Lesson video

Hello and welcome to today's music lesson.

I'm Miss Mansell, and I'm gonna be guiding you through today's lesson.

Let's get started.

And the outcome for today's lesson is, I can perform a piece with two independent parts demonstrating expressive elements.

Let's look at today's keywords.

So accent, that's an emphasis on a note, and you can see the symbol that's used for an accent.

Piano, a dynamic instruction meaning to play quietly, and sometimes it's a little p.

Forte, that's a dynamic instruction, meaning to play loudly, and sometimes you see it's an f.

Crescendo, gradually getting louder, and sometimes you can see that symbol, or you might just see the word crescendo.

And fifth, that's the fifth note of the scale and the top note in a chord triad.

So today's lesson is on developing fluency in changing hand positions on the keyboard.

And it's in two parts.

Part one is refining your performance, and part two is the accompaniment part.

So let's get started with Part One, refining your performance.

Have a listen to these performances of the first phrase of "In the Hall of the Mountain King." How are they different? Have a listen to the first version.

(bright piano music) And the second version.

(bright piano music continues) How are they different? They're both musically accurate, so they both play the bright notes, but they have different stresses within the phrase.

The second example is perhaps more in keeping with the phrasing and the style of the music.

So what other features did you hear that helped capture the style of the music? (bright piano music) So the performer plays in a staccato style.

Remember, that means detached.

Accents emphasizes particular notes in the phrase.

Starts quietly, but crescendos.

That means they're getting gradually louder throughout.

And doesn't let the crescendo affect the pulse and fluency.

Sometimes it can be really tempting if you're playing louder to get faster.

We just want it to be louder.

When using sheet music, composers can use Italian terms to direct as to how loud or quiet the music should be played.

These are the most common instructions.

So quiet, piano, or a P.

You might be thinking, "Hang on, that's the word for piano," but this is exactly where it comes from.

So a piano is originally called a piano forte, which means a soft-loud because it was one of the first instruments that had a really big range of dynamics.

Moderately quiet, so mezzo piano.

Moderately loud, so mezzo forte.

Loud is forte.

Gradually getting louder is crescendo, and gradually getting quieter, diminuendo.

It's a lot of a Italian words to learn.

Let's have a look at the score of "In the Hall of the Mountain King." So you can see the dynamics on the page.

So you start piano, that's quiet on the first line.

Then you've got that mp that stands for mezzo piano, so moderately quiet on the second line.

The third line is louder again, 'cause you've got that mf that stands for mezzo forte.

And then you can see cresc half the way through the line, that stands for crescendo, which is getting louder.

So from that bar, you're getting louder all the way through to the end of the piece, and you can see on the last bar that f for forte, which means loud.

You can also see some other symbols on the score.

So you can see where to accent the piece with the accent mark.

And all of those dots are showing where the staccatos are.

Watch this performance of the full melody.

Note the hand position changes, the starting position of each section, and the general keyboard technique.

Have a watch of that.

(bright piano music) (bright piano music continues) (bright piano music continues) Now compare this to your own performance.

Consider what you still need to practice to refine your performance.

What points did you identify? You might have said some of these.

So, playing fluently, playing staccato with accents, playing accurate rhythms, using the dynamics, changing the hand position at the right time, playing accurate notes.

Which of these do you think you might need to do some more work on? Let's do a check for understanding.

What is the term for getting gradually louder? Is it A, accent, B, crescendo, or C, staccato? Have a think.

If you've got B, crescendo, well done.

What is the term for emphasizing a note? Is it A, staccato, B, legato, or C, accent? What do you think? Well done, if you've got C, accent, True or false? Piano, or p, means to play loudly.

Is that true or is that false? That's false.

So if you remember, piano is an Italian term also shown as p, as an instruction for a musician to play quietly.

Now let's move on to Task A.

We're thinking about refining your performance.

So you're going to want to consider the accuracy of your performance.

Are the notes and rhythms correct? Are your hand position changes quick and easy? And the fluency of your performance.

Is it to a consistent pulse? Remember, it's better to be able to play slower but to a consistent pulse.

And then consider your expressive elements.

Does it start piano quiet, and make a crescendo to forte, loud? Have a go at refining your performance.

And now let's reflect on your performance so far.

So questions you might ask yourself are: Are the rhythm and notes accurate? Is it fluent? Have you made sure that you practice slowly and kept to a consistent pulse? Were you able to make those hand position changes easily and quickly? Have you added any dynamics to your performance? So can you start piano and crescendo to forte? Have a think, reflect on your performance, and note down your thoughts.

Let's move on to Part Two of today's lesson.

The accompaniment part.

