Autumn Moon: A Section

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman, and in this lesson we're going to begin learning a new piece I composed called "Autumn Moon." Let's have a listen. Let's check out the score for "Autumn Moon." We'll do our usual checklist: The tempo indication is flowing, which will indicate we don't want a tempo too slow. We want the notes to flow along, but also not too fast. It should be comfortably flowing. Notice our clefs. We've got double treble clef today, so both of our hands will be in that middle C and up range. Let's check out our key signature. One sharp would tell us we're in the key of G major or E minor. So how do we tell? Well, let's look at the first note. What do we start on? If you said E, you're correct, and then if we look to this first chord that we play on the downbeat of measure one, you'll see it's an E minor chord, so I think we'd be safe to say we're in the key of E minor today. Our time signature is 4/4, and then let's look at these first couple of notes. Is this a complete measure? No, we've got a bar line here and a bar line here, so we can see here's our first full measure. These notes have to be pickup notes. Remember, sometimes we have some notes that come before beat 1. Composers do that if they want the piece to start on a more gentle sound. Remember the first beat of a measure is a stronger beat, but for a more gentle sound, you can start with some pickup notes, which is what I've chosen to do here. So we know that's beat 1. We just have to count backwards. Well, two sixteenth notes equals one eighth note, which equals half of a beat. So I know this has to be the &, and then we call the sixteenth note right after the and an a. So we can say &-a 1. This is technically the & of beat 4. So if I were counting a full measure to get us ready, we could say 1-e-&-a 2-e-&-a 3-e-&-a 4-e-&-a, 1, and then we'd begin. Now, if you glance through this piece, you'll notice there's lots of sixteenth notes and eighth notes, and here are some dotted quarter notes. That means we will probably be well served to count 1-e-&-a 2-e-&-a, using our subdivided sixteenth note counting. Remember, when we count subdivided sixteenth notes we say 1-e-&-a 2-e-&-a 3-e-&-a 4-e-&-a, so every single sixteenth note has a sound. Say it with me, go. 1-e-&-a 2-e-&-a 3-e-&-a 4-e-&-a. And this kind of counting will help you get all these rhythms accurately. For example, we can write the counts in this first measure like this. So, if we were to tap this rhythm, let's start right here on the &-a and you can try tapping with me. I'll start on beat 3 before we get here. 3-e-&-a 4-e-&-a, 1-e-&-a 2-e-&-a 3-e-&-a 4-e-&-a. Notice that this dotted quarter note since it equals 1 1/2 beats, all of beat 3 gets taken up plus half of beat 4, which is this 4-e, and then these last two sixteenth notes get the &-a. So 3-e-&-a 4-e-&-a. Now, as you get more advanced with this it's okay to leave out some of the e-&-a's and just imagine it. So like right here this dotted quarter note, which gets 1 1/2 beats, I can just write 1-& 2, and I know it gets the first half of beat 2, and so these two sixteenth notes have to be &-a. So I can think 1-e-&-a 2-e-&-a, and then here's beat 3, and then we have a fermata, which will eat up beats 3 and half of beat 4, and we can stretch that out extra long and then this &-a takes us on to the next line. Now, I'd like you to pause the video and try writing in the counts, the subdivided sixteenth note counts for measures three and four, and then practice tapping and counting the rhythms in measures three and four. You can also review line one, and then press play and we'll look at it together. Here are the counts. I chose to leave out any counts where there wasn't a rhythm, but in our mind we can still think them. 1-e-&-a 2-e-&-a 3-e-&-a 4-e-&-a, Let's try tapping the rhythm of measure three while we count the beat. Ready, go. 1-e-&-a 2-e-&-a 3-e-&-a 4-e-&-a, Now let's try measure four. Try it with me, ready go. 1-e-&-a 2-e-&-a 3-e-&-a 4-e-&-a. Now pause if you need more practice with that, and if you're wondering what to do about those grace notes, remember a grace note is played so quickly you don't really need to give it a rhythmic value. You can ignore it when you're practicing the rhythm, and then when you play it, you treat that grace note almost as if it's part of this beat too. So play it on the piano those two beats would sound like 1-e-&-a 2-e-&-a, 2-e-&-a 2, see on beat 2 I just combined the grace note with the B. Now that we've learned the rhythms let's try to play it. So let's check out the right hand part here at the beginning. We have 3-e-&-a 4-e-&-a, 1-e-&-a 2-e-&-a 3-e-&-a 4-e-&-a, 1-e-&-a 2-e-&-a 3, and then we'll hold for the fermata. Now notice all those intervals. We had that sixth on the downbeat of measure one, then we have a fifth, then don't forget anytime you have an F, it's an F-sharp. We have a third, and then fermata. Now pause to work on that right hand alone, and I encourage you to count the subdivided\ ...