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:

Staccato Practice for Beginners

Many students have trouble acquiring the crisp sound of a good staccato.  Usually it is because they are playing down towards the keys instead of up and away from the keys.  Here is a brief example of a child just learning how to play a bouncy staccato:

Body Staff Overview

By now, your children have been working all year on using the Body Staff to understand pre-reading Suzuki pieces.  Below is a quick overview of the beginnings of each of the pieces.  This is a good way to practice how to start each piece and understanding the differences between then when we finally start reading on the staff.

Basic Music Concepts

Here is a quick review with a few of my students of some of the basic concepts they learn at the beginning of piano study.

Piano, Forte, Largo, Presto, Bass and Treble.

 

Little Hands Learning to Play with Good Technique

Using the whole hand and keeping the point of contact with the keys narrowed to just the finger pads ("pillows").

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.

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.

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.  

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!

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!

Chant Arabe HT B section ending, Suzuki Book 1

The trickiest part of Chant Arabe (once you've mastered the even sounding left hand, the subtle changes in dynamic tension in the right hand, and the coordination to keep one legato while the other one isn't) is the last two measures of the B section.

I like to teach students to imagine the second beat of that last measure as a beat that has an "air note" in the left hand.  Here is a student playing that "air note" to perfection the day he learned to put them together.  (The LH air note matches up with the first of the two Ds in the RH in that measure.)

Ecossaise, LHA - Suzuki 1

Congratulations!  You've started Suzuki Book 2!  This is an exciting moment.  Luckily, we get to celebrate with a pretty exciting piece.  The thing that makes this piece sound so exciting is the staccato in the left hand.  Articulation (rests, staccatos, accents, slurs....) is very important in Book 2 and you'll find it to be very important in this piece as well.  Watch how this student plays the "jumps" and the "legatos" in the A section:

Clair De Lune LH B - Suzuki Book 1

Now, I'm sure I've taught this to you in lesson, but if you're having trouble remembering how the left hand fits with the right hand in the B section of Au Claire de la Lune, here is a little reminder:



Remember to practice hands separately first, and the left hand at this part is "half-note, half-note, rocking, rocking, D-2-3-4, stepping down."

Lightly Row, HT B section, Suzuki Book 1

Now that your child is getting more comfortable with hand independence involving legato touch, he should be zooming ahead with putting hands together on many of the pieces we've worked on hands separately!  What an exciting time!  Here is a quick refresher of how legato in the left hand and lifting in the right hand would work in the B section of Lightly Row:

Next up, French Children's Song!   And for a refresher on starting Lightly Row hands together, or how to slow down and practice that hand independence, go back to this post.
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Christmas Day Secrets, LH B section ending, Suzuki Book 1

I've already shown you how this works in lesson, but in case you or your child has forgotten the fingering we discussed, here is a quick example of how it should be played.

We are looking at the very end of the B section of Christmas Day Secrets; left hand.  The fingering should be as follows:

1     2     1     2     3
G    A    G    F     E          and the 3 on E begins the return of the A section seamlessly.

French Children's Song - HT - Suzuki Book 1

One of the tricky things about putting hands together in French Children's Song is that it begins with a repeated note in the right hand.   After doing some careful legato practice, and simplifying it into smaller steps:

the goal should be playing the opening phrase like so: 

Careful Legato Practice

When one hand needs to change chords, or repeat a note, while the other hand is expected to play a legato line, sometimes a student finds this difficult to practice.  Sometimes "willing" it to happen will work, but it isn't very efficient.

Instead, incorporating an exaggerated movement into the hand that lifts will help disconnect the reliance the hands have on eachother to do the same thing.  Like this!

Pauline's left hand has a singing melody, while her right hand needs to change chords.  Before practicing this way, both hands would lift and the musical effect would be jarring.

Chant Arabe B section LH

By now, you understand that there is a lot to this little piece!  We've worked on balance, we've worked on having a flexible wrist, we've worked on phrasing.  There is this one little bit though at the end of the B section that often gives kids an issue.

To learn this little bit, and to coordinate it later with the RH, I find it is easiest to choreograph the octave leap.  My students practice it as follows: