Hi everyone! Happy December. I hope anyone who is opening an advent calendar is having fun; I sure am because I have a Nespresso one this year. <3 Thanks for everyone’s effort practicing and keep it up!

Isabella

You’re working on My Invention. It uses all 3 Landmark Notes – bass F, middle C and treble G. Be sure to use fingers 1 and 5 in the RH.

You also learnt the first few lines of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer by rote. It starts on G and only uses white notes. Play it often to remember it and we’ll add more on next week. (Or challenge yourself to figure out more by ear! I believe in you!)

Keep playing your C Major one octave scales. Today we learnt the LH one too – its fingering goes (pinky)54321 321! RH fingering is (thumb)123 12345.

Jadon

You’re working on all of O Holy Night. Consider starting each phrase with the finger they suggest in the book, because it will enable you to play the melody smoothly. You shouldn’t be trying to play a smooth line by playing your pinky twice in a row. Work to add in the dynamics now too, it starts quiet and then grows much louder at the “fall on your knees” before reaching the climax at “Divine” and then fading away. Great work!

You can also play Rudolph by ear and experiment with LH patterns to accompany it. It starts on G in the right hand, and the chords to accompany will be C for a while, and then G. You’ll be able to hear when to change it.

Grace

We talked about a few exercises to help with your LH. Practice simple scales/triads/patterns hands together but play one hand way louder than the other. And then switch the hand’s roles. Sometimes it’s hard to assess yourself while playing, so record yourself doing this and listen back.

In Fantasia, work on voicing to top notes in chords by lining up your forearm to the pinky so that all your arm weight and energy will go directly into that finger.

This week please push yourself to try the LH of Sunset in Rio. It is so fun to play once you get the rhythms!

Marco

This week work to add the LH part to Away in a Manger. You also suggested that this week you can sing along as you play!

Your new song is We Three Kings of Orient Are from your Mom’s book. This week we are only working on the A section/everything before “star of wonder”. For both of these pieces, work to have the entirety of each singing phrase connected to each other and only “breathe” (on the piano) in between each phrase. Have fun with your first 6/8 piece, and feel it “in 2” like 123456.

Daniel

You’re continuing to work on all of Jingle Bells. Great work on this today, the first page was amazing – you didn’t miss a beat! I think another week with special attention to measures 21-25 will make it fantastic!

With Four Wheel Drive – you can put the hands together for the first 3 lines. Play the RH line 4 lots with accurate counting. Line 4 is the most tricky and impressive part of this piece, and it relies on your LH being on autopilot, and your RH knowing its counting really well. You could put line 4 hands together super slowlyyyyyyy, but that’s it because we don’t want to confuse our brain with mistakes. Great job on learning the LH pattern by the way!

Your new Christmas piece is I saw Three Ships from your Mom’s book. This melody is short so play hands together.

Shelton 

Keep playing your C Major one octave scales. LH fingering is 54321 321! RH fingering is 123 12345. Also warmup with the “skipping” exercise where you play 1 3 5 or 5 3 1 beginning on notes like C, F and G.

You’re working on Russian Folk Song. This piece introduced two new LH notes: B and A. In this piece they are played by the LH pointer finger and thumb.

Your other piece is Midnight Ride. This piece only has 3 beats per measure. The < symbols mean to accent that note (play it louder than the other ones), and this way we can create a kind of horse galloping sound with the LH. The RH part that is marked p is like an echo through the canyon, so be sure to play it soft. Your soft playing is very impressive by the way.