AB/AB Buddy Lesson Resources

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November 16, 2020

Ari's Backing Tracks for the Week

No backing tracks this week, just videos!

 

Ajai's Backing Tracks for the Week

No backing tracks this month while we have fun with Christmas music, but if you’d like to perform any of these songs for family or friends, I’d be happy to make a minus track for you to play along with.

 The music to go along with the videos is below the videos. Click on the image to enlarge/print.

 

Music for We Wish... and Rockin'

We Wish You a Merry Christmas:

Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree page 1

Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree page 2

 

 

November 9, 2020

Rockin' Out (first 8 measures)

You can play along with the video at the following time stamps:

50 bpm: 0:00-0:55

60 bpm: 0:56-1:41

70 bpm: 1:42-2:24

 

Ari's Practice Tool of the Week

For C Scale Stomp:

Go slow and make sure you are using the correct fingering! The C major scale is the foundation for all of the other scales, so it’s important to get this one right from the beginning.

For Rockin’ Out:

  • Work 8 measures at a time using your playing cards.
  • Shuffle the cards up so they are in random order.
  • Draw a card.
  • Practice the measure that corresponds to the number on the card. ONLY THAT MEASURE!
  • Start with a quick analysis. What notes are you playing? What fingering should you be using (you might have to look at the measures before and after to answer that)? What is the rhythm for this measure?
  • Play that one measure slowly and in control as many times as it takes for you to play it easily.
  • Draw a new card and repeat this process with the new measure.
  • When you’ve gone through the deck one time, shuffle and get ready for Round Two, which is:
  • Draw a card and play the measure without any mistakes on the first try. (If you make mistakes, then go back to Round One.) When you can play all 8 measures in random order mistake-free, move on to Round Three.
  • Round Three is simply to put the cards away and try playing the song slowly from the beginning to the end of measure 8.
  • Somewhere between Rounds One and Two, please have your mom record you practicing your measures in random order and send it to me so I can evaluate. Thank you!

 

Ajai's Practice Tool of the Week

 

 

Chord Crash Course

You guys CRUSHED your chords! Well done.

Nothing to practice specifically for this buddy lesson section this week.

 

 

November 2, 2020

To help you get the feeling of Cowboy Medley...Watch This:

There is no swing or jazz in this style of music! As you can tell, it helps the dancers keep the time with their feet with more ease.

 

Ari's Practice Tool of the Week

This week, please reduce the amount of practice you are doing to 5-10 minutes a day. I’ve got a feeling that you are overpracticing and that’s where we’re losing things like the rhythm. So keep it short and just work on one song or a portion of one song a day.

For Rockin’ Out:

  • Tap track 8 measures at a time with the metronome set at 60 bpm. Each tick of the metronome represents one color of your measure. Then move on to the next 8 measure section. Increase to 70 bpm for all sections. Continue increasing by 10 bpm until you find yourself making mistakes, at which point go back to the last tempo you were accurate with.
  • After two or three days, please have your mom record you tap tracking with the metronome and send it to me so we can make course corrections as we go instead of waiting a whole week.

 

Ajai's Practice Tool of the Week

Two of your songs ask you to hold the pedal down for the entire song. Will you identify those songs and highlight the instructions to apply the pedal at the top of the page of those songs?

You also have two songs that are in 3/4 time. To pass these songs off, I need you to play along with the backing tracks.

Thank you!

 

Chord Crash Course

Click on the image below to open in a new window/print the chart. You can both share and it doesn’t have to be printed in color.

 

 

October 26, 2020

Ari's Practice Tool of the Week

For Rockin’ Out:

  • Color code your page to show the 4 beats in each measure. After you’re done, check your pages against mine (click to enlarge if needed):

  • Tap track while SAYING ALOUD the note values. Work on 8 measures at a time. Don’t try to tap the whole song start to finish this week until you get to the last step.
  • Tap track with a metronome (each tick on the metronome = one color); start at 60 bpm and stay at this speed until you can tap an 8-measure section perfectly. Then move on to the next 8 measure section. Increase to 70 bpm for all sections. Continue increasing by 10 bpm until you find yourself making mistakes, at which point go back to the last tempo you were accurate with.
  • Tap track along with the backing. Start here:

60 bpm

and then try 80 bpm…

(Fair warning, I make a couple of mistakes at this tempo but you should be able to pick them out and still tap them correctly by the time you get here!)

Ajai's Practice Tool of the Week

Please be prepared to share with me at our next lesson which practice tools you used to help you learn your songs this week!

 

Chord Crash Course

Click on the image below to open in a new window/print the chart. You can both share and it doesn’t have to be printed in color.

