Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman
and in this lesson we're going to learn
an old folk song from England
called "Oranges and Lemons". Let's have a listen:
No one knows for sure, but this song probably started in
London England where there are many churches.
In the song you probably heard
names like St. Giles, St. Peters.
All those are different churches, and when the bells would ring in all the different churches' steeples,
sometimes people would use their imaginations to come up
with some things that they thought the bells were saying.
So someone might be walking along the streets of
London and, oh look,
there's the church of St. Clements and suddenly the bells ring
Bong bong bong bong bong
and to them they would imagine the bells were saying to
them:
♫Oranges and lemons♫
which maybe someone was selling in the street right
there.
Now, let's get started learning this song by coming to the staff.
The
song "Oranges and Lemons" is in the key of F major,
so let's review our F majorpentascale. Can you point to an F on this keyboard down here?
If you're pointing here or here you're correct. Let's go ahead and go with this one.
And we've got an F.
Let's name these notes together: F G A
B-flat
What's this?
C
So there's our F major pentascale.
Now let's draw it on our staff.
For F
we can use our guide note G, and then just think one step down and that gives us F.
and then we need a G,
then an A. Now how do we draw a B-flat?
Well we place a B, and then we need to put a flat symbol right in front of it and that makes a B-flat,
and then C.
Can you point and name these notes with me?
Go:
F G A B-flat C
Now, it's most common in music
that so we don't have to draw a B-flat every time we use the note B,
we use something called a key signature,
which you've probably heard me mention before. Where
we place the flat at the
beginning right next to the clef
and that automatically makes all the B's on
that entire staff B-flat.
So let's use a key signature today and can you point
and sing with me? Let's do it in solfège.
Ready, go: DO RE MI FA SO.
Great, now let's try
the arpeggio where we just skip.
DO MI SO
Now point and sing with me, go: DO MI SO
Now let's take a look at the first five notes of "Oranges and Lemons".
We start up here on SO.
Then what do you notice?
What can you tell me about these five
notes?
You might notice that they're all space notes. None of them are on a line,
and so that tells us that we're in this skipping pattern. If this one's SO,
then
we have: SO MI SO MI DO
And that's ♫Oranges and lemons♫
This is why I did orange and
yellow of course.
Now, can you point and sing the solfège with me?
Starts on SO, ready go:
SO MI SO MI DO
Alright, go ahead and hold up your right
hand and let's try moving our fingers in this pattern.
Remember we're doing all
skips here so we have:
SO MI SO MI DO
Now your turn.
Great let's come back to
the staff.
Now the next four notes are:
♫say the bells of♫
How are these notes
moving? Let's say it in steps, skips, and repeats.
We say start, now try it with me,
point, step up, step up, then what happens here?
It's a skip down.
We can tell because it skipped over this space note all the way down to the next line.
And in solfège
that's: RE MI FA RE.
And on the piano keys that would look like this: RE MI FA RE
Okay, hold up your right hand again,
and this one let's see if you can figure out.
I'll give you a clue that
RE starts right here on finger 2. Can you figure
out how to move your fingers for:
RE MI FA RE
Try it.
It goes like this: RE MI FA RE
Let's try
that together. Ready, go: RE MI FA RE
Good, now back to the staff.
Now, the next three notes are ♫St.Clements♫
BA BA BA
What do you think that would be in solfège?
Can you tell me what's happening?
Listen one more time: BA BA BA
In solfège that would be SO MI DO
Now can you point in sing with me?
Starts on SO. Ready go:
SO MI DO
On the piano keys of course that would be SO MI DO.
Let's see if you can figure this
one out too.
Can you show me how to move your fingers for: SO MI DO
It should be: SO MI DO
So let's put that pattern, let's back up a little bit to the: RE MI FA RE SO MI DO
You try that with me. Ready, go:
RE MI FA RE SO MI DO
Great let's try it on the piano.
So for "Oranges and Lemons" we'll start with our
right hand in the F major pentascale.
Can you find F major and sing and play:
DO RE MI FA SO