B.Mus (Humber) in-progress
Adina is a singer-songwriter based in Toronto completing her Bachelor of Music degree at Humber College in vocal performance. Trained classically in piano since the age of 5, she has branched out into pop and jazz as well.
Vocally she is well-versed in many genres including jazz (she loves to scat!), musical theatre, pop, singer-songwriter, country, R&B, and acappella. She has 7 years of choir experience in both chamber and jazz styles. Adina has been writing and singing original songs since the age of 12, and has two singles as well as an EP out on all platforms under the artist name Adina V.
She has performed all across southern Ontario singing with the Toronto All-Star Big Band, as well as at various venues in the GTA with her own jazz duos and trios. As a member of the Cawthra Park Chamber Choir she performed at Roy Thompson Hall with the TSO for two years in a row. At Humber College she is part of the Vocal Jazz Ensemble led by Lisa Martinelli; this group performs advanced repertoire at events like the Ontario Vocal Jazz Festival.
Adina has been teaching music for the past 7 years and loves helping students meet their personal goals while fostering a love of music that lasts forever!
Get to know Adina…Beyond the Bio!
Hobbies: reading, puzzles, video games, painting
Musical Influences: Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, Doris Day, Joni Mitchell, Taylor Swift, John Mayer
Favourite Food: Pad Thai
Least favourite food: eggplant
Favourite music: Indie rock and folk
Favourite song: All I Need by Jacob Collier ft. Mahalia & Ty Dolla $ign
Favourite movie: Matilda
Favourite movie music: The Pirates of the Caribbean theme
Favourite Musical: Dear Evan Hansen or The Last Five Years
Best Quote from your teacher: “It’s an amazing and wonderful experience to be able to be intentional about, in the moment, making music”
Favourite Quote: “Even as we are, we are becoming”
Favourite Book: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy – Stieg Larsson
Best thing about teaching at ABC: Sharing and fostering a love of music with students of all ages
Latest Homework from Adina
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Sunday, May 16, 2021
Sahil
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes a day
What to practice: Minor triads warmup, Hey Mr. Half Note Dot, Alouette, Beyblade Burst Turbo
How to practice it most effectively: For the minor triads warmup, play a triad starting from every white key, but this week let’s make them all minor! When changing a chord from major to minor it’s only the middle note that moves down. For Hey Mr. Half Note Dot and Alouette, please say/sing the counting out loud while you play (1-2-3 for Mr. Half Note Dot, 1-2-3-4 for Alouette). The hand positions (either thumbs on middle C position or C position) are written under the song titles. For Beyblade Burst Turbo, we put the first 2 sections hands together with triads! RH please remember the little differences between the ending of the first and second section (first section goes up from A to B while the second section goes down from A to G). LH, for the first section you play E minor, then D major (when the RH melody gets to the high E note). For the second section, LH plays E minor, then C major (when the melody gets to the high E note) for 2 notes, then D major for 2 notes. Here is a fun video with lyrics to try singing along to!
Nathalia
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: Rockin’ Robin
How to practice it most effectively: This week, you can put bars 9-16 hands together as well! Use the moments in bars 10, 12 and 16 where the hands play the same rhythms to ground you. Please remember we have a Bb in the key signature, so all Bs except for the one with the natural sign in front of it should be flat. In bar 16, LH is playing a seventh, with low F and the Eb above. In the first 8 bars, please remember to play all of RH’s correct fingerings – the Eb should always be with finger 4 so you have enough fingers to play the whole phrase.
Sina
Recommended minutes to practice: 10 minutes a day
What to practice: A Happy Song (for both hands), Legato Playing (See-Saws), and Just a Second
How to practice it most effectively: Today we learned how to read music on the grand staff: RH is still in treble clef and LH is still in bass clef, but now the staves are stacked together. Always double check which hand is meant to be playing at each time during your songs, since they go back and forth. RH treble clef important guide note is still G, second line, and LH’s bass clef one is F, fourth line. All of these songs are in C position, meaning LH finger 5 (pinky) is on low C, and RH’s finger 1 (thumb) is on middle C. The finger numbers on the music are also helpful for finding which note you should be playing. In Just a Second, please watch out for all the repeated notes, and try to make all quarter notes even.
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
Anaya
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes a day
What to practice: A Happy Song, See-Saws, and Biking
How to practice it most effectively: A Happy Song will be a review piece this week – just work on smoothly playing it from start to finish (no break between the lines). See-Saws introduces playing legato – this means we connect between the notes (which you’ve already been doing!). For Biking, we drew in the slurs which tell us to play legato. Watch the melody direction especially over the barlines – the song is all steps. Once the notes are comfortable you can start playing with the speed notes (“slow”, “faster”) for fun! All these songs are in C position.
