Jasmine Tsui

Sara

Listening: Franz Schubert’s “Gute Nacht” from Winterreise (“Good Night” from Winter Journey)

Technical Exercises

Continuing in  B Major – Review fingerings from attached page for scales (LH especially just to be confident!) and triads.

-Triads – watching out that we are always outlining each chord inversion with fingers 1 and 5 (which feels much different from our arpeggio fingerings in this key).

-Broken triads – practicing hands separately thinking about leading from our elbow! “Drawing circles” going down and out from the center with your elbows as you play each inversion.

Bartok

Focusing in on #20-24 – double checking details like strange key signatures, noticing when our patterns are broken, working through trying to keep your eyes an entire measure ahead of what you are playing!

Lesson Book – Sonatina in F Major

Working hands separately, watching for patterns and things that you recognize (like scales, triad shapes, etc.). 

-Practicing slowly in small groups of measures, focusing in on places that may catch us off guard like measures 19-22 where our pattern changes.

-For LH, being careful to check in and relax our hand/wrist – use your arm to help stay relaxed like our broken triad exercises.

Schubert

Continue HS work – keeping your pencil handy to mark in any unfamiliar notes on ledger lines, any extra fingerings that you need reminders of, as well as circling/starring any new ideas that may catch you off guard (like the shift in harmony at the very end)

-for RH: focusing in and practicing sections where we have a lot of textures in one hand (like in measures 24-26 or so)

-for LH: playing LH jumps as a solid blocked chord (like we talked about in Pierrot and Pierrette) so that we are able to understand how much or little things change between chords.

Hakim

Technical Exercises

Practicing 5 finger major scale patterns, starting on C, G, D, A, and E 

-finding chords/major triads in each position using fingers 1-3-5

Distant Chimes

Doubling checking starting notes for each new hand position, mark down the note names for your starting positions. 

-Practice hands separately and hands together as solid chords in fingers 1 and 5 to get used to the changing hand positions.

Clara

Technical Exercises

5 finger scales starting on C, G, and D.

-Practicing stepping legato/smoothly, and staccato/bouncy; saying note names and finger numbers out loud. Practice hands separately and together, trying out in different registers of the keyboard.

Lesson Book – Pages 42-46, focusing on reading steps on the staff around Middle C and Treble G. Faber scans for Clara – 42-46

Sara

Pieces to Listen: 

• Bela Bartok – Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QElT9KD4uX8&ab_channel=invertedninthchord 

• Franz Schubert – “Gute Nacht” from Winterreise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8I5Gn3bVN0&ab_channel=WarnerClassics

Technical Exercises – Review LH fingerings for E Major scale 

• New Key – B Major (5 sharps!): Scales (parallel, HS and HT)
  • Triads (solid HT, broken HS) – watching out for fingers 1 and 5 on black keys, moving further into the keys so that you are comfortable.
  • Arpeggios (HS) – thinking of moving horizontally with your arm instead of crossing fingers over/under to stay relaxed and in control. Remember to try and keep finger 3 lined up with your elbow so we don’t get any “chicken wings” in the elbows!

Bartok – #20-21 (22 if time), starting HS and watching for when our patterns breaks! Bartok Mikrokosmos Book 1 20-36

• Trying to follow the shape of the line and being sure to look ahead as you read.
• Making sure we are practicing with a nice healthy forte! Think of playing deep into the keys instead of skating over the top of them, especially in Bartok and Technical Exercises.

Pierrot & Pierrette – focusing on dynamics:

– balance between hands (RH melody, LH supporting/accompaniment), watching for any marked dynamics.

Schubert: Moments Musicaux no.3 – Working entirely HS.

• RH: working through small sections RH alone, ignoring ornaments for now as we get comfortable with the structure of the piece.
  • Have your pencil handy as you work to mark down any fingerings.
  • Working through RH layers so that we are able to play and hear them separately.
  • Circle any difficult/awkward feeling sections and isolate the most challenging part – focusing in and practicing these small sections/jumps until you are able to move through them without hesitating.
• LH: the “motor” of this piece, practicing repeated chords moving back and forth to get comfortable with the large jumps. Adding extra challenges to get it comfortable quickly (for example: repeating chords multiple times, adding an extra octave in between the jumps like we’ve tried together, playing only top or bottom notes of chords when you jump, etc.)

Clara

Lesson Book: Pages 36-41 – Reading on the staff, focusing on home notes (Bass F, Middle C, and Treble G). Faber scans for Clara – 36-41

• Watching for which finger is in charge of each home note, and if there are more than one note being played at a time vertically (either in one hand, like “Driving in the G Clef”, or in both hands at once, like “Best Friends”)

Exercises: Working through 5 finger scales starting in a C, G, and D hand position. 

• Practicing hands separately, trying hands together if comfortable.
• Saying note names out loud while practicing.

Hakim

Exercises: Working through 5 finger scale hand positions around the keyboard, starting in C, G, D, A, and E 5 finger positions. 

• Watching out for our pattern of half steps and whole steps in each position to find any sharps 
  • 5 finger scale pattern – Whole step, Whole step, Half Step, Whole Step
• Practicing hands separately and together slowly at first: be prepared to try legato, staccato, or detached. (Remember, when we play through things quickly before they’re comfortable it will take much longer to get comfortable!)

