by Ivan Hurd

Preparation and Presentation

Context: Pieces that are helpful to have experienced or played before approaching this one

• William Bolcom The Plaid Miss from Monsterpieces
• Dmitri Kabalevsky Little Story, Op. 27, No. 2
• Alexander Gretchaninoff Farewell, Op. 98, No. 4

Get Ready: Creative activities to explore before the first encounter with the score, to prepare a student for deeper engagement and more immediate success

• Play a descending chromatic scale in the LH incorporating a similar range from the piece. Build upon this by adding thirds as found in the accompaniment, and then the inverted chromatic sixths using the same notes from the second half of the piece.
• Improvise RH melodies using c minor, E-flat Major, and f minor five-finger patterns from the piece.
• Play various harmonies from the piece as blocked chords: major chords (F, G, B-flat), minor chords (c, g, f, b-flat, e-flat, a-flat), diminished chords (a, g, b), augmented (A-flat), and various seventh chords (F7 and A half-diminished).
• Count aloud and clap-back syncopated rhythms. Play syncopated rhythms using the same intervals from the piece.

Initial Focus: Features to pay attention to first; priority steps in reading and absorbing the music

• Practice smooth, legato pedal connections with the LH only. Say aloud when the pedal changes occur.
• Focus on a beautiful legato line with vocal phrasing. Listen for the decay of the long notes in the RH melody.
• Balance of the hands; the LH should bring out the changing chromatic harmony, yet not overpower the singing RH melody.

Coordination Essentials: Physical skills and drills for common technical challenges in the piece

• Make sure to find a comfortable position in mm. 14-15 and 26-27 when the hands are overlapping. The LH can be closer to the fall board as it is on the black keys and over the RH, which can be closer to the edge of the keys for maximum comfort.
• Much of the melodic content in the RH is built upon oscillating 2nds which is a great opportunity to focus on rotation.
• In m. 18, focus on moving the RH out of the way so the LH can re-attack the C. Practice the LH syncopated rhythm until it becomes automatic.
• The balance of texture in the LH in mm. 18-25 can be challenging. Students can ghost play the thumb to make sure it is not too loud.
• To assist with good balance between hands, the student and teacher can trade off playing various parts. Additionally, the teacher could play on the students’ shoulders to help the student feel the difference in weight between the hands.

Expressivity: Ideas to connect and re-connect with the expressive and musical nature of the piece

• Sing and play the RH melody simultaneously.
• Sing the RH melody while playing the LH accompaniment only.
• Perhaps have students write lyrics to accompany the melody as they sing along. This will help develop imagery for the piece.
• Students can dance or move around the room to feel the push and pull of the rubato of the piece as the teacher plays. The movement will help students to internalize the phrasing.

Look Forward: Approaches to set up for success with refinements that will need attention a few weeks down the road

• Continue to listen for clarity of texture and balance of melody and accompaniment.
• Focus on the subtleties of pedal changes and experiment with a variety of pedal depths and the occasional use of the soft pedal.
• Try performing at a variety of tempos and explore different uses of rubato. This will ensure the performance remains fresh and flexible.
• Record the piece to see if it sound the way you hear it while playing. Recording can help students discover areas for further refinement.

Process and Practice 

 Fully Present: Tips for maintaining focus and engagement over time

• Refine voicing of the LH accompaniment. Experiment with voicing the lower or upper note.
• Clearly define the phrase structure and develop a dynamic plan.

Break it Up: Useful practice segments; how to connect them and plug them back into the whole

• Compare subtle changes in similar phrase endings such as m. 9 and m. 17. Play them back-to-back, experimenting with differences in timing and dynamics.
• Start the phrase at m. 2 and m. 18 comparing the differences in register, direction of melody, and LH intervals.
• Isolate mm. 23-24 to aim for clarity in the grace notes. Stop on the note directly following the grace note and then integrate it back into the long line.

Layers and outlines: Tips for focusing on how the parts make up the whole

• Reiterate the similarities of the chromatic LH accompaniment mm. 1-7 as thirds and mm. 18-23 as sixths, both of which use the same notes. Also identify how the linear chromaticism creates vertical harmonies with the RH melody.
• Practice the connection of phrase endings and beginnings such as m. 5-6, 9-10, 13-14, etc. This will help create a sense of continual flow so that the piece does not stagnate at the ends of phrases.
• Slowly practice mm. 18-25, stopping before each pedal change to listen for the mixture of sound for proper balance of texture as there are three voices in this section.

Achieving flow: Ideas for finding and maintaining tempo, managing modifications artistically

• Use a soft metronome to maintain a consistent tempo, and then count subdivided eighth notes on top of the metronome pulse. The verbal counting can speed up or slow down to help achieve smooth timing of rubato, while the metronome ensures that the rubato does not deviate too drastically from the overall tempo.
• Have the student conduct while the teacher plays to help gain a sense for the ebb and flow of the piece.
• Play the RH melody while lightly tapping half notes in the LH to feel the larger structure of the phrasing.
• Sing while playing to connect the natural rise and fall of our voice with the shaping of the melody and pacing of the phrasing. 

Make it mine: Tips for developing and refining a personal, internal sense of the piece

• Ask the student to write lyrics to the melody and then sing those lyrics as they play.
• While the piece, overall, is melancholy, have the student use a variety of synonyms for character and mood. Write in adjectives in the score for each change in emotion.
• Perhaps have the student draw a picture and/or use a variety of colors to convey the feeling of the piece.
• Use additional dynamic markings and directional arrows to help make decisions of sound and timing more concrete.

Deep knowing: Tips for securing memory

• Analyze all interval types and size between each melody note. Sing the interval names while playing.
• Analyze the chords and write those in the score. Also, sing the chord names while playing. For an additional challenge, do this from memory.
• Label sections of the piece by number, and then draw numbers out of a hat for randomized starting places.
• Make a copy of the score, cut up the measures, select a measure at random and be able to play from that spot to the end of the piece.
• Work from the end of the piece, playing the starting sections in reverse order. 

Final stages: Tips for ensuring performance readiness, maintaining freshness and spontaneity, and reinforcing an expressive personal connection

• Ask the student to record the piece with a variety of intentions: for themselves, for a parent or friend, for their teacher, etc.
• Encourage the student to imagine playing the piece in a variety of contexts and spaces. Ask them questions about their audience, the size of the room, the stage, the lighting, the piano, etc. Create the most detailed mental image possible.
• Have the student play one hand from memory while you play the other.
• Have the student play the LH from memory and sing the entire RH melody as they play.
• Play only the beginning phrase on as many pianos as possible.

by Craig Sale

Preparation and Presentation

Context: Pieces that are helpful to have experienced or played before approaching this one

• Kabalevsky, A Little Porcupine, op. 89, No. 8
• Köhler, Melody, op. 190, no. 27
• Diabelli, Scherzo in C, Op. 149, No. 6

Get Ready: Creative activities to explore before the first encounter with the score, to prepare a student for deeper engagement and more immediate success

• In-lesson dictation activities: Student plays hands together following the direction and intervals dictated by teacher (parallel motion).
• At-home activity: Student reads hands together in parallel motion from non-staff notation. (Slanting lines or arrows showing direction, numbers to indicate interval.)
• Improvisation/Composing: make a piece using both hands together playing in parallel motion.
• Improvisation/Composing: make a piece using slurs and staccatos at the same time in each hand.

