Sonatina in G: First Movement: Right Hand

Hello and welcome. I'm Joseph Hoffman, and in this lesson we're going to start learning “Sonatina” in G. A piece which for almost my whole life I thought was by Beethoven. Since his name is printed at the top of the score. But it turns out that it might not actually be by Beethoven. How did this mix-up happen? Well, after Beethoven died in 1827 in Vienna Austria, this piece that we're learning today was found among Beethoven's papers. It was published just a year later with Beethoven's name listed as the composer. However, recently musicologists have questioned whether this piece really was by Beethoven. Just because it was found with his papers doesn't mean it was composed by him. Composers are known to collect and study music by other composers, and if it really was composed by Beethoven, why didn't he publish it in his lifetime? Musicologists still to this day debate who it's composed by, and so the answer for now at least is we don't know. But let's have a listen and then maybe you can form a theory for yourself. Do you think it's by Beethoven or some other composer? If you have a theory about who the composer is and why, leave a comment below. Here's “Sonatina” in G by…. Here's the score for "Sonatina in G." We are working on the first movement today. Whenever we have a Sonatina or a Sonata you're almost always going to see more than one movement. Each movement is like its own book in a book series. As we mentioned, we're going to put a big question mark here by Beethoven's name. Normally you would see an opus number but because this was published after he died, we don't even know for sure if it was by him. Instead of getting an opus number, we've put this in this is a German abbreviation for anhang. Anhang five number one means appendix five. So of all of Beethoven's works, which usually get an opus if they were published during his lifetime, this is appendix five, where they put works where they're not sure if it's by Beethoven, and this is number one in that appendix five, or anhang five. Now let's go through our checklist. Tempo indication is moderato, which means a medium tempo. Treble and bass clef, and what key are we in? We have a huge clue from the title of the piece. So we know we're G major or minor. Looking at the key signature what would you say we are in? So with one sharp, we know we're in the key of G major. Now let's check out the time signature. A C remember stands for common time, which is 4/4. It's an abbreviation for 4/4 time signature. Now, before we dive into learning this let's notice a few things. You might recall this little symbol, which is called a grace note. When you see a grace note, it doesn't get a set rhythmic value. In other words, it doesn't officially take up any time in the beat. So you just play it quickly, and quickly move from it to the next note. So you'll see that grace note is on the B line, and then it leads to an A, and so you'll just take that B and A, and play the B quite quickly. Like that. Try it on your piano. That's called a grace note. Can you find any other grace notes on the first line? If you're pointing right here, you're correct. Now one more thing I'd like to do is take a look at all the notes in measure two right hand part, and I'd like you to pause the video and figure out what chord these notes are spelling, then press play and we'll look at it together. Music is mostly built on scales and chords, and so it's very useful to notice we've got a G, a G up an octave, then a D, repeat, B, repeat, G. What chord does that spell? That's a G major chord, and since we're in the key of G major,we could say that is a I chord. That will be helpful as we're learning this to remember, oh, all these notes are just part of that G major triad or arpeggio. Now more and more I'd like you to be an independent learner, and rather than me show you how to play this, I'd like you to pause the video and learn measures one through eight on your own. See if you can apply all of your knowledge. How to count rhythms, what a grace note is. Watch not just the notes and rhythms, but also the fingerings. Watch for dynamics. See how much you can do on your own learning measures one through eight and then we'll look at it together. One common mistake when learning this is to rush this first half note. One thing to help with that is to count the subdivided beat. 1-& 2-& 3-& 4-&, 1-& 2-& 3-& 4-&, and then this half note as well. 1-& 2-& 3 You don't want to rush that half note. 1-& 2-& 3-& 4-& 1 Let's listen to just the right hand part. You can play along with me or just practice counting and listening. I'll count 4 beats then we'll start. 1-& 2-& 3-& 4-& 1-& 2-& 3-& 4-&, 1-& 2-& 3-& 4-&, 1-& 2-& 3-& 4-&, 1-& 2-& 3-& 4-&, 1-& 2-& 3-& 4-&, 1-& 2-& 3-& 4-&, 1-& 2-& 3-& 4-&, 1-& 2-& 3-& 4-& Now if you need any more time to practice that to work out any errors that you noticed in your own playing, Feel free to pause and work on that, otherwise let's go on and now learn measures nine through twenty-four. And again I would l ...