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Bram Sinclair
Past Notes
April 22nd, 2025
Bram played through both hands for me of Star of the County Down... he's getting better! He decided he wanted to write out the last section, so I put it down for him, and then we played through it.
He got a little antagonistic toward me, I'm really at a loss to know how to teach him. He's very disagreeable, and I can't seem to win him over or convince him I want him to succeed. I am seriously hoping you have a suggestion to improve his lesson time.
April 15th, 2025
Bram played my grand piano today, because my upright is broken.
We reviewed the Skye Boat Song and Star of the County Down. He was a little distracted today, and I'm afraid I wasn't able to keep his attention very well.
April 8th, 2025
I wrote out the left hand for the third line of Star of the County Down, and we worked on the first few notes of it.
April 1st, 2025
Bram is doing so well on his songs! He started off with the Skye Boat Song, and played it very musically, especially the first half. The second half was a bit half-hearted and there were some wrong notes, but I didn't say anything about it :)
We then added more to Star of the Co Down, the left hand on the second line and the third line right hand.
March 25th, 2025
Bram was able to find his way through the song we started last week, and so we added the rest of that line to the song, and then I wrote out the second line too (which is almost the same).
We then went back to Drunken Sailor and tried to figure out the place to change the left hand to "D" (early in the morning).
March 18th, 2025
Bram tried to learn the penny whistle today, but balked after a bit of trying. We switched to a new song, he wanted to learn the Irish Rovers, Star of the County Down:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-Di5at9f14
I wrote out the first portion of the melody, but he felt a little intimidated by it, and struggled with following along.
March 11th, 2025
Bram is cancelling today.
March 4th, 2025
Bram is sick today and won't be able to come to lesson.
February 25th, 2025
Bram has figured out both hands by himself for The Skye Boat song, and so today we looked for a new song to add. We settled on Drunken Sailor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqb_fFEZ0Us
February 18th, 2025
We spent most of the lesson trying to get Bram to want to play the left hand with the right hand on the second line. At the end of the lesson, I was able to point to the right keys on the keyboard, and that seemed to help him take the initial steps to get through it.
February 11th, 2025
We worked through the Skyboat Song, and Bram had been having trouble with part of it at home, so I helped him and we went over it a few times.
We decided to pause the left hand in the second section until he's more comfortable with the right hand. We'll add it in when things are more comfortable for him.
February 4th, 2025
Bram and family are sick today, so won't be coming.
January 28th, 2025
Bram has really been practising! Great job today, Bram!
Today we added the left hand to the next part of the verse, and worked on the left hand for the first part of the next line.
January 21st, 2025
Bram was frustrated with his keyboard at home and so had not been working on the Skye boat song. We spent the lesson practicing the first part together.
We tried to do over Mary had a little lamb but he was struggling with that today so we returned to the Skye Boat Song until the end. I made a video to help them remember how to practice at home.
January 14th, 2025
To start out, Bram was feeling a little overwhelmed with Down By the Bay and using two hands, so we tried to come up with a plan that he thought was reasonable. We decided to spread out learning two hands on this song over a few weeks, maybe four or six lessons.
We then added four notes to the left hand for the Skye Boat song and went through them a few times.
January 7th, 2025
Bram tried playing through Crazy Frog for me a few times but struggled with motivation or something. Eventually we decided to add The Skye Boat Song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zQoQ1ckFxI
December 17th, 2024
Bram was so well behaved, so responsive and polite, I was very pleased today.
Thanks also for the very nice socks, candle, and soap! I love the gifts!
We went through Down by the Bay, and added the left hand to it. We also reviewed Mary Had a Little Lamb with both hands.
After that, we added "Crazy Frog," and went through it a few times.
Merry Christmas!
December 10th, 2024
It was a bit hard for Bram to read Down By the Bay, so I wrote it out for him in larger print.
It was a bit hard to get him to cooperate. I'm finding it difficult to get him to cooperate compared to other students, and would welcome any help or insight you can give me.
After Down By the Bay we went through Mary Had a Little Lamb again, and I tried to get him to use two hands.
December 3rd, 2024
I introduced Bram to a memory game I use to help kids who are struggling with learning music. We did it for Happy Birthday, and got about half way through. We then added Down by the Bay, and did the memory game for part of that, but ran out of time before finishing it.
November 26th, 2024
We worked through both songs together, and I answered some questions about Happy Birthday.
I added left hand parts to Mary Had a Little Lamb.
November 19th, 2024
I wasn't exactly sure where Bram was coming from at the beginning of the lesson. He didn't seem to want to be there, or was frustrated with the way I was going about things. I just went with it, and I think he warmed up as things went along. Let me know if there's something I should avoid, or you can help me understand.
We went through Mary Had a Little Lamb, after some cajoling. He acted like he had forgotten some of the notes, but as things went along he seemed to recall better.
We added Happy Birthday, which introduced Bram to flats, and octaves (the arrows between the two Cs).
November 12th, 2024
Today was Bram's first lesson. We learned about the difference between notes and chords, and found the pattern in the black keys on the piano, which differentiate different sounding notes from each other. The two black keys we'll call the doghouse, the the three black keys we'll call grandma's house. In the dog house is the "D", between the two black keys.
We learned the song Mary Had a Little Lamb, and which fingers to play so that every finger has it's own job.
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