Dvorah
Recommended minutes to practice: 10 minutes a day
What to practice: The Dance Band, Frogs on Logs
How to practice it most effectively: Today we learned about our time signature (the 4/4 at the start of a song). This means there are 4 beats/counts per bar. In The Dance Band, we are playing with both hands – watch where the melody jumps from bass clef to treble clef! Frogs on Logs has RH switching positions every time there is a circled finger number. Try saying the letter names while you play.
Diya
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: C 5-Finger Warmup (from the piano book), Firefly (first page only), and Do, a Deer
How to practice it most effectively: For the C 5-Finger Warmup, try it hands together this week! Go nice and slow, making sure the hands are playing the same letter every time. Remember that at the end of the warmup we have two half notes, which need to be held for 2 beats each. For Firefly, only play the first page, using your sayings to help (especially for RH). LH only plays G on this page, and in the second line there is a back & forth between LH and RH. Be extra mindful of what skips vs. steps look like on the staff. For Do, a Deer, start by playing (on piano) the C major scale, and singing the corresponding syllable (do, re, mi, etc.). Do your best to match your vocal note to your piano note. When singing along to the YouTube video (or just singing by yourself), play each scale note on piano when you reach the lyric (so C for “do”, D for “re”, etc.) as a guide.
Marco
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes a day
What to practice: C position skips warmups (hands together), Sailing in the Sun, Ferris Wheel, and page 42 of the theory book
How to practice it most effectively: The C position skips warmup has both hands playing C-E-G-E-C, doing your best to connect between all the notes. In Sailing in the Sun, the legatos are coming along nicely – continue connecting as much as possible under the slurs, and try getting gradually louder as you play the 3rd line! For Ferris Wheel, there are still lots of legatos using skips and between the hands. In the last line, do a gradual slow down as you make it all the way to the highest interval.
Oliver
Recommended minutes to practice: 10 minutes a day
What to practice: C position skips warmups (hands separately), Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
How to practice it most effectively: The C position skips warmup has both hands in C position; play C-E-G-E-C, doing your best to connect between the fingers. For Twinkle Twinkle, this song is mainly in the left hand – RH only pops in to play D and C. Watch the repeated notes when LH steps down for the “up above the world so high…” etc. parts. Once notes are comfy, try playing with the staccato articulation!
Alice
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: “loo loo loo” vocal warmup, Attention, Elephant Ride, and Yankee Doodle
How to practice it most effectively: For the “loo loo” vocal warmup, start on the G above middle C and give yourself your starting note. The warmup is 5 note steps going down. After G go up to A as a starting note, then keep moving up until it gets too high to sing. For Attention, use the lyric video to review melody and lyrics as you sing along. Elephant Ride is our review song – the main focus here is our steps versus skips. Remember that your bars 1, 3 and 5 are the same. Yankee Doodle is a song we are used to hearing fast, but when playing it for the first few times, slow it down to really double check the notes. C is the only note that repeats twice in a row. Once notes are comfy, feel free to sing along!
Linda
Recommended minutes to practice: 20 minutes a day
What to practice: Playful Puppy (warmup song), New Shoes, and Pure Imagination
How to practice it most effectively: Let’s use Playful Puppy as a warmup song this week, focusing on articulation between the hands. For New Shoes, play hands separately for now, noticing how most of the time RH has a common tone between intervals. Remember that odd intervals are on the same (line-line, space-space), while even intervals are opposite (line-space). The easiest way to read many ledger lines below the staff is to use intervals from the top note. For Pure Imagination, continue trying both RH and LH together. You may change the octave you play your chords/bass notes in depending on what mood you feel that part of the song should have!
Emet
Recommended minutes to practice: 20 minutes a day
What to practice: Bb major scale (hands separately one octave), Piano Man, Scherzo
How to practice it most effectively: In Bb major, we have 2 flats: RH plays finger 4 on Bb, finger 3 on Eb; LH plays finger 3 on Bb, 4 on Eb. In Piano Man, please remember the tempo marking is “moderate”, so don’t rush. Specific details to notice are the F natural in bar 7 and hands coming together in bar 54. For the page flip, memorize bar 33 and then use RH to flip the page as LH continues to play. Continue working to add pedal for the whole piece! The Scherzo is almost complete – just add your dynamics in and work towards the accelerando at the end.
Kollel
Recommended minutes to practice: 25 minutes a day
What to practice: Ab major scale (hand separately, 2 octaves), Dance of the Dragonflies, Canon
How to practice it most effectively: In Ab major, we have groups of 2 flats: Ab and Bb, and Db and Eb. RH uses fingers 3 & 4 on Ab & Bb, and fingers 2 & 3 on Db & Eb. For LH it’s opposite (3 & 2 on Ab & Bb, and fingers 4 & 3 on Db & Eb). For Dance of the Dragonflies, continue up until the end of the 2nd section, trying the new section hands together. Great job paying attention to articulation – just be especially careful in bar 15. When practicing the Canon, try isolating one section 3x through before playing the whole thing top to bottom. In lines 4-5, try playing it through with just the RH to really solidify the melody and notes (pay special attention to bar 15, where we have 2 6th intervals). Continue using pedal for the whole piece, and add in dynamics!