Oscar - Practice the stride pattern through the 12 bar blues progression. Bounce from the root to the 5th with the bass note. Think of each voice moving as little as possible. Also, transcribe as much as you can of the first 50 seconds of Red Garland on C Jam Blues. It's available on YouTube. Avril - Play all the [...]
Daniel - Practice the first five songs in your book. Practice singing songs (Yellow Submarine, Teddy Bear Picnic, etc.) and tapping the pulse along with the song. Pablo - Continue to play the 'Engine Engine Number Nine' song while tapping RLR-RLR-RLR with your hands. Also continue to play the two beats we have discussed. All of this is available in [...]
Katheline - Continue to practice repertoire from both books. Go as far as you want. At this point, you can stop writing in your own markings and follow the composer's. That said, there is still a degree of interpretation that goes on, but let's try to make it internal (in your head) rather than external (written on the score). Kristin [...]
Pablo – Work on the beats discussed. ALSO work on the new song we worked on. Remember: ‘right left right, right left right, right left right’ etc. Words are “Engine, engine, number nine, coming down Toronto line, if the train goes off its track, will I get my money back? Yes, no, maybe so. Yes, no, maybe so.” Try to [...]
Oscar – Continue to practice the stride pattern with your left hand. Practice improvising single-note lines in the right hand while playing a stride pattern in your left hand on the blues progression. IF you feel comfortable doing so, you can go through the whole progression, but it’s best to start by staying on the I chord. Just get used [...]
Pablo - Continue practicing the beats from last week...in addition, practice the single stroke roll and the double stroke roll. Single stroke roll: RLRLRLRL Double stroke roll: RRLLRRLL Gavin - Practice your recital rep: March and Ode to Joy (LH only). Practice with Liam and use a metronome to keep in time. Yoan - Practice the single and double stroke [...]
Adriana - Work on remembering where F, C, G, and D are on the keyboard without using C as a reference point. Review the treble clef notes we learned in our first lesson. Review the rhythm concepts (whole note, half note, quarter note). Oscar - Practice soloing over the blues using the chord tones and discussed decorations: lower chromatic neighbour, [...]
Oscar - Continue to work on pentascales in F, C, G, and D major. Practice blues concepts: Improvising on the I7 chord using chord tones, neighbour notes, passing notes, and the blues scale. Play with Functional Ear Trainer. Avril - Explore the song Autumn Leaves which was introduced in the last lesson. Carefully listen to some recordings. See if you [...]
Pablo - You should see an image below with the beats we have worked on (scroll down) Katheline - Work on more pieces from both books. Work on major, natural minor, harmonic minor, and melodic minor scales that begin on white keys. Daniel - Work on '2 Black Ants', '2 Black Birds', 'Into the Cave' and the Kitten Song. Gavin [...]
Oscar - Work on playing those pentascales in F, C, G, and D major. Hands separate for now. Try legato, detached, and staccato articulations. Also practice Auld Lang Syne. Finally, work on the blues improvisation concepts we talked about for soloing over the I chord. We discussed: playing chord tones; sliding up from the note below the chord tone, using [...]