LESSON TEN
F & G Sharp, G & A Flat, Semi-quavers
F & G Sharp, G & A Flat, Semi-quavers
Here we are learning a new accidental which is F sharp - and is equivalent to G flat.
If you are wondering what happend to E sharp or F flat then if you look at the notes on a piano - or the diagram on the 'notes on a piano' tab - you will see that between E and F there is no black note. This is because as mentioned previously some notes and E and F are two of those, are only a semitone apart. So actually E sharp being half a tone up from E is the same as F natural and F flat being half a tone down from F is the same as E natural, but they are not often written as accidentals.
The fingering for F sharp is to cover the back hole and top 3 holes with your left hand, leave the next hole open and cover the next two holes with the second and third finger of your right hand.
The rhythm is a simple one of minims and crotchets only.
If you are wondering what happend to E sharp or F flat then if you look at the notes on a piano - or the diagram on the 'notes on a piano' tab - you will see that between E and F there is no black note. This is because as mentioned previously some notes and E and F are two of those, are only a semitone apart. So actually E sharp being half a tone up from E is the same as F natural and F flat being half a tone down from F is the same as E natural, but they are not often written as accidentals.
The fingering for F sharp is to cover the back hole and top 3 holes with your left hand, leave the next hole open and cover the next two holes with the second and third finger of your right hand.
The rhythm is a simple one of minims and crotchets only.
This exercise introduces our next new note which is G sharp and also A flat. The fingering for this is to cover the back hole and the first two holes with your left hand leaving the third hole open. then cover the next two holes and half of the sixth hole with the first 3 fingers of your right hand and leave the last hole open.
The rhythm revises the dotted minim, crothets and triplets, so 3 beat notes, 1 beat notes and sets of a third of a beat each.
The rhythm revises the dotted minim, crothets and triplets, so 3 beat notes, 1 beat notes and sets of a third of a beat each.
This final exercise in this lesson introduces a note length that means it is starting to be a level where you are playing quite short fast notes. In fact it is fairly rare for much faster notes than these to be written. It does happen but you would be in quite advanced territory so don't worry about that now. These new length notes are called semi-quavers and each note is equivalent to a quarter of a beat. You can't really count these very successfully in your head. Everyone is different but generally I think you would find it works best to count the first beat and then just play the other beats evenly.
So the first thing is not to panic. Start very slowly trying to play four even beats and keeping it in time with the length of the other beats. That will mean the minims and crotchets will seem very long but that really doesn't matter. The important thing is to try and get the relative difference in note lengths fixed in your head first. Then, and only then, you can speed up.
You will see that it is all written on one note - an A - but you could play any note. This is so you can concentrate on the new rhythm and not worry about fingering.
So the first thing is not to panic. Start very slowly trying to play four even beats and keeping it in time with the length of the other beats. That will mean the minims and crotchets will seem very long but that really doesn't matter. The important thing is to try and get the relative difference in note lengths fixed in your head first. Then, and only then, you can speed up.
You will see that it is all written on one note - an A - but you could play any note. This is so you can concentrate on the new rhythm and not worry about fingering.
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