Hakim Technical Exercises - Working through 1 octave scales starting on C - hands separately and together. Practicing as both solid blocked hand positions and stepping through - not just practicing stepping through quickly. Practicing with a legato, staccato, and detached articulation. Celebration - Working through start to finish hands together - being able to play through without hesitation. Double [...]
Clara Technical Exercises - 5 finger major scale patterns starting on C, G, D, A, E, B, F#, and C# 5 finger scale patterns - Oct 6 Clara Finding our hand position based on our pattern of half steps and whole steps Stepping up and down each scale pattern, saying all note names - practicing hands separately until comfortable before trying [...]
Sara Listening - Harry Somers “Feller from Fortune” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C5teFO1vH4&ab_channel=GondwanaChorale Technical Exercises - Continuing with B Major - 2 octaves HT for everything Parallel motion scales - being sure to keep our wrist/arm neutral, our bridge/knuckles supported, and our fingers curved around our bubble especially when we are mostly on black keys (no flat fingers!) Triads (solid/broken), working on letting [...]
Sara Listening Rebecca Clarke's "The Seal Man" (for piano and voice) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1FHA0rpmT8&ab_channel=DeutscheGrammophon-DG Rebecca Clarke's Viola Sonata, first movement (for piano and viola) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hfvscqveeg&ab_channel=Soo-MinLee-Topic Technical Exercises - Continue with E Major Scales, triads (solid HS and HT, broken only HS), Arpeggios (only HS - thinking of blocked hand positions moving from the arm horizontally/sideways instead of crossing fingers under) Schubert [...]
Sara Listening: Franz Schubert's "Gute Nacht" from Winterreise ("Good Night" from Winter Journey) https://youtu.be/a8I5Gn3bVN0?si=ol5NEc5zA8WxdfPh Technical Exercises Continuing in B Major - Review fingerings from attached page for scales (LH especially just to be confident!) and triads. -Triads - watching out that we are always outlining each chord inversion with fingers 1 and 5 (which feels much different from our [...]
Sara Pieces to Listen: Bela Bartok - Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QElT9KD4uX8&ab_channel=invertedninthchord Franz Schubert - "Gute Nacht" from Winterreise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8I5Gn3bVN0&ab_channel=WarnerClassics Technical Exercises - Review LH fingerings for E Major scale New Key - B Major (5 sharps!): Scales (parallel, HS and HT) Triads (solid HT, broken HS) - watching out for fingers 1 and 5 on black keys, [...]
Shakira Practicing - Planning out short chunks of practice (5-10 minutes at a time) - choose 1 thing from our list of things to do and focus only on that. -Practice reading through a small group of measures a few times, speak through note names, or practice finding 5 finger hand positions from scales, etc. Technical Exercise - 5 finger [...]
Sara Technique - Scales, Triads, Arpeggios -Continue with E Major, focusing on staying relaxed all exercises (checking in with the entire hand, the wrist, and the forearm) -Especially with solid triads - thinking in a similar way to RH octaves in “The Entertainer” - not letting wrist get too high, or letting the hand “set” into position. The Entertainer: [...]
Shakira Technique Exercises: working in C Major (no sharps/flats) 1 Octave C Major scale - Practicing as solid blocked groups of fingers within each hand position, bouncing back and forth between positions. Thinking ahead before moving. Once comfortable with shifting between hand positions fully, stepping through the scale slowly. C Major solid triads - Practicing finding and moving between C [...]
Sara Technical Exercises - Working through new key this week: E Major (4 sharps) Overall thinking about larger groupings of notes/fingers and thinking ahead instead of thinking of what you are doing. E Major Technique Fingerings - Sara Scales: E Major hands separately 1 octave first, working towards hands together 2 octaves - thinking about hand position groupings as opposed [...]