Dvorah
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes a day
What to practice: C major scale (RH), Allegro, and Elephant Ride
How to practice it most effectively: The C major scale goes from C stepping all the way up to the next C then back down. For RH, the fingering is 1-2-3-1-2-3-4-5 (so you tuck your thumb under finger 3 between E and F). The way down is the exact same thing but backwards (so finger 3 crosses over your thumb between F and E). In Allegro, the hands play together in bars 1,2 and 5,6. LH, please make sure you ground down and hold the whole note for the full bar, even though RH is playing other notes. Our skips in this song go from line to line. For Elephant Ride, our skips go from space to space – bars 1, 3, and 5 are all skips and all the same!
Diya
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes a day
What to practice: “na na na” warmup (steps then skips), Best Day of My Life, Never Enough, Ferris Wheel
How to practice it most effectively: For the “na na na” warmup, start by going up in steps (so C-D-E, E-D-C etc.), then after 5 or 6, switch to skips (C-E-G, G-E-C etc.). For Best Day of My Life, focus on the verse lyrics – one day only practice verse 1 a bunch of times, the next only practice verse 2, etc. In the chorus, try adding a gentle H to the “li-i-i-i-i-i-fe” part to avoid too many glottals. For Never Enough, we spoke about staying on the previous note for the words “way” and “now”, where the melody goes too low. On the word “enough”, make sure your vowel is nice and long, just like you’re already doing on the word “never”. For Ferris Wheel, you can use your finger #s as well as sayings to help you find notes. Please play everything but the last line hands together, doing your best to connect under the slurs.
Marco
Recommended minutes to practice: 15 minutes a day
What to practice: C’s Rock, Mozart’s Five Names, and Paper Airplane
How to practice it most effectively: C’s Rock is a warmup piece that helps us practice knowing where our 3 C’s are (bass C, middle C, and treble C). Remember to be extra bouncy on those staccatos! Mozart’s Five Names has a lot of the hands playing together in unison (meaning they are playing the exact same notes). RH has a new note D – the 4th line of treble clef, between the C and E of FACE in the space. Watch out for the hands’ position switches! For Paper Airplane, we circled whether each bar for RH is moving in steps or skips. Use this as a guide as we play in treble C position. The third line is the hands playing in unison once again.
Alice
**Alice will need the next piano book in the series soon, since we are a couple of weeks away from finishing the Primer Level. Here is a link to the Piano Adventures Level 1 Lesson book: https://www.amazon.ca/Level-Lesson-Book-Piano-Adventures/dp/1616770783/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2FYV290TRU07R&dchild=1&keywords=piano+adventures+level+1&qid=1622080895&sprefix=piano+adven%2Caps%2C177&sr=8-1
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes a day
What to practice: Copycat, Grandmother, and Little Do You Know
How to practice it most effectively: For Copycat, really watch your steps versus skips, especially in lines 2 and 4 where there is a very slight difference. Remember, LH is always copying RH! For Grandmother, there are lots of skips – in the bottom line the hand are sometimes playing together, so please be extra careful with which hand plays which notes. The ending is in harmony, with both hands stepping down and making quite a nice sound. For Little Do You Know, please sing with the karaoke this week. Remember you get 3 beats and then you’re in with what’s called a “pickup” line (the “little do you-“). Watch out for Sierra’s verse lines that go really high! Please brainstorm a song or two you’d like to start working on next week.
Linda
Recommended minutes to practice: 20 minutes a day
What to practice: Calico Cat, Pyranese Melody, and I’ve Got You Under My Skin
How to practice it most effectively: Calico Cat is quite close to being done; just double check the RH rhythms in bars 9, 10, 13, and 14. Pyranse Melody is in A major, meaning we have F#, C#, and G# in the key signature. Try reading through this one hands separately this week. For Under My Skin, we spoke about the D-7b5 to G7b9 cadence and why it’s actually quite easy for your RH to play these two chords in succession: D-7b5 is D-F-Ab-C in the RH (with LH playing a D root), and G7b9 is D-F-Ab-B in the RH (with LH playing the G root). Only your RH pinky has to move down 1 semitone between these chords! This same concept occurs between E-7b5 and A7b9. Technically, what your RH is playing (D-F-Ab-B) is a D diminished 7 chord. The F diminished 7 chord on page 2 is the same notes just with F as the root, so feel free to play the exact D-F-Ab-B shape in RH with an F in LH.
Emet
Recommended minutes to practice: 20 minutes a day
What to practice: B minor triads (1 octave hands separately), Walk Don’t Run, and Tarantella
How to practice it most effectively: For the B minor triads, we use the same fingerings as other triad families – keep your hand high up into the keys so it’s easier to play that F#. For Walk, Don’t Run please isolate bars 9 and 11 for the rhythm between the hands; it will help to say the counting with ands out loud. The whole piece may be played hands together now! For Tarantella, you can start playing the entire form through (including the DC al Coda). Please double check your octaves for the coda section. There are some pretty dramatic dynamics in this piece – let’s add them in this week.
Kollel
Recommended minutes to practice: 20 minutes a day
What to practice: B major triads (hands together, 1 octave), The Black Pony, look at Allegretto in C Major if you want to try reading something new
How to practice it most effectively: For the B major triads, the same fingerings are used, just now there are 2 black keys (D#, F#) per triad. For The Black Pony, try isolating bars 13-16 three times before playing the whole thing through so that section can catch up in speed with the rest of the piece. You can add pedal now in the sections shown by the brackets. At the ending, a tempo senza rit means “at tempo, without a rit”, so hold the quarter rest for a full “1e+a” before coming in with the last 4 notes. I will try to get an intermediate version of The Entertainer for you next week.