Land of the Silver Birch

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman,
and in this lesson we're learning how to play a traditional folk song called "Land of the Silver Birch."
If you've been watching my lessons from the start,
you may remember learning a song called
"Silver Birchtree" in a past lesson.
This time it's "Land of the Silver Birch," another beautiful song, which I think you'll love.
Let's listen to it now.
Here's our sheet music for "Land of the Silver Birch."
Let's go through our checklist for a new piece. We're in
treble clef,
and then what's our key signature?
We have one sharp.
On the ladder of fifths, that tells us we're in the key of G major or possibly E minor.
We'll figure that out in a second.
We're in 4/4 time signature, so four quarter
note beats per measure.
Now it's time to figure out
are we in the key of G major or E minor?
Our clues to figuring that out
are looking at the first and last
note of the piece, or the first and last chord of the piece.
Taking a look at that,
what key would you say we're in?
Because we begin and end on the end on an E, and
we have an E minor chord,
that combined with the one sharp key signature, tells
us that we are in the key of E minor.
Now you probably noticed that this piece is
written in lead sheet style,
meaning we just have the melody notated
with chord symbols up above.
Today we'll learn how to play the melody, and in a later lesson we'll add
accompaniment using the chord symbols.
Before we learn to play the
melody though, I'd like to review the rhythm together.
Can you count the beat out loud while we tap the rhythm of this first line?
I'll count 4 beats to get us ready, and then we'll start.
Remember, when you have two eighth notes, we have to fit two sounds inside that 1 beat.
Let's try to count the beat while we tap the rhythm. 1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Good, let's try it again and go back and use our old TA
and TI-TI words.
can you say TA and TI-TI with me as we
say or tap the
rhythm on your lap
or any flat surface. Just tap the rhythm while we say TA and TI-TI. Go:
TA TI-TI TI-TI TA
TA TI-TI TA TA Good job!
Now let's scan this next line.
We've got quarter notes and eighth notes.
That should be no problem right?
But here, this is a rhythm we haven't seen for a
while.
You might remember this from songs like "Canoe Song"
had this rhythm: TI TA TI TWO-OO
Let's say that together.
Remember, the flag makes this an eighth note.
An eighth note usually is beamed together with another eighth note in pairs like this.
But every once in a while we have an eighth note all by
itself.
And here we have a quarter note in between two flagged eighth notes.
TI TA TI TWO-OO
Let's say that rhythm together. Go:
TI TA TI TWO-OO
If we were counting the beat, this would be beat 1.
This would be the second half of beat 1, which we call &.
1-&, but a quarter note needs
a full beat, and right now it only has half of the
beat. So we also give it beat 2,
and then this eighth note gets the & of beat 2.
So if we were counting and tapping, it would sound like this:
1-& 2-& 3-& 4-&
Let's try that together.
So we tap here on 1, then here
on the & of 1, and then here on the & of 3.
Let's try saying it together and
tapping, go:
1-& 2-& 3-& 4-&
One more time. Ready, go: 1-& 2-& 3-& 4-& and in rhythm words it's TI TA TI TWO-OO
Now let's go on to line three and say rhythm words for line three.
First scan ahead,
we've got quarter notes, eighth notes,
quarter note, and then here's that TI TA TI TI-TI TA
Be ready for that rhythm there.
Ready, let's say the rhythm words TA and TI-TI
as we tap the rhythm. 1 2 ready, go.
TA TI-TI TI-TI TA
TI TA TI TI-TI TA
Good, now here's another rhythm we haven't seen for a while.
It's a TI-TI-KI. Remember, this extra beam
makes these two notes sixteenth notes,
which go twice as fast as eighth notes.
So this rhythm would sound like this:
TI-TI-KI TI-TI TI-TI-KI TI-TI
TI-TI-KI TI-TI TWO-OO Say it with
me, ready go
TI-TI-KI TI-TI TI-TI-KI TI-TI
TI-TI-KI TI-TI TWO-OO
Good job, Let's learn how to play it.
Alright, taking a look at the first note
and the finger number up above it,
can you tell me where we should put our hand,
or just show me on your piano.
Where you should start with your right hand.
You see that finger 1,
and that is on treble E, just a little bit above middle
C,
so this is where our hand will go.
Now, I'd like you to figure out on your own
how to play the first two measures.
Be sure to watch ...