Happy snowy days to you all! :) Have a fantastic week!!!

Isabella

You’re working on Rodeo and Russian Folk Song. Be sure to use the fingering written in the book, this includes using both thumbs! Remember to count 1-2 or 1-hold for the half notes. For Russian Folk Song, be sure to play with the dynamics. F stands for forte = loud, so start loudly, and p stands for piano = quiet, so make sure the last echo of the song is the quietest part. When counting yourself in, say “1-2-3-4” and then start on the imaginary 1.

Keep doing your LH C Major scale until it’s just as awesome as your RH is.

Jadon

Your new song is Crocodile Basking. *DOWNLOAD IT HERE*

This piece is all in the bass clef, so read accordingly. It starts alternating from C to G minor each bar – then halfway through it goes from F to C minor each bar. Notice the repetitive patterns and think of what chords each collection of notes is creating. Practice it hands seperate until it is comfortable, then combine.

The book we would like to get is Faber Adult Piano Adventures All-in-One Book 2. It includes access to a ton of online resources too!

Keep tooling around with Transformers. Try the 3 stages I suggested: 1) Just play beats 1 and 3 (so practicing just moving between chords and holding them longer than you really would) 2) Now add in the LH 8th notes, and the other RH quarter notes 3) Add in everything, including the fast little RH melody notes.

Marco

March of the Penguins…… Part 2. Most all of your practice sessions should be spent focused on page 2, but you should still play through page 1. Pay attention to the accented notes, staccato notes, and crescendos. Great reading today!

Never Gonna Give You Up – I would like you to do the exercise we did in class today where we isolate just a few beats of the bar. You’re going to play RH and LH together on beat 1, then beat 2 with LH, and then play the next RH chord on 2+ and stop. That’s the whole exercise! Repeat. This is to get used to how it feels to play the RH chord *after* both LH quarter notes. The same tactic can be practiced on measure 2. (Eventually we can expand this so the syncopated RH chord feels *between* the steady LH pulse, but for now, it coming *after* the 2 beats in an isolated situation is perfect!)

Daniel

Turkey Blues – work as much of this one out as you can on your own like last week. Practice going slow and steady like you will for sight reading in an exam.

Jurassic Park – Halfway through the week try and put it hands together. To get more used to how it will feel, try just playing a singular G note (or just tap your keyboard like menu area) with your LH whenever the LH will play. This will help with the coordination between the hands.

Chromatic scale – Let’s polish up this fingering. You’re great at the 1313 alternating between white and black notes (finger 3 always on black notes) but when we encounter 2 white notes in a row follow this rule: Use fingers 1 and 2 in the order of the direction you’re going. Ex: RH going up = 1 then 2, RH going down 2 then 1. This makes it so you don’t have to cross your fingers over each other at all.

Start putting your scales all 2 octaves. This involves the new feeling of crossing under/over finger 4.

I was looking for sightreading programs that listen to you as you play and it seems that there are unfortunately very few free resources that do that. Continue using sightreadingfactory.com for free excerpts, and if you want something that is a lottttt more game aligned you can check out the app Piano Dust Buster. Beware of in-app purchases as you would with any SimplyPiano-aligned software :)

Shelton

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik page 1 – the new concept introduced is the quarter rest. It gets 1 beat (like a quarter note) of silence. When playing this piece be sure to count in your head, or better yet, aloud to yourself. Your reading is improving lots, keep it up! This is the famous piece you are playing.

I also showed you the famous “I-vi-IV-V” chord progression in C (C-Aminor-F-G). It uses the C major triad shape (all white “skips”) built on C, then A, then F, then G. Experiment with ways to play this with both hands. The LH can also do just the root notes (C, A, F, G). Experiment and have fun! Try to build up your finger strength when playing solid chords as well :)

Julian

You’re polishing Moonlight Melody. Keep it up with the beautiful dynamic swells! I’m excited to hear this again next week. It is meant to be played slow, steady and beautifully. You can count 1-2-3 to yourself as you play.

I also showed you the great “I-vi-IV-V” chord progression. You could play it beginning on C, F or G today – awesome! Experiment with playing this with either hand. How does playing just the roots in one hand while doing chords in one hand sound? What about different rhythms and textures? Broken triads vs. solid? Experiment and have fun!