Lesson 08 of 10 Step 2: the full versions ≈ 60 min 5 exercises Piece: Minuet in G major
The Minuet: the full version
The left hand has a line of its own, and the hands go now together, now apart, now in turn. The whole Minuet, both halves, as it is printed.
In this lesson
- hear two voices in the Minuet: the right hand's tune and the left hand's own line
- tell how the voices move: the same way, opposite ways, or one standing while the other moves
- hold a long note with one hand while the other plays, and lead two voices in the left hand alone
- read the second half: notes above and below the staff, C♯ and the move to D major
- play the whole Minuet with both hands in “Wait for me” and in tempo, and on the EZ-310 learn the song step by step in Keys To Success
Two lines at once
This is the end of the Minuet as it is printed: bars 25–32, with both hands. Press “Listen”.
In lesson 3 the left hand played a bass, one or two notes to a bar. In the full version it has a line of its own. It moves in quarter notes, sometimes in eighths, goes down and comes back, and at the end of the piece plays in two voices by itself. The right hand of the first half has stayed the same, note for note. The second half, bars 17–32, was not heard at all in lesson 3.
The lesson's task is two lines at once. Each hand leads its own, and the hands do not copy each other: while one moves, the other often stands still. This is what is called independence of the hands.
In the published score some notes have ornaments over them, short quick notes around the main one: in bars 3, 5, 8, 11, 13 and 30. The course's score leaves them out, and the main notes are played. You can add the ornaments once the Minuet goes in tempo.
A voice is a line
In a score the word “voice” has a special meaning: it is not a Voice, the instrument's sound, but a line. A voice is an independent line of notes that goes from note to note, like a tune. The Minuet has two: the upper one in the right hand, the lower one in the left.
Listen to the left hand of bars 1–8 on its own: it has a tune of its own, only a slow one. In bars 1–6 it climbs by steps and comes back down: G, A, B, C, B, A, G. In bar 7 it goes down, D, B, G. In bar 8 it jumps an octave down, to D3, and climbs back up in eighth notes.
When there are two voices, you also listen to how they move against each other. Motion of the voices comes in three kinds. Similar: both voices go the same way. Contrary: they go opposite ways. Oblique: one stands while the other moves.
In bar 7 the right hand climbs from F♯ to B while the left comes down from D to G: the voices move apart. In bar 27 both hands go down by steps, D, C, B and B, A, G, step for step. In bar 21 the left hand holds A for the whole bar while the right runs up six eighth notes.
Oblique motion is the most common in the Minuet, more than half of all the steps. The eighth notes never sound in both hands at once. In bars 8 and 12 the eighths are in the left hand, and the right meanwhile holds a long note or plays quarter notes.
Bar 19. On the beats the right hand plays G, E, G, the left E, G, E. How do the voices move on the beats?
As the right hand comes down from G to E, the left climbs from E to G, and the other way round. The voices close and open like the blades of a pair of scissors.
A voice is a line of notes, and in the Minuet each hand has its own. Voices go the same way, opposite ways, or one stands while the other moves. In the Minuet one hand most often stands while the other moves.
One holds, the other plays
Oblique motion is the most common in the Minuet and the hardest for the hands. While the right hand plays eighth notes, the left holds a long note. The finger must stay on the key to the end of the note's length, and fingers tend to lift along with the other hand's fingers. In bars 1–6 the left hand holds like this. In bar 8 it is the other way round: the right hand holds A, and the left runs in eighth notes.
Press “Your turn” and play the bars with both hands. Any tempo: the widget waits for each note and at every notch checks whether you are holding the long one. A green notch means you are holding it; a red one means the key has already been let go. The pedal will not help here: the widget watches the key, not the sound.
The finger holds a long note, not the hand. The wrist stays loose; the finger simply does not lift. If it does not work, play the other hand more slowly and watch only the finger on the long note.
A long note is held to the end of its length while the other hand plays. The finger holds it, and the wrist is loose. In the Minuet the hands most often share the work like this: one moves, the other stands.
The second half: C♯
The second half starts higher: in bar 17 the right hand plays B5. A5 sits on the first ledger line above the staff, and B above it. Ledger lines above are read just like those below: each line adds two more notes to the staff, one on it and one above it.
A note appears on a treble staff with F♯ by the clef. Press its key. These are the right-hand notes of bars 17–19, from D5 to B5.
From bar 20, C♯ appears in the score: in the right hand in bars 20, 21 and 23, in the left in bar 22. The key signature has one sharp, F: this is G major, as in lesson 3. D major has two sharps, F and C. In bars 20–24 the Minuet moves into D major and in bar 24 comes to rest on D. Such a move is called a modulation: the music moves into another key, with another main note and other signs.
In bar 24 there is a natural before the left hand's C. It changes nothing: it is a new bar, and the C♯ of bar 23 no longer applies here. It is a reminder, as in lesson 7: C is plain again. From bar 25 there are no more C♯s; the Minuet is back in G major.
Why are there sharps before C in bars 20–23, when the key signature has only F♯?
