We’re now well and truly in December and - as our thoughts turn to Christmas - it’s time to start thinking about how your piano practice can benefit from a little more…festivity!
And what better way to think about it than to use the simple idea of learning scales and key signatures by practising - instead of scales - a piece of music.
No less a piece, in face, than ‘Joy to the World’.
The beauty of this piece of music is that - with the exception of a couple of interval jumps - it’s stepwise. This means that you move up and down the scale one note at a time to create a melody.
Practice a Carol on Piano for Christmas
Let’s begin our Christmas piano practice by choosing a major scale that you wish to familiarise yourself with more. Most people know C major, so why not try a different one. G major is also quite commonplace, so perhaps try E major or A major.
If you’re more advanced you could try a black note starting scale, such as A♭ major!
Point is, we’re looking to confine this to within an octave in the right hand.
Starting at the top, descend one octave using the fingers as you would normally.
Now do so with the rhythm we all know and love:
“Joy to the world - the Lord is come”.
For example, a C major descending scale would be attributed to the words as such:
Top C: Joy
B: to
A: the
G: world
F: the
E: Lord
D: is
Bottom C: come
Brilliant! Phrase one sorted!
Now we finish on the bottom root note of the scale (tonic)!
And what do we need to do here?
Simple: Jump up one fifth to resume the melody.
If you’re unfamiliar with intervals, read my past blog to refresh your mind.
In a nutshell, however, count up five notes from (and including) the note you’re on (keeping strictly to the notes of the scale).
For example, in my example in C major, I have finished on C. Now count up:
C = 1
D = 2
E = 3
F = 4
G = 5 / Fifth.
From this note, begin your next line of ascent. Consider carefully how the melody goes and use your ear to choose between your two options:
Notes go up
Notes stay the same
This is really good practise for training your musical ear!
You will find that you end up back at the top note where you started, and from here you are ready to perform not one but two identical descents to represent the next two lines:
Always listen carefully and know where the melody goes - does it go down or does it stay on the same note?
If you deduce it correctly, you should descend down to the third note of your scale (or descend a sixth down from the note you started from at the top)
This takes us to the lines:
“And Heaven and nature sing
And Heaven and nature sing”
Again, these can be worked out by simply following the melody. Go up when the tune goes up, down when it goes down but be careful not to be tripped up by it being the same note! Sing along as you do it and really tune your musical ear in!
The last line - as we all know - is
“And Heaven and Heaven and nature sing”.
The first ‘Heaven’ features an octave jump: from the bottom note of the scale to the top - for example, bottom C - top C if following the example I’ve given above.
Make sure, therefore, that you are correctly fingering the music in the build up to this section as you need to be in a position to do this: most logically you would give yourself the widest handspan possible - thumb to 5.
With the exception of one sneaky interval, the rest is also all stepwise. When you reach the top note, you need to descend down by a third (this would be A if C is your top note) / you can also consider this to be the sixth of the scale.
Once you have found that, follow the shape of the melody to finally resolve to the lower tonic (bottom C, in our case).
Score It Out
One of the strongest things to help develop our reading of music is to actually transcribe it ourselves. It really allows us to get in to the mindset of not only pitch value, but rhythm. And this particular piece is a great one to start learning how rhythm is notated because it features dotted notes.
Without putting pen to paper, can you tell where they are?
I regret to inform you that I’m not going to put my answers on this blog - if anywhere! - because I don’t want to give you an easy ride! I really want you to think about this now.
Don’t forget to mark the clefs in - feel free to write a transcription of the same tune performed by the left hand in bass clef too! Maybe do them both together so you write a two part piano piece - try alternating lines between the hands and then you can practise rests too!
And, of course, don’t forget to mark in a key signature! If you are doing E major, for example, notate the correct number of sharps after the clef - and put them on the correct lines!
Adding Chords
Do you remember a few weeks ago, I wrote a lovely blog explaining about chords I, IV and V?
Well, here’s a perfect example of a song that uses…chords I, IV and V.
It’s best you read the blog for a more concise explanation as to what the chords are and how to find them etc. if you’re unsure, but for now let’s assume you have done and go with it!
Chord V can be a pure major triad or it can be a 7 (chord V as a seventh chord is called a dominant seventh).
So…
Find the chords associated with the key signature. For example, Chords I, IV and V in the key of C major would be C major, F major and G major / G7 respectively.
Now experiment!
Try transcribing them onto your score, and don’t feel that chords only need to appear once or twice in a bar! Sometimes it sounds good to move between them for every note.
For example, the opening four notes: “Joy to the World” - using notes C - B - A - G descending, could each be attributed its own chord: C - G/G7 - F - C - to create much more interesting harmony.
Use a little tactic when you decipher which chord and don’t guess. For example, in the above example, I chose G/G7 to go with the note B because it’s the only chords of the three that features that note. Same reason I chose to put F with A - it’s the only one of the three chords that feature that note.
Have fun with this piece because it is a great piece to practise over the Festive Period and - perhaps by the time the big day comes - you will have mastered it!
Enjoy…
Oh - and don’t forget to watch the video feat. over-distorted piano (sorry 🫣 ) to help you out. Do subscribe to my YouTube channel as well and then you can enjoy me wittering on about even more pianistic things (or just showing off!).
Happy practising 🎄 !
Jack Mitchell Smith is a piano teacher based in Macclesfield, Cheshire. Click here to find out more.
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