Is your piano teacher getting on your case about playing piano with flat fingers? Check out these tips courtesy of my fellow teachers (and friends), Katrina Thompson Fost and Melodie Archer:
Finger Posture Tip #1: The Water Bottle Trick
The Anime Music on Melodica Project
Helping the Community and Promoting Your Business
Every Other Bar Drill Demonstration for Piano and Melodica
The Every Other Bar Drill has proved to be a successful drill with my students this month. Some need to clean things up, especially their notes, rhythm and fingering. Others need to make their music flow more smoothly. This drill addresses these issues. The student plays the odd numbered bars in a troublespot, while I play the even numbered bars on the melodica. Then we switch.Afterwards, when I get them to play the entire passage, the difference from their first runthrough at the lesson and the latest is like night and day.
It really doesn't matter what that second instrument is - voice, French horn, percussion. What I have been finding is that this drill really forces my students to count and "feel" the pulse. For me, this is proving to be a great way to practice "Instrument #5" - the melodica. This wind piano is a fun little instrument. It looks like I'll need to work on breath technique a bit more, though.
Special thanks to my student "S" for giving me permission to share this clip from last week's lesson.
Fingering is Important
One of my students is learning the Piano Guys' arrangement of "All of Me". We thought this warning was pretty hilarious, not to mention true.
Here's the piece. See you if can find the "fingering or die" part:
Want to hear more? Click on the Piano Guys CD to check out their CD's: