Anastasiya

Good work today (even though you were very sleepy!). Keep working on “Flute of the Andes”. Remember that the notes on the bottom line are for the left hand and the notes on the top line are for the right hand – you mixed them up in some spots. Also, watch your rhythm in the second line. Half notes always get two beats. Start working on “Rainforest” at home too. Remember your left hand is in F Position and your right hand is in D position. Remember which interval is important in this piece (a fifth!).

Also, keep practicing Runaway Rabbit. It could be a recital piece!

Madison

You are very close with “When Our band Goes Marching By” – it’s just the 3rd and 4th line we need to work on a bit. You can continue to practice these in many ways: hands separate, super slowly, singing the melody while playing LH, singing melody while playing RH – you can come up with other ways to practice too! You can start the first song in the next book at home too – sorry I couldn’t find it in the library, but I’m glad we also got to do some work on sight reading. Let’s plan on doing more sight reading at your next lessons!

Melody

You are doing very well with the intervals. “Rock Song” was very good today – the only thing to remember is to keep paying attention to your rhythms. Your half notes should get 2 beats, and quarter notes get 1. Also, remember that the bottom line is for the left hand, and the top line is for the right hand. I also want you to keep practicing “Mexican Hat Dance” – it’s a good piece to practice your steps and skips. Your new song for this week is “Rockets”. The challenge for this piece is using both hands at the same time. Remember to keep your shoulders, arms and wrists relaxed when you practice this. You can practice just the melody at first (without the chords in the left hand). When that is super comfortable, you can practice playing all of the notes.

Juliette

Congratulations on finishing the first book and you did it very quickly! Keep practicing the A Minor scale (melodic and harmonic) as well as G Major. For next week, prepare “Get Away” again, as well as the songs on page 5 and “Alouette”. For “Get Away”. don’t forget the dynamics, and also remember that the dynamics help with character. Piano is not just soft, but is also sneaky – and forte is not just loud, but it’s also powerful. Also work on lifting up the pedal in page 2 – it’s a bit tricky. We also just learned about dotted rhythms today – practice clapping the songs on page 5 while counting (1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and). It might be a confusing at first, but if you get confused, just play the melody (or sing) of Alouette – you know that song well, and it has plenty of dotted quarter notes!