Changing hand positions in the middle of a phrase

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. The outcome for today's lesson is I can perform a piece which changes hand position in the middle of a phrase. Let's look at the keywords for today's lesson. The chromatic movement, which is using notes outside of the normal key, the major or minor key that the piece is in. Staccato, when the notes are played in a detached manner. And accidental, that's a sign in music notation, which shows that the note is sharp, flat, or natural, and you can see the symbols there on the screen. So, today's lesson is on changing hand positions in the middle of a phrase. It's got three sections. So, part one is changing hand position mid-phrase. Part two is going to be learning the middle section. And part three is going to be the full melody. So, let's get going with part one, changing hand position mid-phrase. "In the Hall of the Mountain King" is a piece of music which depicts the mythical story of a young man trying to escape from the mountain king and the trolls inside a cave deep in the mountain. What features of the music depict the tiptoeing into the cave and the menace of the story? Pause the video and have a listen to the music. What features did you hear? So, you could have said, "Staccato notes sound like tiptoeing or creeping." Remember, staccato notes are detached. And in this piece of music, the strings are using a special technique called pizzicato, where they're plucking their instruments rather than using their bow to make it sound extra detached. You might say, "Chromatic notes sound uncomfortable and sinister." Do you remember those chromatic notes are ones that aren't usually in the key of the piece? "The tempo gets gradually faster as if someone is running away." Did you hear it get faster? "And the piece starts quietly and gets louder, giving the impression of someone coming closer." This piece of music is part of a larger work called "Peer Gynt," which is composed by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg in 1874. Grieg composed in the Romantic period when programme music was popular. You might think, "Oh, but classical music is all the music." And you'd be right. We used the term classical to describe all of this type of music. So music that isn't pop music, for example. But we also split it into different periods. So, Beethoven was mainly considered to be a classical composer, although he did compose during the Romantic period as well. Romantic period started around 1820, but these are not fixed dates. "Peer Gynt" was composed in 1874, which is around 50 years after Beethoven died and after the end of the classical period. The Romantic period included a style called programme music. Programme music was music that tells a story or describes a scene just like this piece. "Peer Gynt" is one of the most well-known pieces of classical music, having been used in films and adverts. This could be because of the excitement it creates. Let's do a check for understanding. Which two of the following are features of the melody from "In the Hall of the Mountain King"? Is it A, staccato, B, legato, C, chromaticism, and D, it's in a major key throughout? What do you think? Did you get A, staccato, and C, chromaticism? If so, well done. You can now watch how the opening phrase of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" is performed on the keyboard. Watch the video. (upbeat piano music) What patterns did you notice? How does the performer best use hand movement to navigate the opening phrase? You can see that it uses two different positions. So, when you have a look at playing the melody, the first half of the phrase uses chromatic movement in sequence. There's a clear change of hand position in the melody. As I said, a lot of it is sequential. And you can see there's lots of different accidentals in this piece of music. A sharp is the black note to the right of the note. A flat is to the left. The natural sign shows a normal pitched note. Using the fourth and fifth fingers frequently and moving hand positions requires more dexterity or skill, and we need to think ahead in the phrase in order to be able to do this well. We can break this down and practice the overall shape first. So, you can see the overall shape there and have a watch of the video to see how it's done. (upbeat piano music) With more advanced pieces, the performer needs to pivot their hand at some point to move it further up or down the keyboard. For this piece, there are different options available to do this. So have a look at option one. (upbeat piano music) And now, watch option two. (upbeat piano music) Did you see the difference between the two? In the first option, the performer moves their hands so that their thumb goes onto the C in the second C in the bar. In the second option, they move on the first C in the bar, so they move their thumb up to C earlier. You might be able to find a different way to do this, but it's important to maintain the flow or pulse of the performance. So you might wanna try either of these ways and see if one feels better to you. Let's do a check for understanding. Which of the following clips is the correct pattern of the opening motif? Is it A, (upbeat piano music) B, (upbeat piano music) or C? (upbeat piano music) Which do you think? If you've got C, well done. So, let's move on to task A. We're going to learn the opening phrase of "In the Hall of the Mountain King." So, we're gonna practice the opening motif first, focusing on the chromatic movement, and then practice the rest of the phrase, focusing on the change of hand position. So, the success criteria for this is find the A position. Remember, that's where your thumb is on the A. Use finger four for both D sharp and D natural. That's quite tricky. So you might wanna practice that. Use finger two for both B natural and B flat. You'll want to practice very slowly at first, keeping the quavers even. Remember, we're aiming for fluency, not speed at this point. Play in a staccato style. Remember that's detached. Focus on accuracy with the descending sequence and the hand position change. And make sure you are playing the right accidentals. So, have a go at learning the opening phrase. How did you get on? Let's reflect on your performance so far. Did you have your hand in the A position? Are you playing in the staccato that's detached style on the keyboard? Is each quaver played evenly? Are you changing to the C position at the right time? Did you find the change that suited you? How have you changed hand position in the middle of the phrase? And did you play the correct accidentals? Reflect on your performance and maybe note down how you think it went. Let's move on to part two of today's lesson. Learning the middle section. "In the Hall of the Mountain King" melody has an ABA structure. The B section is very similar to the A section in shape and rhythm, but it starts a fifth higher. So, you can see the lowest note of this motif stays the same each time. How does the player manage the hand position and hand movement here? Watch the video. (upbeat piano music) So, if you want to learn to play the B, that's the middle section, you want to start with your thumb on E, so you're moving to an E position. Use finger five for both B and C. That's the two highest notes in the phrase. And the phrase is repeated twice. Let's start by practicing the phrase shape first. So, watch this video of the melodic shape of the phrase. (slow piano music) Let's do a check for understanding. Which of the following is not true of the melody? Is it A, the A and B sections have a similar melodic shape, B, the B section is played legato, C, the A and B sections have a similar rhythm, or D, the B section is played a fifth higher than the A section? What do you think? If you've got B, well done. It's that the B section is not played legato. Which of the following is showing the correct position for the B section of the melody? Have a look at the keyboards on the screen. Is it A, B, or C? It was A. As you can see, that's the section that starts on an E. So that's the E position. So, let's move on to task B. We're gonna learn the B section of "In the Hall of the Mountain King." We want you to practice the overall shape first and then practice the complete phrase. So, the success criteria for this is gonna be finding the E position. So, remember, that's where your thumbs on the E. Using finger five for both B and C. You should practice slowly at first, making sure to keep the quavers even. Play in a staccato style and use the finger prompts and the notation to help identify the order and the rhythm of the notes. And you can see them here. Let's reflect on your performance so far. You could ask yourself, was your hand in the E position? Are you playing in a staccato style? Are using the correct finger pattern? And is each quaver played evenly? Reflect on your performance and note down your thoughts. Let's move on to part three of our lesson, the full melody. In an ABA structure, the A sections are the same or very similar. The final A section of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" has a different final bar. This allows the music to return to the home note or the tonic to sound finished. Can you see the different final bar on the score on the screen? Watch the video to hear how it sounds. (upbeat piano music) To put all three sections together, we want you to practice the last two bars for the final section. They have the same rhythm, but different notes. Again, watch the video to see what that looks like. (upbeat piano music) You'll need to quickly move your thumb back to A at the end of the middle section to start the final A section. And a reminder, always practice very slowly at first. Watch this video of the full melody together. (upbeat piano music) Let's do a check for understanding. True or false. Both the A sections of the music are exactly the same. Is that true or false? Have a think. Well done if you've got false. They're virtually the same, but the last bar is different. It has the same rhythm, but different notes. True or false. You have to change hand position at the end of section B. Is that true or false? That's true. After section B, the piece finishes with a repeat of the first section, that A section which starts with your thumb on A. So, let's do task C, learning to play all three sections of the melody together. So, the success criteria for this are to practice the last two bars of the final section first. Remember, they're a little bit different. Focus on when to change hand positions. So, in the middle of the A section and at the end of the B section. Practice slowly at first, keeping the quavers even and play in staccato style. Have a go at playing all three sections of the melody. Let's reflect on your overall performance. Questions you might ask are, are the notes and rhythms played accurately? Are you playing in a staccato style? Did you change hand position at the right time? And is each quaver played evenly so it sounds fluent? Have a think about your overall performance and write down your thoughts. Let's summarize today's lesson on changing hand positions in the middle of a phrase. So, we've learned to play the melody of "In the Hall of the Mountain King," which uses chromatic movement and is played in a staccato style. We have developed fluency in changing hand positions in the middle of a phrase and dexterity in comfortably using fourth and fifth fingers to play a melody with accidentals. We have learned a piece, considering how to navigate the difficult sections and spotting patterns to help learn it more efficiently. I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson.