Anatasiya

Excellent job sight reading at the beginning of the lesson ( when you thought you forgot your books). You also did a great job playing “Runaway Rabbit” and “Kites in the Sky” memory. I think we should focus on these for the recital, but if you prefer to do other songs, let me know. For next week, prepare “Lightly Row” hands separate. Both hands are in C position, and if you forget the notes, use your tricks (FACE, Every good boy… etc) to find the notes. If you can put the two hands together, that would be a bonus!

Madison

Fantastic progress with “When Our Band Goes Marching By” – you should think about doing this for the recital! At home, to practice, try playing the left hand while tapping the rhythm of the right hand. This is super tricky, so start slowly at first. If you master that, try playing the left hand, tapping the rhythm of the right hand AND counting out loud all at the same time. I’ll be super impressed if you can do that. This really helped you when you went back to play the song, so of course you have to practice playing the song normally too! I also want you to get started on the first song of your next book – the next book gets even more fun.

Melody

“Rock Song” and “Rockets” are starting to get really comfortable for you! I would focus on these two for the recital. For “Rockets”, just pay attention to when you have steps and when you have skips. Also, practice measures 3 and 4 by itself so you know where the right hand and left hand line up. Practice “Sea Diver” the same way – just measures 3 and 4 by itself, and also by paying attention to steps and skips. I’m impressed we even learned “Play a Fourth” today and you learned it so quickly. Remember to keep looking at the score when you are learning new pieces – they are not memorized yet right when you start learning them!

Juliette

Great job with “Get Away” and “Alouette!” – let’s focus on these for the concert. Remember to make a bigger difference between the piano and forte and “Get Away”. Keep doing the C Major and Aminor scale (both melodic and harmonic). Remember that they have the same fingering. Also prepare “Ode to Joy” and “Lavender Blue” for next time. You learned “Lavender Blue” very quickly. For “Ode to Joy”, watch your dotted rhythms, which you did so well in “Alouette”. You can practice this by counting out loud while playing the right hand alone. You can also remember that a dotted quarter note has three eighth notes in it, so you can practice each dotted quarter note by playing 3 eighth notes.