Popular Music Lesson

Let it Go , Part 1

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Hello and welcome back.
I'm Joseph Hoffman. Today we're learning
how to play the chorus of the hit song
from Frozen, "Let it Go."
Let's come to the piano to get started.
All right, for "Let it Go,"
we're going to place our right hand
finger one on G and so we'll be in the G
major pentascale, and the chorus starts
on A with finger two, so what I'd like you
to do on your piano, go ahead and put
your hand here, and we'll take turns. I'll
play a little bit, and then you play it back.
The first phrase, and I'll sing the letter
names rather than the lyrics just to
kind of help out.
So we start off with ♫ A B C ♫
these first three notes of, "Let it Go," yes,
are, ♫ ABC ♫ first three letters of the alphabet.
Now you try that on your own starting
with finger two, good, now let's try it with
the lyrics.
♫ Let it go ♫
Now your turn.
Good.
The next three notes are ♫ G G D ♫ or in finger numbers that would be 1, 1, 5. Now your turn.
Good, now let's try it with lyrics.
♫ Let it go ♫
Your turn.
Now let's try to put those two phrases
together, so we had, ♫ Let it go, let it go ♫
Now you try.
Good. Next we're going to start on finger
four and then skip down to finger two like this.
♫ don't ♫
Excuse me, Mr. Hoffman?
Yes, Princess?
I believe the correct word
here is "can't."
Oh, yes, I believe you're right but I
actually prefer to say don't, do you mind
if I just use don't instead?
Wow, it's not correct, but I suppose if
you really want to.
Thanks, Princess.
Sure thing! Bye!
It's one word, but actually two notes,
♫ don't ♫
finger four to finger two. Now you try.
Good, then we're going to repeat on A with finger two,
♫ hold it back ♫
and then we step up for ♫ any more ♫
See how I went stepping up right there? So
putting that all together we have,
♫ don't hold it back any more ♫
Now you try.
Good. Now listen to everything this far.
We're going to start on A, for
♫ Let it go ♫ that steps up, then we come
down to finger one.
♫ let it go ♫ and it skips all the way up to
finger five, then we have,
♫ Don't hold it back anymore ♫
Good, now, before we go on I'd like you to
press pause and just practice that four or
five times until you're really confident,
and then press play to learn the next part.
All right, you're ready for more "Let it
Go."
So the next phrase actually starts off
the same way that we start off before. We
We have another ♫ Let it go ♫ just stepping up,
♫ A B C ♫
So you try that. Good. Now, here things get
a little bit tricky. Now we're going to
have ♫ Let it go-o ♫
Okay, it's starting to get more exciting
here. So we start off on a G with finger
one, and then we need an E which is
outside of our finger position, so we're
going to shift our fingers up one note.
We have ♫ let it go-o ♫
So play ♫ 1 5 5 4 ♫ and the notes are
♫ G E E D ♫
Now you try that. Good. So, putting those
two let it goes together, we have
♫ Let it go, let it go ♫
Now you try.
Good, now when we get to that point and
we've gone that far, that we just played
♫ Let it go-o ♫
Now we're going to shift all of our
fingers up here to the C pentascale, so
now finger 1 is on C for "turn away and slam the door" and on "turn away" we step up
three notes, ♫ Turn away ♫
So try that. Put your hand up here in
the C position and play
♫ Turn away ♫ Your turn.
Good and then after that we repeat E
♫ and ♫
and then slammed
the door we're going to step up to F and
then step right back down to C like
this
♫ slam the ♫
Watch that again. We start on finger 4
and just step down,
♫ slam the ♫ and then for door
we just go ♫ door ♫
♫ D C ♫ So watch it all together.
♫ slam the door ♫
Now you try.
Good, now let's put it all together for
turn away and slam the door.
♫ Turn away and slam the door ♫
Now you try.
Good, let's go back and put all of these
parts together.
