Hi everyone! Hope you have an amazing Valentine’s Day next week! <3

Liam

March. This piece includes a dotted quarter note. It is worth 1 and a half beats. Count 1 2, the play the next note on the “and of 2”. The pop chords above and the Roman numerals I wrote below tell you when to change LH chords.

Prelude – first 8 bars. This is in 6/8, meaning there are 6 eighth notes per bar and the strongest beats are 1 + 4 (dividing the bar in half). When your LH crosses over to play the high notes, try to land on them melodically and not crash down much louder than the other notes you’ve played.

E and A Major scales. These two keys are your new mission! E has 4 black keys = F#, G#, C#, D#. A has 3 = C#, F#, G#. Same fingering as your other white key scales.

Fiona

Forest Song – first page. This song is in D minor position (D position, but all white notes). Be sure to noticed the tied notes in the LH, and only play the notes when necessary, and hold them otherwise.  For example, the third line you only play the LH once and then keep holding it. Keep playing the proper articulation of the RH how each melodic phrase starts with a staccato note and then the rest is legato.

Warmup with your C and G Major scales. Don’t forget your LH!

Marita

*New Song* Mist. We wrote in what the LH triads are. This piece is in 3/4 so be sure to count accordingly. Great job noticing the dynamics, this piece is not a very loud one! It gives a more subdued misty vibe :)

Minuet. You can totally do this hands together nice and slowly! Practice the spots with tricky fingering hands seperate lots of times until it’s easy to do, and then dive in HT at a slower tempo. This is sounding great!

Young Ludwig. Take this one 4 bars at a time and simply work on getting each 4 bars together comfortably. The written fingering is great – use it! Practicing it together today was great, now take some time to practice this one and show me what you can do next week! It only gets easier! Never harder :)

Warmup with your technique = scales and triads as written in the front of your repertoire book.

Sara

Chinese Lanterns. Awesome articulation and tempo! Sounds awesome. Let’s add in the dynamics this week. It is in 2 line chunks, and gets progressively louder each time.

Sonatina Mvt 2. Great work! There’s always more work one could do on balance between the hands, like lightening up the LH triplets – but your work on this piece is impressive! Loving the dynamics and the care to details. Continue to notice all the rests and little details and polish this one:)

Harlequinade – Very nice! This is one we’ll definitely use for the exam as it is impressive.

Keep doing the Ear and Sight book. Great effort with it, it’s going to pay off!

Technique is sounding great! You can try and grow your scales up to the top and then get quieter as you descend. Solidify your triad fingering so it’s very consistent. Good tempos across the board.

Feel free to pick another piece and start exploring it, or keep polishing all these – we’ll start a longterm project piece next week :)

Marco

Boat of Tai Lake. Nice work! When you are using the metronome keep in mind the tempo marking on this piece is a click per HALF note at 63 bpm. This is to create a longer floating feeling, rather than a vertical thump-thump-thump feel. However, you can practice with the metronome clicking each QUARTER note while in these early stages. The performance speed would be around 126 bpm (63 x 2). I think practicing with the metronome at 80 per QUARTER note right now is a great practice speed while we’re learning the notes. This means when playing a half note you’ll play on a click, and have a click of holding it. Do not rush the parts you already can play faster, only go as fast as you can play the trickiest/newest part.
Do not only play with the metronome, as it is no replacement for having a strong internal sense of pulse. I love how you count for yourself when you play!
This week, start from a different line each practice session! Play the new parts more often than the beginning of the piece.

Never Gonna Give You Up – Keep up the awesome practice strategy of putting the RH note after the 2 LH notes. Next lesson we will begin putting the other LH notes after it too to bookend it in. Great job working on the chorus melody too! Keep it up :)

Have fun practicing your E Major scale with 4 black keys = F#, G#, C#, D#.

Sina

*New Piece* My New Skate Shoes. This piece explores the concept of a major triad being the I chord, and a “crunchy” 2nd representing the V7 chord. Notice and play the dynamics, it starts medium loud and then gets quieter in line 3, before reaching the high point at the beginning of the last line.

G Major scale. Warmup with this in both hands. Fingering is same as C scale: RH = 123 12345, LH = 54321 321. It is all white keys until F#.

Daniel

The Snake – M. 9+10 ensure evenness. You have a tendency to play the first 3 eighth notes fast and then hesitate on the 4th one as you ready the other hand, work on keeping them all even through practicing these small sections slowly. Last line, count 1+2+3+4+ to ensure all notes are being played and the piece ends on the correct beat. Maybe it was just zoom today but I thought I heard less notes than written.

Angelfish – Notice and execute the LH legato line in M.5-8 and 9-12. Play it without pedal to ensure your fingers are making the legato and not just the pedal. The melody notes should not be drowned out by the constant flow of RH 8th notes.

Ecossaise – More hands separate slow practice to get it steady. The Ecossaise is a type of dance so it must be steady so no one steps on each others feet! 

Detectives – Ensure LH is staccato: hand shouldn’t be extended and strained to reach notes, just bounce around. More hands seperate practice this week. Great progress already!

Warmup with your technique.