Students
All Students | Info | Songs | Notes | Receipts | iCal Link
Emma Hopkins
Past Notes
April 23rd, 2025
Emma played through the song she learned this week, and we played it again in two other chords to help her learn transposing.
Then we went over the next section, which has the chords, I, IV and V7. We played it through, but didn't transpose it. I asked her to transpose it at home this week.
April 16th, 2025
In Emma's lesson we worked on two trouble spots she was having, and then reviewed the whole song, to try to get her to play through without mistakes.
She's nearly there!
After that we reviewed the next page of theory, including the song on the top of the facing page, which the book is asking her to transpose in her head.
Then we started learning the following page,a new song, which is a type of march in 2/4 time.
April 9th, 2025
We continued with Sakura, the Cherry Blossom song. Emma said she doesn't have a touch-sensitive keyboard, so not only is it hard to do sustain without a pedal, but also the loud and soft parts are all the volume.
Considering that, she's coming along very well on the song!
We went on to the next page which had some scales. We reviewed C and G, which she had done before, and added F, which has a slightly different fingering for the right hand.
April 2nd, 2025
We continued working through Sakura, focusing on a few problem spots. Emma doesn't have a pedal so she can't work on the sustain.
I asked her to fill in the information on the page before, the Roman numerals for the chords (in G I think?)
Also, if she can get a pedal working that would be perfect.
March 26th, 2025
Emma got her new music book in the mail, and brought it in today. We went through the first song, "review" called "Sakura," Cherry Blossoms.
March 19th, 2025
Emma forgot her book, but she mentioned that she's sort of guessing on the reading of notes, and following the finger numbers more than the actual notation. I suggested we work on some of the games that I made to see if they might help her with committing the notes to memory.
Here's a link to the games, which are all at various stages of being a work-in-progress.
https://www.rockandroll101.ca/games/
After that we pulled up an example song that I had on the music stand and she tried playing through it by reading.
March 12th, 2025
Away for March Break
March 5th, 2025
Emma brought a Disney book, level 1, and we worked on Beauty and the Beast. By the end of the lesson, she really had it learned quite well.
They bought a level 3 book, which she'll bring in two weeks.
February 19th, 2025
In Emma's lesson we worked on a few places in the chorus where she was losing timing. I suggested she look at it as soon as she gets home and to periodically remind herself of the things she's learning to help her store it in long-term memory.
February 12th, 2025
Emma had her book, so today I wrote out a lot of what we worked on last week and couldn't write. I put the rest of the melody up until the 2nd verse, and added the chords. We then went through it together three or four times.
February 5th, 2025
Emma forgot her book, so we tried to learn the next section of the song by memory. This might make it hard to practise without something to look back at, but hopefully she can remember enough to work out the details.
January 29th, 2025
Emma played through 22 a couple of times, and then we decided to add a new song, and chose "The Archer," by (wait for it) Taylor Swift!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWfZ5bfQfSs
See you next week!
January 22nd, 2025
Emma worked more on 22 today. I wrote out the chords for the second ending of the chorus. She wasn't feeling great today but she practised through the new part a bit.
January 15th, 2025
Emma spent most of today's lesson working on the chorus of 22. We also reviewed the other parts (the verse, pre-chorus). It's getting close!
January 8th, 2025
We fleshed out the chords of the chorus today, and played through it a few times trying to get it faster bit by bit. It's coming along, and I'm quite proud of how well Emma's doing. She should keep practising on the parts she doesn't quite know as well as the first section.
December 18th, 2024
Today we continued with 22, writing out the chorus part. The chord changes are getting closer to being in the right place for the pre-chorus, so good job! You're getting there!
December 11th, 2024
Emma is getting very comfortable with the first part of 22, but still needs work on the second part. We continued working on the new line today, but didn't add any new parts.
December 4th, 2024
Addie and Emma are staying home today because the roads are bad.
November 27th, 2024
Emma played through the pre-chorus (or whatever that part of the song is called) some more, working on playing the hands independently on the right beat.
November 20th, 2024
Emma had the first part of her song down really well, but hadn't been working on the new part from last week, so we spent the lesson going bar by bar, working out exactly how that plays out. By the end of the lesson, she was able to execute it fairly well, so just some practise to hone it and I think it will be ready to move on!
November 13th, 2024
Emma said she didn't practise this week because she was feeling sick.
We spent the lesson working through the first line, trying to get the hands together and keep her in time well. She got pretty confident and strong with it by the end, bit improvement. It needs practise, but she's close!
