Playing a melody with sharps

Hello and welcome to today's music lesson. I'm Miss Mansel 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 play the opening of a piece using sharps on the keyboard and can recognize minor and major scales. Here are some keywords for this lesson, minor scale, a set of notes with a 3rd, 6th, and 7th notes in the scale are flattened and that sounds sad or more solemn than a major scale. Sharp, the sharp symbol is used to show that a note has been raised by a semitone. Natural, the natural symbol is used to show a note in the bar has returned to its normal pitch. Chromatic is a note that is not part of the key or scale. So here's the lesson outline for today's lesson on playing a melody with accidentals. The lesson's gonna be in two parts, so the minor scale and "Für Elise." So let's get started with the minor scale. Listen to the opening of this famous piece of classical music. How would you describe the overall feel of it? Pause and have a listen. What did you think? You could have said maybe it sounded sad or wistful, reflective, calm, melancholic. What words did you use to describe it? Many pieces of music fall into either a major or minor key, meaning they mainly use the notes of the major scale or the minor scale. The key helps to define the feel of the music. Scales use a fixed pattern of tones and semitones. The semitone is the smallest interval on a keyboard, the gap between one note and the next. A tone is two semitones. So let's have a look at a keyboard that'll show you where the semitones and tones are. So you can see a semitone between an A and then the black note, which is an A sharp. And then the tone between an A and the B. So you can see there are two semitones. So A to A sharp to B is two semitones which makes a tone. Again semitone C C sharp, and then a tone C to D. So you can see again two semitones make a tone. That's an E to an F. So that's a semitone. E to F sharp is a tone. G sharp to A sharp is a tone. B to C is a semitone. And then B to C sharp is a tone. Because of the patterns of the keys on the keyboard, you can see on this that B to C and E to F are a semitone even though there's no black note in-between. Minor scale use a different pattern to major scales. Major scale pattern is the starting note or a tonic note, and then you go up a tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone, or you can see it written there in shorthand. A minor scale pattern, so you take your starting note or your tonic and go tone, semitone, tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, and again written in shorthand. So those are your patterns for your scales. So have a look at these on the keyboard. So the minor scale uses a flattened 3rd, 6th, and 7th compared to the major scale. Have a look at the C major scale being played on the video. (piano music) Then have a look at the C minor scale with those flattened 3rds, 6ths and 7ths. (piano music) To work out the notes of a scale we follow the tone, semitone pattern. Once you remember the pattern, you can work out any major or minor scale. We can also recognize it by what they sound like. How might you describe the difference? Have a listen to this major scale, (piano music) and then have a listen to this minor scale. (piano music) How do you think they sound different? You might have said, for example, the major scale sounds bright and positive and the minor scale sounds more solemn and sad. Major and minor have their own sound and feel. This is sometimes described as happy and sad, but there are other factors that can shape or dictate the feel of a piece of music. So it's important to try and identify the notes of the scale. An important note in defining major or minor is the 3rd of the scale. That's the first note in the scale, which is different. So have a listen to these examples of the major key. (piano music) ♪ In a major key, la, la, la ♪ And then the minor key. (piano music) ♪ In a minor key, la, la, la ♪ So what did you think? Could you tell the difference between the major and minor keys? So you could hear, ♪ in a major key, first, second, third ♪ ♪ and in a minor key, one, two, three ♪ so you can hear the difference between major and minor on the 3rd of the scale. Let's do a check for understanding. Which of the following is the semitone, tone pattern for a minor scale. Is it A, (piano music) B, (piano music) or C, have a think. (piano music) Did you get C? If so, well done. Have a listen to these three clips of music. Which two scales are minor scales? Is it A, (piano music) B, (piano music) or C? (piano music) Which two did you get? A and B was correct. Let's move on to task A. Have a listen to the following melodies. Do they use the notes of the major scale or the minor scale? Let's listen to each one and then note down whether you think it's major or minor. Let's listen to one, (piano music) two, (piano music) three, (piano music) four, (piano music) and five. (piano music) What did you think? One was major, two was minor, three was also minor, four, major, and five minor. I hope you could hear that. Let's move on to the second part of our lesson, "Für Elise." Ludwig van Beethoven is regarded as one of the most influential composers in the history of Western music. Although his music was composed around the beginning of the 1800s it is still hugely popular today. Which of the following pieces do you recognize? Pause the lesson and have a listen. How many did you recognize? You heard the opening of Beethoven's "5th Symphony," The tune called "Ode to Joy," which is from his 9th Symphony, piano piece called the "Moonlight Sonata" and a section of his "7th Symphony." And these pieces are all still very popular today. The availability of the piano in the late 1800s helped piano music flourish, parlor songs, hymns and boogie-woogie were performed in North America. In Europe, classical piano music became popular. One of Beethoven's most famous pieces is his "Bagatelle No. 25" in A minor for piano, it's better known as "Für Elise." The opening motif is particularly distinctive. So pause the lesson and have a listen to that. "Für Elise," meaning "For Elise" was dedicated to someone important in Beethoven's life, although there is a mystery around who it actually was, perhaps in striving for perfection, he was not totally happy with the work, and it wasn't published until 1867, just 40 years after his death. Despite this, it has become one of his best-loved works. Have a listen to the first section of "Für Elise." It is made up of two phrases, played twice. (piano music) The piece is in the key of A minor, and the melody starts with your hand in the A position on the keyboard. That means your thumb is on the A, and then you can see you've got your second finger on B, three on C, four on D, and five on E. The opening motif includes two chromatic D sharps and a D natural. Chromatic means it's not part of the key, so it's an unusual note. Have a watch of the video. One, two, three, one, two. (piano music) One, two, three, one, two. (piano music) You will notice that finger four needs to play the D sharp and then move to play the D natural. What other patterns do you notice in the opening two phrases. Let's have a look at the video. (piano music) Both phrases start the same, but the phrases end slightly differently. Bars two and three are a sequence. Let's do a check for understanding, in which of these pictures is the hand in the A position? Is it picture A, B, C, or D? Look closely and have a think. The answer was D. If you've got that well done. Have a look at these two videos. Which of these is the correct opening phrase for "Für Elise?" Is it A, (piano music) or B? (piano music) Which do you think If you got B, well done. So let's move on to task B. This is gonna be learning the opening two phrases of "Für Elise." So what we want you to do is practice the opening motif first then practice the rest of the phrase, and then practice the second phrase. So the success criteria for this is to find the A position on the keyboard, you remember that's where your thumb is on the A, use the finger prompts, and the notation to help identify the order and rhythm of the notes. Note repetition in the phrases and that the last four notes are different. Use finger four for both D sharp and D natural. Make sure you practice slowly at first, keeping the quavers even. And here's "Für Elise" with the finger positions and the notes. Let's watch a performance of "Für Elise." How does this performance meet the success criteria? (piano music) Player doesn't play D Sharps and instead plays D naturals. The quavers at the start are even, but in bars two and three the quavers rush. The play is playing in the A position. So let's summarize today's lesson on playing a melody using accidentals. Scales have their own distinctive sound and are defined by the order of the intervals from one note to the next. A minor scale pattern is this, so it has a flattened 3rd, 6th and 7th. Minor scales sound more solemn than major scales. When major and minor scales use notes outside the scale, these are called chromatic. We have learnt to play the opening phrase of "Für Elise," which uses both D sharp and D natural. Thank you for joining me for today's lesson. Hope you've enjoyed learning with me.