Initial Focus: Features to pay attention to first; priority steps in reading and absorbing the music

• Articulation and gesture: student taps and counts the rhythm using flat hand on first note of slurs and on tenutos; tap lightly on fingertips on second note of slurs and all staccatos.
• Discover that both hands play the same direction and interval, aka parallel motion. Find the one place where they break this pattern.
• Discover starting position (including distance between the starting notes in each hand) and see when the hands need to move. Do they move in parallel motion?
• Intervallic reading: play both hands together while saying “up a 3rd, up a 3rd, down a 2nd,” etc. Include articulation in this reading step.

Coordination Essentials: Physical skills and drills for common technical challenges in the piece

• Create a technical warm-up using white key triads to prepare for mm. 8-14. Start with both hands on C and play degrees 1 3 5 3 1 3 5 3 (with slur-short-short-short articulation) on each white key going down in 2nds.
• Regular in-lesson dictation activities as described earlier.

Expressivity: Ideas to connect and re-connect with the expressive and musical nature of the piece

• Explore the frequency of the 2-note slurs. How does the increased frequency in mm. 8-14 create more excitement? Notice the repetition of triad tones in these measures.
• Movement activities related to articulation and build of excitement: 1. Student claps the first note of slurs and tenutos while the teacher plays the piece. 2. Student “walks” the articulation while the teacher plays it—flat foot on start of slurs and tenutos, tiptoes on second note of slur and staccatos.

Look Forward: Approaches to set up for success with refinements that will need attention a few weeks down the road

• To build faster tempo, student plays and counts the piece on the fallboard trying faster tempi. This removal of the “sound” will focus the student on technical control of the fingers and make playing it on the keys cleaner and more controlled.

Process and Practice 

Fully Present: Tips for maintaining focus and engagement over time

• Goal performances in group classes and for family/friends.
• Practice with metronome at slow, medium, and performance tempos.
• Record student performance of piece in home practice and in lessons.

Break it Up: Useful practice segments; how to connect them and plug them back into the whole

• Break it up into three sections: mm. 1-4, mm. 5-8, mm. 9-end. Be able to play any of these sections in practice in any order.

Layers and outlines: Tips for focusing on how the parts make up the whole

• How are the first two sections similar? How is the third section different? How does this difference add to the excitement of the piece?

Achieving flow: Ideas for finding and maintaining tempo, managing modifications artistically

• Experiment with feeling different pulses (same tempo). For example, play with metronome ticking 8th notes at 208, then ticking quarter notes at 104, then ticking half notes at 52.
• Find a comfortable performance tempo while playing on the fallboard. Then play on keys at the same tempo.

Make it mine: Tips for developing and refining a personal, internal sense of the piece

• Describe what happens to the “runner” in this piece? How do the three sections tell that story?

Deep knowing: Tips for securing memory

• Be able to start at any of the three sections of the piece, in any order, from memory.
• Practice with the LH as written and the RH an octave too high. Then play with RH as written and LH an octave too low. Then play with RH too high and LH too low. Then play again as written.
• Write out a section of the piece on staff paper for the student with notes missing; have the student fill in the missing notes.

Final stages: Tips for ensuring performance readiness, maintaining freshness and spontaneity, and reinforcing an expressive personal connection

• Who is “running along” in this piece? How would an elephant “running along” sound? Play it that way. Imagine other animals or people and play it as you imagine they would sound. Can you hear a difference between your “running along” and these other characters?
• Play the piece in different registers of the keyboard.
• Practice “performing.” Walk to the piano; take time to think of your tempo and character before you begin; play with no stopping; practice getting up to take a bow and smile!

by Andrea McAlister

Preparation and Presentation

Context: pieces that are helpful to have experienced or played before approaching this one

• Beethoven – Ecossaise in G Major, WoO 23
• Niamath – Playful Puppy
• Niamath – Penguins

Get Ready: creative activities to explore before the first encounter with the score, to prepare a student for deeper engagement and more immediate success

• Learn the LH ostinato figure by rote. Play this pattern up the C major scale.
• Improvise a 5-finger melody against the left hand ostinato.
• Play/imitate 5-finger patterns in a variety of touches and articulations. Familiarize the ear and hand by using the exact articulations from the piece.

Initial Focus: features to pay attention to first, priority steps in reading and absorbing the music

• Maintain the bounciness of the LH rote exercises.
• Encourage close attention to the movements of wrist while executing precise RH articulations.
• Discuss the character of the sections from the very beginning; these characters are great motivation for practice!

Coordination essentials: physical skills and drills for common technical challenges in the piece

• Drill LH passages independently.
• RH articulations and wrist motions can be drilled by focusing only on the first three notes, alternating from major to minor.
• Practice RH staccato leaps separately from the slurred passages for accuracy.

Keep it musical: ways to connect and re-connect with the expressive nature of the piece

• Write Emoji faces into the music to remind them of the characters chosen for each section.
• Compare LH ostinato figure to a clown rhythmically juggling balls.

Look forward: ways to set up for success with refinements that will need attention a few weeks down the road

• Encourage slow practice with attention to LH changes in mm. 13-17.
• The end can be tricky. Work backward for accuracy, starting with m. 25 and practicing slowly until mm. 22-25 are confident and comfortable.

Process and Practice

Fully present, here and now: tips for maintaining focus and engagement over time

• Draw different faces in the score to indicate contrasting moods, which can vary from performance to performance.
• Embody chosen characters with facial expressions, while playing.

Break it up: useful practice segments; how to connect them and plug them back into the whole

• Practice the A Major/minor sections (mm. 1-4, 5-8, 18-21) together to discover and show how they are similar and different.
• Individual practice for:
  • mm. 9-12 in F Major/minor
  • mm. 13-17 transition
  • mm. 22-25 coda

Layers and outlines: tips for focusing on how the parts make up the whole

• Identify where 5-note patterns occur and how they change throughout the piece. How are they different in the A M/m and the F M/m sections?
• Identify the key areas.
• Point out where the left hand pattern changes.

Achieving flow: ideas for finding and maintaining tempo, managing modifications artistically

• Think of the LH as a metronome to keep the beat steady.
• Aim for a joking, clownish tempo; choose one that brings out the character and isn’t too fast.

Make it mine: tips for developing and refining a personal, internal sense of the piece

• Exaggerate the articulations and dynamics.
• Allow some time (stretch) in m. 17 before returning to the first theme.

Deep knowing: tips for securing memory

• Memorize the piece in its key areas.
• Note where the A section changes and leads to the Coda (m. 22).

Final stages: tips for ensuring performance readiness, maintaining freshness and spontaneity, and reinforcing an expressive personal connection

• Draw multiple characters for each section and choose a different combination for successive performances.

by Kate Acone

Preparation and Presentation

Context: pieces that are helpful to have experienced or played before approaching this one

• Elite Syncopations, Scott Joplin
• Hot Potato Rag, Martha Mier
• “Sweet Mister Jelly Roll” from Portraits in Jazz, Valerie Capers
• Any piece that uses A-flat-major chords/scales

Get Ready: creative activities to explore before the first encounter with the score, to prepare a student for deeper engagement and more immediate success

• An “easy winner” is an athlete who blows away the competition. What about the piece could suggest that?
• Introductory improvisation: play a stride bass pattern based on measure 5 while the student improvises on A-flat major chord tones.
• Teach a syncopated rhythm by rote, then try improvising just one note at a time using that rhythm.

Initial Focus: features to pay attention to first; priority steps in reading and absorbing the music

• Loosely speaking, this piece has an ABACD form. What do the sections have in common with each other?
• Notice that the C and D sections are in D-flat major.

Coordination Essentials: physical skills and drills for common technical challenges in the piece

• For accuracy in the LH, practice the outside leaps before adding in inner notes. For example, practice jumping from the bass pinky (Ab) to the top thumb (middle C) in m. 5 until that feels comfortable.
• Invest time early to pick fingerings that are comfortable for your hand. This will save you much trouble down the road!
• Practice octaves thumbs-only to save extra practice with a stretched hand.
• Use a down-up wrist motion for RH two-note slurs.

Expressivity: ideas to connect and reconnect with the expressive and musical nature of the piece

• Play the RH melody with just the top line to hear the shape and decide on phrasing.
• Take out the syncopations and play the rhythm straight. When you add the rhythm back in, does it change your perception of important notes?
• Capitalize on your ability to play the B and C sections legato to contrast with the A section.

Look Forward: approaches to set up for success with refinements that will need attention a few weeks down the road

• Test your ability to balance your hands by ghosting the LH while you play the RH.
• Try singing the RH melody while playing just the LH

Process and Practice 

Fully Present: tips for maintaining focus and engagement over time

• Choose a shape for your crescendos and diminuendos. Experiment with inverting these and seeing what it does to the phrase.
• Consider how you use articulation to mark phrases or syncopation.

Break it Up: useful practice segments; how to connect them and plug them back into the whole

• Pick a definite mood for each large section. Once you have the sound you want in an individual section, see how quickly and dramatically you can shift from one to the next.
• Try playing mm. 1-4 and mm. 53-56 back to back: how do they compare?

Layers and outlines: tips for focusing on how the parts makeup the whole

• The LH frequently plays just a stride bass, so its chromatic sections are particularly striking. Can you phrase this too?
• Pace your crescendos to the top of the melodic line, and make sure you can still hear the melody even as you get softer towards the bottom.

Achieving flow: ideas for finding and maintaining tempo, managing modifications artistically

• Practice with the LH driving the beat. Lean on the bass notes to hear a steady groove.
• Suggestion: slow down when the LH has stepwise motion to show off those leading tones.
• Each section ends with a cadence – how can you mark these cadences with time without making each the same?

Make it mine: tips for developing and refining a personal, internal sense of the piece

• Experiment with different types of touch – which parts would benefit from a more percussive touch and which parts would sound better lyrical?
• Experiment with different levels of balance – when do you want the LH to be more present, and where should it take a backseat?

Deep knowing: tips for securing memory

• Practice the similar themes back to back to ensure you can remember how they change.
• Practice leaving out your RH for a measure and bringing it back in to see if your LH can keep up while you audiate the melody.

Final stages: tips for ensuring performance readiness, maintaining freshness and spontaneity, and reinforcing an expressive personal connection

• Practice performing at slightly different tempos: what characteristics of the piece come out with each choice?
• See if you can sing the melody line the whole time while you play.

by Hannah Roberts

Preparation and Presentation

Context: Pieces that are helpful to have experienced or played before approaching this one

• Mendelssohn, Songs without Words Op. 38 No. 6 “Duetto”
• Debussy, “La fille aux cheveux de lin”
• Grieg, “Notturno” Op. 54 No. 4
• MacDowell, “From Uncle Remus” from Woodland Sketches

Get Ready: Creative activities to explore before the first encounter with the score, to prepare a student for deeper engagement and more immediate success

• Survey Scottish culture by exploring photographs of Scottish landscapes and learning about Scotland’s history
• Learn about Scottish folk music by reading Helen Hopekirk’s introduction to Seventy Scottish Songs (available on IMSLP or in print through Dover Publications).
• Listen to recordings of authentic Scottish folk performances.

Initial Focus: Features to pay attention to first; priority steps in reading and absorbing the music

• Create a map for the piece by labeling the introduction, stanza(s), and coda. 
• Note transitional passages, repetition of material, and key or modality changes.
• Take time to intentionally select efficient fingering. Encourage the student to try out various fingerings and select what fits their hand best.

Coordination Essentials: Physical skills and drills for common technical challenges in the piece

• Rapid hand position shifts require dexterity.
• Rolled chords spanning tenths need well-planned pedaling.
• To practice RH multi-voice textures, create engaging technical drills in which the student sustains chord tones with RH 1-2 while playing a moving melodic line with RH 3-4-5. 

Expressivity: Ideas to connect and re-connect with the expressive and musical nature of the piece

• Explore the lyrics for these folk songs, provided in Hopekirk’s Seventy Scottish Songs. Imagine scenes and emotions to accompany the lyrics.
• Search for ways Hopekirk depicts the text through musical techniques. For example, a descending chromatic bass line in “Land o’ the Leal,” m.45-49, captures the sorrow of a painful goodbye.
• Sing along while playing the melody to discover how a vocalist might shape the melody.
• Note transitions between phrases or sections where the music will need to “breathe.”

Look Forward: Approaches to set up for success with refinements that will need attention a few weeks down the road

• Practice without the damper pedal, checking for correct articulation. Avoid relying solely on the pedal to create a legato effect. 
• When incorporating the pedal in practice, listen for melodic clarity. Also, be careful to avoid blurred harmonies. 
• Be sure fingering choices allow for an even melodic tone, with a smooth transfer of weight from one note to the next.