November 6th, 2024
Emma wanted to add a new song today so we added 22 by Taylor Swift. We got through the verse, basically. We'll continue where we left off next week.
October 30th, 2024
We reviewed Emma's song, then played along with the recording starting at 75%, then 85%, then 100% speed.
At the end of the lesson she decided to add Supermarket Flowers by Ed Sheeran next time.
October 23rd, 2024
Emma didn't seem to remember the inversions of the chords for this song, at least not at first. After going through it a few times, it came back to her. We worked through it in the order of the parts, and then tried playing along with the recording. She was able to do it at full speed, but with a few minor hiccups.
By next week I think she should be able to play along with the whole recording with minimal issues.
October 16th, 2024
We worked some more on The Prophecy. It's coming along.
I suggested in the verses she play quarter notes to help keep her from speeding up on the sixteenths in the right hand. After that, we worked out what to do with the left hand for the chorus. We also got into the bridge a bit, but didn't do it many times.
October 9th, 2024
We continued with The Prophecy today. Emma hadn't made time to practise this song, so it was a bit of rediscovery. We worked on the right hand sixteenths notes after a review of the inversions.
October 2nd, 2024
Emma played through All Too Well, and then we added a new Taylor Swift song, The Prophecy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8ro0IQ7KWc
We didn't get to playing with the recording, but we went through each section with the left hand, and will save the right hand for next week.
September 25th, 2024
Emma lost her book for All Too Well again, but Addie had it in her book. We worked through the song a few times again, and tried to figure out where the 2nd part goes... and noticed there is also a part that has two Gs - a third part.
We talked again about practising the pedal (and trying it out at home). We looked at how to play the right hand with quarter notes while the left hand is playing faster on eighths.
September 18th, 2024
Emma had a new book today, so I wrote out the All Too Well song in in again for her. We talked about melody vs. accompaniment and she was interested in the latter. We worked out inversions for the chords, and what to do with the left hand. We then tried playing it with eighths like the guitar has, or quarters to make it sound more like a piano ballad. She preferred the latter. We worked out a way to play the melody intro while also playing the chords and quarter notes.
She hasn't been practising at home with a pedal, because apparently there's some confusion whether the pedal works for the home piano. I suggested she take that more seriously and try to get the pedal to work, or find out if it won't.
September 11th, 2024
Emma didn't have her book, so we added another song today, one that Addie has started today, Taylor Swift, All Too Well.
We worked on the intro especially, and how to play the sustain pedal correctly to fill in the gaps between switching chords - but not to hold it down the whole time.
September 4th, 2024
Emma went first today.
They didn't have their books, so rather than try to find out way through the rest of Clara Bow, we wrote out the chords to a new song by Taylor Swift, Fortnight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7agz0ZjEVY
We figured out the inversions to the chords, and Emma wrote them out.
June 26th, 2024
Emma wanted to try guitar today, so we started with some chord shapes that she already knows on the Ukulele which are the same. The G on a Uke is a D on the guitar, and likewise G minor to D minor, G7 to D7, C to G -- but you need to add a couple of fingers to play the whole G chord.
I wrote out the chords and we worked through them, playing random chord patterns.
We then tried Champagne Problems, but skipped the F chord- instead playing A minor twice.
June 19th, 2024
Emma and Addie are away today.
June 12th, 2024
We added the next part on Clara Bow, and tried to go through it - Emma was tired from being up late last night. :)
June 5th, 2024
Emma didn't have her book, (she came with her grandma, Marilyn). She said hadn't practised, so we looked for a new song, and I wrote out the beginning of Taylor Swift, Clara Bow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSj9XhdkYtQ
We went over it for the whole lesson.
May 29th, 2024
Emma was ready to move onto a new song, and decided to do Soul Sister, but in C instead of E.
We went over the verse together for most of the lesson.
May 22nd, 2024
Emma didn't have the right book this week, so we added a new one by Taylor Swift, called ?Champagne Problems:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOxFZwlYnLo
May 15th, 2024
We worked through 2 Days Into College again a few times, trying to fix a few things Emma had practised wrongly.
May 8th, 2024
Emma has a basketball tournament today.
May 1st, 2024
We stopped Red, and started working on 2 days into college - Aimee Carty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMOTFZ3Wzvc
Near the end of the lesson, we did some vocal exercises, getting used to changing pitch on her voice.
April 24th, 2024
Emma wanted me to write out Red again without using notes, so I put it in her book, and we worked through it a few times.
April 17th, 2024
Emma played through What Was I Made For, (great job - I wish you'd wanted to finish it!)
and then we added a new one by Taylor Swift, called Red:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zOXvQQaXDE
I wrote out the notes for her, and this revealed that she's forgotten a lot about note reading. She's tempted to memorize and guess, so if we can encourage her to get back to reading, that will be beneficial for her in the long run.
April 10th, 2024
We continued working through What Was I Made For, but didn't get to the next section yet. We'll do that next week.
April 3rd, 2024
Emma played through Shut Up and Dance and then we added the song from the Barbie Movie, Billie Eilish, What Was I Made For:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW8VLC9nnTo
We printed out blank sheet music and I wrote the melody and chords for her.
https://free-printablehq.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/blank-manuscript-paper-free-printable-blank-music-staff-paper.png
March 27th, 2024
Emma continued with Shut Up and Dance, and we just tried to get the part played through without any mistakes. This took the whole lesson, but we did it!
after that she wanted to learn Best Mistake by Ariana Grande:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H6dRxGT_ww
We didn't get very far in it, so we'll continue next week.
March 20th, 2024
We worked on Shut Up and Dance. This is the Lilypond file data:
header {
title = "Shut Up and Dance"
composer = "Walk the Moon"
}
score {
relative c' {
r2 r8 c8 c' c | c4 c8 c~c8 c8 c c c4 c8 d~d c8 c c c4 c8 c~c c c g' g4 e d c8 c~c c~c a~a
c c d e4 c8 d~d c8 c4 g' e8 a~a4 r8 g g4 e d c8 c8~c4 r2.
}
layout {}
midi {}
}
March 13th, 2024
Away for March break
March 6th, 2024
Emma played through Willow for me, but didn't have her book again to work on Vampire, so we added another new song, called Diamonds, by Rihanna:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAYXaIfLWq4
February 28th, 2024
Emma and Addie didn't have their books, but Emma remembered the first part of Willow, and played it for me. We then decided to add a new song, rather than have Willow written into two different sheets of paper.
We added Vampire by Olivia Rodrigo, and went over the first part of it a few times, playing the hands separately, and working out the inversions.
February 21st, 2024
After going through Back to December, Emma wanted to add a new song, so today we added Taylor Swift, Willow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irf3kSpr3Nc
We just worked on the 6ths in the right hand of the first part of the verse.
At the end of the lesson, Tomas played drums with her, and me on bass to help flesh out the sound of the song. Good job!
February 14th, 2024
Jason is sick today, so cancelling lessons.
February 7th, 2024
We had no electricity throughout Emma's lesson.
We worked though Back to December, although we couldn't remember how to melody went. We just played the chords and practised not messing up the transitions. We played with two hands, as well.
January 31st, 2024
We continued working on Back to December.
I played bass, and Matt played drums as we worked through the intro to get used to the timing, and the verse.
Fun!
January 24th, 2024
Taylor Swift, Back to December
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN7HfIBhL3c
January 17th, 2024
Emma wanted to start a new song this week, so we added Champagne Problems by Taylor Swift:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y6zmWamI90
It's easy enough that she could learn to play it at 100% speed this week, and think about a new song to learn.
January 10th, 2024
We worked on the chord part to go with the left hand, and practised playing the parts separately and together. She's going to work on that this week before we go through the rest of the song to see if there are any other parts to learn.
January 3rd, 2024
Emma wanted to go back to piano today, and so we added a new one by Taylor Swift, called Evermore.
It sounds kinda complicated, but in fact it's fairly easy, although does require a gentle and musical touch to make it work.
Here's the audio link on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXLgZZE072g
December 27th, 2023
The Hopkins are away today.
December 20th, 2023
The girls didn't have their books today, so I wrote out some numbered melodies, and we went over the theory of how the melody works with do re me, etc.
We then learned a new song, Ruth B, Lost Boy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tTwFC7Nlks
Thanks for the nice card and gift card! :)
December 13th, 2023
Emma couldn't find her book this week, so I wrote out the song Santa Tell Me again for her, and then a blister broke on her finger, so I showed her how to read tab, and introduced her to the open G scale. (Open means there are open strings involved). We talked about how the scale can be numbered, and melodies like Mary Had a Little Lamb can be transcribed as numbers. Here's that melody:
3 2 1 2 3 3 3__ 2 2 2__ 3 5 5__ 3 2 1 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 3 2 1__
December 6th, 2023
We didn't go back to Cardigan - it was pretty easy anyway, if I recall correctly. We went straight to Last Christmas, and worked on that for a few minutes.
