Musette in D: Hands Together (Unit 7)

Hello and welcome bach. I'm Joseph Hoffman. Today we are learning how to play "Musette in D Major" by Johann Sebastian Bach with both hands. Let's come to the piano to get started. Let's take a look at the left-hand part of "Musette in D Major." Can you tell me the letter name of the first note? If you said D, you're correct. And then what interval do we have? We start on a D, and then it goes up what interval? If you said a fifth, you're correct. So we have DO SO. Go ahead and place your left hand in the D major pentascale. Here's middle C, so find the nearest D below that, and let's play through the first two measures. You'll notice we're just going back and forth, DO SO. And make sure you have a nice staccato motion, keeping your fingers close to the keys, do a little wrist lift on each one DO SO DO SO Now let's try it together. First two measures, ready go: DO SO DO SO Good, now take a look at the next two measures. What do you notice about measures three and four for the left hand part? This ought to look familiar. If you look carefully, you'll see the left hand is playing exactly the same notes as the right hand just one octave lower. So our right hand was playing: TI-KI-TI TI-TI TI-TI TI-TI The left hand plays the same thing. They happen to play it at exactly the same time measures three and four. All right so press pause and practice the left hand part all of line one until you feel confident with it, then press play when you're ready to go on. Good, now so far I bet this piece hasn't felt terribly difficult to you. You might be wondering, Mr. Hoffman, why are you giving us such an easy piece? Well the challenge of this piece is playing it hands together. So now let's try something. We're going to swap off where you're in charge of the left hand and I'll be in charge of the other hand. I'll actually do both hands, but I want you to trade off left hand then right hand so you get used to how they sound together. Then we'll work on hands together. Let's just focus on the first two measures, and we're going to slow down the tempo to more of an andante. Now, this time will you be in charge of the left hand? And we're going to go this tempo: TI-TI TI-TI 1 2, ready, go: TI-TI TI-TI Good, now place your right hand in the D major pentascale. This time you're playing the right hand. I'll play both hands so we get used to how it sounds together. You play the right hand only, but go ahead and keep your left hand in position because we'll be needing it in just a moment. You play the right hand, I'll play both, 1 2 ready, go. Good, now that you've heard how this fits together, let's take a look very carefully at each beat. Looking at beat 1, you'll see the right hand plays TA at the same time the left hand plays TI-TI. So together we'll get TI-TI Can you do that? Just try to play beat 1. Good, now in beat 2 the right hand plays TI-KI-TI-KI TI-KI-TI-KI While the left hand plays TI-TI. So now let's go in super slow motion. We'll have TI-KI-TI-KI TI-KI-TI-KI I'd like you to press pause and try that hands together five times, maybe ten times until you're really comfortable. Work on the first measure. TA TI-KI-TI-KI If you're getting confused, just look in the score at how the notes line up. Remember, the notes that are stacked on top of each other, are the notes that play together. Press pause and try that until you're comfortable with it, then press play to go on. Good, now as you keep practicing this, eventually you'll be able to play it this fast: And then measures three and four aren't too hard because both hands play the same thing. The trick is to make it sound interesting. Try to make your staccato sound light. Don't play like this: Those are really heavy staccatos. You want them to be light. TI-KI-TI TI-TI TI-TI TI-TI And I like to make the slurred note, that E, a little extra loud. Because that sounds cool. Make sure the last note isn't a plop. Don't hit the last note, play it gently. And that will sound very professional. Now, press pause and try playing the whole thing hands together. Press play when you're ready to go on. Good, if you like you can try playing the whole piece along with me, or if you want to just listen that's okay too. We'll go at about this tempo: TA TI-KI-TI-KI Okay, you ready? 1 2 Nice work today learning the left hand part to "Musette in D Major." On your own, I hope you'll continue practicing this piece until you have it confidently mastered. Happy practicing, and see you next time! Hey Scuba, you up for a joke? Always. Okay. Why did Beethoven get rid of his chickens? I don't know. Because they kept saying bach, bach, bach, bach. Hahaha Good one.