Diya

Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day

What to practice: Half-Time Show, major 5-note warmup (C to A), Loyal Brave and True (karaoke)

How to practice it most effectively: For Half-Time Show, remember your FACE in the space saying – RH is only ever playing in these spaces doing repeated notes or skips. In bars 9-12 the hands are playing the exact same letters and rhythms. Please make sure you stay in F position so the finger numbers line up. For the warmup, continue playing major positions from C to A major. When you get to A major, you can take it 1-2-3, 2-3-4, -3-4-5 instead of the full 1-2-3-4-5, focusing on keeping the vowels long and open. I’ll link a karaoke below to try with Loyal Brave and True. Next class we will start Reflection, so you can start singing along to a lyric video.

 

Dvorah

Recommended minutes to practice: 10 minutes a day

What to practice: The Bugle Boys, Happy Birthday

How to practice it most effectively: The Bugle Boys is the last song in this book! Watch where the hands enter at the exact same time (the notes will line up vertically on top of each other). LH has many long ties (holding for 8 full beats!) – we crossed off the second pair where you continue to hold instead of playing again. Note how RH is only playing 3 notes – C E and G. As a bonus exercise you can try playing Happy Birthday with G as the bottom note, and compare it to the version with C as the bottom note!

 

Oliver

Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day

What to practice: Classic Dance, Ferris Wheel

How to practice it most effectively: In Classic Dance there are a lot of smooth legato moments to watch out for, as well as the staccatos in lines 1 and 3. Try the first two bars a few times practicing keeping one finger hanging on until the next one plays – there’s a split second where both are playing at the same time, and this is how we get the connected sound. For the new song Ferris Wheel, it is all  legato, sometimes with the melody jumping between the hands. There are many skips in this piece as well as repeated notes to watch out for. Try doing the dynamics in the last line as you move up the octaves!

 

Linda

Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes a day

What to practice: Minuet in A minor, Cool Groove, I’ll Be Seeing You

How to practice it most effectively: For the Minuet, any time there are dotted quarter notes, try counting with all the “ands” to really solidify the rhythms. You can try at least the first two lines hands together this week, going slow to account for syncopations between the hands. For Cool Groove, aim to try is at 85bpm – if this is too slow please feel free to try 95, then 90, etc. – the gradual slowdown we had spoken about. The biggest thing is leaning into the long part of the swung beat and delaying the “and” after beat 1 to make it really groove. Great job with the numbers in I’ll Be Seeing You the next step is thinking about the qualities of the chords (so maj7, mi7, 7 – which we also call “dominant” – etc.). You can try singing and playing the vocal melody this week!

 

Ken

Recommended minutes to practice: 20 minutes a day

What to practice: F major scale hands together, Yellow Bird (rhythm review), Morning

How to practice it most effectively: The F major scale has slightly different fingerings than the other ones – in terms of fingers that line up you’ll have finger 3s playing together on A and finger 1s playing together on C, both on the way up and on the way down. For Yellow Bird, there are a couple of rhythm things I’d like you to review: on the first page, RH’s bar 4 and 8 rhythm is the same as the main LH rhythm – you can go back and forth between these to get the feel of it. On the second page, please make sure you’re holding the beat 1 quarter note for the full longer beat, with the quick part actually being the 2 and between hands. For Morning, note what triads each hand is playing when it’s its turn – we start off in F major but then switch to A major. LH has a few clef changes throughout the piece to look out for. Please take your time finding all notes of chords – no need to guess, just take a moment to use your sayings and any helpful intervals. Later in the week you can try adding some dynamics.