Kingswood School Thurs. Feb. 7 11.40-12.40pm

We had a good class today, although we missed you Renée and Laura.

I finally finished up the rhythm part of the assessment test with Lauren, and am waiting on Renée to correct all the tests and review them with you.
I returned the tests to some of you, but next week they will all be done and ready for us to go over as a class.

We learned about the C pentatonic scale in class today.
Please have a look at these homework sheets for practicing scales: C MAJOR AND SCALE DEGREES, C PENTATONIC.
You should know your RH. and LH. separately and contrary motion, Hands Together.

What scale degrees does C pentatonic use? I, II, III, V and Vi.
That means, no IV and no VII.
You can use the fingering 1-2-3-4-5 for C pentatonic, because 'penta' means five.
Notice how there are only five notes in this scale. You'll have to skip over a note between your 3rd and 4th fingers (what note is it? F).

We learned a new song, 'Happy Birthday', together in class today. Josh already had a head start on this. Everyone should practice this at home, hands separately, and then together.
For the left hand, make sure you hold the notes down. The note tracker will not let you go on unless both hands are holding down all the notes for their full values, and the left hand has a lot of long, sustained notes. Also, keep practicing 'Let it Be'.

We also played some ear training games today. One of them was a note identification game that uses Middle C position - that's where both your thumbs are placed on Middle C. You had to identify whether the note was high or low. If it was high, you would use your RH. in Middle C position, if it was low, you would use your LH. When you practice this game, sing the note back out loud to really hear whether it is high or low.
We improvised some songs using the pentatonic scale.

Laura: Here are the songs you are working on right now: OLD GREY GOOSE, POP GOES THE WEASEL.
Also, keep practicing your note naming: NOTE TRAINER

Everyone should make sure to keep their fingers curved and their wrists up when they play.
Also, feel the beat at all times!

Have a good week everyone. If you are interested in purchasing the Piano Suite software for home practice, please visit www.musiqclub.com or contact me at ajhansen@dal.ca
I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.