Dragon Night

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman.
Today we're learning how to add chords to "Dragon Night",
and we'll also look at how you can improvise with these chords and possibly compose your own techno pop song.
Let's get started learning these chords.
The sheet music for "Dragon Night" is in what's called lead sheet style.
A lead sheet is where the composer will just give you a melody, usually written in the treble staff,
but there's no bass clef for the left hand, so what does your left hand play?
Well, that's what these chord symbols are for.
In a lead sheet, you'll get a melody and then up above you'll see chord symbols to tell you
what to do with your left hand.
And you get to improvise those chords.
So, first let's check out the intro. We've got an E minor chord
that lasts for this entire measure.
This is a whole rest, which means the full measure we're in 4/4 time.
So, on your piano go ahead and find an E minor chord, and let's play that for 4 beats. 1 2 3 4
And then we have this half rest which tells us that this d major chord lasts for 2 beats.
So find a D major chord. 1 2.
And then a C major chord that lasts for two beats. 1 2
and then we repeat that four times, and that will make our intro.
Then we'll play the melody, and there will be more chord symbols here that we'll look at in just a minute,
then when we get through the melody one time, then there's a section where we get to improvise.
Once again we'll play the E minor chord for 4 beats,
D major for 2 beats, C major for 2 beats, and then we repeat as long as we want to keep improvising.
When the improvisation is finished, we go back and we play the melody one more time from the start.
Let's try it out on the piano.
All right, let's review the chords that we'll need for "Dragon Night" first.
I want to see what you remember. First, can you show me using your left hand an E minor chord?
Go ahead and try playing it.
If you're playing this, you're correct. Now show me a D major chord.
Play it on your piano.
If you're doing this, you're correct.
Now show me a C major chord.
If you're playing this, you're correct.C E G
Now here's a trickier one. Can you show me a B minor chord?
B minor would be this: B D F-sharp
Good, and we'll also need for "Dragon Night" a G major chord.
Can you show me that with your left hand?
If you're playing this, you're correct,
and then the last chord we'll need is A minor.
Try playing an A minor.
This is A minor: A C E. It spells ace.
All right, now let's try playing "Dragon Night".
"Dragon Night" begins with an introduction that repeats four times.
You'll see we have 4 beats of this E minor chord, so count out loud with me.
We have 1 2 3 4, and then 2 beats on this D major chord 1 2, and then
2 more beats on C major. 3 4, and that repeats four times.
So, let's try that together. Go ahead and get in position on E minor. We're going to do 4 beats on E minor. 2 beats on D major, 2 beats on C.
Count out loud with me, and we'll repeat four times. 1 2, ready go.
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, again, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3, two more times,
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, good.
Now, if that didn't go as well as you liked, press pause, rewind, try it again.
If you feel good about that, let's keep going to the next line.
Next up we have another E minor chord for 4 beats.
Let's try it. 1 2 3 4, then we shift down to D major for 4 beats.
Ready, go.
1 2 3 4, then C major, ready go.
1 2 3 4, then we come to our first B minor chord.
So let's try that,
and a little tip for the B minor chord, because our finger 1 is up on a black key,
that's always going to feel more comfortable if you slide your hand
into the direction of the black key. So finger 3 is actually playing way up in between these two black keys.
That will feel a lot more comfortable than trying to twist your hand to get your finger 1 up there.
So playing up in the black keys our B minor chord, and then that's only 2 beats, shifts back up to E minor. So it's 1 2
3 4. Let's practice that a few times. Ready, go. 1 2 3 4
Good. Press pause, and I'd like you to practice going back and forth between B minor and E minor five maybe even ten times until you feel comfortable with that. Count out loud 1 2
3 4, then press play when you're ready to try the first line of "Dragon Night" with me.
All right, now let's try line one together, and I mean line one after the intro.
So you'll play the chords, I'll play chords and the melody so we can hear how it will sound together. And I'd like you to please count out loud so we can keep a steady beat together.
Here we go. I'll count in 4 beats, and then we'll start.
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4
Great!
Now, let's go on to line two which is the same chord ...