Bagpipe: Hands Together

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
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
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 ...