Hello Everybody!
Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a great holiday!
Georgia:
Today we reviewed “Waltz Time”. To help Georgia feel the flow of the song, please remind her when practicing that often in the song the last beat of one phrase ends up being the first beat of the next phrase. So these two phrases will feel more like one long phrase. I have marked in pencil where this happens in the music. Georgia should focus her practice on these areas to make sure they are smooth and connected when she plays. She can play these phrases hands separate when practicing if this helps her focus on the fingerings and enables her to play more smoothly. We will try to put these phrases hands together next week.
Noreet:
Today we started “Moonlight Melody”. There are some accidentals in this piece (sharps and flats). Please help Noreet by reminding her that in order to sharpen a note she must raise the note by one semitone, and lower the note by one semitone to flatten it. We played through the entire song together in class, but if she struggles to play the whole phrase, ask her to focus on one bar at a time. We even covered up the surrounding bars so that the only one Noreet could see was the bar she found challenging. She can continue this method at home. Remember that once she feels confident with the one bar, she is to uncover the bar that comes before it and play the two together. This will help thread the bar back into the whole phrase. Should Noreet use this method at home, please mark the bars she zeroed in on by circling them or drawing in a star above the bar so that we can come back to these moments in the song next week.
Eva:
Today Eva chose a song from her new K-Pop Demon Hunters Book! This semester we will continue learning songs in Eva’s method book as well as work towards playing “Your Idol”. For this week when practicing “Your Idol” have Eva review the right hand of the first phrase on her own first and then play the song and encourage Eva to play along to what she hears. Remember; this song is in e minor so it has an F sharp. Please help Eva by reminding her that in order to sharpen a note, she needs to raise the note one half-step to the right on the piano. You can help guide her through a little bit more of this song if Eva wants. We will continue exploring this song next week. Please also review “Young Hunter” with her as we will review this next week as well.
Benji:
Today we reviewed “Haunted Mouse”. Please help Benji by reminding him that all of the quarter notes in the song should be played at the same speed. If he needs to slow down the quarter notes in the beginning of the song to ensure they match the quarter notes in the last phrase he is allowed and encouraged to do so. We also started “Classic Dance” This song is in C-Position. Benji learned today that this is when the 5th finger of his left hand and his 1st finger of his right hand are both resting on a C, one octave apart, and his other fingers line up with the notes above it up to G. When practicing this song encourage Benji to use the labelled fingerings for the last two bars of the first phrase. These two bars are played in contrary motion which means Benji’s hands will move towards each other as he plays. While the notes for both hands are different here, the fingering is the same for both hands. Benji’s left hand starts this section on a D and his right hand starts on an F. He should practice playing the following notes with his fourth, third, and second fingers in both hands. We will review this technique next week.
Clara:
Today we reviewed the William Tell Overture. We also listened to different version of the piece for Clara to compare. Please find links to these videos here and here. We will further discuss their differences next week. We also started “Barefoot on the Beach”. This song is in cut time! Clara learned that “cut time” is 2/2 time. This will mean the half notes are worth one beat and the quarter notes are worth half a beat. Overall, everything on the page is faster than it looks. Please remind Clara of this when she is practicing, especially if she chooses to practice with a metronome! We will review this next week.
Thank you everyone!
Great first week back! I’m looking forward to seeing what you all bring to class this semester.