This will help you learn the diatonic chords of E major. Watch the crossover with the left hand and the change of clef in measure 11. The fingering is 531 in the LH and 135 in the RH. ![]()
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Short answer is no. The first exception is writing the note name over a particular note you have incorrectly played numerous times. I can't think of other exceptions.
What to do? 1. Practice naming the notes aloud before you play and then as you play. 2. Play super slow. 3. Practice in small chunks. 4. Study musical rudiments, also known as music theory. 5. Practice sight reading using the Four-star sightreading books from RCM. 6. Learn to clap rhythm and count aloud. That should do it. David I'm always trying innovative ideas with students to keep it fresh. This warm-up assumes you know the correct fingerings for each position. (The right scale at the 10th starts with 31234 etc. The broken chords and arpeggios in the right start with finger 1.) This exercise should be transposed into a different key at each practice session. Tempo markings are only suggestions. If I can help you, call me. David ![]()
Playing the piano is much easier when the scales and chords have become automatic in our hands. Below is the fingering chart for all 3 note chords like C major and G minor. I've cropped this image from a student's notes.
If I can help you, call me. David How to play fast comes up in lessons frequently. Let's get the basics out of the way first.
Now some often-overlooked facets of quick playing.
If I can help you, call me. David Some days and some weeks are going to be difficult. Here are some suggestions that immediately come to mind you might consider to dampen down the practice room blues. These comments are aimed at beginners.
If I can help you, call me. David One of my adult students was asking tonight for some help planning his practice time. He is preparing for his Grade 8 piano exam. He is an engineer, a spreadsheet kind of guy. I'm sympathetic. Here is what we discussed. Warmup with sight reading. Use a metronome! Get into the zone. Now start practicing Technique with a 2-minute timer. Switch activities every 2 minutes = 15 minutes
Practice one short section to perfection =15 minutes Theory =10 minutes Ear Training = 10 minutes Review completed piece or pieces 10 minutes BOOM! one hour of accomplishment This may work for you. David
Practice Tip: The power of exploration Students who practice, diligently practice the “notes,” struggle with rhythm and continuity trying to get it “right.” This is all important. But I’d like to add a new idea. Experimentation. A short story in which I’m the hero. I’m learning to play the jazz xylophone. I started at Christmas; I practice every day. I’ve got a 100-year-old textbook, a stack of tunes I want to learn, video recorder and oodles of desire. Here is the process I usually follow.
The video below is an unedited version. Notice it took just a brief period of time to accomplish something because I didn’t try to do everything at once. David Another day, another diverse set of pieces. Someone stated that an average piano teacher teaches 600+ titles a year. I believe it.
Up next: Music rehearsal with my friends, the pianist Jim Finlayson and bassist Rory Slater. I'll be drumming. We've been meeting every 2 weeks for years. It is always a highlight of my week playing tunes from the "Great American Songbook". Lots of Porter, Corea, Hancock, and Ellington. Back to class 7. Prelude in Db by Glière 8. Fantasia in D minor K397 by Mozart 9. Pumpkin boogie by Faber 10. Sonatina in C by Faber 11. Drum rudimental warmups 12. Never Going To Give You Up by Rick Ashley 13. Theory class RCM 8 and Band Lab DAW Now to the drummers 14. Video game music 15. 3/4 Scottish snare drum solo 16. Free Fallin' by Tom Petty 17. Rollin' in the deep by Adele 18. Superstition by Stevie Wonder ![]() Another day of teaching piano and drum set comes to an end. Here is today’s student repertoire. Marching by Kabalevsky Skating Waltz by Berlin Love Me Tender by Elvis Claire de Lune by Debussy Les Baricades Misterieuses by Couperin Chitlin’s Con Carne by Burrell Etudes by Scriabin Prelude and Fugue in Bb by Bach Clementi Etude in E by Clementi Serenade by Haberbier Cancion by Mompou Cottontail by Ellington Kamado Tanjiro no Uta by Shiina and Ufotable Watermelon Man by Hancock Haunted mouse by Faber and Faber Forest Drums by Faber and Faber Dinah by Fats Waller Never Going to Give you up by Ashley Street of Dreams by Ella Scottish ¾ March It’s Only A Paper Moon by Nat King Cole Meditation by Jobim Night train by Forrest Time for a beer. . Summertime in 5 Keys
Playing in different keys is an invaluable skill. Try playing just the melody in the following keys with the recordings. Modify your note and rhythm choices to fit in the best you can.
The assignment is to play and mimic the melody with the recordings. You will learn jazz rhythm, jazz articulations and phrasing. And how to manipulate a melody. Have fun. David Level 1: Fun is guaranteed. Just show up and play. Playing in a community concert band or playing at the family Christmas party would be in this camp. On the lesson front, level 1, is leisurely and steady. Ten thousand hours spread over decades. Level 2: You are going to perspire. Lessons are intense. You audition to play in community groups. You may be preparing for an exam. Standards are assessed and maybe enforced. Lessons need an hour a day or more of preparation. Think of it as a marathon level of commitment. Level 3 is going to hurt, tears will be shed. But you are all in. Your daily focus is piano. You dream of Carnegie Hall. You have multiple lines of attack. You put yourself out there. You are preparing to be an Olympian. Many dream, few make it. But this doesn't deter you. Large amount of time and money will be spent. Weekend athletic parallels 1. Weekend running group 2. Marathon preparation 3. You might die. Let me know where you stand. David In the summer 2001 I spent the summer in Santa Pola, Alicante overlooking the Mediterranean. I fondly remember the sun, heat, paella, wine, the flowers, and the nightly walk amongst the townsfolks. And the moon, I remember the moon. Every night after dark I’d watch the little fishing boats leaving the harbour. The sea was always calm. The lights of the boats bobbed into the night while the moon rose through its phases. I experienced two full moon cycles that summer. Wow !
