Violin Lessons - The Star Spangled Banner - Patriotic Music

Hi, this is Paul Huppert with OnlineLessonVideos.com. In this lesson, we will be studying the famous American tune the Star Spangled Banner. It was actually written by John Stafford Smith and the lyrics, they are so familiar to all of you or by Francis Scott Key. Here is a sample.

Let’s start at the beginning. Keep in mind that this dotted rhythm—a dotted 8th to a 16th note [demonstration] comes up quite a bit in this theme and it’s really integral to the fill of the overall piece [demonstration]. So let’s start at the beginning. Try to catch the 16th note with your bow. We start with a low second finger, C natural [demonstration] open string [demonstration], and then bring your second finger [demonstration] over to the D string, so you cross directly over. Let’s try that again [demonstration]. From there, we play an open A string [demonstration], second finger [demonstration] and then first finger which is a low F natural [demonstration].

One thing you might want to consider on the longer notes. It’s all right to use vibrato. It might be a good opportunity for you to use this effect. Let’s start again [demonstration]. Another dotted rhythm [demonstration], open A string [demonstration], B natural [demonstration] and then second finger close to the first finger [demonstration] and once again, this gives you the opportunity to use more of a singing tone [demonstration]. From there, we go on again to a dotted rhythm [demonstration] E string third finger [demonstration]. My preference here is to use the fourth finger for singing purposes [demonstration]. You don’t have to but it sounds a little better I think [demonstration] than just the open E string. Then we’ll have another dotted rhythm [demonstration], quarter notes [demonstration], open [demonstration], low 2 [demonstration], back to the beginning of the theme again [demonstration], half note [demonstration], dotted rhythm [demonstration].

Now we go into a double stop [demonstration]. We need a low 2 [demonstration]. If you’re not quite certain where the pitch is for this F natural, try tuning it with your open A string [demonstration]. You notice I’m using almost a kind of vibrato movement [demonstration]. That’s for subtle adjustment and it’s a very good ear training [demonstration]. So from there, we play this double stop [demonstration] then we put our third finger down in front of the second and our first finger on the A string [demonstration] and then we have what we call a third and a double stop [demonstration]. The down beat of the next measure we cross the third finger over to the G string.


Transcription by: Scribe4you Transcription Services