Emma then wanted to add Ariana Grande, Santa Tell Me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2p2pFUoS5c
This one has some interesting syncopation in the verses, so we worked on that, as well as a new chord (B).
November 29th, 2023
Emma's in Florida
November 22nd, 2023
We reviewed Our Song, and then added a new one, Cardigan by Taylor Swift
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4CVcQz0PuQ
We had extra time, so we also added Last Christmas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4pTMZuAux4
November 15th, 2023
Emma played through a song from school to start, something she's going to be recording for CBC.
We then moved to Taylor Swift, You Belong with Me, and went through that a few times (I forgot about the recording - please remind me next week).
We added a new song also by Taylor Swift, called Our Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb2stN7kH28
I encouraged her to play the D chord with three fingers, instead of trying to do it with one.
November 8th, 2023
Emma brought her Uke in, and we went over You Belong with Me - she was singing along with it, and looked so adorable that I asked if she'd like to record herself singing and playing it.
We spent the rest of the lesson and a bit of Addie's time recording, and it took a few retakes here and there. I suggested she practise it at home some more and we'll re-record parts of it next week.
November 1st, 2023
Addie and Emma didn't bring their books today. Emma used my ukulele and we learned a Taylor Swift song called You Belong With Me.
We put the capo on the first fret so we could play it in F instead of F#.
October 25th, 2023
We continued where we left off with Welcome to New York, and added the chords section after the intro. This requires an inversion on the G, which Emma wrote out for herself to help her remember.
We went over it quite a few times together.
October 11th, 2023
Good job on Who Says by Selena Gomez! You lost your space a few times, or I would have given you a 9 or 10! I'm really happy with how you're playing the right hand, it was just the left hand got a little confused from time to time.
We added Welcome to New York by Taylor Swift after going through Who Says. We focused only on the intro and verse.
October 4th, 2023
Emma and Addie forgot their book so they both started new songs which I wrote out on the same paper.
For Emma, it was back to the piano for Selena Gomez, Who Says:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVrsEm2JwZc
This is unique because it's the same chord pattern in the right hand for the whole song, and just the bass note changes.
September 20th, 2023
Emma got a brand new ukulele for her birthday today! It's very nice!
We played through Spirits a few times, and then I made some modifications to the charts she did from piano to make it more similar to the song.
She then went through a selection of her new picks to try to find her favourite!
September 13th, 2023
Emma played through the Adventure Scale warm ups for me in G, C, D, E, A, and F. Great job!
She also played The Bubble for me, and other than a couple of little mistakes that she quickly fixed, she did great on it. The slurs were kind of overlooked near the bottom of page 1, and the holds-rests in the middle of the page.
We then switched to Ukulele, and did a song from her piano book, Spirits:
The Strumbellas, Spirits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9kXstb9FF4
This is a great one for Uke because the chords are quite easy. I suggested she learn the one Addie is working on (Arrow) which will mean learning new chords next week.
September 6th, 2023
Emma played the Adventure Scale warm-up, and we did it in a few keys. She should keep working on those.
Then we added a new one, called "The Bubble." We worked on bar 25 through to the end, but I'd like her to try to learn the whole thing by herself this week.
June 28th, 2023
Emma didn't bring her book in today, but had memorized her last song, and played it through me. We then added a new one, Minuet by Bach. We worked through the first line before running out of time.
June 21st, 2023
I gave Emma a 10 our of 10 on Scarf Dance! Great job! It's terrific.
The next song is Jazzy Joe.
June 14th, 2023
I should add that Emma misplaced her book, so decided to abandon the song Mine by Taylor Swift.
First played through past songs in her note book: Little River, Mexican Jumping Beans, and Classic Dance.
Then we added "Scarf Dance" and played through it a few times.
May 31st, 2023
Emma started a new song today as well, by Taylor Swift, called Mine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzCGD9PO1Dg
She worked out the inversions on her own and we played through the whole song a couple of times.
Try putting both hands together when you play it.
May 24th, 2023
Addie and Emma couldn't make it today because of an appointment.
May 17th, 2023
Emma is doing well on Beauty and the Beast. She has decided to just do the melody/right hand.
