Dvorah
Recommended minutes to practice: 10 minutes a day
What to practice: Ode to Joy, My Invention, Let’s Play Ball
How to practice it most effectively: For Ode to Joy, we decided to do the first 2 lines medium loud (mf), the middle part loud (f), and the last line back to medium loud (mf). In My Invention, the first time through is f, while the repeat is p. Please make sure it’s one tempo (speed) throughout – the loud part should not be faster than the soft part. You have put in lots of practice and are definitely in great shape for Saturday! For the new song Let’s Play Ball, LH has a new note B. Please make sure you’re holding all your half notes full volume.
Diya
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: do-re-mi C major scale warmup, Do a Deer (karaoke), Firefly, and start listening to My Favourite Things
How to practice it most effectively: Please continue to sing your do-re-mi scale starting on C as a warmup. After doing it with the piano once, sing up the scale in one breath, then try singing down the scale too! For Do, a Deer, you are ready to sing along with the karaoke – the one we used today is the karaoke cloud version. Use the low melody on the intro/verse part to help you! In Firefly, we put the whole song together this week. Use your sayings to help you if you’re ever unsure of the notes. The new last line starts off with C major broken triads.
Marco
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes a day
What to practice: Mexican Jumping Beans, Sailing in the Sun, Haunted Mouse
How to practice it most effectively: Mexican Jumping Beans is our warmup song this week – play it once before your practice sessions. In Sailing in the Sun, please make sure LH is lifting for the rests. You can try to gradually speed it up a little so it feels more energetic! In Haunted Mouse, watch out for RH’s change of skips from C and E to D and F. The last line is a little tricky for RH – really follow along with the melody’s directions. Remember to always do your counting – quarter notes get 1 but half notes get 2!
Oliver
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: The Rainbow, Good Morning
How to practice it most effectively: For The Rainbow, please continue playing the whole song hands together. The last line has a few curveballs with the D and A flats. Use your sayings to help you anywhere you are unsure of the notes. B is a LH note that we cannot use sayings for – it is right above the staff. For Good Morning, you can start looking and reading the first line hands together nice and slow – watch out that your bottom note is always G (we never play low F in this song).
Alice
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes a day
What to practice: Little Do You Know, Attention, A Joke For You, Football Game
How to practice it most effectively: For Little Do You Know, please continue to sing along with the lyric video. In the 2nd verse (where it’s the boy singing), be careful with the “Little do you know I’m trying to make it better piece by piece” lyric since he goes down lower – try to match where he’s singing. In the choruses, your guide note on piano is E above middle C. It’s helpful to play this while you’re singing, especially in spots where there are two harmonies. Please continue to practice Attention – we will start with this one next week. For piano, we have A Joke For You and Football Game – LH has new notes! We play in C position, which means low C is played with finger 5. From there, find D-E-F-G by looking for steps vs. skips. RH is still playing in its regular C positions (finger 1 on C).
Linda
Recommended minutes to practice: 20 minutes a day
What to practice: Major scales in sharp keys (from G to E, hands separately), New Shoes, Cry Me a River
How to practice it most effectively: For the major scales, we are using the cycle of 5ths, which means starting from C, and each jump of a 5th we add a sharp (so G will have 1 sharp, D will have 2, etc.). When going from one key to the next, we keep the old sharps and add a new one on the 7th degree. The fingering stays the same for all these scales. New Shoes is sounding super solid – next step is to add dynamics and speed it up just a little (try giving yourself the tempo with your metronome on the higher end of the range). For Cry Me a River, work on feeling out the chords with your right hand. We spoke about how minor 7 b5 chords are just a minor triad over the root (this is especially helpful for F#-7b5 and C#-7b5 since these can be translated to A-/F# and E-/F#.
Emet
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: Bb major scale, Piano Man
How to practice it most effectively: For the Bb major scale, continue playing it hands separately for one octave. Remember that RH finger 4 plays on Bb and LH finger 4 plays on Eb. For Piano Man, please isolate bars 44 to 47 a few times to practice the crescendo and rit; the C chord in bar 47 is the goal and should be the loudest/most powerful part. Please also spend some time with bars 59-60; RH’s finger switch there will help you smooth this out. Before performing, make sure you take a few deep breaths and prep your hands – trust that your hard work will shine through!
Kollel
Recommended minutes to practice: 20 minutes a day
What to practice: Ab major scale, Canon, Dance of the Dragonflies
How to practice it most effectively: For the Ab major scale, continue to go hands separately for 2 octaves; remember that Rh plays with fingers 2-3 on the group of two, while LH plays with 4-3. For the Canon, just make sure you keep it relatively soft for the first page so you have room to grow dynamically. Consciously tell yourself not to rush in bars 21-28, and remember the note you are moving to is always C# in resolutions like bar 20 and bar 32. You are absolutely recital ready and the hard work on this piece is clear to hear! For Dance of the Dragonflies, continue to play the first 2 sections hands together, paying extra attention to bars 15 and 27’s RH staccatos. Play the last section hands separately for now, but you may put it hands together as the week goes on.