Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi and welcome to DAY ONE !!
Hi ... and welcome the Day One !!
This is going to be an exciting day. We are going to start our journey
in learning how to play "Six Hymns In Six Days". It is going to be EASY !
It is going to be FUN ! And you can do it !!
You know several years ago I went to a youth conference
where they talked about how important "ATTITUDE" is
and I want you have a GREAT attitude
in learning how to play the piano.
They gave us this T-shirt that has a phrase on it.
Can you read what it says?
It says "You gotta wanna" .
I like this philosophy and hopefully we can use it this week.
You gotta wanna have FUN !
You gotta wanna learn how to play the piano.
You gonna wanna be successful !
And I'm going do everything I can to help you in this.
I have a little button I use sometimes
"That was easy ! "
To help remind us ..
that this is easy !! And we can do it together.
Now what I need you to do ... is go to your computer
and print out all the papers
that are dealing with DAY NUMBER ONE.
When you get them all printed out get yourself a nice notebook
put holes in the papers and then add them to your notebook
so that we can be all ready to go here in just a minute.
So turn off the course right now
and go print off the pages and I'll see you in just a minute!
Pause the instructions now. When you are ready, then continue to Part 2 of 6
Hi and welcome back ! I hope you've been able to
print out your pages and put them into your notebook
I have them right here and we'll get to them just a minute.
The first thing you will need to learn is
how to sit at the keyboard, the organ, or the piano.
I suggest sit "facing" the piano. That's the easiest way to play. :)
Get comfortable. Have your chair so you're kind of on the edge of it.
Put your feet down flat. Have your hands like this and...
Don't lean forward like this. This is kinda hard... or
...leaning back. Just be comfortable. Kind of sit up...
and that's about all there is. That's a very easy way to do it.
and that's about all there is. That's a very easy way to do it.
Now notice it there seems to be a whole lot of keys on the piano...
Now don't be worried that you're going to have to learn them all.
We're only going to learnabout a dozen of the keys right here in the middle.
As a matter fact you see that we have White keys and Black Keys.
Were not even going to play the Black Keys, so that makes it even easier!
Half of the notes are already gone! So now these keys and notes
are named after letters of the alphabet... and ONLY 7 of them!
ABCDEFG
and then it repeats itself ... ABCDEFG
So A through G, A through G, A through G.
And it's the same way on every keyboard, piano, and organ.
Now we need to find out where the ABC's are on the keyboard.
The first first key we're gonna learn is
what we call "Middle C." Now, the "C's"
are located just to the left of the two black keys.
So here's one C. Here's another C. Here's another C.
So every time you see the two Black Keys
just on the left of it, is "C."
The note just to the left of it is "B."
And then "A."
So, you go ABCDE
F and G...
What do we do next? Yes, it repeats.
ABCDEFG
Now the most important key
of all these on the keyboard is what we call "Middle C."
That helps us to know where to start.
So, "Middle C" is very easy to find. I had a friend who taught me a very simple method.
He said no matter what keyboard you're sitting at...
kind of place yourself in the middle.
Put your left hand at one end and your right hand at the other end...
and then just put your nose down and it will point
right to the "C" that we call "Middle C."
Now, stop the instructions
and I want you to go to your piano or keyboard
and I want you to find all the "C's" on your keyboard
and then find Middle C.
And once you've found that then come on back.
Pause the instructions now. When you are ready, then continue to Part 3 of 6
Hi and welcome back!
I hope you been able to find
the two black keys and the three Black Keys on your keyboard.
and then finding the "C's" that are just to the what?
Yes!...to the left of the two Black Keys.
And then Middle C which is right in the middle of your keyboard.
Now to make things easier today, all we're going to learn is
how to play with the left hand. So take your right hand
put it away. Do whatever you want to, one hand behind your back, doesn't matter...
We're just going to concentrate on our left hand.
Now to know which finger to play in our left and we're going to number them
1,2,3,4,5 "the thumb" is 1
2, 3, 4 and little finger is 5.
Now on the keyboard in order to be able to learn our left hand...
One of the pages we we have here is
a template that you can use to put on your keyboard if you want to.
You just take it and fold it in half where the fold line is.
You'll notice that it says 'Middle C' right here.