I had had big plans to drag my piano from Toronto. The piano, in the large box I had built for its flight was promptly returned from the airport when the airline won’t let me check it as baggage. Something about being oversized and overweight. Luck would have it; I had a relative in Elche, Alicante with an unused Casio keyboard of sixty-five keys, one pedal, and a stand. Not exactly an eighty-eight key Steinway, but oh did we make music on that thing. Playing jazz on sixty-five keys was discouraging; so off I went to Alicante on a hot sunny day in search of a music store. Bach WTC 1 and a book of easy Chopin returned with me. Every siesta that summer I played and played and played. I fell in love. Apparently so did my new neighbors who heard me practicing, but that’s another story. Back in Canada I started asking about for a “Classical” piano teacher. Our first meeting didn’t go well. I banged through scales, thumped out some Bach. Leon was so kind. He said, “you are of course going to do your ARCT?” “I am?” So begun a four-year, 5000-hour odyssey. It changed my life. Maybe such a journey would change yours. If so, call me. David Preparing to succeed is the first step. Here are some things you can do to prepare.
1. Understanding how to use Zoom. Setting up the camera so that I can see your hands and you can see me as well. Most students set up the laptop on a table to the left side of the piano. 2. You need to create a realistic schedule for practicing. This may take longer than you realise. But with realistic thinking it is possible. 3. Organize and dedicate a practice space for productive work. 4. Fully understand the costs involved. 5. Tell all your significant others of your plans so that they can support you. 6. You will need to lean on your strengths when the going gets tough and life gets in the way. I'm a learner too, you can ask me how I organize my learning. Here's to learning. David Steps to successDay One
1. Dust of the metronome. 2. Set it at 60. Also known as 60 BPM 3. Practice counting aloud to the metronome: 1-2-3-4, one number per click. 4. Continue counting aloud and clap measures 1 to 9. 5. Continue counting aloud and play the right-hand notes measures 1 to 9. Counting aloud is imperative for success. 6. Add the left hand and repeat measures 1 to 9. 7. Move the metronome to 70 BPM and repeat the passage. 8. Call it a day. Day Two 1. Repeat yesterday's steps with the whole notes 2. Reset the metronome to 60. 3. Practice counting aloud to the metronome: 1-2-3-4 one number per click. 4. Continue counting aloud and clap measures 10 to 14. 5. Continue counting aloud and play the right-hand notes measures 10 to 14. Counting aloud is imperative for success. 6. Add the left hand and repeat measures 10 to 14. 7. Move the metronome to 70 BPM and repeat the passage. 8. Call it a day. Day Three 1. Repeat yesterday's steps with the half notes 2. Reset the metronome to 60. 3. Practice counting aloud to the metronome: 1-2-3-4 one number per click. 4. Continue counting aloud and clap measures 15 through 18. 5. Continue counting aloud and play the right-hand notes measures 15 through 18. Counting aloud is imperative for success. 6. Add the left hand and repeat measures 15 through 18. 7. Move the metronome to 70 BPM and repeat the passage. 8. Call it a day. Day Four 1. You know what to do. If I can help you learn to count aloud while playing, call me. David Why use a metronome?
How to use the metronome.
If I can help you learn to count, call me. David
David Helping kids to practice piano 5 Tips:
If I can help you and your kids, call me. David Learning to love how we sound.
In the 1921 teaching manual “Principles of Pianoforte Practice” by James Friskin, he asserts that most students “simply do not hear all the sounds they produce”. I concur. Friskin would be amazed, I’m sure, at the technological tools available to students today, namely YouTube and phones. YouTube for inspiration, artist impression, and guidance. The phone for recording and evaluating their progress. It would be interesting to discuss together what students continue to miss when they grind instead of plan. How they often bore themselves silly with endless repetitions, hoping for a musical miracle instead of exploring the range of interpretations on their pieces. First level: Before practicing, listen to a professional performance. Then record yourself playing and listen back. How did it go? Jot down notes and annotate the tricky bits, like fingerings, into your score. Second level: Before practicing, listen to a professional performance. Mark your score with notes on what you heard: Tempo changes, phrasing, articulations. All and everything you hear. Now, with the recorder going, play from your notes. Listen and analyse the results. Repeat. Third level: Repeat level two working from a different performance/musician. Compare the different interpretations. Sometime students don’t realize that the notation tells you what to play, but not how it goes. “How it goes” comes from experience listening to and witnessing great performances. “How it goes” also develops from our study of music history, harmony, and rudiments. Now the hard part, learning to love how we sound. It takes a certain amount of fortitude to listen to ourselves. Especially in early music study. It can be discouraging. But push on in faith. You will be the first to hear improvement and progress in your playing. Over time you will accumulate hundreds, even thousands of practice recordings. (In 12 years of playing drums I’ve 248 Gigs of mp3 recordings) It’s fun and gratifying to hear how one sounded a decade earlier, or even last year. If I can help you learn to practice effectively, call me. David What do scales have in common with push-ups?
If I can help you with your scales, call me. David |
You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail. AuthorI'm a professional pianist and music educator in West Toronto Ontario. I'm also a devoted percussionist and drum teacher. Categories
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