She had missed a number of the flats from the key signature, so I reviewed that with her. They are Eb, Ab, and Bb.
We moved on into the next few bars on page 1. If she isn't going to do the whole song, or both hands, it might be a good idea to think of the next song to learn, or bring in her notation book.
May 10th, 2023
Emma wanted to record drums on her Cleopatra song, so we did that today in her lesson spot, and she tried singing along with it.
The song wasn't in a great key for her, and so she struggled a bit with singing it. She's going to practise singing this week to try again next.
May 3rd, 2023
Emma played through The Man for me while I played drums, and then wanted to work on note reading a bit.
We used my Fake Book to play through The Little Mermaid song a few times, as well as a couple of Beatles songs.
April 26th, 2023
Emma forgot to work on the lyrics for the song to record (Cleopatra), so we added "The Man," by Taylor Swift:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fATKMhOBT-0
April 19th, 2023
We worked on a part of Cleopatra at the end which she was playing a little incorrectly. It's not as fast as she's trying to do it, and the chords should be evenly spaced.
After playing it through a number of times, she wanted to try recording it. We set up the mics and did it a couple of times through before running out of time.
April 12th, 2023
Emma continued with Cleopatra - we continued working through the new part and we learned the inversions for that part.
April 5th, 2023
Emma went first today. We went over what she's been learning of Cleopatra, and then I wrote out the next section for her, including the intro and inter-verse parts.
March 29th, 2023
Emma played through Cleopatra for me a few times. We worked on the chords and the melody separately and then together.
March 8th, 2023
Emma played through a bit of Ophelia for me, and was struggling a bit with reaching with the octaves in the left hand.
We added Cleopatra by the Lumineers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SofLkcfcfys
The verse is very similar on each iteration, so she can likely repeat for a good part of the song. We didn't listen to the whole song to see if there are different parts.
March 1st, 2023
We worked through Ophelia together, including a new part which has an alternating octave note in the melody and the right hand.
It's a little difficult for Emma to reach both notes, so I suggested she not worry about the octaves too much at the beginning.
February 22nd, 2023
Emma and Addie were a bit busy to practise this week, so we took the time in the lesson to work first on the chording for Ophelia, and introduced the method to play the sustain pedal.
The sustain pedal is held down while a chord is changing, and then after it is changed, then it's lifted and put back down quickly again.
Her arms and hands got tired so we went back to Soon You'll Get Better a few times, before returning to Ophelia.
February 15th, 2023
Emma played through Soon You'll Get Better. She had missed the rests in the beginning of each bar, so we went over that, as well as the correct inversion of the G chord.
Then we finished writing out the part of the chorus that we didn't complete last week.
We then added a new song, The Lumineers, Ophelia. We only had time to learn the basic chord pattern with the correct inversion, and octaves in the left hand. I didn't write out the whole song for her. We'll do that next week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCDPpHLOw6A
February 8th, 2023
Emma went first because of hockey again. We went over Delicate and then decided to move on. We added "Soon You'll Get Better" by Taylor Swift.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xVa8YUtt0w&ab_channel=Topmusic%5BTM%5D
February 1st, 2023
Aftyer writing out three more lines of her song, I showed her Lilypond. Here's a link to an online lilypond program:
https://www.hacklily.org/
Maybe play around with this website, and see if you can put your song in it.
relative c' {
d8 d8 c16 c16 c8 d8 c16 d16 d4
d8 d8 c16 c16 c8 d8 c16 d16 d4
d8 d8 c16 c16 c8 d8 c16 d16 d4
r2. c16 a16 d8
bar ":|."
}
eighthnotes have an 8 at the end
quarternotes have a 4
16ths have a 16, etc.
rests start with an r. So r8 would be an eighth rest.
January 25th, 2023
We added the chorus to the song Delicate. Emma had to leave early for hockey.
January 18th, 2023
Emma went first again because of Hockey. We wrapped up Fight Song and added a new song, Delicate by Taylor Swift (Addie had done this before).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i1o9lSUuI8&ab_channel=Audioandlyrics
I wrote out the first verse of it but we ran out of time before getting too far.
January 11th, 2023
Emma went first today because she was leaving earlier for hockey.
We did a few minutes of Fight Song, but then went to singing work. I helped her with projecting and singing from the diaphragm, using lots of air, etc.
January 4th, 2023
Emma decided she was done with the song she wrote, so I'll send an MP3 of that song shortly.
