Anastasiya

Seems like you’re comfortable with “Lonely pine” now. Your goal this week is to practice every day! Even on days you are tired, 10-15 minutes is still better than nothing! You were really quick to learn “Li’l Liza Jane” in the lesson today. Because you’re such a fast learner, I want to see how quickly we can learn the rest of the songs in your book, so we can go on to the next book. Finish perfecting “Li’l Liza Jane” it for next week – focus especially on measures 3-4 and 7-8, and remember how many beats each of the notes get. If some parts are giving you trouble when you’re putting the hands together, try doing that part one hand a time first and then put the hands together again.

Madison

“The Whirlwind” sounds good! Let’s keep working on it still so you can get used to that hand position. Remember the three things I want to you to look out for – 1) bigger crescendos/decrescendos. 2) Remember to prepare your foot one measure before you need the pedal. 3) No hiccups between the first and second half of the piece! Also, continue to work on page 38 to get used to the whole steps, and also keep learning “The planets”.

Melody

You’re doing a good job of remembering the songs even without a piano yet! When you do get a chance to practice, remember to keep your wrists, shoulders and arms relaxed. Also, keep pretending that your fingers are superglued to the keys – when you lift them too high, that will make your arms tight and we don’t want that! Keep working on “Old Macdonald” and “Jolly Old St. Nicolas”.

Juliette and Romaun

It was great to meet you two today! For next week, keep working on the songs we worked on today and put the two hands together. For Juliette, it’s Chant de Noel (page 36) and for Romaun, Barcarolle Venitienne (page 48). If you have some problems, then you can take a small section and try doing it one hand a time, then put the hands together for that section.

Just a quick note for your mom – I thought about which book would be suitable for Juliette and Romaun. I think they should use “Alfred’s Basic piano Library”. You can get either the Lesson Book 1B or Lesson Book 2 (there are many different Alfred books, so make sure you get the one called “Lesson Book”). I’m not yet sure if they will be more suitable for level 1B or 2 – actually, Barnaby has a copy of the level 1B at the school, so if you like, we can first have a look at that book next week. If you prefer to buy both 1B and level 2 now, that’s fine as well.