It was really nice to meet everyone today. I’m looking forward to making music with you!
Dvorah
This week, let’s get really comfortable knowing where C is – try to find every C on your keyboard!
When we play piano, our fingers have number labels: 1 is thumb, 2 is pointer, 3 is middle, 4 is ring, and 5 is pinky. Try playing 1-2-3-4-5 for RH (right hand), 5-4-3-2-1 for LH (left hand) on C-D-E-F-G. We call this “C position”. Saying the letters out loud as you play is a great way to learn them. For Frère Jacques, try playing with all 5 fingers in this new position instead of with just your pointer finger. For the one note outside C position, use LH to hop over!
Row, Row, Row Your Boat will use LH in C position and RH on the next highest C (just one note). LH plays 5-5-5-4-3-3-4-3-2-1, then RH plays its C, and finally LH plays 1-3-5-1-2-3-4-5. We will start learning to read the music for this song next week. Here is a google link to access & print the sheet music: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16jkDS55RtjN_bXWmgGDH8gFE4oXF635Q/view?usp=sharing
Marco
Let’s add a short warmup to your practicing this week – in C position, we will step from C up to G and then back down using all 5 fingers. Do your best to connect the notes (so one finger can’t let go until the next finger has pressed). In general when you play, be careful that you aren’t slamming your wrist down so hard – your fingers should be the ones doing the work!
Mister Bluebird – When playing through this song, do it first without singing the lyrics so you can focus on your fingers and notes, and then add the singing. Remember the trick in the 4th bar – we don’t step down to C, we actually step up to E! The corresponding theory page for this song is p.27, if you could also please fill that out.
The Dance Band – In this song we learned about time signature – because 4 is our top number it means we will count 1-2-3-4 and then restart at 1 after each bar line. Instead of singing lyrics with this piece, let’s sing our counts out loud instead.
Alice
Vocal – When doing your breathing “candle” warmup, once you empty your air completely try to drop your jaw and get a nice full breath in after (avoid gasping). In Someone You Loved, let’s make sure we take deeper belly breaths between phrases – specifically in the pre-chorus and chorus (from “Somebody to heal, somebody to know…”). This week think of some new pop songs you might like to sing!
Piano – My Invention uses the F, C, and G that we have learned so far and has a lot of patterns! Look out for bars that look similar to help you when reading this one.
There is a warmup as well as My Invention for piano this week. One hand at a time, we will do the C position 5-note scale (C-D-E-F-G up and back down); try to connect between the notes, using “sticky fingers” (so one finger can’t let go until the next finger has pressed).