ATTENTION: There will be a substitute teacher, Cynthia, for next week. She will have all necessary information to conduct lessons in the same way as me! Anna Warm-Up: Anna can begin her practicing by playing the Db major scale. The main goal this week is to keep the scale the same speed throughout. I suggest she work with a metronome [...]
Helen Warm-Up: Left hand and right hand warm-ups from book. Always use strong fingers and keep your wrists relaxed. You can even move your arms and wrist as you play to help facilitate your finger movement. Try to play with a stuffed toy balanced on your head for posture. Stretch periodically between songs. Jingle Bells: As you play, take a [...]
Anna Warm-Up: Anna should begin by playing the Db major scale, which is written out in her etude "Workout in Db." She should play with strong fingers, with both connected and detached articulations. Entry of the Gladiators: This week, the goal is to play with a steady rhythm! We worked in the lesson on playing with the metronome at 92. [...]
Helen Warm-Up: Continue to work on the left hand and right hand warm-ups. Continue to keep placing your hands on the keyboard in the playing position several times each day. To identify intervals in the music: count all lines and space from the bottom note to the top note. When you make a mistake - stop and correct! Practice the [...]
Sacha Warm-Up: Sacha should play the double 3rd warm-up hands together. His left hand stays in the piano playing position easily, but his right hand has a tendency to flatten out as he plays. I ask he pay special attention to his right hand while he's playing this exercise, stopping to correct it as he goes. If he needs to [...]
Helen Practice placing your hands on the keyboard several times before you begin to play. The book will use the same hand position for most of it, so it'll be helpful to get used to always putting your hands in this default position. Make sure to set up your hands so each finger is over a key. It makes following [...]
Anna Warm-Up: Anna should begin every practice session by playing an E major scale, hands separately. She should play the scale both connected and detached and should make sure to keep her fingers curved and her wrists up. Entry of the Gladiators: Anna should first learn section B of the piece hands separately. I suggest she count out loud saying [...]
Helen Warm-Up: Begin by doing the left hand and right hand warm-ups from your book. Play with strong fingers (emphasis on each note). Try the finger independence exercise every day too (lifting one finger at a time and playing the note, trying to keep the other non-playing fingers on the keys). Page 26-27: Work on playing both notes in the [...]
Anna Warm-Up: Anna should begin every practice session by playing the A major scale hands separate, connected and detached. When she plays them detached, she doesn't need to bounce her fingers too much. She can achieve the same power by keeping her fingers close. I suggest she pays close attention to her left hand and make sure she keeps her [...]
Helen This week, we focused on independent fingers. Some key points we discussed were keeping fingers close to keys, even when they're not playing notes lifting one finger at a time and playing the note, trying to keep the other non-playing fingers on the keys playing your songs on a flat surface (a table or closed piano) to practice finger [...]