Rock & Roll 101

June 27th, 2023

Loved the malasadas from grandma, thank you!

Izabella didn't want to keep working on the song from last week, so we did some review of older songs, and then I showed her how to teach herself using piano rolls on YouTube. Here's the song we worked on using my tablet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lepqid6xFQA

See you around, have a great summer!!

June 20th, 2023

Izabella didn't seem to familiar with last week's material, so we focused the whole lesson on relearning the inversions for the chords, and then putting it together. By the end of the lesson she really had it close... time at home working on this specifically will really help.

June 13th, 2023

Izabella is doing a talent show at St. Pat's. She played it through for me, and I corrected one little thing she was doing wrong. I suggested she focus on playing it a little more complex, but she was ready to move on to a new song.

We added Jason Derulo, Savage Garden:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gNjgMznL3M

We did it in Eb, and I wrote out the inversion versions (only got through the intro) of the chords for her below the music.

May 30th, 2023

We spent the lesson working through Imagine, and decided that Izabella would pick a new song for two weeks away from today.

A reminder that I'm away next week to Saskatchewan. I'll be back by the following Tuesday for lessons.

Remind Izabella to pick a new song please. :) She's eager to try playing accompaniment style instead of chords and melody. I showed her the principles of inversions and she seemed eager to learn that.

May 23rd, 2023

Izabella forgot to practise this week, so we spent the lesson just working through the first 5 lines of the song, trying to remember rests, and playing quarters on the F chord. I asked her to try to practise at least 3 times this week. :)

May 16th, 2023

Izabella brought in a book this week, so I wrote out the song for her in the book, and we went over it together. She's got the chords down well, and the meter, but not the melody completely. We worked on that, especially the rests at the beginning of the bars.

May 9th, 2023

Today we went over Imagine some more - Izabella didn't practise, as she said she didn't get the PDF from mom.

I emailed it to her today as well. :)

May 2nd, 2023

We reviewed her song In the Middle of the Night, and then spent a few minutes trying to find another song she wanted to learn.

Initially she wanted to learn Thunderstruck, but it's a bit challenging, so we settled on Imagine. I'll send the e-document of the song later today.

April 25th, 2023

The online notebook worked great today. We had some issues with my tablet not lining up the notes with the letters very well, but I'm working on a solution which we can use in future songs. For now, I just removed the notation notes.

She had the first section down pretty good, and we worked through the second and third sections today. She considered adding a new part to add to it, but decided to work further on these parts to make sure she has them down well before moving on.

April 18th, 2023

We added a new song,
Elley Duhe, Middle of the Night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfgcbCe9Z_o

Music:
https://browserboard.com/whiteboard/PsuT2NbMWfARjAiH6xAKYw?key=fdxEKnzShhQFhDHEmEhchP

Izabella forgot her book today - we might consider switching to an e-document to make it easier without forgetting books. Let me know if you'd like to do this moving forward.

April 11th, 2023

Izabella has strep

April 4th, 2023

We added Bad Romance today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTOPBQhrvtQ

We just wrote out the first few measures. Izabella is going to pick a few piano songs to learn for next time.

March 28th, 2023

Izabella did really well today. Again, a little afraid of two hands, but then played it through a number of times, and got really good by the end.

I asked her to work on the whole song this week, to play it at a consistent speed for the whole thing.

March 21st, 2023

Izabella is doing well on the first half of her song, but doesn't have the second half memorized yet.

We tried to do the chords too, but she got frustrated, so I wrote them out, and we just reviewed them for the whole lesson. By the end, she was doing EXCELLENT on them, and she promised to put the chords and melody together for next week.

March 7th, 2023

Izabella struggled with Acapella, and wanted to abandon it, so we went back to Bloody Mary, to finish writing out the next part of that song.

I tried to get her to play with two hands today, but she would have none of it.

I'm gone for two weeks, so she has lots of time to work on it until I'm back.

February 28th, 2023

I'm to meet Izabella online, but I don't see her yet as of 4:36.

https://us04web.zoom.us/j/3019566325?pwd=G9uKt0UAwD2wIumekTziMw

February 21st, 2023

We went through Bloody Mary once, then decided to give it a break. We added Acapella by Karmin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-KmspHeTGo

Practice making it melodic, and smooth-- remember to make the notes different strengths... so it sounds a bit like singing.