Saskia
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes a day
What to practice: “ooh-ah-ooh” sliding warmup, My Favourite Things (karaoke), start listening and singing along to As the World Falls Down
How to practice it most effectively: For the warmup, start on C-E-C, then once you hear how the warmup is supposed to sound, play single notes on your piano app going up in semitones (the closest possible note, including the black keys) to warm up higher in your range. For My Favourite Things, your notes and rhythms are very well learned, so we can start focusing more on the lyrics and how we deliver them. We spoke today about important words (like “favourite”, or “girls) versus not important words (“a”, “of”). The important words should get more of an emphasis! Also, whenever we have 2-syllable words, we like to put the emphasis on the 1st syllable (like “DRE-sses”, “PO-nies” instead of “dre-SSES”, “po-NIES”). Here is a good lyric video for As the World Falls Down:
Ken
**Here is a link for Piano Adventures Level 3A Lesson Book: https://www.amazon.ca/Level-3A-Lesson-Piano-Adventures/dp/1616770872/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=piano+adventures+level+3&qid=1621387773&sr=8-1
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: Improvising in C minor and C major, Minor triads warmup (Cheers for Cm, etc), Jazz Blast, and Go Tell Aunt Rhody
How to practice it most effectively: When improvising, there is no set length of time you have to do – just play around with different melodic ideas and follow your ear! In the C major version, use an E natural but still keep that Bb. Pages 56-57 have some minor triad warmups for you to play through before starting your pieces. In Jazz Blast, please be extra careful with timing, especially LH’s rests in the final line. Today we spoke about swinging our eighth notes when they come in groups of 2 – the first one will be long, and the second one will be short. For Go Tell Aunt Rhody, we are playing using a lead sheet, meaning the RH melody is written down but the LH will be playing chords that are written with chord symbols. The rhythm for this piece is quite simple so there are no excuses for not counting! Once you feel comfortable in G and Gm, try the transposing the song in C and Cm.
Steve
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: The Queen’s Royal Entrance, Peter Pan’s Flight
How to practice it most effectively: For The Queen’s Royal Entrance, do your best to make the staccatos extra crisp. Today we spoke about how to effectively do staccatos: there should be a little bounce in your wrists. In bars 9-14 make sure you keep the quarter notes in regular/moderate time so the eighth notes don’t have to be extremely speedy. In Peter Pan’s Flight we are in A position – similarly to D position, the middle note (C) is sharp. LH watch your octave – you are playing on low A. RH please remember that your quarter notes in lines 2 and 4 need to be twice as long as your eighth notes (they actually match up with LH’s rhythms).
Gabe
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes a day
What to practice: Prince of Denmark’s March, Porcupine Dance
How to practice it most effectively: For the Prince of Denmark’s March, please count out loud so you can really get the dotted quarter notes – eighth note rhythms. Today we spoke about how to effectively do staccatos: there should be a little bounce in your wrists. At the “end” of this song there is a D.C. al Fine – this means we go back and play the first page until the Fine, which is the real ending. For Porcupine Dance, you can now play the whole song hands together! Just notice which position the thumbs start in (is it B and C? C and D? or A and B?) and go from there. Again, the staccatos are very important for the character of this piece – keep it light!
Isaac
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes a day
What to practice: Pyranese Melody, preliminary look at the Burlesque in G Major (only if you want)
How to practice it most effectively: This week I’d like you to focus only on the Pyranese Melody, putting it hands together slowly. Today we spoke about how to effectively do staccatos: there should be a little bounce in your wrists. Notice how bars 9-10 and 11-12 are the same melodic pattern, just repeated down a step. If at any point you’re unsure of your interval notes, use the lines and spaces sayings to help.
Wednesday, July 21st, 2021
Diya
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: Half-Time Show, major 5-note warmup (C to A), Loyal Brave and True (karaoke)
How to practice it most effectively: For Half-Time Show, remember your FACE in the space saying – RH is only ever playing in these spaces doing repeated notes or skips. In bars 9-12 the hands are playing the exact same letters and rhythms. Please make sure you stay in F position so the finger numbers line up. For the warmup, continue playing major positions from C to A major. When you get to A major, you can take it 1-2-3, 2-3-4, -3-4-5 instead of the full 1-2-3-4-5, focusing on keeping the vowels long and open. I’ll link a karaoke below to try with Loyal Brave and True. Next class we will start Reflection, so you can start singing along to a lyric video.
Dvorah
Recommended minutes to practice: 10 minutes a day
What to practice: The Bugle Boys, Happy Birthday
How to practice it most effectively: The Bugle Boys is the last song in this book! Watch where the hands enter at the exact same time (the notes will line up vertically on top of each other). LH has many long ties (holding for 8 full beats!) – we crossed off the second pair where you continue to hold instead of playing again. Note how RH is only playing 3 notes – C E and G. As a bonus exercise you can try playing Happy Birthday with G as the bottom note, and compare it to the version with C as the bottom note!
