It isn’t my birthday just yet, but I am teaching ALL my piano and keyboard students to play “Happy Birthday” at the moment. Preferably from memory, as part of my “Active Repertoire” project.
Easy-Peasy, for beginners who know the letter names of the notes but not much else;
I just write out the notes, and show them how to play it using whatever fingers on whichever hands suits them best;
C C D C F E; C C D C G F; C C C’ A F E D; Bflat Bflat A F G F;
There are a lot of technical elements, especially in the third phrase, for example;
- jumping the hand to a new position (octave),
- skips or hops, where you miss out one letter between notes
- steps, where you play next door notes.
and the fourth phrase;
- playing Black B,
- semitones
It is also an opportunity to discuss dotted rhythms and scale fingerings.
Next Level Up
The student works out the notes, and then we add a simple LH using just F, C and Bflat
C C D C F E; C C D C G F; C C C’ A F E D; Bflat Bflat A F G F;
F C C F Bb F F C F
and maybe write out the pitches on two staves, and discuss where the strong beats occur, and put bar lines just before them. I wouldn’t add the exact rhythm at this stage.
The Full Monty
Having completed stage 2, I would use inversions to make a complete LH chord accompaniment, showing how the F chord( F A C) transforms so easily to a C chord (E G C) by just moving the two lower notes down, and then how F can move to Bflat (F Bflat D) by moving the two upper notes up. If the student is writing the notes out on a stave, now is the time to add rhythm and all the details, including time and key signatures, pause sign and double bar. Don’t forget to explain why the last note is a two-beat minim… because the song starts with an anacrusis… which is a crotchet’s worth of notes for the first “Happy” on the third beat of an incomplete bar…
I’m expecting to be “Happy Birthday’d” everyday for a week when my birthday finally arrives!
