♫Up on the housetop reindeer paws, out
jumps good old Santa Claus♫
♫Down through the chimney with lots of toys, all for the little ones Christmas joys♫
It's that
time of year again. Time to learn some holiday songs.
Let's learn "Up on the
Housetop." Come to the piano.
So this is in the key of C major.
We know that because there are no sharps and flats in the key signature.
So, most C major pieces
will look like this in your right hand.
You'll be in C position with C D E F and
G,
but if we look at the score
you'll notice that that first note, which is G,
says finger 4.
That's because there are a lot of A's in this piece,
and getting
your pinky from G to A is kind of hard to do.
Pinkies don't like to go back and
forth like that, so what we're going to do
is put everything in sort of a D
position with our thumb
sometimes playing a C down here and sometimes
playing a D up here.
So what I reccomend before getting started is just get
comfortable with these two different positions.
So play C, and then stretch the
hand to get C E with a 2 finger
all the way up to your pinky on A.
And try out those five notes and then
see if you can go back and forth
with this position D E F G A
Something maybe like this:
Good, just play around those notes
until you feel comfortable with that position.
Now let's look at measure one.
Starting
with those first 3 beats, look at the rhythm.
It goes TA TIM-KI TA
Now a TIM-KI is not quite like a TI-TI, like eighth notes,
that first note has a dot which
makes it a little bit longer,
and that second note has that extra beam which
makes it shorter.
So instead of TA TI-TI TA,
it's TA TIM-KI TA
Let's try that again. Ready go, TA TIM-KI TA
Good, it's really
important to get that rhythm just right.
Now that first note is G, and remember
it's with your 4th finger now,
and we play that twice G G, and then A G and
that's that quick sixteenth note.
TA TIM-KI TA
Now if that feels like it's
hard to do fast, just relax the hand,
and feel like you're rolling from that 5
finger to your 4th finger
Try that on your own a few times.
5 4
A G
Now let's look at that whole first
phrase in the first two measures.
It starts on G, and we go G G A G, skip down
to E,
and then our thumb has to stretch down to C.
So our first position is
actually this one with our thumb extended down to C.
So
and then here it comes stretch to there, and then back up to 2 on E and 4 on G.
So it goes: TA TIM-KI TA TA TA TA TWO-OO
Now that's our half note so we're going to
hold that for 2 beats.
That second measure goes TA TA TWO-OO, off.
Good, let's practice that
while we say the note names.
So we're starting on G get ready here we go:
G G A G E C E G
Now let's try it while we say those finger numbers, starting on 4.
4 4 5 4 2 1 2 4
Good, now pause the video and practice that on your own a few times until it sounds great and it feels easy.
Then press play when you're ready.
Now let's look at the next two measures.
We're starting on finger 5 this time which is A,
and we have two A's in a row, A A,
and then where does it go?
That's right, it steps down to the G,
and then where does it go?
That's right it skips down to 2 again,
and then it steps down again, but this time our thumb is on D instead of stretching down to C.
So it plays D,
and then way up again to finger 4 on G.
Let's try that slow while we say the note names.
A A G E D G G
and there's another half note
so we're going to hold that nice and long.
One more time. This time with the finger
numbers.
5 5 4 2 1 4 4
Good,
now practice those two measures on your
own and press play when you're ready.
Great now we're on five the third phrase.
Let me play it for you once and tell me what you notice.
Did you notice that it's almost just like that first phrase we played,
but with one difference.
That's right, right there we play that E an extra time.
It's another TIM-KI
TIM-KI TA
Let's try that spot by itself.
Finger 2 on E,
and a thumb extended again down to C.
So we're going to go: 2 2 1
E E C
Let's try
that two more times together, ready go:
2 2 1, again:
E E C Good.
now again make sure the
wrist is feeling really bouncy and flexible
so that those quick notes are
feeling easy.
Good, now let's play this phrase all the
way through starting with your 4th finger on G,
and we'll sing the note names.
G G A G E E E C E G, good.
Now pause the video and practice measures five and six on your own until they sound great and feel easy.
All right, now we're on measure seven.
Let's look at the rhythm of this one.
We have a TA TIM-KI TIM-KI TA. We have
two TIM-KI's back-to-back.
Let's practice that measure with rhythm syllables first.
TA TIM-KI TIM-KI TA.
Try it with me
TA TIM-KI TIM-KI TA.
Good, now let's add the next measure and do that all together. Ready go:
TA TIM-KI TIM-KI TA TA TA TWO-OO.
Good, now let's put the notes with it.
We're starting with finger 5 on A.
We're going to go: TA TIM-KI TIM-KI TA.
Let's pause there and go back
again.
We have TIM-KI TIM-KI, then we have to get on finger 5
and 4, and then jump down to 2.
One more time that measure, ready go:
TA TIM-KI TIM-KI TA
Now with the note names, ready go:
A A A G G E
Now look at this next measure. We
have our thumb on D again,
and then we go up to finger 4,
and then our thumb has to extend
to play C.
So our thumb is going to play twice, but first
on D
and then on C.
Let's try that together one more time,
ready go:
Thumb on D G C.
Let's put those two measures together.
Starting on finger 5 on A.
