By A Meadow Brook by Edward MacDowell | Classical Piano Lesson | Video

Welcome to Liberty Park music I'm Michelle Huang your piano instructor in our lesson today we'll be looking at American composer Edward McDowell's piece called By a Meadow Brook from his piano collection Woodland Sketches the A section alternates back and forth between a two-bar phrase that has a lilting feel and another two-bar phrase with flowing triplets here another two-bar phrase with the lilting feel flowing triplets measured 9 through 12 is similar to the beginning but the music is sudden

ly interrupted by two somewhat strange sounding chords as if something unusual is about to happen the music tries to start back up again then again interrupted from measures three to eight the right hand has a constant flow of triplets this is technically difficult to execute because the passage has to be played cleanly but not to articulate it since we're trying to imitate a flowing water to play this passage smoothly we need both horizontal and circular motions this means we need to keep our w

rist loose and flexible to move in circles but keeping the circle small enough so we can also move horizontally at a fast tempo let's work on circular motion first play the passage slow enough so we have time to process the motion go ahead and play the first chord then keeping the fingers in the keys join circles with your wrist pay attention how your fingers stand up more when your wrist goes to the top of circle and your fingers come back down as the wrist goes to the bottom of the circle don'

t make a big circle just a small circle now come up with keys and play the chord again this time observe the level of your wrist going from note to note when the notes go down the wrist moves in one smooth circular motion to the top the circle then back down to play the next note then when the notes go back up the wrist continues that smooth circular motion to the bottom of the circle and back up to get your next note the result is a constant flow circular motions throughout once you're comforta

ble with the circular motions moving from note to note and it's building into your muscle memory minimize the circular motion even more to go faster imagine 13 to 16 were shifting from the charming and merrily character into something more unsettling as evidenced by the interruption of the flowing water by these chords. As an unusual these chords sound, and the way McDowell writes them presents a strangely playful character keep the passage light and be sure not to rush to the 8th rest Continue

to review what we talked about in lesson today happy practicing and see you next time