Chant Arabe HT

The end of the B section in Chant Arabe is difficult for anyone and needs to be carefully choreographed. If careful hands-separate preparation has been done, this shouldn't take long or be too frustrating. Here is a demo of how this should be choreographed for the young student:

Last Clementi in Book 3

A daunting passage appears on the third page of the Clementi Sonatina Op. 36, No. 3 in Suzuki Book 3.

Here is Evan, working through the RH chords. He is doing three at a time, and then putting them together. Here, he is working through measures 42 and 43. This method will continue until measure 45 when it is merely a descending scale.

Finding your Tempo

One of the hardest things to practice at home by yourself is keeping a steady tempo.  You slow down for the hard parts, you rush through the easy parts.  I get it!  However, your first step to playing a piece at one tempo, is to find the tempo of your hardest passage.  Figure out how fast you're able to comfortably play that, and then start the piece in that tempo.

Here is an example of Adrian playing her toughest passage, and then starting her piece in that tempo. I bet her Sonatina is going to sound so steady in lesson next week!

Counting at the end of Hungarian Folk Song - Suzuki Book 2

If you have mastered the down-ups - the slurred chords, the accents and the coordination needed to play this piece, congratulations!  There's just one more thing - the counting in the last line of the piece!

Here is the last line - it looks easy!  But make sure you count.  (The beats are written in for you here.)

And here is a student practicing it:

Beethoven Sonatina LH, Suzuki Book 2

At this point in music study, the melody of a new piece is very easy for a student to pick up.  I always get them started with the LH so that they feel comfortable moving on with the piece.  After the slide up into the black keys in m. 1-2 of this Sonatina, it is measures 3-4 that pose the bigger difficulty.

The top line of the LH chords is going to be legato, while the bottom line needs to lift in order to repeat the same note.  Here is how it is done:

Beethoven Sonata, Movement 2 - Suzuki Book 4

Congratulations!  You're now working on the second movement of your first Sonata!  This is one of my favorite pieces and you now have all the skills you need to be able to play such a beautiful work! You've worked hard in the first movement at switching from duple to triple meter and as much as you may love to use that skill, you don't need it outside of measure 40 in this movement (make sure those are triplets!).

It IS tempting to use those triplets though - especially when you get to measure 114.   This rhythm is the same sort of thing we worked so hard on in the Minuet in Book 3, so you've got it!

Here is the portion we're looking at:

If you find you're having particular difficulty here, or your teacher has brought this up in your lesson, here is a quick tip for how to practice it so that you have the correct rhythm in your ear:

Happy Practicing!

Melody, Suzuki Book 2

Melody, while simple in sound, has its moments of complication!

Measures 7-8 and measures 11-12 have finger switches and movement that takes practice!

The finger switch in measure 8 is the one that students forgo quickly, which causes a tense stretch between fingers 3 and 4.  The last three beats of measure 8 should be practiced on their own first.

Measures 7-8:

The finger switch in measure 11 insures that the melodic line will remain legato.  It feels symmetrical in the hands since the LH is also inching down the keyboard by placing the thumb on treble G.

Measures 11-12:

And there you have it!

Grouping and Gestures

Once a student has learned how to distinctly play each key, the next step is to learn how to group them together to make a fluid phrase!

Suzuki students learn this in Honeybee.  Here is an example of a student practicing two groups of four notes by using a gesture to keep them controlled and even.


This is best taught by rote as groupings is pretty personal in terms of style and is not indicated in the score.

Ready..... Play!

From the very beginning, we're working on getting a feel for the keyboard, good tone, and the ability to play from the keys instead of hammering into them.

Here is a quick video of a beginning student as she works on this concept:




You might also find useful:  Working on the Variations and Body Staff Basics.

Working on the Variations with Your Little One

So you've been working on labeling finger numbers, and you've been playing the copy game.  You've been practicing clapping the Twinkle Variation rhythms, and you've been working on finding C.  Your son or daughter is finally comfortable with "ready-play" and springs from the note instead of hammering into it.  Congratulations!

Let's move on from one note now to starting the A section (first part) of the Twinkle Variations.  This video shows how one might go about practicing with a child at this level at home:



This child is able to keep a rhythm in his head for the entirety of the exercise.  If he were to play an incorrect rhythm (or go back to Variation A, which often happens), I would simply demonstrate for him on the note we're on and continue in the same manner.