She wanted to add a new song, Fight Song by Rachel Platten:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ztlu3Bm6b8
December 28th, 2022
Emma wanted to try drums today too, so we went through the basic quarter note beat together, then some reading on the snare, before going through the beginner sight reading video.
Merry Christmas!
December 21st, 2022
Emma played through the song she wrote for me, and then we worked on keeping the bridge and the verses the same speed.
After doing that for 15 minutes, we rushed through the recording. We might try recording it again, because the piano wasn't in stereo, and it was just distorting a bit.
I suggested she try to write another song if she had time this week.
December 14th, 2022
Emma played her song for me, and we added a new bridge to it.
We'll record it next week, great job!
December 7th, 2022
Emma had done some writing of her song, and played it through for me. It was fantastic!
I suggested some approaches to make melodies more interesting, writing them down in her book. Things like adding surprise, making a variation to a theme, (and ways to do that), changing chords for the melody on repeats, 8 bar phrases, etc.
I asked her to keep playing with it to develop it into a full song.
November 30th, 2022
Emma played through Snow on The Beach and then we added chords to a song she had written. I explained to her how to find a chord for a melody (which notes are the main notes, and which chords have those main notes in them?). After that we looked through the circle of fifths and I explained the six chords that work with any key.
I asked her to write a new melody also in C, and find chords to work with it.
November 23rd, 2022
Emma and I added a new section today as well, and then Matt and I played along on the drums and acoustic guitar. (Matt's good!)
November 16th, 2022
Here's the clean version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARAMXnUjVHY&ab_channel=DesertRecords
We added the next part, and Emma already can play it! Amazing! Work on putting the whole thing together, maybe even the intro.
November 9th, 2022
Emma and I worked on playing through Snow on the Beach, focusing mostly on the chord changes. We did some drills to help the chord changes become smoothly.
November 2nd, 2022
Emma started a new song, called Snow on the Beach by Taylor Swift:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_narFzbwtIY&ab_channel=SyrebralVibes
October 26th, 2022
Emma was sick today! I hope she feels better. :(
October 19th, 2022
We continued with Getaway Car, adding some additional bars to the song... the melody is really kind of random, but it's good to work on the reading of rhythms. I reminded her to use her "ta ta tee tee tee tee" reading ability.
October 12th, 2022
Emma played through Getaway Car for me. She'd been focusing just on the chorus, so I helped her to read and memorize the verse too.
Great, enthusiastic job today!
October 5th, 2022
Emma added a new song by Taylor Swift today, called Getaway Car:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhPLQVlUiNQ&ab_channel=TaylorSwift-Topic
I used my staff stamp to write out notes for her, starting with the chorus, and then fleshing in the verse a bit.
September 28th, 2022
Emma focused the lesson mostly on the bridge of August. The timing there is kinda hard, so we just went over it many times with the right hand only until she got used to how the timing should go.
September 21st, 2022
Emma has been working on the August song, and it's coming along well. I helped her in a few places where there are rests she was missing.
We Reviewed the following scales:
D
G
F
A
Eb
Keep working on learning those by memory.
I also gave her a very quick intro to the circle of fifths, which we will come back to often in the future.
September 14th, 2022
We continued writing out the song August:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn_0zPAfyo8&ab_channel=TaylorSwiftVEVO
We got through the bridge and instrumental, and first chorus after the bridge.
Good job!
September 7th, 2022
It was fun to see you three again!
Emma started a new song today, called August by Taylor Swift:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn_0zPAfyo8&ab_channel=TaylorSwiftVEVO
I wrote out the first verse and half the chorus and we worked on it together.
Glad you had a nice summer! See you next week!
June 22nd, 2022
In Emma's lesson we recorded to sets of "strings" for the left and right side, and I created an mp3 for her.
See you in the fall! Great job this year!
June 15th, 2022
Emma added bass guitar to her song, and we punched in here and there to fix mistakes.
Dad's going to record acoustic guitar next week!
June 8th, 2022
Emma recorded Here Comes the Sun today in her lesson. We did a few tracks. She was really tired, and pretty nervous so it took a few tries, but with the magic of editing it came together pretty well!
I'll email the first version of it later today.
June 1st, 2022
Emma played through Here Comes the Sun, and we focused especially on the Sun, sun sun, here it comes part. It's getting close! We'll record it next week hopefully. Perhaps just practice that last part over and over.
May 25th, 2022
Emma was at Upper Canada Village today.
