Hi everyone, here is what we worked on this week and your assigned practicing:
Dvorah
We will keep the G position warm up one hand at a time, and even though I know it’s tricky please try to connect between the fingers. If your fingers are bent this becomes easier.
We moved on to I Hear the Echo in your new book – this song introduced dynamics, which tell us how loud or soft we should play – f stands for “forte” and means play LOUD, and p stands for “piano” which means play SOFT. Please pay attention to LH’s finger numbers – 2 is your pointer and 4 is your ring finger. It is important to still be holding those half notes (the empty ones with the stem) for “1-2”.
On the next page right after I Hear the Echo, we circled a line which has the three types of notes we’ve learned so far: quarter notes (the filled-in ones) get 1 count, half notes get 2 counts, and whole notes (the oval ones) get 4 counts. Pick any note and play through this line, saying your counts as you hold the notes for their correct value.
Marco
This week please complete pages 32 and 33 from your theory book. In our lesson we talked about the sayings for the treble clef lines (Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge), but also the spaces (FACE in the space).
Rodeo – Let’s try speeding this one up as much as you can! Every time you play try going a little bit faster. It will help if you don’t sing and play when going really fast – instead just do the counting in your head.
Russian Sailor Dance – Since this is a new song, please first say/sing the counts while you play; you can add lyrics later once the notes and rhythms are more comfortable. Notice the repeated patterns: bars 1-3 and 4-6 are the same, and bars 7-9 and 10-12 are the same. This song is also marked “quickly”, so once you feel confident you can also start speeding it up.
Oliver
You have almost memorized all your sayings! It’s very helpful to use them as you read your piece. If you are ever unsure of which hand is right hand and which hand is left hand, remember the left hand plays lower on the piano, and if you hold it up there will be an “L” in the correct direction (RH’s “L” is backwards). LH also plays on the lower of the two staves, in the bass clef.
For Oom-Pah-Pah, please continue playing the LH melody by itself for the whole piece, so that it can get more comfortable before we try adding RH. An important thing to notice is when we have a bar of all steps in one direction – bar 7, 11, and 15 are examples of this – the notes are always going line-space-line-space in order. Once notes are more comfortable try adding those staccatos!
Alice
Today in our lesson we talked about memorizing where a new note, F, is on the keyboard. We know C is in front of the group of 2 black keys, and similarly F is in front of the group of 3 black keys. Try finding all the Fs on your piano. Then, from there see if you can find G position (remember, when we are in a position it means the lowest finger in each hand is on that letter name). For the warmup please play your 5 note scale in G position, hands together.
March on D-E-F – This is a review song for this week. Since notes and rhythms are quite solid we added a new element called dynamics. These tell you how loud or soft to play. f stands for “forte” and means play LOUD, and p stands for “piano” which means play SOFT.
Mister Bluebird – For the most part the stepping pattern in this piece is what you expect, but there are a few notes that might trick you! Read carefully and use those checkmarks you wrote in to guide you. Also, please say the letters you are on as you play the piece.
Stitches – This week stick to just singing the first verse, prechorus, and chorus. We talked about giving ourselves the starting note of each new section: you must find a group of 3 black keys above middle C, and one below middle C. Then we play the top note of the group of 3 just before and also during our first singing note. For the verse, play your higher note, and for the prechorus play your lower note.
We decided to do Kill Em With Kindness as your review singing piece for next week.