Anaya
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: Calendar Song, Play a Third, and finishing labelling notes for #4 on page p. 55
How to practice it most effectively: For Calendar Song, try bending your fingers a little more so it makes connecting between notes easier. Make sure you’re counting 1-2 on your half notes. In Play a Third, we learned about playing thirds, or skips, on the staff and keyboard. A skip will be space to space or line to line on the staff, and you will skip a finger and white key on the keyboard. Please do the 2 warmups (one for RH, one for LH) on the song page before playing just the first line with RH. It will be helpful to speak or sing the letter names as you play.
Saskia
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes a day
What to practice: ooh-ah-ooh 5ths warmup, Stop in the Name of Love, listen to My Girl and Little Do You Know
How to practice it most effectively: For the warmup, make sure you get your starting notes (C4 to G4) to hear the new 5th distance. Use a slight “H” in front of the first note so you get a gentle onset. For Stop in the Name of Love, make sure you pronounce/enunciate all the lyrics in the verses clearly. You can totally try this with a karaoke track – I’ll link one below, as well as a lyric video for My Girl, and the new song I’d like you to listen to and let me know what you think next week, Little Do You Know:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDRSwMcCIP8
Gianna
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: If I Can’t Have You, Michelle
How to practice it most effectively: For If I Can’t Have You, your octaves in the verses and prechorus are going well! Let’s make sure in the bridge section we are also doing a full octave above Shawn (it’s just a little higher than you might think). Always be doing full belly breaths, especially before the chorus where it gets big. For Michelle, you can sing all the English lyrics (we will discuss how to do the French pronunciation next week). Here is a good lyric video to use:
Ken
Recommended minutes to practice: 20 minutes a day
What to practice: C, G, and F major scales (one hand at a time), Little March, I, IV, V7 Chord Review
How to practice it most effectively: For the major scales, please be really precise with your fingerings and crossing spots – we won’t be able to put the scales hands together until fingering is well learnt. Don’t worry about the dynamics on the scale page. G major always has an F#, and F major always has a Bb. For Little March, be careful with the RH intervals – you can use FACE in the space to help find space notes in treble clef. Still use the animals sayings for LH in bass clef. The Chord Review uses roman numerals for numbers 1, 4 and 5 (I, IV, V). Please go slowly so you make sure all 3 notes of the triads are correct (note there is an F# int he key signature).
Steve
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: Changing Moods (C and G positions only), Whirling Leaves, Sword Dance
How to practice it most effectively: Changing Moods will continue to be a warmup song – make sure you start at a moderate speed so you have control over your fingers in the stepping sections. For Whirling Leaves, please really hold quarter notes their full amount. Practice bars 3 and 4 a few times – these rhythms come back over and over in this piece. Since notes are quite comfortable, start adding in dynamics! Most of the piece is quiet. For Sword Dance, focus on playing just the RH melody with all rhythms and staccatos. In bars 9 – 13 please watch your octaves. LH, you can play through the first line with counting – this same line repeats for LH many times in the piece.
Gabe
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes a day
What to practice: Libestraum, Frere Jacques Stands on His Head
How to practice it most effectively: For Libestraum, please play nice and slowly – this song is a lullaby. Use the saying FACE in the space to help you find RH treble clef notes – we don’t want to guess notes. For Frere Jacques Stands on His Head, please play the whole piece hands separately. You’ll notice the melodies for both hands are the same! This is a canon, meaning one hand starts the melody then the other hand comes in with the same melody while the first hand continues on. Please remember the Bb in the key signature.
Isaac
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes a day
What to practice: Burlesque in G Major, Pyrenese Melody
How to practice it most effectively: For the Burlesque, double check your eighth-sixteenth-sixteenth note rhythms; make sure those eighth notes are held long enough. In bars 8-12, please do the forte to piano dynamics (you’re basically playing an echo of the initial phrase). Once notes and rhythms are feeling good, start gradually speeding this one up! For Pyrenese Melody, please make sure you do the staccatos – even if you’re unsure what notes come next, you can always figure the notes out in silence. You can add dynamics in this song too. Mostly it’s bars 1, 5, and 13 where you start very loud then quickly decrescendo to a piano level for the staccatos.