Jasmine Tsui

Hakim

Technical Exercises – G and D Major scales 1 octave – practicing hands separately 

• Practicing as solid groups of fingers (RH groups of 3 and 5, LH groups of 5 and 3) and stepping through
• Saying note names out loud as you play, making sure you know which sharps you need for each scale
  • (G Major – F#, D Major – F# and C#)

Bartok –  #7-9

The Calico Cat – Beginning to work hands separately

• Focusing on an A minor 5 finger hand position moving up and down the keyboard.

Bizville – Finding layers in each hand – focusing on our Left hand “groove”

• Focusing on B flat in the left hand, jumping between octaves – Make sure you know which octave you start in 
• Figuring out where each main beat in your measure is!

Clara

Technical Exercises – C Major scale – one octave hands separately

• Practicing as solid blocks of fingerings and stepping through – saying note names out loud.

Lesson Book – pages 68-71 – focusing on reading rests while playing

• Thinking of our rests as beats of silence where we listen, instead of stopping and pausing at rests.
• Acknowledge any rests as you play (breathing on the rest or saying “rest” out loud are easy ways to keep track of them)

Hakim

Technical Exercises – Continuing work on C Major 1 octave scale 

Adding in G Major 1 octave scale this week – continuing to practice as solid blocked chords and then stepping through. Using the same fingerings for G Major as C Major (groups of 3 and 5 fingers)  Scale Fingerings – Hakim Nov 20

Bartok – Working through exercises #4-7 

• Starting hands separately, observing the shape of the line as you step through (not worrying about note names at first, just watching for steps up and down the staff)
• Once comfortable hands separately, put hands together – practicing stepping through while keeping an even tempo/speed.

Celebration – Cleaning up and making sure you are able to keep energy going throughout the entire piece!

• Watching out for places like measure 4 to 5, making sure you are able to jump back into our starting position without hesitating.
• Making sure we keep the same bouncy and short staccato articulation measures 1-3 in both hands! Don’t let your right hand hold onto notes, keeping everything nice and short.

Clara

Technical Exercises – Continuing to slowly practice C Major 1 octave scale hands separately, playing as solid blocked chords of fingerings (groups of 3 and 5), and stepping through.

Lesson Book – Continuing to work through pages 59-62 hands together.

Bartok – Starting new set of reading exercises, working through exercises #1 and #2a (focusing on C 5 finger positions in both)

• Read through one hand’s line of music without playing – looking at the direction we are stepping, notice when we step away and return to the same note!
• Find starting notes, then playing slowly hands separately on the keyboard watching for steps up/down (we only move by steps in these first few exercises)
• Moving on to say note names out loud while playing hands separately.
• Once fully comfortable hands separate, adding hands together and practicing while saying note names.

Hakim

Technical Exercises – Working through 1 octave scales starting on C – hands separately and together.

• Practicing as both solid blocked hand positions and stepping through – not just practicing stepping through quickly.
• Practicing with a legato, staccato, and detached articulation.

Celebration – Working through start to finish hands together – being able to play through without hesitation. Double check where you need to move between sections (like between measures 8-9).

Bartok – Working through exercises #1-6 being prepared to play through any of them start to finish without hesitation – hands together.

Clara

Technical Exercises – Working through our new 1 octave C major scale – only hands separately.

• Playing through as solid blocked chords and then stepping through while still thinking about solid hand positions. Moving horizontally between positions in the same way, stepping or solid blocks.
• Try practicing with a variety of articulations (legato, staccato, detached and dropping from the arm)

Lesson Book – Pages 59-62 

• Octopus – Jumping between Bass and Middle C in the LH. Playing our C 1 octave scale in measure 5 as written (only in finger 3) and using our scale fingering we learned (groups of 5 and 3 fingers, changing hand position)
• Copy Cat – RH presenting an idea (melody, rhythm, and dynamics), LH copying. Noticing when our pattern breaks/intervals change.
• Grandmother – starting HS, noticing how our RH in measure 5 copies our LH in measure 1 before trying to add hands together.