February 14th, 2023

Izabella played through her song for me, and then we did some past sogns because it's hard to do something new.

In the end though, I wrote out Brahms' Lullaby and she took a photo of it with her ipad.

February 7th, 2023

Izabella couldn't find her book this week, so we worked on some other thigns.

We started out with inversions, doing the three inversions of major chords C, F, and G.

I then tried to show her when inversions make it easier to change chords, because you only have to change one finger, but she didn't really comprehend it. It's okay, because it will come up again in the future and probably make more sense in context.

We then worked on fingering all the way up the keyboard for the C scale, both directions but especially up with the right hand.

January 31st, 2023

Izabella is feeling unwell tonight.

January 24th, 2023

Izabella was a little nervous about the chords this week, so didn't practice them as much as I would have liked. We worked through them again today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XrTe5Agki4

January 17th, 2023

We added the next part to the Bloody Mary song, we're almost at the chorus.

I also wrote out some of the chords for that part and asked her to work on getting both hands together.

January 10th, 2023

Izabella had a great holiday, but didn't practice much so we spent some time going over the new song, Bloody Mary, trying to learn the melody especially. We pushed the speed up too, great job!

When you get it perfect, we'll add the left hand chords as well.

If you can make the time, try to put both hands together for Santa Baby.

January 2nd, 2023

December 27th, 2022

December 20th, 2022

Izabella played through Santa Baby for me, and then wanted to learn a new song... it's kind of a tricksy one, Bloody Mary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJEVgTqWDoo&ab_channel=TajTracks

December 13th, 2022

Izabella was a little intimidated by the song, maybe, so hadn't put both hands together. We did it during the lesson, and I showed her a neat way to play the left hand chords so the pinkie is first, and then the rest of the chord.

See if you can put the song together by next week!

December 6th, 2022

Izabella played through Cure For Me a couple of times, with both hands. She did fantastically!

We then added a new song, Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFbnYwRzSyY&ab_channel=ChristmasAlwaysTV

We ran out of time on it, but try to figure out as much as you can on your own this week.

November 29th, 2022

Izabella and Nicole forgot tonight.

November 22nd, 2022

Here's the video link to looper.tube:

https://www.looper.tube/?v=K17df81RL9Y&s=0&e=202&spd=0.8

We added a new part to the song, and went through it with the video at 80% speed.

November 15th, 2022

We went through Despacito again, and then worked our way for Cure For Me.

She hadn't practised it this week, so we spent the lesson time working on it, especially the melody on the solo part...

It sounds great!

November 8th, 2022

Izabella did very well on Despacito. I asked her to try to get the beginning as fast as the original recording, and then put it all together with both hands on the chords and play it through.

We then added a new one, Cure For Me by Aurora:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K17df81RL9Y&ab_channel=iamAURORAVEVO

Fun song!

November 1st, 2022

Izabella had struggles with practising this week because she wasn't hearing the sound from the song's intro in the notes I wrote out for her.

We went through it together, and I helped her to practice transitioning between the chords too. We're getting closer!

October 25th, 2022

We didn't get to the scales today, but after going through Fur Elise I suggested we add a new song (and that she keep working on getting the left hand the same speed as the right in Fur Elise).

Here's the new song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whwe0KD_rGw

It's Despacito by Justin Bieber.

October 18th, 2022

C Scale fast
Left hand to second part of Fur liese, Eb, Bbn, Cm, G

4091 Rd. 38

October 11th, 2022

Izabella did well working on all her songs this week! We continued with Fur Elise, and I showed her again the part that she was having trouble with.

We then added arpeggios in the left hand on C minor and G. An arpeggio is one note of a chord at the same time.

October 4th, 2022

Izabella is sick today.

September 27th, 2022

A help with Bs and Ds: remember the belly and diaper trick.

This is a person with a diaper on:
d
This is person with a big belly:
b

She did well with her songs from last week! She played them flawlesly!

