Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hi, I'm crystalline. And today we're gonna be
talking about lever changes. Or as some of you would say, leverage changes, both as right. I know for some of you, this is quite a stressful concept. When you see that a
piece has leavers and admit a lever changes in it, maybe you get a
little concerned, you may even avoid those pieces, but that's not necessary. It's really not that bad. And it means that you can play beautiful pieces that you otherwise wouldn't
be able to play. So today I'm gonna be
breaking it down for you. I'm going to start by
showing you exactly how to move your
leavers effectively. Then I'm gonna show you how
to apply it in the piece, like what you need to be looking
at and concentrating on. And then I'm gonna show
you how to practice it effectively and give you some tips for practicing
lever changes. So let's get into it.
4. How to move your levers effectively: Let's start by looking at how do you actually move the lever. Now just a reminder, a lever is going to
change your node from being, say for example, an E-flat, in this case, moving it up and it becomes
an E natural so you can share how it makes it
half a step higher. Let's look at exactly
how we do this. You'll see that I have
another camera angle here I am in the
other camera angle. And that's to show you
exactly what I'm doing. What I would suggest is
to put your thumb on the underside of the liver and your index finger
on the top of it. And then you can securely
move it up and down. Makes sure that when
you change your lever, you're going to move it
all the way up until it hits the end and
then all the way down. Now they are some different
types of leavers. Some of them kind of twist or turn or might move slightly
differently to mine. So you're gonna need
to become familiar with exactly how
your leavers work. But just spend some time moving them up and down
and really getting comfortable with it the way
I suggested to hold it. That's a pretty secure way. But you can also just find
out what works for you along the way and just get really familiar with moving it
all the way up and down. If you find that when you move your lever all the
way to the top, it, it doesn't have a clean sound and it may
be buzzers a little bit, then you'll find that you
need to actually do a bit of servicing of that
particular lever, maybe tighten it or
look at how the string, where the string is
compared to the liver. So that would be covered in another video about
servicing your heart. But when your liver is
in a good condition, you should be moving
it all the way up to get a nice clean sound. If you only go halfway. You can hear. It's not in tune properly and it can
also buys a little bit. So we want to move
it all the way to the top and all the
way to the bottom.
7. Applying lever changes: Now let's look at how to apply your liver changes
within the music. You notice that lever changes always happen
with your left hand. And that means that
your left hand needs to be free to do the lever change. And depending on how the piece
was arranged are composed. Hopefully they give you plenty of time to do
the lever change. So I'm going to show
you a few examples in some of the music
that I've arranged, starting with my
arrangement of somewhere over the rainbow or
over the rainbow. In measure 27, I'm going to show a little snippet
up on the screen here. You'll see that's where the
lever change first happens. And I gave you plenty
of time to do that, which makes it very easy. So the left hand in measure
27 does this long cord. Then you have the lever change, and then another long chord. And there's plenty of time. So let me show you
what that looks like. There was plenty of time. I didn't feel stressful to me. I didn't have to
quickly rush there. I just had lots
of time to do it. Let me break down a
little bit more of what I was actually doing there. This is a great tip that
my hop teacher gave me when I first started learning lever changes and it's
really helped me. And that is to be aware of your eye movements and actually move your eye to the liver. And you don't have
to pluck it out. You're just going to move
your focus to the liver that you're going to change even before your left hand is free. So that when you move your
left hand to that lever, your eyes are already there. You can move really quickly. And I'll show you
what that looks like. You weren't exactly be able
to see my eye movement. But what I'm doing
here is I know what my right hand is going
to be doing because it has a whole lot of
overlapping brackets, which is really ideal when
you're doing lever changes. I just check what's
happening in the music. And then I'm already
looking at this F Now, then I can really
move it quickly. I was looking at that
F lever and then I moved my hand
really effectively. And then as soon as my hand is on that lever before I've
even done the lever change, my eyes are looking for where my hand is going
to move back to. Let me just explain
that a little bit more. So I'm about to do this
lever change my eyes already looking at the
F lever, I plug here, I move my finger there
and immediately my eyes move back to where I'm about
to put my left hand back to. While I'm looking there, I move the lever and I move my hands quickly
back to that spot. And then it really means
that it's not stressful. I know exactly where I'm going. I don't need to be
looking around. I'm really well-prepared because my eyes are moving
ahead of my hands. This does mean that you need
to know really well what's happening in the
music and in your, on your right hand so
that you can focus your attention on the left hand and the lever looking
at those two places. So it's really great in
this piece that there's a long series of overlapping
brackets in the right hand, because it means that I can play the right-hand without looking. Then I can use my eyes to look at the left hand and the lever. And it also means
that I need to know a few notes by memory so that I don't have
