Vivienne

Vivienne should practice 4-5 times per week for 20-30 mins per session.

Betty Ragtime

  • Practice section B hands together, and review section A

Lesson book

  • Review C, G, D and F major scale in contrary motion, chromatic scale starting on any key (1 octave)
  • A natural/harmonic/melodic minor scales

Ellis

Ellis should practice 4-5 times per week at 10 – 15 mins per session

Lesson book

  • Review and practice Rodeo and Russian Folk Dance

A Dozen a Day

  • First 2 pages of exercises

Jingle Bell

  • Review and practice the melody with RH

Chantal

Chantal should practice 4-5 times per week at 20 – 30 mins per session

A Dozen A day

  • Weekly assigned exercises

Lesson Book

  • I Am the King – learn and practice this piece hands together

Popular Selection Book

  • Review the pieces we have learned, and try a new piece!

Alyssa

Alyssa should practice 4-5 times per week at 45 mins – 1 hr per session.

Technique

  • Use the correct fingering, play with accuracy, and clarity on everything with the metronome
  • Keep your knuckles and fingers up

Sunset in Rio

  • Practice and polish up the little mistakes, with dynamic changes, and start working on memory

Sonatina in C

  • Practice and review the running scales with the CORRECT fingering
  • Play L.H. repeated chordal accompaniment lightly, do not let it overpower the R.H.

Scherzo in C

  • Fingering, fingering, fingering! Avoid using random fingers!

Allegro in D

  • Practice and polish 4 bars phrase at a time – especially the ending

In Church

  • Do not play the accented chords too harsh – play on and into the keys, not pushing down from above the keys
  • Dynamic and phrasing – take a ‘breath’ between phrases

Maria

Maria should practice 4-5 times per week for 20-30 mins per session.

Lesson Book

  • Goodbye, Old Paint – review and polish up the whole piece hands together, don’t rush the ending, you’re suppose to slow down (rit.)

12 Days of Christmas

  • Practice and review the whole piece – repeat the phrases that repeats often, ex. “and a porcupine in a pine tree”.

Simone

Simone should practice 4-5 times per week for 15-20 mins per session.

Lesson Book

  • Lightly Row
  • Forest Drums

Theory

  • Weekly assigned pages

David

David should practice 4-5 times per week for 30 mins – 1hour per session.

Pathetique 2nd movement

  • Look and think about the piece in a horizontal singing line (look at the direction of the melody), and phrase the piece with written dynamic changes
  • Change the pedal more often, for each harmony change
  • Listen to a few recordings, think about the musicality in all aspects

Maple Leaf Rag

  • Try practicing with staccato OR detached 8th notes

Rialto Ripple

  • Keep working on learning the notes
  • Detach the quarter notes (except the slurred ones), play the accented notes (syncopation), march-like, playful character, the opposite of Pathetique

Chopin

  • Section A – voicing the top notes in the R.H.
  • Section B – always keep your R.H. fingers ‘open’ for the running 8th’s
  • L.H. – don’t push down on the notes, but to lightly tap and bounce off the keys

Theory

  • Harmony and musical form analysis