Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman.
Today we're learning how to play the melody to an old traditional folk song from Japan.
Oh, japan? Isn't that where samurai warriors live?
Well, you wouldn't see any samurai warriors today, but hundreds of years ago, yes.
And ninjas too.
Ooo, ninjas are from Japan too?
Yes Scuba.
Japan is an island nation on the western edge of the pacific ocean.
About 500 years ago, Japan was a dangerous place with many wars being fought involving both samurai and ninjas. But today Japan is a peaceful country known for its bonsai trees and great food like sushi.
I like sushi!
I like it too.
The Japanese folk song that we are learning today is called "Deta Deta",
and it's a song about a beautiful full moon night. Let's listen.
♫Deta, deta, tsuki ga♫
♫Marui, marui, manmarui♫
♫Bon no you na tsuki ga♫
♫Kakureta kumo ni,♫
♫kuroi kuroi makkuroi,♫
♫sumi no you na kumo ni♫
Here's the score for "Deta Deta".
Take a look and tell me what you notice.
I always like to check out the tempo indication first thing so I know the mood of the piece.
It says andante, which remember means a relaxed slower tempo,
but not too slow, just comfortably slow.
We've got treble and bass clef. What's our time signature?
If you said 4/4, you're correct.
We're going to be playing this mezzo piano.
Now let's check out this first phrase. What's the letter name of this first note?
If you said treble C, it's one of our guide notes, you're correct.
Finger 5 goes on treble C, so on your piano place your finger 5 on treble C and notice what position that lands you in.
This piece will be in F major, and so this C will be SO.
Can you pause the video, and I'd like you to figure out this first phrase
in solfège. It starts on SO. Can you figure out the rest?
Pause to figure that out, then press play and we'll check it out together.
The correct answer is SO MI SO MI DO RE MI REST
Let's try to play it.
All right, let's go ahead and place finger 5 on treble C.
Remember, it's kind of the F major pentascale, but this piece never uses B-flat.
You might as well just keep your fingers relaxed on the white keys.
All right, the first phrase remember we had: SO MI SO MI DO RE MI
Now you try.
Good, let's play it one more time together this time. Ready, go:
SO MI SO MI DO RE MI
Great, remember because of this phrase mark we're going to play it legato and flowing.
The last note of a phrase is usually the softest, so get a little bit softer as you go up to that last A.
Super, press pause, try that one time on your own
with beautiful legato and getting softer on the last note,
and then press play when you're ready to go on.
Now let's check out measure three.
Can you tell me the letter name of this first note of the phrase?
If you said treble C, you're correct. Same note as the start of the last phrase, but
the finger number is different.
This means we're going to have to shift our hand over one key
to be ready because now C, or SO, isn't the highest note of the phrase anymore.
We're going to need one extra finger to reach up above C. What's the letter a step above C?
If you said D, you're correct.
So let's look at this pattern. We have C D C A. Notice we skip down to that A.
Can you sing that with me in letters? Go.
C D C A, or in solfège: SO LA SO MI
Now what do you notice about this next pattern of four eighth notes?
If you notice they're the same notes, same pattern over again, you're correct.
So notice how this phrase mark goes off the edge, which tells us the phrase continues down on the next line here.
What do you notice about these next four notes?
The same pattern again. So we've had this pattern of C D C A C D C A C D C A, we've now had that three times.
And then it finally steps down to what note? Can you tell me this letter name?
If you said G, you are correct. So this last one finishes with C D C A G.
Now let's try to play it.
All right, like we said for the second phrase we have to shift finger 4 up to C so we're basically just sliding up one key.
So now finger 4 is on C, and we have this pattern of four notes. C, step up, step down, skip down.
SO LA SO MI. The note above SO is LA. SO LA SO MI. Can you try playing that pattern?
Now your turn.
Good, and that pattern happens three times. We have SO LA SO MI SO LA SO MI SO LA SO MI RE
at the end it steps down to RE, and remember to make that last note of the phrase the softest.
Now press pause and try that phrase a few times on your own,
and then press play when you're ready to go on.
One trick I'd like to show you for this phrase is a little bit of hand and wrist motion that will be kind of like your hand is moving around in a circle.
And that will help with the beautiful legato tone. Listen:
To play on your pinky,
it's usually more comfortable to kind of rotate your hand a little bit this way. So as you go up to that high note we'll rotate this way,
and then it will circle back around,
and then gently land on finger 1.
Press pause and see if you can get your hand to rotate gently and comfortably as you play this phrase.
Press play when you're ready to go on.
Now we just ended with finger 1 on G, but if you look at the first note of this next phrase, you'll see we need an F.
And you'll see a finger 2 written for that, and so you're going to do what's called a finger cross-over.
And that is where you keep your finger 1 anchored on this note,
and then all of your other fingers are going to shift over like this.
So finger 2 is going to glide over while finger 1 stays on G, finger 2 glides across,
plays F and then your finger 1 plays G, and at that moment all of your fingers shift back to where they were before. So finger 2 can now play this A.
So basically you play F G A, three notes stepping up in a very smooth gliding fashion.
Let's try this about five times.
You're going to keep finger 1 kind of anchored on G. All of your fingers are going to glide across with finger 2 landing on F.
F G with finger 1, A.
Let's try it again.
F G A.
Now press pause and try it five more times on your own, keeping finger 1 on G,
finger 2 plays F, finger 1 plays G, finger 2 plays A.
Press pause to try that on your own, then press play when you're ready to go on.
Okay, after you play F G A, then it skips up a fourth to D,
then steps down to C, then skips down to A. So listen to that whole measure.
Press pause and try that five times on your own,
then press play when you're ready to finish the piece.
All right so you just did:
And then we step down to G, and then step back to A,
and then our finger 1 has to skip down
to F, and notice we're decrescendoing here, so the last note is the softest and it's a half note
tied to a whole note.
Remember, a tie is this curved line that connects two of the same note.
So it's 2 beats plus 4 beats for a total of 6 beats.
So listen to this entire last phrase.
4 1 2 3 4. You're done.
Now press pause and try that last phrase, then press play when you're ready to hear the whole piece.
All right, let's try the whole piece together. You can either just listen or if you feel ready you can try playing along with me.
I'll do right hand and left hand, but you're just in charge of right hand today.
Here we go from the beginning.
I'll count 4 beats. 1 2 3 4
Great job learning to play the melody of "Deta Deta". Practice this melody until you are secure and confident,
and then you'll be ready to learn the left hand part and put it hands together.
Thanks for watching, and see you next time!
Hey Princess, did you know that I'm a trained ninja? You are not.
Did you see me do that?
Do what?
Exactly.
what?
Oh..