So watch me once, I'm back in the G major
pentascale, so starting with finger two,
on A, we had ♫ Let it go ♫
♫ let it go ♫
Shift to C position, ♫ turn away ♫
♫ and slam the door ♫
Now you try. Press pause and put all of
those pieces together, then press play
when you're ready to go on.
Remember that we ended that section in
the C major pentascale and we're going
to stay there for this next part, where
Elsa sings, "I don't care,"
and for this we go all the way up to G,
skip down to E, then step down to D and
that makes, I don't care.
♫ I don't care ♫ Now you try.
Good, now the next two notes are ♫ what
they're ♫ two repeated notes on C, and then it
goes back to G, ♫ going to ♫ skip down to E, then ♫ say ♫ skips all the way down to C
this time, so we have two skips down ♫ going
to say ♫
So watch that whole phrase. We start on
C ♫ What they're going to say ♫
Now you try.
Good. Now let's connect that with I don't
care.
So remember, we start off on G here. My
turn.
♫ I don't care what they're going to say ♫
Now press pause and try that on your own
three times, then press play when you're
ready to learn the end of the chorus.
All right, so we just finished in this
position. Now for let the storm rage on
we're going to shift back to the G
position and then we begin on finger four.
♫ Let the storm ♫ So "let the" repeats on C
then steps down to B ♫ Let the storm ♫
then it skips down to G ♫ rage on ♫ watch
that one more time.
♫ Let the storm rage on ♫
Good, now for the last part, "the cold never bothered me anyway."
come down to C position.
I'm here in middle C position and
again we start on finger four.
♫ The cold never bothered me anyway ♫
So basically the whole time you're going
back and forth between F and E with a
lot of repeats on F throughout. Watch
it one more time.
♫ The cold never bothered me anyway ♫
And then you end on a skip down, from E
down to C. I recommend you just kind of
figure this out by ear. Kind of listen
to when it sounds like the voice goes
down, and that's when you go down to the
E.
Listen to it one more time, ♫ the cold
never ♫
It's on never that it steps down, ♫ the
cold never ♫ and then on bothered it also
goes ♫ bothered ♫
so it's never and bothered when you step
down to E. All the other times you're
playing an F.
♫ The cold never bothered me anyway ♫
Well, I guess, also at the end there, anyway, you also come down to E, and
then skip down to C.
Ok, watch it one more time.
♫ The cold never bothered me anyway ♫
Now you try.
All right.
Now you have all the pieces to the
chorus, it's just time to practice and
put all of that together. Right now I'll
show you what it's going to sound like
all the way through.
If you've already been practicing on
your own you can try playing along with me.
Remember, you can pause and practice as
much as you need on your own, and you can
rewind try as many times as you need.
So if you're ready to try it with me
we're going to place our hand in the G
major pentascale. Your first note is
finger two on A. I'm going to add in some
chords in the left hand to make it sound
extra cool, but for now you can just
worry about the right hand. In the next
lesson I'll show you how to do the
chords. I'll count one two three and then
you'll start.
Ok, this is it for real now. Here we go.
One, two, three,
♫ Let it go, let it go ♫
♫ don't hold it back anymore ♫
♫ Let it go, let it go ♫
♫ Turn away and slam the door ♫
♫ I don't care what they're going to say ♫
♫ Let the storm rage on ♫
♫ the cold never bothered me anyway ♫
Nice work learning how to play the
chorus of let it go.
In my next lesson on let it go i'll show
you how to add the chords in the left
hand if you're ready for a big challenge,
but playing just the melody is fun too.
All right all you Elsa fans out there, I
hope you have lots of fun playing "Let it Go."
Stay warm and see you next time.
Hey, Princess.
Where are you going?
Oh, I'm off to a birthday party.
Really? Who's party?
Queen Elsa.
You mean the Queen Elsa, the one from
Frozen?
That very one.
Wow, well,
just a word of advice, you might not want
to give her that balloon.
Really? Why?
Well, because she'll just let it go.
Oh Scuba!
♫ Let it go, let it go ♫