Find Middle C on your keyboard and hopefully
all the Black Keys line up here.
You'll see where it says "Middle C".You'll also see where it says
"C" which is an octave below.
Now remember an "octave" is just 8 notes below.
So this is an "octave" lower than Middle C.
The three keys we want to learn how to play first are...
C, F, and G.
So put your little finger on C.
Then your second finger on F
and your thumb on G.
Go back and forth C, F, and G
C, F, and G
Okay, now based upon
those three notes we're going to learn how to play three chords.
When we learn these three chords, you will be able to play over 30 hymns!
So that should be really easy on that.
Now what is a "chord"?
Well, a chord is when you play more than two notes at the same time.
You could have these two notes or these two notes, or three notes
or ... that is a chord
but I don't recommend that chord! :) So we're going to learn three chords first.
The first chord is going to be called the C chord.
If you'll notice on your template
where the "C" is, that is where you are going to put the number five finger or your little finger.
Then, your middle finger where the star is and your thumb where the other star is.
The notes in that chord are
C, E, and G.
Now probably ... the hardest part of playing the chord
is getting it to play all hold the same time.
So pushing the notes down so it doesn't sound like
... ( not together )
When you do that, how do you place your fingers?
Well ... I have got a little ball here...
Pretend like you have a ball in your hand.
Turn your hand over ... Let the ball come out.
See how my fingers are curved down liked that?
So if you put them on the keys
you are kind of playing on your fingertips.
That's the easiest way right now.
So go to your keyboard. Stop the instruction,
and I want you to play the C chord.
Now, how to practice it ... I want you to play it LOUD ...
SOFT ...
FAST ...
SLOW ....
See if you can take this hand right here...
This is the C, E, and G.
Now take it over to the keyboard
and actually you could go up to the next C...
and to the next C ... and to the next C. Your hand is exactly the same.
So go do that and then come on back. And then we will learn next chord.
Pause the instructions now. When you are ready, then continue to Part 4 of 6.
Hi and welcome back !!
Were you able to find the C on the keyboard? And all the other Cs?
Did you notice the two black keys and the three Black Keys and where they are?
Where the C Chord is and how it lines up?
Right now we are going to learn the two other chords.
There are just three chords that you will have to learn
for all the hymns that we will be learning.
So now we are going to learn the G chord.
Okay let us play this C Chord,
with our fifth finger, the middle finger and our thumb.
Now to play the G chord we are going to take our little finger
come down to the B and then our fourth finger and go to the D
so our thumb is staying on the same note ... there is the G
there is the C chord and there is the G chord.
and then backed to the C Chord.
Now to do the F chord it is really easy !!!
We will take our second finger and just play the F where it is
and move our thumb up to A
so we have C, F, and A. And we can push that down.
and that is our F Chord and then back to our C Chord.
Down to our G chord and then back to our C Chord.
One way to practice is to do it several times in a row
like 1, 2, 3, 4
1, 2, 3, 4 .... 1, 2, 3, 4
Now another way is... if your second and fourth finger are kind of weak
just use the middle finger. So you can go from the C chord...
now to do the G,
we will user our middle finger. Back to C,
Now we will use the middle finger again to go up to the F.
Now you can try that one and there is an even easier version.
If you do C and G
or you just use your little finger and your thumb...
or C and G for your C chord
and then go up to your A and back.
And don't even worry about the middle fingers until later on.
So try it either way and just get practice and have fun with it !!
That is the important thing !!
Once it becomes muscle memory you'll be able to do it without even thinking about it.
or even looking at it.
Now as you are learning these practice them ... HARD
And go back and forth
Let me give you an even easier... "That was Easy"
an easier way if the chords are too hard to play right now.
Just use your little finger
your second finger and your thumb to play it.
Your little finger for C; your second finger for F.
And your thumb for G... So C, F, and G.
So at least learn those and see if you can memorize them.
but I would really like you to get these chords down.
Here is the C Chord; your F Chord
your G Chord; and your C Chord.
Now have fun with these things and every time you go by a piano or whatever
find your C, F, G, and get these down. Now stop the instructions for right now.
Go back to your piano, and see if you can find
these three chords.
And practice it a little bit and then come right back.
Talk to you in a little bit.
Pause the instructions now. When you are ready, then continue to Part 5 of 6.
