♫ See the line where the sky meets the sea? It calls me. ♫
♫ And no one knows how far it goes. ♫
Aloha, I'm Joseph Hoffman and today we're
learning how to play the chorus to "How
Far I'll Go" from Disney's "Moana." This
video you're watching is my level 3
version of this song, which means it's
going to be a little technical, kind of
an intermediate level, which requires
that you have some background and
experience in piano. If you've only been
playing for a year or less then you'll
probably be more comfortable trying
either my preparatory level or level 1
video tutorial on the same song. So, level
3 players, let's come to the piano to get
started. Okay, before we learn this let me
just play through for you the section
that we're going to learn.
Okay, "How Far I'll Go" begins in the key
of E major, so we'll have our F-sharp and
G-sharp as well as a C-sharp and a D-sharp.
That's our scale, and we start with
finger 1 on E, and I'll use finger
numbers to kind of help you tell what
I'm playing, and we get, see the line as
it shines on the sea, and that's
1 2 3, 1 2 3, 1 2 3,
pretty simple pattern, three times,
1 2 3, now you try.
Good, and
we get, it's blinding, which is fingers 1 5 2. Now
you try. Good, now let's put that together.
We have, see the light as it shines on the
sea, it's blinding. Now you try, so of course
always okay to push pause and get extra
practice or go back, whatever you need to
get it down. Then the next part we've got
a shift, finger one down to B here, and
then we're going to reach up very
quickly with finger 4 to this B, and
then we're gonna have to kind of shift
the hand a little bit to get your finger five
up on that C-sharp. Now listen to how all
that goes, but no one knows, so see how I
did that? 1 4 5, so from low B to this B to
C-sharp, 1 4 5, and then finger 3 on
this G-sharp down to F-sharp with finger
2, 1 4 5 3 2, 1 4 5 3 2.
Now press pause and take a little time
to get comfortable with that. It feels a
little bit awkward at first. 1 4 5, it will
help if you kind of turn your hand to
get that pinky, your finger 5, up on
that C-sharp. Press pause and practice
that a few times or several times until
you're comfortable with it, then press
play to go on.
Okay let's go on to the next section
which is very similar to the beginning.
We have, and it seems, that same 1 2 3
pattern, but then this one we get an
extra syllable, like it's calling, so we
need an extra finger 3, so we have,
and it seems like it's calling out to
me, now you try. Good, so the finger
numbers would be 1 2 3, 1 2
3 3 1 2 3, good and then
the next part goes 1 1 5 3. I mean 2. Sorry
it's 1 1 5 2 for, so come find me, now you try.
Good, now putting those two parts
together we have, and it seems like it's
calling out to me so come find me.
Now you try. Good, then one more time
we've got this crazy pattern where we
come finger 1 down here to B, and let
me know, now you try, good. Then we have a
new pattern that goes, what's beyond that
line, will I cross that line, 1 2 3 1 1, 1
2 3 1 1, now you try. Good, now next
something really cool happens. I always
love it when a song does this
effectively, that's it does a key change.
We've been in the key of E-major, and now
to add extra energy to that final chorus
the composer's put this in the key of F.
So we bump it up a half step for the
final chorus, so now we're doing
everything in the key of F, and actually
there happens to never be a B-flat so
you don't even have to worry about that
B-flat, so now we're pretty much all
white keys. If we had a B you'd have
that B-flat, but now we're in F major for
the final repetition of the chorus. We
have, see the line where the sky meets
the sea, same patterns as before but
instead of E major now we're in F major,
Okay, so try that. See the line where the
sky meets the sea,
It calls me. Now you try.
Good, and now we have this same tricky
pattern as before, but now we're in the
key of F, so we're just on the white keys,
so we have 1 4, from C to C, and you
got to get finger 4 up here, so your
finger 5 can take care of that D, and
no one knows how far it goes, now press
pause and try that on your own. We've got
that awkward pattern again but this time
on the white keys.
Press pause and try that a few times on
your own, then press play when you're
ready to go on.
Okay, now with our finger 1 back on F
ready for the next section, we say, if the
wind in my sail on the sea stays behind
me, now you try.
