Anaya
Recommended minutes to practice: 10 minutes a day
What to practice: Rain Rain, finishing as much as you can of the worksheet on pages 36-37
How to practice it most effectively: Today we learned about reading music on the staff. In Rain Rain we are playing with left hand in the bass clef: the two dots on the clef symbol surround the 4th line which is always the letter F. LH will be in C position, with finger 2 on F – at the start of the lines you have 6 Fs in a row! After that watch how the notes are stepping downwards then back up to F.
Saskia
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes a day
What to practice: “na na na” warmup (3 note scale – start on ‘C’ on a piano app), Dynamite, Do a Deer
How to practice it most effectively: When doing your warmup, start at a middle/low part of your range and work your way upwards on the syllables “na” – the N will help you access a nasal tone. Once you’ve worked your way up, go back to that medium/low part of your range and then go downwards. For Dynamite, please be especially careful on the “shining through the city with a little funk and soul” line. To avoid straining, switch to that more nasal-y tone on the word “with” for the higher part of the line. When going down on “soul”, add a little H in front of the second note. In the breakdown section (dy-na-na-na-na…) do your best to keep the jaw still, using just little tongue movements between syllables since it’s so fast! Please continue to sing Do a Deer with the first part of the verse, we will start with that next week.
You can start singing Dynamite with a karaoke track as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9aFf48jLPQ
Gianna
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes a day
What to practice: C and G major scale warmups, skips warmup, Shake it Off, Life is an Adventure
How to practice it most effectively: In the C major scale warmup, please sing on the syllable “na” instead of the letters – keep your jaw nice and long especially when you get to the higher notes. In the G major scale warmup still say the letter names. For the new skips warmup, start in C position and play/sing C-E-G-E-C on any vowel (ah, oh, ooh, ee, etc.) and then do the same in F position. In Shake it Off‘s prechorus and chorus, A is the guide note – when singing along to your video please be at the keyboard so you can play this note for yourself to stay on track. Make sure you enunciate and really pronounce your consonants during the chorus.
**please print out this lyric/note sheet and practice the whole song top to bottom for Life is an Adventure: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q8xwAPiytqgH1z2uuJhQLDvQwLKsBBUjK0usJ_rUKnw/edit?usp=sharingv
Ken
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes a day
What to practice: B major scale (hands separately), Spring, Pirates of the North Sea
How to practice it most effectively: In B major we use all 5 black keys (5 sharps) – RH fingering stays the same, but LH uses 4-3-2-1-4-3-2-1 (finger 5 never plays). For Spring, please be extra careful with the staccato vs. legato articulation. RH should play the melody a couple of times alone before playing a third time through with LH. Remember that LH has ties, so you don’t play the second set of notes, you just let them hold. In Pirates of the North Sea, I’d like you to make all your staccatos as crisp and bouncy as possible. Use the sayings for bass clef (Good Birds Don’t Fly Away and All Cows Eat Grass) to help you with reading the bass clef notes.
Steve
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: Chromatic scale (hands separately), Our Detective Agency
How to practice it most effectively: When playing the chromatic scale, remember that finger 3 always goes on the black keys. For RH going up you will do 1-3-1-3-1-2 when there is a white key semitone. For LH going up you will do 1-3-1-3-2-1. Our Detective Agency is a sneaky song with both staccato and legato articulations – try to really differentiate between these. Remember that flats last for a whole bar (so they won’t be labelled the second time in the same bar). Please watch out for the whole steps when you go from F to Eb, then Eb to Db.
Gabe
Recommended minutes to practice: 20 minutes a day
What to practice: Habanera, Porcupine Dance
How to practice it most effectively: In the Habanera, remember to do the sneaky staccatos for LH’s part in the first half of the piece – it really adds to the character. RH continue reading beyond the first page; towards the end there will be some intervals which are either 3rds or 6ths. Please use the sayings Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge and FACE in the space to help you read treble clef notes. For Porcupine Dance, please read just the right hand. Remember that in every bar we are always playing skips with fingers 1-3-5. The easiest way to sight read this piece is to just find the bottom note at the start of each bar, and then play the skips from there.
Isaac
Recommended minutes to practice: 20 minutes a day
What to practice: Blinky the Robot, Porcupine Dance, and finishing pages 64-64 in the theory book
How to practice it most effectively: In Blinky the Robot, try your best to make staccatos really short and crisp (especially on the first page). For the top half of the second page, really notice your patterns and repeating shapes. For Porcupine Dance, start hands separately but work towards trying it hands together before next class. In every single bar in this song there is a position shift (only by one or two steps, though). Once you figure out your bottom note, the rest is all skips. Continue playing crisp staccatos in this piece as well.