Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum "Happy Birthday" Challenge

Hey everyone, how's the Happy Birthday challenge coming?

I got some sheet music for it, arranged by Fabrizio Ferrari. Played through it a few times yesterday, wrote out the fingerings to give myself a short cut and sang and played to see if it's doable. Conclusion: it's doable, so now I am really and for sure in!

It starts in C major, goes through the song once, and then dramatically switches to Db major. At least I think it's Db major! It doesn't sound minor, and it has 5 flats, although the first note is Ab.

Anyway, you sing the song twice, the second time in a different key. Very nice! The piano part is accompaniment, so if I wanted to do it as a solo, I'd have to include the melody in the RH, but I should be able to sing (the highest note is still within my range, thankfully)

At the beginning, the RH starts out in mostly chords and the LH is just a simple bass and octave. Then for the second half (in Db major) the RH gets more interesting (and plays more of the melody) and the LH switches to quarter note arpeggios.

Does anyone else have this arrangement?

I think it's actually a very nice, and musical, arrangement. Which is all very well and good except that I want it to be a surprise for Mr. ShiroKuro, so I can only practice it maybe twice a week (when he's not here) I have about 6 weeks till his birthday, so that's only 12 practices! Kyaaaaaaaa

Peter Schickly (P.D.Q. Bach) once ventured the observation that the reason so many modulations are just "up one/half step" ... much to the chagrin of accidentally challenged pianists... is that THAT way the singer can change keys, but "not too much".

The melody starts on the 5th of the scale, so Db would be correct as the key.

I have DOZENS of arrangements for this song, but they almost always have the wrong NAME in them, so I seldom play it. :rolleyes: (I've got TWO "Jimmy"s in G, and a nice "Nancy" in C#, but I don't have a "Shiro" in ANY key, so I'll probably just send you a card instead of taking that 12 hour flight.

Typically, they do the easy stuff in C , then bring out the trick-work in the tough key. It just wouldn't do to start in B and switch to C, or start in C# and switch to D. :b:


Bob

Well, I'm glad I got the key right away!

And the lyrics for this one are "Happy Birthday Dear [YOUR NAME] Happy Birthday to Yoooou"

I'll have to ask my husband to change his name to "Your Name." I hope he doesn't mind...

I'm *so* lame!

All I've done is figure out the melody in G flat major. I don't know how to style an introduction, and I haven't worked out the chords on the LH yet. I need to print out the other thread and head to the piano and see if that helps. If it doesn't, I was going to throw myself on the mercy of the Non-Classical PW board and see if they'll take pity on me.

I think I ran across a hip-hoppy be-boppy rappy-carppy version somewhere, perhaps on the Nine-Mile Road soundwreck (the sequel). If I haven't emptied my virus quarantine subdirectory, maybe I can recover it and send it to you Cindy.

This might come "more natural" to you. :p

Bob ... helping most when needed least

Do yourself a favour and play it in F or G. Gb will end up with chords that require you to play too many black keys to be comfortable.

If your goal is to be able to play Happy Birthday for people to sing to, an introduction I have found that people can follow and come in at the correct place is to use the last 2 phrases; i.e. "Happy birthday dear Cindy, happy birthday to you". Then you go back to the top for people to join in. By playing the third and last phrase, people will know how to anticipate the beginning of the song. I know it does not sound very exciting, but it *works* for a group sing-a-long.

I have long wished to be able to knock this little tune out in front of a crowd, with just the right amount of flourish in the introduction and an appropriately flashy finish.

ShiroKuro, where did you find that arrangement???

ravenswood

Here:

http://www.virtualsheetmusic.com/downloads/Free/DownloadFree.html

Or here:

http://www.virtualsheetmusic.com

Come on Cindy, you started the challenge! Get with the program!

Anybody have a good piano solo version? I have the arrangement Shiro speaks of and although it's easily playable, it is just an accompaniment

You could take that arrangement and add the melody to the RH part, but that might still not be interesting enough for you...

I seem to recall seeing somewhere something that was Variations on Happy Birthday, very elaborate.... Where was it?!!! Oh phooey! Will try to slog through my brain a little more and see if I can remember, but you might want to try looking on the net for something like that. Or one of the better sheet music sites that have good difficulty ratings should be able to give you an idea of the arrangement. If you find something good, let us know.

Ok, I'll take the birthday challenge. Here's a simple, C-major version that I'm just playing by ear on the electronic keyboard, with a 2-measure intro. Cindy, there's only two notes per hand being played and this is really slow so I think you'll be able to follow along.

Here's the 479 Kb mp3 file:
Happy Birthday
(hopefully I didn't overwrite someone's nicer version already posted to PianoWorld...)

Seebechstein,

I had a teensy little problem with the recording. There seems to be a disco soundtrack which is louder than your playing! Is it just my computer?

OK, I'll give up on the whiz bang G flat major version. Gotta crawl before you can walk!

Hmmm, I downloaded it and listened to it and all I hear is the piano. Must be your problem alone. The tempo is not smooth because I could not listen to myself in real time, there was a lag between when I played the notes and when I could hear it recorded at the computer. The delay is very distracting when trying to play the piano. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.)

I plan on playing this again on my electronic piano and record it as a midi file. That way, someone with notation software can print you a hardcopy. Again, my intent was to produce a very simple version, just two notes per hand.

Hey, whatever happened to your deadbeat brother? You were cooking him dinner in exchange for his teaching you to play this song?

Ok Cindy, I used Finale NotePad to manually place notes onto a page, and then I took a screenshot, which I'll post here. Again, my intent was to get the best sounding Happy Birthday while keeping it simple (no more than 2 notes per hand.) If you can listen to my recording of this above, you'll hear heavy use of pedal. If you want the Finale file itself I can post that too, which would be easier for you to print out and take to the piano. But you have to download Finale NotePad to open the file.

Ok, who else has taken the challenge, I want to hear your versions too!