We added Fur Elise, right hand only for now... we'll add the left hand next week.

September 20th, 2022

Izabella hadn't practiced much this week (or so she said,) and had been playing the notes from the wrong place on the keyboard.

We went over the song quite a bit together, and she got to the place where she could play it without making mistakes, but just slowing down a bit here and there. I asked her to try to get to where she slows down zero times. :)

September 13th, 2022

Izabella forgot her book today, so we used some of the music on my tablet. We started with Mary Had a Little Lamb, and Soldier, Poet, King, (which was a bit hard for her. We went to Twinkle Twinkle, and then Happy Birthday before Nicole showed up with the book!

We then went through the two in her book and I wrote Happy Birthday out for her in her book as well.

Don't be afraid to push yourself into doing things that you find hard... that's the key to getting better!

September 6th, 2022

Izabella remembered some stuff from four or give years ago, but we did some review, with key names, and flats and sharps.

We also wrote out two songs, to play with both hands. They were Mary Had a Little Lamb, and Down by the Bay.

Write out a list of songs you'd like to learn in the future as well. :)

Good job today!

June 23rd, 2020

Thanks for a great year, Izabella! You are a cutie, and together we learned quite a bit this year! I hope you have a great summer.

If you come back in the fall for more lessons, then we should focus on doing even more with both hands, and try playing in even more key signatures (with more sharps and flats).

We can also work on learning to read notes, not just the letters.

Blessings to you!

June 16th, 2020

Izabella played through Soldier Poet King, and we worked on the areas she was having trouble, or just playing it wrong. We did that for about 15 or 20 minutes until she was getting a little bored with it (and it was improving anyway).

We talked about a new song, but she said mom said no to any new songs. So I had her play through some of the old songs like Heart and Soul, Hallelujah, and Happy Birthday.

June 9th, 2020

Today we went over Soldier Poet King, and tried to get the direction of notes right - I added some more arrows, to help, but there are still a few places where Izabella goes up when she should go down, and vice versa.

Maybe next week we can try lessons at my studio again.

June 2nd, 2020

Izabella played through Hallelujah for me. Still lots of stopping between chords, but she seems to know how to play it other than that. The changing chords will just require memorization.

We added a new song, one that Marco's doing, Soldier Poet King.

May 26th, 2020

Izabella played through Hallelujah for me a few times. I tried to convince her to not stop between chords, but to look ahead in anticipation of what the next chord is.

May 19th, 2020

I had Izabella play through Heart and Soul for me, and then Hallelujah. She's playing all the right notes and chords, just changing to these chords too slowly - pausing between each left hand change.

For practicing, just try to get that smoother, so anyone can sing along without waiting for the next part.

May 12th, 2020

Good job, Izabella! You played both hands on Heart and Soul!! Woot!

After that we added Hallelujah by L. Cohen.

May 5th, 2020

We kept working on Heart and Soul with really glitchy Internet today. Sorry about that!

We focused again on switching the chords in the right place. I think by the end of the lesson, we had it figured out!!! Thanks to Nicole, because I couldn't have figured out how to tell her without you!

April 28th, 2020

Izabella did better on Heart and Soul, but the chord changes were kind of random. I put veritcal lines in the sheet to help her know where to change the chord.

April 21st, 2020

Izabella was having trouble putting her hands together and didn't remember the chording we learned last week, so I wrote out more detail in her Google document.

We had some issues with internet stability, and thankfully Nicole came to the rescue. The bold parts are the chords for the left hand, and the normal weighted font is the right hand.

April 14th, 2020

Izabella has really improved with her ability to use the right fingers in the left hand. She played through the left hand part for me, and other than going the wrong direction between the chords (to the right instead of the left from the C to the A minor).

Putting the hands together was a struggle for her, so I suggested she play the whole chord, with all the fingers at the same time, and go through the melody that way.

Knowing when to change the chords will be the challenge, and the trick is to watch the book as she plays, and not try to go by memory.

April 7th, 2020

Izabella played through the left hand of Heart and Soul for me a few times - we reviewed using the correct fingers (thumb, middle and pinky), and that the hand should move down, toward the lower notes, the left side as it works through the chords.

