Chords for Stranger on the Shore (Part 1) - Learn clarinet online with this free lesson from McGill Music

[D] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [C] _ [A] _ _ _ [Bb] _
_ _ _ G'day, I'm Nigel McGill.
Today I'm going to show you [N] how to play Ackerbilk's Stranger on the Shore.
We're going to look at the first half of this melody.
It's a fantastic melody this, and you know,
it doesn't matter what style of clarinet playing you're into, I think this is a great tune to check out.
You can always learn things from different players and from working through different pieces.
Now particularly if you're just getting started on clarinet, this is a good tune to learn,
because it's actually quite simple.
It's in the key of C major, so that means there's no sharps,
there's no flats all the way through.
We're going to look at the first half of the melody in this lesson, and I'm going to start off by playing
each phrase, and then we'll go through and work out how to play it step by step.
So the first little bit [Fm] sounds like this.
_ _ _ .
. _ _
_ [Cm] _ .
_ [Fm] _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ [Bb] _ [Eb] _ _ _ _
_ [N] _ Okay, so it starts on a low G, so that's our thumb, all of the left hand, all of the right hand,
six fingers down.
And it goes from that low G up to middle G, then it goes from that middle G to F,
but when we go to that F, we go down, back up to the G, back to the F again, so it's got a little twiddle on there.
So it's low G up to middle G, G, F, G, F, _ F, E, F, E, C, and then down to low F.
So for low F we've got all six fingers plus this reach down here to our F key down the bottom.
So let's try playing that phrase.
Sounds like this.
_ [F] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _
[F] _ _ [D] _ _ [Ebm] _ [Gm] _ _ _
[Eb] _ _ _ _ _ [N] _ _
Okay, now if you're struggling to get that low F out, it's really worthwhile taking a couple of minutes
to work on your coordination of your right hand, because that's where the problem's going to be.
So we've got to make sure that we move all these four fingers together.
Sometimes it's good to actually go through working on them individually.
So you start from your C, work on the movement C to [Gm] B, then C to A, C to G, and eventually C to F.
And each time trying to get that movement as smooth as possible with no extra little glitchy notes.
[Bb] I'll show you what I mean. _ _
_ _ [Ab] _ [Bb] _ _ [Ab] _ _ [Bb] _
_ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Eb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [B] _ [N] So it's really important you only move on to the next note down when you're feeling really comfortable with it.
Okay, so that's the first phrase.
After that it goes like this.
So [F] this is what we're up to so far.
_ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ [Dm] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ [Eb]
The _ _ [Db] next one sounds like [D] this. _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Dm] _ [G] _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ _ [N] _ _ Okay, so let's have a look at the notes for that little section.
So we're going to start on E, which is just our thumb and our first finger.
We go E, E, F, E, up to A.
So we roll up our index finger to get the A, and then we go down to D.
_ _ [D] _
_ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
_ Okay, and then the next bit after that is we go down to low A.
So low A is C, all of our C fingers and our first two fingers down here.
_ _ A, D, E, F, up to A, and then down to B natural.
B natural is with our middle finger on our right hand. _
_ [G] _ [C] _ _ [D] _ [Cm] _ _ [G] _
_ [Gbm] _ _ _ _ [N] _ Okay, are you with me there?
So let's try playing that second phrase.
Remember we're starting on E, F, E, up to A, and down to D.
Here we go.
[D] _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ [C] _
_ [Dm] _ [Cm] _ _ [G] _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ [C] _ Alright, cool.
So let's try putting those two phrases together, [F] right from the beginning.
Here we go.
_ _ _ [Db] _
_ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _
_ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _
_ _ [Dm] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ [C] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Dm] _ [Eb] _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _ [Dbm] _
_ Alright, brilliant.
Okay, so that's the first half [F] of this section.
Now the next phrase is kind of like the first one, okay?
So we'll move through that pretty quickly.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _
_ _ [Db] _ [Dm] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _
[Eb] Okay, _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
yeah, so that is exactly the same as the first one.
So let's look at the fourth phrase in this first section.
It sounds like [Bb] this.
[D] _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ [F] _ _ [Dm] _
_ _ [C] _ _ [Dm] _ [Eb] _ [A] _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ _ _ [Gm] So those notes, it starts on an E.
E, F, E, up to A, down to G, back to E.
And then we've got D, E, F, [Ab] down to B [Eb] natural, _ and then back to C.
Okay, so let's try playing through that really slowly. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [F] _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ [D] _ [Eb] _ _
[A] _ _ [Gb] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _
_ Okay, cool.
So that's all the notes for the first section of Stranger on the [Fm] Shore.
So let's finish off the lesson now by playing it all the way through,
from the beginning, putting all those four [Am] phrases together.
Are you with me?
[G] Get your fingers nice and loosened up and coordinated.
Here we go.
One, [Fm] two, three. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ [Fm] _
[Ab] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ [C] _ _
_ [Ab] _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [Fm] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _
_ _ [Dm] _ _ _ _ [Abm] _ [Gm] _
_ [Eb] _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ [D] _ _
_ _ [Gm] _ _ [Dm] _ _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ [D] _ [Eb] _ _ [A] _ [Bb] _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
Brilliant.
Okay, well, hey, well done for making it through this lesson.
And have some fun working through that tune.
_ [G] Just make sure you're really careful to get all your fingers coordinated.
Make sure you don't get any little glitchy notes in there.
And try and make it as smooth as possible as you're playing through.
Don't forget to check out the other lessons where we'll look at the rest of the tune.
[Eb] Keep practicing hard.
I'll see you next time. _ _
[F] _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _