Owen

Youtube Playlist

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxU_OGndc5q-7jkaXRjBDEObDSXuaxMBR

Google Drive

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/163E4XApDJfqIxNthbIwP8cJqlFMXAEgL?usp=sharing

Goal for this week

  • grade 7

Long term goal

  • Grade 7 repertoire exam

1 Aug

Tarentelle

  • section by section perfect practice
  • on the right track

Goodbye

  • phrasing and dynamics make drama

Mozart

  • spread out semiquavers on 4th page
  • watch quavers being short
  • hold crotchets

25 Jul

Yellow Brick Road

  • finito 🙂
  • phrasing
  • about softs and louds

Tarentella

  • sharp dynamics
  • metronome around 200, good for consistency (or 66 per dotted crotchet)

Seasons of Love

  • metronome 74

18 Jul

Seasons of Love

  • melody needs to always stand out
    • that sometimes means softer accompaniment

Yellow Brick Road – first thing i will ask

  • sectional, probs 5 minutes at a time

8 Nov

Mozart

1 Nov

Mozart

  • main focuses: articulation and dynamics

Tarentelle

  • focus only on weak areas, don’t need to play entire thing through

11 Oct

Mozart Review

  • articulation needs to be consistent
  • are you doing dynamics and phrasing
  • technical sections
    • perfect runs
    • slow
    • staccato
    • rhythm

Tarentelle

  • accelerando towards ending essential

4 Oct

Mozart

  • last page must be speed matched
    • listening to recording is important here
  • all quavers need to be non-legato
  • all sections must be phrased, sneaky phrasing focuses on being soft
  • middle section
    • don’t phrase too much in soft
    • phrase more in loud, this section is designed for phrasing

Mario

  • articulation is important
  • rhythm is important
  • both can be done in smaller sections, these details are important

13 Sep

Mozart

  • SWEATY PRACTICE
    • HIGH INTENSITY – like tennis
    • MINIMAL MISTAKES – hit every ball over the net, consistency
    • HIGH SPEED – no lobs
    • AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA – tennis grunts
  • STUDENT OF THE WEEK: TERM 4 WEEK 1

Tarentelle

  • match speed of middle section (middle section faster)
  • ending, remove gaps
  • loud sections can have pedal (end section)

6 Sep

Tarentelle

  • STILL needs a lighter sound
    • LH soft
    • direct phrasing energy appropriately (don’t go loud and down)
    • back off easily
    • 2nd page doesn’t need to be super loud to create sparkly RH texture
  • middle sections has two parts
    • we can change the phrasing
    • pp – no phrasing
    • con impeto etc. – heaps of phrasing
    • MATCH THE SPEED

Mozart

  • phrase softly phrase ending
  • check fingering at the start

23 August

Mozart

  • last page, check circled notes
  • phrasing – soft based
  • make sure all quavers are staccato
  • 2nd page
    • medium sized (8 bars)

16 August

Mozart

  • phrasing dynamics
  • layered dynamics (sudden dynamics)
  • short and power attacks, but not lengthy attacks
  • middle section should eventually increase speed
    • gradually increase speed from a stable speed

Tarentelle

  • targeted practice on weaker sections
    • avoid restarts
    • avoid mistakes

9 August

Tarentelle

  • pp misterioso at the start softer
  • focus on maximising softs rather than louds
  • soft notes can barely hear
  • 2nd page
    • RH glides across
    • LH is soft and supporting
    • phrasing should be done here but should be minimal

  • make sure this is counted
  • dolce e cantabile
    • speed match
    • use pedal here
    • check this note
  • use pedal to get louder
  • ending should be getting faster and louder

2 August

Tarentelle

  • still a focus on technique
  • metronome 110
  • RH seperate practice
  • rhythm practice
  • lighter overall
  • focus on small bits

Mozart

  • lighter overall
  • also helps with technique
  • metronome 70

26 July

Tarentelle

  • must be speed matched
  • match middle section this week

Mozart

  • 2nd page must be practiced optimally
    • avoid restarts and mistakes as a priority
    • speed and rhythm second
  • watch out for articulation, quavers must be split

19 July

Tarentelle

  • focus on speed matching
  • check notes here
  • check notes
  • check notes here
  • practice at the maximum speed that you can be perfect

Mozart

  • middle section practice hands seperate, practice for technique

12 July

Tarentelle

  • focus on general idea rather individual notes
    • phrase ideas rather than individual notes
  • even if it is light, still needs to be dramatic through points of impact
  • middle section
    • needs to be calm
    • dolce e cantabile – top note needs to be louder, but not too loud
    • con impeto – focus on top note and phrase top note

8 July

Mozart

  • phrasing!
  • rests
  • staccato on all quavers without slurs
  • goal: finish 2nd page

Tarentelle

  • focus on quality and speed, then after phrasing
    • phrasing is based on speed
    • speed done best in small sections

21 June

Tarentelle

  • needs an overall lighter texture
    • can also help with speed
    • RH slightly non legato
  • preferably practice smaller sections at a time

Mario

  • really pay attention to sub. dynamics

7 June

Tarentelle

  • overblow expressive ideas
  • phrasing has destinations
  • no rubato
  • no specific expressions, just know how to think

Mozart

  • be careful of notes on the second page
  • can pedal on octaves

31 May

Tarentelle

  • Phrase acording to speed
  • don’t play too slow
  • focus on getting new sections
  • check which octave you are playing in

