Learn How to Play Lyre Harp

1. Welcome & Introduction: Hello and welcome to this class where you will learn how to play this amazing instrument called a lawyer. It is basically like a very small harp. So it is often also called a liar harp. The lawyer is an ancient instrument often used to portray angels and divinity. And it is truly one of the most relaxing, magical, and beautiful sounding instrument you can play. The best part is that it is very easy to learn, even for beginners who never played a music instrument before. My name is Mike and I made this class for you to give you a great foundation for playing this beautiful instrument. So now I want to welcome you to a new amazing adventure in music. So let's start your journey on the liar right now. 2. The Amazing Lyre Harp: What is this instrument and why is it so incredibly amazing? Let's find out. So this is called a liar or via harp. And it is an ancient instrument with a magnificent, peaceful, relaxing and beautiful sound. It has been used in many cultures around the world for thousands of years. But it is mainly associated with ancient Greece. It is what is called an open string instrument, meaning there is nothing behind the strings here to push them against. So now fretboard. And compared to the guitar, for example, which has a fret board with Fred's. Instead, each string is its own note. This creates a very open and rich sound. And the strings are laid out in a very simple way, starting with the lowest on one side on this particular layer, this is G3. And then going up, note by note for each string until you get to the highest string on the opposite side here, which on my layer is a five because this is a 16 string layer. So another big difference is that a traditional layer like this is what is called the diatonic instrument. And that basically means that the strings are tuned to a specific scale. In most cases, it will be tuned to the white keys of a piano keyboard, meaning that it will play naturally in C major and the relative a minor scale. And you can see this from the note names from the top here. That's the standard tuning. The advantage of this is that it is easy to start playing melodies, harmonies, chords, arpeggios, glissandos, etc, on the layer. However, there is a downside as well, which is that you will not be able to play accidentals on your layer. An accidental is a node that goes outside of the scale and key of the particular song you want to play. Basically, you want to choose any songs that stick to the notes of whatever scale and key it is written in. This brings us to the tuning of a liar, because even though the liar is most commonly tuned to C major or a minor, meaning, like all the white keys on a piano keyboard, you can in fact tune any string up or down a half step to get a different scale. Let's say you play a song written in D minor and you want to play it on your liar. Well, D minor has one black key, which is B flat. So what you do is you take the nodes labeled B on your layer, like here, B3 and B4, and then you tune them down so they are in B flat, and then your liar will naturally play in the D minor scale. There are a lot of different designs of the liar in various shapes, would, colors, etc. But most importantly, they come in different amount of strings. I have seen liars with everything from seven strings all the way to 21 strings. And beyond. The more strings you have, the more range of nodes you will be able to play. But the downside is of course, that you have to tune more strings, which is tedious. I will not lie. But I have a liar with 16 strings. And I think that is a good compromise. I would not personally want fewer strings than this because with two fused rings that are songs and tunes that will be out of range for your layer. The layer is simply an amazing, relaxing and a beautiful instrument, perfect for beginners who never played an instrument, because it is so easy to learn and to play it. But also incredible for experienced musicians who want to expand their sound pellet, add that relaxing, rich and open sound that the liar is famous for. So I asked you now, my fellow musical friend, are you ready to learn how to play these ancient, magical and almost heavenly sounding instrument called a liar. 3. Choosing your Lyre: So did you already buy a liar harp? Or perhaps this will be your first instrument, or simply, you want to get another one. Well, in any case, I still want to give you my advice and recommendations for choosing and buying a liar. Sadly, there are so many cheaply produced liars on the market. Some instruments, or even unplayable because they cannot hold the tuning at all, have strings that break all the time or simply sound bad. You will do yourself a huge favor by avoiding these cheap instruments. So make sure to read the reviews on the website you buy from. I also suggest picking a liar like this one with 16 strings or more. Because then you will be able to play more tunes and songs compared to one with too few strings. Also make sure that the layer has a knot which is this raised bar here. So the strings are attached at the bottom and the tuning pegs, but this little bar here, we'll make the tone better and the tuning for the strings as well. Your lawyer should also definitely come with a tuning tool like this one, which attached to the tuning pegs for tuning each string. And hopefully as a bonus, it will count with an extra set of strings. Minded. Regarding other design choices, the color does not really matter, just choose what you prefer. But I do recommend getting a wire with strings in metal like this one. Because they hold the tuning on the string is much better than nylon strings. I also personally recommend a liar horse with a sound hold this here and the resident body, meaning that you get a resonant like a guitar almost inside here when you pluck the strings. Also, Take a good look. Look at the top of the layer up here, above the tuning pegs. Where are the note names should be clearly labeled so that you can easily read them as you hold your liar horse and play any tool. If the note names or engraved, like mine is here, meaning they are carved into the wood. That is much better than simply painted or printed because those note names can lose their clarity over time. With engraved labels like this. That is much better. Okay, So where should you buy your liar? Well, you can of course buy it on Amazon, eBay, or any marketplaces like that, and perhaps you will get lucky. But in my experience, there are a lot of bad products on big marketplaces like this, especially for music instruments. So what I recommend is buying from an actual music store, or even better, directly from a vendor that specialize in life your harps. I bought this particular layer from an online music store in Europe called full mm, which I basically bought all my music instruments from. So I can recommend that if you are in Europe, but basically, if you stick to a music online music store or a real music store or a vendor and, or make your own viral hopes. I think you will have a much higher chance of getting a good instrument. So good luck, liar hunting. And I really hope that you will find a great instrument that you are happy with. 4. Tuning your Lyre: How to tune your liar harp. So tuning any string instrument, and particularly the layer, is something you will need to get used to do often, because strings go out of tune over time regardless if you play them or not. I strongly recommend that you always have a tuner available when you practice and you play your liar. And of course when you tune it, you can use a standalone tuner device, but I suggest installing a tuner app on your smartphone like this one I have here, there are plenty of free ones to choose from. This is called tuner light. Then opening that app up every time you pick up your layer to play or practice. You should also start every session by tuning all the strings of your liar when you first get your instrument. So when you have bought it and it comes home, or if you just put on news strings on your layer, it will take time quite awhile. In fact, before the strings and tuning will settle down because the strings have to get used to that stretch, stretch. What I recommend is that you start by tuning all the strings when you get your new layer or the new strings according to the note names here on the labels. And then leave the layer four a day without playing or practicing. And you may have to do this procedure for a few days. So tuning them again the next day, leave it, put it aside a few days until the strings have settled and the tuning will actually hold good enough to be able to start playing tunes on your layer. Also be very careful and delicate when you tune, especially on the higher strings because strings on the layer or very thin, so they break easily, do very tiny adjustments, you will eventually get a spring that breaks. So I recommend having a set of spares springs available. So if you don't have that for your liar, start by getting a set of strings as well. Now, let me demonstrate how you tune your layer. First, start