Natalie and Nadia
Great first lessons (with me), girls!! Though the first attempt at the keyboard setup wasn’t ideal, we managed rather fairly.
Remember to ALWAYS keep your core (tummy) muscles ENGAGED while you are playing. And, MOVE to the rhythm of the piece you are playing (and pay attention to how the DANCE changes throughout the piece, if it does at all). This includes MOVING to a comfortable rhythm (as long as it’s not one movement per note) when playing scales.
Natalie, CUT YOUR FINGERNAILS!! hehe..;) For Storms, what I wrote above especially applies to you with this song. Try it, experiment with it, and it will open whole new musical worlds for you. I promise you! Also, try to make melodic chords as legato as possible by choosing fingers that make this possible (especially for the top note of the chord). Pushing wrist forward after articulating the chord adds to this effect. Make sure you’re holding down ALL of the half notes and whole notes in chords while other parts of the chord are moving.
Nadia, while your core is engaged, and you are moving to a rhythm, practice the scales I assigned you AS SLOW AS YOU WANT TO, as long as the tempo is –STEADY–. We’ll talk about spider fingers next week..