Felix

Goal: Grade 4 exam next year

28 Jul

Twilight

  • softer again!
  • remove large gaps in between sections

21 Jul

Twilight

  • don’t play everything loud, keep it softer!
  • add pedal if you can
  • sectional practice from bar 9-16

30 Jun

Let the Good Times Roll

  • don’t go too fast
  • do dynamics!
  • do accents

Twilight

  • continue learning here

Scales

  • finish first page of scales

23 Jun

Let the Good Times Roll

  • don’t go too fast
  • fix rhythm at bar 5
  • start doing dynamics

Twilight

  • do 8 bars hands together this week at least

Scales

  • do Ab major again

16 Jun

Scales

  • can do faster
  • make sure it is 4 octaves
  • Ab major this week

Let the Good Times Roll

  • watch for ties

9 Jun

Scales

  • do C# melodic minor this week
  • go faster, 4 octaves

Let the Good Times Roll

  • finish this week
  • start to do accents and staccatos

2 Jun

Scales

  • scales need to 4 octaves and a bit faster
  • practice first three scales this week
  • just be careful with notes now the scale is longer

Let the Good Times Roll

  • we read well today, but why did you only do so little this week! try to do more!

12 May

Scales

  • scales are generally okay, but there are a few that are not accurate yet, C harm minor, B harmonic minor contrary

Midnight Ride

  • if confident, go faster!
  • think about dynamics carefully, especially softs. it shows the examiner that you care about your work!

Twilight

  • again not too slow here
  • 3rd line has more stops than everywhere else, practice this a bit more

5 May

Scales

  • F# harmonic minor, make sure E# is and F
  • scales, start B harmonic minor
  • generally, you need to be a bit more careful

Nashville Rag

  • keep this stable, maybe do a bit of slow practice. maybe don’t go so fast as well
  • do mps a lot softer so we have contrast

Twilight

  • do sectional practice on the last line
  • don’t go too loud!

28 Apr

Focus on scales!

  • see ticked scales that you have to do
  • E# is an F

Midnight Ride

  • good, but still needs dynamics

31 Mar

Midnight Ride

  • continues to get better!
  • dynamics
  • keep mf and mp softer in general, then get louder using the hairpins

Twilight

  • try pedal!
  • keep lighter in general, this is a light song
  • review! don’t forget!

Nashville Rag

  • this is quite good as well!
  • dyanmics as well!

24 Mar

Midnight Ride

  • check RH bar 2 fingering
  • bar 16 starts too high!
  • from bar 23, do sectional practice

Scales: continue to revise!

Revise other pieces as well

17 Mar

Midnight Ride

  • we have learned most of the piece, try to finish!

10 Mar

Midnight Ride

  • try to do 1st page this week, go further if you can
  • good work today!

3 Mar

Nashville Rag

  • great playing today
  • make sure you are doing dynamics

Start Midnight Ride today

  • follow fingering carefully!
  • F#!
  • see how far you can get. this is your third and final song!

Scales

24 Feb

Nashville Rag

  • keep practicing sectionally. if the section is very hard, do RH, LH, then together. see whether you can get up to bar 29 this week

Scales

  • good scales today! do C harmonic and melodic minor this week
  • try D major contrary motion this week (you can do more if you want)
  • when revising scales, try

17 Feb

Twilight

  • try to get dynamics correct
  • dynamics are never loud! a lot of the time they are soft
  • soft also where is says lightly

Focus on Nashville Rag this week!

  • focus on this, we still need to get our three pieces done eventually
  • focus on fingering as well

Scales

  • new scale: C natural minor
  • F# harmonic minor, E# is the same as F

10 Feb

Twilight

  • improved a lot this week!
  • the curvy line next to the chord means we play each note one by one
    • start from the bottom note
  • rall means slow down

Scales

  • the scales can go a bit faster if you are comfortable
  • curve your fingers when playing your scales
  • do Eb major this week

Start Nashville Rag

5 Dec

Scales

  • are mostly well done

New piece:

28 Nov

Tango for two

  • tick given today, much better dynamics and articulation

Dragon fly

  • tick give, same as tango for two

Petite Piece

  • good playing, but bar 21-24 was inaccurate
  • after a few correct times this got better!

14 Nov

Tango for two

  • still need to watch LH fingering
  • sticky RH legato

Dragon fly

  • slow practice for safety
  • dynamics!

2B

  • go slow, but you’re on the track
  • F#

2C

  • start this week

Scales

  • E harmonic minor this week

7 Nov

Tango for two

  • fix the left hand articulation

24 Oct

Petite Piece

  • two things to look out for
  • staccatos and dynamics

Dragon fly

  • slow practice for consistency and dynamics

Do scales and exercises this week

Tango for Two

  • articulation, slurs and staccatos are most important

12 Oct

Tango for Two and Dragonfly

  • consistency

Petite Piece

  • remember our notes again

Scales

  • practice this!

Exercises

  • remember our notes again

12 Sep

Scales

  • make sure they are the correct speed
  • E harmonic minor contrary motion

Start exercise 2B this week

Petite Piece

  • loud not too loud!
  • not too fast!

