Vienna’s Playlist
Goal
- Grade 2 exam
23 Mar
Scales
- F major cont, inaccurate moving inwards, pay attention to 4th finger rule
- be careful to assess whether is right or wrong
Tango for Two
- good effort to read notes, watch coordination between hands
- begin to get LH rhythm (listen to recording for this)
Petite Piece
- coordination at bar 8 please fix!
- bar 20 new mistake!?
2B
- on the right track for this one, one more week
Dragon fly
- practice on this one is inaccurate, please be careful, do hands seperate if required
- F# LH bar 5
- new mistake at 6
16 Mar
Scales
- D harmonic minor cont, inaccurate today, be more careful
- new scale: F major cont, be very careful
2B
- on the right track. combine very carefully this week
- do it in small sections
Tango for two
- sometimes inaccurate, watch reading
- try a bit hands together
- goal: bar 9
Petite piece
- start practicing from 17-24, make an effort to just practice this bit
- other bits, don’t go too fast, stable, medium fast speed is ideal
- coordination
9 Mar
Scales
- new scales: E harmonic and D harmonic minor contrary
New exercise: 2B try this hands seperate
- watch fingering
Dragon fly
- some F#s missed
- bar 3, make sure D# is repeated in RH
- last line, be careful!
New piece: Dragon fly
- after this, we need two extra lists (pieces with little marking weight)
2 Mar
Scales
- good this week
- new scales: G melodic minor and G major contrary
Ex 2A
- please do bass driver this week
Petite Piece
- LH inaccuracy still an issue, likely a lot of guessing during practice
- often a practice speed issue, reading is usually fine but playing too fast to pick up mistakes
- vastly improved after one slow careful run
- bar 16, LH in wrong spot
Dragon fly
- watch for sharps in bar 3-4, F#s and D#s
- generally RH done to a high standard, well done
- add LH and combine as much as possible, key is going slow as usual
23 Feb
Scales
- accurate this week
- new scales: G natural and harmonic minor
2A
- start left hand 2A
- accurate this week
Petite Piece – try to listen to recording regularly, instead of just when you need it
- improved notes this week, well done.
- bar 17 onwards, LH might need to go seperate.
- bar 16, LH octave too high
- bar 18, check LH
- 21-23, check LH
- 21-24 is the hardest part! practice this seperately, a few times in a row, to see improvement
New song: List A Dragon fly
- all Fs turn into F#
- check where your notes are, are they above or below middle C?
16 Feb
Scales
- you should do scales that are not as good
- like Bb major. This should be hands together this week
Ex 2A
- okay, but needs more practice. Continue with right hand
- generally need more time on tech work this week
Petite Piece
- check notes RH bar 7
- in general, great effort to read by yourself at home. occassionally inaccurate, but having a genuine effort to read and play at home. continue to encourage this.
- bar 21-24, read bar by bar, combine bar by bar
9 Feb
Scales
- new scale: Bb major
- watch 4th finger
New exercise: exercise 2A, right hand
Petite Piece
- continue to listen to recording for rhythm
- rhythm, tika tika ti ti in bar 1
- a lot of LH notes are staccato
- RH error in bar 5
- RH error in bar 7
- learning goal: can finish this week possibly
2 Feb
Twilight
- aim for good reading habits this week
Let the good times roll
- aim for a slower and steady practice approach
Scales
15 Dec
Scales
- good fingering today
- main issue is keeping a constant speed
- can I find what’s wrong with my scale?
Rainy Saturday
- are the dynamics good for this type of music?
- am I keeping the same speed?
- start faster
- hold last note long
Mazurka
- try slowing down overall slightly
- more dynamics
8 Dec
Scales
- watch E harmonic minor
- aim for ‘clock’ speed when everything is correct.
- new scales: d harmonic and natural minor
Rainy Saturday
- sounds all too soft, see where cresc
- gradually get louder, not all at once
- what are the notes at the end? do i get them all the time right?
- also don’t start too slow
Mazurka
- RH generally too soft. phrase, but get louder in the middl
- check LH bar 12
- consistency in 2nd half improving but not perfect yet. large gaps between lines
- watch for consistency in tempo
Minuet
- bar 8 missing LH note
- count carefully bar 9-12
- check LH note bar 12
1 Dec
Scales
- G major, where’s your 4th
- is the scale even like a clock?
- try to curve upper finger joint (sometimes young age is a factor, but it doesn’t hurt to try)
- other scales other than G major, very incorrect! follow 4th finger and read every finger number
- when trying scales for the first time, super slow motion practice, always checking all finger numbers
- no new scales, existing scales to be mastered
Rainy Saturday
- good rhythm forming 🙂
- check rhythm/coordination in bar 10
- larger dynamic range, even if it is just mp, because mp is max dynamic
- is there an extra bar on last line!!?
- a fluent performance with dynamics would get a tick. this is very close
Mazurka
- great attempt phrasing today
- good attempt to fix notes as well, but maybe not 100% executed correctly in practice.
