Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman.
Today we're learning how to play the melody to an old traditional folk song from Japan.
Oh, japan? Isn't that where samurai warriors live?
Well, you wouldn't see any samurai warriors today, but hundreds of years ago, yes.
And ninjas too.
Ooo, ninjas are from Japan too?
Yes Scuba.
Japan is an island nation on the western edge of the pacific ocean.
About 500 years ago, Japan was a dangerous place with many wars being fought involving both samurai and ninjas. But today Japan is a peaceful country known for its bonsai trees and great food like sushi.
I like sushi!
I like it too.
The Japanese folk song that we are learning today is called "Deta Deta",
and it's a song about a beautiful full moon night. Let's listen.
♫Deta, deta, tsuki ga♫
♫Marui, marui, manmarui♫
♫Bon no you na tsuki ga♫
♫Kakureta kumo ni,♫
♫kuroi kuroi makkuroi,♫
♫sumi no you na kumo ni♫
Here's the score for "Deta Deta".
Take a look and tell me what you notice.
I always like to check out the tempo indication first thing so I know the mood of the piece.
It says andante, which remember means a relaxed slower tempo,
but not too slow, just comfortably slow.
We've got treble and bass clef. What's our time signature?
If you said 4/4, you're correct.
We're going to be playing this mezzo piano.
Now let's check out this first phrase. What's the letter name of this first note?
If you said treble C, it's one of our guide notes, you're correct.
Finger 5 goes on treble C, so on your piano place your finger 5 on treble C and notice what position that lands you in.
This piece will be in F major, and so this C will be SO.
Can you pause the video, and I'd like you to figure out this first phrase
in solfège. It starts on SO. Can you figure out the rest?
Pause to figure that out, then press play and we'll check it out together.
The correct answer is SO MI SO MI DO RE MI REST
Let's try to play it.
All right, let's go ahead and place finger 5 on treble C.
Remember, it's kind of the F major pentascale, but this piece never uses B-flat.
You might as well just keep your fingers relaxed on the white keys.
All right, the first phrase remember we had: SO MI SO MI DO RE MI
Now you try.
Good, let's play it one more time together this time. Ready, go:
SO MI SO MI DO RE MI
Great, remember because of this phrase mark we're going to play it legato and flowing.
The last note of a phrase is usually the softest, so get a little bit softer as you go up to that last A.
Super, press pause, try that one time on your own
with beautiful legato and getting softer on the last note,
and then press play when you're ready to go on.
Now let's check out measure three.
Can you tell me the letter name of this first note of the phrase?
If you said treble C, you're correct. Same note as the start of the last phrase, but
the finger number is different.
This means we're going to have to shift our hand over one key
to be ready because now C, or SO, isn't the highest note of the phrase anymore.
We're going to need one extra finger to reach up above C. What's the letter a step above C?
If you said D, you're correct.
So let's look at this pattern. We have C D C A. Notice we skip down to that A.
Can you sing that with me in letters? Go.
C D C A, or in solfège: SO LA SO MI
Now what do you notice about this next pattern of four eighth notes?
If you notice they're the same notes, same pattern over again, you're correct.
So notice how this phrase mark goes off the edge, which tells us the phrase continues down on the next line here.
What do you notice about these next four notes?
The same pattern again. So we've had this pattern of C D C A C D C A C D C A, we've now had that three times.
And then it finally steps down to what note? Can you tell me this letter name?
If you said G, you are correct. So this last one finishes with C D C A G.
Now let's try to play it.
All right, like we said for the second phrase we have to shift finger 4 up to C so we're basically just sliding up one key.
So now finger 4 is on C, and we have this pattern of four notes. C, step up, step down, skip down.
SO LA SO MI. The note above SO is LA. SO LA SO MI. Can you try playing that pattern?
Now your turn.
Good, and that pattern happens three times. We have SO LA SO MI SO LA SO MI SO LA SO MI RE
at the end it steps down to RE, and remember to make that last note of the phrase the softest.
Now press pause and try that phrase a few times on your own,
and then press play when you're ready to go on.
One trick I'd like to show you for this phrase is a little bit of hand and wrist motion that will be kind of like your hand is moving around in a circle.
And th ...