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!