up your tuner app, like I have done here. You've watched this line, you want it as close to the center point or 0 as you can and you can see the note name here. Then use the included computer tool, which looks like this. And it is basically you put it on the tuner, tuning peg up here. Then you start on the lowest string, always taught in the lowest ring and go string by a string to the highest ring, pluck it without turning. And he watch the tuner app. So you can see, I don't know if you can see this little line here. You can see it's slightly below the 0, as long as it is between these two extra arrows here. About minus two to plus $0.15 overtone, then that is okay tuning this one was a bit flat. So what I do is pluck the string and while it's ringing, grab this tuning device with your hand and just slowly, you turn it at a very minimal, very slow and tiny amount. You turn it clockwise to go up in pitch and a counterclockwise to go down in pitch. So in this case it was a bit too flat. So pocket and then beat up too much. I can see already, even though I just turned like one millimeter or something super tiny, it was still too much. So this is one of the biggest frustrations of this instrument, is how hard it is to tune. Just be aware of that. So again, I have this on my knee here so I can watch it down. Beat up. It's like half a millimeter EBIT up. It's so small until you get it too in-between, in-between those two lines. Then you move on to the next string, which is a, in my case, this on a 16th Marine Corp, they started on G3, then goes to a, it doesn't matter what your heartbeats just start and then go string by a string. Do the same thing. Okay. It's almost too flat. It's almost there. Just he and I usually just hold it with my fingers and then put a bit of stress here on the tuning device so you can even, you can even hear how it goes up or down in pitch. If we are used to playing guitar or any fretted instrument like that. This is the most tedious because there is no gears for the tuning. It's just friction. So it will be tiny amounts for each string. But what you do is to go through all the screens like this with your tuner, try to get it to the CRO position. Or I actually prefer to have it just a tad over CRO. So Ted sharp, just a slide because strings are generally go down in pitch when they settled. Go through all the strings. Once you tune all those things, you will need to go back and recheck if they still hold the tuning and you may have to do some adjustments to go through them quickly again, again, just test them. Okay, So what you do is you will always need to check and reaching new layer like this. Like I demonstrated, that historical each practice or playing session. So it is tedious, especially that's why I don't recommend having too many strings. I think 16 strings is the perfect compromise. Perhaps. You may want to choose 19, but anything beyond that, it's, gets annoying. But if you only have seven or ten strings, there's fewer strings to tune, but it will make some tunes and songs out of range for your layer. However, in time, these tuning will become a habit and you will be able to do it much quicker than your first time. So good luck tuning your heart now, tuning to tuning app string by a string. Let it settle, recheck, and then you can start playing songs on your layer. 5. Holding your Lyre: Alright, now that your layer is in tune, let's learn the basics of how you hold it. How do you pluck the strings and how to play nodes and the tunes on your layer. So there is no perfect way to hold a liar hoard, but I will teach you a good starting point. And then you can choose to adapt to what suits your playing style and comfort. So start by picking it up with your left hand. If you're right-handed like me. And a grip the forest side of the opening here. This is the opening behind the strings. With your left hand. Your thumb should be on the inside here for the best grip and support. Then place your liar, push it so that it leans like this against your chest. Here. For extra stability, the node labels and tuning screws should always be clearly visible. So I recommend having them slightly below your eye level. So here's my eye level, so I can look slightly down when playing. Then you'd tilt your layer a bit so that it is at an angle with a top bit, a bit farther away from you. So instead of having it like this tilted down, you have your strings at an angle and you will get a better view of the node labels, you will get a good stability holding the liar this way as well as nice comfort and accessibility for plucking the strings with your fingers. So another way of playing the liar, if you do not prefer to have it to the body like this, is to place it flat on a surface like a table or I have a shelf here behind me, so I put it like this and then you can play it looking down. But when you played like this, I recommend not having it. A top-down angle like this. Rather, you have it at an angle like this when you play slightly, either vertically like this or a bit angled like this, because it is easier for your fingers to pluck this comparative plugin like this. So again, the main way is grip it with your left hand. If you're right-handed, thumb here inside the opening, push the layer towards your chest for stability, angle is slightly down and perhaps a bit away or towards you depending on what you prefer. So you have easy access. Two strings, clear sight, looking slightly down on the node labels. And you get stability for the good grip and pushing the wire towards your body. 6. Plucking the Strings: How do you pluck the strings on your layer? So now that your layer is in June and you have learned how to hold your instrument properly for easy access, stability, and playability, it's time to pluck some strings and make beautiful songs on your layer. What fingers to use? As a beginner on the liar, I will recommend sticking to using your thumb, index finger, and middle finger as all of these three fingers. When you get more experienced, you can add the ring finger and pink as well in order to play arpeggios and bigger intervals, easier. And without having to move your hand as much around the liars rings when you play. But start with three fingers, thumb, index, and middle finger. Pluck direction is actually really simple. You pluck the strings in the direction your fingers are naturally facing. Your thumb will pluck the strings away from your body, from your body and outwards. And your other fingers, all other fingers will play back towards your body. Because that is how they are naturally facing the direction where to pluck the strings. Well, I recommend plucking the strings over this opening. So note down here, but actually up here. So you have this opening behind the strings. Because it is the place where there are actually a bit more space between the strings. As you can see if you check this here, It's actually be tighter between the strings down here compared to here. And that way it is easier to avoid accidentally, accidentally like packing two springs. I'm touching another string rather than the one you were going to play is also closer to the string labels, so the note names here so you can keep track of what nodes you play. If you pluck here, you will need to watch your fingers. You don't really see the note names, but if you pluck up here and have it slightly below eye level, you can actually see your fingers when you pack a. While. You also see the node labels. How to pluck the strings. You simply place your finger on the side of your strings. So in this case, the thumb here to decide, oh, let's see, this is the E string. Then you likely pluck it by pushing your finger outwards and a bit outwards towards yourself as well. So in the direction on the finger plus outwards. And the reason you go a bit out as well as a bit in this way towards you, is to avoid if you keep just the direction of the wire is easier to accidentally touch the next string. But if you just pluck and go a bit outwards at the same time, that is easier to be. Get those clearer sounding knows when you pluck the strings, how to improve your plucking. So a mistake many beginners on the Lionheart make is to allow your hand and fingers to get too far away from the strings of the pluck the strings like this. That is not practical or efficient. So what do you want to do instead is to always keep your fingers. Let's see if you can see this as close to the strings as possible, even if you don't play them. This way, your fingers have way less distance to move. When you plot, any string will go to the next string and you will increase your aim and efficiently like this. So those are my tips and recommendations for how to pluck the strings on your layers. So go ahead and practice this now, and I will see you in the next lesson. My friends. 