Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph
Hoffman
and today we're learning how to play
"Deck the Halls". This video is my Level 2
piano tutorial which requires that you
have about two years or more solid piano
experience. If you try this and it seems
too hard and you want something easier,
then please check out my Preparatory
Level "Deck the Halls" tutorial. Okay,
let's come to the piano to get started.
By the way, as we're learning this, it
might be helpful to have your own copy
of "Deck the Halls".
So I recommend that you download and
print "Deck the Halls" Level 2 which you
can find on our website. Let's start by
learning the right hand. You can see here
in the treble staff we have finger 5
on G. Actually before we get there, we
should check out our time signature
tells us we're in 4/4, and we're going to
be playing this lively. So get finger
five on treble G, and what we're going to
do today is I'm going to see how much
you can learn on your own.
So I'll have you pause the video and try
the right hand by yourself for the first
two measures, then the left hand which
starts here on this C major chord, and
then go ahead and try it hands together
and then I'll walk you through it
and we'll see how you did. So, press pause
and just work on these first two
measures, right hand alone, left hand
alone, then hands together, and then we'll
do it together. So, press pause and then
play to go on.
So the right hand should have sounded
like this.
Now let's try that together.
Ready, go.
Good, then the left hand should
be, 1 2 3, F E F G E. Now try it with me.
Let's slow it down a little bit.
Ready, go. 1 2 3, F E F G E. Now together it
sounds like this.
And notice for the hands together, we
have this chord and then,
the hands kind of follow this pattern
where they both step down together, step
up, step up, skip down, even though they're
on different notes, they're following the
same pattern.
Okay, now let's try it together.
Ready, go. 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4. Feel free to press
pause if you need a little more practice
with that section, otherwise let's keep
going to the next two measures. Let's
look at the right hand first. We have, it
starts on a D, we go D, step up, step up,
skip down, step up,
step down, step down, with the staccato,
then we have to step down again but, uh oh,
we're out of fingers.
No problem, finger 2 will just come over
for that B below middle C, but our thumb
is gonna stay on middle C. So we're gonna
have C B C. We're gonna come right
back, so just glide that finger 2 over,
but the thumb stays put. So let's watch
all of that together. We have TI-TI-TI-TI-TA-TI-TA-TA-TA, rest. Good, now
the left hand meanwhile has this V7
chord with B F G for 2 beats, 1 2,
and then a tonic or a I chord, and then
we have F E D and then a C and E chord.
And then together we'll get
So press pause, and I'd like you to work
on right hand alone, then left hand alone,
and then try it hands together. Then
press play when you're ready to go on.
So let's hear the whole thing so far. We
have,
and then it repeats
Now, if you need a little more work on
that section, please feel free to press
pause and work on it until you feel
ready, otherwise let's keep going. Let's
take a look at this next section. Now,
with the right hand we begin with finger
2 on D. For ♫Don we now our gay apparel♫
And then the left hand, we have this V7 chord again for 4 beats. 1 2
3 4, and then back to the tonic or
I chord, 1 2 3. But then you have that
F. So together we get ♫Don we now our gay apparel♫
So now I'd like you to press pause and
work on those two measures. First try
right hand alone, then try the left hand
alone, then put it hands together, then
press play to go on.
Okay, now in this next section we start
with the right hand finger 3 on E,
and then you'll see that we step up but
it asks for a finger 1 and that's
because we're gonna run out of fingers
because then we have to travel all the
way up to C, and you don't want to use a
bad fingering like I just showed. You
want to use our scale fingering. If you've learned how to do a one
octave C major scale like this, you know
how to bring your thumb under. Okay, so
finger 3 will play E, finger 1
will just glide under to F, and then your
other fingers will slide over to this
position. So 3 1 2 is the finger numbers
for just stepping up across those three
notes. So let's try that a couple times 3
1 2. Try that again, 3 1 2. Okay,
so if we ...