Hello and welcome back to Hoffman Academy. "Aloha 'Oe", "Farewell to Thee" by Queen Liliuokalani is a beautiful anthem written just before u.s annexation. That means it was written over 100 years ago and yet it's still alive today. I'm going to show you a slightly more advanced version of this song. If you'd like to try playing an even easier one, check out our early elementary tutorial in the link below. You can also find the sheet music for this version below. My guess is you've heard this before, but let's play it through again. Sing along if you know the words. ♫Aloha ʻoe, aloha ʻoe♫ ♫E ke onaona noho i ka lipo♫ ♫One fond embrace,A hoʻi aʻe au♫ ♫Until we meet again♫ So you'll notice that the melody actually goes from left hand to right hand quite a bit in this song. We're just going to learn the right hand alone first, but we're going to input those notes from the melody with our left hand when needed. We're F major for this song. That means, We have a B-flat. So whenever you see a B, you'll play B-flat instead. You'll notice in our first phrase we already have a B-flat. ♫Aloha 'oe♫ So you have a B-flat on your pinky. So your left hand starts the melody with the thumb. ♫Aloha 'oe♫ And you play C D F B-flat with your pinky. That's 1 1 2 5 finger. Then for the next 'Aloha 'oe', your 2 finger will stretch to D while you release your pinky on your B-flat, and play 2 1. Place your 3 finger on F, and 5 finger on A. That's a lot of fingerings. Let me play the whole thing for you again, and we'll break it down again. Okay, so again we have 1 1 2 5, stretch and release. 2 1 3 finger on F, 5 finger on A. Yeah, the main theme is done. Okay, going on to the next phrase. Your 5 finger is on A so that means your 3 finger will start on F. ♫Eke onao na noho i ka lipo♫ Okay just a little bit of complexity. Your 3 finger stars on F. ♫Eke onao na no-♫ shift ♫-ho i ka li♫, two notes E-flat and F. That's to create some tension. So it can relax into the next chord. We'll get to that eventually though. So again your 3 finger starts on F. 3 3 2 3 2 1 4, shift 3 5 on B-flat there. Come down, come down, and chord. Pause that and try it on your own. Now the next A section. It starts like the beginning did. ♫One fond embrace,♫ ♫a ho 'i a'e au,♫ So it's the same notes as the beginning just a few added notes for the words. We start with our left hand. ♫One fond embrace,♫ That's the exact same as the beginning. Your 2 finger stretches to D while your 5 finger releases. ♫aho♫ 3 3 4 5 ♫aho 'i a'e au,♫ Okay, I'll play the whole phrase again and you can watch or play along. ♫One fond embrace, a ho 'i a'e au,♫ Practice and play that on your own if you need. I'm going to go on to the next section. We just ended with your 5 finger on A, so that means your 3 finger is naturally sitting on F again. And the last phrase sounds like this: ♫Until we meet again!♫ So we start 3, step down to 2, step up, skip up to our 5 finger, step down, skip down, step up. So some steps, some skips. I'll play it slowly for you again while I say the finger numbers out loud. 3 2, 3 5 4 2 3 ♫until we meet again!♫ As always, you can pause and rewind to practice anything. I'm going to play this from the beginning. Start with your left thumb. ♫Aloha 'oe♫ ♫Aloha 'oe♫ ♫Eke onao na no-♫ shift ♫-ho i ka lipo♫ Left hand. ♫One fond embrace♫ ♫a ho 'i a'e au,♫ ♫until we meet again!♫ Practice the right hand until you feel you can do it without looking or looking minimally at the music or at your hand, and then we'll add the left hand. So you'll notice at the beginning the left hand plays the melody note so the thumb is on C, that means your left hand is in an f major position. Your right hand is extended to reach that b flat with the 5 finger, where you immediately going to play a left hand note for the first chord. So it is a chord because you're playing two notes at once, but you're only playing one note with the left hand, and it looks like this: Left hand plays the first note. ♫Alo-♫ and goes down to B-flat while your