How to Learn to Play "Mary Had A Lamb" (in any key)

Click on the musical examples below with blue borders to hear the notes. You must have QuickTime or some way to play MIDI plugged into your web browser. You can try clicking on the "Scorch" links, and if you have that plugin installed you'll see the music scroll.

How To Practice

Mistakes are not bad.  They are valuable information telling you you are not ready to play something all the way through up to speed...yet.  If you play pieces all the way through and make a number of mistakes it is unlikely that the next time through you will remember all the mistakes you did and be alert enough to fix them all.  Probably you'll end up making the same mistakes, or others, again.

We want to avoid making mistakes because each time you do something you create a memory of it that is stored in your brain.  When you make a mistake you increase the probability of making the same mistake in the future and create more work for yourself.  Usually when you do something wrong you'll have to do it the right way a number of times in order to increase the odds of doing it right again in the future.  Sometimes just understanding what you were doing wrong will be enough to fix it in the future, but so much of what performers do is habit, and you want to create good habits.

Avoid making mistakes:

1. Understand before trying to play.  Make sure you know what you're trying to do.  Write in the fingerings for the exercises on the music.  Count the beats out loud and tap the rhythm of the notes you want to play.  Often times people think the problem is with the notes when it is actually the rhythm that is hanging them up.
   
2. Concentrate.  This is hard work and you can't do it for too long.  Bear down and try to maintain for 15 - 30 minutes.  The most efficient way to work is to review the material just before you would have forgotten it.  Since you don't have a way yet of knowing when that would happen it is better to be safe and come back to the material often, working in small blocks of time.  Ideally you will look at new material at least once a day.
   
3. Do less - do one or two bars stopping on the first note of the next measure. Play one hand at a time.  Put it back together a little at a time when you can do the smaller sections well.
   
4. Slow down.  Give yourself more time to find the right notes without changing the beat.
   
5. Repeat doing it correctly many more times than you do it wrong. This increases the odds of getting it right the next time. If you do something wrong until you get it right, chances are you may end up practicing it wrong more times than right, thereby increasing the odds you'll get it wrong next time.
   
6. If all else fails, pick something easier.  This material is too hard for you...now.  It's better to work at a level that is just challenging enough to keep your interest, that way you can build up your skill and apply it to any piece you encounter.  Some people work hard at one or two pieces that are way over their heads, spend a lot of time and end up playing them badly.  This experience doesn't help play new pieces, and reduces your confidence.

1) Pick a key, for example, C major, and then play the first five notes in the scale with your right hand. Put your thumb on C, index on D, middle finger on E, 4th finger on F, and pinky on G. This makes the numbers of your fingers correspond with the degrees of the scale:

2) Play the melody using the numbers corresponding to the degrees of the scale, which is the same as the numbering of the fingers of your right hand.

3) Play the same thing as in the last step, this time saying the functions of the chords that are going to be used to harmonize the melody. Now you'll say "One" (I) and "Five" (V) whenever you get to the place in the music where the chord changes. The numbers that you say are the functions of the chords, which appear underneath the melody.

4) Say the same thing, now playing the triad chords in the left hand. You should still say "I" and "V" at the same places as you did in the last step.  In the key of C major the I chord is C major (abbreviated "C") and the V chord is G major (abbreviated "G").

The small Arabic numbers to the left of the notes in the example below represent the degrees of the scales built on the chord's root.  For example, the first chord is spelled C-E-G, these are the first, third, and fifth notes of the C major scale.  In the second chord, G-B-D are the first, third, and fifth notes of the G major scale.

Fingerings are usually written below the bass clef and above the treble clef.  For our work I recommend playing triads in the left hand with your 5th finger (pinky) playing the root (the first note of the scale), your 3rd (middle finger) playing the third note of the scale, and your 1st (thumb) playing the fifth.  If you were to play the chords with your right hand the number of the fingers would be the opposite--1 (thumb) on the first note of the scale, 3 (middle) on the third note of the scale, and 5 (pinky) on the 5th.

5) Play with two hands together. If you can't do it, try:

1. Slowing down
   
2. Playing one or two measures and stop on the first note of the next measure. Concentrate especially on the measure before each chord change, stopping on the first note of the new chord in the next measure.  This is probably the hardest part since the left hand will be switching position while the melody moves ahead.  Another tricky spot is the fourth measure in the right hand, because it's the only place in the whole melody where you skip a finger.
   
3. Repeating any or all of the steps above as you think necessary.

Once you are able to play the above as written, you can repeat the previous chord in the measures where nothing is written.

©2001 Robert Willey