Author: TGmusic

Kuckuck

Kuckuck, kuckuck, ruft aus dem Wald

This is a very famous old German children song that I arranged for my young piano beginning students. It features plenty of dynamics and articulations, and is written in 3/4 time.

In the video I play it at a fast tempo. As always, the pupil should start learning one hand at a time, disregarding the dynamic markings and articulations until he/she plays the correct notes.

The next step would be to play both hands, and finally we add the dynamics, articulations and phrase markings to bring it to performance level.

 

Can You Feel The Love Tonight

Can-You-Feel-The-love-tonight

“Can You Feel The Love Tonight” is a beautiful song (written by Elton John) featured in the Walt Disney movie The Lion King.

As simple as the song sounds, it is actually quite tricky. The melody feels as it was written in 3/4 time, which it is not. The difficulty for the young beginning piano student is therefore not playing the correct notes, but playing them with the correct rhythm.

Still, the pupil should first learn to play the right notes with the correct fingering (see video below).  If this is learned, the pupil counts along as he/she plays the music in a comfortable tempo.

I suggest that the pupil watches and listens to my video many times, until the melody sticks.

Gradually the pupil should increase the tempo until finally he/she can play along with the recording.

Beginner Piano Warm Up Exercises

Here is a nice finger warm-up exercise that can be done with one hand or both hands simultaneously, as demonstrated in the video tutorial.

A few tips on how to do those exercises:

  • Practice slowly (much slower than I played it on the video!) and focuse on playing each note with the same strength. It’s not about speed, but precision instead!
  • Repeat each exercise from the video a few times in different tempi, before moving on to the next one.
  • Lift the active finger up a little before pressing the key down, while keeping the other fingers close to the keyboard. (Remember that this is an exercise! We don’t necessarily play like this. But by lifting the fingers from the key they gain strength and control.
  • Play each exercise by applying different dynamics (soft, medium, load). When playing soft, keep the active finger in contact with the key, meaning don’t lift the finger up before pressing the key.

Watch the video

Ein Kleines Lied by Thomas Gunther

How to practice and play “Ein Kleines Lied”

This post is about my song “Ein Kleines Lied”, which I composed and arranged specifically for my younger pupils.

This song was arranged for 6 hands. The three different parts are intended to be performed by three players simultaneously.

Ideally each pupil learns how to play all three parts.

The video below explains each part and shows how to perform them.

The video below is a practice guide that also explains the bass clef. You may want to read on before watching this video.

Page 1 features the melody in the right-hand with a species counterpoint accompaniment in the left. I excluded the fingering, because I want the children to learn how to read musical notes. Otherwise all they do is read the numbers that indicate which finger to use for a particular note.

What the child will learn from practicing the song “Ein Kleines Lied”

Reading bass clef

The base clef is also called F clef, because it shows us the position of the pitch F3 on the staff.

Bass-Clef

It is important that the children associate the location of the note-heads on the staff (Staff Lines) with the pitch name, and the keys.

C-G-Bass-Clef

 

So far we learned the location of the notes C3, D3, E3, F3 and G3 written in bass clef (as shown above). These are the notes I used in “Ein Kleines Lied”.

The Grand Staff

Piano music is generally written on a grand staff. A grant staff consists of two staves, the upper one being the treble clef staff, the lower one being the bass clef staff (in most cases).

Grand-Staff-Example

For this reason pianists have to be able to read treble and bass clef at the same time. To complicate matter even further, each clef may feature chords (Mehrklänge), which consist of several notes being played simultaneously. Consequently, sight-reading requires a lot of brain power. It’s an excellent exercise to increase our visual memory.

The two accompaniments (Begleitung 1, Begleitung 2) from the second page of “Ein Kleines Lied” feature thirds. Playing two notes in one hand at the same time can be very challenging at first.
I created pre-exercises that should prepare the pupil to perform thirds more easily. Please watch the video tutorial below.
It is very important that the child practices these finger exercises slowly and with great focus. It is much better to do these exercises often, and in short intervals (5-10 minutes most), instead of once a week for 2 hours.
Ask your child never to stop practicing when it feels pain or discomfort.

Merrily We Roll Along – 2

Merrily-We-Roll-Along--Part-1

“Merrily We Roll Along” arranged for two hands

In this video I demonstrate how to play Merrily We Roll Along with both hands.

Tip to the parents: The child will benefit most from this video when you are watching it together and guide the child during the first few practice sessions, especially when the child is under 7 years of age. Children that young are usually not independent enough to practice efficiently on their own.