Lesson video

Hello, welcome to today's lesson title, performing the melody and accompaniment for "Going Home." My name is Mr. Norris, and we're gonna be building on our understanding of playing two parts together to really polish off and refine a performance of "Going Home" today.

I'm gonna commence, I can prepare a performance of "Going Home", displaying elements of musical expression.

Our key words.

The first is pulse, which means the steady underlying beat, a really important concept in music.

Fluency, performing with fluency means the pitches and rhythms are played correctly and in time to a pulse.

And finally, expression.

And adding musical expression can mean changing dynamics, playing legato, or stressing the first beat of the bar.

These are different ways to add musical expression.

For the first part of today's lesson time, we're focused on the melody with accompaniment.

Let's watch the first two sections of "Going Home" with a melody and accompaniment together.

What do you notice about the positions of the left and the right hands throughout the performance? Let's have a look.

<v Speaker>1, 2, 3, 4.

</v> (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music continues) <v ->So hopefully here you notice that the accompaniment,</v> that's the left hand, stays in the same position throughout in C position.

However, the right hand, which plays the melody, changes from the C position to the F position, and then back.

So remember that the right hand moves, but the left hand doesn't.

There's both of them in C position.

That's where it will start.

And then for the middle section, that right hand moves up to the higher F position, but the left hand stays in the same place.

And we can see there, that it's for that section B, the middle section, where the right hand moves to F position, so remember start in C, up to F, and then back to C.

Let's check your understanding.

Which hand changes position for section B of "Going Home." Is it the right hand, the left hand, or both hands? I'll give you a few seconds.

And the correct answer is the right hand.

The left hand stays in the same place throughout.

Which of these is the correct left hand position? You can pause my video, have a good look, and see if you can pick out the correct answer.

And the correct answer here then is option B.

And that's because that is in C position.

You can see the little finger down on C.

In all of the other images, the hand is not in C position.

So well done if you identified that one correctly.

Task eight then, practise playing the melody and the accompaniment together.

Make sure you practise slowly and keep a consistent pulse.

Make sure you use the finger prompts and the notation to identify the order and the rhythm of the notes.

Make sure the right hand changes position for section B, from the C position up to the F position.

And make sure the left hand stays in position throughout.

So it's always in that C position.

There's your notation there.

And you've also got your positions on the right hand side there.

So both starting C position.

Then in section B, the right hand moves up to F position, but the left hand stays in C.

And then for the final section, we're both back in C position.

So you can pause my video now and give this task your best shot.

For the same part of this task, you're gonna reflect on your performance practise so far.

Here's a few questions to prompt your thinking.

Firstly, have you practised slowly and kept to a consistent pulse? Does your right hand start in the C position and move to the F position for section B? Does your left hand stay in the C position throughout? Do both hands play together on the first beat of each bar? And are the rhythms and the notes accurate? And remember that those two slightly more complex bars in seven and 23 where the left hand is playing a minimum.

So you're making sure that the rhythms and the pictures are correct in those bars particularly.

So you can pause my video, answer these questions.

And use this to reflect on how you can further refine your performance.

Let's move on now to the second part of today's lesson, which is focused on refining your performance.

I'd like you to listen to this performance of "Going Home".

And there are a couple things I'd like to consider.

Firstly, what does this player do to add expression? And then, this performance would also be described as fluent, so what has the player done to achieve that? How have they created fluency in their performance? Let's have a look.

<v Speaker>1, 2, 3, 4.

</v> (gentle piano music) (gentle piano music continues) (gentle piano music continues) <v ->So hopefully there you identified that to add expression,</v> this performer stresses the first beat of the bar, plays legato, that means smooth movement between notes, and changes the dynamics.

And in this example, it gets quieter at the end, and the middle section, that's the B section, is played quite quietly.

To make it fluent, they've had a consistent pulse.

So having that really steady pulse that doesn't change throughout is really important for fluency.

They have accurate pictures and note duration, so there's no hesitation on changing notes, and showed some expression as well.

Let's listen to this performance now.

What could this perform improve in terms of the fluency of their performance? Here we go.

(gentle piano music) (gentle piano music continues) <v ->So here are a couple things you might have noticed there.

</v> Now this performer hesitates between the bars to take more times when changing notes in the left hand, so there's some slight hesitations.

So to become fluent, they need to change those left hand notes more quickly, without hesitating.

When refining a performance and really making it nice and fluent, it's important to give yourself time to really learn accurate pitches and rhythms. And a really useful way of doing this is to play with a really slow tempo, but with a consistent pulse.

So resist the temptation when you're practising to play it fast.

Practise really slow until it's absolutely spot on.

And then you can add a little bit of speed if you want to.

I am to suggest two ways to add expression to a performance.

Pause my video while you're thinking of them.

And here are a couple things you might have said.

You might have said, stressing the first speed of the bar, playing in legato style, or changing the dynamics appropriately.

Well done if you got a couple of those.

Which of the following best describes a fluent performance? Playing as fast as possible, playing accurately with a consistent pulse, taking extra time to change notes between the bars.

I'll give you a few seconds.

And the correct answer is playing accurately and with a consistent pulse.

That's what we're aiming for with fluency.

Not speed, not taking extra time and hesitating between notes, but making sure we're getting all the right notes with a consistent pulse and a nice flow without hesitation.

Task B, you're gonna refine your performance and like to consider these things.

Consider the accuracy of your performance by ensuring that the notes and the rhythms are absolutely accurate.

Consider the fluency of your performance by playing with a consistent pulse, even if this is really slow, the consistency is what matters most.

Consider adding some expression by changing the dynamics, playing legato, and stressing the first beat of each bar.

Here is your notation, and there are no finger prompts on this one.

And we've got those hand positions on the right hand side.

And without further ado, you can pause my video, give this your best shot.

For the final part of this lesson, we're gonna listen to this performance of "Going Home" and answer these questions.

Do they add the accompaniment part? Are the rhythms and pitches accurate? Do they play with a steady pulse? And how do they use dynamics? Let's have a listen.

(gentle piano music) (gentle piano music continues) <v ->And pause my video now while you finish your answer.

</v> Let's go through this then.

So the player does add the accompaniment part.

The rhythms and pitches are mostly accurate, with only a few incorrect left hand notes near the end.

The player keeps to a steady pulse, apart from when they change position back to the C position in bar 16.

And the player uses dynamics expressively by playing the second of the middle two phrases more quietly.

So that's one way to use dynamics.

Well then if you picked up on a few of those points.

Let's summarise today's lesson.

When performing "Going Home" with fluency, the pitches and rhythms are played correctly and in time with a pulse.

We can add a musical expression by changing dynamics, playing legato, or stressing the first beat of each bar.

We have performed the melody and accompaniment of "Going Home" and refined the performance by adding expression.

So that brings us to the end of this task.

Thank you very much for taking part, and I hope you feel like you've really developed your performance skills through this little project.

I look forward to seeing you in another lesson.

Thank you.