Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman.
For this lesson I'd like to learn a duet with you.
A duet is when two people play music together.
You can play this duet with a friend,
teacher, or family member at home.
Or you can play it with me using the practice album.
For this duet, one person will play the melody and the other person will play the accompaniment.
The melody is the part of the music that we sing or hum.
Here's the melody for this duet we're going to learn.
So that was the melody.
The accompaniment on the other hand is usually based on chords which support the melody and
help the melody to sound more interesting.
By itself the melody sounds okay,
but the accompaniment adds flavor and spice to
make the melody come alive.
Here's the accompaniment for our duet.
Now, what will
it sound like when we put it together?
That's what we're going to have to find out.
I just realized I never told you the name of the duet we're going to learn.
This piece is called "La Cinquantaine"
by composer named Gabriel-Marie. "La Cinquantaine" is a French word that means 50th anniversary.
So this is dance music that
might have been played at a 50th anniversary party.
So today you'll learn the melody part for "La Cinquantaine",
and then in our next lesson you can learn
the accompaniment,
and then you can choose which part you want to play in
the duet.
Let's get started today by checking out the score.
Here's the score for "La Cinquantaine".
What do you notice about this score?
Let's go for a little hunt for some music cymbals.
Can you point to the time signature?
If you're pointing here or here you're correct.
Our time signature is 2/4 which means 2
beats per measure.
Can you find and point to any flagged eighth notes?
Pointing here, here, here, or here, you're correct.
Remember, two flagged eighth notes have
the same rhythm as two beamed eighth notes,
so this is TI-TI TI-TI We had to flag
these because they're split between the two staves.
Can you point to any eighth rests?
Remember we have a new kind of rest recently.
We learned about the eighth
rest, which gets half of a beat worth of rest.
You'll notice here up in the right hand if we draw in our beat
the first half of the beat is rest, the second half is this eighth note.
Down here in the left hand we have the opposite.
The first half of our beat we
play this eighth note and the second half we rest.
So the sound that will create is TI-TI.
The left hand plays on the first half of the beat, but the right hand plays on the second half of the beat.
1-& Can you find any slurs on this first
line? Point to them.
If you're pointing here or here you're correct.
A curved line connecting two or more different notes
is a slur. Oh, here's another one,
and here as well. Two or more notes that are different connected by curved line is a slur.
Now let's think about our rhythm.
I'm going to write in the subdivided counts for the beat.
Now, I encourage you to download the sheet
music from our website
so you can write in the counts in your own music.
Remember when we subdivide a beat,
we call the first half of the beat the number 1,
the second half of the beat is &.1-& 2-&.
and then here in
this next measure 1 happens here
the & comes here and because these two are
sixteenth notes, both of them fit inside the &,
and so the 2 is right here on the quarter note.
So this would sound 1-& 2-&
or TI-TI-KI TA
Can you say
that with me? TI-TI-KI TA
Now let's try to tap the rhythm of these two measures
while we count the beat out loud.
Tap and count with me ready go: 1-& 2-& 1-& 2-&
Let's try that one more time. Count while we tap. Ready, go:
1-& 2-& 1-& 2-&
We have the same rhythm again: 1-& 2-& 1-& 2-&
Now let's take a look at line two.
Can you pause the video and
write in the counts for these two measures?
It should look something like this:
1-& 2-&
Pause the video, write in the counts for these two measures, and then press play to go on.
Here's what it should look like: 1-& 2-&, and then the left hand starts:
1-& 2-&
Can you try that with me? So
the right hand taps this measure.
The left hand taps this measure TI-TI-KI TI-TI TI-TI-KI TI-TI let's tap it while we count the beat.
Ready, go: 1-& 2-& 1-& 2-&
Now, here we have a dotted quarter note. Do you remember how
many beats a dotted quarter note gets?
Dotted quarter note equals 1 1/2 beats.
So that takes up 1-& 2, and then the other half of beat 2 is given to this eighth note, & 1-& ...