After that, we moved to the right hand, and worked on the melody. This has some scales in it, and requires the use of the "magic scale fingering" we learned in past weeks.

March 31st, 2020

March 13th, 2020

Izabella forgot her book today, but she remembered enough of Baby Shark for us to play it all through together (and I sang it).

I said I'd write out You Are My Sunshine again, but she wanted to move on to a new song.

I suggested "Heart and Soul," which she was interested in, and actually she will pick this up fast, if she can use all of her fingers.

I guess there's a long March break, so I'm not sure how things will transpire until next lesson. She should have lots of time to learn You Are My Sunshine and Heart and Soul.

March 6th, 2020

Yay, Izabella had her book today!

She played Baby Shark through for me quite enthusiastically, which was wonderful. She insisted that I write out the part in E flat, which is the key change they go to for the "run away" verse, so I did that and she played through it for me.

We then added You Are My Sunshine, in the key of F and I included more notes for playing in the left hand.

February 28th, 2020

Izabella played through both hands for ABCD with me - sometimes she switches her hands around - the right hand trying to play the left hand part and vice versa. Something to try to keep an eye on when she's practicing.

The first time she did it she had so many mistakes, so I made her do it again, and it was a bit better.

We then added a new song, Baby Shark (sorry!). It's with both hands, in the key of G... don't forget the F#!

February 14th, 2020

Izabella played through London Bridge for me with both hands, and did fairly well, except for getting the left hand/ right hand part backwards for the middle section (where the left hand should go to G.

We went through it a number of times to help her get it right, and then I videoed it. I'll shoot the video over to you later when I get on a better Internet connection.

We then added a new song to use the left hand for "ABCD"

January 24th, 2020

I took Izabella in earlier today because another student was sick.

Unfortunately she forgot her book again. We decided to add a new song, "London Bridge." I wrote out a simple left hand (just one note instead of a chord), and we played through it a number of times.

Izabella wanted to leave a bit earlier today (four minutes, not that big of a deal). We can make it up at another time.

Have a great trip!

January 17th, 2020

Izabella didn't have her book today, so I quickly wrote out O Canada again, and we worked through that for most of the lesson. She's got the first two lines down really well so far.

She was getting tired of it so we went to Old Town Road and I wrote out the piano intro for her, but this is just for fun.

January 10th, 2020

Izabella played through Frosty for me, and even was able to use two hands, for the 2 note chords we've been doing. It wasn't "smooth," exactly, but it did look like she'd been practicing it some.

She wanted to learn O Canada next, so I wrote out the notes for her - the chords are there too, but she shouldn't worry about them yet, and just focus on playing the melody.

December 20th, 2019

We reviewed Jingle Bells, then went over Frosty the Snowman. There are no lessons next week, so there are two weeks for Izabella to work on putting both hands together for both songs.

The Jingle Bells song shouldn't be too hard (I kinda think she could do it now if she was motivated) and the Frosty song is a bit more challenging, so perhaps just get that melody down nice and smoothly without stopping so much, and maybe try to memorize it.

Merry Christmas!!

December 13th, 2019

GREAT JOB!! You remembered to bring the book!!! YAY! yay!

Izabella did a great job today, she was attentive, and polite, and mostly didn't argue with me. :-D

She played Jingle Bells for me, and did a really good job!! She said she only practiced twice, which might not be quite enough - she said it was too late. ;-)

We then added Frosty the Snowman, but just the first half, not the "There must have been some magic" part. We'll add that next time, if she remembers her book and has practiced this part well.

We wrote out the left hand, but I didn't ask her to learn it yet. She can just work on the right hand.

She would like mommy to play the left hand - she said she will teach you how.

She's a sweetie!

December 6th, 2019

Today we started with going through Candle Candle - she complained about it not being right, but we didn't have the other copy, so we let it go, rather than argue. :)

We then added a new song, Jingle Bells, and I drew out a tracing of her hand so she knows which finger plays which note. I would like her to leave her hand in the right shape, so there's a finger resting on each key.

Then she would use that finger to play the correct note.

