When the Saints Go Marching In: Right Hand

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman.
Today we're learning to play the melody of a traditional American gospel hymn, "When the Saints Go Marching In".
As with most traditional music, we don't know who originally composed it,
but it seems to have originated in the early 1900s,
but what really made it famous was a recording in 1938 by Louis Armstrong, who is a trumpeter, singer,
and one of the great jazz musicians of the 20th century.
Let's listen to Louis Armstrong perform "When the Saints Go Marching In".
Let's check out the score for "When the Saints Go Marching In".
You might notice right off the bat that this time our tempo indication is in English 'with spirit'.
That will imply that we're going to be doing this lively on the faster side of the tempo spectrum.
You also notice that our time signature is 4/4. So we'll be counting 4 beats per measure.
One element of this melody that makes it exciting and interesting, is this quarter rest right on beat 1.
We have 1,
Rest, buh, buh, buh, buh..
Let's try tapping the rhythm.
I'd like you to count the beat out loud,
which means we'll say 1 for this quarter rest and then we'll tap and count the rhythm for the first two lines.
Okay, get ready. I'm going to count one empty measure. I'll say 1 2 3 4, and then on beat 1
we'll have this rest, don't tap, and then on beat 2 we'll start these quarter notes. Here we go.
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, stop.
Okay, let's check out the first notes we play.
Can you tell me the letter names of these first four notes starting here?
If you said C E F G, you are correct.
And what do you notice about these next four notes?
That's right, it's the same pattern again. We'll have rest, C E F G, 2 3 4 rest, C E F G, 2 3 4 rest.
Now for line two, let's say the steps, skips, and repeats.
Can you say it along with me? Try and keep up. Ready? Start:
Skip up,
step up,
step up,
skip down,
skip down,
skip up,
step down.
As we play, make sure you're being careful of where the skips are, where the steps are. Let's come to the piano and try to play these first two lines.
All right, let's place right hand finger 1 on middle C and try playing this.
From the beginning, let's get in the habit of counting the beat while we play. Because the rhythm's so important to this song,
we'll always make sure to pay attention to these rests by saying 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1
2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Now press pause and try playing those first four measures on your own while counting the beat out loud.
Press play when you're ready to go on.
Great, now let's try it together. We're going to count the beat out loud and play these first four measures together.
Before we start, I'll count in 4 beats to get us ready.
Here we go, remember beat 1 is a rest.
Here we go. Here's the count in beats. 1 2 3 4
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4,
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4,
1, great.
Let's go on to the next part now.
Next we have 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4,
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4,
Now press pause and try the next four measures on your own. Press play when you're ready to try it with me.
Alright, here we go on this phrase. I'll count 4 beats to get us ready, and remember beat 1 is a rest.
See if you can count the beat out loud while you play. Here we go. We'll go slowly.
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4,
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4,
1 2 3 4
Now, if you were successful at that, great. Let's keep going.
If you need a little more practice, that's fine. Press pause and then just jump back in when you're ready.
Now, let's go on to check out lines three and four.
Let's check out lines three and four now.
First of all, let's look at the rhythm.
Once again, we have this quarter rest on beat one.
And this time we have some dotted half notes. Remind me how many beats a dotted half note gets. That's right, 3 beats. So we'll count 1 2 3 4 for this quarter note.
Let's try doing the rhythm of this line together. Can you count
the beat with me while we tap the rhythm. I'll count in 1 2 3 4,
and then beat 1 will be our rest.
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4,
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4,
1 2 3 4
Good.
Now let's try and say the steps, skips, and repeats for line three.
Can you say them along with me? Go. Start, repeat, step down, step down, repeat, skip up, skip up, repeat, repeat, step down.
Now let's try and say the letter names. Ready, go. E E D C C E
G G G F
Great, now let's try to play it on the piano.
Okay, make sure your right hand is still in the C major pentascale. This time we're going to start on E with finger 3,
and we have E E D C C E G G G F
Now, I'm going to do it one more time and this time count the beat out loud with me.
And 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4,
1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4
Great, be very careful ...