Glad to hear you all had safe and fun Halloween nights!

Hakim

My City and Largo – these pieces are your note reading practice for the week. Your RH thumb should be on middle C when playing these pieces, and your RH finger 5 (pinky) on G. Resist the urge to cross your index finger over your thumb!

C Major Scale – the scale fingering I taught you today is used for almost every single major scale that starts on a white key! RH will use fingers 123 and then tuck the thumb under onto F. The full fingering is 123 12345. Going back down is the *exact* same, but in reverse. 54321, then cross finger 3 over onto E, then 2 1.
LH is very similar. Use all 5 of your fingers, 12345, then cross finger 3 over onto A, then 2 1. Full fingering is 54321 321. You guessed it, going down is the same! 123, thumb under onto G, then 2345.
Watch this video if you need help, though DO NOT put it hands together yet! Just watch one of his hands at a time and work on that hand :)

Sailor’s Dance from Team Fortress – there is nothing wrong with learning songs from YouTube, especially as we work to catch up your note reading to your playing skills. What I will guide you is making logical fingering choices for pieces like this. Keep in mind that playing two notes with two different fingers is usually way faster, and easier, than frantically hopping the same finger to the next note. Today in lesson we looked at the first 4 bars of this melody. Use your thumb on white keys, and remember to keep rounded strong fingers :) Have fun!

Maria

Etude in D Major – nice work on the tricky bits! When putting this hands together, really look to the notes on the main beats and focus on getting those hands together. You will notice these main notes often move in parallel motion (each hands notes moving the same direction) even though all the notes in between might zig zag. It is totally okay to simplify pieces to get the coordination hands together, and then add the extra stuff in after. Another technique you could try is tapping the LH notes while playing the RH, or humming the RH melody while playing the LH. Believe in yourself!

Arctic Voices – opening 2 lines. The letter names I have written in are the root of each chord, and they are all perfect 5ths. Listen here if you need a reminder to get your brain “in it”.

*New* Witches and Wizards – this is your fun piece! Do as much as you like. Watch the opening, both clefs are bass clefs, and then it switches to treble later. Notice the 6/8 time signature and the accents, they are very important to giving this piece its rhythmic drive. Here is a video.

Technique practice will resume next week :)