I also wrote out the chords for the left hand - we tried playing through that but didn't get too far, because Izabella said it hurt her hand. And she said it was too hard. I would still like her to practice that this week at home.

If she can't play three notes at a time, she can play two - if that's easier. But we need to get both hands playing soon, so she can learn.

Izabella wanted to say to you, "I Love You Mommy."

November 22nd, 2019

Izabella forgot her book again today, so I wrote out Candle Candle again, but just the right hand - it's been a while since I've seen the book, so I don't remember what was in that original arrangement.

If she could bring her book with her each time, we could make more coordinated progress.

November 15th, 2019

Ooops, looks like Izabella is away on a field trip today.

November 8th, 2019

Izabella forgot her book again, so we couldn't keep working on Candle Candle. Instead, we played through Kiki (at breakneck speed), and we reviewed "magic fingers," the system ofplaying a scale so you don't run out of fingers as you move up and down. She struggles a bit with remembering (or really listening) as we do that, but she managed to get it right a few times. :D

After that I wrote out Jingle Bells on a piece of paper for her, and included the left hand. She resisted quite a bit, but does want to play with both hands (just not with the left hand (?!?) lol)- I showed her how to play the C, F, and G, chords but she has difficulty getting her middle and ring fingers to move independently. I showed her a finger exercise that can help with this.

Hopefully she brings the book next week. :)

THANKS! (BTW, I think I figured out the way the money was supposed to be distributed, sorry about my thick head!)

October 25th, 2019

Izabella was lovely again today. She was very well behaved and polite.

She forgot her book, so we couldn't keep working on Candle Candle. Instead, we played through the songs she'd memorized, like London Bridge, and Kiki, and we also talked about "magic fingers," so you don't run out of fingers when doing the scale.

It's much easier if we have the book, so maybe next time help her to remember.

She wanted to type this:

i love you mommy.

October 18th, 2019

Izabella did a good job today! She was polite, and listened to me, and we were able to get some things done! I'm very happy about that.

She decided she was ready to try a new song maybe with two hands. We didn't pick a 2 handed one, but we did pick a favourite of hers, called Candle Candle:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efhz8WKW1B0

I wrote out the melody on her next page - she even agreed to play black notes, so that's great.

She said she might even consider singing it and playing it for concert. She stressed "MAYBE."

October 11th, 2019

Izabella went over her songs for me, including Happy Birthday, Down by the Bay (in Marco's key), London Bridge, and Mary Had a Little Lamb.

We tried to add Kiki Do You Love Me in the original key, with flats, but she had a hard time with the concept of flats, so it was easier to transpose it to C. I did it quickly, so there might be a few mistakes... but it gives her something to work on.

She wanted to leave the lesson early today, and seemed distracted, or not interested in learning new things, so I let her go five minutes early.

October 4th, 2019

Today we went through Izabella's songs from last time, and then added Down By the Bay.

I think she's still struggling with remember which keys are for which notes. We went through Down by the Bay about 4 times, and she wanted to just to the E part over and over, "and said she was already at the part," even if I disagreed with her, she wouldn't listen when I asked her to do it from that earlier part. So we need to work on that.

Next week, (if there's no strike), she should come ready with Down By the Bay, and maybe another idea for a song to learn next.

September 20th, 2019

Izabella forgot her book, but she says she doesn't even have one, so maybe if you could buy one for her please. (She says one that's not full). LoL

Izabella played London bridge for me - she started it on B instead of on E, which isn't quite right, but at least it's the right melody. She should keep working on it, but starting on the C.

We wrote out Happy Birthday for a new song. We had some struggles finding where the notes were, so help her to memorize the names of the notes so she can play it. I tried to quiz her on the names of the animals etc., but she just couldn't keep focused.

She is a card, so it's hard to get her to stay on track. She wants to know what the little dots on the piano are, or how to open the stool, or things like that. Hopefully over time she can start to pay better attention.

September 10th, 2019

This was Izabella's first lesson ever - a newbie. :) We used the "doghouse" and "grandma's house" ideas to learn the note names, and after reviewing those, I wrote out two simple melodies for her: Mary Had a Little Lamb, and London Bridge is Falling Down.

September 3rd, 2019