Elise

Goal for this year

  • Grade 6 this year, session 4

25 Aug

Moonlight

11 Aug

Scales

  • take your time to prepare

Mellow Mood

  • exaggerate dynamics
  • check bar 10

Comtpine

  • smooth dynamics

19 Jul

Scales

  • need a lot of work

Mellow Mood

  • main elements are notes and phrasing

Comptine

  • make sure RH is louder and does most of the phrasing

River

  • pedal later

17 Jun

6B

  • rhythm slightly wrong here

Scales

  • this below standard, needs a lot of practice

Comptine

  • needs practice for flow

Phrasing needs to be big everywhere

10 Jun

River Flows

  • phrasing, keep edges soft is the secret
  • need to do phrasing every time from now on

Mellow Mood

  • we need to do serious sectional practice towards the end

27 May

Scales

  • improvement across the board today
  • do arpeggio F# major

River

  • third page needs work!
  • phrasing, more exaggerated

Mellow Mood

  • still needs practice from the middle as well

20 May

Scales

  • falling behind just a bit
  • contrary motion, if hard, do hands seperately
  • add chord progression this week

Comptine

  • balance between LH and RH, LH softer
  • pedal, try not to have a gap in the sound

13 May

6B

  • needs pedal + go faster overall

Scales

  • 4 octaves, faster!
  • D# melodic, should have B#!
  • continue F# chromatic
  • GRAND SCALE WAS SHOCKERS!

6 May

6B

  • make sure polyrhythm is correct

Scales

  • G# harmonic minor continue
  • do F# chromatic this week
  • don’t forget to revise other scales

River

  • have to keep the same beat for whole song, some parts are faster than others

29 Apr

Scales

  • B major cont done well
  • do G# minor cont this week
  • refer to list of scales
  • make sure to practice everything else as well!
  • check perfect polyrhythms next week

Comptine

  • add pedal
  • add phrasing
  • add balance
  • finish this week

Mellow Mood

  • generally sound needs to be more confident, louder RH, more phrasing, but this comes when our notes are confident as well

22 Apr

Mellow Mood

  • sectional practice!

Practice Comptine this week

River Flows In You

24 Mar

Scales

  • G# harmonic minor

17 Mar

Mellow Mood

  • get to the end

River Flows In You

  • be proactive with the phrasing
  • keep LH soft
  • can use soft pedal

Scales

  • B major cont

4 Mar

Scales

  • Eb major grand and C harmonic minor
  • scales generally can go faster

River Flows

  • memory practice
    • hands seperate
    • start from anywhere
  • practice in sections, instead of always from the start

18 Feb

6B

  • accurate, but needs to have the correct B RL R rhythm

Scales

  • new scale Eb major grand
    • practice similar motion and contrary motion seperately to start off

Mellow Mood

  • good progress this week!
  • watch out for repeated flats from bar 17 onwards

Sight reading

  • watch key signature
  • aim to continue as much as you can

11 Feb

Scales

  • D# melodic minor

River flows in you

  • rhythm in middle section, still check that
  • go softer after the end of first section
  • try to go faster in general
  • make sure you are gentle with soft sections and the soft bits of phrasing

Mellow Mood

  • keep going with mellow mood, aim bar 16

Start Ex 6B

4 Feb

Scales

  • D# harmonic minor

River flows in you

  • good attempt to do phrasing sometimes, but try to keep it lighter overall, especially LH
  • do the last bit in practice more
  • phrase softer at the start and end of phrase
  • check rhythm top of 2nd page

Mellow Mood

  • goal is bar 16

28 Jan

River flows in you

  • great notes and rhythm
  • try to get balance, LH soft, RH louder
  • try phrasing

Scales

  • F# major

New piece: Mellow Mood

17 Dec

River Flows in You

  • you can try pedal here
  • check notes, write notes you get wrong down

Scales

  • do all remaining scales during the holidays
  • needs to be up to standard, individually ticked

Legend of Tanis

10 Dec

Legend of Tanis

  • sectional practice

Spinliedchen

  • needs to have more slow practice

New piece: River Flows In You

3 Dec

Legend of Tanis

  • middle section count in 3 with the recording
  • check coordiantion at 15
  • piu mosso means faster
  • do more dynamics

Spinliedchen

  • this is generally done well, but can be lighter, and a bit faster

26 Nov

Scales

  • B major, watch your white note thumb
  • start E maj contrary motion

Legend of Tanis

  • watch for staccatos
  • middle section still needs to count in 3
  • more phrasing in middle section
  • watch coordination in 29

