Avril - Your focus this week should be on the first few pages of the Czerny book. Also continue to practice Auld Lang Syne (With pedal, if you have access to a piano), and Bohemian Rhapsody. Julie - Practice oscillating between two notes like this: 60BPM, 121, 131, 141, 151, 232, 242, 252, 343, 353, 454 - on both hands. Focus on allowing [...]

Avril - As you arrived late this week and were unable to have a complete lesson, review the homework from last week: Practice is CUMULATIVE. This means that everything we have been working on, you keep working on, even as we add more stuff. So continue playing around with Auld Lang Syne, analyzing Bohemian Rhapsody, and practicing your scales and chords. In [...]

Avril - Practice is CUMULATIVE. This means that everything we have been working on, you keep working on, even as we add more stuff. So continue playing around with Auld Lang Syne, analyzing Bohemian Rhapsody, and practicing your scales and chords. In addition, you can work on the first two pages of 'The Young Pianist'. Just as a challenge: try playing each [...]

Avril - Practice our new version of Auld Lang Syne, and experiment with improvising on it. Continue to work on playing your scales and broken chords, up one octave only, in C major, G major, and A minor. Add D major, A major, E major. ALSO analyze the Bohemian Rhapsody arrangement you have been playing. Tell me: a) what are the chords? and b) where was the transcription different from the recording? HAVEN & MALEEYA - For both of you, the homework is the same. Work on 'Small World' with the proper rhythm. You can also work together on identifying notes at the piano (where is D? Where is [...]

Avril - Continue to play Auld Lang Syne, both as written and as improvised/re-composed by you. Play around with it, and be creative! Also work on playing your scales and broken chords, up one octave only, in C major, G major, and A minor only. We'll expand to more keys next week. ALSO analyze the Bohemian Rhapsody arrangement you have been playing. Tell me: a) what are the chords? and b) where was the transcription different from the recording? HAVEN & MALEEYA - For both of you, the homework is the same. Work on 'Small World' with the proper rhythm. Next week, come ready to focus, learn, and play. We DON'T want to waste more time. Julie - Focus on the three pieces we have been looking at, as well as major scales in C, [...]

Avril - Keep working on the contrapuntal piece we looked at prior to the winter break. Also work on the first 4 bars of Auld Lang Syne that I wrote out for you. Figure out the rest of it BY EAR if you can. Just give it a shot. Kristen - Major scales, hands together, parallel AND contrary motion, for C, G, D, A, and E majors. Prelude in E minor. First piece from Czerny book in the written key (C major) AND transposed into G major.

Avril - Pentascales (all), full scales (C, G, D, E, a natural minor), chord sequence (C, G, F, a, e, d). Haven - Work on reading rhythms from the book in quarter notes and half notes. Any piece that consists of quarter notes and half notes is something you should practice reading. Maleeya - Work on 'The Crocodile'. Remember that the second line [...]

Avril: Work on playing pentascales, and try to compose some melodies with the notes available to you within that pentascale. Continue composing variations on 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star', and check out what Mozart did with it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyhxeo6zLAM Haven: Identify notes on the piano. 'Can you find C? G? D? How do you know that's a D?' etc. Play 'Mary's Lamb'. Try [...]

Hi students and parents! Great job today! Ezra: Improvise grooves just like you were doing when we came in today. That was great, do more of it. Here's your list of things to practice: 1) Linear patterns where R=right, L=left, F=foot: RLFF. RLFL. FFRL. RFFL. FLRF. RLF. 2) Rudiments played between the hihat and snare drum: single stroke roll, double stroke [...]