We will learn the tune to "The Star spangled Banner" as a single note melody in C major.
It is in 3/4 time, meaning we will count 1, 2, 3 and repeat. There is an incomplete pickup measure of two notes on one beat. Most of the melody is very simple rhythmically. But there are a few places we have to play dotted eighth note and sixteenth notes. If you are aren't familiar with these rhythmic subdivisions, don't worry! Just listen and play along!
Generally, we want to let only one note at a time ring. So, there is a lot of muting we have to accomplish! Hit one note, let is ring, then mute it so it stops ringing. Then hit the next note! There are times when it's fine to let notes ring over each other. And when you are first learning the tune, it's fine to just play the notes in order to get used to the physical placement of your fingers.
But eventually it is very good practice to mute all but one note at a time. It's helps single note melodies like this one sound much more clear, clean and musical.
Instructor
Christopher Schlegel
- Styles:
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Any Style
- Difficulty:
-
VERSE I:
Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
VERSE II:
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
VERSE III:
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
VERSE IV:
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.â€
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
