Happy 2024!! This year is going to be so musical and amazing. Everybody came back sounding like they hadn’t even spent time away from the piano, so cool! Congrats to 4 of you that completed BINGO <3

Grace

Sonatina Bureaucratique – Detach between octaves in last line of page 1. Top line of page 2, 3rd measure. Practice between 2nd and 3rd chord a bunch, then between 3rd and 4th chord.

Beethoven Sonatina – break line when written if you agree it sounds good. Listen to recordings to see how you want to play grace notes.

Liam

Russian Medley – page 1 HT. There is lots of tied notes used here and as a result, the melody rarely begins on beat 1, be aware of this. Take a few practice sessions of hands seperate and then put it together.

*New* Harlequinade – HS. This is in Eb major. Detach all 8th and quarter notes unless they are explicitly marked legato. Break the line where written (I have added arrows). Go slow and focus on the details:) Listen here.

Harmonic and melodic scales – Bm, Dm, Gm. Harmonic means to raise the 7th note. Melodic minor is different each direction: Up is raised 6 and 7 like a major scale, going down lowers 6 and 7.

P.S You CRUSHED Walk the Talk. Give yourself a pat on the back. Sounded so cool.

Jadon

Avengers Endgame – HS practice from after star on page. The 4 bar chord progression of E minor / E minor / A major / C C D D repeats three times. However the 2nd time it goes to B major instead of C and D.

**Bring Fired Up! next week**

Sara

Maple Leaf Rag – nice work trying to bring out top note. Melodic shape is really coming along. Very very proud of this one.

Cloud Dance – dynamics and shaping. Picture the story we made of the sunset in your mind as you play and try and put it into the listener’s mind.

Jupiter – fix dotted rhythm. Think of top notes to project the melody further.

Marco

On Your Mark – full first page hands seperate. When that is learnt, you can definitely do the first 3 lines HT. Keep your hand in G minor position as much as possible, it will be easier for your fingers to remember their patterns.

Indiana Jones – HT measures 5-12 every single time. Remember the LH comes in on the 3rd note of each melodic fragment. Then the LH plays again on beat 3 in the space between the melody.

C F G scales. They all use the same fingering except for RH F is an exception. It goes 1234 1234 because of the Bb. ***Try and put them hands together slowly this week*

Daniel

Home Run – great syncopation!! Work to lighten up everything except the accented notes. Add in the B section hands together now. I have drawn arrows to show the syncopation. Notice the tied notes. Chord progression stays the same. It should have a fun carefree vibe to it.

*New* Etude in F Major. Listen here.  This piece is beautiful and the opening melody reminds me of Silent Night! LH is legato. I have drawn little half circles over the LH to show the motion the wrist should be doing, like painting a rainbow or driving a hot wheel car over a small hill over and over again. Let your wrist and arm help you play the LH with zero effort. Next week we will go through and identify all the chords used.

Greta

Swan Lake – we added in fingering that makes playing the melody legato possible! Great job with the rhythms and syncopation between hands.

*New* Into the Waves – careful reading is necessary here because not every collection of notes is a triad. Many patterns repeat in different octaves so notice that. When a single line is marked legato and played with two hands, the goal is for the listener to not be able to tell it is split between hands. This can be achieved by having a similar volume and tone between notes, as well as even and consistent timing. Listen here.

C F and G major scales. All use the same fingering except for RH F has to use 1234 1234 because of the Bb. F Major only has one black key, Bb. G only has one black key, F#.