Helen

Warm-Up: Left hand and right hand warm-ups from book. Always use strong fingers and keep your wrists relaxed. You can even move your arms and wrist as you play to help facilitate your finger movement.

Try to play with a stuffed toy balanced on your head for posture. Stretch periodically between songs.

Jingle Bells: As you play, take a pause and check to make sure your left hand position is correct. Focus on holding the left hand for the full 4 beats in the measure.

Review Dueling Harmonies exercise.

Assess the music before you play: is the melody getting higher or lower? Is it moving in a stepwise motion or with skips?

Rachel

Rachel should review My C Scale, focusing on separating each note. She was holding down multiple notes as she played, and we want each note to be clear and clean!

City of Stars: we did some work with this in the lesson. I asked Rachel to listen to the first 30 seconds or so of the song to try and find which direction the melody is going in (higher or lower?) and if the melody is moving in small steps or larger leaps.

Rachel should play for 5 minutes every day!

Chantal

Warm-Up: Chantal should play A Dozen a Day Group II, exercises 1-2 in E major. She can first play them in C major to get a feel for them, and then try to start on E. Remember: E major has 4 sharps (FCGD)!

Runaway Rabbit: I’d like Chantal to review this this week so that she feels more comfortable with it. She should make sure to always have her right hand ready to play, even when it rests for a long time. She should play with strong fingers and make sure to count out loud. The main goal is to play the song the same speed throughout (or as close to the same speed as possible).

Chantal should play for 15 minutes every day!

Zoe

Warm-Up: Zoe should begin with A Dozen a Day Group III, #10-12 in E major. She can begin by playing them in C before trying them in E. Remember: E major has 4 sharps (FCGD)!

Technique Book: Tree House exercise. This exercise uses the wrist float-off exercise when the left hand crosses over the right! Zoe can move her hand slowly over as her other hand plays. It should be a fluid motion, and not too rushed!

Mozart’s Five Names: I’d like Zoe to work on this, making sure to count out loud. She should keep an eye on her fingers and make sure she’s keeping them close to the keys. Imagine the keys are sticky and the fingers are stuck there, even when they’re not playing! Mom and Dad can look in and ask Zoe to look at her hands. Ask her what her fingers are up to and if they’re close to the keys!

Zoe should play for 10-15 minutes every day!

Julie

Warm-Up: Double 3rds and review E major scale.

Schumann: work on getting the opening melody really connected. Practice it slowly, both hands together and separate. When practicing hands separate, play with strong fingers to help solidify the movement. Then play more lightly. Pay attention to the breaks in the slurs.

Beethoven: Focus on b. 25-26. Practice 1 beat several times, then try to add the next beat (and so on.) Set a metronome to the best speed for you and add the chromatic part.
Make sure to double check your articulations, so that you’re playing the piece as written. When playing detached, play it a little more subdued than staccato.

Jazz Exercise: learn the first page. Figure out which fingerings are most comfortable for you and write them in! Keep your wrists relaxed as you play.

Here is the sheet music (two sheets). https://drive.google.com/file/d/115-YHePgA9pfnyVDhQ6D-clGFSY87utt/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f79PIMxTKwxRex8ttpaysqpOkIogUKtK/view?usp=sharing