Here are the backing tracks for the chord work this week:

60 bpm (Jazz Ballad)

90 bpm (Smooth Pop)

120 bpm (Pop Disco)

 

October 19, 2020

Ari

Practice Tool of the Week

Play your songs using the opposite of the dynamics written.

Then switch back to playing what is written.

 

Chord Crash Course

Please work on playing all of the white key major chords from C to C and back down again.

C = C – E – G (Snowman)

D = D – F# – A (Nutella Sandwich)

E = E – G# – B (Nutella Sandwich)

F = F – A – C (Snowman)

G = G – B – D (Snowman)

A = A – C# – E (Nutella Sandwich)

B = B – D# – F# (Weird Guy)

C = C – E – G (Snowman)

Try this with each hand, and if you want the extra challenge, do it with both hands together up and back.

 

October 19, 2020

Ajai

Practice Tool of the Week

Play your songs using the opposite of the dynamics written.

Then switch back to playing what is written.

 

Chord Crash Course

Please work on playing all of the white key major chords from C to C and back down again.

C = C – E – G (Snowman)

D = D – F# – A (Nutella Sandwich)

E = E – G# – B (Nutella Sandwich)

F = F – A – C (Snowman)

G = G – B – D (Snowman)

A = A – C# – E (Nutella Sandwich)

B = B – D# – F# (Weird Guy)

C = C – E – G (Snowman)

Try this with each hand, and if you want the extra challenge, do it with both hands together up and back.

 

Ajai's Backing Tracks for the Week

October 12, 2020

Ari

Practice Tool of the Week

Use your Practice Doctor page this week on your first play-through of Little Sonatina in C. Pencil any symptoms you notice into the measure where it occurs as you play.

Make a plan to tackle each of the symptoms with your practice prescriptions.

This means that after your first play-through, you probably won’t play through the song again from the beginning to the end until you’ve cleared up all of the “sicknesses”.

ALSO…

SAY IT AND PLAY IT. For all of your pieces. Don’t get lazy with the rhythm or we get to do these rhythm bootcamps and lose time working on new pieces.

 

Jazz Journey

Our Jazz Journey is over for a season. It’s been a good run! 

If you’ve enjoyed watching/listening to jazz in action, you may consider checking out the following jazz artists on YouTube or Spotify/Pandora/music streaming service of choice:

  • Duke Ellington
  • Count Basie
  • Louis Armstrong
  • Miles Davis
  • Ella Fitzgerald
  • Nat King Cole/Natalie Cole
  • Glenn Miller Orchestra
  • Dave Brubeck
  • George Shearing
  • Peter Nero
  • Henry Mancini
  • Ray Charles
  • Diana Krall
  • Michael Buble
  • Harry Connick Jr.

October 12, 2020

Ajai

Practice Tool of the Week

When I was a piano student, my teacher would write N – F – R at the top of my lesson notes each week.

She never wrote out what that meant but over time, I came to understand it.

N = Notes. Was I playing all of the correct notes? Was I absolutely sure?

F = Fingering. Was I using the correct fingers to play those notes? Was I following the fingering suggestions?

R = Rhythm. Did I know what the time signature was? Did what I was playing match that? Was I counting? Was I paying attention to rests or blowing right through those?

 N – F – R is at the foundation of any piece. Once we are 100% we have N – F – R, then we can start making music.

 

Jazz Journey

Our Jazz Journey is over for a season. It’s been a good run!

If you’ve enjoyed watching/listening to jazz in action, you may consider checking out the following jazz artists on YouTube or Spotify/Pandora/music streaming service of choice:

  • Duke Ellington
  • Count Basie
  • Louis Armstrong
  • Miles Davis
  • Ella Fitzgerald
  • Nat King Cole/Natalie Cole
  • Glenn Miller Orchestra
  • Dave Brubeck
  • George Shearing
  • Peter Nero
  • Henry Mancini
  • Ray Charles
  • Diana Krall
  • Michael Buble
  • Harry Connick Jr.

Ajai's Backing Tracks for the Week

October 5, 2020

Ari

Practice Tool of the Week

Be prepared to share your practice plan with me at our next lesson. How did you choose the tools you used? Did they help?

 

Jazz Journey

Using the notes in the Blues Scale, create 4 licks. Start on notes other than C. You can jump around; notes don’t need to be right next to each other in sequential order.

For the 12-Bar Blues this week, play around with the Back and Forth bass line. Start with open 5ths: C (C and G), F (F and C) and G (G and D); and then move your thumb up one note and back to the starting note. E.g., C/G, C/A, C/G-hold.

 

 

October 5, 2020

Ajai

Practice Tool of the Week

Be prepared to share your practice plan with me at our next lesson. How did you choose the tools you used? Did they help?

 

Jazz Journey

Using the notes in the Blues Scale, create 4 licks. Start on notes other than C. You can jump around; notes don’t need to be right next to each other in sequential order.

For the 12-Bar Blues this week, play around with the Back and Forth bass line. Start with open 5ths: C (C and G), F (F and C) and G (G and D); and then move your thumb up one note and back to the starting note. E.g., C/G, C/A, C/G-hold.

 

Ajai's Backing Tracks for the Week

September 21, 2020

Ari

Weekly One-Minute Warm-up

Please start each of your practice sessions with the following warm-up exercises:

 [Click picture to enlarge]

One of these days I will remember to go over these new warm-ups with you during our lesson!

 

Practice Tool of the Week

Great job creating a practice plan for your pieces last week! It made a difference!

I will let you come up with your own practice plan for the next two weeks. You can use any of the resources in your practice packet.

Remember that playing slowly can also be a great practice tool. Try to avoid big pauses–particularly on Hop, Skip, and a Jump.

 

Jazz Journey

This week, add an extra octave to your Blues scale, and then change directions at random several times as you work your way up and down.

Also work on your LH chords with the 12-Bar Blues chart. Use open 5ths: C (C and G), F (F and C) and G (G and D). The backing is below the chart.

Backing:

Slow:

Faster:

 

September 21, 2020

Ajai

Weekly One-Minute Warm-up

Please start each of your practice sessions with the following warm-up exercises:

[Click picture to enlarge]

I’m sorry I keep forgetting to go over these with you in our lesson! 

 

Practice Tool of the Week

Great job figuring out which parts of your pieces needed extra work and coming up with a plan to make that happen!

Since your pieces are short this week, you might have fun with the practice game board!

 

Jazz Journey

This week, add an extra octave to your Blues scale, and then change directions at random several times as you work your way up and down.

Also work on your LH chords with the 12-Bar Blues chart. Use open 5ths: C (C and G), F (F and C) and G (G and D). The backing is below the chart.

Backing:

Slow:

Faster:

 

Ajai's Backing Tracks for the Week

September 14, 2020

Ari

Weekly One-Minute Warm-up

Please start each of your practice sessions with the following warm-up exercises:

 [Click picture to enlarge]

I totally forgot to go over these new warm-ups with you during our lesson! Let me know if you need help deciphering any of the instructions.

 

Practice Tool of the Week

We are starting into our 3rd week on the first 12 measures of Hop, Skip, and a Jump.

We need to be super mindful about what goes on in practice this week so we don’t end up working on this song for two more months.

We talked about using the “Crossing the River” practice tool  (see instructions below) but this tool will only be effective if you vocalize the rhythm, which means to say the rhythm OUT LOUD while you’re working on getting it (e.g., “Ti ta ti-(tie) ti ti”).

Instructions for “Crossing the River.”

1) Empty the bag and put all five pebbles on the left side of the piano.

2) Choose one small section to work on. It can be as small as one measure, but don’t choose more than four.

3) Try your best to play that section correctly, with no mistakes.

4) As soon as you are able to play that section 100% correct, you get to “swim” a pebble from the left side of the piano to the right. Pretend the piano keys are a big river!

5) Keep working on that section until you’ve played it 5 times correctly and all of the pebbles are on the right side of the piano!

 

September 14, 2020

Ajai

Weekly One-Minute Warm-up

Please start each of your practice sessions with the following warm-up exercises:

[Click picture to enlarge]

I’m sorry I forgot to go over these with you in our lesson! Hopefully, you’ll be able to figure these out on your own! 

 

Practice Tool of the Week

The first practice day on a new song is the hardest day. That’s not necessarily bad, but it means that you’ll want to work smart so your songs are easier to play the rest of the week.

You are welcome to use any tools in your practice toolkit that we’ve tried so far.

If you’d like to try a new tool, grab the small plastic bag that has 5 pebbles in it. These pebbles are for a game called “Cross the River.”

1) Empty the bag and put all five pebbles on the left side of the piano.

2) Choose one small section to work on. It can be as small as one measure, but don’t choose more than four.

3) Try your best to play that section correctly, with no mistakes.

4) As soon as you are able to play that section 100% correct, you get to “swim” a pebble from the left side of the piano to the right. Pretend the piano keys are a big river!

5) Keep working on that section until you’ve played it 5 times correctly and all of the pebbles are on the right side of the piano!

