Minuet in C: Left Hand

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman, and in this lesson we'll be learning how to play the left hand part for minuet in C by Jean-Philippe Rameau. Let's check out the score to get started. For the left hand part as expected, we're in the bass clef.
Can you tell me the letter names for the first two notes that we'll be playing?
If you said C and C, you're correct.
We start off with a bass C,
and then we jump up an octave. Remember, that's the distance of eight notes from C all the way up here to middle C.
And then what happens? We step down, we step down, we step up, then skip down a third, then can you tell me the interval from here to here?
We go up a fourth.
Now whenever we have a skip, let's mark this, and in your own music, which again you can download from our website,
let's mark all of the intervals that aren't steps. So, here we have an octave which we can mark with an eight.
Eight for oct. Up an octave, down a step, down a step, up a step, then we jump down a third.
So can you mark this in your own music too? Then we go up a fourth. Now tell me what interval you see from here to here.
If you said an octave, again you're correct. Look it's a C back down to bass C. So we can mark an eight there.
I mean, technically we should say eighth.
Intervals usually have a 'th' at the end like fourth, eighth, or in this case third.
but if you just want to write eight, that will save us some time. Then what interval from here to here?
Can you tell me that interval?
This would be a fifth.
A quick way to recognize a fifth, remember, is to see that this is a space. We skip a space up to the next space. it's kind of like a double skip.
So up from this to this space would be a third, one more skip up would be a fifth.
And then we step down to finish.
Now, for line two I'd like you to press pause, and again in your own sheet music, can you figure out all the intervals and mark them. You'll notice
this line is pretty nuts in the left hand.
It's all skips, and there's some pretty big skips as well.
So I'd like you to go through and mark, identify all the intervals on line two on your own, then press play and I'll show you the correct answer.
Here's what you should have written in your music.
We start on E and then go up a fourth, then down a fifth,
then up a fourth, then down a fifth.
Hey, that's a pattern right? We should always be looking for patterns in our music.
Up a fourth, down a fifth, up a fourth, down a fifth, then the pattern breaks. We go back up a fifth to the note we were just on,
then down an octave from G to G.
Then up a fourth, back down a fourth, down a fifth. Now let's try to play this on the piano.
So the left hand begins with finger 5 on this bass C, and then immediately we've got to move up
to middle C with finger 1, and it's okay to lift the hand and just glide up. You don't have to try and stretch that distance,
especially if you have smaller hands. Just feel free to glide up. Those notes don't have to be legato. C C, then step down, step down, step up, skip down,
up a fourth to C 2 beats, then back down to low C, then up to G.
Then step down to F, and that leads us to the next line, but let's pause there so you can practice that on your own. Listen to it one more time.
C 2 3 1 2 3
And be careful on those half notes to hold for 2 beats. C 1 2 3. Now press pause and work on that line on your own, then press play to go on.
Good, now on line two we start with finger 3 on E, then we go up a fourth. Now you'll notice my finger 1 naturally lands on G just a third above. So we actually have to
slide over just a little bit to accommodate that fourth from E up to A, then our finger 4 is already on D,
and then finger 1 comes down to G.
See that pattern? So we're going up a fourth, down a fifth, up a fourth. So it kind of makes this pattern of fourths.
E, up a fourth, D, up a fourth. Now you try.
Good, one more time. E A D G. Then we come down to fifth to this C with finger 5, then back up a fifth to G.
Now, I'd like you to press pause and just go that far from E to A D to G then C G.
Just stop right there and work on that on your own several times until you feel confident, then press play to go on.
Now in measure seven here again we just played a C up to G, and then
you'll recall that we have this octave jump down from G down to this low ground G.
So finger 1 on G, finger 5 on ground G, and then our finger 1's going to shift down to this base C G C.
And notice how I detach those notes a little bit.
This pattern is fairly common in Baroque minuets where you'll have a C G C, or in solfège we could say DO SO DO. That DO was a little low for me.
Okay, and with the right hand that will sound like this.
I'll back up a measure. We have:
If you're playing that on the cello,
you might do a slightly detached sound for that. That's common in the Baroq ...