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Process and Practice 

 Fully Present: Tips for maintaining focus and engagement over time

• Explore the musical characteristics that define Scottish folk music, defined in Hopekirk’s introduction to Seventy Scottish Songs. Identify these elements within the score. 
• Imagine interpretive ideas that are significantly different from the student’s current interpretation. Try playing these and discuss why or why not these ideas might be appropriate.

Break it Up: Useful practice segments; how to connect them and plug them back into the whole

• Practice each stanza independently, taking care to depict a unique character for each one. 
• Practice the RH alone, focusing on melodic voicing, articulation, and phrase shaping.
• Practice the leaping LH passages alone, checking for efficient fingering and position shifts.

Layers and outlines: Tips for focusing on how the parts make up the whole

• Outline the phrase structure for the piece, searching for repeating motives and phrases. 
• Pay attention to countermelodies. Shape and voice these thoughtfully.

Achieving flow: Ideas for finding and maintaining tempo, managing modifications artistically

• Conduct the piece while singing the melody, exploring how to pace the ritardando and tempo markings. Translate this to the piano by playing the melody in the RH and conducting with the LH. 
• Experiment with the pacing of crescendos and diminuendos, searching for natural and coherent phrasing.
• Before starting the piece, look ahead to the entrance of the folk melody. Sing the melody silently; then, be sure to match the tempo of the introduction to the desired tempo of the melody.

Make it mine: Tips for developing and refining a personal, internal sense of the piece

• Set the given lyrics aside and imagine personalized lyrics for each song. 
• Explore various inflections of chromatic lines and inner voices.

Deep knowing: Tips for securing memory

• Sing or hum the melody while playing only the accompaniment.
• Create a mental map of important harmonic progressions and cadences.
• Perform the piece on different pianos to practice adapting to the touch and sound of each instrument.

Final stages: Tips for ensuring performance readiness, maintaining freshness and spontaneity, and reinforcing an expressive personal connection

• Revisit the original lyrics from Hopekirk’s Seventy Scottish Songs. Is the final interpretation still true to the piece’s meaning?
• Explore Hopekirk’s vocal arrangements of these folk songs.
• Perform for friends and family. Ask what imagery or emotions the piece evokes for them. 

by Stephanie Leon Shames

Preparation and Presentation

Context: pieces that are helpful to have experienced or played before approaching this one

• Pieces that have a melody line over a simple bass harmony.
• Pieces that have more than one voice represented in one hand, pre level 9 (for example: Bach Little Preludes and Fugues or movements from French Suites).

Get Ready: creative activities to explore before the first encounter with the score, to prepare a student for deeper engagement and more immediate success

• Listen to a Baroque trio sonata, especially focusing on the role of the cello in supporting and shaping the bass line.
• Listen to choral works and try to hear the soprano, alto, tenor, or bass lines. Listen for the overall balance and how the parts blend together. Try a barbershop quartet!
• Listen to an aria, paying attention to flexibility of the line.
• Practice scales and arpeggios in C-sharp-minor.

Initial Focus: features to pay attention to first; priority steps in reading and absorbing the music

• Identify the melody, bass line, and middle voice, which is split between the two hands. Discuss the differentiating qualities (i.e. stems up or down, lengths of notes, etc.)
• See and play the RH melody line alone (top voice only, no middle). See and play the LH bass line alone (without the middle voice). Then play melody and bass together.

Coordination Essentials: physical skills and drills for common technical challenges in the piece

• LH practice: play slowly, and in the eighth rests make a very quick, yet relaxed lateral motion (straight, economic) to prepare to play the next low bass note. Be sure to touch the bass note BUT wait before actually playing it.
• RH practice: play slowly, and after the eighth notes of the middle voice, try for a smooth connection/legato in the top fingers while releasing the middle voice notes. Take the necessary time to hear this, with the hand relaxed, and no hard pressing down in the fingers.
• Middle voice practice: work for regularity of flow and a continuity of steady 8th notes throughout. Especially pay attention not to rush the third and sixth beats (count “3-1” for each beat, where 3 prepares for 1).

Expressivity: ideas to connect with the expressive and musical nature of the piece

• Melodic shaping: pay attention to pick ups, long notes, shorter notes (that seem to circle an important pitch or note), high notes, breathing between melodic phrase bits, phrase beginnings and endings, and how they fit together (do they relax backwards? or flow forward?).
• Bass line: pay attention that the bass line has enough time to sing and sustain the quarter note, like a cello playing each note with a bit of vibrato. Breathe in during the eighth rests.
• Middle voice: because it is the flowing, harmonic support, it should be played with a thinner tone and dynamic than the rest.

Look Forward: approaches to set up for success with refinements that will need attention a few weeks down the road

• Melody: at first, sing/play out the melodic line freely, with a singing tone. Further down the road, try for more subtle shadings based on musical gestures.
• Tempo: play at first in a slow tempo that is nonetheless buoyant and lilting. When ready, try to feel the 6/8 more in 2 and see how this affects everything.
• Pedaling: start with just enough to help sustain the bass note. Refinements will later include subtle movements of the foot (quick “ups” and slow “downs” without clunking) and clean harmonic changes.

Process and Practice 

Fully present: tips for maintaining focus and engagement over time

• Work on a limited amount of ideas at any one time (whether it’s singing tone, tempo, flow, etc.). Start with larger goals and then refine as progress is made.
• Vary the focus of practice sessions, and give positive reinforcement as change happens.
• Encourage singing, or humming the different voices. The basic rhythm and approximate shape of the line is more important than accurate pitches. Note where natural breathing might happen.

Break it up: useful practice segments; how to connect them and plug them back into the whole

• Isolate the top, middle, and bass lines. Play them alone and then in pairs while working to hear the interaction between voices.
• Practice playing both hands of the middle voice together as a block of harmony. Encourage hearing harmonies in a line or string, rather than just one after another, and shape them accordingly.
• Isolate the LH and practice quick, lateral movements in the eighth rests. The movement should be very relaxed, yet quick and close to the keys.

Layers and outlines: tips for focusing on how the parts makeup the whole

• Practice or learn in 12 bar phrases/sections. Notice how the phrases are constructed – the number of bars, shape of the smaller bits in the melodic line – and the different qualities in each phrase.
• Clarify the overall ABA structure of the piece and try to create a mental image (can be visual and aural).
• Assign a specific type of sound for each of the 3 voices, such as rich, thinner, or ringing. Maybe choose instruments as inspiration!