right hand plays D. So if that makes sense, you're playing a chord it's just the left hand is playing only one note. All right, we have ♫Aloha 'oe♫ You'll notice that that left hand B-flat is tied over to another b flat so you're just going to hold it through that measure. You're not going to repeat the note, just hold it through. ♫Aloha 'oe♫ Your right hand comes down to D, and your left hand plays F and A. ♫Aloha 'oe♫ So you notice that this part is just an F major chord in two hands. That's to keep the melody in your right hand. So we have ♫Aloha 'oe♫ 2, 3 and 5 with your left hand. ♫-ha 'oe,♫ All right, now the next chord with your left hand is C and G, so that's 1 and 4 finger. Sounds a little weird right now, but in context it'll sound better. So your right hand starts the next phrase. ♫Eke o-♫ Does it sound better now? Your right hand plays the E, left hand plays C and G. This is just a C major chord with G on bottom. ♫Eke onao na noho♫ ♫i ka♫ Pause, your left hand is going to play a new chord by just playing the pinky instead of the 4 finger. F and C So it goes from this chord, to this chord. Only one note changes. And that's on: ♫i ka li-♫ Right there on 'li'. And then going on, your right hand plays another note, and you repeat the chord while you play that chord with your right hand. Remember that E-flat F? Of course you do. Okay, going back to 'Eke'. ♫Eke onao na no ho i ka lipo♫ Okay, that was a lot, I know. Rewind, practice anything, we're going to go back to the beginning. Slowly. Left hand is in F position, right hand is the thumb on D, pinky's set up for B-flat. We have ♫Aloha 'oe♫ Stretch, ♫Aloha 'oe♫ ♫Eke onao na no ho i ka lipo♫ Pause and practice that. All right, the next phrase is quite similar just a few differences for the left hand. I'll play the whole thing for you so you can observe where the left hand might be different. ♫One fond embrace,♫ ♫a ho 'i a'e au,♫ ♫until we meet again!♫ You may have noticed at the end there it's a little different. From that chord on 'until', 'until'. ♫we meet♫ we have, ♫again!♫ So the left hand plays B-flat, then F and A. Now it's kind of a hard thing for your left hand to do, so feel free to practice that B-flat, F, and A. B-flat, F and A. Just like that. That's what you should do for all tricky pieces. Okay, so we start on 'until'. ♫until♫, with 1 and 4 finger, ♫-til we meet♫, now here it is. ♫again!♫ Okay. Once you have that end part, let's go back to 'one fond embrace', the pickup to measure nine. Left hand starts with the melody in F position, right hand thumb on D, pinky on B-flat. ♫One fond♫ Same thing as the beginning. ♫embrace♫ Then continue the pattern from the beginning. You’re going to have F and A in your left hand. ♫A ho ‘i a’e au, ♫ Okay, so one more time just to review. ♫One fond embrace, ♫ ♫a ho ‘I a’e au, ♫ Then 1 and 4 finger in the left hand ♫ until we ♫, repeat the chord, ♫meet again ♫ All right practice that second half on your own as many times as you need. Then we're going to go back to the beginning. Okay, going back to the beginning. Left hand is an F position, right hand Thumb on D, pinky on B-flat. I've said it many times. I'm going to count to 3. We'll come in on 4 together. 1 2 3 ♫Aloha ‘oe, ♫ ♫Aloha ‘oe, ♫ ♫Eke onao na no-♫ shift, ♫-ho i ka lipo♫ ♫One fond embrace,♫ ♫a ho 'i a'e au,♫ ♫until we meet again!♫ Thanks for playing with us today. Remember, if the song felt a little hard, that's probably because it was, but that's okay just try it again. Pause, rewind, practice on your own, and you'll get it eventually. Like this video if you enjoyed it, and remember to subscribe to the channel if you want to see more tutorials. Happy practicing!
Aloha 'Oe - Late Elementary Version
What You’ll Learn
- How to play our late elementary version of the Hawaiian folk song "Aloha 'Oe" by Queen Liliuokalani.
- Find the sheet music here: https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/1163080/Product.aspx?affiliate=61580
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