7. Congratulations - Now Practice Playing your Lyre: Congratulations, you now have a nice overview and foundation of the liar. And you have learned all the basics like things to consider when choosing a liar, how to tune, or the strings, how to hold it for the best grip and stability. Tips for improving your plucking of the strings and so on. I will now give you a few basic exercises that you can do as a daily routine as a beginner to get used to playing your liar in the beginning, you can stick to using only your first three fingers. But when you feel you can handle it, I recommend starting to add the ring finger and eventually your pinky as well. Especially when you start to play bigger intervals like an octane. And so on. Because longer distances mean you will need to otherwise move your hand more, which is not as efficient as having it played with fingers that are further apart, like your thumb and your pinky like this. In the next few lessons, you will get one exercise per lesson. Let's go ahead right now. 8. Exercise 1: Welcome to your first daily exercise, which is the pattern 123 to one. So basically up three strings and then down through the first again, you use your thumb and your index finger and your middle finger. And then you pluck all the strings one by one, starting from the first, which is one. And the lowest string here, G3, in my case, plaque that with your thumb. Let's do number two with your index finger. Number three with your middle finger, 123 and then back to index finger, and then thumb for the first one to three to one. And then you start over, but you move your hand and start with one being the next ring. So a3, in my case, the second lowest string will be one. And then you do the same one to three to one. And you should do this for all the strings going up until you get to the highest strings here. So this is number one here, the third from the top, 123. So this is one of the most basic patterns you can play just in threes, up and downs or one to three to one, so that it is a good start as a daily exercise, number one for you, let's check out the next lesson when you all ready. 9. Exercise 2: Basic exercise number two, which is the pattern 1323. So again, as with all exercises, start on the lowest string first, plug it with your thumb. So that is one. Then three, meaning you skip the second string and your second finger and go to the middle finger on the third string. And then two, which is your index finger, the second row. And then the three is your middle finger. So you get this pattern. And then again move up through this ring. It's like they start the New, start with B. The next node to the second string will be one with your thumb. Three, skip the string in the middle, and then two, index, and then third middle finger. And you get this kind of pattern going up the scale, and so on until you get to the highest. So that is another good exercise and you will practice some string and fingers keeping this way. Let's move on to the next exercise now. 10. Exercise 3: Basic exercise number 3135. So since a chord on your layer is based on skipping a string between the nodes, you should also practice playing in the strings up and down in a 135 pattern. So for example, if you play the note C here, skip a note or a string here, E, skip a string. And then G, that is those strings or the C major chord. And this goes throughout the entire heart. If you skip a string in between your fingers, that is actually a chord in music played on your layer. So a good way to practice learning this with your ear and how to play it with your fingers, is to do this exercise and you start to skip a string like this. So g, the lowest ring is the thumb, escapist ring, and then the second finger here, your index finger will be the third string, skip a string, and then your middle finger will be the fifth string. So you can play this 135 up and down if you want to like this. What you're essentially playing here is an arpeggio, that chord as an arpeggio. So that is actually installed on the G here, G major chord. And you can play it up and down. And you can do this all over the liar. So starting on the second string here, a, skip a string. Then play the third skip string. And there's these three strings now, or I really recommend you played both going up and down. So 135, you skip the second and the fourth string in this pattern. And then you do this going up all the way until it stops right here. Because there is no higher string and this highest. Then you can, if you wish to go down the scale as well. So this is a great way for practicing both your ear, ear training and your fingers to play chords and arpeggios on your horse. So, so do this on a daily practice routine as well. And then let's go on to the next basic exercise on your layer. 11. Exercise 4: Basic exercise number four, which is the pattern 1458. Because the most important intervals in music for nodes, or the root node, which is the one of the key the song is in. The fourth, the fifth, and the octave, which is eight tones above the root node. So those nodes will be by far the most used for chords and melodies in all styles of music. So of course, it makes sense that you practice playing them on your layer. This means you will also exercise bigger leaps of strings, like an octave. All the way up here is the next note. So you start from the lowest string as always, the thumb on the low G in my case here. Then skip two strings, 12, and then you get here to see which is the fourth. You can pack that with your index finger. You can pluck the next one, the fifth, which is D, In my case, with your middle finger, like that. And then you get to the highest string here, the eighth, but this is the octane. So another G, the same as the first, just an octave above or higher in the sound. Now, it is also a good time to practice playing with the ring finger or the pinky, because when you stretch here all the way to the octane, it's too much for your hand to move around. It's getting tricky. So what you can do is thumb on the first. Then you can do index finger on the fourth, middle finger on the fifth. And then choose, for example, to have your pinky up here or your ring finger like this. Or pancake. Because that way your hand can only already be placed so that they are over the respective strings. Meaning you don't have to move like you do if you do it with only three strings, 15. And then you need to move and play it with one of the three strings for the octet. But when he started playing this up and down, you will immediately feel how much more natural it feels to include a fourth finger further away from your thumbs, either ring finger or the pinky like this. Up back to five. Then once you get used to that, you can move through the strings like the other exercise this is starting on, the second string will be one. So you can also watch here for the node labels as you do this. So you can see a fourth escape again. Two strings get to the D, and then you get to the E is the fifth. And then you see the a, the octane here. Fight with your pinky like this. So psi, which is the a, and then you can go down again and go through all the way until we get to the highest. So this until you are comfortable playing this pattern. Again, do it as a daily exercise to practice your ear training for recognizing the notes and your finger dexterity, agility, and control when plucking the strings. Then let's move on to the next basic exercise on your liar. 12. Exercise 5: Basic exercise number five, which is the pattern 12345678. Why? Well, because playing scales in music is super important for practicing any music instrument, it will train your ear to recognize all the intervals of nodes and music. It will improve your finger control for both plucking the correct strings as well as moving your hand and fingers around when playing. And overall, it will make you more familiar with all the nodes and strings of your liar. So you should exercise playing all the strings from the first to the Octave, both going up so one to eight and then down so eight to one, like this. So starting with your thumb on the lowest ring and then going up like this. And then down that was the Octavius of g. You can also watch the node labels as you do this. Down again. So you playing the scale up and down like this. And then you start over from the next string. So the a here, the second string will be one, and then you can see it ends on a four or a three. Okay? And then down eight, from eight, down to a three. And Octavian. Then you can go through all the strings like this, playing the scale up and down again. And also this is a very good opportunity for you to practice using for strings. Again, meaning you include your ring finger or your pinky as well. I recommend the ring finger this case because this will feel way more natural when playing a scale since you end on the final fingers or the ring finger, in this case for the octane and then a thumb when you go down. And it will also be more efficient, efficient because you will not move your hand and position as much like you saw me do when I use only three fingers like this. Start with thumb here. But we're not finished yet because we have the f and g. You needed to move again if you use your ring finger as well. So you get first thumb, next string, index finger, next string, middle finger, next, ring, ring finger. Then you move again. Your hands start with your thumb on the fifth string. 