to look at the sheet music. So you really need to free up those eyes to look at your
left hand and the liver. And that will really
help you to be less stressed with
leaver Changes. The other concept
that really helps with applying a
lever change within a piece is to think of that lever change as
having a particular beat. So you always play it at the
same moment in the piece. And you can think of
it as almost like being another note that
your left hand is playing, or like a dance move. A dance move happens
on the beat. And if it happens exactly
the same every time, then it just feels like part of the normal way
of playing the piece, not something extra you
have to think about. I always do it in this piece on the third beat,
1234. Every time. It's always on that third
beat in this piece. Let's look at the next piece. This is my mid intermediate
arrangement of hallelujah. This is how the lever
change happens. In this little extract, I'm actually showing you
putting the lever up. And then when I put the
lever back down again, it's the exact same concept. And if your pieces really well arranged and crafted
with the lever change, the arranger will have shown you the beat and the exact
moment when they want you to do the lever change or
as close as they can to without interfering
with the notes around it. So I'm going to show you
both the lever change up and the lever change down. This happens in measure 17. The left hand is
going to play this. Then move to the G lever, and then it has to
come back to here. So let's look at that. Then. The difference with this
song is that when I'm playing the lever change
on a particular beat, it's not one of the most
important beats of the measure. So it is something
that you just have to be aware of in this
type of piece. So outdo the counting
to show you. 356357. 1234561. So it's happening on
bead five every time. And you just have to really make sure that you
practice it just like a dance move or like another
note of the left hand. You just make sure
you're looking ahead and you're moving it on the
same beat every time. And you'll notice in this piece
that the right-hand isn't doing a whole long series
of overlapping brackets. So maybe it's a little, it takes a little more
practice to be able to play that right hand without
looking at it every second. But I know my hand is
in the right place, even though I'm coming
off the strings, strings are still
gonna be there. So you'd have to get used to. I need to leave a change there. If I had to put some practice and to be
able to come off and come back onto the strings
there without looking. But it's really worth putting
that extra practice in. And to also make sure
that those few measures you can do with very little looking at the sheet music
because you want to be able to confidently do those lever
changes on the right beat. Again. Now let's take a look
at the lever changes in my arrangement of yesterday
for late intermediate hop. This one has a lot of lever
changes and they really fun because some of
them you actually changing to leavers at a time. But don't worry, I gave you
plenty of time in the music. So you'll see how it's
actually not too difficult to do if you apply all the
concepts I talked about. I'm gonna be playing between
measures eight and 11. All of those lever changes that might seem a bit overwhelming, but it really just happens just like as if I was
playing another note. And it happens at the
same time every time, and I find that
really enjoyable. I think if you're adult
late intermediate version at level or maybe even
amid intermediate level, I think you'll enjoy learning the lever changes in this one. So let me break it down
for you a little bit more. So we have plenty of time for that first lever
change the left-hand, just roles the cord and
then I'm looking up here. And when I do that lever change, I really just do it
in the same way. I just move the two. Sometimes I do it
with just my thumb like that and sometimes, yeah, I think that's what I do. I just lift it up like that and the two move together roles. I've already been looking there. Then I'm placing my
right hand as I'm doing this so that I can then
place the left-hand. Now I'm looking to
change the next lever. I'm actually looking
at the SCC lever. Then I'm looking
here to play it. And my right hand just has a whole lot of
overlapping brackets, so I didn't have to look there. I've placed my right hand and now I'm looking
to change those. I'm looking over here to
change those leavers down. I'm looking back. I can play the next bit. Now as soon as I've placed my left hand for the next chord, and now looking here to
move this lever down, then that's it. That's
the leader changes. And from there it just
carries on as normal.
9. How to practice lever changes: Let's do some tips on how to
practice to get your lever changes smooth and confident and getting them
right every time. So the first tip is to
make sure that you're practicing your right-hand until you don't
have to look at it. We've talked about that. Then you want to also make
sure that you memorize that little section that you don't have to look
at the sheet music. You want to practice
the movements of your left hand to make sure
that playing the chord and then moving the levers
is really natural and that's part of what your
left hand is doing, that you're not
thinking of it as a completely separate entity, but you're also practicing it as part of your left
hand movements. Then you want to isolate just
that little one measure or even three notes just around that lever change
and practice it over and over and over with chunking. Take a very small
section and make sure that you get that lever
change on the same beat every time and you
really practice it until it's so natural and you
could do it in your sleep. If you still feel a little
overwhelmed with how to practice a lever change
really effectively, maybe you'd like
someone alongside you, telling you exactly how to practice that particular
section of a piece.
Christy Lyon, Musician