May 18th, 2022
We went through Here Comes the Sun together - GREAT job, you're doing so well. I played along on the guitar and the drums with her, and she's getting really good at it!
I added the "Sun, sun, sun, here it comes" part too. Work on that one this week.
May 11th, 2022
Addie and Emma cannot make it today.
May 4th, 2022
Emma worked on the melody only this week for Here Comes the Sun, so we went over it a few times together to help her focus on putting both hands together.
We got through the whole song, but she was a bit tired today from the road race. :)
The program I was talking about was called Lilypond - here's a free interface online called Hacklily:
https://www.hacklily.org/
April 27th, 2022
Emma played through Grumpy Trolls, Merlin's Wand, and Russian Sailor Dance for me... she's doing VERY well on them.
She wanted to learn Beatles, Here Comes the Sun, so I wrote out a simple rendition of the first 16 bars or so.
April 20th, 2022
Grumpy Troll: don't forget to NOT slow down when you play the piano (soft) parts. Also, nice bright staccato even when you're playing softly.
In the Merlin Wand, the first time is FORTE (loud) and the second time is PIANO (soft). Be sure to hold the notes for the full value... count carefully.
Russian Sailor Dance - go over it a few times... you sounded good on it!
April 13th, 2022
Great job, Emma! Sounds fantastic. Keep working on your songs... especially on the second page of Let It Go, and continue perfecting Grumpy Troll.
April 6th, 2022
Emma felt a little emotional at the start of lessons, but did very well. We played through Let It Go, and I corrected a few places where she was playing it like it's sung instead of how it's written. I asked her to try to really focus on the actual note values (both rhythm and pitch) less than on finger numbers, so that she's not playing the wrong notes.
March 30th, 2022
Continued working through the sheet music book, but when we caught up to where we left off, we added Let It Go from Frozen.
I recommended the girls look to apps to help them read notes. There's also these little games I made:
http://readsheetmusic.info/games/read-keys/
http://readsheetmusic.info/games/read-notes/
http://readsheetmusic.info/games/save-the-city/
March 23rd, 2022
We added three new songs from the book today, covering staccato, crescendos, slurs / legato, etc.
Great job! Work on those three this week!
March 16th, 2022
Addie and Emma won't be here this week.
March 9th, 2022
Emma brought a book, and we worked our way through as many of the songs as we could. I think we did about 5 songs. I suggested she continue practicing them, and try to make her way even further, so we can find out what she still needs to learn.
Great job!
March 2nd, 2022
Emma did a great job on the melody of The Hills Are Alive. We went over the chord together, and I added the rest of the chorus... and then we played through the whole thing once.
Next week don't forget to bring the booklet with the sheet music in it, so we can work our way through note reading.
February 23rd, 2022
We went through Adelweiss together, and then added a new one from the Sound of Music: The Hills Are Alive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHmt-A2mEyk&ab_channel=TheVintageEra
Great job! We learned some new things today, like slash chords outside of the chord and inverted sevenths.
February 9th, 2022
Emma struggled a bit with the last line of Edelweiss, so we focused on it, going through it four chords at a time, and coming up with the best fingering to make it less of a stretch. Don't forget to use your pointer finger in the middle when you go to the D, to the Dm/F, to the A/E.
Great job! Maybe next week we'll start I Wanna Be in the Calvary.
February 2nd, 2022
We went over Adelweiss together a number of times, and I helped her with techniques to memorize the first two lines.
Great job, keep going!
January 26th, 2022
Emma did a great job on Do Re Me, and so we added Adelweiss:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu-lcwhZcEs&ab_channel=skyMTV
We did some chord inversions on this one, and she embraced the challenge! We didn't talk about the E7 chord, so don't worry - we'll get to the sevenths eventually.
If she forgets how to do the inversions, it's okay - she can just do the top chord on the inversion (and ignore the note name underneath the underscore).
January 19th, 2022
Emma and I worked through Do Re Me together, doing one chunk at a time, four times, and then putting it together, then adding another chunk, and putting it together, and so on, throughout the piece.
She wants to learn Aidelveiss (or however it's spelled) when this one is done.
January 12th, 2022
Emma and I put the chords together for Do Re Me, and talked about some other things like:
1. Using the correct fingering in the melody
2. Practising the Eb scale at home
3. The One Five bass line in the bass
4. We also talked about inversions, when you turn the chords upside down
January 5th, 2022
We reviewed Silent Night from a couple of weeks ago - she played the first half really well, and the whole thing was quite musical, and flowing. Good job!
