Category: Lessons

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Sorida

Introduction

Sorida is a song from Zimbabwe, which is a country in Africa.  The word sorida means hello.  Every language has a word for hello. Do you know how to say hello in a different language?

Zimbabwe is the home of a world-famous waterfall, called Victoria Falls. Look down below for a video of it taken from a plane flying overhead. Try moving it around. You can look around and even straight down!

Listen To The Song

The Lesson

At The Piano

Full Speed

Slower

Sheet Music

Piano
Piano Challenge Version
Ukulele
Guitar
Recorder
Xylophone or On-Screen Piano

Don’t Forget!

You can look up the ukulele chords and guitar chords and get help with reading tablature,
playing the recorder or rhythm (percussion) instruments right here on my website!

Enrichment

Victoria Falls

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Row Row Row Your Boat

Introduction

This is a song that everyone knows. It is usually sung as a round. That means that the different parts sung by the different sections are actually the same part just started at different times. We have sung these in class regularly.

See the videos below for demonstrations and an explanation. Why not sing-along just for fun?

Video

The Lesson

At The Piano

Full Speed

Slower

Sheet Music

There are only a couple of challenges in playing this piece.  The most important thing to focus on is rhythm.

Notice the left hand over marking in measure number 5. The notes are higher than the usual one we see for this marking. Usually we are stretching up to A and we have the option to stretch our finger out if we can, but this time we have to skip up three steps so we are going to have to use the left hand over to play these notes.

Take it slow and remember to break it up into phrases.

Piano
Piano Challenge Version
Ukulele
Guitar
Recorder
Xylophone or On-Screen Piano

Don’t Forget!

You can look up the ukulele chords and guitar chords and get help with reading tablature,
playing the recorder or rhythm (percussion) instruments right here on my website!

Digging Deeper

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I Lost A Tooth, Book 2

Introduction

You might remember this song from Book 1. It’s about an important rite of passage in everyone’s life, losing a tooth!

There’s a few little musical jokes in the song, like the spaces in between the notes and rests, which create a space in the sound of the song. Take a look at the video below where I explain more.

Are you a new student this year, or need a simpler version?  Check out the version of I Lost A Tooth from Book 1!

Listen

The Lesson

At the Piano

Sheet Music

Make sure that you approach this song the way that I described in the video above. Start with the right hand playing the melody.  Add the left hand a little at a time.  You might even need to break it down to one measure at a time, and that’s fine.

Have fun with it and do your best.

Piano
Ukulele
Guitar
Recorder
Xylophone or On-Screen Piano

Don’t Forget!

You can look up the ukulele chords and guitar chords and get help with reading tablature,
playing the recorder or rhythm (percussion) instruments right here on my website!

Enrichment

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Morning

Introduction

Edvard Grieg was a composer from Norway who lived from 1843 through 1907. The song we are learning this week is from his Peer Gynt Suite.

Portrait of Edvard Grieg

Have you ever been awake just when the sun is starting to rise? Can you picture first beams of light coming over the horizon? Maybe just the first few streams of light peeking through the shades in the quiet of the morning? The sun continues to rise little by little and the sky gets brighter and brighter until it is finally morning. That’s what it sounds like to listen to this song.

While you are listening, use your imagination and try to remember when you have had an experience like that. Is it the same? Is it different?

Video

The Lesson

At The Piano

Full Speed

Slower

Sheet Music

There are a few challenges in playing this piece, but they are challenges that you have faced before, so don’t worry.

I covered most of the really tricky stuff in the video above so make sure you have watched that. If you need to, you can play it over and over again until you understand. Once you understand the tricky repeats and endings, everything else should be pretty similar to something done before.

One of the most important parts of the song is the way that it sounds in the way that it makes you draw a picture in your mind of the morning sun rising. Keep working on playing it until you can get it smooth enough to really sound like a beautiful sunrise.

Take it slow and remember to break it up into phrases.

Piano
Piano Challenge Version
Ukulele
Guitar
Recorder
Xylophone or On-Screen Piano

Don’t Forget!

You can look up the ukulele chords and guitar chords and get help with reading tablature,
playing the recorder or rhythm (percussion) instruments right here on my website!

Digging Deeper

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Musette

Introduction

Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the greatest composers that ever lived. Remember, a composer writes music just like an author writes a book.

Bach’s father taught him to play the violin when he was seven years old. He also grew to play harpsichord and the organ.  The Bachs were a BIG family of composers and musicians. Fifty-three of his male musician relatives were also named Johann!

As a child, Johann had a beautiful soprano, (or really high) voice and sometimes sang in the street before eventually going to music school.

Bach composed music during a time known as the Baroque Period, and he wrote over 1,128 pieces of music! That’s a lot!  If you played one piece of his music every day, it would take over three years to play all of them!

The Life of Johann Sebastian Bach

Musette

Musette comes from a small notebook of songs that Bach wrote for his second wife, Anna Magdalena.  She was a singer, but Musette was meant to be played on the clavichord.  This performance is on the piano.

Rhythm

At The Piano

Full Speed

Slower

Sheet Music

Which hand plays this song?

The RIGHT.

Can the other hand go on vacation?

Yes.

The patterns in measures 1, 2 and 3 repeat themselves in measures 5, 6 and 7.  You can see that really clearly in the rhythm practice from before. 

Both lines end differently in measures 4 and 8, but they are not very much different.

Take it slow and remember to break it up into phrases, or chunks.

I added the challenge version here for those of you that are able to play with both hands at the same time.  Most of us can just stick with the right hand only one.

Have fun!

Dig Deeper

The next video is a piano teacher demonstrating how to play the full version of Musette as Bach wrote it.  Maybe you’ll find it interesting.

Dig EVEN DEEPER (Other Music by Bach)