Lesson 233

Ballade: Coda

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Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman and in this lesson we'll be finishing up learning how to play "Ballade" by Burgmüller.
Let's get started by checking out the score.
Today we're picking up in measure thirty-nine, and this is still part of the B section, but it's going to transition back to our A section.
The first thing I'd like you to do is pause the video and write in the counts for measures thirty-nine
through this double bar line.
Remember, a double bar line will show us where a major section is ending and the start of a new section.
So, I'll do the first measure for you. We're just going to write in 1 2 3, and make sure your beats line up with the notes
or rest they represent. Here's beat 1, beat 2 is lined up with this eighth note, beat 3 is lined up with this eighth note.
Then I'll give you a hint down here. Do you remember how many beats a dotted quarter note get?
In 3/8, dotted quarter note gets all 3 beats.
So, these measures will go quite slow. We'll just play 1 2 3 1 2 3
Pause the video, go ahead and write in your counts up to the double bar line starting here, and then press play to go on.
Here's what you should have written into your own music.
Why don't you take a moment to just double check what you have in your sheet music,
and then let's try tapping this on. I'll do it on my piano lid. You can use any flat surface or even your lap.
All right, so get both of your hands ready.
Of course, use your right hand to tap anything on the top treble staff. Use your left hand to tap anything on the bottom bass staff,
and count the beat out loud with me. Remember your right hand taps alone on beat 1 while the left hand rests.
I'll count 3 beats and then we'll start.
1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3, then double bar line we're back to the A section.
Good, now if you need more practice with that, feel free to pause and rewind, otherwise let's keep going.
Let's review for a moment what we just did during this animato section. We landed on C,
and let's actually start on beat 2 with all these staccatos. We have finger 2 on C, and then we just go down by half steps remember.
Try that with me. Finger 2 on C, down a half step to B, finger 3 to B-flat, A, A-flat.
Then we come here to measure thirty-nine, finger 3 is on A-flat, and let's just do right hand. We have 1 2 3 1 2 3 Now you try.
Now notice the dynamics in this measure. Also we have this two note slur.
Almost always in music when you have a 2 note slur we play the first note louder. You can think of dropping
with the weight of your arm into that note, and then float up as you play that second note, and that will make it much softer. 1 2 3 1 2 3
Now you try.
Good, it may feel a little weird to float up as you play a note, but that will make that note really delicate. 1 2 3 1 2 3 You try again.
Good, now feel free to pause the video if you want a little more practice with that wrist lift feeling. 1 2 3 1 2 3
Otherwise, let's keep on going to the next measure, which is forty-one.
Here we have up an interval of a fourth, so G to C. And notice that's also slurred, but it finishes with the staccato. Now you try.
Now once we get up to that C, look at the next few notes. It goes down to B, then B-flat, then A,
then A-flat. So once again we're just coming down this chromatic scale.
See how it's just moving down by half steps?
By the way, I threw in a term there: chromatic scale, which is just a scale that goes down by half steps.
All white and black keys.
It's called the chromatic scale, which we'll learn probably pretty soon.
Okay, so now pause the video and just work on measures thirty-nine through forty-two, which is this: 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
Pause and work on that, then press play to go on.
Good, now going on to measure forty-three, what do you notice?
Same as measure thirty-nine and forty right? 1 2 3 1 2 3, then what happens here?
1 2 3, see the sforzando? So be sure to drop, if you want a brace fingers 3 and 1 together for that you can, or just use a strong finger 3
and hold it for three beats. 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
For some reason students I've taught love to rush these notes.
Maybe they get bored holding each one for 3 beats, but that's part of the excitement of this moment. 1 2 3
Right? If everything was fast fast stops becoming exciting. So it's the slow parts that make the fast sound faster.
So, enjoy these slower moments I noticed that diminuendo. 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
Notice that diminuendo e ritardando. Dim stands for diminuendo. Rit stands for ritardando, which means gets softer and slow down.
Now check out the fingering. We have an A-flat with finger 3, then finger two comes down to this F, skip down again to D, then finger 5 comes to G,
and that's to put us in position for the return to the A section.
You'll see this a tempo which ...