Anaya
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes a day
What to practice: Play a Third, Puppies and Guppies
How to practice it most effectively: For Play a Third, please be careful with the last bars for each hand (there is always a combination of steps and skips). Remember that skips move line to line or space to space, and we skip a finger number as well as a key. In Puppies and Guppies, the first 2 bars are all skips, and the next 2 are all steps. It would be helpful to point with your opposite hand to help you see the directions and any repeated notes.
Saskia
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes a day
What to practice: ooh-ah 5ths warmup *going up only*, Little Do You Know, My Girl
How to practice it most effectively: for the warmup, please only go as high as A5 as your bottom note. Anytime you feel straining you don’t have to continue! See if you can exaggerate the slide between your bottom and top note. For Little Do You Know, play around with trying to sing the guy part in chorus 2 and 3, then the girl part. For her part (I know it’s a little quieter), your guide note for the 2nd chorus is E4, and your guide note for the 3rd chorus is G4. Please continue to sing My Girl with the lyric video I linked last week – we will start with this one next class.
Gianna
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: warmups, Do a Deer, Michelle, So Long Farewell
How to practice it most effectively: A great warmup to continue doing is the skips warmup, which starts on C-E-G-E-C, using “ya-ya-ya” then moves up to D-F-A, E-G-B, etc. For Do a Deer, see if you can find a lyric video to help you learn the beginning verse section as well as the cute little ending. In Michelle, the French lyrics are “sont les mots qui vont tres bien ensemble” – try practicing speaking these a few times for pronunciation before singing them. Here is a lyric video for So Long, Farewell to start working with:
Ken
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: scales, Court Dance, and finishing the rest of the “Theory” scales on page 5.
How to practice it most effectively: Please continue to play G major and F major scales hands separately; you can put C major hands together. Notice how the finger 3s line up together on E and A. For Court Dance, start by playing hands separately for the first part of the week, then try hands together closer to our next lesson. We are no longer in one position for the entire song! Please double check all notes and fingerings by using your sayings (Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge and FACE for treble clef; Good Birds Don’t Fly Away and All Cows Eat Grass for bass clef). See if you can add in the staccato articulation. Please complete the scales with note names and circling the tonic, dominant, and leading tones on page 5.
Steve
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: Changing Moods, Sword Dance, Jazz Blast, any other songs you enjoyed from this book!
How to practice it most effectively: For Changing Moods you can now add the D and A position section – as always, take it a moderate speed so all fingers line up between the hands. For Sword Dance, you’re ready to add the fun dynamics in! Please also be careful whenever RH has phrases starting on E (bottom treble line), and remember that bars 13-16 are up the octave. For Jazz Blast, we wrote in the counting for the “2 and” beats. You can try this one hands together, noting when there are flats in the melody. Have a great summer!
Gabe
Recommended minutes to practice: 20 minutes a day
What to practice: Frere Jacques Stands on His Head, Liebestraum, transposing Merry Widow Waltz and Spring!
How to practice it most effectively: For Frere Jacques Stands on His Head, you can try it hands together, noticing how RH’s melody is just repeated in LH. Please remember the Bbs and ties, and don’t rush the eighth note section. For Liebestraum, there are lots of 3rd and 6th intervals. Double check all your accidentals for this one! For fun, take songs you know really well (like Spring and Merry Widow Waltz) and try transposing them to different keys (like G major, D major, F major, etc.) Have a great summer!
Isaac
Recommended minutes to practice: 20 minutes a day
What to practice: Burlesque in G, Pyrenese Melody, revisiting old songs you like!
How to practice it most effectively: For the Burlesque, remember to play LH down the octave! Please hold RH’s eighth notes the full value before playing the sixteenth notes they’re attached to. The last step for this one is working on the fluid transitions between bars. For Pyranese Melody, you’re ready to gradually speed it up! Try thinking of when you hit your A tonic triad. This summer you can try revisiting some of the pieces you enjoyed playing. Have a great summer!