The key signature speaks for the main key, G major. When the music moves briefly into another key, that key's signs are written by the notes themselves. In bar 24 the Minuet comes to rest on D, and from bar 25 C is plain again.
Bar 21 is six steps of D major in a row: A, B, C♯, D, E, F♯. The thumb passes under onto D, as in lesson 3: fingers 1, 2, 3, then 1, 2, 3 again. In bar 22 the hand comes down: G with finger 4, F♯ with 3, E with 2.
A with the thumb; on D the thumb passes under. C♯ is the black key to the right of C.
In bars 22–23 both hands move in quarter notes, note against note. The voices now move apart, now go the same way. Take each pair together, without hurrying.
The right hand above, the left below. Take both notes of each beat together.
In the second half the left hand goes lower than in the first. A2 in bar 20 sits in the bottom space of the bass staff, B2 in bar 31 on the second line, and G in bars 16 and 32 on the bottom line.
A note appears on the bass staff. Press its key. These are left-hand notes from G2 to F♯3.
Two voices in the left hand
In bars 25 and 26 the left hand leads two voices by itself. The lower one is B for a half note and B again for a quarter. The upper one is silent on the first beat and then holds D as a half note to the end of the bar. On the staff the voices can be told apart by their stems: one voice's point up, the other's down.
This is the same independence, only inside one hand. In bar 25 finger 3 takes B, and on the second beat the thumb takes D. On the third beat B sounds again: finger 3 lifts and presses once more, while the thumb holds D and does not lift. In bar 26 the same happens one key higher, on C and E. In bar 29 the little finger holds D3 for the whole bar, and finger 3 adds F♯ on the third beat.
Two voices in one hand: one finger holds the long note, the others take the short ones. Only the note written as repeated is played again.
The end of the piece is jumps. In bar 31 the hand goes from G down to B2 and up to D; in bar 32, G, D and the G an octave lower.
E with finger 4, G with 2, F♯ with 3. In bar 31, G with the thumb, B with the little finger, D with finger 3; in bar 32, G with 1, D with 3, the low G with the little finger.
A song step by step
In lesson 3 you listened to song 057 “Menuett BWV Anh. 114”. It is Yamaha's arrangement, not the course's score, and it has both hands. On this song, try one more way of learning a piece: Keys To Success. The song is divided into short steps. A step plays, you play along with it, and the instrument gives a score from 0 to 100. From 60 up the step is passed and the next one starts at once; below 60 the step repeats. Which hand to play is set by the step itself: R for the right, L for the left, LR for both.
You can also choose a step yourself, with [+/YES] and [−/NO]. A step for both hands cannot be passed with one hand. Take a hard step apart more slowly: choose it and press [3-STEP LESSON], and it runs as the Listen, Timing or Waiting lesson from lesson 5, only without a pass mark. The songs in Keys To Success are Yamaha's arrangements and may sound slower than the original.
The Minuet on the instrument
With the cable, put the course's recording of the full Minuet onto the EZ-310: both hands, ♩ = 108. 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 works on this song: choose the left hand with [L/2], and Lesson 3, Waiting, will wait for your left-hand line.
Without the cable, learn the Minuet step by step on song 057, 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 Minuet with two hands
The Minuet has 32 bars, two halves of 16, and each half is repeated. In all, 64 bars sound, 192 beats: at 75% that is 2 min 22 s.
First the left hand, bars 1–8. The chord G, B, D in bar 1 is the triad from lesson 6, fingers 5, 3, 1. Then one note per bar up to bar 7, where there are three quarter notes: D, B, G. In bar 8 the little finger jumps to D3 and the thumb takes C. The right hand is played by the “teacher”.
Both hands. The right hand is the same as in lesson 3, but the fingering differs in places: follow the numbers in the score. Hold the left hand's long notes to the end of the bar while the right plays eighth notes.
Bars 9–16. The right hand repeats bars 1–6; only 15 and 16 are new for it. The left hand has new things: in bar 10 three quarter notes, G, B, G; in bar 12 the eighths C, B, A, G; in bar 16, after G, a jump an octave down.
The second half, right hand, bars 17–24: B above the staff in bar 17, the C♯s in bars 20–23, the steps of D major in bar 21. The left hand is played by the “teacher”.
The left hand, bars 25–32: two voices in bars 25, 26 and 29, jumps in bars 31 and 32. Hold the long notes while the other voice moves.
The whole Minuet in “Wait for me”, both halves with their repeats.
Now in tempo: bars 1–8 at 75%, which is ♩ = 81. The count-in bar is three clicks.
And the last rung: the whole Minuet 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, ♩ = 108, is the tempo the course's score of the Minuet is written in.
What next
Now you hear two voices in a piece and tell how they move: the same way, opposite ways, or one standing while the other moves. You hold a long note under the other hand's eighths and lead two voices in one hand. You have read the second half of the Minuet with the C♯s of D major, and on the EZ-310 you learn a song step by step.
In the Old French Song the two voices will be in the left hand: a bass and a line above it. The right hand carries the tune over both.
The full song comes in lesson 9.