Dvorah
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes a day
What to practice: Men From Mars, Ode to Joy
How to practice it most effectively: In Men From Mars, pay extra attention to bars 3-4 and 7-8; notice how the stepping is similar to the “sticky fingers” warmup we’ve done before. For Ode to Joy, first play the song while singing the letter names, then play while singing the new “1-2-3-4” counting. Watch the repeated notes and which direction the melody moves in!
Marco
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes a day
What to practice: Lemonade Stand, All My Friends
How to practice it most effectively: In Lemonade Stand we learned about ties – this is where instead of playing the second note of the pair, we keep holding for the full amount. For the dotted half note ties, count all the way to 6. Use the sayings Good Birds Don’t Fly Away and All Cows Eat Grass to help you with the LH notes. For All My Friends, be extra careful with your counting when it comes to the quarter note ties. These are tied over from beat 4 to the next bar’s beat 1, so make sure not to accidentally count “5”! Sing the counting out loud to help you.
Oliver
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: G position 5-finger scale up and down (hands together), A Friend Like You, When the Saints Go Marching In (first 2 lines hands separately)
How to practice it most effectively: For the G position warmup, think of the notes having slurs above them – they should be nice and legato (smooth, connected). A Friend Like You is a review piece this week – RH remember that you’re starting on the higher D, not the one right next to middle C. Pay extra attention to where the hands come in together. For When the Saints, only do the first two lines and notice the repeated patterns. Use the sayings for the clefs to help with your sight reading, as well as watching out for steps vs. skips.
Alice
Recommended minutes to practice: 20 minutes a day
What to practice: Lose You to Love Me, Russian Folk Song, Come See the Parade
How to practice it most effectively: For Lose You To Love Me, you are absolutely ready to sing with just the karaoke track. Make sure your posture, breathing, and open vowels are solid so your melody stays in tune; you should also be actively listening to the video to ensure you hear the key. In Russian Folk Song there are two main patterns – LH make sure you are holding your longer notes (half notes and dotted half notes) for the full number of beats. See if you can play this one quickly! In Come See the Parade we learned a new LH note: low G. This note is on the top space of bass clef. Please also remember RH’s G on the second line of treble clef! RH please double check which note – higher or lower – plays first.
Linda
Recommended minutes to practice: 20 minutes a day or 30 minutes every other day
What to practice: 4-note chords in G major (RH) and C major (LH), The Swing, L-O-V-E
How to practice it most effectively: Before playing the 4-note chords, play through the major scale once so you see every note that is involved. For The Swing, still take it section by section, playing each hand separately first, then trying it together. Be especially careful about which bar you are in when you reach the middle part (with all the ledger lines). For L-O-V-E, start adding the LH in when playing through the chords. Remember that from the Cmaj7 to the C# diminished 7, both C and B move inwards to become C# and Bb. Tonight we talked about using inversions for our II-V cadences: A-7 and D7 share the notes A and C, so let those stay and simply move the E and G down to a D and F#. Practice going back and forth between these two shapes, then also include the Gmaj7 that completes the cadence.
Kollel
Recommended minutes to practice: 20-25 minutes a day
What to practice: F major scale (2 octaves, hands separately), Pachelbel’s Canon, Prelude
How to practice it most effectively: In RH’s F major scale, the Bb is always played with the finger 4. For Pachelbel’s Canon, play the first 3 lines hands together, then continue until bar 29 hands separately. RH bar 15 could use some isolation a few times (where the fingerings are 1-2-3-4-5 in a row). RH pay close attention to exactly where you are during the 16th note section so you don’t get lost. Please use all the written fingerings. In the Prelude, isolate RH bars 3 and 4 a few times: note that these bars actually are stepping for the most part, and don’t use any notes outside the key signature. RH can look ahead from bar 13 to the end – be sure to play all the correct accidentals when doing the scales in bars 14, 16, and the final line. For that last line please just use regular scale fingerings.
Emet
Recommended minutes to practice: 20 minutes a day
What to practice: A and E major triads hands separately, Piano Man, La Raspa
How to practice it most effectively: When playing your triads, make sure you switch up which hand is doing A/E, solid/broken. For Piano Man, you are ready to put verse 2 hands together as well. Read ahead hands separately from bar 35-46. For La Raspa, please make sure RH is lifting for all those rests in the first half; for the slurs, think down-up, with the first note of the pair getting more weight. Note that this doesn’t mean that the second note in the pair is staccato. LH practice the second half of the piece in time, doing all the sfs. Keep this hands separately for the first part of the week, but feel free to try the first half hands together once it feels comfortable.