Okay!
How did it go? Can you play the C, the
G, and the F chord?
Hopefully won't be too hard. Now we're going to learn how to
"read" music but
with my simplified version, I'm trying to make it as simple as possible.
In our notebook we have the first one which is called
"Left Hand Fun." Now for those that have a color
printer you'll see that the C's
are in red, the G's are in blue
and the F's are in green.
For those who don't have color printers
You'll need to take out your crayons or your colored pencils and color them in.
I want C to be red. I want G to be blue, and I want F to be green.
Now why would I do that?
Well, part of memory is...
Color can teach us a lot. so if you're looking at your music if you see the
color and associate it
with a certain chord, It will be easier
to know whether you're playing a C or G
because they can look a little bit alike. So coloring
them will help you do that. So on each of the hymns we will be learning
we'll have these chords in these 3 colors.
So, the first exercise
that we have is called "Left Hand Fun."
Exercise number one you'll see CCCCC
And then the G's...and then the F's.
Then you go back and forth, C, G, F...
C, G, F... C, G, F...
So, you have your music, up on your stand...
and actually if you want to you can use your right hand to point at it...
Go, C, C, C, C.
Down here at the bottom it's a little trickier.
You have C, G, G, F, F, C
Now this "Left Hand Fun"
is a fun exercise and it'll help you to get
your fingers to know where they're supposed to go.
You'll find that what we call
"muscle memory" will really help you out so that
if you can memorize this with your muscles
here (in your hands) then you don't have to remember too much here (in your mind).
So I want you to go back to the piano now and learn "Left Hand Fun."
Go over it, and then come on back.
Pause the instructions now. When you are ready, then continue to Part 6 of 6.
Okay, how did it go?
Were you able to read the music and play?
Well, this is kind of a boring exercise.
I admit that. So let's make it fun! On the other music that I have, I have some
simple songs that
I learned in my childhood; and hopefully that you'll know how to play...
or you're familiar with. The first one is...
Row, Row, Row Your Boat.
Now, I can't sing, and maybe you can't sing either. But that doesn't matter!
We're going to have fun with this with Row, Row, Row Your Boat.
I have the lyrics and right above the lyrics
is the chord that you're supposed to play.
If you notice right under the title it says, "Start on Middle C."
(hum)
So if you're going to sing it, then that would be the note that you start singing.
Here's our ."Row" and our "C".
Row, row, row your boat...
Gently down the stream...
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily...
Life is but a dream.
Now, I want you to sing with it, so
kick everybody else out of the room so you're not embarrassed. :)
As we learn the hymns you'll find that singing the hymns will help you.
And on the simple ones it will help you to learn how to
sing as well as play the note and the chords at the same time.
So, now we have "Mary Had a Little Lamb."
And it starts on E. Two notes above middle C.
Mary had a little lamb
little lamb, little lamb.
Mary had a little lamb
its fleece was white as snow.
Not too hard! It's easy!
"That was easy!"
Okay,now I've got "Mary Had a Little Lamb," "Jingle Bells," "Three Blind Mice,"
"Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," and then I have our first hymn for the day...
"Silent Night."
Silent night, Holy night...
All is calm...
Well you've heard enough my singing, and you understand how it goes.
I want you to practice which ones you want to,
but mainly a silent night.
Play the chord when the right
words are right below it.
That's all we're going to be learning for today!
Let's just review: What did we learn today?
We learned how to sit at the piano.
We learned that we have two Black Keys and three Black Keys.
We learned what the note names are on the keys... A through G.
We've learned what an Octave is... which is 8 notes....
that repeats up and down the keys.
We've learned how to put our template on the keyboard.
And we've learned where the C chord is...
the G chord, and the F chord.
And now we have our first hymn, "Silent Night,"
as well as some fun songs to learn as well.
So, how how long should you practice? ... Well.... about three hours!
No, no... an hour?
(sigh)
No... how about five minutes? Can you do that?
Can you give me a couple of 5-minute sessions throughout the day?
And maybe every time you walk by a keyboard or something
you come back and go C, G, C, F, G...
and then you go on your way
just to have muscle memory start going into that.
So, have fun today!
Learn this one, and come back tomorrow.
and start learning our RIGHT HAND!
Have a great day!