Ready, go:
TA TIM-KI TIM-KI TA
Thumb, G and then thumb.
One more time, ready go:
A A A G G E
D G C
And that's another half note so you'll
hold it again for 2 beats.
Now pause the video and practice those two
measures on your own
until they sound good and feel easy.
Now let's look at the next four measures.
There's a pattern there.
Watch me play it and I'll say the finger numbers and see
if we can notice the pattern.
3 3 5
4 4 4 2
1 1 3
2 2 4 1
Did you notice the pattern?
Each measure highlights a third.
The first one is F to A,
going up.
The second one
goes G down to E,
and this third goes D up to F,
and the next measure goes E.
it's E to C,
but there's a quick little extra G up on top.
But still
this pattern, these two notes, and then these two notes,
and then these two notes.
That's helpful for memorizing the piece.
The first one goes up,
F to A, the second
one goes down.
The third one goes up,
and the fourth one goes down sort of.
It has that little extra G. Let's practice that last measure by itself.
We're starting on 2,
and we do a really quick 4, and then rock back down to our thumb on C.
And again our thumb is supposed to be stretched for this part.
So, 2 2 4 1, just like that.
One more time, ready go:
2 2 4 1
Now there's also that extra note at the end of the measure,
but I feel this this
sort of a pick up to the next measure, measure thirteen.
But we can play it now.
Ready, go:
2 2 4 1 2, good.
Let's go back
to measure nine and take each measure one at a time.
First is finger 3 on F.
Skip up to A.
Let's do it again, ready go:
TA TA half-note,
and then down to 4th
finger, TA TIM-KI TWO-OO, again ready go:
TA TIM-KI TWO-OO Good.
The next measure,
thumb on D.
TA TA TWO-OO
One more time:
TA TA TWO-OO
And that last measure, starting on finger 2
2 2 4 1 2
Good, now let's look at the next two measures.
It starts off just like the first measure,
but it changes, it goes up after
that. 3 4 5
Let's do that slowly.
4 4 5 4 2 up to 3 4 5
Good, one more time with the note names.
G G A G E F G A
Good, now pause the video and practice
this section
on your own until it feels really smooth and easy,
and make sure you're counting each beat
as you go along and then press play when you're ready.
Now let's look at the next two measures.
These ones start just like we did on measure one and measure five
with 4 4 5 4
2 2
There's a TIM-KI right there on the 2 finger,
but this time we're going go to 2 2
1 on D.
2 2 1 4 on G,
and we've seen this before, this is for measure eight. We did thumb on D, and then thumb on C.
So let's try putting those two measures together
really slow first with the note names.
Starting on finger 4, ready go:
G G A G E E D G C
Good, now a little faster with the finger
numbers this time. Ready go:
4 4 5 4 2 2 1 4 1 rest.
Now pause the video and
practice those last two measures on your own,
and when it feels ready we'll play
the whole right hand part together.
Great, now we're ready to play the whole
thing together on the right hand.
I'll count you in.
1 2 3, go:
Thumb and thumb.
3 3
Great job! We just learned the whole
right-hand part to "Up on the Housetop".
If you're ready for a bigger challenge we
can try adding chords in the left hand.
The chords in this piece
are the I chord with C E and G,
and then the IV chord,
which is C F and A
and I use finger 2 for this one.
and also the V7 chord,
which is B
F and G, like this:
Now read with me the chords from beginning to end, and see if you notice the pattern.
I chord
IV chord
I chord
V7 chord
I chord
IV chord
I chord
V7 chord
I
IV
I
V7
I
I again
IV
I
V7
I
It's the same pattern basically throughout the whole piece.
It goes from I chord,
to a IV chord,
back to the I chord,
to the V7 chord,
and then back to the I chord.
All except for that one time when it played
the I chord twice,
this it the same pattern for the whole piece.
Let's try
this: If you know the words you can sing along with me,
but I'm just going to play the left hand chords,
and we're not going to use our right hand yet, we're just going make sure we get these chords really good.
So let's
try this: I'll count you in.
1 2 3 4
♫Up on the housetop reindeer paws♫
♫out jumps
good old Santa Claus♫
♫Down through the chimney with lots of toys♫
♫all for the
little ones Christmas Joy's♫
♫Ho ho ho, who wouldn't go,♫
♫ho ho ho, who wouldn't go, oh,♫
♫Up on the housetop click click click♫
♫down
through the chimney with good Saint Nick♫
Great, now if you can do that all by
yourself
while you play the left hand chords and sing the right hand,
then you're probably a lot more ready to start putting the hands together.
So let's try that.
I want to go ahead and sing the words for this one too to help keep everything together.
1 2 3 4
♫Up on the housetop reindeer paws♫
♫out jumps
good old Santa Claus♫
♫Down through the chimney with lots of toys♫
♫all for the
little ones Christmas Joy's♫
♫Ho ho ho, who wouldn't go,♫
♫Ho ho ho, who wouldn't go, oh♫
♫Up on the housetop click click click♫
♫down
through the chimney with good Saint Nick♫
Great job!
Thanks for learning "Up on the
Housetop" with me. It's been fun.
Now we want to see you perform "Up on the
Housetop". Share a video on Facebook or Instagram,
and we'll see you next time.
Happy practicing.