5678 will be your ring finger here. So the octane will be your ring finger. And then you start with your ring finger going down. Thumb on the fifth, then you move your hand only once. So you start with the ring finger. Like that. Much more natural, much more efficient. So I highly recommend that you play your scales like this on your layer up and down as another daily exercise routine. 13. Learn to Play the Lyre: Welcome back my music friends. So now that you have learned the basics and the foundations of the liar, have started to practice holding it, playing strings and so on. You are going to learn all the basic, intermediate and advanced playing technique. So you can actually start to play songs and tunes and improvise, and play basically anything you want on your layer. You will learn the nodes how to play rhythms and keep the timing for playing each node in a tune. How to play melodies and harmonies and chords, arpeggios, glissandos, and even expressive variations and advanced techniques to add variation and emotion into your performances on your layer. So let's get started learning all the playing techniques on the liar right now. 14. The Notes on Your Lyre: Now you will learn how to play notes on your layer, which of course you need in order to play tunes and songs. Of course, you can see up here on the node labels which node you are playing, as long as you tune the strings according to this standard tuning. And this is one of the best parts about the liar horse. That is, you don't need to use any sharps or flats. If you look at these nodes here, there are no sharp or flat signatures. It's only the music note language from a to G. So seven nodes that repeat in octaves. The nose I have on the screen now is for a 16 string layer, which is the one I recommend you use myself. If you have too few strings, you already learned this, then the range for tunes and songs will be less and some songs will be out of range. Now, if you're a liar has, for example, 19 Strings, which is also pretty common or more than 20. You can look at this short and note. The lowest note will simply continue from G three here to F three, E three, and so on. The lower side and to the higher side you can see a five is the highest string here. On the sixth string, I have. It continues of course would be five and then, and then C6 and beyond. Now, I want to make this even more clear for you by showing how the nodes and strings of your liar horse correspond to the keys on a piano. So here you can see the piano keyboard. You have the lowest note down here, highest down here, huge range. Well, we only have 16 nodes on myelin. Perhaps yours have 19 or whatever. But first, we want to find a middle C. That is C four. Check your liar horse and play along. Play this C4. You will hear that is the same note on the string that says C4 on my 16 string, liar. And that is, it is pretty common. It starts on D G3, which is this. Third obtain. And then on all liar hope to standing standard tuning is to tune all the strings to all. White keys are no black keys, no sharps or flats, meaning that you can play naturally in C major or a minor. Okay, so the range for my 16 string, liar, and perhaps yours as well is G3. And then all the white gaze upwards. First string, second, third. Fourth is C4, and then it continues. 5678910111213141516. So again, J3 is here an octave above it, the same note, but at a higher octane for, and then g five, that is two octaves of range plus a node above it. If you have a 19th string, line hall, perhaps it starts on and continuous a few nodes higher. But that is the nodes of your strings on your layer hop and how they correspond to the case. And the notes on music sheet. Now make sure that your layer strings are in tune, because now you are going to play all these nodes from the lowest B32, A5 layer has more than 16 strings or perhaps a different starting note. Look on the node labels and play along to the 16 strings from G3 to A5. Because I have prepared an example where you will have a playback track with the metronome at a fairly slow tempo. So you can just play along D3, A3, B3 to the beat. And this way you will practice not only your finger dexterity, but keeping the rhythm and timing of the nodes. You will learn to recognize the nodes on a piece of music sheets so you can play along to tunes and learn songs on your layer. And you already learned how the nodes correspond to the white keys on a piano keyboard. So find the middle, see C4 here, when you're a liar. And that is basically the center point for the music sheets when you start to their songs. Okay, Good luck practicing and learning the notes on your liar harp. 15. Rhythm & Timing: Now, music is not only about what nodes you play, meaning the strings on your layer, but the rhythm and timing and length of those nodes. So what I recommend you to do is to practice your rhythm and timing on your layer. How well, the main way is with all instruments to actually have a metronome, which is basically a beekeeping device, is steady pulse that you can play in time with on your instrument. You're a liar in this case, I really recommend installing one on your smartphone and stored very slow. 60 BPM in 44 time is the default, I think for beginners on any instrument, it will sound like this. 12341234. You can feel how slow it is. So start installing a smartphone app for a metronome like this, putting on 60 BPM in 44, and then start practicing to play the string, pluck the string exactly. All those beads, those pulses. Okay? So for one, you can put it any strings. We don't have to stick to any melody now just jump around, improvise as you want to. The point is to practice keeping in time. So that is the first main exercise. It may sound boring, but it is super important because music is about the nosey play and the rhythm of those nodes. So practice keeping in time with the metronome. However, once you get bored with this, I have actually prepared an example. You can do this on your own as well. Simply a drum loop that I programmed in 60 BPM. And I will include it in these videos. You can play along to it whenever you want to. Basically in a low volume, it sounds like this. Simple, super-simple, very slow, cool groove here. And if you don't have to stick to quarter notes like 1234 and so on. You can play notes and whatever, just keep the groove and tiny. Let some monitoring to make sure that you feel this pulse and that that pose synchronizes with the plucking of your strings, regardless of how fast or slow you play. If you can play. Renowned, been 34. And just let those rain, you can play half nodes. So one four quarter notes and anything you want, just keep the timing and synchronized to the groove, the powers of the beat. So now I will play this beat as full volume. You can have it on your device or smartphone wherever you watch this lesson, pick up your liar and practice playing into a drum loop. But after that, you can simply play any song as a background on Spotify or wherever. And just play along. You don't have to play the notes. Just focus on the rhythm and timing. You can even stick to tune strings or three strings don't have to jump around. The purpose of this lesson is to practice your rhythm and timing for plucking the strings on your layer. So good luck and have fun with that. And I will see you in the next lesson. My friend. 16. Play Melodies: Now let's learn about playing melodies on your layer. A melody in music is simply a series sequence of a single nodes, one of the, another, meaning on your life that you pluck one string to another string. It could be the same string twice, several times, but you only pluck one string at a time like this. Okay? So the main way to play, learn and how to play melodies for any tune and song is music sheets or music notation. I haven't included this onscreen. As you have already learned, the main tuning for relier is C major or a minor meaning no black key, so no sharps or flats, that makes it easier. I also included the note names inside the notation here to make it even easier for you. Most of you have never played music sheets or read music like this. So you can simply start any junior learn regardless if you see it in music notation form or just the note names. So the labia, so C, C, G, G, and so on. In this case, by going through all the nodes and seeing where are they on your layers. So you learn that this lower see there in the notation is C4. Start with that one. Okay, So we know c4 will be one node, G above that will be up here. So G4. And you can see a, as a one to be aware of which nodes are coming in the melody, that makes it much easier, then you can start practice the melody without a metronome, without even trying, keeping the timing just go through like c, k then another C. This is the beginning stages of learning in a melody. And then analogy. Once you get used to playing notes like this and seeing them in tab form or in notation, you can start to practice playing along. And I recommend using your