Like: ♫gent--♫ on the word 'gent--' they play together, but on '--ly' the right hand is playing by itself because that's on beat 3. 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 Make sense? So now press pause, practice on your own, then press play when you're ready to see some more advanced ways to add the chords. Okay, so now you know how to play chords for "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," but the cool thing about chords is they're actually so many ways you can do it. Instead of just playing them all three together like this: which we would call a blocked chord, you can also do broken chords, which is where you play the notes one at a time like an arpeggio. DO MI SO DO MI SO DO MI SO So instead of going 1 2 3, you play one note on each beat. 1 2 3 1 2 3 and that would sound like this: ♫Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream♫ Now we cross over. ♫Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,♫ Now you've got to find the V7 chord, and you're going to go 1 2 3 1 2 3 The same three notes as the V7 chord, but now one at a time for 'life is but a dream' like this: ♫life is but a dream♫, and then you can end on a DO. That would be one advanced option you can try. Another advanced option is called the not so technically but you could call it the oom-pah-pah accompaniment, which is you play DO, and then you turn MI and SO into a two note chord like this: oom-pah-pah, oom-pah-pah DO by itself on beat 1, and then MI and SO together staccato, and gently so it doesn't sound oom-PA-PA! but oom-pah-pah oom-pah-pah ♫Row, row, row your boat♫ Now you know two advanced ways that you can make chords sound even more interesting. Either broken or oom-pah-pah So for fun if you'd like an extra challenge you can try out those more advanced versions too. But don't feel like you have to do these more advanced chord patterns. If you're more comfortable sticking with the blocked chord, chord that's fine too. It's up to you. Last of all, I'd like to show you how you can play along with the practice track for "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." Remember, with practice tracks it's important to master the piece or song first before you try playing along with the track. Once you have the notes and rhythms mastered you can try playing along with the practice track, which is available for d ...