Playing an orchestral melody in the C position

Hello, and welcome to today's lesson entitled, Playing an Orchestral Melody in the C Position. My name is Mr. Norris, and today, we're gonna be looking at performing a really iconic orchestral melody, and we're gonna be working on doing that in the C position on our keyboard. The outcome of today's lesson is I can play an orchestral melody in the C position on the keyboard. Some keywords. Our first is stave, and this is a set of five lines used in music to show different notes. And we can see an example of that on the right hand side there. Dotted crotchet. This is a note that lasts for one and a half of beats, and we can see that symbol there on the right hand side. Phrase, this is a section of a melody, it's often two or four bars long. And finally, legato, which is when movement between notes is smooth. So let's get started. And the first part of today's lesson is looking at the notes in the C position. One of the most famous symphonies of the 19th century is Antonin Dvorak's New World Symphony. Dvorak was a Czech composer from Czechia who moved to America to work at the New York Conservatory of Music. And this symphony finds its inspiration in the African American spirituals, which are type of music that Dvorak was introduced to in America. The main melody from the second movement is one of the most well-known orchestral melodies ever written. It's really iconic and you might recognise it. A later version of it was called "Going Home," and that's due to the sort of wistful feeling of the music. So a sense of nostalgia, of wanting to return home. We're gonna have a listen to it now. I'd like to try and pick out how does the music evoke the feeling of longing for home? And in particular, I'd like to focus on the tempo, so that's the speed, the dynamics, it's the volume and the melody itself. I'd also like to try and pick up what role do the strings and the woodwind play in the music. So let's have a listen. (gentle wistful woodwind music) (gentle wistful woodwind music) (gentle wistful woodwind music) Hopefully there you identified that the music has quiet dynamics and a slow tempo. The bowed strings are playing an accompanying role, so they're sitting in the background. And then a solo woodwind instrument is playing the melodic line, the main melody. The music is very expressive. The melodic instrument in this example is a cor anglais, which is a slightly larger and lower-pitched variation of an oboe. It's very closely related to the oboe. And the strings add intensity to the music and give this orchestra a rich sound. So all these different features combined help to give it this sort of feeling of nostalgia and longing for home. Let's have a look at the melody here. Let's try and pick out how many different pitches can you identify in the melody? And can you name the notes? You can pause my video while you have a look. So well done if you picked up then melody has four notes. Those are C, D, E, and G, and that's what the notation symbols look like for each of those. Middle C sits underneath the stave and it has its own line that goes through the middle of it. And then we've got D that just hugs the bottom of the stave, E with the bottom line going through it, and then G with the second line going through. So well done if you correctly identified those four. Now, these notes all fall within the C position on the keyboard. If we have a look at the C position there, we've got our right hand thumb on C, first finger on D, middle finger on E, fourth finger on F, and then our little finger, our pinky on G. And you'll notice that this melody doesn't use F, so that fourth finger there isn't gonna be used. Here's what those five notes of the C position sound like from C up to G. (piano plays four note sequence) And remember, the way we find C is that it's to the left of the two black keys. So your keyboard has patterns of three black keys and two black keys. And C is the note just to the left pair of two black keys. Let's check your understanding. How do we recognise middle C on the stave? So the notation. I'll give you a few seconds to have a think. And the correct answer then is, that it has its own line that goes through the middle of it and it sits underneath the stave so it's under the main stave. So if we play with a hand in the C position, it means we can use both the finger prompts, so that's the numbers that tells which fingers to use, and the notes on the stave to play the notes of any melody that uses those notes. We're gonna have a look at this example of this melody here played in the C position. And I'd like you to notice the hand shape. So the fingers are curved over the keys and there's a relatively straight line between the little fingers, that's the small finger and the wrist and the elbow. So they're not really kind of, really bent. Let's have a look. (piano plays note sequence) Let's check your understanding here. I'd like you to fill in the following note names using the letters C, D, E, F, and G, so correctly identifying those five notes. Pause my video while you do that. Okay. And the correct answers were: E is that first one on the bottom line, G is the second one on the second line. F sits in the first space. C sits underneath the stave and has that line going through it. And then D just hugs the bottom of the stave there. Well done if you got all five of those. Which is the C position? Look closely at where the thumb and all the other fingers are and see if you can work it out. Pause my video while you do that. And the correct answer then is A, and that's because we can see that the thumb is sitting on C, which is to the left of the two black notes. In the other two examples, the hand is in slightly the wrong position, starting and finishing on the wrong notes. Well done if you got that. For Task A, you're gonna practise playing the following short melodies