Dvorah
Recommended minutes to practice: 10 minutes a day
What to practice: C major scale (left hand), Grandmother
How to practice it most effectively: For the C major scale, please play it with LH from bass C to middle C. The fingering is 5-4-3-2-1-3-2-1, with finger 3 tucking over the thumb between G and A. See if you can play it as connected as possible. For Grandmother, in the second line LH holds whole notes while RH plays it’s melody over. Please watch your steps versus skips, as well as the melody directions over the barlines. In the last bar, the hands are both moving down, playing in harmony.
Diya
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes a day
What to practice: Classic Dance, Young Hunter, singing along with lyric videos for Happy/Princesses Don’t Cry/Loyal Brave True
How to practice it most effectively: In Classic Dance, let’s try adding the dynamics (louds, mediums, and softs), as well as the staccatos. You can play the full form now, including the repeat! For Young Hunter, there’s a new note for RH – second space A (think FACE in the space). RH has very long tied notes while LH plays underneath. Line 1 and 3 are exactly the same! Since we are in a new position for both hands, make sure you stay in position and use the labelled finger numbers to help you find notes. Please use lyric videos to sing along to Happy/Princesses Don’t Cry/Loyal Brave True – we will pick one to focus on at the start of our summer lessons.
Marco
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes a day
What to practice: Rainforest, Lightly Row
How to practice it most effectively: Rainforest is a short warmup song that introduces fifths – these will be either space-space or line-line on the staff. The hands are in two different positions for this song. Please make sure you hold all notes their full value, and watch the difference in distances between skips and 5ths. For Lightly Row, try to play it once hands separately before putting the hands together. Careful that the first 2 bars are not the same! They are both skips, but the first bar goes space to space while the second goes line to line. LH can use the finger #s to help you with which interval to play. RH, please try to connect below all slurs. Feel free to revisit your past favourites from this book. Thank you for all your hard work and have a great summer!
Alice
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: Come On Tigers, Princess or Monster, Let Me Love You (karaoke)
How to practice it most effectively: Come on Tigers and Princess or Monster introduce us to quarter rests (1 count of silence). As always, watch your steps versus skips, and continue holding notes – and now rests – for their full amount of beats. Feel free to read ahead on Bugle Boys this summer – you’ve got all the tools to finish this book! For Let Me Love You, you can do this with the karaoke version (I’ll link the good Sing King one below). Remember to give yourself your starting note (G above middle C) before beginning, and continue singing through the “na na na”s without breaks. Thank you so much for your hard work and have a great summer!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP5ODDPUpcE
Emet
Recommended minutes to practice: 20 minutes a day
What to practice: Haunted House, Rock Around the Clock
How to practice it most effectively: For the last two lines of Haunted House, play hands separately a few times first, then put it hands together, noticing that RH and LH often play the same letters together. Please add in the staccatos as notes and rhythms become comfortable. Eventually you can try the whole song and form hands together! For Rock Around the Clock, please make sure your long-short eighth notes still fit into the 1+2+3+4+ counting (it helps to say all these beats in your head as you play). On page 2, RH make sure you really hear the difference between the bars that are all quarter notes versus the ones that are quarter-eighth-eighth. As you read ahead, page 3 will use RH’s E-G-A-C 4 note chord with very subtle variations. LH can look at the chord symbols to know which bass note to play. We wrote in the counting for the main rhythm this page – go slowly, especially when trying to line up the hands. Have fun with this one! Thank you for all your hard work and have a great summer!
Kollel
Recommended minutes to practice: 25 minutes a day
What to practice: A Faded Letter, The Entertainer
How to practice it most effectively: For A Faded Letter, try to think of RH as playing triads in each bar. You can also try separating the melody voice (stems up) from the lower voice (stems down) for a few times through the piece. Between LH’s intervals, see if you can find a common note that stays. When it comes time to play hands together, use pedal and try playing with emotion (using dynamics and slight rits where appropriate). For The Entertainer, keep looking ahead into the C and D sections – watch out that in the C section the key signature is F major! LH is always doing some variation of the same chords from earlier sections. Please try to make the RH melody throughout the song as legato as possible. As long as you watch out for accidentals and intervals you will do a great job learning this piece. Thank you for all your hard work and have a great summer!