You notice we're finding his finger number by turning our hands over - this keeps his hand position relaxed for playing.  This is the A section of the Twinkle pattern.  You probably have the finger numbers and keys notated in your notebook in the following manner:

We'll use this same pattern over and over again and your child will pick it up through the repetition and reinforcement of the sound through the CD, your playing, and his practice with you every day.

Little Waltz - RH B section

By Book 3, Suzuki students are very comfortable with larger gestures to create groupings of notes.  After all, they've been doing it easily since Little Playmates in Book 1!

Little Waltz though, has a B section that is often awkward for students who approach it in the same manner as the A section.

Practicing the gestures that will group these notes together will make the section much more fluid:

Go Tell Aunt Rhody - RH

In Go Tell Aunt Rhody, students are faced both with a finger switch and multiple repeated notes in the melody.  To keep the melody fluid, from the keys, and relaxed, I have students practice their repeated notes as follows:


Practice Variation B for the same feeling.

Clementi Op. 36 No. 1, Vivace

This Vivace piece is a lot of fun to play, and one of the things that makes it really roll is a fluid scale passage in the RH.  This passage happens in C and in G starting on the third note of the scale.  Here it is in C:

In order to obtain the most fluid movement while emphasizing the most important notes, a student might want to practice this passage in sections.  In the picture above, the practice sections are marked.  The first in pink, the second in yellow, and the third within the green brackets.  Below is how each section would be practiced fluidly.

Short Story Ending

Sometimes the rests make all the difference.  The coordination of rests and quarter notes against eighth notes at the end of Short Story sometimes give students difficulty.  I'd like to share with you a beautiful example of how it should be done.  This student is exaggerating his rests to feel the movement throughout the continued rhythm in the other hand.  It makes things much easier!

The rests you see the student playing are below, circled in pink, and the green arrows indicate the notes that are not to be played staccato.  

Minuet in G minor, RH B section

One of the things your child cannot learn from just listening to the CD is how to use proper and efficient fingering.  For this, you'll have to open the book!  In Minuet in G minor, there are some fingering options that you might see in your book and I propose the following, based on what my students have used to get the best results.

We are, of course looking at the B section, measures 9 - 16.  The A section is quite easily learned by ear.

LH B section of Au Claire de la Lune

Now, one thing that makes Au Claire de la Lune more difficult (and also more beautiful) is that the left hand is contrapuntal in parts.  That means that it has a little melody of its own!  The B section is especially interesting because it is NOT made up of C chords and G chords.

You've already learned the LH in the A section and you see that your hand is stretched out a little bit with your pinky on a B instead of a C.  That's perfect!  You're ready for the B section:

Practice this, and you'll be well on your way to contrapuntal playing in no time!

Minuet 1 LH B section

Very similar to the first line of the A section, the B section LH of Minuet 1 poses some difficult at times  in coordination.  The octave figure in measure 18 is very similar to the one in the A section, but teachers the student how to do the same thing in a different key.  Measure 20 is essentially the reversal of measure 18.

Here is how it would look to play this line:

Musette LH B section

Often quite difficult for a student to figure out on her own, the B section of Musette has a really fun sequence of chords in it that students enjoy practicing once they've been shown how it works.

Once the student has moved from the D minor position to the A Major position with the LH, this passage will be quite easy.  Remember that the hand stretches at the thumb like a mitten - not in between the fingers.  So, the thumb will reach up to get the F in the first chord and then return to its spot on the E.  Here is a video example of what this will look like from a student who learned it today!

A Major Pentascale

For those of you participating in The Achievement Program assessment this November, you are already working on preparing several pentascales (five note scales, which can be found using the "Start-Whole-Whole-Half-Whole" method).

Here is how the A major pentascale should be played:


If you are working towards Prep A, you need to prepare the C, G, D, and a minor pentascales (D is the only one with a black note).  If you are working towards Prep B, you need to prepare the A, E, F, e minor and d minor pentacles.

We'll work on these in lesson, but if you forget halfway through the week, watch this video again!  This should be a part of your daily practice!

A minor broken triads

For those of you participating in the Preparatory B level of the Achievement Program assessment this December, here is an example of how to practice your broken triads:


Practice this in C Major and G Major in addition to your Pentascales in A, E, F, e minor and d minor as well as your full scales in C and G.

Show me what you can do in lesson this week!

Happy Practicing!