 

September 7, 2020

Ari

Weekly One-Minute Warm-up

Please start each of your practice sessions with the following warm-up exercises:

 

Practice Tool of the Week

Remember: our goal this month is to learn how to practice smarter, not harder.

On your first day of practice, keep your Practice Doctor worksheet handy and make note of any symptoms you may be exhibiting, just like you did last week. Pencil those symptoms right into the measures where they occur.

Now you have a practice plan!!!

Click this link to print your Practice Prescriptions

Find the prescription that matches each symptom, and make a plan for how you’ll achieve musical wellness by your next lesson.

You’ve got the tools to make this practice week a great one!

 

September 7, 2020

Ajai

Weekly One-Minute Warm-up

Please start each of your practice sessions with the following warm-up exercises:

 

Practice Tool of the Week

Remember: our goal this month is to learn how to practice smarter, not harder.

On your first day of practice, keep your Practice Doctor worksheet handy and make note of any symptoms you may be exhibiting, just like you did last week. Pencil those symptoms right into the measures where they occur.

Now you have a practice plan!!!

Click this link to print your Practice Prescriptions

Find the prescription that matches each symptom, and make a plan for how you’ll achieve musical wellness by your next lesson.

You’ve got the tools to make this practice week a great one!

 

August 31, 2020

Ari

Warm-up for the Week

Please start each of your practice sessions with the following warm-up exercises:

 

Practice Tool of the Week

Remember: our goal this month is to learn how to practice smarter, not harder.

One of the ways we do this is to be mindful as we play. This means focusing on what’s going on, listening to the sounds we’re making, and constantly evaluating what we’re doing. We don’t want to go on auto-pilot.

No recordings this week, no game board this week. 

Instead, use your Practice Doctor worksheet. Keep it on the piano right by your music as you play. 

On your first and second practice days of the week, I need you to really pay attention and see which symptoms you are exhibiting in your playing. When you catch yourself coughing, sniffling, or noticing aches and pains (for example), please grab a pencil and write in whatever symptom you noticed, right into that measure (or above it or below it).

We will talk about which symptoms showed up for you as you were learning your pieces this week.

And next week, we’ll talk about what you can do about that. 🙂

 

August 31, 2020

Ajai

Warm-up for the Week

Please start each of your practice sessions with the following warm-up exercises:

 

Practice Tool of the Week

Remember: our goal this month is to learn how to practice smarter, not harder.

One of the ways we do this is to be mindful as we play. This means focusing on what’s going on, listening to the sounds we’re making, and constantly evaluating what we’re doing. We don’t want to go on auto-pilot.

No recordings this week, no game board this week.

Instead, use your Practice Doctor worksheet. Keep it on the piano right by your music as you play.

On your first and second practice days of the week, I need you to really pay attention and see which symptoms you are exhibiting in your playing. When you catch yourself coughing, sniffling, or noticing aches and pains (for example), please grab a pencil and write in whatever symptom you noticed, right into that measure (or above it or below it).

We will talk about which symptoms showed up for you as you were learning your pieces this week.

And next week, we’ll talk about what you can do about that. 🙂

 

Ajai's Backing Tracks for the Week

August 24, 2020

Ari

Practice Tool of the Week

Remember: our goal this month is to learn how to practice smarter, not harder. Start your practice by listening to your backing tracks for the first few days. Once you feel comfortable with your song, try playing along with the backing track. That will be the best way to check that you are playing everything correctly.

Let’s use the Practice Hero Game Board for one more week. Try to make it through all of the spaces before next Monday.

If you find a spot in your songs that could use a little more work, stop using the game board and try the Edge Back technique:

Can’t wait to hear your practice recordings!

Thank you for the restraint you exercised last week in not doing more that you were asked and in following my instructions. I appreciate it!

 

August 24, 2020

Ajai

Practice Tool of the Week

I’m glad you used your backing tracks last week to your advantage, Ajai! Keep using them as you learn these songs.

Use the Practice Hero Game Board for one more week, and see if you can complete all of the squares before our next lesson. 

If you find any tricky spots in your songs this week, put your game board on pause and try the Edge Back technique:

Remember to send me 3 days of recordings of your practice.

You did a wonderful job this past week!

 

Ajai's Backing Tracks for the Week

August 17, 2020

Practice Tool of the Week

Our backing tracks are a great practice tool. They help us know what the song is supposed to sound like, and give us something fun to play along with once we are comfortable with our songs.

This week, use the Practice Hero Game Board as you learn and perfect your songs. Try to make it through all of the spaces before next Monday. Let me know if you need help understanding a game space.

 

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