Warm weather is hopefully here to stay! Enjoy it :)

Liam

Camptown Races – great work! Watch the pickup beat on the melody, it falls on beat 4. Polish it up hands together this week.

*New* The Can-Can – This piece is in D Major. Watch for F#s and C#s. The LH only plays tonic and dominant chords the whole piece. Note there are only 2 beats per bar.

Today we learned how to identify ascending minor 3rds, Major 3rds, perfect 4ths and perfect 5ths by ear. The songs we used to recognize them are as follows: +3 = Oh When the Saints Go Marching In, -3 = I Am Iron Man, or Oh Canada, p4 = Oh Christmas Tree, or Here Comes the Bride, p5: opening notes to Star Wars main theme.

Great work on Duel of the Fates and the 3 against 2 feel as well. Hard work pays off!

Marita

*New* Je Te Veux. This is a real Impressionist piano piece by famous French composer Erik Satie. It was first performed in 1902. This is the full original piece to listen to, and yours is in the same key, just a slightly simpler arrangement of the first 1 minute. Feel the 3/4 waltz vibe, that will really help the LH pattern of strong-weak-weak. The RH melody should be played louder than the LH accompaniment. We wrote in the RH fingering today, so follow that. If you lose the paper you can find this piece here.

Far Away – Practice in chunks. The first 6 bars are kind of there own little thing before the big cascading passage. Practice the intro chunk a bunch by itself, and then practice the cascading 4 bars over and over as well HT.

Sara

No repeats in the exam! This effects Harlequinade and Arabesque. Practice those 2nd endings lots so muscle memory knows how you’re going to do it in the exam

Le Coucou – focus more on the 2nd to last page where all the accidentals show up. Choose a slower steady speed and work your way through at a steady, even tempo. Amazing work overall.

Sonatina – great fixes all around. Make sure you don’t lose speed at the end of page 1, hear the triplets inside your head and don’t ritardando coming into that measure. Great memory also :)

I lent you a elementary collection of pieces you can use for sightreading practice. Pick a chunk of 4-8 bars depending on the difficulty and give yourself less than a minute to look at it and take in all the details you can and then begin playing. If you have trouble evaluating yourself that way, you can always record your attempt to see an objective view of how you did.

Continue to practice ear requirements: Intervals, Major/Minor triads, Rhythm Clapback, Melody Playback.

Sina

*New* The Gymnast – G position. This piece introduces the damper pedal to make a beautiful elegant sound. When the line beneath the staff is there, it tells you to press down the pedal, when the line breaks, so does your pedal. There are 4 measures in this song without pedal to create contrast; play these staccatos very crispy to make a big contrast.

Great job on the scales today! You know C, D and G in both hands with proper fingering. Woohoo!