Distant Chimes – Working through all the way to the end hands together, keeping an eye on changing hand position and watching for repeating patterns (like measures 5 and 7, or 6 and 8)

• Watching out for hands crossing over all the way through, especially in measures 13 to the end.

Sara

Technique – Scales, Triads, Arpeggios

-Continue with E Major, focusing on staying relaxed all exercises (checking in with the entire hand, the wrist, and the forearm)

-Especially with solid triads – thinking in a similar way to RH octaves in “The Entertainer” – not letting wrist get too high, or letting the hand “set” into position.

The Entertainer: Getting things overall more physically comfortable and automatic. Break into small chunks and work HS as we did in lesson.

-For RH, breaking octaves/chords apart into their pieces and playing through as an exercise (only finger 1/finger 5, repeating each chord before moving onto the next)

-For LH, focusing on jumps between hand positions: making sure you are able to jump back and forth quickly and comfortably (practicing repeating chords similar to RH, make the jumps more difficult by jumping an extra octave)

Pierrot & Pierrette: Breaking apart into small chunks (approximately 4 measure groups) and isolating any problem notes/tricky spots. Making sure that we can confidently and loudly play to the end of each small chunk.

-For LH, focusing on STRONG weak weak rhythm – emphasizing a STRONG beat 1 in each measure.

-For RH, not allowing for any shy playing! Ignore the “p” dynamic for now, playing confidently and strongly in the RH to get settled. When practicing HT, making sure that our RH is louder than LH (remember! RH is our melody in this case, LH is creating atmosphere and supporting)

Bartok: Continuing on with #9-10; focusing on reading ahead and looking at the entire shape of a musical phrase, not just looking a note ahead. Try to imagine how it will sound based on the shape before you play.

-Reviewing #1-8 throughout the week for your own purposes, focusing on reading the entire shape as we tried in lesson (don’t be afraid to draw out the shape into your score to help visually to “connect the dots”)

Clara

Lesson book pages 25-31, practicing speaking note names and finger numbers out loud.

Faber scans for Clara 25-31

Practicing 5 finger scales hands separately, ascending and descending in a C 5 finger position. Speaking finger numbers and note names out loud while playing detached, staccato (like popcorn), and legato (smooth and connected).

C-1, D2, E3, F4, G5

Sara

Technical Exercises – Working through new key this week: E Major (4 sharps)

Overall thinking about larger groupings of notes/fingers and thinking ahead instead of thinking of what you are doing. E Major Technique Fingerings – Sara

• Scales: E Major hands separately 1 octave first, working towards hands together 2 octaves – thinking about hand position groupings as opposed to individual notes/steps. Thinking about what is under the fingers at any given moment, what is the highest/lowest notes in each position, how far do we need to move to get to the next position, etc.
  • Practicing as solid blocked chords of each hand position, then moving on to stepping through the scale with a detached articulation, still thinking about the larger hand position.
• Triads: Focusing on HS solid triads, watching out for finger 2 in each position (see attached example). Holding each inversion and thinking ahead before moving, only moving to the next position when you are feeling prepared and confident you can go right to it. 

Pierrot and Pierrette – Beginning to think about musical direction and dynamics! One of the most important parts of telling a story is communicating clearly – so making sure that we know what the beginning and ending of your ideas are in the piece is a good place to start (considering what they are to you right now, not what is the “correct” answer). and start to introduce dynamic markings.

• Think about your characters, shifting moods, or a narrative that makes sense for you within this piece – use it as inspiration musically as you are working. Consider the beginnings and endings of your musical ideas and how they might impact musical shapes/dynamics that are already on the page.
• Making sure that we are comfortable enough with “step 1” of notes/rhythms that we are able to at least play comfortably to the end of each idea without getting caught off guard.
• Begin introducing dynamic shapes that are on the page.
• Thinking about our waltz rhythm and how it can help us understand the flow of the music – STRONG weak weak STRONG weak weak (always going to the next strong beat 1!)
• Practicing pulsing solid chords in LH to get comfortable with changes (also a good way to introduce your dynamic shapes!)

The Entertainer – For octaves and large chords, making sure to not let our hand/wrist/forearm get tense. Opening up our fingers from our wrist instead of the base of our fingers, and not letting the wrist get too high (we want to keep as relaxed and open as possible). Practicing repeating chords/octaves and making sure you are able to stay loose especially in your wrist.

Bartok – New set of reading exercises: begin working through the first few exercises (1-6 should be enough for this week). Observing as much as you can about each new exercise before playing, see how much you are able to hear in your head before playing. Bartok Mikrokosmos Book 1 1-19

• Paying attention to rhythms, shapes/directions of notes in groupings instead of reading 1 note at a time, any patterns you notice.

Clara

Working through scanned pages, focusing on playing on the black keys and reading through each piece as opposed to practicing the same piece repeatedly.  Saying all finger numbers out loud while playing through, and watching out for half notes vs. quarter notes.

Faber scans for Clara – 12-20