Hey everyone! Great work on the Dozen a Day exercises! This is the first week of playing Holiday themed pieces, if there is a specific carol you are interested in playing, let me know and we will work it out! The goal is to explore more than 1 holiday piece this winter.

Grace

Sonatina Bureaucratique – nice progress! I wrote in the fingering in a few spots, notice that. At the bottom of page 1, ensure your LH arpeggios are the exact same speed as the RH 8th notes were in the line before. Do not rush them.

*New* Beethoven Sonatina op.49 no.2 – when tackling the LH triplets, keep a loose rotating feel in your wrist. Your wrist will be at it’s highest point when playing the middle finger, creating a little hill from left to right each triplet group.

G major scale in triplets – these are found verbatim in the Beethoven piece so warmup with them and get comfy with it. Do 3 octaves to have a rhythmically satisfying turn around and ending.

Liam

Sonatina op 36 no 1 – HT. You can totally handle hands together, just take it slightly slower. You have done an excellent job of including details when playing hands seperate. This is a very playful piece, so prioritze evenness along with your accurate articulation to bring the character to life. LH notes can be thick but detached, they shouldn’t be stacatto, but you need not connect them.

*New* Solace – try practicing just the notes that change with the written fingering for each little motive. Then add in the repeated notes, ensuring your hand remains as free of tension as possible (practice this in small chunks, or do some of it, then a different piece and circle back). We want to hear the changing notes louder than the repeated ones, so keep that the back of your mind. Hands seperate this week and go slow. The melody in your arrangement begins at 0:47. 

*New* Silent Night – this arrangement is in F major and begins with a LH melody. Play the RH chords delicately. Taper off the ends of phrases for a beautiful melodic line.

Jadon

*New* Candlelight – pop fusion of Angels We Have Heard on High. This piece is in D Major, watch your F#s. There are moments that the original carol’s melody is exactly as you’d expect, and other moments it deviates, so read carefully.

Gravity Falls – I love your opening walking bass idea! The stepping up LH notes will fall on beats 4 +, and will align with the RH notes that are also going upwards.

Thank you for the payment! I hope you find your book.

Sara

*New* Midnight Clear – this is in 6/8. There is a lot of lilting rhythms here, think long-short-long-short for each bar like that. There will be moments of the exact original melody, and moments of new material, so keep your eyes peeled! Have fun with it:)

Yaya Sonhado – nice attention to detail! Through repetition and careful precision we will eliminate the “splitting” that sometimes occurs in the RH solid 3rds. You can even play hands seperate with the sole goal of no notes splitting. Page 2 a bit of fingering work is needed, look to what we pencilled in. Practice that hands seperate also.

Gavotte in F – good progress. This week play it in 4 bar chunks to really feel the phrasing. Listen and decide the high point of each phrase, does it peak in the middle and then taper off? Does it grow into the next phrase? The paper has some details, but it is also your artistry and taste that will bring it to life. LH notes can be detached more often, not short, just disconnected.

Maple Leaf Rag – I’ll hear this next week.

Marco

*New* By My Side – this piece includes hints of Away in a Manger. It is a C Major scale study, so it includes only white keys, and the LH uses I, IV and V power chords. The time signature is 6/8, so you want to feel 2 beats per measure = 1 2 3 4 5 6. Begin hands seperate and with a steady pulse.

*New* Back to the Future – yes this is a crazy key signature = Db major. It is the real key of this piece, so you could play along to the recording slowed down if you like. Plus we will get black key practice! In the first line, the only white keys are the Cb (B) and F. In the rest of the piece the only white keys are when a natural is written, or C and F. Everything else is flat. You can use your ear and knowledge of the piece for the rhythms. The quarter note triplets will be new to you, they are triplets that take up 2 whole beats instead of just 1.

Totoro – woohoo!! I’m proud! The first 8 bars are sounding really confident hands together. Let’s keep it going right to the end now, the penultimate line of the piece is a repetition of the top line of page 2 almost exactly. Remember to start practicing in places other than just the beginning. Start at the beginning of any phrase.

Katarina, Marita, Daniel and Greta – keep working on last week’s assignments. I will hear your technical exercises as well as pieces next week and give you your first Holiday piece.