LESSON ELEVEN
A Sharp, B Flat, Dotted Quavers
A Sharp, B Flat, Dotted Quavers
In this exercise there is another new accidental note. This is A Sharp. To play this note cover the back hole with your thumb and the first and third holes using the first and third fingers of your left hand. Leave the second hole open. Also put the first finger of your right hand over hole four and leave all those below it open.
The rhythm is semi-breves, minims and crotchets all of which you should be familiar with by now.
The rhythm is semi-breves, minims and crotchets all of which you should be familiar with by now.
This piece is different from all those that precedes it because you are not playing all the way through. You take rests. Rests are very important in music and it is as important to count them evenly as it is the notes. The exercise above is exactly like the one above except that in bars 2, 3 and 4 you have a small rectangular block symbol sitting on top of the third line of the stave. This is a two beat rest. So for those bars blow whilst counting 1 2 and count only without playing 3 4.
Now we are introducing another of those accidentals that are identical to one you have already learnt. This note in bar two and four is B Flat and is the same note as A sharp. So you know the fingering already and should be able to play this simple exercise.
This final exercise introduces another new length of note. The last in fact in these set of lessons. That is not to say there aren't others in music, there are, but it is the last of the most common ones. The note is a dotted quaver. As a dot after a note lengthens the note by half its original length this note is 3/4 of a beat - half plus a quarter. It is often paired with a semi-quaver as in this exercise to make one whole beat. So you are aiming for a long note followed by a short one.
I cannot really suggest a way of counting this as to be honest I just hear the rhythm in my head when I see the notes and I know you will do the same once you have worked out how they go.
You could try playing a fairly slow 3 beat note followed by a one beat, whilst counting 1 2 3 4 and then speed it up gradually until you can hear the relative difference in lengths in your head and can play it faster without counting more than the first note.
Or alternatively if you know the nursery rhyme Ring A Ring O' Roses it is the rhythm at the beginning for the words Ring A Ring O.
I cannot really suggest a way of counting this as to be honest I just hear the rhythm in my head when I see the notes and I know you will do the same once you have worked out how they go.
You could try playing a fairly slow 3 beat note followed by a one beat, whilst counting 1 2 3 4 and then speed it up gradually until you can hear the relative difference in lengths in your head and can play it faster without counting more than the first note.
Or alternatively if you know the nursery rhyme Ring A Ring O' Roses it is the rhythm at the beginning for the words Ring A Ring O.
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