Lesson 42

Love Somebody

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Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman.
Today we're going to be learning a traditional song, "Love Somebody."

"Ohhh! A song about l'amour."

"No, it's just song about love, silly."

"That's what I said. It is a song about love, but it's a secret love.
Do you have a secret love Mr. Hoffman?"

"Not me, I'm married. I love my wife, but it's no secret.
Do you have a secret love, Princess?"

"No, I'm too busy for a relationship."

"Oh, I see. Well maybe someday."

Then well, back to business.
Let's listen to "Love Somebody" and then we'll learn how to play it on the piano. Let's take a look at "Love Somebody" on the staff.
We've got our treble clef here and a key signature.
We'll learn more about key signatures later,
but for now just know that this means we're going to be in the key of E major,
and I've written out the E major pentascale here which would sound like this:
♫DO RE MI FA SO♫ Can you point and sing that with me?
Ready go ♫DO RE MI FA SO♫
You notice this first note starts on E,
and that's actually going to be the first note of "Love Somebody."
Now I'm going to ask for your help to figure out the notes of "Love Somebody."
I'll sing the first four notes, the first of which will be this E,
which is DO in this case,
and see if you can figure out the solfège of what you're hearing.
Here are the first few notes: ♫♫♫♫♫
Can you turn those notes into solfège? If you said DO MI SO SO then you're correct. Point and sing with me in solfège, go. ♫DO MI SO SO♫

You'll notice these are all line notes because DO to MI is a skip.
If it had been a space above like this that would be DO RE,
but in this case we're skipping up DO MI SO SO.
Now the next three notes I will also give you a clue that it starts on a RE.
So I gave you that first note, see if you can tell what the next two notes do.
♫♫♫ What do you hear? If you said RE MI FA, you're correct.
How are these notes moving: skipping or stepping?
If you said stepping, you're correct.
This time it's stepping up ♫RE MI FA♫.
Now, let's point and sing the whole thing so far, go.
♫DO MI SO SO RE MI FA♫.
Now let's figure out the next phrase.
I'll sing and you turn it into solfège for me.
♫♫♫♫ What would that be in solfège?
If you said DO MI SO SO then you're correct.
It's the same pattern we just had.

Now the next little phrase begins on a FA,
and tell me what you think the notes are doing.
I'll start right here in my singing♫♫♫♫ What did you hear?
If you said FA MI RE, then you're correct.
They're stepping down this time. Good,
and then the next phrase goes ♫♫♫♫♫♫♫ Stepping up again,
and then we end with MI MI RE RE RE RE.
Now you tell me the last three notes ♫♫♫.
What would that be in solfège?
If you said DO DO DO, then you're correct.
Now point and sing with me in solfège,
starts on MI, ready go MI MI RE RE RE RE DO DO DO.
Now let's check out the sheet music.
Here's the score for "Love Somebody."
A score is just a fancy word for the sheet music.

Now take a few seconds and tell me what you notice by looking at this.
Can be anything. You might have noticed that we've got a grand staff today,
both a treble clef and bass clef join together.
Our right hand plays all the notes on the top.
Our left hand will play all the notes down here in the bass clef,
but today we're just going to be focusing on the treble clef,
so you can kind of ignore this bass staff down here.
Now you also might have noticed that we've got rhythms now.
When we were dictating these note heads on the staff a second ago,
we just saw the note heads but if you add stems and beams,
now we'll be able to tell what the rhythm is.

So let's try speaking the rhythm of all the notes written up here in the treble staff. Can you point with me and we'll say TI-TI or TA?
Now do we have any rhythms that are not TI-TI or TA?
See if you can find it. Point to it.
If you're pointing right here,
then you found four sixteenth notes which you might remember.
They'll go TIKI-TIKI, twice as fast as our eighth notes.
Now let's say TI-TI for the eighth notes, TA for the quarter note,
and when we get to these sixteenth notes we'll say TIKI-TIKI.
So point with me and let's speak the rhythm.
Ready, go. TI-TI, TI-TI, TI-TI TA, TI-TI, TI-TI, TI-TI,
TA, TI-TI, TI-TI, TI-TI, TA, TI-TI, TIKI-TIKI TI-TI TA Great.
Now, let's try playing this on the piano.
Okay let's go ahead and place the right hand in the E major pentascale,
which you recall has an E, F-sharp G-sharp, A, B.
Can you play and name each note with me?
Ready, let's start with E, go. E, F-sharp ...