Achieving flow: ideas for finding and maintaining tempo, managing modifications artistically

• Experiment with the tempo and flow. Trying to make different tempi “work” is extremely good practice for developing the ear. A slow tempo should sound convincing and not like a practice tempo. A faster tempo may help to hear phrasing better.
• Listen carefully to be sure there is a regularity and lilt to the 16th notes throughout the piece, even through the longer notes, without sounding metronomic. Beware of unintentional accents, especially on beat 1 of each bar.
• Practice hearing long notes sustaining and don’t let them die. Imagine a crescendo or decrescendo while holding long notes, then join the next note at that level.

Make it mine: tips for developing and refining a personal, internal sense of the piece

• Sing the top line, or any line, away from the piano. Notice how much time is needed to inhale and liken it to the playing. Breathing makes it personal.
• Decide if each new bit of the phrase should be played at a lower or higher volume than where it left off. These decisions also help continuity.
• Attach a character or attitude to dynamic markings, rather than a static level. Create a narrative that supports the differences between the A and B sections, and the return of the melody.

Deep knowing: tips for securing memory

• Working with the voices – individually and in combination – aids memory. The study of the harmonies in the A and B section does as well.
• Have a visual sense of the whole piece. Know where you are in the phrase.

Final stages: tips for ensuring performance readiness, maintaining freshness and spontaneity, and reinforcing an expressive personal connection

• Focus on the immediacy of listening while playing. Respond to the sounds as you play.
• Practicing in a variety of ways and being open to different options helps the student to feel more comfortable with whatever comes up in performance.
• The student should connect to the inner emotion or attitude for each phrase or section and live that feeling as they play.
• Focus on sharing the beauty of the music, rather than the performer aspect of it.
• Practice for clean pedal changes on each harmonic change.

by David Cartledge

Preparation and Presentation

Context: Pieces that are helpful to have experienced or played before approaching this one

• Kabalevsky – Clowns, op. 39, no. 20
• J. S. Bach (attrib.) – Musette in D, BWV Anh. 26
• Turk – The Dancing Master

Get Ready: Creative activities to explore before the first encounter with the score, to prepare a student for deeper engagement and more immediate success

• Practice the walking bass touch across scales and octaves.
• Pretend to have “vibrato” at the piano, to approximate a cello.
• Look at videos of people dancing historical gavottes online (Some of them are pretty funny).
• Practice movement around the keyboard through opening and closing of the hand.

Initial Focus: Features to pay attention to first; priority steps in reading and absorbing the music

• Understand that the piece is, above all, a dance.
• Try to get a feel for the “danciness” from the movement of the LH.
• Figure out what chords are being implied, and notice how often they change.

Coordination Essentials: Physical skills and drills for common technical challenges in the piece

• A buoyant touch is crucial. Groundedness of the LH, but with suppleness and flexibility of release.
• Each note is released in the direction of the next.
• The two-note slurs in the RH require separate practice.
• This is a great piece for students to discover that repeated notes often use different fingers—let them understand why from the articulation.

Expressivity: Ideas to connect and re-connect with the expressive and musical nature of the piece

• The piece is a blank slate–Handel left us just a few articulations, and no dynamics.
• With so few directions from Handel, students can “make the piece their own”, choosing dynamics and emphases that make sense to them
• Clear the score of editorial markings, and let the student be their own editor.
• Let students discover what “story” they want to tell, and encourage them to use dynamics and articulations to tell it.

Look Forward: Approaches to set up for success with refinements that will need attention a few weeks down the road

• Control of tempo and “dance feel” is really important. Students need to always feel that this is a dance.
• It shouldn’t be too fast, or, as my old teacher used to say, “their wigs might fall off!”
• Maintaining buoyancy and refinement of the LH is an ongoing challenge.

Process and Practice

Fully Present: Tips for maintaining focus and engagement over time

• Engage the student with the harmonic content.
• Allow them to choose their own dynamics. Better yet, ask them to do it differently each time!
• Use the piece as a vehicle for experimentation. Let them try different articulations and touches, to see what they think works best.
• Let the student invent their own “Gavotte” dance.

Break It Up: Useful practice segments; how to connect them and plug them back into the whole

• Practice “walking bass touch” in a variety of contexts—scales, 8ve sequences.
• Separate out the 2-note slurs from the RH, have them play long sequences. Let the student try different fingerings, and see what works best for them.
• Isolate and practice leaps, making sure that every note is always played in the direction of the next.

Layers and Outlines: Tips for focusing on how the parts makeup the whole

• Have the student analyze the harmony. Discover where the harmonic rhythm gets faster, and ask them why.
• How does Handel use motives in different keys in order to create interest?
• Which motives return in the second half? Which parts of the second half are new?

Achieving Flow: Ideas for finding and maintaining tempo, managing modifications artistically

• Tempo can be found based on comfort with the LH octave leaps at the end.
• Listen to different gavottes—discover the wide range of tempos appropriate for this dance.
• Always remember that it is a dance! Imagine people dancing to it.

Make It Mine: Tips for developing and refining a personal, internal sense of the piece

• Handel gifts us with a score that is mostly devoid of performance markings. It’s ready to be personalized!
• Let students come up with their own ideas for the appropriate dynamics for the piece, and encourage them to change them from time to time–or on the spur of the moment!
• It is totally appropriate to improvise ornaments in this piece. Let those students who are capable find appropriate trills, mordents and so on.

Deep Knowing: Tips for securing memory

• Discover the underlying harmonic progression.
• Help students discover that the first note in each 2-note slur is a non-chord tone—the second note is the harmony note.
• Have the student go through the piece marking motives and phrases that are re-used, even in different keys.

Final Stages: Tips for ensuring performance readiness, maintaining freshness and spontaneity, and reinforcing an expressive personal connection

• Our LH is a cellist: feel like we have vibrato! Sing along with the LH in practice to make this happen!
• Pick your choice of instrument for the RH—is it a violin? A flute? A trumpet? What happens if we change the instrument—do we play differently?
• Ask your student to dance to the piece!
• Always feel the directionality and buoyancy of the LH.

by Sara Ernst

Preparation and Presentation 

Pieces that are helpful to have experienced or played before approaching this one.

• Kohler: Etude in F Major, op. 190, no. 27
• Diabelli: Vivace in C Major, op. 125, no. 7
• any pieces that involve playing a LH broken-chord accompaniment against a lyrical RH melody, in either 3/4 or 3/8

Creative activities to explore before the first encounter with the score, to prepare a student for deeper engagement and more immediate success.

• Improvise or imitate melodies in D minor from an aural model, using dotted rhythms as they appear in the piece.
• Tap the rhythmic figure in the right hand while tapping a steady eighth note in the left hand.
• Rolling LH chord patterns focusing on those used in the piece; these might include: i­iv­i, i­V­i and octave­-based patterns as in mm. 1, 10, using appropriate fingerings.

Features to pay attention to first; priority steps in reading and absorbing the music.

