Mary Had A Little Lamb

Hello and welcome back.
I'm Joseph Hoffman,
and in this lesson we're learning a very famous song you've probably known since you were a wee little thing.
"Mary Had a Little Lamb."
Ah, that'll be easy, you think right?
Well, not so fast.
"Mary Had a Little Lamb" happens to use a new kind of interesting rhythm.
So let's come to the heartbeat mat to learn about it.
Let's sing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" while we point to each beat.
We'll just do part of the song.
Can you point on your screen and sing with me?
Ready, go:

♫Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb,♫

Good, now let's just sing this first row again this time in sheep language.
Actually, we should do lamb language,
and a lamb would say baa right?
So point with me and let's sing it with a baa for each word.
Ready, go: baa, baa, baa, baa, baa, baa, baa.
Good, now today we have a new kind of rhythm that comes in this very first beat, and it's called a dotted eighth-sixteenth note.
Now, this makes two sounds like this: TIM-KI TIM-KI TIM-KI TIM-KI.
Can you say that with me? Go,
TIM-KI TIM-KI TIM-KI TIM-KI.
Now it's very similar to two eighth notes which also two of them can fit in 1 beat,
TI-TI TI-TI, but eighth notes have a smooth sound.
TI-TI TI-TI TI-TI TI-TI,
but dotted eighth sixteenth notes have a more bumpy,
or a kind of more like a skipping sound like this:
TIM-KI TIM-KI TIM-KI TIM-KI

What's happening technically if you're interested,
is this dot will stretch out this first eighth note to be worth three sixteenth notes,
and then this extra beam right here turns this into a sixteenth note,
kind of like the last sixteenth note of a TI-KI TI-KI.
Baa, baa, baa, baa,
but this dotted eighth takes up the value of these three,
just like you'll remember the dotted half note is the same value of three quarter notes.
But the important thing to remember is that this first note will be longer,
baa, baa, and then this sixteenth note will be shorter.
TIM-KI TIM-KI TIM-KI TIM-KI.

So, I already told you that this 1st beat has a dotted eighth sixteenth note,
so we have baa, ba, ba, ba.
What did you hear in this beat?
It's a TI-TI or two eighth notes I should say.
Now, can you figure out these next 2 beats?
Listen carefully: Baa, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, baa.
What did you hear? Tell me in rhythm words.
If you said TI-TI TA you're correct.
Let's try to say this first line in rhythm words,
ready, go: TIM-KI TI-TI TI-TI TA.
Good, now can you figure out this next row?
I'll give you a clue: it doesn't use a dotted eighth sixteenth note.
It will only have eighth notes and quarter notes.
See if you can figure out this next row.

Say it to me in rhythm words. Baa, baa, baa, baa, baa, baa.
What did you hear? If you said TI-TI TA TI-TI TA you're correct.
Okay let's sing it from the start using rhythm words.
Point to each beat on your screen and sing with me.
Remember this is TIM-KI TI-TI. Ready, go,
TIM-KI TI-TI TI-TI TA TI-TI TA TI-TI TA.
Great, now let's check out "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on the staff.
For "Mary Had a Little Lamb," we're going to be using the E-major pentascale.
So let's see what that looks like on the staff.

E will be our DO today and then we have an F-sharp,
which we can draw like this just placing that sharp right in front of the note,
then we have a G-sharp, and then an A, B.
Now it turns out in music a long time ago,
composers realized that to draw a sharp in front of the note every time got a little bit tedious,
and since we're always going to sharp the F,
we're always going to sharp the G,
because that's our pentascale,
they invented something called a key signature.

This is the key signature for E-major which automatically sharps the F-sharp,
the G-sharp, and even two other sharps that if you kept going up the scale,
you would need as well.
Don't worry about exactly why it's drawn this way,
for now just know this is the E-major key signature,
and it just reminds you that F and G will automatically be sharped,
and technically we'd also want the key signature down here in the bass clef,
because when we learn the left-hand part,
it will be playing in E major as well.

So now because of the key signature, when I draw a note on G,
this will automatically be a G-sharp.
This F will automatically be F-sharp,
and E will still just be E.
And here are the first three notes of "Mary Had a Little Lamb."
So the first three notes of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" are MI RE DO.
Then after that we get this: Can you tell me how these notes are moving?
Let's actually scoot them over a little bit.
Let's say the steps, skips, and repeats.
We'll say sta ...