Vienna

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