- important concept: get the note right the first time, instead of one time wrong and then fix it
- last line practice with many errors however!
- practice methods improving, but listen to recording here, still very wrong!
Minuet
- great opening 8 bars
- RH articulation something to look at. won’t be enforced hard this time, but for future examinations
- when there’s no slurs, detached, notes not connected
- when slurs, connect notes
- this actually takes concentration though 😦
Mazurka
24 Nov
Scales
- curved fingers an area of focus during scales
Mazurka
- check LH bar 8
- fluency, are you hearing and setting the right expectations
- bar 4, crush notes, try to curve fingers avoid accent
- slow practice improves our brain memory
- more likely to be consistent
- more likely to be able to perform under pressure
Minuet
- same practice methods as above
- watch 9-12 LH, combine carefully
17 Nov
Scales
- much better, aim for even scales now
- see selected scales for new homework
Minuet
- errors in 9-12, but fixed in lesson. try to get all fluent next week
Mazurka
- phrasing per slur, graceful ending is important
- RH melody over LH. LH light
- watch for errors in last two lines
10 Nov
Scales
- fingering concentration a hurdle
- please have a good look at first two scales again 🙂
Minuet
- decent progress but focus on hands together this week. Goal is bar 10 hands together
A rainy Saturday
- phrasing, reacting to the height of melody
- also following dynamic markings
- to go loud, you must first start soft
- can you hear how it made the music more expressive?
3 Nov
Scales
- 4TH FINGER RULE, 4th finger must be correct, then the rest of the scale will be correct
- DON’T DO 5th FINGER UNLESS AT THE START OR END OF THE SCALE
- then your scale should be correct
- don’t do hands together until seperate is correct
Mazurka
- mostly correct notes
- have a moderate speed with uninterrupted LH crotchets
- bar 7 watch fingering RH
- bar 9 dynamics, start soft
Minuet
- bar 4 LH G#
- goal
27 Oct
A rainy saturday
- LH is still not right at the start 😦
- this is a mostly quiet piece, LH is super quiet, RH is a bit quiet
- main aim now, can you get it flowing and consistent. This means the LH has no gaps and always the same speed.
- this is easier to do if you go slow
Mazurka
- great first two lines
- next two lines have LH wrong, read carefully
- same as above piece, make sure that LH is consistent where you can
- have a listen to this recording. We can hear big gaps right now!
Please do/bring scales!
New piece: Minuet List A
- watch for ties! when there are ties
20 Oct
A rainy saturday
- LH bar 1, check your first note
- bar 5, watch RH position
- remember, key to combining is to go slow, and in small sections (4 bars at a time)
- should be finishable this week
Scales: please do them!
13 Oct
Mazurka
- bar 9, we have repeated sharps
- 3rd line we’ve circled notes that have important finger numbers
- easiest to do hands separately and master before combining
- bar 15-16 might need to be practiced RH seperate, hardest part!
- bar 4 check left hand
Scales
- scales are just getting the letter with the correct finger number
- important to look up and check if you are doing it for the first time and no guessing!
- do G major and E natural minor this week, hands seperate
Rainy Saturday
- master LH first, then RH
- careful reading of fingering would help
- try hands separate this week
6 Oct
Mazurka
- combine carefully this week
- watch for finger numbers in right hand
New song: Rainy Saturday
28 Sep
Walzer
- lesson to learn: how to fix things by yourself
Little flowe girl of paris
- can you apply dynamics
- can you find repeating sections that shouldn’t be repeated
Let’s Sing a Duet
- can you apply dynamics
- can you apply a steady rhythm
Theme
- can you apply dynamics
15 Sep
Theme
- general practice
- avoidance of mistakes is most important
- can adjust speed to get it right
- once it is correct, feel free to go faster
Walzer
- watch the last line, same attention to detail
Little flower girl of paris
Try to present all four pieces next lesson 🙂
8 Sep
Theme
- try to say letters before playing if unsure
- keep eye contact up, read before playing, especially when combining
Let’s Sing a Duet
- bar 6 RH A
1 Sep
Let’s Sing a Duet
- watch fingering in bar 4 and 12
- articulation, how long or short a note is
- staccato – dot, short and not attached
- slur – line, connected together
- dynamics, start soft, bar 9 loud
- rhythm, needs to be constant quavers, start slower and then larger
New song:
18 Aug
Little flower girl of paris
- make sure ties are not played twice
- try some dynamics
New song: Let’s sing a duet
Goal: 3 ticks for three songs
11 Aug
Walzer
- avoidance of mistakes key to quicker learning process
- feeding brain correct notes like feeding healthy food
- be careful in the seperate hands stage
Little flower girl
- LH legato (smooth)
- RH soft if possible
- possible to finish this week
4 Aug
Walzer
- don’t restart too much, always try to go forward
- line by line, or smaller sections if needed
New: Little flower girl of Paris, try left hand up to bar 18
28 Jul
- use note chart for reading
- noterush app
Walzer
- all F turn into F#
- right hand, left hand, together
Scale: C major