Lesson 07 of 10 Step 2: the full versions ≈ 60 min 5 exercises Piece: Melody
Schumann's Melody: the full version
The left hand in the treble clef, eighth notes made of broken chords and the tune on top of them. Schumann's Melody as it is printed.
In this lesson
- read the left hand in the treble clef, with notes below middle C
- see broken chords in the bass eighths, and the lower voice under a repeated note
- play the tune louder than the accompaniment: the right hand in front, the left an even background
- play two notes at once with the right hand and hold a note while others sound under it
- play the whole Melody with both hands in “Wait for me” and in tempo, and on the EZ-310 listen to the song's hands separately
Eighth notes under the tune
This is Schumann's Melody as it is printed: bars 1–4, with both hands. Press “Listen”.
In lesson 2 one bass note sounded under the tune for every half bar. Here the same half bar holds four eighth notes. The left hand now has more notes than the right, and yet it is the tune that should be heard. That is the lesson's task: to understand what the eighth notes are made of and to play them as a quiet, even background.
At the start of the lines, instead of 4/4, there is the sign C. It is the same time signature, four quarter notes to a bar, only written with a different sign. Under the first bar is p, quietly, and in bars 7 and 15 a diminuendo hairpin: the phrase dies away towards its end.
One more change is visible at once: the lower line has a treble clef. That is where we begin.
The left hand in the treble clef
A clef stands at the start of every line, and you read by it, not by which hand is playing. In the Melody the left hand plays around middle C (C4), higher than in the easy version. In the bass clef its notes would hang above the staff on three or four ledger lines, so they are written in the treble clef.
Nearly all the notes here are familiar from the right hand in lesson 1. Middle C on a ledger line below the staff, D below the first line, E on the first line, F in the first space, G on the second line. The Melody has two notes below C. B3 hangs just under C's ledger line. G3 hangs under a second ledger line: bar 4 ends on it.
A note appears on the treble staff. Press its key. These are only the left-hand notes from bars 1–8, from G3 to G4.
A note is named. Put it on the treble staff: below the staff and on the ledger lines.
Below the treble staff a note hangs under the second ledger line. Which note is it?
Middle C is on the first ledger line, B under it, A on the second ledger line, G under the second. The left hand ends bar 4 on this G.
In bar 5 there is a natural before the left hand's first F, though there is no sharp in this bar. It is a reminder: in bar 4 the right hand played F♯, and here F is plain. The sign changes nothing; it is written to be safe. An accidental holds only until the bar line anyway, as in lesson 5. The same natural stands in bars 7 and 15.
The left hand, the treble clef, the C position. All the notes lie between middle C and G4, and the hand does not move.
A clef belongs to the line, not to the hand. If the left hand has a treble clef, its notes are read just like the right hand's. Below middle C: B under the ledger line, A on the second one, G under the second.
The broken chord
Look at the left hand in bars 5–7. The eighth notes go in pairs, two to a beat, and the second of each pair is always the same G4. Only the first one changes: in bar 5, F, E, D, F♯; in bar 6, D, C, B, F♯; in bar 7, F, E, D, C.
A pair together with the tune's note above it often makes a chord, only its notes are not played at once. In bar 6, on the second beat, the left hand plays C and G and the tune has E: that is C, the C, E, G from lesson 6. On the third beat, B and G on the left and D on the right: that is G. The left hand spreads the chord over two strokes and leaves the third note to the tune. A broken chord is the notes of a chord played not together but in turn.
“In pairs” is also a way to practise. Play each pair as two notes at once, a quarter note to a beat. The hand learns the shape: the thumb stays on G, and the other fingers take the lower notes in turn. Then break the pairs back into eighth notes: the hand already knows where to go.
“The lower voice” shows what is hidden in the eighth notes: a slow line, one note to a beat. Most often it goes down by one or two semitones. The G above it repeats and serves as a footing that the hand keeps coming back to. Play the lower notes a little more clearly, the G more lightly.
The thumb on G. F and F♯ with finger 2, E with 3, D with 4, C and B with the little finger: for B it reaches one key lower.
A broken chord is the notes of a chord in turn. In the Melody the left hand plays two notes of the chord to a beat, and the third is often in the tune. Practise such a figure in pairs: first two notes together, then one at a time.
The figure under the tune
An accompaniment figure is a short pattern that the accompaniment repeats on other notes. In the Melody it goes like this: eighth notes in pairs, the lower note and G above it. That is how bars 3 and 5–7 and most of bar 1 sound. Once you know the pattern, you have read more than half of the left hand: after that only the lower notes change.
Where the pattern is different, you see it at once. In bars 2, 10 and 18 the eighth notes go without a repeated footing. In the first half of bar 11 the pattern is the same, only the footing is higher, C5. At the ends of phrases, in bars 4 and 8, the eighth notes come to rest on quarter notes.
