Dvorah
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes a day
What to practice: A scavenger hunt, March on C-D-E-F-G, Men From Mars
How to practice it most effectively: When doing our scavenger hunt, switch over from LH to RH once you get to the middle of the piano. This way you’re not reaching across your body. For March on C-D-E-F-G, please include your dynamics (the f for loud and p for soft). Try playing the song one time saying the counts, then another time saying the letter names! In Men From Mars we introduced bar lines, which divide the notes up into equal bars of 4 beats. For this song, also say the counts while you play, and watch which direction the notes are moving in.
Marco
If you could have photos of the original composition and the couple of lesson book pages for me next class that would be awesome!
Your theory homework is page 38.
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes a day
What to practice: Original composition, Copycat, Grandmother
How to practice it most effectively: When playing your composition, please do your “1-2-3-4” counting so the rhythm can feel solid. In all your pieces be extra careful for moments when the melody moves in skips; this will be either line to line, or space to space. For Grandmother, use the sayings for bass clef (Good Birds Don’t Fly Away and All Cows Eat Grass) to help you with the reading. Please don’t sing the lyrics yet until the hands feel extra comfortable with the second line (where they play together).
Oliver
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes a day
What to practice: G position 5-finger warmup (one hand at a time), A Friend Like You (hands together)
How to practice it most effectively: For the warmup, please try your best to play legato – keeping your fingers more bent will help with this. In A Friend Like You, there are 2 main patterns: the first pattern happens at the beginning and the end, and the second pattern repeats in the middle of the song. For the spots where the hands play together, remember that RH’s note and LH’s bottom note are always the same (either G and G, or A and A). Take it nice and slow and think of your intervals as you play them!
Alice
Please brainstorm a few options for a new pop song to start working on – I will also bring some ideas to next week’s class.
Recommended minutes to practice: 20 minutes a day
What to practice: Petit Minuet, Rodeo, and Lose You to Love Me
How to practice it most effectively: For the piano pieces, remember that your sayings (Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge and FACE in the space) go bottom to top. So if you’re on the second line of treble clef the respective word is “good”. In Petit Minuet, try saying your letter names as you play to review them. In Rodeo we learned da new LH note: A is on the top line of the bass clef. Please remember that finger 3 is your middle finger, not your ring finger! For Lose You to Love Me, the final piece of the puzzle is practicing the 2nd verse lyrics a few times before singing the whole song (So from “I gave my all…” up until “In the thick of healing”). Still practice singing along to the original recording, but then try with the karaoke version we found (the YouTube channel is Sing King). Do your best to feel the pulse (where the strong beats land) to help keep you on track with the lyrics’ rhythm.
Linda
Recommended minutes to practice: 20 minutes a day or 30 minutes every other day.
What to practice: 4-note chords up a major scale (C major in LH, G major in RH), L-O-V-E, The Swing
How to practice it most effectively: For the 4-note chords in G major, there is now an F# to incorporate. Note how the quality of the chords (maj7, -7, or 7) stays the same even in this new key. For L-O-V-E, play through the chords slowly, noting what degree number they are (with G being our 1). A couple of new chords we spoke of are the D7sus4 (where the 3rd is replaced with the 4th), C#o7 (a stack of all minor 3rds – when coming from Cmaj7 the inner 2 notes stay the same and the outer 2 notes come 1 semitone inwards), and G6/D (which just means the LH will play a D bass note instead of a G). For The Swing, you’re definitely ready to put it hands together. Take it section by section and play a few bars hands separately to jog your muscle memory before starting hands together.