on the keyboard. And this is just to get us really familiar with playing in that C position with the fingers on the correct notes. Some success criteria for each of these is gonna be you've found the C position with the correct hand shape. You play the notes with the correct fingers. Each note is the same length and that you practise slowly at first and build up. And you can see that C position. Now, on the right hand side with the right hand thumb on C, finger two on D, middle finger on E, finger four on F, and then little finger, pinky, on G. So let's have a look at the first melody now. One, two, three, four. (piano plays melodic sequence) And now you can pause my video and have a go playing that. Now, let's look at the second melody. One, two, three, four. (piano plays melodic sequence) And now pause my video and have a go at playing melody two. Let's have a look now at melody three. One, two, three, four. (piano plays melodic sequence) And now you can pause my video and give that one your best shot. Now, let's look at melody four. One, two, three, four. (piano plays melodic sequence) And now pause this video and have a go at melody four. Here is melody number five. One, two, three, four. (piano plays melodic sequence) And I would like you to pause my video and have a go at that one. Now, we're gonna look at two slightly more complex melodies that don't have the number prompts. So here you need to really make sure you're working out the notes and then using the correct fingers without them written on the notation. Let's have a look firstly at melody six. One, two, three, four. (piano plays melodic sequence) And now let's have a look at melody seven. One, two, three, four. (piano plays melodic sequence) Now pause my video and you gonna have a go at playing both of these melodies using the correct fingers. To finish off this task, I'd like to look at this image of a player about to perform one of the melodies. What could be improved? So pause my video while you have a think. And you might have picked up here then that the player is not in C position because the thumb is resting on E, so that would need to move to the correct notes. The arm and hand look a little bit uncomfortable and the wrist is not in a straight line with the little finger and elbow. You see that big bend in the arm and the wrist there. That's gonna be quite uncomfortable if you're playing in that position. So they need to move their body, get that thumb on the C, so the hand's in C position, and adjust that arm so that it's much more relaxed and much more comfortable. Now, let's look at the rhythms in "Going Home." Here are three key note values that we need to understand to play "Going Home." We've got firstly a crotchet, which is a one beat note, a minim where we hold the note for two beats and then a semibreve. That's the one without a stem that we hold for four beats. Let's have a look at this example of a rhythm here and try and notice the difference between those crotchets, minims and the semibreve. One, two, three, four. (beat clapping) So to get used to those different rhythms, we're gonna do a clapping exercise here. We're gonna go through each of these rhythms and you're gonna try and clap the rhythm along with the backing track. Here is the first one, having a quick look at it and we're ready to clap along after four. One, two, three, four. (beat clapping to upbeat track) Remember, when you're doing this, obviously you want to lock into that beat, but make sure that you're not getting put off with your rhythms by the other parts you can hear going on. Here's our second rhythm now, so focus on the second one. I'll give you a few seconds just to have a read through it. And we're ready to clap along after four. One, two, three, four. (beat clapping to funky track) And now finally, let's have a look at the bottom rhythm there. So just have a read through, familiarise yourself with it. And ready to clap along after four. One, two, three, four. (beat clapping to up-tempo track) So let's have a look at the notation for "Going Home" now, and we'll recognise some of those notation symbols here. We've got some minims. There's one example. We've got some crotchets, there's one example there. And then we also have some semibreves and there are lots of different examples of those throughout the melody. Now, each phrase in the melody is four bars long. And remember, a phrase is a short section of a melody that's usually two or four bars. In this case we're talking about four bar phrases. Have a look at these two phrases and we're gonna have a listen to these. I'd like to try and pick out what do you notice about the rhythms at the start of each phrase. So we're comparing the rhythm of phrase one with the rhythm of phrase two. Let's have a listen to the melody. (piano plays melody of "Going Home") So hopefully there you noticed that both of them start with the same opening musical ideas. So the rhythms in both phrases, in the first part, absolutely identical. And the melody features this dotted crotchet pattern throughout. So we've got that crotchet with that dot next to it there. And that's a really key rhythmic idea in this melody. A dotted rhythm is a note duration where the length of the note is extended by half the length of the original note. Now, when it's phrased like that, it sounds a little bit complex. It's actually quite a simple concept once you've got your head around it. This is a dotted crotchet and instead of lasting for one beat as a crotchet normally would, now it lasts for one and a half beats. They're often paired with quavers. So together the two notes take up two beats of the bar. We've got one and a half beats of the crotchet and then half of the of the quaver. And if we add those together, we've got two beats. So you often see this pattern, a dotted crotchet and then a quaver after it. And to count half beats we use "and" in between