Dragon Fly

  • hairpin dynamics

Tango

  • hairpin dynamics

5 Sep

Dragon Fly

29 Aug

Scales

  • g major

24 Jul

2A left hand

Scales: continue B flat major

Learn all of Petite piece this week

18 Jul

Petite Piece

  • up to bar 16 hands together
  • up to bar 24 just RH

Scales: Do B flat major this week

Ex 2A

30 May

Mock Exam

1A

  • could be faster
  • not all slurs were correct

1B

  • not all the articulation was correct

1C

  • ocassionally too fast and hesitant

Scales

  • this was well played today

Prelude

  • not always completely even, but quite an energetic performance

Mazurka

  • large dynamic range and mostly fluent

A rainy saturday

  • this had mostly appropriate dynamics and was mostly fluent

Aural Test

  • this was mostly correct

Sight reading

  • this was inaccurate today

23 May

Prelude

  • don’t go too fast, make sure all notes are there
  • hold minims longer

Mazurka

  • keep left hand light

Rainy Saturday

  • don’t go too slow

16 May

Scales

  • better fingering this week
  • try to get faster in general

Prelude

  • focus on rhythm practice for evenness

9 May

Scales

  • 4th finger rule

1A

  • do last line by itself

Generally don’t do exercises and scales too slow

2 May

1A

  • end sections are wrong
  • dynamics are good, but a bit too big

Make sure you are ready before start

1B

  • okay, but dynamics

Scales

  • the scale was a bit too slow today
  • fingers should be curved
  • generally a lot of fingering still wrong
    • 4th finger rule

25 Apr

Scales

  • fingering missing 4th finger everywhere!

General Knowledge

  • continue to revise

Rainy Saturday

  • don’t start too slow, start at a comfortable starting speed

18 Apr

1A

  • check LH notes at the end

1B

  • staccatos

1C

  • don’t go too fast

Scales

  • 4th finger rule!

Prelude

  • this is pretty good

Mazurka

  • add the extra note in bar 4 RH
  • memory, should be able to play LH seperately

28 Mar

1A

  • last notes need to be corrected

1C

  • this needs dynamics

Scale

  • don’t play top note twice
  • scales need to be memorised by end of holidays
  • accuracy needs to improve

Prelude

  • bar 4 Bb in LH
  • evenness is important

Mazurka

  • try to add grace notes in bar 4

14 Mar

General Knowledge

  • good start

Scales

  • remember you only have one chance to start
  • memorise the scales
  • start contrary motions this week C major

Rainy Saturday

  • pretend mp is loud
  • slow down towards the end
  • hold last note long

Mazurka

  • keep LH soft if possible

7 Mar

1A

  • 2nd last bar incorrect RH

1C

  • dynamics

29 Feb

1A

  • rhythm needs to be perfect now

1B

  • listen to rhythm

1C

  • this is pretty good

Rainy Saturday

  • more dynamics
  • you need to be checking the page for dynamics

Mazurka

  • dynamics well attempted
  • main issue is consistency
  • can be fixed with slow practice

22 Feb

1A

  • this got better
  • continue to improve

1B

  • this is not too bad

1C

  • left hand last bar is incorrect

Mazurka

  • improvement, but the left hand is still a bit wrong from bar 9

Rainy Saturday

  • LH must be connected
  • are we doing dynamics?

15 Feb

1A

  • this improved a bit but still needs a lot of work
  • line by line practice, aim for perfection

1C

8 Feb

1A

  • this needs a lot of work

1C

  • aim for fluency

Scales

  • make sure scales are legato
  • this needs a lot work

Mazurka

  • things that you need to do
    • start from the middle
    • seperate hands
    • go slow

Rainy Saturday

22 Jun

Mini Toccata

  • can get faster
  • but keep dynamics and same speed

Andante

  • keep everything connected

8 Jun

PB

  • check LH carefully

Mini Toccata

  • this has improved a lot
  • identify individual sections that are not good yet

Andante

  • slow practice
  • all right hand connected

1 Jun

Scales

  • connected
  • curved fingers

PB

  • connected

When playing, where are our mistakes?

4 May

Andante

  • notes good, but improve rhythm bit by bit
  • 7 Apr

Andante

  • when combining, look at the page
  • can you start to do a bit by yourself?

Let’s Sing a Duet

  • aim for speed and dynamics this week

22 Apr

Let’s Sing a Duet

  • legato, connected touch is most important
  • try to get a difference between loud and soft

Andante

  • combine two bars at a time, left right together

23 Mar

Let’s Sing a Duet

  • notes come directly after each other
  • try to curve your fingers

New song: Andante

Scales

  • A harmonic minor, + any other scales you want

Ex PA

  • pay attention to slurs and staccatos
  • try left hand this week

9 Mar

Scales

  • new: A natural minor

Let’s Sing a Duet

  • try to have a legato touchy
    • a legato touch is when our notes are connected
    • the dots are staccatos, these are not connected, and short

New exercise: Hide and seeky