Frere Jacques | Piano Jump Start
Each line of the melody in Frere Jacques repeats the first half of itself. Meaning that if you were to separate each melody line down the center you would see that it's simply the same group of notes played twice. Start by placing your right hand in C position.
Start by placing our right hand on the keyboard in C position.
For the first half of line one we play the notes C, D, E, and C with fingers one, two, three, and one.
The second half of this line is simply those four notes played again. This will be true for every melody line of this song.
For the second line, play the notes E, F, and G with fingers three, four, and five. And then repeat those three notes exactly for the second half of the line.
The third line utilizes a technique that we haven’t gone over just yet. You can see that all of the notes, except for C, are highlighted by a lightly shaded colored box. When playing the notes within this highlighted box we are going to shift fingers two, three, four, and five out of position and up one white key each.
Keep finger number one anchored on the note C, but simply move the remaining fingers so that finger two is now on E, finger three is on F, finger four will be on G, and finger five is on the note A.
Start by playing the note G, now with your ring finger, finger four. This is quickly followed by a finger-to-finger pattern from the note A with finger 5 all the way to the note E with finger two. Pause a moment and finish the phrase by playing the note C with finger number 1, your thumb.
For the final line shift your right hand down to F position. Make sure that your thumb is over the note F and your remaining fingers spread evenly over the next four keys.
Start by playing the note C with finger number five, followed by G with finger number two, and then return to the note C with finger five. Repeat this pattern to finish the song.
Frere Jacques | Practice Video