metronome, again, having the sheet music or tabs in front of you, starting the metronome at a very, very slow tempo. So 60 BPM, perhaps even slower. And then just playing along to the melody and the notes. So I prepare an example, one of the more simple tunes to learn how to play on basically any new instrument you learn. But it's a good practice to just start playing melodies. And eventually you will be able to play any song you want really. So I will now play back this at 60 BPM. And I want you to practice playing along on your liar. But before you do, as I recommended, just go through the nodes you can see on screen and start to play along to see which nodes are coming to see its energy. Now the g a's. Okay, So you appropriate oral already here what Melody are going to play? Okay, so practice this song at 60 BPM. I will stop the playback. Make sure all your strings orienting and have fun practicing this simple melody. To start learning how to play melodies on your liar, ***** plow. Congratulations, you have now learned how to play your first melody on your layer harp is simple one, but each systole, the next one will be a bit more challenging, but in much more inspiring, an interesting tune, which is the sound of silence. Again, start by going through all the nodes you will play, find them on your layer, go through them, and then, first play back the tune without keeping the time. No metronome know playbacks track, just play all throughout, all the nodes. And then start practicing alone to the backing track I created on piano here and try to keep in time with the rhythm of the notes. I made it in 50 BPM, which sounds slow, but there's a lot of a double nodes and so on. A bit more rhythmic interest in this tune. So it will be a bit more challenging. But I know you will be able to deal with, with practice. Good luck playing the sound of silence. 17. Play Harmonies: In this lesson, you are going to learn how to play horror minis on your layer harp. So hormone is in music is basically when you play two notes at the same time, instead of only playing melodies, you pluck two strings. So for example, like this, like this. So what string is to plug together depends on what kind of harmony you want to add into your performance. In most cases, on your layers, since this is a diatonic instruments, the main hormone is will be this. First, if you pluck any string, let's say C here. If you add the E, that is the third. So you skip a string that is the first main Harmony. Skipping only one string. The next Coleman harmony to use on your layer is skipping two strings like this. That is a fourth, and of course the fifth, which is escaping three strings like this. And you can use your ring finger and thumb in this case. So again, skipping one string, playing a harmony of a third anywhere on your home. Seeping into strings with harmony over forth. And Harvard horror minute or a fifth is keeping three strings in between. So what I recommend you to do first is not to think about what hormone is to play, but get into the habit of practicing plucking two screens at the same time. So go ahead and take your thumb, the lowest string. Then you take your index finger and skip a string and pluck the next string, playing it a harmony of a third. And you do this all the way up and down like this. Up all the way up to the highest. And then down again. Thumb and index finger. As you can hear, harmonies and music adds a lot more complexity, richness and these overtones and magical overall texture compared to just paying one note at the same time, which works great for melodies. Now, I also want to show you the next exercise here. So the first one is play harmony or third, with your thumb and your index finger. Next, do the same exercise but with a hormone or fourth, you will doing this, you will practice both. Your ears were, recognizes these harmonies, but also your dexterity and muscle memory in your fingers for playing, plucking the strings. So doing a fourth, I recommend using your thumb and your middle finger. And do the same and start with the lowest thumb and middle finger on skipping two strings and playing it forward like this. Let's see if you can see. Do it slowly so you really hear that harmony reading else and go up, up, up onto the highest, and so on. And finally, the third most common harmony used on a layer hawk is the fifth. Now I recommend that you use the thumb and your ring finger, plucking the lowest, skipping 123 strings and then playing the next one. So G3 and G4, in my case, my layer here, up to the highest hopes, like this, three strings skipping in between. Okay? So those are three exercises for playing and plucking the strings in harmony. The third, the fourth, and the fifth. When you get used to that, I want you to also go ahead and practice adding these harmonies into a melody because you can add harmonies to make your melody richer, add variation and expression to it. So let's say you play like this from A4 here. The Sound of Silence is the middle to hear BIPAP. Now, try to add a horribly on any of these nodes in that melody is not on A4, let's say. And then when you pluck this one, ******* the a, again, creating your homie harmony. And then perhaps if E and F here. And then when you go to D, you might want to add a harmony and try it. Which harmony sounds best to you because there's no perfect answer for this. It all depends on. What your vision is for that, for what hormone if you want to add into the melody of your performance. So again, you can even start with the first node here. I'm playing harm and forth below. Just a tip here. In most cases you want to keep the highest string you pluck as the actual melody note and the harmony being lower. Because what we hear our ears pick up the most is there will always be the highest string you pluck or the highest melody note you press on a piano or any instrument, meaning that the harmony is basically strengthening that richness and complexity. But you still want to keep, in most cases, the melody note as the highest. So let's say again here, A4. Let's put the harmony here, the fourth below. So skipping two strings and playing with the middle finger, the melody for the sound and silence. Start with the harmony on E here, E4. Then, then on this final note in this phrase, I want to add a harmony so the melody is d. Try a third. Sounds good, right? Thumb and middle finger. Then you can try another one on the final note in the phrase. So in most cases, the first node of a phrase and the final multiple phrase works great for adding hormones, but basically any where you want to create it, make that melody note stronger and come out more, make it richer, then it is a good place to add harmony. So we can try different hormones that are on this d phi note here. Hormone over third, meaning skipping one string. Sounds great. Let's try a fourth, meaning skipping 23 strings. Well, perhaps you like it. It sounds pretty good, but I wanted to go and fight of faith as well. So skipping three strings, so it means like this. Finishing on d Phi, Let's try skipping three strings. That means G4 with it, there'll be the harmony below. Somebody even better to my ears at least. But of course, no perfect answer. You have to choose what you feel works best in your performance. Okay? So there you have it. Playing harmony is on your layer. Practice these. And remember there's no right and wrong. You can even go ahead and try out other harmonies because you can plug any other strings. These are just the three most common, the third harmony in one string, skipping to strings and forth, skipping three strings in between, which is a fifth, and it works for up and down. So if your melody is d4, we can add a harmony on top, but that is the middle note you will hear the most. And in most cases you want to keep the melody the highest rings. So going down instead when you count, the harmonies works better, but you can also try adding, for example, OK tastes, meanings, playing the same G4 and G5 to make it even stronger. Or any other string. And so let's say G4 and F5 or E5. And then we go to d Phi, which is the faith that you already learned. So that is how you play harmonies on your layer. You want to practice your ears so you can recognize these intervals to what they sound like. The hormone is your dexterity in your fingers for how to pluck. The hormone is third, and so on. And also finally, for adding them, when you play any melody, you can even play it out in entire melody by adding a harmony note. Any, any string you plug like I did here. Or you can choose to add it only when you want to accent that melody notes. So go ahead and practice these, and I will see you in the next lesson. My friends. 