Emily - No homework. Matthew - Play the C major pentascale with your right hand. Bring back your two books.Clair - Practice improvising on the blues with chords in the left hand, using your ear, (just like you did with Twinkle Twinkle). Listen to some different recordings of C Jam Blues/Duke's Place ('C Jam Blues' is without words; 'Duke's Place' [...]
Daniel - Play the C-D-E song with crossing hands. Experiment with it. Try playing it backwards. See what other creative ideas you might have. Also play "Merrily We Roll Along" and "Old MacDonald", paying special attention to RHYTHM. Oscar - Pick a song (any song) and try to figure out the chords by ear. Come back next week with your [...]
KATHELINE - The piece we were working on this lesson was Solfeggietto by C.P.E. Bach. Here is a link to the pdf: http://hz.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/f/f5/IMSLP02573-Bach,_CPE_-_Solfeggietto.pdf Other than that, there are some valuable resources at your disposal...try the Functional Ear Trainer App to help develop your ear. Pick songs (folk songs, kid's songs, any simple melody) and figure out chords that go underneath [...]
DANIEL - Here is what I'd like you to work on over the summer: 1) Keep working through your book. 2) Keep singing songs and clapping along to the beat in time. 3) Keep practicing READING rhythms which use half notes and quarter notes. 4) LISTEN to music. Listen to a lot of music to figure out what you like. [...]
Oscar - In addition to all of your pentascales and triad exercises, try arranging the chords from 'Hey Jude' in a way that makes sense according to the voice leading principles we discussed. You can also practice the blues improvisation concepts we have worked on over Mary Ann by Ray Charles. Avril - Today we discussed chromatic lower neighbours and [...]
Oscar --- Work on your pentascales, legato and staccato, in the keys of C, G, D, A, and E. Use both hands. Focus on keeping your hands relaxed, sinking into the keys (like your arms are very heavy) for legato, and leaping off (like a little frog) for staccato. In addition, pick another pop song (any pop song) and arrange [...]
OSCAR – Pentascales – hands separately, legato and staccato, C major, G major, D major, and A minor. Triad sequence in C major, solid and broken. ALSO pick a pop song, figure out the chords, and arrange them with acceptable voice leading as discussed – moving as little as possible, keeping common tones in common, contrary motion where possible between [...]
Avril - Learn the following melodies by ear and add chords based on what we've learned the last few weeks. ONLY use the primary chords: I, IV, and V: When the Saints Go Marching In; She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain; My Bonnie. In addition to that, practice the new song in your Czerny book. Kristin - Practice the exercises [...]
Katheline - Practice all your black key scales as discussed. Push on in the book. Practice the double-thirds piece we practiced but try to push the tempo a little faster. Focus on making the slurs truly legato. Connect as much as possible. Daniel - Practice the first five songs from the book, including the new song, "Walking". If you don't [...]
Katheline - Work on all major and minor (harmonic and melodic) scales. Focusing on noticing the relationship between the minors and their relative majors. ie, G natural minor and Bb major share all the same notes, and you only have to alter 1 or 2 to get harmonic or melodic minor. Also, push forward in both books. Daniel - Work [...]