Hello! Happy Easter!

I have a few updates and reminders for this week. First, progress reports have gone out this week! Please review thee with your child and let me know if you have any questions next week. Also, please see the note on the bottom of the reverse side of the report for information about summer lessons and fall registration.

Second, our student recital is in two weeks! It will be 1:30pm on May 4th! While not everyone will be performing, we do consider attendance mandatory  as we find this is an important opportunity for students to meet their peers, and for students and families to experience and hear live music together. If we have talked about possibly participating in the recital, feel free to continue this discussion with your child. Have them choose one of the songs we have learned and encourage them to perform it for you for practice.

Berke:

When practicing the Minuet this week, please use a metronome. Start at 85BPM (beats per minute) and increase the metronome by 5BPM each time you play the song through. Try to keep up with the metronome and ensure there is no pauses where there shouldn’t be. If you need to start slower in order to do this then do so. Remember to play the whole piece with the repeat! Should any mistakes happen, push through to the end of the phrase! At the end of the phrase you can go back to the bar where the mistake occurred and iron this out. Break down these errors into smaller chunks; practice the bar hands separate before trying the bar again with both hands. When reviewing mistakes hands together play these slowly and focus on how things line up in your hands and against the macro beat. Please circle the 3rd note of bar 3 and the first note of bar 8 as these can be challenging spots. Finally, use the recording we listened to in class as a tool and a reference. Challenge yourself to play along with the recording, but resist the urge to mimic the performer. Play along, but play the way Berke would – not Mozart. You can find that recording here.

Practice the chord progression in bars 5-9 of Moonlight Sonata in your left hand. When you feel confident playing these 4 bars, play the song start to finish, connecting bars 1-4 and 5-9. You can play hands together during the first 4 bars of music if you wish, do not play bars 5-9 hands together until you feel confident in the right hand. On your own, sight-read the right hand from bars 5-9.

Great class this week! I look forward to hearing you play more music next week!