Sara

Listening – Harry Somers “Feller from Fortune”

Technical Exercises – Continuing with B Major – 2 octaves HT for everything

• Parallel motion scales – being sure to keep our wrist/arm neutral, our bridge/knuckles supported, and our fingers curved around our bubble especially when we are mostly on black keys (no flat fingers!)
• Triads (solid/broken), working on letting our elbows lead a “down and out” circular motion like we tried together – letting one circle carry us to the next position. Our hands should be mirroring/moving in the opposite direction of each other.
• Arpeggios – using arm motion to help carry us horizontally across the keyboard (no finger crossing legatos between hand positions)

Schubert – continue with slow hands separate practice

Bartok – #29-31 – Making sure we can follow each hand separately so that we can comfortably play through without getting overwhelmed.

• Starting HS, try singing along with one hand while you play (HS and HT), play one hand staccato and one hand legato, one hand forte/one hand piano, etc.

Beethoven – Noticing in places like measure 3, 7, 21, and 25 how our hands link up on the main beats. 

• Practice just playing the main eighth notes in the LH (without the upper note that we return to each time), then linking that up with the RH. Then adding in and “ghosting” all of our LH syncopated sixteenth notes so we still are following when our hands link together.
• Thinking about our “conversation” between characters – showing large dynamic changes clearly. Our brighter and louder “older sibling” at measure 1 versus the tip-toeing softer “younger sibling” at measure 3.
• Remember that your RH is the melody in most of this piece, keeping our RH as the most important to our ear with dynamics throughout the entire piece (unless both hands share our main idea like in measure 35)

Clara

Technical Exercises – 5 finger scale positions starting on C, G, D, A, E, and B 

• Following our pattern of half steps and whole steps for each position, saying all note names out loud.
• Stepping up and down in our hand position, then outlining our triad shape.

Lesson Book – Pages 50-53 Scans for Clara – Oct 23

• Welcome to the Parade – Try changing our dynamic levels and “recomposing” this piece how you want it!
• Hey Hey/Allegro – Watching for skips on the staff (line note to line note, skipping a finger/key on the keyboard)

Hakim

Bartok – Working through exercises #1-6 – double check/write in your starting notes for both hands

• Practice playing through hands separately and together, saying note names out loud.

Celebration – Working through entirely to the end hands together. 

• Make sure you are confident of hand positions in places like measure 4 and 14, check how similar they are to your starting positions.
• Watching for our pattern as we change hand positions in measures 8-12

Sara

Listening

• Rebecca Clarke’s “The Seal Man” (for piano and voice)

• Rebecca Clarke’s Viola Sonata, first movement (for piano and viola)

Technical Exercises – Continue with E Major 

• Scales, triads (solid HS and HT, broken only HS),
• Arpeggios (only HS – thinking of blocked hand positions moving from the arm horizontally/sideways instead of crossing fingers under)

Schubert – continuing slow hands separate practice for the most part – be patient with yourself! We aren’t aiming for speed at this point, just to get things comfortable and settled in your brain/hands. Speed will come with time.

• Thinking of bouncing between hand positions from your arm, instead of trying to make everything legato in the fingers!
• Focusing on LH jumps so that you are building them into your memory, this will allow you to focus more on your RH while playing.
• For RH: making use of your arm to help with awkward hand position changes like in measures 7-8 and 9-10.

Sonatina in F – Finding entire hand positions and mentally grouping things up, like in measures 25-43 in the RH (thinking of 3 big hand positions, instead of each individual note)

• Thinking about the “conversation” in this piece to help with remembering rests (like in measures 43-50), always leading to beat 1 of the next measure. 

Bartok – Continuing with #25-28

Clara

Technical Exercises – Continue practicing 5 finger major scale positions starting on C, G, and D (watching out for F# finger 3 in D position) – practicing hands separately and together; trying legato, detached, and staccato articulation.

Lesson Book – pages 47-49, 50-51 if time. Focusing on reading steps around the home notes (Middle C, Treble G, Bass F).

Scans for Clara – Oct 16

Hakim

Celebration – starting new piece, watching for changing hand positions and making sure you are confident on note names!

Celebration – Hakim

Distant Chimes – Continuing to work through, map out hand position changes as solid chords in the same way as celebration.

• Writing in note names for starting hand positions if you need to

Bartok – Work through exercises 1, 2a, 2b, and 3 

• Make sure you are 100% confident in your starting notes, then try reading through based on the shape of the line/whether we are stepping up or down – don’t worry about individual note names yet.
• Once comfortable playing through, practicing while saying note names out loud, trying not to slow down at all.

Bartok Mikrokosmos Book 1 1-19