I Have a Dog

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman and today I'd like to congratulate you because you my friend are ready to attempt your first notation project! That's right, in this lesson I'm going to walk you through how you can take a song or melody that you hear and turn it into notation that you write yourself on the staff. To complete this project you'll want to have in front of you the theory pages for this lesson, which you can find in the Unit 3 Method book. Which as always it's available for download from the Hoffman Academy website. So, pause the video if you need a minute to get your theory pages ready. Otherwise let's get started with step one of our notation project, which is to listen to the song we will notate. That song is "I Have a Dog," and today I've asked my finger puppet friends Scooba and Princess to sing it for you. Take it away guys! ♫I have a dog and his name is Rover♫ ♫He is the one I love the best.♫ ♫When he is good, he is good all over.♫ ♫When he is bad, he is just a pest!♫ Ah! Rover! Now, before you go on to step two it's important that you feel very familiar with "I Have a Dog", which means you can sing along as you hear it. So if you feel like you need some more practice with it, just rewind the video and try singing along with Scuba and Princess as many times as you need to get familiar with it. That will really help you with the next steps. If you already feel like you are familiar with "I Have a Dog," then let's go on to step two. Step two of our notation project is to dictate the rhythm of "I Have a Dog" in the heartbeats you see here. Now, in your own theory page which you can download and print from our website, I'd like you on your own to write the rhythms in these heartbeats. I'll help you get started, but I'd like you to do as much as possible on your own. Let's together sing and point to each beat as we sing "I Have a Dog", and let's do it in sheep language ba ba ba ba. Okay, ready go, Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba Now, I'd like you to pause the video and see if you can figure out where the quarter notes are, where the two eighth notes are, and my clue to you is that on this line there are only quarter notes and eighth notes. There won't be any other kind of rhythm. Let's sing it one more time together, and then you can pause the video to figure it out on your own. Ready, touch and sing with me, go: Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba Now, pause the video and on your own paper at home, use a pencil so you can erase if there's a mistake. Use a pencil and write the rhythm in these heartbeats, Then press play again and I'll show you the answer. Here's the answer: TA TI-TI TA TI-TI TA TA TA TA Now, check your rhythm and make sure it matches this. You can pause if you need extra time to fix something, otherwise let's point and sing the rhythm words together. Say TA and TI-TI with me. Actually, sing TA or TI-TI with me as we point. Ready, go, TA TI-TI TA TI-TI TA TA TA TA Good. Now, I will sing this next row and see if you can notice where there are quarter notes, eighth notes, and maybe any other rhythms. My turn, just listen and watch. Here we go. TA, oops, if I say TA and TI-TI that gives you the answer. Let me try it in sheep language Ready, go, ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba Hopefully you are hearing some of these rhythms. This time point and sing with me. Ready, go, ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba Now, pause the video and draw in all the quarter notes, eighth notes, and my clue is there's an eighth, sorry, a quarter rest somewhere. Pause the video to draw in the rhythms and then press play and I'll show you the answer. Here are the rhythms. Can you point with me and let's sing them. Ready, go, TA TI-TI TA TA TA TA TA REST Now, if you forgot how to draw a rest, here's a hint: Think of it as drawing a Z that's kind of falling or a little bit crooked, or you can think of a lightening symbol just with one two three back-and-forth lines, and then add a hook to the bottom. That's how you draw a quarter rest. Zig zag zig, like a falling letter Z, and then a hook at the bottom, or you can think of it as a Z with a C at the bottom. Pause the video if you need some time to fix any of your rhythms, otherwise let's keep going. Now let's do step three, which is to figure out the time signature of "I Have a Dog." It says in the instructions here by finding the pattern of strong and weak beats. Add a time signature and barlines to your rhythm dictation. Your teacher or Mr. Hoffman can help. I'm Mr. Hoffman and I'm here to help. let's figure it out. Now remember, that strong and weak beats usually come in patterns. Like it can be: strong, weak, weak, strong, weak, weak. Or it could be: strong, weak, strong, weak. There are lots of options. I'd like you to listen once and see if you're hearing: strong, weak, or: strong, weak, weak, or maybe even: strong, weak, weak, weak, is possible as well. So many possibilities. Just listen once and see if you're hearing some kind of pattern here. ♫I have the dog and his name is Rover♫ Pause the video and try that again on your own and see if you can start to feel a pattern of the strong and weak beats. Then press play and I'll show you what I came up with. What I hear in this is a pattern of: stro ...