I Saw Three Ships, primo part (Elementary)

Welcome back to Hoffman Academy. I'm Alex. Today we are going to learn a duet for "I Saw Three Ships." Be sure to grab the sheet music below, and let's get started. So this song is a duet, which means you have the option of playing along with somebody else. The first part is called the Primo. That's what the melody plays, and then the other person can play What's called the Secondo. This tutorial is for the Primo. When you're ready, let's get started. Okay, looking at the sheet music we can see that in the first four measures you don't have anything. That's all secondo. But when we do come in, this is our position for the whole first half of the song. Our right hand is in F major position, and our left hand is going to be playing these two notes C and E since they're pretty close to the right hand we're going to use finger 3 for the C, and finger 1 for the E like that. Our first note is that C in the left hand. Middle C. And that's called a pickup note. So we're going to go 1 2-& 1. So that's the real downbeat is our right hand right there. Okay. This song is in 6/8 time, and what that means is we can count to 6 for each measure, and each of those counts is an eighth note. So if I'm counting 1 2 3 4 5 6, that means our eighth notes are pretty slow, and that's a good practice tempo. 1 2 3 4 5 6, 1 2 3 4, etc, but in performance tempo, 6/8 is going to sound like 1 2 3 4 5 6, 1 2 3 4 5 6, which is very fast. So when we get that fast I probably won't count all the way to 6. I'll probably just count to 2, and the first 3 counts will be 1 and the next 3 counts will be 2. So 1 2 3 4 5 6, 1 2 3 4 5 6, will sound like: 1 2 1-& 2, and you'll see when we get to that faster tempo. Let's start from where we come in in measure four. This is the C on our left hand and we're going to count 1 2 3 4 5 6, 1 2 and then step up, and then step up, skip up to the C, skip down again, step down, then we got our B-flat skip up there, measure seven. Then step down to A, and we have two F's skip up again to the A, step down to G. Now it moves down to the left hand. So that's the E, and then C. Repeat that C, and this is just like the beginning to the G, skip up, skip down, step down, B-flat, step down to A. Two F's and then we're going to step up, step up, and step down. This is a quarter note. A little bit longer, and then the F. And then so notice this bracket here. We've seen, you've hopefully maybe you've seen a first ending and a second ending. We had one in some of our lesson videos, but this one is a unique one because it's a first, second, and third ending, and then a fourth ending, which means you get to play this section four times instead of just normal two times. So the first three times that's what you'll play is this measure 12. And they include that extra C, that pickup on the left hand. The fourth time is exactly the same it just doesn't play that extra C. You still play G F, but then that's it. Okay let's hear what this sounds like in time. I'm going to count all 6 beats, and you can kind of see that what this Rhythm does is it kind of has this long, short, long, short, long. This long and short back and forth pattern. So let's get in position. Got my C here finger 3, and my F position here. I'm going to start with measure four counting 6 beats. Here we go. 1 2 3 4 5 6, 1 2 3 4 5 6, 1 2 3 4 5 6, 1 2 3 4 5 6, 1 2 3 4 5 6, 1 2 3 4 5 6, 1 2 3 4 5 6,1 2 3 4 5 6, 1 2 3 4 5 6, 1 2 3 4 5 6, 1 and then back to measure five. Great, now if you need extra practice please repeat that and play along with me as many times as you need to practice that really good. Looking again at measure five, you notice up above there it says optional play both hands 8va on the third and fourth pass through. 8va means an octave higher. So instead of being here, we're going to be way up here. Okay? So what that means is after you finish measure 12 on the second time, you've played this G F, and then instead of playing the C here, you can actually reach over. and play that C an octave higher. Like that. So this is optional. So if it feels tricky to kind of finish here, and then have to reach over, that is kind of a quick move. It's totally optional you don't have to do it if you don't want to. but it is kind of cool if you're going to play it four times, you might as well change it up on the third and fourth time so. Let's hear what that sounds like. I'll start at measure 11, play Measure 11, and then measure 12, and then I will go up that octave and start measure five again at that higher octave. So here's Measure 11. Starts on A right here. Get my left hand ready, and no well actually it's not really ready for what's coming up next, it's just where it was before. So this is the position where it is. So here's Measure 11. It counts like this: 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6, 1 2 3 4, like that. And a little faster you'll see how fast my hand has to move like this. 1 2 3 4 5 6, 1 2 3 4 5 6, 1 So really the challenge is getting the right hand finishing G F and then getting up there quick enough. All right, let's move on. Next, we're going to play the exact same thing, the same melody but in A major. So, notice where we were before. We were in F major and we had TI and SO down here in the left ha ...