The left hand has more notes than the right: in bar 1, eight against four. If you play both hands with the same force, the eighth notes argue with the tune. The tune should be in front and the figure an even, quiet background under it. Listen to three versions.
Louder and quieter on the keys means faster and slower, as in lesson 2. The right hand's fingers take the key down faster and with more weight. The left hand's fingers rest on the keys and take them down more slowly, the wrist loose. Inside the figure, the first eighth of the beat is a little clearer than the second, the repeated one.
p is the accompaniment's force, mf the tune's. Play any note with the strength named. The scale shows where your press landed.
The tune in front, the accompaniment a background. The right hand takes the keys down faster and with more weight, the left more slowly, from right on the keys. In the figure, the first eighth of the beat is a little clearer than the repeated note.
Two notes in the right hand
In the full version the right hand sometimes has two notes at once. Two heads on one stem are pressed together, like the left-hand chords in lesson 6. In bar 4 these are F♯ and A, fingers 1 and 2. In bar 9, C and E, fingers 3 and 5. In bar 11, first B and F, fingers 1 and 3, then C and E, fingers 1 and 2.
In bar 8 the right hand has two voices. F5, with its stem up, lasts a dotted quarter, three eighth notes. Under it, with stems down, come A, C and B. F is pressed once and held with finger 4. Together with it the thumb takes A, then finger 2 C, then the thumb B. The last eighth, D, is played by finger 3, and at that moment F is let go. Two voices in one hand get a closer look in lesson 8.
While the dotted F is held in bar 8, which notes does the right hand play under it?
Under F there are three eighth notes with their stems down: A together with F, then C, then B. F lasts three eighths and is let go on D, the last eighth of the bar.
The song's hands separately
The EZ-310 has a Melody of its own: song 086 “Melodie (Album für die Jugend)” from lesson 2. It is Yamaha's arrangement, not the course's score. The instrument's songs have two parts: [R/1] is the right hand, [L/2] the left. While the song plays, each can be switched off and on again with its button. Song 086 has both parts. Listen to its accompaniment without the tune, and then the tune without the accompaniment.
Parts are switched on and off only while the song plays. Before a 3-Step Lesson the same [R/1] and [L/2] buttons choose the hand, as in lesson 5.
The Melody on the instrument
With the cable you can also put the course's recording of the full Melody onto the EZ-310: both hands, ♩ = 72. The file is loaded just like the Ode in lesson 1. In it the right hand is on channel 1 and the left on channel 2. The 3-Step Lesson from lesson 5 works on this song: choose the left hand with [L/2], and Lesson 3, Waiting, will wait for your accompaniment figure.
Without the cable, listen to the hands separately on song 086, as above. The course's score plays from the “Listen” button by the notes on this page, and the tempo there goes down to 40%.
The whole Melody with two hands
The piece has 20 bars. Bars 1–4 are repeated, bars 13–16 repeat 5–8, and 17–20 repeat 9–12 almost exactly. In all, 24 bars sound: at 75% that is 1 min 47 s.
First the left hand, bars 1–4 with the repeat. The C position; in bar 4 the little finger goes down to B, and then to G3. The right hand is played by the “teacher”.
Both hands. A note of the tune and the eighth under it are played together; the next eighth the left hand plays alone. Keep the tune in front in “Wait for me” too.
Bars 5–8, left hand: the pairs with G, the little finger reaching down for B, and in bar 8 C and C♯ leading to D.
The right hand, bars 8–12: two voices in bar 8, two notes at once in bars 9 and 11.
The left hand, bars 9–12. In the first half of bar 11 the footing is higher, C5, under the thumb; the little finger on E, finger 4 on F. From the third beat the hand is back in the C position.
The whole Melody in “Wait for me”. You already know bars 13–20: they are bars 5–12 once more.
Now in tempo: bars 1–4 with the repeat at 75%, which is ♩ = 54. The count-in bar is four clicks.
And the last rung: the whole Melody with both hands in tempo. Add 5% each time a run is passed: the result line shows at least 90% right notes and 75% “on time”. A hundred per cent, ♩ = 72, is the tempo the course's score of the Melody is written in.
What next
Now you read the left hand in the treble clef, see broken chords in the eighth notes and the lower voice under a repeated note, and keep the tune above the accompaniment. The right hand plays two notes at once and holds a note while others sound under it. On the EZ-310 you listen to the song's hands separately.
In bar 8 the right hand already had two voices. In the Minuet two voices sound through the whole piece: the tune in the right hand, and a line of its own in the left beneath it.
Two voices and independent hands come in lesson 8.