Sahil
Nice to meet you today!
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes a day
What to practice: Scavenger hunt for all letter names, C position 5-note scale on piano, vocal warmup on the C 5-note scale using “ma”, Jingle Bells
How to practice it most effectively: For the scavenger hunt, start by finding all the Cs on the piano (these are just to the left of the group of 2 black keys), and then move up through D, E, F, G, A, and B. Notice which letters are part of the group of 2, and which are part of the group of 3. For the C position 5-note scale, put LH (left hand) finger 5 (pinky) on C, and RH (right hand) finger 1 (thumb) on C. From there, use one hand at a time to go up C-D-E-F-G using each finger number in order, then go back down. For the vocal warmup, keep your RH in the C position on piano, and listen carefully when singing so your vocal note is the same as the piano note. First play and sing just C-D-E-D-C (3 note scale) using the syllable “ma” a few times. Then, extend the warmup all the way to C-D-E-F-G-F-E-D-C (5 note scale). For Jingle Bells, the first two notes are C to A (6 notes away) – make sure your vocal notes on “dash-ing” match these! When you get to “jin-gle bells” the note is A 3 times. These will guide you to stay in the right key when singing.
Nathalia
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: D major scale hands together, Bye Bye Love, Runaround Sue (first 3 lines hands separately)
How to practice it most effectively: For the D major scale, make sure finger 3s are lining up on F# and B. I know we didn’t play Bye Bye Love in class today, but please continue playing everything except the 2nd ending hands together. Runaround Sue is our new song. Today we discussed swing feel for eighth notes and how the ones on the numbered beats are long, while the ones on the “and” beats are short. When playing the RH part, count “1+2+3+4+” out loud with the long-short rhythm to help you line things up. Please use the written fingers – they are there to help you. Because we are going hands separately, you can pay extra attention to those staccatos.