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:

Body Staff Basics

If you are a parent new to piano lessons, you might be bewildered by the concept of the "body staff."  A staff is the set of lines and spaces used to place notes on to make reading music easy and organized.  At the very basic level, students need to get used to the ideas of highs and lows, steps and skips.  This can be facilitated in an easy and fun way using the body staff.  Pictured below is a diagram of how the body can be used corresponding to notes on the scale (please don't be disturbed that the child in the diagram looks like a gingerbread man).

Some of the most basic songs can be practiced on the body staff.  Here are two examples that you may be working on in your lessons!

Hot Crossed Buns

and Honeybee

Goodbye to Winter, LH

Most kids figure out the beginning of the accompaniment to Goodbye to Winter on their own.  The second bit is a little tricky though!  If your child started this in his/her lesson this week, you might want to watch this video mid-week as a refresher.

Lightly Row, HT, Suzuki Book 1

If your child began Lightly Row in lesson this week, here is a little refresher for how you should have her practice it before she goes on.

Start with the first two notes only (G-E in the RH, and C-G in the LH) and make sure that the LH remains on the keys while the RH lifts.  After doing that a couple of times, she may continue with both finger 3s on E as follows:

We are going slowly this way to teach her hand independence at a very basic level.  Once she has mastered this, the hands-together process will go a lot faster!  How exciting!  Have fun!

Theme, LH alternate legato-fingering, Suzuki Book 3

When the A section material returns in the second half of the Suzuki Book 3 version of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony Theme, you may want to play it with the same type of legato fingering you used in the A section.  It requires switching from fingers 4 to 5 on the bass notes.  Here is a quick look at what you can do to make it smooth and easy:

Happy Farmer, Left Hand, A1 Section, Suzuki Book 2

The Left Hand of Happy Farmer is usually very easy to learn.  A combination of arpeggios and by-ear trial-and-error gets the bulk of it done in minutes.  Measure fourteen though, is typically pretty daunting for students who become intimidated with that harmonic sixth that includes a Bflat.

From the C and the A in measure 13 though, the student's hand is already in the shape of a sixth.  Have them identify the two harmonic intervals in measure 14 followed by the single landmark note before showing them how it is done.

What a fun piece to play!

Short Story, Left Hand - Suzuki Book 2

Short Story is easy for the left hand, isn't it?  It is just chords we've mostly played before and scales, right?  Yup!  Until measure 15.  I know you can read these notes.... the first one is above or below middle C??

But, just to make things a little easier, here is a video that shows measures 14 - 16 played with the correct fingering.  (Fingering is getting more and more important as your pieces get more and more interesting!)

When you start to look at the right hand in this spot, it is important to notice what notes stay the same and what notes are different.
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