• Fingerings and gestures for the left hand.
• Blocking triads will facilitate note reading and reinforce triadic fingerings; when and why to use 4­2­1 and 5­2­1 (versus 5­3­1).
• RH mm. 9­10: prepare legato connection into the harmonic sixths.

Physical skills and drills for common technical challenges in the piece.

• A circular wrist motion for the LH adapted for chord progressions in each phrase, always initiated by the bass note.

Ideas to connect and re­connect with the expressive and musical nature of the piece.

• The title of this piece, “From the North,” is abstract; develop specificity in conversation with the student after a teacher performance.
• Dark tonality and expressive melody, combined with the markings risoluto, forte, and accents, provide clarity as to Gurlitt’s dramatic intent.

Approaches to set up for success with refinements that will need attention a few weeks down the road:

• A convincing performance of this piece requires controlled balance between the hands; all HT practice must prepare for this tonal control
• Harmonic analysis can occur alongside the initial study of the chordal left hand to prepare for exploration of melodic direction and cadences.

Process and Practice 

Tips for maintaining focus and engagement over time:

• Consider phrase shape and contrast in a predominantly forte context; formal analysis can help in decision making as four-measure phrases conclude with half cadences (to the dominant) and full cadences.
• Unexpected harmonic twists in the B section are captivating; note the modal shifts in mm. 12-13, 15- 16.

Useful practice segments; how to connect them and plug them back into the whole:

• Phrase by phrase practice, alternating slow practice for precision with performance-tempo practice for shaping.
• Short segments (half-measure, full-measure) with careful listening and slow practice to secure the alignment of the dotted figure and steady eighths, and optimal balance of melody and accompaniment.

Tips for focusing on how the parts makeup the whole:

• The bass line—the bottom note of each LH chord—can be given subtle emphasis to enrich the texture.
• Practicing the bass line against the melody results in a clear duet between melody and bass.

Ideas for finding and maintaining tempo, managing modifications artistically:

• Conduct two pulses per bar while singing the melody (or while someone else performs the melody; use this activity to find the surprising rhythmic syncopations (mm. 11-12) and metric accents (m. 67).
• Try a variety of tempi, especially those outside the allegretto marking, from the slow and mournful to the fast and dancing; the ideal pulse will be between these two extremes.
• Repeat this exercise at three tempi within an allegretto range to find anideal allegretto flow.

Tips for developing and refining a personal, internal sense of the piece:

• The reprise of the A section (mm. 17-24) must be shaped differently; discuss the instability of the B section and how it transforms the mood of the second A section.

Tips for securing memory:

• After each four measure phrase, stop, remove the hands from the keyboard, and then resume the next phrase; the result is a series of firm memory landmarks.

Tips for ensuring performance readiness, maintaining freshness and spontaneity, and reinforcing an expressive personal connection:

• Conduct or play along with the student, having them experience a variety of ways to push and pull the pulse, shape phrases, and pace cadences, thus providing several convincing ways to interpret the music.

Model Performance

by Luis Sanchez

Preparation and Presentation

Context: Pieces that are helpful to have experienced or played before approaching this one

• Khachaturian – Ivan Sings 
• McDowell – To a Wild Rose, Op. 51, No. 1 
• Chopin: Prelude in E minor, Op. 28, No. 4

Get Ready: Creative activities to explore before the first encounter with the score, to prepare a student for deeper engagement and more immediate success

• Introduce the student to the phrygian mode since it is present in numerous moments throughout the piece. 
• Musicianship skills, like sight-reading, composition, and improvisation can help familiarize the student with these modes. 
• If this composer is unknown to the student, invite them to explore important facts about their life and country of origin.

Initial Focus: Features to pay attention to first; priority steps in reading and absorbing the music

• The LH poses the greatest difficulty in this piece. Spend time in the lesson identifying pedal points and moving voices in each chord. 
• Develop freedom of the wrist to prevent heaviness in the execution of chords, that will create a static performance of the piece. 
• Work on legato touch of five-finger patterns with close attention to control of melodic shape.

Coordination Essentials: Physical skills and drills for common technical challenges in the piece

• Divide the piece in four-measure phrases and drill the LH chords, while you sing the melody with and without the student. 
• Enhance coordination skills by having the student tap the LH rhythm while playing the RH. 
• Encourage a legato touch for the RH that follows the contour of the melody with subtle crescendos and diminuendos that bring out the singing quality of the line. 

Expressivity: Ideas to connect and re-connect with the expressive and musical nature of the piece

• Invite the student to describe the emotion the piece communicates. 
• Bring out the melodic quality of the LH to compliment the rhythmic ostinato. 

Look Forward: Approaches to set up for success with refinements that will need attention a few weeks down the road

• Instill in the student the importance of slow practice and careful observation of LH accidentals. 
• Seek different shades of expression as the composer makes subtle changes to the melody with the use of accidentals, like m. 13 and 19. 
• Explore the idea of dynamics as stronger or weaker degrees of emotional expression, not solely as louder and softer playing.

Process and Practice 

 Fully Present: Tips for maintaining focus and engagement over time

• If this piece was the soundtrack to a scene in a movie, what would that scene be about? 
• Look for pictures from Argentina and create a slideshow to which this piece can provide the soundtrack.

Break it Up: Useful practice segments; how to connect them and plug them back into the whole

• The piece is mostly cast in four-measure phrases. Focus on each individual phrase and look for similarities and differences. 
• Plan out the dynamic scheme of the piece from PP to F. 
• Identify ends of phrases where a subtle ritenuto or where rubato would be appropriate.

Layers and outlines: Tips for focusing on how the parts make up the whole

•  Identify places where the composer uses the Phrygian mode and places where he does not. 
• Locate the climax of the piece. 

Achieving flow: Ideas for finding and maintaining tempo, managing modifications artistically

• Use the metronome to prevent a tendency to slow down the rhythmic ostinato. 
• Away from the piano, walk while singing the melody or while the teacher plays the piece to embody the flow of the piece. 

Make it mine: Tips for developing and refining a personal, internal sense of the piece

• Exaggerate the melodic shape of the right hand and explore different ways to phrase it. 
• Highlight with the use of rubato harmonic changes in melodically similar places for added variety and interest.

Deep knowing: Tips for securing memory

• Memorize the LH alone in tricky places. 
• Analyze the differences between different phrases. 

