Hakim

Technical Exercises – Continue practicing G and D Major scales, hands separately.

The Calico Cat – Starting hands separately – both hands in an A minor position, shifting up and down the keyboard in this position. Watch for any marked fingerings (especially in the left hand!)

  • Work through all the way to the end hands separately
  • If you are unsure of a rhythm (especially in the right hand) – find your main quarter beats and clap/tap it out away from the keyboard.

Bizville – Focusing on our Left Hand on the first page – making sure to have our “groove” in measures 1-2 feeling comfortable

  • Make sure you know where our main quarter note beats are with the left hand
  • Only practicing left hand on its own for now, we want to make sure we have a strong base for the rest of our ideas and “instruments” to fit into

 

Clara

Technical Exercises – C Major 1 octave scale (hands separately and trying together)

Lesson Book – Firefly, Little River, Sailing in the Sun

  • Reading legato articulations – starting to think about how articulations sound vs look
  • Making sure to notice the difference between our ties and legato markings (ties connecting 2 of the same note into a long held note, legato markings showing where we want to start and end legato sound)

Improvising – Making up music on the spot and acting as our own composer. When improvising sometimes we set rules for ourself to make things clearer for ourselves, in this case we are going to be doing Free Improvisation without any rules!

Think about our chosen colours (Red and Blue), and things that these colours remind you of.

  • For example: 
    • Blue – water/the ocean/rain, blueberries, calmness, sadness, the sky
    • Red – anger, love, fire, stop signs
  • Imagine what these things might sound like if we were to play them on the piano.
    • High sounds vs low sounds, smooth vs short sounds, soft vs loud sounds, muddy/hazy sounds vs clear sounds, slow vs fast, etc.
  • Try to play out loud what you are imagining in your head, and then explore at the piano!
  • For an extra challenge: See if you can create an entire story in your head, and then see how it might sound on the keyboard (similar to what we tried with “Princess or Monster”)