Nathalia
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: F major triads (one hand at a time, solid and broken), Rockin’ Robin.
How to practice it most effectively: For the F major triads, you are always using notes F-A-C in different orders. RH uses finger 1-2-5 on first inversion, and LH uses finger 5-2-1 on second inversion. For solid triads, we play all 3 notes at the same time while broken triads go one note at a time, doing your best to connect between the inversions. For Rockin’ Robin, see if you can start gradually speeding up the first section! The second section can definitely be put hands together now; please RH’s A flats, and LH’s whole notes in bars 13 and 14 should hold through for the full bar. You may read ahead into the third section with RH only – use your Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge and FACE in the space sayings to help you figure out notes as well as all the skips in this section. Eighth notes are still swinging here, and to play these easier try to keep a lighter touch on the keys.
Sina
Recommended minutes to practice: 10 minutes a day
What to practice: Just a Second, Who’s on Third
How to practice it most effectively: Today we discussed a couple of important concepts. First, now that we are reading music on the staff, stem direction does not dictate which hand is supposed to play. Instead, if the note is below the middle line the stem will go up, and if the note is above or on the middle line the stem will go down. Secondly, we are now playing with two different distances! Seconds are notes that are right next door to each other and go from line to space on the staff; thirds, or skips leave one note inbetween them and go from line to line or space to space. For Just a Second, really watch how many repeated notes you have in a row. For Who’s on Third always be asking yourself whether notes are steps or skips, and which direction the melody is moving in. Both these songs are still in C position; remember that finger 1 is thumb, and finger 5 is pinky.