Rain Come Wet Me

Transcript

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman.
Today we're learning a new song called "Rain Come Wet Me.”
Let’s have a listen to it:

♫ Rain come wet me, sun come dry me ♫
♫ Keep away, everyone, don't come nigh me. ♫

Sometimes my students ask me about the lyrics of this song.
There's an old-fashioned word in here:
“don't come nigh me," which means don't come near me.
I kind of think this song is about that feeling you may sometimes get
when you just want to be alone. Keep away everyone, don't come nigh me.
It's just saying, hey, I need a break. I just need some alone time right now.
Just me all by myself with the sun and the rain.

Now, let's figure out how the notes of this song are moving up or down.
I'll sing just the first four notes, and your job is to listen,
and try to show me, by moving your hand up or down,
how these notes are moving. Here goes.

What did you hear?
If you thought the notes were going down, you're correct.
Let's sing the first phrase together and move our hands with the notes.
Ready? Try it with me. Go:

♫ Rain come wet me ♫

Good, now listen to the next four notes, and tell me how they're moving.

♫ Sun come dry me ♫

Did you notice that those notes were the exact same?
It's new lyrics. Now, lyrics are the words of the song.
So, new lyrics, but the same notes. So we have:

♫ Rain come wet me, sun come dry me ♫

It makes a pattern. Let's take a look at what this pattern looks like on the staff.
Let's dictate this musical pattern up in the treble staff.
Can you trace with me this treble clef on your screen,
and then trace with your finger the G line?
Remember, this line that goes right through the middle of that swirl is our G line.
And it so happens that, in “Rain Come Wet Me,” this is the first note, which is G.
And then, if it were stepping down, it would look like this,
but the first two notes go: SO MI, skip down, and then step down to RE.
Then to step down again, we're going to need a ledger line,
which brings us down to middle C: SO MI RE DO.
Can you point on your screen and sing with me? Using solfège, go: SO MI RE DO.
And then we have that pattern again. This is:

♫ Rain come wet me ♫

Then we have:

♫ Sun come dry ♫

I need another ledger line for middle C.
Now, let's point to each note and sing the lyrics, go:

♫ Rain come wet me, sun come dry me ♫

Now, what about the next pattern we have?

♫ Keep away, everyone ♫

Were those notes the same as the first pattern?
No, it's a new pattern. This time the notes go:
SO MI SO, SO MI SO.
Let's take a look at that pattern on the staff.
Now, remember that SO to MI is a skip down,
and I'm going to use a different color, since this is a different pattern.
So we have: SO MI SO.
Remember that there is this space in between this line and this line,
but if we want to skip, we have to go from this line
all the way down to the next line.
That makes SO MI SO. Then we have another SO MI SO.
Can you point and sing with me? Go:
SO MI SO SO MI SO.
Now, here's the last pattern from “Rain Come Wet Me.”
Was that the same as our first pattern or the second one?
If you said the first pattern, you're correct.

Now, let's take a look at the entire song notated on the staff.
Here's the sheet music for "Rain Come Wet Me."
We've got our treble clef on the staff,
which helps remind us, of course, where the G is, and the first note is G,
and then here's our first pattern that we've looked at: SO MI RE DO.
Then that pattern repeats: SO MI RE DO
Then down here we've got our next pattern: SO MI SO. SO MI SO
Mark that phrase in purple so that it's different,
and then our last pattern, the same as the first: SO MI RE DO.
So if we're talking about the form of this piece, we could say the form is A, A, B, A.
That's what we'd call the form of this song: A, A, B, A.

Now, let's practice moving our fingers for this song.
Go ahead and hold up your right hand so it matches mine,
and remember, we start with a skip down, SO MI,
and then step down, step down, SO MI RE DO. Now you try.
Good, now let's try it with lyrics:

♫ Rain come wet me, ♫

Your turn. Sing and move your fingers.
Good. Then:

♫ Sun come dry me ♫

Your turn.
Now we have:

♫ Keep away, everyone ♫

Let's actually try that in solfège. We have, SO MI SO SO MI SO, now you try.
Now let's try it with lyrics:

♫ Keep away, everyone ♫

Your turn.
Then: