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 down to E.
So all together we get ♫Oh what fun it is to ride♫ Now you try.
And then we get ♫in a one♫ three more E's in a row all repeating. ♫in a one horse♫
Steps down on 'horse'. Now you try.
And then ♫open sleigh♫ just goes back and forth between D E D. Now you try. ♫open sleigh♫ Your turn.
So lots of F's, E's, and D's in this section. So we have ♫Oh what fun it is♫ or F F F F F E E E E E D D E D G, then it skips up to G. Now pause the video and work on that section,
and really be careful about how many F's, how many E's, how many D's. Watch the notes carefully.
Try to play that section a few times to get comfortable with it.
It can help to sing the words along with yourself because when you sing the words, it will help you get the rhythms and notes correct.
So, pause to work on that section, then press play to go on.
Now we're back to the main theme ♫Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way♫ Now your turn.
Good, you can always pause if you need more practice, otherwise let's go on to this next part. Very similar to what we just had. ♫Oh what fun it is to ride♫ Now your turn.
Now this next part's a little different. We have two E's repeated ♫in a♫,
and then we skip up to G. ♫one horse open♫, and right there that's another skip down.
♫open sleigh♫ Watch again. ♫In a one horse open sleigh♫ E E G G F D C. Now you try.
Now let's put all that together. ♫Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh♫
Now pause the video and work on that section by yourself, then press play to go on.
Now, you've learned all the melody, and if you want to stop there you can.
You know the melody to the entire song "Jingle Bells",
but if you want an extra challenge, we can add chords in the left hand like this.
And that will make it sound even more professional and cool.
So again, if you'd like this extra challenge let's look at the left hand chords starting here in measure seventeen. You'll see a C,
E G chord. Now if that's too hard to get all three of those notes,
you could modify it and just play these two notes, and that sounds really cool too.
So again, here's the simpler version: just a C and G. If you want to tackle playing a three-note chord,
that sounds even cooler.
And that chord just keeps repeating four times in a row, then here we get a new chord.
This is our IV chord,
also the F major triad in second inversion, if you want to know the technical musical theory, but don't worry about that.
You're going to use a finger 5 on C, a finger 2 on F and your finger 1's just going to scoot over to this A, so it looks like this. Try that out.
And again, if you want to simplify that, you could just play these two notes with fingers 1 and 2.
That would be the simpler modification. If you want the extra challenge,
you can play all three keys like this on ♫Oh what fun♫,
and then on ♫is to ride♫ this time just this two note chord is going to sound best.
♫is to ride♫
Okay, now try that. ♫is to ride♫ For now just worry about your left hand. I'll play the right hand part for you.
You're just learning the chords.
Okay, and then on 'one horse' we go to a D and an F-sharp with fingers 4 and 2.
So try that out. ♫one hose open♫ Again, just worry about the left hand part. I'll take care of the melody.
And then on 'sleigh' we play what's called the V7 chord. Finger 5 has to scoot down to B, fingers 2 and 1 play F and G like this.
If that's too advanced, that's okay. Just simplify it to these two notes. That will sound good too. ♫sleigh, hey!♫
Okay, so try that out, or the full chord like this, and then we go back to 'Jingle bells, jingle bells' 'jingle all the way', just playing that. It's called the I chord or a C major chord.
Two different names for the same thing, and then we get back to this IV chord. ♫Oh what fun♫ So try this chord out again: 5 2 1 on C F A ♫Oh what fun it is to ride♫ back to the C G chord.
♫in a one horse open♫ Right there we go back to our V7 chord. You can simplify it like this if you want: 'one horse open sleigh'.
Now, let's review all those chords one more time. Play the I chord.
We do that four times. Each one lasts for 4 beats: 1 2 3 4, and then we go to the IV chord 1 2 3 4,
then back to the I chord, 1 2 3 4
Then we get this D and F-sharp chord D F-sharp played together like this: 1 2 3 4,
and then the V7 chord, 1 2 3 4, which you can simplify like this.
Okay, and those are all the chords, then it repeats the same chords we've just used. So pause the video and I'd like you to just practice
these left-hand chords for a minute or two get comfortable with all of them, then press play to go on.
Now we put it together, and it will sound like this:
Here comes the IV chord.
Here comes the IV chord again.
So when you're practicing, I would suggest you work on the right hand alone for a little bit, work on those left hand chords by themselves for a little bit, and then when you're ready
try putting it hands together.
Great work learning "Jingle Bells" today.
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As always, thank you for watching and learning with me, and happy practicing!
Hey Scuba! I've got a Christmas joke for you.
Okay, let's hear it!
What does Mrs. Claus say to Santa when there are clouds in the sky?
Uhhh
It looks like rain, deer.
Hahaha