Hello and welcome. I'm Joseph Hoffman and
today we are going to learn one of the
most famous classical pieces of all time,
"Für Elise." The great Ludwig von Beethoven
composed "Für Elise" a little over 200
years ago in Vienna and then dedicated
it to a mysterious woman named Elise. In
German, für Elise means for Elise, and
who was this woman Elise? No one knows,
but as you listen to "Für Elise" you can
get some hints about how Beethoven felt
about her. By the end of this video
you're going to be playing one of the
most famous beloved classical piano
pieces of all time. By the way this "Für Elise" tutorial you are watching is my
super easy preparatory level tutorial
which is perfect for anyone with zero to
six months of experience playing piano.
To help you master this song I highly
recommend that you get the accompanying
sheet music for this tutorial which is
available for purchase online at the
Hoffman Academy's store or if you're a
premium member of Premium Member of Hoffman Academy the sheet music is free, included with your
Premium Membership. If you're more
experienced pianist and you'd like a
harder version of "Für Elise" check
out my level 1 tutorial or if you'd like
Beethoven's original advanced version of
"Für Elise" check out my level 4 or level 6
tutorials. Okay let's come to the piano
to start learning. Let's take a look at
the notes we're going to need to play
"Für Elise." These two blue notes are the
only notes you'll need to use your left
hand to play, and to find them just look
for two black keys nearest the middle
of your piano. We have a middle C, and E a
skip above that. Those two notes will be
played with your finger one, your left
hand thumb, and finger three of your left
hand, your middle finger. So go ahead
and get your left hand in position there
on C and E and then up here in the right
hand we have the notes A B C D and E.
We'll need all five of those notes so
we'll need
all five fingers of your right hand
covering up those five notes starting
here on A just in between this group of
three black keys right there. Go ahead
and get your right hand in position on
those five. Now every once in a while
we'll also need a D sharp which will be
played with finger four so your four
will sometimes be on D sometimes on D
sharp so just stay flexible there. Then
every once in awhi le we'll also need a G sharp
which will use finger one so shift your
hand forward to play one on G sharp. So
with your hands in this position you're
ready to start playing. Now checking out
the first five notes of "Für Elise"
you'll notice it goes back and forth
between E and D sharp
using the right hand fingers five and
four. We've got finger five on E so we go
ahead and move finger four up to D sharp
and when you do that you know you
don't have to keep your other fingers
there. Go ahead and just let the hand
naturally shift up so you're only
worrying about these two notes. You're
going to use those two fingers to go
back and forth on these first five notes.
When I said D I really mean D sharp. Now
you try that. Good, let's do it one more
time together. Go. Good, now look at the
next four notes, after that we're going
to need to make sure our fingers are
falling back in this kind of five note
position, and the next four notes go B D C A which
kind of forms a pattern. You notice
we've got this skip up here from B to D
and then a step down then a skip down, so
these notes are in pairs. We've got a
skip up and then a skip down, B D C A, will you try
those four notes? Good. Now if we put that
all together we E D# E D# E B C D A and a little bit more quickly we
get [ ♫ ]. Now press pause and I'd like you to
just work on those first nine notes
several times on your own until you feel
comfortable with it, then press play to
go on. I'd like to point out that when
you play this I'd like to really make
sure you have good piano posture.
It's common for beginner students to
play with a really flat pinky which bad
habit to get into. Try to play near the
tip. Also for the right feel on
"Für Elise" it needs to be played gently
so don't hammer out the note, play it
delicately
and with feeling. You'll notice I start
soft and I crescendo a little bit in the
middle, and then get soft again at the
end. That makes it really nice. Now let's
go on to the next section you'll notice
the next two notes are played by the
left hand. I know that because they're
down in the bass clef and we just have C,
E and then the r ...