Before I play this piece, I'll just tell you that it might look complicated and scary. We've got things happening here that we've never seen before in this course. But don't worry, we'll break it down. And by the end of this lesson, you'll understand everything that's happening here. I promise. Watch me first.

I won't do the repeat. So this is obviously not the most interesting melody you've ever heard, you might even say it's slightly annoying. But I chose these two notes for a very specific reason. We're learning a lot of new concepts here. And I wanted to make sure that you were not going to be distracted by figuring out the physical movements to make to get from one key to the next. So we're just rotating from the first finger to the fifth finger.

The other reason I chose this is because it's a really great exercise for developing agility and strength while relaxing. So think about how you're playing. It's kind of like Turning the tiniest doorknob. Okay, like that. I don't know if you can see, but tiny doorknob, so we're not doing this. Do you see what I'm doing the fingers doing all the work now, the fingers touch the keys, and you just shift the weight of your arm from one finger to the other.

Okay? You know, it's not the most beautiful thing you're ever gonna play Far from it, but it's going to serve our purposes for now. Now let's talk about what we're looking at here. Here's a curvy line connecting the first two notes. It tells me to hold the first note until I play the next note. As opposed to doing this.

See the dots above and below these note heads. They're different from the duck that goes next to the half note to make it into a dotted half note the dots that go above and below the note heads tell you to play those notes separated from one another, like you're jumping off the key. So here are the first two notes with the curvy line. It's like I'm walking. And here are the next two notes with those dots. Like I'm hopping, you see that, let's try it together.

We're just gonna play first walking than hopping. So, take your first finger, find a above middle C, C, D, E, F, G, A, and a finger will be on E, A, B, C, D, E. Alright, so play your a first finger, hold on to it. Now shift your weight into your fifth finger. And then let your first finger come up. Let's try that again. So fall into the first finger.

Now shift your weight slightly to the fifth finger. I like your first finger rise. Now we'll do Do the other one, which is where you're hopping. So again, play your a, but this time, come right off of it like that. Then play the E and come right off of it. Let's do that again the jumpy one, a E. So the one that you're walking, let's try that together a folding walk to the next note.

Now let's do the jumping, jump, jump. Now the same thing happens in the second measure, except that the orders are reversed. Let's play the first two measures. So a connected to E walk from A to E. Now pick up you're going to play a jump. E jump now are measured to a jump because of that dot a jump and now we've got the curvy line, a walk to eat This curvy line has two names, one in Italian legato, and one in English slur. Musicians use both words to mean the same thing.

And it doesn't matter which one you use, people should know what you mean. The dot has an Italian name. It's called staccato, staccato. Let's play the third and fourth measures. We still have legato and staccato toes, but now we're playing eighth notes. So there'll be a little bit quicker.

Watch me first this is measure three, and four. And then staccato and legato. Okay, so in general, we're speaking English, we don't stop to say that staccato and legato. With an Italian accent we just say, staccato and legato. So, I would probably just go ahead and say that. Now let's do that together.

Starting on measure three, you already know how to walk and jump from one key to the next, we're going to just do a little bit faster. So I'll say three and four and to count us off and we'll go three, and four. And that's legato. Now staccato. staccato and, slur. Learn means the same thing as legato.

Notice in measure three, I've got groups of two eighth notes. And in measure four, I've got groups of four eighth notes, it makes no difference whatsoever. I put those in there so that you can get used to seeing how differently if those can be arranged, but they all mean the same thing. Okay. How many notes are in a group sharing one beam has no difference in how you play it. Okay, so what's happening in measure five, we still have the same two notes, A and E. We've got a really long legato, but now we've got a different kind of note than we've ever seen before.

These notes look very similar to eighth notes. They have a beam, but they actually have two beams, which makes them different than eighth notes. When you've got two beams on a note, we call that a 16th. Note 16th notes are twice as fast as eighth notes. So remember that an eighth note has a value of a half of a beat of music. What's half of a half a quarter, right?

