Hello and welcome. I'm Joseph Hoffman, and in this lesson we'll be learning how to play my elementary, aka easy version of the holiday favorite "Jingle Bells". Let's come to the piano to get started.
For "Jingle Bells", our left hand starts here. You can see finger 3 is on G below middle C.
If here's my middle C, place your left hand finger 3 right here,
and your right hand first note will be finger 3 on E,
and so let your right hand just cover up the C, D, E, F, G, and your left hand will be on these neighboring keys. So your thumbs will just be
next door neighbors there.
All right, so find this place on your piano and let's try to play the first line.
♫Dashing through the snow♫
It's your left hand finger 3, then right hand finger 3. 2 1, back to the left hand.
Now you try.
Good, then the left hand plays ♫In a one-♫ three G's right in a row pretty quick. ♫In a one horse open sleigh,♫
Then the left hand lands on A. ♫In a one horse open sleigh♫ Now you try.
Good, now let's put that together. So again our left hand's going to start on finger 3.
♫Dashing through the snow♫ ♫In a one horse open sleigh,♫
Now it's important not just to play the right notes but also to hold them the right amount of time.
Here on 'snow' that is a dotted half note, which means it holds for 3 beats. So as you play 'snow', think 1 2 3.
♫Dashing through the♫ 1 2 3 ♫In a one-horse open♫ and then on 'sleigh'
this is a whole note, which lasts for 4 beats, so you can count 1 2 3 4.
Pause the video and work on those first four measures on your own, then press play when you're ready to go on.
Next up we have finger 2 starting with the left hand,
♫O'er♫ then up to finger 4 of the right hand, ♫O'er the fields we♫ 1 2 3 4 Now you try.
And then finger 5 takes a turn in the right hand ♫Laughing all♫, then careful here it skips down to D. ♫Laughing all the♫ then steps up to ♫way♫. ♫Laughing all the♫ 1 2 3 4. Now you try.
Now let's put all that together. ♫O'er the fields we♫ 1 2 3 4 ♫Laughing all the♫ 1 2 3 4
Pause the video and work on those four measures on your own, then press play to go on.
Now here in measure nine, what do you notice? ♫Bells on bobtails ring♫
It's the same notes we had at the start, right? So this should look familiar. ♫Bells on bobtails♫
1 2 3 4, but this time it's a whole note, so we hold it for 4 counts.
♫Making spirits bright♫ Here's our dotted half note, so we'll hold for 3 beats ♫bright♫.
Then ♫What fun♫, and then here something tricky happens. Our right hand needs to shift up a note
to get finger 3 on F, and that's going to get us ready.
In a minute we're going to need this A with finger 5 and if we're here
on these notes, we're not going to have enough fingers to get to that A, so we're just going to shift up
like this. So now finger 3 is on F, and your right hand is covering up these five notes now.
So try: ♫What fun it is to ride and sing♫ and let's stop right there. Now you try.
So again, the left hand with finger 2 is on A A. Finger 3 is on F ♫it is to ride and sing♫
♫a slaying song♫ then skip down ♫to-♫ and then finger 2 is going to glide over.
It's called a crossover. See our finger 1 is on D,
and finger 2 is going to glide over. All of our other fingers can follow along. ♫night♫ So watch that one more time. ♫ride and sing♫
♫a sleighing song to♫ cross over, night.
And then, ♫oh!♫, finger 5 has to come back to G, and then we're back in this position again.
When we get to ♫oh!♫,
and then we go into the chorus. Now,
we better practice that. So I'd like you to pause the video and try this line by yourself.
♫What fun it is to♫ Make sure you have finger 3 on F. ♫What fun it is to ride and sing a slaying song tonight, oh!♫
Pause the video and work on that line. Make sure you're careful of the fingers, and your hand shifts, and then press play to go on.
Now the good news is we've made it to the chorus, and our right hand can stay
in this position for the rest of the song. So we just have that temporary shift up to here.
We get back by crossing over, and then finger 5 goes up to G, and that brings us back
to this C position, and then we get ♫Jingle bells, jingle bells♫ All finger 3. You try, go.
Good, then we get some skipping. ♫Jingle♫ We skip up, then all the way down to C. ♫Jingle all♫ Now you try.
Good let's add the next two words. ♫Jingle all the way♫ then it just steps up. Now you try.
Let's put that all together. ♫Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way.♫ Now you try.
Now pause if you need more practice with that, otherwise let's keep going.
Now in measure twenty-one we get finger 4 on F. ♫Oh what fun it is♫ five F's in a row. ♫Oh what fun it is♫ Your turn.
And then on the word ♫to ride♫ it steps back do ...