Madison

Madison, great job this week in a short lesson! Work on your scales for next week as mentioned in your homework paper. Play them loud and strong!

ODE TO JOY Play through the third line for 5-10 minutes before playing the whole piece. In fact play that line three times as much as the rest of the piece. :) My friend, the interval of a fifth which you must play with your LH throughout this piece is great practice for building your awareness of how you tend to strike with “sleeping” fingers, aka with the sides of your pinky and thumb. Pick them right up please! Great work :)

Melody

play a minor scale (all white keys) hands separately (prepare both hands), make sure you are starting on the a  ;)

OLD UNCLE BILL Please make sure you are making no guesswork of the notes in this piece :) Continue to refer to the page and check what you are doing, even if you feel you already remember it. This can avoid some confusion! ; ) Please also watch your rhythm this week by practicing counting out loud and/or with a metronome to give you a steady beat and prevent you from pausing too long before each new phrase.

To start next week: LOVE SOMEBODY

Juliette

Great job with your scales this week, practice G+ at home again, to build your confidence and ease with this scale, both hands two octaves. Practice a minor again as well, this time also learn the right hand, melodic and harmonic (F natural, G sharp, remember it looks as if you are skipping notes). D+ RH only, two octaves, remember C# and F#. Play all your scales strong and loud, watch that you are not playing with the pads of your fingers, your fingers should be curved outwards not inwards! :)

Do your hanon exercise everyday, take two – 5 minutes to practice the transition from the first to the second exercise before playing through them.

18TH CENTURY DANCE Great headway this week! Your rhythm is almost completely spot on, and you’re getting the hang of the piece! Now for polishing:
>staccato – what a GREAT piece for practicing staccato! Remember the following: the piece is a dance so think light, airy, bouncy, waltzy etc. Definitely not stompy. The direction is always up and away from the keyboard, not down through the keyboard.
>start practicing the piece like this – first practice only bars 1-2, 5-6, 10-11, 12-13 (5 min); Then practice only bars 10-13 (5-10 min) ; then play through the whole piece (5 min)
>bar 15, which is the second last bar, should be Incredibly Loud, breaking the piano, outside your comfort zone loud. Then bring it right down again.
>Remember, when this piece is polished, it should make everyone listening want to get up and Dance! ^_^