And once again our finger 1 comes down
to C, one finger 4 up to high C, one
day I'll know how far I'll go, and then we hold that
high C for 4 beats, and then we play a big
dramatic C major chord at the end,
how far I'll go, and then and I can't sing that high
note very well, so I'll let you
singers out there do that. All right now
that's the entire right hand. Let me play
the entire thing for you once, just right
hand, and then I'll let you press pause
and practice it on your own, and then
we'll add the left hand, but here's all
the way through these two repetitions of
the chours. Start going back to E major
at the start.
Great, now press pause and why don't you
work on the right hand on your own for a
while, and then when you're ready I'll
show you how to add the left hand.
Okay, let's tackle the left hand. Our left
hand begins on two E's below middle C.
Here's my middle C and I'm all the way
down here on this pretty low E, and this
is going to give us a nice driving beat,
kind of this bass sound. We've got
repeating eighth notes in every measure,
and so we'll have eight of these E's
3-and 4-and, and then with finger 4 we're going
to come down and do the same thing on B,
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and, and then we come
up to C-sharp, 1 and 2 and 3 and
4 and, then down to low A with finger
five, 2 and 3 and 4, then that
pattern repeats. We come back to E, 1 & 2 & 3 &
4 & to B, & 2 & 3 & 4 & to C-sharp 2 & 3 & 4 & to
A, sorry, 1 & 2 & 3 & 4, you'll
notice here there's a rest. It doesn't go
4 &, it goes 4 rest, and that is
when the right hand key changes up to
the key of F and so we stopped playing
that last A so we can accommodate that
key change. Okay let's try this together.
So the pattern basically is E B C-sharp,
A, E B C-sharp A, just repeated eight
times on each one. Okay so let's try
counting the beat while we play together,
so finger one on E with your left hand,
let's try, ready go, 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & to B & 2 & 3 & 4 & to C-sharp & 2 & 3 &
4 & to A & 2 & 3 & 4 & to E & 2 & 3 & 4 & to B & 2 & 3 & 4 & to C-sharp & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 2 3
4, stop, and that stop was that rest
and that's when we're going to change
keys now to F major. So now finger 1 is
on F. We're going to do the same pattern
as before but now going from an F to C to
D to B-flat all with our left hand. So
using finger 1 4 3 5 on that B-flat
just like before. Let's keep going now on
F go 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & to C 2 3 4 to D 2 3 4 to B-flat 2 3 4
back to F 2 3 4 to C 2 3 4 to D 2 3
4, now something cool happens here. The
left-hand finger 2 comes up to A flat,
and then finger 1 comes under that
to G, then F, D
C, for a really powerful ending, we have "go," a big
chord at the end. 2 1 2 4 5. Press pause and
practice that special ending a couple
times on your own, and then press play
when you're ready to go on.
Okay now let's try something. I will play
both hands but I'd like you to choose a
hand you want to work on and play along
with me. If you want to work on your left
hand just play left hand. I'll play both
hands so you can hear how the melody fits
with the left hand, or if you'd like to
use this as a chance to practice your
melody some more that's fine too.
Eventually you'll put this hands
together and be playing the whole thing,
but for right now just choose one hand
that you'd like to try, okay? So maybe
that's your left hand. Now notice the
left hand starts playing on the word
light. The right hand plays, see the, and
then on the word, light, is when the
left hand starts. See the, and this time
let's kind of go slowly, we'll go, see the
light as it shines on the sea, it's blinding. Okay, that's our
tempo. Now this time you play along too.
Choose a hand and here we go. I'll count
one two three go, and then we'll start
playing. One two three go.
Now feel free to press pause and
practice some more on your own, but I'm
going to finish up today's lesson
playing it one more time for you all the
way through up to full tempo. Here we go,
one two three four.
Great job learning how to play "How Far
I'll Go" from Moana. If you practice every
day there's just no telling how far
you'll go. Thanks for watching and Aloha!
That was totally my idea to do a lesson
on a song from Moana. Wasn't that great?
Nice going.
I give mr. Hoffman all his
best ideas. Hoffman Academy just wouldn't
be the same without me. What can I say
except you're welcome, for the tides the
sun the sky? Hey it's okay it's okay
you're welcome, I'm just an ordinary
scuba guy.
Sheesh