Welcome back to Hoffman Academy. I'm Alex.
Today we're going to learn how to play "Joy to the World".
This is one of the oldest Christmas songs we still have today.
It was written over 300 years ago by George Frederick Handel, who if you didn't know is the
guy.
Yeah, he wrote that too.
This arrangement is for the elementary level, which means if you're a Hoffman Academy student,
it would be for someone around units five and above.
Before we start please click the link below for the sheet music that we'll be using today,
and when you're ready, let's go to the piano.
All right, let's start by looking at the sheet music and see what we can learn from it.
For starters, I see no sharps or flats in the key signature, so that means that this arrangement is in the key of C major.
I also see that it's in 4/4 time, and that the tempo is allegretto, which means a little fast.
Next, I would briefly look through the whole score
and see what there is that we that we might find that could be helpful before starting out.
First, as I look through the right hand part, I see that it has a pretty wide range. Meaning that the highest note is treble C,
and its lowest note is middle C.
Which means I probably won't be spending very much time in C position as a warning.
I also see a few dotted quarter and eighth note pairs,
and if you're already familiar with this melody and how it sounds, then there shouldn't be any problem there, but
we can quickly review that rhythm and see how it sounds.
Remember, a dotted quarter note is a full beat and a half, so if I'm counting the beat you'll hear me count that beat that it's on,
and the next beat before you play the next eighth note.
For example, look at this first measure.
There's a half note on beats 1 and 2.
Then the dotted quarter starts on beat 3.
Beat 4 happens right here just before the eighth note,
and then you'll play the eighth note on what we'd call the & of 4.
So let's clap that rhythm in the first measure a couple times.
Just that first measure, and then stop on the first beat of measure 2 like this: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4-& 1
Good, a little faster now: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4-& 1
Good. Practice that a few times if you need to.
Great now let's learn this melody in the right hand first.
The first phrase is just a big descending scale from a treble C here all the way to middle C here.
So this starts on finger 5, and it's going to sound like this:
DO TI LA SO FA MI RE DO
Great, now you'll see how you have to cross over with the 3rd finger when we get to that
E, that F to E.
That's how we do a full C major scale from DO to DO.
Let's do it again. 1 2 3 4 DO TI LA SO FA MI RE DO.
Good. Let's do that again a little faster. Ready? 1 2 3 4 DO TI LA 1 2 3 FA MI RE DO.
Excellent, let's go a little bit faster.
1 2 3 4 DO TI LA SO FA MI RE DO.
Excellent.
What's next is treble G on finger 2.
Now this is SO,
but we definitely don't want to use our fifth finger because we're going to have to get up higher again.
So we're gong to move our 2nd finger like it says to that treble G,
and it's going to sound like this:
SO LA LA TI TI DO
and you'll hold that a long time. See there's a tie there. We're going to hold that for 7 beats,
but it's fast beats, so it won't be that long.
Let's do it again starting with finger 2 on treble G.
I'm going to count 1 2 3, and then we're in on 4. Ready, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4,
1 2 3 Great, let's do it a little faster, ready?
I'll count to 3. 1 2 3, 4 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3
Great, now this next phrase is a set of eight notes that you'll play twice exactly the same.
Before we play, notice that there are some finger numbers here so let's see what they're all about.
Both those notes are treble G, but the first one is finger 2 and the second one is finger 3.
That's because if we stayed on finger 2 we'd run out of fingers
and wouldn't be able to get down to this E down here as easily,
and we want this to be as smooth as possible, so we're going to use finger 2 and then finger 3
so that we can get down to the E like that.
Let me play that first, ready? 1 2 3 DO DO TI LA SO SO FA MI Good let's play that together a couple times.
Ready, starting on the C. 1 2 3 DO DO TI LA SO SO FA MI. Good, did you get that finger switch from 2 to 3?
Let's try that again. 1 2 3 DO DO TI LA SO SO FA MI
Good, let's play that twice in a row just like it says, ready starting on C 1 2 3
DO DO TI LA SO SO FA MI, DO DO TI LA SO SO FA MI
Good, let's play that a little faster in position.
And 1 2 3: DO DO TI LA SO SO FA MI, DO DO TI LA SO SO FA MI
Great, feel free to pause the video and practice anything we've done so far,
and press play when you're ready.
Great, this next part is what we call a sequence.