Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman, and in this lesson we'll be working on adding the left hand
to the B section of "Musette" in D.
Let's come to the piano to get started.
Today we're going to use what I call learning backward,
and that sometimes can be helpful to learn the end of a section first, and then work backward.
Especially if some of the biggest challenges are toward the end.
Then the rest will feel easy and it will make, it will all feel like downhill from there. So, let's go with this today.
I want to start working on the left hand here in measure seventeen.
Now, can you name this first note the left hand plays in measure seventeen?
This bottom line of bass clef is ground G, so that first ledger line below has to be E,
and we see these octave jumps from E to E, E to E.
Now you try.
Now we've done so many octave jumps in this piece, it would be tempting to think any big interval we see is obviously going to be an octave.
But look at measure eighteen.
What's this interval here?
If you were in a hurry and being careless you might say oh that must be an octave,
but no look it's a line to a line and an octave always is from a line to a space or a space to a line.
But you see a line to a line interval, which can either be a third a fifth or seventh.
Wow, the composer throws in an interesting interval here, which is going to sound really cool by the way.
So we have these two octaves in measure seventeen, and then a seventh. Let's practice that a few times, okay?
Play it with me starting in measure seventeen. We're going to go E E E E E D, and just stop there because this note is so easy to miss.
We want to do like really drill it in so we can't miss it, okay? Say it with me
and play. E E E E E D
Now eventually we're going to play that staccato, but for now hold it so our thumb
it's like we're sending a message to our left hand thumb. Thumb, don't forget that note. It's a D.
Okay, try it with me again. We're going to start on the low E, go. E E E E E D, remember thumb, that's a D.
Good, one last time, go: E E E E E D
Good, now this time let's make that D staccato.
Okay, so will sound like this: E E E E E D
Now let's try it together. 1 2 ready go: E E E E E D
Now, once you get there you'll notice it asks for a finger 3 on C.
And you of course, dear student, are thinking oh C's must be C-sharp because of our key signature, so finger 3 is going to come to C-sharp,
then it asked for a 2 on D. Why? Because the next note we need in the next measure is an E, and we'll run out of fingers if we don't.
So even though we started with finger 1 on D we're going to kind of shift like this
and kind of fall into that A major pentascale that our right hand also will be in at that same moment.
Remember from our other lesson. Okay, so let's watch all that together. We have: E E E E E D C-sharp D E.
And it's so important that we get the fingering correct.
Please don't get creative with your fingering, trust me.
When you get to a much higher level, I'll let you choose your own fingerings,
but for now please follow these and just trust that I've chosen the best fingering possible.
Sometimes a fingering may work okay at a slow speed as you're learning it, but as we get faster your fingers will get tripped up
if you've trained the wrong fingering.
Okay, so let's just work on this measure right here, measure eighteen going to the first note of nineteen.
1-& 2-& 1
Now pause the video and work on that I'd say ten times, and then press play to go on.
Okay, let's look all the way back to measure seventeen. We had 1-& 2-& 1 D C-sharp D E. Now we go on to A.
D
Ah, that should sound familiar. Once we get there, the left hand is just playing the same notes that the right hand plays.
Right, so hands together it will sound like this:
But we're not ready for that yet. I'd like you on your own to work on measures seventeen through twenty just left hand alone.
1-& 2-&
So after that weird seventh that we talked about, and then that finger 3 on C-sharp. For the rest of the line our left hand is just going to sit
in this A major pentascale. Okay, you don't have to move out of this position once you hit this C-sharp. Okay, pause the video and work on measures seventeen through twenty, then press play to go on.
Now backing up two measures thirteen through sixteen on this line,
what is the left hand playing? Can you name this first note?
This is an E, and what interval do you see?
Is it an octave?
Yes, you can see that it's E to E, and scan the whole line. Does the left hand ever change?
Nope, we're playing E's the whole way so this line, for the left hand anyway, will be pretty easy.
It's going to be when you're playing it hands together then it gets a little tricky.
That sounds so cool, huh.
Now let's back up ...