Spinliedchen

  • keep start lighter
  • always keep accompaniment soft

19 Nov

Moonlight

  • bigger dynamics
  • don’t start too slow
  • hold last note longer

Scales

  • Bb harmonic minor
  • Db major hands together

Legend of Tanis

  • middle section, always count 3 beats in a bar

12 Nov

Scales

  • scales need to go faster

Moonlight Serenade

  • need to do sectional and seperate practice

Legend of Tanis

  • larger dynamic contrast

29 Oct

Spinliedchen

  • play another week

Scales

  • Db major

Moonlight Serenade

15 Oct

Moonlight

  • phrase 2nd page
  • check where pedal

Legend of Tanis

  • phrase 2nd page

New Song: Spinliedchen

Scales

  • G# melodic minor

8 Oct

Moonlight Serenade

  • use pedal
  • we want to be improving consistency

Scales

  • revise first two scales

Legend of Tanis

  • bar 15 go hands seperate
  • try to finish this page

17 Sep

Scales

  • G# harmonic minor

Moonlight Serenade

  • practice line by line

New song: Legend of Tanis

10 Sep

Scales: B major

Song: Moonlight Serenade

  • good reading so far

6 Aug

Tambo Tango

  • add pedal
  • you have to hold top note
  • listen rhythm carefully still

Let the Good Times Roll

  • good progress on this one this week

New song: Kitten n mousin

30 Jul

Tambo Tango

  • good notes
  • all about rhythm this week

New piece: Let the Good Times Roll

Scales: E major and C# natural minor

25 Jun

Scales

  • quality needs to increase

Toccata

  • this is marred by poor consistency, needs sectional practice
  • more dynamics

Spanish Dance

18 Jun

Toccata

  • all about more vivid dynamics especially in the middle sections
  • voice melody, keep accompaniment soft
  • middle section go softer as we go lower, louder higher

Spanish Dance

  • watch left hand staccatos

Scales

  • B harmonic minor needs to be relearned

Song of Twilight

  • difference between p and pp, right hand louder on p

11 Jun

Spanish Dance

  • continue sectional practice on sections that need it
  • can increase dynamics

Song of Twilight

  • keep softer (try using left pedal)
  • bar 7 check notes
  • bar 20 last note long
  • when pedalling keep heel on ground. minimise time that the pedal is not on

4 Jun

Song of Twilight

  • need to again listen and refer often to recording
  • all about sectional practice
  • this should be finished by this week

Toccata

  • sectional for fluency

28 May

Song of Twilight

  • add pedal
  • focus on crotchet beat in LH
  • listen to recording

Spanish Dance

  • dynamics key
  • articulation
  • do dal segno

21 May

Scales

  • be sure that fingering is correct
  • do cont motion hands sep

Spanish Dance

  • targeted practice on parts that are not good
  • be careful of LH rhythm
  • add dynamics

Song of Twilight

  • check LH from bar 5 onwards

14 May

Scales

  • work on general quality of scales this week

Song of Twilight

  • a correct rhythm will have LH the same speed
  • practice seperately if you don’t know it well

7 May

Scales

  • check A maj 4th finger rule
  • chromatics this week
    • 1 on white note
    • 3 on black note
    • 12 on white note gap

Song of Twilight

  • finish the piece this week
  • can write in sharps if you want

Spanish Dance

  • listen to recording for rhythm
  • do basic dynamics

30 Apr

Scales

  • aim to get scales faster
  • new scale: B minor cont

Spanish Dance

  • aim for RH chords to be clean
    • legato
    • make sure you are playing the right notes at the right time (not holding too long/too short)
  • bar 18, try to get rhythm correct

New song: Song of Twilight

  • try to get 4 bars this week

23 Apr

Scales

  • A major check left 4th finger rule
  • New scale: D major contrary

Spanish Dance

  • sectional practice helps us, what are the difficult sections? identify and repeat

Toccata

16 Apr

Scales

  • first 3 scales to be revised

Toccata

  • balance RH and LH, where is our main melody (usually in left hand)
  • try to get dynamics as well

Spanish Dance

  • get up to bar 33 this week

5 Mar

Scales

  • A major, check 4th finger rule
  • try to get all scales done by next week

Toccata

  • notes are mostly accurate here
  • can we increase tempo and add dynamics?

Spanish Dance

  • good attention to fingering and notes today

27 Feb

Toccata Ritmico

  • write down common errors such as missing flats or wrong notes by yourself
  • bar 17, can we do LH slurred, RH staccato?
  • start doing dynamics if possible

Spanish Dance

  • a few inaccuracies in RH, but mostly well read 🙂
  • can you get 1st page hands together this week?
  • 2nd page not too hard as well, how much can we do?

20 Feb

Toccata Ritmico

  • get to the end
  • can you get the good parts faster?

New song: Spanish Dance

Scales

  • F# natural minor this week

Scales + Technical Work

3 Pieces

If you’re doing an exam, we’ll prepare

  • sight reading
  • aural test
  • general knowledge

16 Feb

Toccata Ritmico

  • watch out for B flat and E flat
  • write them down if you are forgetting
  • check your position in bar 17, are we above middle C?
  • check bar 7 LH notes
  • try to get up to bar 40 this week