Promenade

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman,
and today we're going to be learning a
piece called "Promenade" by Alexander Reinagle.
You might remember Reinagle as the composer of "Allegro" in C which we learned in a previous unit.
You might also remember that Reinagle was an American composer.
American composer who lived around the
same time as George Washington,
and the other founding fathers of the United States of America.
Let's come to the piano to listen to "Promenade".
Alright let's analyze the score for "Promenade."
First thing I like to check is the tempo indication, which we see here is moderato.
That's our Italian word for medium tempo. So not too fast, not too slow.
Remember that "Promenade" means a comfortable walk, like a walk through a park or through the city.
So, that will be our tempo. Now we'll check out our clefs.
Treble and bass as we expect, and then
let's check out our key signature.
The key signature is one sharp, which is F-sharp.
Now, can you remember what keys are possible when we have one sharp?
If you said G major or E minor you're correct.
Remember, from our ladder of fifths one sharp in the key signature tells us we'll be in the key of G major
or E minor. How do we tell which it is?
Well, we can look at the first note of the song,
and we see we play a G in both hands,
and then we also want to check the last note
as well,
and once again we see that we end
and begin this piece on G.
So we can
deduce from that, that we are in the key of G major,
and our time signature is 4/4.
That top number tells us we'll have
4 beats per measure.
The bottom number tells us that a quarter note
on the bottom of that 4 stands for quarter note
will equal 1 beat.
So in this measure we'll have 1 2 3 4. Four
quarter notes, one per beat.
Then over here, and if you download this music from
our website and print it out,
you can also try this with me. I'd like to circle the beats.
These are eighth notes,
and two eighth notes can fit into 1 beat, so here's beat 1, here's beat 2.
Now sometimes people see these and think, ah sixteenth notes, because they see four in a group,
but remember, sixteenth notes have two beams.
If you only see one beam, they're eighth notes, and you only fit two per beat in eighth notes.
Now here a half note we get 1 2
beats so this half note lasts both of those beats
and over here we have beat 1, beat 2, beat 3, beat 4,
and then bar line, we start over again at beat 1,
beat 2, and then beat 3, beat 4.
Okay so I've circled the beats,
and now you can press pause if you'd like to try that in your own music.
What I'd like to do now is tap the rhythm while we count the beat out loud.
So like, when we get here, we've got to say 1.
There's going to be two taps inside 1 beat. 1 2 3 4
So we'll say 3 4, but we'll just hold that half note down.
Okay? Let's practice that measure together.
Can you tap that rhythm either on your lap or any flat surface near you.
Count the beat with me and tap, go: 1 2 3 4
Good, now let's try the whole line in rhythm. Count the beat out loud while you tap with me.
Ready, go: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Great! Let's figure out our hand position. Take
a look at the first note.
Can you tell me the letter name?
If you said treble G you're correct.
The sheet music asks us to place finger 1 on treble G, so here's our position. Now,
first four notes I'd like you to try figuring out on your own.
So, press
pause and play the this first measure on your own,
then press play and we'll do it together.
Okay, this first measure has two G's. G G
and then two A's. G G A A
And did you notice that they are all staccato?
Which means you'll need to do a little lift
to make a quick release sound. Let's try it
together and count the beat. Ready, go: 1 2 3 4
Good, now next you'll notice the
notes skip up,
so we were on A, so now we come up to C, and then what did the next three notes do?
If you said step down, you're correct. We have FA MI RE DO. Four notes in a row stepping down.
FA MI RE DO, and then what's the next note?
If you said SO or D, you're correct we have this fifth from DO up to SO.
So here in measure two we have FA MI RE DO SO.
Now you try.
Now let's put those two measures
together. We have: DO DO RE RE FA MI RE DO SO
Now you try.
Good, now tell me what happens next. Look
at the next four notes.
We start on SO which is D,
and then we have four notes stepping down,
and then what? It skips up to C, up a
third,
and four notes stepping down again, 1 2 3 4.
So let's practice
that. So we have: SO FA MI RE FA MI RE DO
Now you try.
So notice the patte ...