Think of a pizza, cut it in half, and then cut that half in half. You've got a quarter of a pizza. So it takes four 16th notes to equal one quarter note Again, don't worry about memorizing any of this, we'll be using it and it will become part of your musical toolbox. Looking at measure six, we see one eighth note. I know it's an eighth note because it's got only one beam connected to two 16th notes, two beams. So that's interesting group.

And if we look a little bit further into that measure, we'll see two 16th notes. See the two beams connected to an eighth note one beam. So that's a different kind of group. watch me play and measure five and 61234 Is that complicated? No, it's just new. So let's do it together.

And let's not count right now. Just copy what I'm doing. We'll go a little bit slower. A and E 1234434. So I counted just the 1234 really quietly so you can kind of hear it in the background. Now, how do we count 16th notes?

Well, we know that when we count eighth notes, we say one and two and three and four and when we count 16 notes, we say one E and two E and three, E and four, E, and up. So we're adding the E and the A, in between the one and then the two and the n and so on. It's a lot simpler to do it than to explain it. So Count with me, we'll do measure five. I'll count us off. And then we'll play make sure that you're counting out loud.

One, E, and a, two, E, and three, E, and four, E, and. One and, two and, three and for and Pretty simple once you do it right, if you want, you can pause here and practice that by yourself just counting one e and a two e and a, and so on. Now looking at measure six, I've got an eighth note and two 16th notes. So I count like this watch. One, E. And let's play that group together with counting. Ready?

Go. One. And some people like to count like this. Listen, one. And so they say that he silently in their heads. For now, I want you to say it out loud so you can feel how long that note is later on.

In your musical journey. You can choose to keep some of the counts silent if you want. For right now we're going to count out loud and make sure we know what's happening. Now look at this group. We've got two 16th notes and an eighth note. Watch me three And I said three because it's on beat three.

Watch again, three. And let's do that together. Ready starting on E. Here we go. Three. And let's do that entire measure, measure six. Watch me one time.

One, E, and two, E, and three, E and four, B. And let's play and count that together. Find a with your first finger. Here we go. One. And are you counting two and three, B, and four e Ah, what do you think?

Let's do measures five and six. So you've got a bunch of 16th notes and then we've got that rhythm that we just practiced. So starting with a first finger, Ready, here we go. One and two, and three and four and. One and two, E, and three, E, and four, E. and. Okay, I'm going to play in count from the beginning.

You can watch me or you can join me if you're joining me make sure that you count out loud. Probably it's a good idea to watch me first. I'm not going to do the repeat, because I'll do it when we play together. Here I go, one, e and a, two, e and a, three E and A, four, e and a, one, e and a, two, E, and three, e and a, four, E, and ah, one, e and a, two, e and a, three E, and four, E, and ah, one, E, and two, E, and three, E, and a, four E, and, one, E, and a, two, E, and a three And four, and one and two and three and four. One e and two E and three E and four E and one e and a, two e and a, three E and a four E. And that whole note looks really easy now right?

Are you ready to join me? Well, let's play and count and we will definitely do that repeat. I know it's not the most exciting piece Written Far, far from it, however, it's teaching you some really important things. So, first finger on a, make sure you're counting out loud with me. I'll count three and a four E and okay. three E and a four E, and here we go.

One, E, and two, E, and now jumpy. Three, e and a, four E and A, one, e and a, two, e and a, three, e and a, four, E, and ah, one, E, and a, two, E, and a, three, E, and a, four E, and. One, E, and two e Three and four, and, one and two and, three and four and one, E and two, E and three, e and a, four, e and a, one, e and a, two e and a, three E and a four E. And let's repeat faster. One and two, E and three, E and four E and one, E and M. two E and three E and four E and one E and two E and three E and four E and one, E and two, E and three, E and four, and, one, and two, and, three, and four, and.

One, E and two, E and three, E and four, E, and one, e and a, two e and a, three E and four E and who again to work out, okay, pause, practice playing and counting out loud. This is basically just an exercise, both for technique and for learning how to play legato, staccato, and counting different kinds of subdivisions of rhythm. I recommend that you do this lesson several times, because there's a lot of information about technique and that takes time to really absorb and put into practice. When you feel like you have a good handle on all the information that's been presented, then move on to the next lesson, and you can come back at any time to review this lesson or previous ones.