Oliver
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: Classic Dance, Ferris Wheel
How to practice it most effectively: In Classic Dance there are a lot of smooth legato moments to watch out for, as well as the staccatos in lines 1 and 3. Try the first two bars a few times practicing keeping one finger hanging on until the next one plays – there’s a split second where both are playing at the same time, and this is how we get the connected sound. For the new song Ferris Wheel, it is all legato, sometimes with the melody jumping between the hands. There are many skips in this piece as well as repeated notes to watch out for. Try doing the dynamics in the last line as you move up the octaves!
Linda
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes a day
What to practice: Minuet in A minor, Cool Groove, I’ll Be Seeing You
How to practice it most effectively: For the Minuet, any time there are dotted quarter notes, try counting with all the “ands” to really solidify the rhythms. You can try at least the first two lines hands together this week, going slow to account for syncopations between the hands. For Cool Groove, aim to try is at 85bpm – if this is too slow please feel free to try 95, then 90, etc. – the gradual slowdown we had spoken about. The biggest thing is leaning into the long part of the swung beat and delaying the “and” after beat 1 to make it really groove. Great job with the numbers in I’ll Be Seeing You – the next step is thinking about the qualities of the chords (so maj7, mi7, 7 – which we also call “dominant” – etc.). You can try singing and playing the vocal melody this week!
Ken
Recommended minutes to practice: 20 minutes a day
What to practice: F major scale hands together, Yellow Bird (rhythm review), Morning
How to practice it most effectively: The F major scale has slightly different fingerings than the other ones – in terms of fingers that line up you’ll have finger 3s playing together on A and finger 1s playing together on C, both on the way up and on the way down. For Yellow Bird, there are a couple of rhythm things I’d like you to review: on the first page, RH’s bar 4 and 8 rhythm is the same as the main LH rhythm – you can go back and forth between these to get the feel of it. On the second page, please make sure you’re holding the beat 1 quarter note for the full longer beat, with the quick part actually being the 2 and between hands. For Morning, note what triads each hand is playing when it’s its turn – we start off in F major but then switch to A major. LH has a few clef changes throughout the piece to look out for. Please take your time finding all notes of chords – no need to guess, just take a moment to use your sayings and any helpful intervals. Later in the week you can try adding some dynamics.
Preferred Books for Adina’s Students
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Alfred's Basic Piano Library Lesson Book 1A
This easy step-by-step method emphasizes correct playing habits and note reading through interval recognition. Lesson Book Level 1A begins by teaching basic keyboard topography and fluent recognition of white key names in relation to black keys. It focuses on simple rhythms and prepares students for intervallic reading with entertaining songs that focus on “same,” “stepping up” and “stepping down.” It then introduces lines and space notes in treble and bass clefs, melodic and harmonic intervals of 2nds, 3rds, 4ths and 5ths, and graduates to reading on the grand staff. It also introduces the flat and sharp signs. This course is most effective when used under the direction of a piano teacher or experienced musician. Songs Include: Balloons * Batter Up! * The Donkey * A Friend Like You * Hand-Bells * A Happy Song * Horse Sense * Totem Pole Song * It’s Halloween! * Jingle Bells! * Jolly Old Saint Nicholas * July the Fourth! * Just a Second! * Love Somebody * Merrily We Roll Along O’er the Deep Blue Sea * Mexican Hat Dance * My Clever Pup * My Fifth * My Robot * Old MacDonald * Old Uncle Bill * Play a Fourth * Raindrops * Rain, Rain! * Rockets * Rockin’ Tune * Rock Song * Sailing * Sea Divers * See-Saws * Skating * Who’s on Third? * Willie and Tillie * Wishing Well * The Zoo
Alfred's Adult Basic All-In-One
Alfred’s Basic Adult All-in-One Course is designed for use with a piano instructor for the beginning student looking for a truly complete piano course. It is a greatly expanded version of Alfred’s Basic Adult Piano Course that will include lesson, theory, and technique in a convenient, “all-in-one” format. This comprehensive course adds such features as isometric hand exercises, finger strengthening drills, and written assignments that reinforce each lesson’s concepts. There is a smooth, logical progression between each lesson, a thorough explanation of chord theory and playing styles, and outstanding extra songs, including folk, classical, and contemporary selections.
The Brown Scale Book
This essential resource includes all major and minor scales, triads, arpeggios, dominant sevenths, and chromatic scales organized by key. A favorite for decades, The Brown Scale Book belongs in every student’s library.
The Real Vocal Book
The Real Vocal Book has many of the selections from Volumes 1 and 2 of the instrumental Real Books, but now with complete lyrics added to the pre-existing melody line. This edition features 300 essential songs arranged for low voice, including: Alfie * All of Me * Autumn Leaves * Bewitched * Bluesette * Don’t Get Around Much Anymore * Fever * Georgia on My Mind * Misty * Moon River * My Funny Valentine * Satin Doll * and more. Looking for a particular song? Check out the Real Book Songfinder here.