the beats. So instead of just going "One, two, three, four," we go "One and two and three and four and." And each of those "ands" is the second half of each beat. And if we look here, we'll see that those quavers are gonna come on the "and" of two and the "and" of four in this example. One and two and three and four and one, two and three, four and. So we're hitting those notes on that "and". So listen to this rhythm and then you're gonna clap it. Let's have a listen. One, two, three, four. (beat clapping rhythm) Now, let's see if you can clap along this time. Here we go. One, two, three, four. (beat clapping rhythm) Hopefully you're starting to get a feel for that dotted crotchet and quaver rhythm. Such a key rhythm for this melody. Let's check your understanding. I'd like you to match the durations to the correct note symbols. You can pause my video while you do that. And let's review this one. So the one beat note, that's the crotchet, is that middle one. A minim which lasts for two beats, is that one at the top, the sort of hollow note with the stem. And then the semibreve, which is four notes, is that other hollow note that doesn't have a stem. Which of these excerpts uses this dotted rhythm? Let's have a listen now to A. One, two, three, four. (beat clapping to rhythm sequence) Now, B. One, two, three, four. (beat clapping to rhythm sequence) And finally C. One, two, three, four. (beat clapping to rhythm sequence) So just finishing your answer. And the correct answer then is A, and that was this one. One, two, three, four. (beat clapping to rhythm sequence) It's got that really distinct dotted crotchet quaver pattern. One, two and three and. So that second note coming on the "and." Well done if you correctly got that one. And the melody can be more expressive when the movement between notes is smooth. And if we use all five fingers on the keyboard, it helps us to play a legato. Remember legato means playing seamlessly, smoothly between the notes without gaps. In what position should the hand be placed on the keyboard when we're playing this melody? Have a quick think. Hopefully there you got that we should be in C position. Remember when we're in C position that that thumb, that C is to the left of the two black keys. So that's our C position there. And if you're in that C position, it'll make it much more easy to play legato. Now, let's look at the first two phrases. So that's our first eight bars. There's our notation there and that's got our finger positions as well. So starting on the middle finger, which is finger three. We're gonna watch a video of it now. And I'd like to notice how the fingers are slightly curved over the keys and there's a relatively straight line between the elbow and the little finger. So that's a good posture and position that we're getting used to early on. Let's have a look at this video. (piano plays "Going Home" melody) Lets check your understanding. In which picture is the hand in C position? Just pause my video while you have a look. And the correct answer then is option C. And that's because the thumb is on C. That's the note to the left of the two black notes. If you look at the three other examples, you see that the thumb is sitting on a different note, so we're not gonna be playing the correct notes. What's the meaning of legato? Is it playing the notes in a detached way, playing the notes smoothly, emphasising each note, or playing the notes quietly? I'll give you a few seconds. And the correct answer then is playing the notes smoothly, so seamlessly without gaps between them. So for Task B, you're gonna practise playing the first two phrases of "Going Home." Make sure you've found the C position with the correct hand shape. Remember this is the right hand we're using for this melody. Make sure you use the correct fingers to play each note. And we've got the finger prompts on the notation there. So we're starting on the middle finger on E. Make sure you play the notes legato, that's smoothly with all fingers. Although remember we're not gonna be using the fourth finger in this melody 'cause there isn't an F. And then finally, make sure you use that dotted rhythm pattern, "one and two and" when you see that rhythm notated, so we've got our notation down at the bottom with your finger prompts, and then we've got that C position to make sure you find on the right hand side there as well. So without further ado, you can pause my video and give this your best shot. For the final part of this task, I'd like to watch this performance and answer these questions. Is the hand in C position and in the correct shape? Are the pitches of each note accurate? And are the rhythms accurate? And if not, where are they inaccurate? So let's have a look at this. (piano plays "Going Home" melodic sequence) Just pause my video while you finish your answer. And here are some of the things you might have spotted. So the hand is in the C position and the pitches are accurate all the way through. In bar 3, the first dotted rhythm is played as two crotchets and bar 4 doesn't hold for four beats. So there's those two rhythmic aspects of bar 3 and 4 that could be improved. Really well done if you picked up on either of those. Let's review today's lesson then. So we have played melodies in the C position on the keyboard, identifying the notes C to G on the stave. The melody of "Going Home" frequently uses a dotted crotchet rhythm and it also contains quavers, crotchets minims and semibreves. A phrase is a section of a melody, and each phrase in the "Going Home" melody is four bars long. And finally, using all five fingers helps us to play legato, which makes the movement between each note smooth. So thanks very much for taking part in today's lesson. I hope you've really enjoyed learning these skills and developing our performing with "Going Home," and I look forward to seeing you in another lesson. Thank you.