We then added Do-Re-Me from the Sound of Music. She wanted to do it in the original key, of Bb!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drnBMAEA3AM&
See you next time!
December 29th, 2021
Missed seeing Addie and Emma today! Happy New Year!
December 22nd, 2021
Emma and Addie won't be coming today.
December 8th, 2021
Emma played through the last two Christmas songs for me, and then we talked about 'phrasing,' in which you try to make your playing sound 'musical,' by joining the notes together, and not giving them all the same weight, strength, or value. Some notes are more important than others. Play it as if you're singing it.
We then continued with Silent Night, first with separate hands, and then working out how to play it with both hands. Try to finish up that song, and play it with phrasing as well.
Don't forget to keep working on the scales.
December 1st, 2021
We reviewed the last two songs, and I asked her to keep trying to smooth out and improve them, especially the newer one.
We also added Silent Night, and are using something called an "arpeggio" in the left hand on the chords. (I didn't tell her that's what it's called yet). Instead of playing a solid three note chord, where all the keys are played at one time, we play each key, one key at a time.
Instead of G . . | we play: g b d |
November 24th, 2021
We spent most of the lesson on Santa Clause is Coming to Town - trying to improve with keeping the beat, playing with one hand then the other, then both.
We got low on time, and so didn't get to all the songs, but work on the spots having trouble. At the end of the lesson we worked on the D scale
November 17th, 2021
Emma played through Spirits for me - she's got the chorus really really good! I asked her to try to get the verse a bit more like the chorus (not stopping to check the notes etc).
We then reviewed Santa Claus Coming to Town, and added We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
We also reviewed scales which I think I assumed she already knew, but in any case she's pretty good with them already. I asked her to work on G and D, and reminded her about the rule of key signatures, and introduced the 3 4 time signature for We Wish You a Merry Christmas.
Great job!
November 10th, 2021
Emma played through Spirits for me, and had been practising the melody of the verse but not the chords. We worked on putting it together, and then added Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
Keep working on both songs this week, getting them smooth to play in time along with a drum beat.
November 3rd, 2021
Emma has been doing well with the chorus of Spirits, and so I wrote out the melody of the verse as well.
We talked a bit about note reading, fractions and note values, and what a dotted note does to the note's value.
This was in the context of a dotted rest at the beginning of the verse melody.
October 27th, 2021
Emma did well on You Are My Sunshine, and I played along with her on my guitar! Great job!
We then reviewed Oh Canada. It has a few problems nearer the end, so I asked her to keep plugging away on that this week.
We then added Spirits by The Strumbellas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpv-vGScrvU
We just did the first chorus and first verse so far.
October 20th, 2021
Emma went first today. We played through her songs to date, and I advised her that she can focus on the newer ones, and only practice the older songs once a week or so, just to keep it in the back of her mind.
Oh Canada was much better than last week! We played it through a few times. We talked about emotive playing, and trying to feel the emotion of the song she's playing.
We then added You Are My Sunshine.
It's in the key of G, so I explained keys - and that this key has an F sharp in it.
October 13th, 2021
Emma is doing well with her music! I asked her to focus on the ending of Hallelujah this week, where she was making a few mistakes.
We also worked on Oh Canada some more, which she had been struggling with. We broke it down into just the right hand, and then just the left hand, before working through the first line a number of times.
She was hesitant to continue with more, but after she'd tried the second line, she was able to play the whole song with both hands. She thought she could have it ready by next week!
October 6th, 2021
Emma apparently had some frustration working through Hallelujah this week, but she did SO WELL on it. I was really impressed.
She's going to work some more this week, and we also added O Canada.
September 29th, 2021
Emma played through her Little Mermaid song for me, and then we went back to Hallelujah.
She played along with a recording that her mom had, and did really well. There was one little problem with going to a chord too quickly (and playing it as an F instead of a G).
Next, we started the melody for Hallelujah, and she really picked that up quite quickly, and was eager to try both hands together.
You're doing well, Emma, keep practicing every day!
September 22nd, 2021
This was Emma's first week with me, but she took lessons with Carolyn.
I tried to set her at ease by having her play through some songs for me to start. Then we talked about chords, (more than one note) and the key of C. I described the way to tell a minor and a major chord a part by their sound and by the number of black and white notes between the first and third notes.
We went through Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah a couple of times, and I shared the Google Doc with her of the chords.
Web Development by CrookedBush.com • Login / Logout