Mario

  • check articulation carefully
  • scherzando means playful, shorter notes
  • sometimes dynamics are sudden, sometimes they are gradual

24 May

Mario

  • start this week

Tarentelle

  • misterioso, hold both pedals
  • phrasing and epic ideas main expression
  • learn second page

Mozart

  • softer softs for phrasing
    • lighter character in general as well

17 May

Mozart

  • 1 jigabaloo is fingering
  • 2 jigabaloo is sharps
  • don’t hold LH here
  • gain extra bars this week

New song: Tarentelle (second list piece)

10 May

Fix You

  • pass

Nuvole

  • soft as soft as possible
  • start slower
  • gradual increases from there
  • pass

Goodbye

  • pass

26 Apr

Scales

  • G# harmonic minor

29 Mar

Scales

  • 2 scales remaining

Goodbye

  • this will be passed if it is
    • consistent
    • phrased
      • phrasing must be according to frequency response

Fix You

  • consistency is not great
    • needs more slow practice
  • speed is not consistent

22 Mar

Scales

  • curved fingers
  • make sure 4th finger is correct C harmonic minor

Fix You

  • bar 5, count bar properly
  • pedal must be lifted fully
    • pedal lifts on the triangle
  • balance must include LH as soft as possible
  • RH must be phrased

Goodbye

  • some ties in second page are not correct
  • phrasing in general needs to be bigger
  • check octave lower bottom of 2nd page
  • check pedalling

15 Mar

Scales

  • aim for accuracy
  • G# melodic minor
  • C melodic minor
  • G# harmonic contrary

Goodbye for Now

  • phrasing needs to be greater
  • must be all legato
  • 17 all soft
  • 22, check LH chord
  • 32 LH octave lower
  • 40 LH, check LH position

Fix You (quick notes)

  • pedal
  • loud notes not too loud

8 Mar

Scale to improve

  • G# melodic minor
  • C melodic minor
  • G# harmonic contrary
  • Eb minor arpeggio

Make sure all scales are up to speed

Goodbye:

  • check timing bar 16
  • bar 18, check LH notes
  • bar 29, check all LH placements
  • phrasing
    • hit hard on main impacts, and fade quicker
  • 17-24, LH as soft as possible. bar 25, surprise in comparison
  • bar 29 is the loudest section
  • allargando, louder and slower, then slow towards to the end

Fix You

  • must have correct repetitions by either going slow, small sections or both

1 Mar

Scales

  • you know all the scales already, time to make them exam standard

Goodbye for Now

  • there ar
  • Owen’s ideas
    • RH louder
    • higher is louder
  • Isaac’s ideas
    • phrasing in and out
    • higher is louder sometimes, also considering where we are in the phrase
  • the softer you start phrases, the more careful and meticulous it sounds
  • phrases are marked by slurs

22 Feb

Scales

  • practice bad scales slowly
  • practice good scales fast
  • consistency

Goodbye

  • important to ‘taper’ off the end of phrases. End of phrases are end of slurs
  • check rhythm, make sure that each bar has 6 crotchets. watch out for dotted rhythms
  • bar 9 B natural LH
  • 15-16, check rhythm
  • phrasing is key. focus more on starting soft
  • be accurate on 8vb
  • check RH notes bar 29
  • 17, LH really soft and small phrasing to give angelic sound
  • allargando – getting broader
    • slower and thicker texture
  • ending should be peaceful

15 Feb

Scales

  • retry G# melodic minor, can do seperate hands.
  • be careful for 4 octaves

Nuvole

  • bar 5, very light, RH sparkles by itself
  • bar 21 onwards, must be counted in 12. big phrasing in both hands. texture not heavy
  • bar 30, should have LH different here
  • bar 43, LH less notes here
  • poco cresc: gradually getting louder a little bit throughout the whole piece
  • poco accel: gradually getting faster
  • bar 35, important to get intense, but only through upper notes. keep momentum going

2 Feb

Scales

  • a little bit of everything

Goodbye for Now

  • expression points
  • phrasing, focus on the fading away
  • balance, which hand has the priority, what texture does it create
  • Make sure there are no Bb
  • bar 12, fade into peak
  • watch this note bar 15
  • bar 17 onwards here, prioritise melody notes only. Watch notes here.

Fix You

  • Points to watch
  • phrasing
  • watch for texture

Notes 27 Jan

Scales

  • check C melodic minor fingering
  • 2nd page optional

Fix You

  • count bar 5 carefully, extra 2 beats
  • bar 25 octave higher
  • check note bar 46
  • overall texture needs to be much lighter

Notes 20 Jan

Scales: G# melodic minor

Fix You

  • first line pp, hold pedal the entire time
  • thin texture, focus on LH soft in bar 6
  • don’t rush this scale
  • polyrhythm patern here is T RLR
  • think about what is melody and prioritise it
  • don’t rush this scale
  • wait here
  • don’t double pedal
  • phrase this section
  • to bring melody out, play everything soft except tenuto notes

Nuvole

  • bar 4 pause longer
  • in general we want a thinner texture. It needs to build up gradually

Notes 13 Jan

Scales

  • 4th finger rule will help
  • G# harmonic minor

Nuvole

  • bar 1-4, go much slower (40). RH louder, try
  • for the entire piece, have 12/8 time signature standard in your head. make sure it is 4 lots of 3
  • bar 5-12, think about texture you are creating with pedal. can use soft pedal
  • bar 35, cresc, pedal down the whole way, accent getting bigger

Notes 6 Jan

Start Nuvole Bianche and Scales