The Song of Twilight: B Section: Right Hand

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman, and in this lesson we're going to be learning the right hand part for the B section of "The Song of Twilight", by Yoshinao Nakada. Let's check out the score to get started. Here's the score for "The Song of Twilight." Today we're going to be working on the B section which starts here in measure nine. Now, before we tackle the B section, let's review what happens with a first and second ending. When you see this symbol right here, that's called a first ending, and I like to think of it as door number one. Let's pretend my finger is going along through the music, and I get here and this first ending I'm going to pretend is door number one. So I'm going to go in that door and play the first ending and then when I get here to the repeat sign, that teleports me back to the start of the song, and I'm going along again, and now I'm like hey, can I go in door number one? Sorry, can't go in door number one again, they say. Ah, come on! Sorry, go to door number two. So, instead of going in to the first ending again, I teleport down to the second ending, which I pretend is door number two, and then I play, and the double bar line tells me the song is done. Now, so let's come back here to measure nine, and check out the rhythm. Remember, we have this new way of counting: 1-e-&-a. If you'd like you can pause the video, and I'd like you to write in the counts for measures sev-- sorry, nine, ten, and eleven, and then press play and we'll take a look at it together. Okay, let's check out the rhythm for measure nine. I'd like you to count the rhythm out loud while you tap or clap the rhythm together with me. I'll count 4 beats, and then we'll start. 1-e-&-a 2-e-&-a 3-e-&-a 4-e-&-a, 1-e-&-a 2-e-&-a 3-e-&-a 4-e-&-a Great, if you need more practice with that, you can always pause, try it again, otherwise let's go on to measure ten. Once again I had to really squeeze it in here, but it's important to remember that on a quarter note, we need all four subdivisions because each of these subdivisions is a sixteenth note, and four sixteenth notes fit inside one quarter note. So this last quarter note is 4-e-&-a. Let's try clapping the rhythm here in measure ten. Ready, go 1-e-&-a 2-e-&-a 3-e-&-a 4-e-&-a. Remember, each time we have eighth notes that & is where we play that second quarter note. Now here I showed you another way you can write in beats. Eventually I want you to be able to just imagine the e-&-a's and just remember where to place them. Remember, these eighth notes are going to fall on the &, and every single one of these 16th notes is going to get a subdivision: 1-e-&-a So let's try clapping the rhythm for measure eleven. Ready, go: 1-e-&-a 2-e-&-a 3-e-&-a 4-e-&-a Now let's look at measure twelve. Remember, the counting will help us not rush these quarter notes. It's very easy to rush these longer, slower notes in a song where we have 16th notes. So the counting can help. How long do we hold this quarter note? 1-e-&-a We need all four of those 16th notes, and then 2-e-&-a, and then how long do we hold a half note? 3-e-&-a 4-e-&-a Okay, so let's try clapping and counting measure twelve now together. Ready, go. 1-e-&-a 2-e-&-a 3-e-&-a 4-e-&-a Repeat sign teleports us where? All the way back to measure one. One last thing I'd like to look at before we try to play it is where all the sharps are. Remember, because of our key signature, we know we're in A major, which has these three sharps: F-sharp, C-sharp, and G-sharp. So looking at the B section, which just goes from here in measure nine, to the repeat sign. Can you pause and circle any notes that need to be sharped? Like this C, this F, this G. Pause to find all the rest on your own, then press play to go on. All right, here are the notes you should have circled, which are the notes that we have to sharp. F's, C's, and G's. What do you notice? Almost every single note is sharp. Look, in this measure there's only one key that isn't a black key. Just that A. Everything else is a sharp. Same thing here. I hope you remember that with a key signature it doesn't have to be this C. Any C, high or low, on this staff get sharped, so this high C way up here has to be sharped as well as this treble C needs to be sharped. And once again we have a lot more sharps here, and here's a measure with all three notes sharped. I find that this can be a useful way to prepare before I try to play it, to just hunt for, find all those sharps. Now, let's try to play it. All right, here in the B section we've got our right hand starting here on C-sharp with finger 1, then finger 3 is up on this F-sharp, and let's look at what we have in measure nine. We have 1-e-&-a 2-e-&-a 3-e-&-a 4-e-&-a. Now, pause and work on measure nine on your own. Be careful of the notes, the rhythms, and the fingerings. Work on that on your own, then press play to go on. Okay, in measure nine you should have had 1-e-&-a 2-e-&-a 3-e-&-a 4-e-&-a Now let's look at measure ten. What do you notice about these first four notes? They're the same four notes that we just played in me ...