The accompaniment of, "In the Hall of the Mountain King" is based around a two note pattern.

This moves as the harmony changes.

Listen to the melody with the accompaniment for section A.

How would you describe the left hand pattern? So have a look at this video and see what you think.

(bright piano music) If you said it was repetitive, I'd agree with you.

So usually the role of the left hand and piano parts is to underpin the bass and harmony of the music.

It often plays an outline of the chord.

So the accompaniment pattern in this piece is the root and fifth of the chord.

So just have a quick watch of the video to remind yourself of what that looks like.

(bright piano music) And on the screen you can see the two chords.

So you've got your A minor chord.

So you've got the root in the fifth, so that's the A and the E.

And then at the end of the phrase, it moves to a C chord.

So then you've got a C and a G as the root and the fifth of the chord in the accompaniment.

So let's watch the first eight bars.

(bright piano music) And now the last eight bars.

(bright piano music continues) So to play the accompaniment for section A, I want to note whether harmony changes, that's bar four.

Practice finding these with your left hand, and practice playing the opening melodic phrase with the staccato accompaniment pattern, slowly.

Get used to the feel of the hands playing independently to each other.

This might take some time and patience.

It can be quite hard having both your hands doing different things.

Let's do a check for understanding.

Where does the harmony change in the first section? Is it bar one, bar two, bar three, or bar four? What do you think? Well done if you got D, bar four? The middle section of the piece has a slightly different accompaniment pattern.

It starts with a fifth, but changes to a sixth.

(bright piano music) Did you see that pattern in the video? So you can see a fifth, so E to B, and that's twice.

And then you can see a sixth happen, so E to C, and then it goes back to a fifth.

If you're playing, you'll need to use your thumb for both the B and the C.

So to play the accompaniment for section B: the left hand moves to the C position.

You can practice the new two-bar pattern on its own, and then practice playing the melodic phrase with the staccato accompaniment pattern, slowly.

So to perform the whole piece hands together, firstly, have a watch of the video to see how it's done.

(bright piano music) Remember that you need to follow the ABA structure.

Both parts are performed in a staccato style.

The dynamic changes happen with both hands, so they start quietly, but crescendo throughout, so you have to do that with both hands, not just one of them.

And you should practice the difficult bars in isolation first, rather than playing from the start to the end repeatedly.

You need to identify which of the bars you think are difficult.

That might be the new left hand part and the bit where it moves to a sixth rather than a fifth.

You might find the chromatic piece is difficult, or you might find moving your hand and changing position hard.

So identify the bits that you think are difficult and practice those first.

Let's do a check for understanding.

Which of the following accompaniment patterns are correct for section B? You can listen and look at the scores.

So A.

(bright piano music) B.

(bright piano music continues) Or C.

(bright piano music continues) Which pattern is correct? If you've got A, well done.

And now, true or false? Practicing the whole piece repeatedly is the best way to learn a piece.

Is that true or is that false? I hope you got that as false.

That's false, because you need to practice the bars that you find most difficult first.

For example, when the hands move position or where there are chromatic notes, whatever you find difficult, and then practice the piece from start to finish, 'cause that's when you're building up your fluency.

So let's do Task B.

Learn "In the Hall of the Mountain King," both hands together.

So you're gonna do that by practicing the accompaniment part on its own, and identifying where the pattern changes.

Learn the first phrase, hands together, so you should play this slowly at first and think ahead to the changing pattern in bar four.

Learn the middle section, hands together, so you can play that slowly at first; there are no changes in the pattern there.

And then put the whole piece together.

Follow the ABA structure, and focus on where the left hand changes.

Let's get practicing.

Here's the whole score.

How did you get on? Let's reflect on your performance so far.

Here's some questions you could think about.

Is your performance accurate? So are you playing all the right notes and rhythms? Is your performance fluent? Did you practice slowly and keep to a consistent pulse? Which section can you play with both hands together? Are there any you can't? Is the accompaniment part accurate? How did you put the performance together? Did you practice it slowly at first? Did you practice hands separately? That's a really good way to learn the music.

What expressive elements have you added? Did you actually get the dynamics in? What could be even better about your performance and practice preparation? Reflect on your performance so far and maybe write down some of your thoughts.

So let's summarize today's lesson: developing fluency in changing hand positions on the keyboard.

We have refined our melody of "In the Hall of the Mountain King," considering expressive elements including a crescendo from piano to forte, and adding appropriate accents.

We have developed fluency in changing hand positions and performing two independent parts in the right and left hand.

The encampment part outlines the bass and harmony of the music.

The pattern for "In the Hall of the Mountain King" uses the root and fifth of the chord.

I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson.