How could I say it's springtime without saying it's springtime?
Does "La Primavera" count?
This song is part of a large concerto called the Four Seasons, and it's meant to capture the liveliness of spring in the northern hemisphere.
This energetic song was written by Antonio Vivaldi, an Italian composer who died almost 300 years ago. This song is in D major position.
So starting with your right hand you're going to put your thumb on D,
and then each finger gets a white key, except
your 3 finger. Your middle finger will come up to an F-sharp the black key right next to it.
Okay so this is our position now.
Now watch as I play the whole first phrase.
That's the first phrase.
Now watch as I play the second phrase.
Did you notice much of a difference between the two phrases?
Probably not, because there isn't much of a difference.
They're the same thing except the second phrase we'll add a note at the end.
So with that in mind, we're going to come back to D major position.
You'll start with your thumb,
and then immediately skip up to your 3 finger on the black key.
1 3 3 3
Then you'll step down to your 2 finger and your 1 finger rather quickly.
And then the final note of this short phrase is your pinky, A.
A will come soon after 2 1.
Let me show you that again.
So that's 1 3 3 3 2 1 5
Now again your 2 and 1 finger will play rather quickly. Now you.
All right, now the second phrase let me play it for you.
The second phrase is pretty similar.
It starts instead on your pinky and goes SO FA MI.
5 4 3, so just steps down each finger.
And then it does the same thing. It repeats 1 2 3,
just like the previous phrase.
So the second phrase starts on your pinky.
5 4 3 3 3 2 1 5
Make sure you pay attention when the notes are fast and when they're slow.
We start with fast notes,
then fast notes down here:
Okay, so let's put the two phrases together.
Pause and practice that on your own if you need.
When you're ready, we're going to go on to the last whole part of this section.
It sounds like this:
So it starts on your pinky just like before. 5 4 3, but instead of repeating your 3 finger you're going to step up, step up again.
See how we went the opposite direction that time?
And then you'll play FA MI RE.
4 3 2 So we have 5 4 3 4 5 4 3 2
Now I know the finger numbers can sound confusing, so let me just play this again. Watch as I play. Pause and practice that on your own. When you're ready, we'll go back to the beginning.
Okay, from the beginning we're playing the first half.
Start in D position with your 1 finger.
1 2 3
Pause and rewind if you need. If not, we're going to go on to the second phrase. Watch as I play. End on D.
So, now we know the whole song.
We basically play the same phrase twice.
If you're ready, we're going to go back to the beginning.
Play it exactly as written. That means we play the same phrase twice, but we add D at the very end.
Remember, you can pause rewind and practice anything at any time.
D position.
Together from the beginning slowly.
1 2 3
and
Great, once you have the right hand pretty solid we're going to add the left hand.
So for now put your right hand on your knee or off to the side or anywhere else because we're just focusing on your left hand.
Now if you look at the music, the left hand is pretty repetitive.
You have chord,
same chord, same chord, same chord, same chord, and then you have a few quarter notes.
So that chord is in D major position as you could probably guess.
We just played the outside notes D and A.
We start with whole notes, so we count to 4. 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, then at measure five things change.
We play the chord again, but this time it's a half note, which is 2 beats.
1 2, and then you'll notice that top note steps down. So we're going to play 2 3 4.
Okay so we play chord for 2 beats, 2 3 4.
Try it again if you need. 1 2, 2 3 4
This is also what the right hand is playing at the same time.
So you don't have to play this, but ill show you. It sounds like this:
So they're playing the same notes and octaves.
Okay, from there your left hand plays 1 2, FA MI RE,
and then an additional D before it starts the chord again for the second phrase.
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, the same pattern 1 2, FA MI RE DO.
So plays DO with your right hand at the end.
So the left hand is simple enough.
Now we have to put it hands together.
You'll notice the right hand plays the first note D by itself, and then the chord comes in on the second note.
Right hand D,
chord, okay so let's look at what I'm doing. I'm playing the chord with my left hand and my 3 finger on the black key with my right hand.
it goes right, together.
And then I play the chord again right there on my highest note of the phrase.
Just try putting those two measures hands together, and then come back to the video.
When you're ready, the second phrase it's the same thing the right hand will start.
And then we'll play the chord with that 3 finger on the F-sharp.
Chord.
Make sense?
Back to the beginning hands together.
Right hand first.
Now the next measure is a little different. We play right hand first like before.
And then we have the chord on that first beat, but this time we only hold the chord for 2 beats.
So something I like to do when I'm learning something more complicated is do the more complicated thing first.
So start with both hands in D major and just play those last three notes.
Now pause. You'll notice you're playing the same notes, but you're playing different fingers.
So your left hand will play the 2 finger, your right hand will play the 4th finger both on G. And you'll step down together, and step down together again.
So let's do that together again.
Okay, so at the beginning of the measure you have that chord, then FA MI RE.
i keep singing FA MI RE there and that's because I'm using solfège.
Solfège is also another tool to help you understand melodic patterns.
Okay, going into that last measure.
Ready?
Pause, rewind, practice as many times as you need. Now we know the second phrase is the same thing. The second section, it's the same thing except we add DO at the end, we add D with both hands.
I'll play it for you once just so you can see what that looks like, and then we'll do it hands together.
All right, let's try it hands together. Okay, I'm going to play it for you from the beginning so you know how the whole thing sounds.
If you don't feel ready you don't have to play with me, and you can just watch.
Now one more thing I'd like to point out is the dynamics.
We've been playing dynamics pretty equally the whole time now, but you'll notice the first phrase is mezzo forte, medium loud.
The second phrase is piano, soft.
So this time we're going to play the first phrase like we were playing it, but then the second phrase I'll play it softer.
You can watch or play along.
Thanks for playing with us today.
Remember, if the song felt a little hard that's probably because it was, but that's okay just try it again.
Pause, rewind, practice on your own, and you'll get it eventually.
Like this video if you enjoyed it, and remember to subscribe to the channel if you want to see more tutorials. Happy practicing!