Happy snow day! Have fun and stay safe out there <3

Liam

Star Wars – Awesome progress! Wow! Points to remember are: bring the accented notes out more, play the B section a bit more mellow and smoother to give contrast, keep working on the pedal, for the final LH repeated notes experiment with using multiple fingers to play them fast enough.

Down in the Valley – remember to count yourself in with 3 beats. Use a rainbow motion of the LH wrist to ensure you’re lining up with each note and using your arm weight accurately. Try to play the melody slightly louder than the accompaniment.

Your new major scales are Ab and Bb. Ab has 4 black keys: Ab, Bb, Db, Eb. RH fingering is 341 2312 3. LH fingering is: 321 4321 3.
Bb has only 2, Bb and Eb. Fingers 3 and 4 will play the black keys, but the hands won’t use the same finger at the same time. LH fingering is 321 4321 2 – RH is 412 3123 4. Notice how the two hands alternate fingers 3 and 4 on the black keys when playing hands together. Great work!

Fiona

Grumpy Old Troll – First 8 bars. Play attention to the staccato markings and also to the dynamics. The italic text is the troll speaking, and it uses these crunchy changing intervals to quietly whisper while the other hand holds a long loud note. I am very confident in your ability to read this and learn this first half of the piece this week! There are many YouTube videos of teachers playing this if you wish to listen for extra help.

Hope to see you in person next week so I can teach you a new scale and give you a fun extracurricular piece :)

Sara

Great exam selection! Please confirm that you have registered :)

Sunset at the Beach – Awesome work on all the notes! We fixed some of the rhythms in class today, if in doubt just subdivide into 8th notes and see how it maths out :) When practicing hands together, go in small chunks and work on actually becoming fluent in tiny puzzle pieces. Then we can click them together in a way that your brain can remember, rather than trudging through the entire thing without your brain remembering the progress your fingers have made.

Continue to warm up with all your technique. A good technique to make sure everything is covered each week is to pick a key each day and do all the exercises for that one key that day. Repeat with a different key the next day etc.

Next week I will check two week’s worth of the Ear and Sight book :)

Marita

The Snake – awesome progress! Continue through the whole piece this week. I love how you always ensure you begin the next line when the other one ends, and not having any gaps between them. I circled the fingering that is specific and necessary, so note that. You can begin to add the dynamic swells, as that really seals the deal of painting a musical picture for the listener.

Mist – Practice moving between the chords more so that it can be done without hesitation. Playing the LH by itself may help accomplish this, or simply memorizing the order of the chords would too.

Minuet – I’m so proud of your hands together playing this week! Keep doing it at home, you have all the fingering locked in which is great. More practice is all it takes to elevate this one!

Your new scale is Ab Major. It has 4 flats = Ab, Bb, Db, Eb. RH fingering is = 341 2312 3. LH fingering is 321 4321 3. Enjoy!

Sina

QWERTY – Pay attention to the staccato notes, and the smooth groups of notes. The 3rd line gets louder each bar to add excitement, and you decided you like line 4 staying big so let’s stay forte right until the final note. Awesome reading on this one today.

C Major Triad pattern. This image below shows the notes you will be playing. Notice how they are the same 3 notes over and over again in different orders. They are the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the major scale = C E G. Your hand will play them crawling up the keyboard like a crab. Watch this video to see how.