Final stages: Tips for ensuring performance readiness, maintaining freshness and spontaneity, and reinforcing an expressive personal connection

•  Encourage student recordings for self-evaluation and growth.

by Lesley McAllister

Video 1: Preparation & Presentation

Video 2: Performance

Preparation and Presentation

Context: pieces that are helpful to have experienced or played before approaching this one

• Kabalevsky: The Clown Op. 39, No. 20
• Rebikov: The Bear
• Shostakovich: “Hurdy-Gurdy” from Puppet Dances
• Goolkasian Rahbee: Running Around, Op. 105, No. 4
• Antheil: Little Shimmy

Get Ready: creative activities to explore before the first encounter with the score, to prepare a student for deeper engagement and more immediate success

• Syncopated Rhythm Experience through Movement: Tapping a steady beat while the teacher taps syncopated rhythms; vocalizing syncopated rhythms while tapping a steady beat; and then tapping a steady beat and clapping on the syncopations.
• Improvisation on Quartal Harmony: Play an ostinato left hand pattern while improvising on fourths in the right hand in C major.
• Explore fast melodic fourths in different keys with hand position changes through rote playbacks.
• Explore ostinato 521 broken chords in different keys through rote playbacks.

Initial Focus: features to pay attention to first; priority steps in reading and absorbing the music

• “Hardest-first” approach: start at the end, learning the four measures of the coda. Clap the right hand rhythm; tap the right hand while playing the left hand; and then play the right hand alone, naming the bottom note of each cluster. When playing right hand alone, eyeball the next chord before making quick position changes, use arm weight, and think of an “in-in-down” movement to accent the syncopated note.
• Melodic/rhythmic patterns: Find similar 1- or 2-measure segments in the right hand. Play the right hand in very small segments, even 1 or 2 measures at a time, and find similar spots to practice in immediate succession.

Coordination Essentials: physical skills and drills for common technical challenges in the piece

• Measures 2, 4, 10, and 12 practice suggestions: Play as blocked chords; use 3-note groupings, stopping on the position change; and then add one group at a time in rhythm. Play mm. 7-8 as blocked chords, noting the position change at the end of m. 8.
• Transition practice: Practice quick hand position changes from the first to the second page (m. 8-9) and circle/mark the pattern change in mm. 10 and 12.
• Students should use slight rotation to line up their forearm with the pinky during the LH ostinato pattern so they avoid ulnar deviation. This will also help them to place a light emphasis on the downbeat and avoid keeping the hand stretched out through the entire piece.

Expressivity: ideas to connect and re­connect with the expressive and musical nature of the piece

• The piece should sound brash, exciting, energetic, and confident. Students must take note of sudden dynamic changes and keep a strong tone quality, sinking to the bottom of the keybed, in both hands.
• Keep the left hand growing through the end of the measure (the end of the crescendo) in mm. 2 and 4, with a sudden soft in m. 3.
• Note that the left hand is not marked staccato, even though students might be tempted to play it that way. They should stay light and bouncy without making the notes too detached.
• Because the title creates a picture in the mind, it will be easy for students to come up with imagery to help achieve the sound they want. They can imagine horns honking at the end, and people pushing each other and running across the street during the sixteenth note passages, for instance.

Looking Forward: Approaches to set up for success with refinements that will need attention a few weeks down the road

• A steady tempo with clear, even notes is a must. Students can vocalize the sixteenth notes with syllables like “ti-ka ti-ka,” for example, and be careful not to rush through the last sixteenth note of each beat group.
• As the piece gets faster, it will become easier for students to rush and become sloppy. Once-a-day check-ins with the metronome are helpful as the tempo continues to rise to ensure that students do not take extra time between sections and position changes.
• Students need a solid ff and fff sound at the end for an exciting finale. To achieve this, they must use the weight of the whole arm rather than pushing on the keys with force.

Process and Practice 

Fully present, here and now: tips for maintaining focus and engagement over time

• Hear the first four measures to set the tempo before playing and envision a busy city scene before you begin the piece.
• Adopt a confident posture and direct energy into the first few notes of the piece. Feel energy in your fingertips throughout.

Break it up: useful practice segments; how to connect them and plug them back into the whole

• Play the right hand sixteenth notes staccato to practice for clarity. Listen to each note when playing it as written, emphasizing the highest notes in each group.
• Practice in two-measure groups, and then string those together into four-measure groups played at 3 different tempi.
• Practice similar measures in the right hand in succession: mm. 1, 9, and 11; mm. 2 and 4; mm. 3, 5, and 6; mm. 7 and 8, and mm. 10 and 12.
• Continue practicing in 3-note groups, stopping after each position change, for accuracy in mm. 2, 4, 9, and 12 in the right hand. You might also try dotting the first of each four sixteenth notes in long-short-short-short practice for greater security.

Layers and outlines: tips for focusing on how the parts make up the whole

• Try blocking the first beat of both hands in each measure (except for mm. 3, 5, and 6, where you can simply play the first note in the right hand). Note the pattern of movement between the hands.
• Continue to practice blocked chords in the left hand occasionally or even ghost the left hand while playing the right hand in order to maintain balance between the hands.

Achieving flow: ideas for finding and maintaining tempo, managing modifications artistically

• Aim for an exciting and busy, but controlled, tempo. Do not allow yourself to rush through the sixteenth notes, in particular.
• Think of the left hand as a metronome to keep the beat steady.

Make it mine: tips for developing and refining a personal, internal sense of the piece

• Create a story to go along with the music.
• Save your biggest sound for the very last measure, marked fff.
• Exaggerate the dynamics.

Deep knowing: tips for securing memory

• Mark similar measures with the same color sticker, or bracket them with the same color colored pencil (mm. 1, 9, and 11; mm. 2 and 4; mm. 3, 5, and 6; mm. 7 and 8, and mm. 10 and 12).
• Practice starting in several different spots in the music, perhaps planning a pick-up spot at the first measure of each four-measure group. You might practice stopping between each group, removing your hands from the keyboard, and starting again, or label each with a letter name and have your teacher call out which letter to start on.

Final stages: tips for ensuring performance readiness, maintaining freshness and spontaneity, and reinforcing an expressive personal connection

• Play around with dynamics, seeing how loud or soft you can be on the most extreme dynamic markings, and how big your crescendos can be.
• Play on different pianos, in different settings, and for different people.
• Practice at two different tempi– one fast and one very fast– to see how you handle a faster tempo, and how that changes the character of the piece.

by Luis Sanchez

Luis Sanchez presents Siete PIezes Infantiles by Luis Gianneo, a composer from Argentina.

by Bernardo Scarambone

Bernardo Scarambone presents Suite Bonecas by Lorenzo Fernandez, a composer from Brazil 

by Julie Knerr

Preparation and Presentation

Context: Pieces that are helpful to have experienced or played before approaching this one

• Rebikov: The Bear
• Bach: Musette in D Major, BWV Anh. 126
• Gurlitt: Etude in D minor ( Night Journey ), op. 82, no. 65

Get Ready: Creative activities to explore before the first encounter with the score, to prepare a student for deeper engagement and more immediate success

• Get to know the composer: Albert Ellmenreich (1816-1905, Germany); an actor and theater director; Spinning Song is the only piece he composed that is still commonly known!
• Ask the student to imagine what story elements the music suggests as you play the entire piece.

Initial Focus: Features to pay attention to first; priority steps in reading and absorbing the music

• This piece is in Rondo Form: A B A C D A B A Coda
• Label the sections with letters or with key words to remind about what is happening in the story.

Coordination Essentials: Physical skills and drills for common technical challenges in the piece

• A Section (mm. 3-10, 19-26, 52-61, 70-77)
  • LH plays with staccato articulation and a slight forearm bounce.
  • Take time to find the RH fingering that best fits the student’s hand; stick with it!
• B Section (mm. 11-18, 62-69)
  • Understand three RH Patterns:
    • Chromatic 3rds (m. 11-12),
    • Diatonic 3rds (m. 13)
    • Chords (m. 14). Use pedal on these chords.
• Transition in m. 18, use lyrics to explain pacing, “I’m tired…”
• C and D Sections (m. 27-42, 43-51)
• Create exercises with one hand ‘singing’ legato against a light staccato in the opposite hand

Expressivity: Ideas to connect and re-connect with the expressive and musical nature of the piece

• “One-Handed Duet” to understand rhythm. Student plays LH while you play RH.
• Create lyrics for the C-section LH to help secure the rhythm and phrase structure

Look Forward: Approaches to set up for success with refinements that will need attention a few weeks down the road

• Lyrics to pace transitions, mm. 18, 50 – 51, “I wonder what to play next?”
• Pedal long downbeat melodic tones (mm. 27-51)
• Isolate two-measure segments for work with voicing and/or balance

Process and Practice 

 Fully Present: Tips for maintaining focus and engagement over time

•  Focus on correct technique, articulation, and fingering from the start- the first time. Students tend to want to play fast too soon with this piece. Learning carefully and slowly will yield a more polished performance in the long run. 

Break it Up: Useful practice segments; how to connect them and plug them back into the whole

• Let the student “marinate” in one section for several weeks until s/he is confident at playing that one section. Then add another section. Assigning too much of a long piece at once can be overwhelming. For some students, learning this piece is akin to you learning a Chopin Sonata! It is not wise to bite off more sections than you can handle.

Layers and outlines: Tips for focusing on how the parts make up the whole

• To help the student keep in mind the scope of the piece, you may play sections antiphonally. For example, if the student only knows the A section, play through the entire piece with the student playing the A sections and you playing all the other sections. This will help the student keep the story and form of the piece in mind before having learned every section.

Achieving flow: ideas for finding and maintaining tempo, managing modifications artistically

• Take charge of the tempo by demonstrating or playing along with the student at an intentionally slower tempo. Tell the student that once all the details of articulation and fingering are completely fluent and perfect, you will allow the student to play faster. It is a privilege to play fast!

Make it mine: tips for developing and refining a personal, internal sense of the piece

• Use lyrics, funny stories, exaggeration of articulation and dynamics, or anything else you can think of to help the student connect with the piece and play the details correctly.
• Creating lyrics especially helps students in their understanding of the rhythmic inflection and energy.
• Teachers with imagination foster students with imagination.

Deep knowing: tips for securing memory

• For a real challenge, have the student count aloud while playing by memory!
• The student plays a section you call out in random order, “A Section. Coda. D Section…”

Final stages: tips for ensuring performance readiness, maintaining freshness and spontaneity, and reinforcing an expressive personal connection

• The student plays at various tempos, both under tempo and slightly faster than usual.

by Angelica Sanchez

Angelica Sanchez presents Cuatro obras para piano by Corsina Durán, a composer from Ecuador.

by Andy Villemez

Preparation and Presentation

Context: Pieces that are helpful to have experienced or played before approaching this one

• F. Mendelssohn, Song Without Words in E Major, Op. 30 No. 3 
•  E. MacDowell, from Woodland Sketches, To a Wild Rose Op. 51 No. 1
• P. Tchaikovsky, Morning Prayer Op. 39 No. 1
• F. Burgmüller, Consolation, Op. 100 no. 13 

Get Ready: Creative activities to explore before the first encounter with the score, to prepare a student for deeper engagement and more immediate success

• Identify narrative elements (character(s), mood, action, etc.) of the music with or without reference to the title of the prelude 
• Listen to different instrumental arrangements of the song to experience different timbres and aural references to try and imitate on the piano
• Use rote technical exercises to explore timbre and controlling sound

Initial Focus: Features to pay attention to first; priority steps in reading and absorbing the music

• Identify overall structure, phrases, and tempo markings/changes
• Find and translate all French (and some Italian) into the language the student is most comfortable with

Coordination Essentials: Physical skills and drills for common technical challenges in the piece

• Rote exercise on dynamic shading in vertical texture (see video)
• Rote exercise on sustain pedal control (see video)
• Rote exercise exploring timbre control (see video) 

Expressivity: Ideas to connect and re-connect with the expressive and musical nature of the piece

• Establishing narrative connection related or unrelated to prelude title
• Offer descriptive words for timbre options

Look Forward: Approaches to set up for success with refinements that will need attention a few weeks down the road

• Make preparatory decisions on how phrases/sections have different color and mood identifiers. This can be as simple as “darker or brighter” or “rounder or sharper.”

Process and Practice 

 Fully Present: Tips for maintaining focus and engagement over time

• Avoid setting interpretive choices “in stone.”
• Continue to explore different options for voicing, pedaling, phrasing, and color throughout the study of the piece 

Break it Up: Useful practice segments; how to connect them and plug them back into the whole

• Use phrases as sections for practice eventually adding two phrases together to practice transitions
• Practice the first few notes of each section of a different color in order to drill changing timbres frequently and consistently

Layers and outlines: Tips for focusing on how the parts make up the whole

• Identify similarities in harmony and texture among the phrases, connecting ideas across the piece

Achieving flow: Ideas for finding and maintaining tempo, managing modifications artistically

• Subdivide 16th notes through long notes and transitions in tempo
• Use opening motive as an aural reminder of original tempo 

Make it mine: Tips for developing and refining a personal, internal sense of the piece

• Encourage finding multiple options for phrasing, voicing, and color choices
• Encourage a student to develop their own narrative for the music, separate from the title
• Incorporate singing of the melody into everyday practice 
• If una corda pedal is available, have student choose one “special moment” where the color contrast of the una corda could be used (mm. 24-25, for example) 

Deep knowing: Tips for securing memory

• Be able to sing the melody while playing the LH alone
• Memorize in phrases hands separately
• Practice “performing” at the beginning of different phrases so you establish mental “safe” points 

Final stages: Tips for ensuring performance readiness, maintaining freshness and spontaneity, and reinforcing an expressive personal connection

• Encourage performances to have at least one different interpretive choice each time
• Encourage conducting and singing in home practice