18. Play Chords: You already learned about how to play hormone is on your life horror, which is to play two strings at the same time. Now, let's take that to the next level, which is to play chords. Chords in music is basically hormone is stacked on top of each other. Or in other words, you play three or more nodes at the same time. In this case, parking three strings or more. So let's stick to three strings because that will be the main chord types in music. Major chords and minor chords meaning happy courts and said chords. So since this is a diatonic investment, you will be in the correct key if you start, for example, in C, That is C major, or if you start on a and go up one string at a time, that will be naturally in a minor and you will get the corresponding calls automatically. So I suggest when you play any melodies or songs on your liar, if it is in a minor scale or like a plate with a as the root node because that will be the minor scale on your liar or see if it is a major sounding song. Now, to play chords in your layer, remember what you learned about the hormone is the most common ones, or the third meaning skipping one strain. You play one string, pork fat, and they skip a string and they play the next one. Your thumb and your index finger. That is a third. That is the first harmony used for making chords. If you continue from there and skipping and other string again and then pluck the string. You remember that is the fifth, because if you pluck the first ring, let's say it is a 3123 and then blacklist, one. That is in fifth power money. So chords in music, especially on the layer, will be skipping one string and plucking the one next to it, meaning a, C and E in this case, will be a minor. So I want you to practice playing chords like this, skipping one string at a time. So thumb is first string, skipping one string. Index finger is the next string, skipping most ring and middle finger is the third string here. So one root node, third, fifth. You can go to the next string and do the same playing a chord here. And since you started on a, This next one will actually be a diminished chord, which is not used as much when you start on B, on your layer and play that he's taught on this B, it's the same. It's a diminished chord. It sounds kind of spooky almost. So if we take this concept to the major scale, if you start with the root node C. Because both may minor scales and major scales all have three Happy course Omega courts and three minor chords and also one diminished chord. So if you start on C, C, E, and G, so thumb, index, and middle finger. Practice that with me Now, plaque these three strings. You playing a major chord when you start to see, when you go to the D, That is a minor chord. So since this is a diatonic instruments, meaning it's achieved you one specific key and scale. You will get these automatically. You don't really have to think about if you play a minor or major chord like you do, want to get tall or piano, you just go on and skip one string and you automatically get D minor. Then you continue just like this, skipping one string for all your fingers here. You can do this all over the place if you want to. You want to get into habit of this string skipping. So the first root note of the chord will be your thumb skipping one string. The third will be your index finger skipping one string and a fifth will be your middle finger. Start with that. Now, that is the main way to play chords. 19. Play Arpeggios: Alright, so now that you have learned how to play chords and what courts are on your liar hope you will learn the main way to play them on a harp type instrument that Ally race, which is to play them as arpeggios. An arpeggio is basically a music term. That means a broken chords. So that doesn't mean that the cords or bad. It means that the core nodes are broken up, played as a sequence of single nodes that flows together. And that is really what creates these magical sweeping type of sound that the horse is famous for, the liar as well. So let's start with, for example, C, E, and G. You already learned this code is C major, so C is the root nodes. Keep one string, e, skip one string and G. And you can play them as a core, plucking all strings at the same time. You already did that. Now, a more common way, as I mentioned, is to play them as an arpeggio. So instead of plugging all of these strings at the same time, start with C and then pluck the other one in a sequence. The main way, the most common way is to play them in a sequence going up and then down again. So C, E, G is the same fingers, first three fingers and then going down, up and down in creating basically a wave and flowing like water. It sounds super beautiful likeness. You can buy slower, faster. Even. When you get really advanced, you can speed up or slow down over time to create that emotionally expressive style. Try this all over the liar, the same way you did with the core. So the one string escaping technique, meaning you can start on G here, skip the a, sleeping wellspring go to be skipped one string, go to D and play it as an arpeggio going. One, the second finger, third finger, second finger. So one above about it as 12321. You want to get used to the shape of the main shape of playing course, which is this skipping one string. Then you go to the next one. Up and down all the way to the highest. You hear how beautiful that really sounds. This flowing type of motion. That is the main way you play chords on a liar harp. So once you get used to playing this one to three to one, you can try different types of patterns for the arpeggio. So let's say starting on the lowest energy, one, we can start with one and then go to three, then two, then three. Like that. Well, 1232323. You can do this exercise going all the way up and down. So that 123, you can do, for example, 12131213, do that exercise. Basically, any pattern you can come up with. This is the equivalent basically to have all these strumming patterns on a guitar type instrument like this bazooka, any type of fretted string instrument. You add this variation by the strumming on a layer of the main ways to shape these patterns for how you pluck the sequence of strings. And again, this is the main way to play the chord, the skipping one spring, so rude, skip one string thirds, keep monitoring your faith. But as you will learn from the harmony and from the chords, listen, you can play this in another shape, another pattern of the note in the chord. So let's say G3 be 3d3. Move the G up to the next octave, D4 up here. So you have B, three, d four, and G for another pattern, you skipping one string for the first and toString is for the text. And you get the same G major chord, but a different pattern of the nodes. Inversion as it's called the music theory. Can move this be up an octopus you play, let's say D4, G4, and before. And that is also a G major chord. You can play, pluck those as an arpeggio. As you can see, you have various shapes for the same chord All around the liar. This, as long as you use the same node. So G, B, and D with all will always be a G major chord regardless of its g3, g4, B3, B4, and so on. The next dimension you add to add expression is to create your own plucking pattern for that. So let's say the C major chord, C44 and D4. You can play that in any way. When you flow between the strings. Go to the next chord. I say that is an F chord, F, a, and C, and so on. You get a lot of variation expression, even when you don't play melodies. In this case, when you play it as arpeggios or chords like this, you are making basically a backing track for someone who plays the melody on another instrument for yourself. If you sing along to it. Whatever the lyrics are for your song. You can play the chord as arpeggios like this, child is rich, flowing and magical backing for the leading melody on vocals, any other instrument? So what I want you to do now is practice going up and down. First. Different kinds of patterns for the arpeggio. The main one is 123 to one, but again 123. So now the one thing you can come up with, then the next exercise, once you get used to playing different patterns of arpeggios, shift out one of the notes of the chord up or down. So let's say you say play a C chord, C44, MD4. You can either move the G4 down to G3 or you can move the C up to, from C4 to see five. And then you can try out different patterns for the plucking of the arpeggio on this other shape for the color. Until you are getting familiar with that as well. So either you play your layer in a melodic way, playing the leading melody and adding, for example, a harm and it will record as an accent degrade and more rich emotion. Or you played like these playing chords or even more useful arpeggios playing in the course. If you want to play your layer horse in a backing type of way for another instrument or vocals doing the leading melody. So go ahead and practice arpeggios on your layer now, and I will see you in the next lesson. My friends. 20. Play Glissandos: Alright, so you have now learned all the foundations and basic of the liar harp and all the main ways to play it. Let's go into more advanced techniques now that you can add to spice up your performance is the first one is called the glissando in it's basically one of the main special techniques that the harp, harp type instruments are most famous for. This type. You always hear in movies when someone is dreaming or something like that. What does it mean? Well, it, this basically means that you pluck the strings and you're flowing sequence from low to high or from high to low. The reason for why this works so great on a liar or harp is that it is to diatonic, meaning when you do it, you do it. It's almost like you drag your fingers across the white keys on a piano. So you're plucking one string at a time in a pattern or down, you can do this going slow or fast. So like this, speed it up or slow it down over time. And you can do it in either an upwards or downwards direction. Now, in order for this to work the best, it can work if you do it all over the place. But there's rarely works in tune to the key of the song. So if you have a song in C major, but remember, you're a liar horse, naturally, the most standard way is that it is tuned to the white keys of a piano. So it will play naturally in C major or a minor, that will be the root key. So if you have a song in major, you want to transpose it is C major song, and then it works best if you start to see the lowest C and then go to the highest. See my horse is 16 strings, so that will be one octave to C5, like this. Okay? You can continue all the way up if you want to. In most cases, it will work best if you stop on the root node, like I showed you see, you can stop on the G here, which is the faith. You remember this if you could skip and skip three strings, we get there. For me. If you are in a minor sounding song, if you start on a here and strum, I have an A5. So here I can actually do to Octavia glissando like this. And it will be perfect and natural in a minor glissando or down. I find it works best with your thumb when you go up. When you're eating index finger, if you go down. I want you to practice this. Start if you have a 16th string layer like me, start on the a and do the glissando with your thumb up to a5. If you don't have that big of a range, you can start on one on a and stop on A4. It will be tricky to its east to stop. It will be tricky to learn how to stop on that final string. And then you do it for the city as well. See, forward to C5. So if you have a bigger range, lie, I recommend doing it even more like two octet. So C4, C5, I don't have it on my layer. If you had more strings, perhaps you have it. See C6 there. I also wanted to practice doing this in various speeds. So start with a very slow speed from A4, A3E2, A5. Try fastest speeds. Try medium speed. Try speeding up the glissando that is actually a very common. So starting slow and then speeding up as you run your thumb here across the strings. Or slowing down. Starting Fast and Slow it down in the last years rings there. Okay? So it is actually more of a special effect, but it works amazing for transitions or feeling little spaces for spice in a song or performance. And again, if it is a song in a major key, you want to have it in C major to play it naturally. If you tune it to according to this string labels here, then you want to do a C. But you can start anytime if you just start on bond, let's say the D and go to the next day. That will be good. Handle on the d. Start on the a. What you obtain. In a. So practice this and you may not use it that often, but it is actually super fun and it's sounds so dreamy. I guess that's why they use it in dream sequences in movies, especially for those transitions. So good luck practicing these sandals on your layer. And I'll see you in the next lesson. 21. Muting Strings: Another advanced technique on your life is to mute the strings. So let's say a park a, C major chord, C, E, G as an arpeggio like this. Okay? As you can hear, an open string on a liar hop continues to resonate for a long time and you get this reverb and echo from the sound hole here. But let's say you think that sustains for a bit too long. You can always mute any string. So let's say play C and G as a chord. If you'd just slowly put your fingers on top of the strings, you will mute them so and you play, let's say an EF Core. You to strings like this. Or you can put just your fingers down. Instead of your entire pole. You don't have to mute all the strings. Let's say you want to mute only two of them. Let's say you pluck this E coli D&C for E4 and G4. Then slowly put your first two fingers on the first or third string here. Those two. Then you are muting them, but you let the G continue to resonate and sustain. So what I like to use these for is when you play something and he wanted to stop abruptly. So let's say, see, you want to control for how long that code is Pi fours. As I said, it's a special technique. You want to use it so often because in most cases you want that dutiful, sustained, continue to wring out, but especially with backing. Think about strumming, unmuting, poor muting on the guitar, for example. Just putting down your string, your fingers on the strings like this. And they will mute. Still here. Some of the sound continuing in the echo chamber here, because the entire body of your line will continue to resonate. But compared to letting the ring out. And again, with muting unmute, you hear that you all dampening the sustained quite a bit. So playing chords in most cases will be when you'd use muting technique. Sometimes you want to just new to shrink or one of them. And then you just put down one or two of your fingers on those strings to mute them. So you can practice this. I want you to practice this on playing chords C, E, and G. Put down your fingers again, I'll duplicate them. Let's do an F chord, F, a, and C. When you put them down, before you pluck them again, you're actually muting the strings. Compared to letting them ring out. Then you can play it More rhythmically because you control this is stained a length of how long this string ring out for. So practice doing a bit of muting like this. And put down your fingers to mute the strings and dab in the zone. And let's continue in the next lesson where you will learn how to add more dynamics and shape the tone for you when you pluck the strings on your layer. 22. Dynamics & Tone: Now you will learn about how we can control the dynamics and tone in your performances on your layer. Dynamics and music is basically how loud or soft you play any node. So for example, if you take an F major chord, a4, a4, and C5 and played as an arpeggio. You can play or pluck any string very soft and a medium all the way to very hard. And you will actually shape and change the sound, the tone or that string, as well as the loudness at the same time. So if I play them at a medium, balanced TO like this, without shaping how hard I packed. You got to learn that first of course, the play them all the strings if plaque, I didn't medium level. But in time when you practice an add these variations for shaping the dynamics, you will see how much that actually effects the motion, an expression of how you play. For example, one common thing to do is to take the root note of the first string here and make that a bit louder as if our plaque that louder. And then these A4 and C5b, a bit softer. You can do this. Basically, you just park it a bit harder. And it will be louder and different tone for that string makes them. So all the way from soft, I want you to practice playing very soft, basic. Just touch with your first job, your fingers. Even here, a bit of a scraping sound as you brush over the strings with your fingers like this. I don't know how much you can hear. Start to increase the pressure and then he will feel more of it. But you almost get a bit of a grip of the string. Increase the pressure. They getting louder, brighter, more focused. Back again. All way from the softest whispered. And that is what I want you to practice first, how to shape those dynamics, meaning how soft or hard you pluck a string. So practice from super whisper quiet, do it on any shape. You don't have to do chords. You can do it on two strings, or even a one string. I don't recommend since you are going to play a lot of our periods doing it as an arpeggiated or patio cord. So C for E for G54 for the C major. And practice from soft, the softest whispering and increasing I've already planned. And do we do all the strings? So pack all the strings, super solve two all the way to super hard black. That is the first exercise to basically get used to the different dynamics. You can pull up any string. And then next exercise is to play these arpeggios or patterns, any strings you want to plot like this. And then choose any of the nodes that you want to accent, meaning emphasize plate plug that hole is so C44, G4. Again, try. I recommend practicing duty on the root node versus C4. And then the other nodes, the plaque softer or medium. And you can do that for any chord in a sequence of a string and supply. You can then choose to park a different accent, a different string. So let's say you do this F major chord, a4, a4, and C5, do the first two strings, for example, soft or medium. And then pluck the sea hoarder or the middle string. So if first ring, soft, whatever you feel like to add in the pattern, because this is one of the main ways you can add that expression, your own emotion into your performance is on your layer, choosing how soft, medium or hard you pluck any strings in this sequence, the phrases you play. So practice now to shape the dynamics on your lighter harp by how hard or soft you pluck any strings in your performance for arpeggios, melodies, phrases, or anything you play. So good luck with that, and I will see you in the next lesson. 