Sahil

Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day

What to practice: “ya ya ya” 3-note warmup, Night Begins to Shine, Beyblade Burst Evolution

How to practice it most effectively: The “ya ya ya” warmup is for singing, but you will also play the notes on the keyboard. Start in C position (so RH – right hand – thumb on C). Then play C-D-E-E-D-C on piano only first so you can hear it once, then sing along with it. Then, move your hand up to D position and repeat. When we move positions remember your finger 1 (thumb) still has to be on the bottom note. Take this warmup up until around G position, then go back to C and this time shift your position down to B position then A position. For Night Begins to Shine we talked about the “form” of the song – how we have a verse and a chorus. Your verse guide note is the B right under middle C; this is the first note you start on. In the chorus, your main guide note is E above middle C – the words “when” and “night” with the G above that being the goal note for “shine”. Use these guide notes to help you stay on track. I’m attaching below a good youtube video to use for the Beyblade Burst Evolution song: please focus only on the right hand from 0:33 to 0:55, and slow it down to 0.5 speed to start.

 

Nathalia

Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day

What to practice: E major scale (hands together), Runaround Sue

How to practice it most effectively: In E major, we use the same fingerings, just adding a sharp (D#). The sharps in this scale exist in groups of 2 side by side, which is handy (F# and G# and C# and D#). The 3rd and 6th degrees where our finger 3s line up are G# and C#. For Runaround Sue, please play bars 1-8 and 17 to the end hands together – be extra careful with what octave LH plays in (the second time is 1 octave lower for everything). RH, continue noticing your intervals and which note is moving from one to the next versus which is staying. Whenever you are unsure of a note just use your sayings to double check. Bars 9-16 should still be kept hands separately – RH is only ever playing a third or a fourth; notice what the difference is visually on the staff between these two intervals. You can start adding staccatos in to make the character of the piece bouncier!

 

Sina

Recommended minutes to practice: 5 minutes a day

What to practice: Scavenger hunt of all piano letters,  C position 5-finger warmup, thumbs on middle C warmup

How to practice it most effectively: For the scavenger hunt, start with finding all the Cs (in front of the group of 2 black keys) on your piano – use your left hand (LH) for the lower half notes and right hand (RH) for the upper half. Then find all the Fs (in front of the group of 3 black keys). After that try to find all the other letter names. When playing our warmups, please remember to bend from the finger knuckle, and keep your wrist in line with your arm. It should be as if you’ve got a small ping pong ball under your palm. C position means that LH finger 5 (pinky) and RH finger 1 (thumb) are on C, then the other fingers spread out one per note. Walk up in order then back down. The thumbs on C warmup has both hands finger 1s on middle C, with the other fingers spread out one per note again. Start on C then play the 2s together, then 3s together, etc. walking out then back in.

The book I recommend is the Alfred’s All-in-One Course Book 1, which can be found here: https://www.amazon.ca/Alfreds-Basic-All-One-Course/dp/0882847872