DANIEL - Here is what I'd like you to work on over the summer: 1) Keep working through your book. 2) Keep singing songs and clapping along to the beat in time. 3) Keep practicing READING rhythms which use half notes and quarter notes. 4) LISTEN to music. Listen to a lot of music to figure out what you like. Once you figure out what you like, listen to similar stuff. Start building a library or playlist of Daniel's Favourite Music. OSCAR - Here is what I'd like you to work on over the summer: 1) Listen to A LOT of jazz. That is the absolute most important thing to do if you want to learn to play jazz, listen to it. If you get a chance to see some live jazz, do so. The Pilot, The Rex, and The Home Smith Bar are 3 venues that frequently have great jazz players coming through. 2) Lift lots of music. Either by ear and straight to the piano or write it down if you want (that part is not necessary). It can be jazz, blues, pop, rock, folk, classical, whatever, as long as you're using your ears and figuring out how to play what you ear. 3) Improvise. 4) Get the RCM technical requirement books for the first few grades, and practice that stuff...with a metronome...focusing on proper hand position, no tension, lateral movements with the wrist, and so on.AVRIL - Here is what I'd like you to work on over the summer. 1) Listen to A LOT of music...and especially music that involves improvisation: jazz, blues, R&B, rock -- anywhere you'd hear somebody play a 'solo', that's what you should be listening to. What similarities do you notice between styles? What differences? What do you like? What do you dislike? Why? 2) Just as a fun(?) little challenge, try working your way through the exercises in this video and see if you can understand what's going on. IT'S OK IF YOU CAN'T -- this is for university students, not middle school! -- but since you expressed excitement when we were working on chromatic embellishments, I thought you might enjoy leaping ahead and doing something extra challenging. https://youtu.be/vQOa1q8QL6o 3) Keep working through the Czerny book, slowly and patiently. Don't move to the 'next' piece until you've really mastered the last one. 4) Start practicing the scales you already know, hands together, TWO octaves. 5) Improvise plenty. JULIE - Here is what I'd like you to work on over the summer. 1) Create a 'wish list' of ~20 pieces you'd like to learn on the piano. Don't worry about if the pieces look too advanced - we can always work up to them with pieces that are similar but easier. I want to get a clearer sense of your musical taste, and I want us to be working on the repertoire that YOU love. 2) Keep working on everything else you've been working on! 3) Get the Functional Ear Trainer app and [...]

Oscar - In addition to all of your pentascales and triad exercises, try arranging the chords from 'Hey Jude' in a way that makes sense according to the voice leading principles we discussed. You can also practice the blues improvisation concepts we have worked on over Mary Ann by Ray Charles. Avril - Today we discussed chromatic lower neighbours and enclosures of chord tones in jazz improvisation. Try these ideas on simple tunes like Autumn Leaves and When the Saints Go Marching In. Explore, and let me know what you discover. Remember that enclosures can look different depending on whether the next note up in the scale is a half step or a whole step above. Julie - You have a lot to work on in terms of repertoire and technique, but this week, focus on rhythm. First, put your metronome on at 60 beats per minute and try to clap every 3rd 16th note. Then, come up with your own rhythms using the 16th note grid. Write them out and show me next week. Kristin - Continue notating your piece in D major. As an extra challenge, try to figure out the additive metre used for the song Bulgarian Bulge by Don Ellis.

Oscar --- Work on your pentascales, legato and staccato, in the keys of C, G, D, A, and E. Use both hands. Focus on keeping your hands relaxed, sinking into the keys (like your arms are very heavy) for legato, and leaping off (like a little frog) for staccato. In addition, pick another pop song (any pop song) and arrange the chords as we discussed last week. Voices move as little as possible, move in contrary motion against the bass if possible. Julie --- Complete the circle of fifths we started in lesson this week by adding the key signatures for the remaining keys (all 6 of them) and the relative minors for all the remaining keys. Go to YouTube and listen to some people playing Mozart's sonata in C major, K545. Use the slow down function in YouTube (under settings) and observe the different ways different pianists approach the trills and decorations. Write down your observations and show me next week. Also, of course, continue working on exercises from the Brown Scale Book in the keys of C, G, D, A, and E. Kristin --- In addition to all the stuff we've already been working on (including starred exercises from your scale book in the keys of C, G, D, A, and E), two assignments: 1) Start writing your D major composition down. You can either do so by hand, or use a free notation software -- MuseScore is good for this. Consider whether you want it to be for solo piano or other instrumentation. 2) Pick a few songs and identify spots where rhythm is divided up additively as we practiced today. When I say additive, I mean divided into smaller groups of 2s and 3s. An example we looked at today was "Unsquare Dance" which was made up of 7 units, grouped 2+2+3. Another example might be The Shape of You by Ed Sheeran, which is made up of 8 units, grouped 3+3+2. What other examples can you find out in the wild?

Avril - Learn the following melodies by ear and add chords based on what we've learned the last few weeks. ONLY use the primary chords: I, IV, and V: When the Saints Go Marching In; She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain; My Bonnie. In addition to that, practice the new song in your Czerny book. Kristin - Practice the exercises I put an asterisk near in your scale book. Once you're comfortable with the broken chords in C, you can try them on other white-key chords (D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor). In addition to that, continue to work on composing and orchestrating your D-major-pentatonic idea.

Oscar - Practice the stride pattern through the 12 bar blues progression. Bounce from the root to the 5th with the bass note. Think of each voice moving as little as possible. Also, transcribe as much as you can of the first 50 seconds of Red Garland on C Jam Blues. It's available on YouTube. Avril - Play all the diatonic triads (I-ii-iii-IV-V-vi-viio) in all 12 major keys. Practice and ANALYZE Autumn Leaves. If there's any part that confuses you (why is this chord here?), write down your question or write an asterisk on the lead sheet so we can talk about it. Julie - Practice voice leading with the rules written on your notes. IV-V-I progressions in as many major keys as you can. Work on all the repertoire you have. Figure out the chords and come up with a basic accompaniment for "Ah! Vous Dirai-je, Maman". Kristin - Lift Hank Jones' solo on Autumn Leaves. Try to figure out why he made the musical decisions he did. What scale was he thinking of over each chord? If there is a note that doesn't seem to belong, why is it there? Any motifs or sequences? Identify. Write down any questions you have. Also, practice playing the melody while punctuating with rootless chord voicings.