23. Variation & Expression: Alright, so now that you have learned all the basic and advanced techniques of playing the lyre. Let's put it all together, and I will sum it up with five tips for adding variation and expression and emotion into your lawyer performances from everything you already learned. So number one is adding harmonies. So let's play this sound of silence. Tune a CC, DD. Any node you want to add a richer harmonic texture too. You can add a harmony, so ACC. And then play D and the G4 below, for example. Or for example, D and B. Or starting for example with a and then playing a EMC. And perhaps a and E. And then fit, finish off with a d five and d for any horror movie you want to add tried out and you will see how much variation and expression that adds. So that's the first thing here. First tip that you should really practice. The next thing is adding an octave as an accent. You already learned that you can add an octane because it's the same node. So let's say the d here, D4 and D5. If you play both together with your thumb and your pinky, it will get a much more stronger, denser sound because you're playing both these in octets and all surrounding nodes, you play off that single strings will be much more soft. So you really, again D and D five. So that is another thing. It's almost as harmonies, but it's basically not a hormone. It's an octane. It's the same note, An octave up or down. So that's the second thing you can do, the add any type of variation and expression. Let's say, let's do it on the F here. Anywhere you do want to add an extended, more richer tone and sound. You can add the octave, either the octave above or below. The third is playing harmonies. And this of course works when you want to play chords. But let's take, even if you pull it in melody like this one again, ACC. And then the D, instead of playing in harmony or a single node signals the D or harmony. Well, let's finish off with this cool board, G4 before MD5. But as an arpeggio like this on the final note of that phrase in that melody, a, C, C, and then D, five, G4 and before. So again, and so on. So that way you can add or patios even to a melodic phrase, at least on those cases where the node should sustain and wring out this day. Then you can play that final chord as an arpeggio. Of course, you can also play that as an entire code if you want to as well. Then number four is shaping the dynamics. So as you already learned, already learned, it is about how soft or hard you pluck it, so you can pack that order any, any melody plays. So let's say, let's say C major chord like this. If you put any string you want to make stronger in that phrase. Just pluck it harder. So that's final third finger. I pluck that string holder. Then you shape the dynamics and you can even shape it over time. Not only one string like starting, let's say, let's do an a minor. Here's A4, C5, and E5. So let's say you pluck it as an arpeggio installed soft and pack, harder and harder. Like this. Super soft whisper to harder over time. And then perhaps back to soft again. You can shape the dynamics over time or to send in an old in a phrase to create variation that way. And finally, something that is very common, especially on playing arpeggios and sequences of strings like this on a horse or a liar hope is to slow down or speed up your playing. So let's take, let's take a D minor chord, D4, F4, and A4 as an arpeggio. Well, if we played very slow first and speed it up, it can sound like this. Then you can slow it down as well like this. Of course, when you do this, speeding up and slowing down, you can also shape the dynamics over time. So you start soft and go plugging harder or, or vice versa. So you can shape the dynamics and speed if you're playing during that specific phrase you play, which could be, for example, the chord played on arpeggio. It could be a sequence of any strings you play as a sequence like that, shaping both Dynamics and this speed. Those are basically the five main ways, in my opinion, for shaping the emotion and expression in any performance on your layer horror. But I want you to practice all these now and everything you learned in this class. And eventually, when you feel ready, you can start to learn to play songs and tunes on your layer. So good luck, and I'll see you in the next lesson. My friends. 24. Tips for Learning Tunes: Congratulations my musician friends, you have now learned all the foundations about this instrument, all the basic techniques of playing the liar, as well as advanced expressive styles you can use to spice up your performances on your layer. Now, I will give you my best tips for learning tunes on your liar. And after that, you will get a series of videos with actual notation for different tunes you can start learning. And I included the note names to make it easier. So my first tip is always tune your layer before you start to play it. If it's a practice session or if you want to learn how to play any tune, it will sound way better if it is in tune to check all the nodes of the tune. So that means that you check if you have the notation or tabs or anything, just go through the notation. So let's say this song, sound of silence in a sea. And then just check so it's an a there is for C5. And you can even write them down. So you know, all the nodes that will be used in the tune you are going to learn. Tip number three is to practice in phrases. By that I mean, all music can be divided into smaller sections, which are called phrases. So if you take this song again, Let's see. That could be phrased one. Anyway, that's the first phrase. Then you can learn on the second phrase. So learn any new song or tune in phrases, stop after each phrase and then just check through your play the correct nodes. And then the next one. Looks like this. If you have the nodes, you can even write the notes in phrases. So the first one will be k CCD. You can even write a four s5 to get the correct octave. And the next phrase, the p, b, t, d, c. And write that on a separate lines. You learn the song or tune in phrases and you can even write it down in phrases. When you practice. Tip number four for learning tunes on your layer Horn is to always learn at a very slow tempo. This is a mistake beginners make on any instrument. It could be a bazooka guitar I have there, I have a ukulele. Any instrument. Almost all beginners do this same mistake, which is to try to play the songs and tunes too fast. The first try, always, always learn at a very slow tempo. So I recommend that you use a metronome app on your smartphone and set it at a super slow tempo. Good starting BPM, which is the pulse of the music. So the tempo is around 60 because that is a very relaxed and slow tempo. So set your temperature 6000 PM, starting a metronome and then start learning. But even before that, you can start to learn how to play the tune in phrases and then play it through without any metro normal timing at all, just going through like this. Until you played all the nodes of the tune. Then learn with very slow tempo with a metronome. So that's tip number four. And tip number five is to always thought in what I call EC mode. And easy mode basically means that you play the song in the most simple way possible. So if you take this again, the same example. Yes, play a single note. Melodies, in this case, don't add any Harlem Nights, don't add any code. Don't add any dynamics. All these advanced and expressive techniques you'll learn in this course. Don't use them at the first try when you learn any tune just played as simple as you can, at least in the beginning, until you get comfortable playing it at this easy mode. Then you can start to try add Any expressive techniques that you already learned in this course on that tune. And then when you move on to the next tune, it starting easy mode again. So those are my best tips for learning to play any tune on your liar horse. Finally, I want to mention again that the Lionheart is a diatonic instruments. So if you find a tune in G minor, for example, you won't be able to play that on your liar if it's tuned the standard way of life, their note names instead transpose it to find nodes, which takes this G minor down to a minor so that the, it is transposed to a minor because only rely on Hub, you can play naturally without retuning any of the strings. If the song is in C major for a major sounding song, or happy uplifting song, or a minor. In that case, all the nodes will be naturally tuned here on your layer to that key. Okay, Good luck now and start to learn these tunes in the next few videos that I prepared for you with notation including a slow tempo and backing track, plus the note names you can follow along on your layer when you practice.