Christine Danielewicz Music and Language Studio

Thursday, January 4, 2018 by Christine Danielewicz | Uncategorized

Rock in the New Year with these practice plans and strategies:

1. Practice a memory piece until it is Rock Solid. When it is strong, continue to play it by memory each day, and begin to memorize another piece. Keep adding memory pieces until you have a repertoire of five strong pieces you can play anytime, anywhere, without looking at your music. Pretend you are on tour in a different city every night and perform the pieces for your “audience.”

2. Keep Rockin’ like Rachmaninoff. Last year in the Piano Explorer we learned that Sergei Rachmaninoff practiced piano for four hours each day, and for two of those hours, he practiced scales and arpeggios. That’s a long time! We can’t all practice scales and arpeggios for two hours a day, but let’s rock our practice time with seven scales per day and seven arpeggios each day. Work on cadences, too. Get ready to see your technique and skill soar!

3. Take off like a rocket musically by keeping up with your sight reading. Read and play a page from one of your supplementary books each day. Ask your teacher to borrow books for sight reading.

4. Get ready to learn about rock deserts and sand deserts with our Piano Explorer composition contest. Even if you don’t enter the contest, enjoy making up some music on this rockin’ theme.

?Looking forward to seeing everyone climb to new musical heights in 2018!

Friday, January 29, 2016 by Christine Danielewicz | Uncategorized

SDG
Here's a simple way to remember what to practice each day:

M is for memory pieces. Play at least one piece that you know by memory. As you memorize more pieces, you can have a lot of fun playing pieces for your family and friends--and even for your own enjoyment. If you can play all your memory pieces every day, they'll stick with you for a long time. 

U is for useful skills. Newer students can play your twinkles and other book 1 folk songs. Watch your hands. Is your thumb or pinky sleeping or on vacation?  Are your fingers standing on their tips? If you know scales, cadences, and arpeggios, playing these every day will make you able to play dazzling music!

S is for sight reading.  Ask your teacher for extra books to build your reading skills. Looking at different music every day will make you ready for anything.

I is for instruction. Work on your new pieces.  Look at the advice and reminders your teacher has written on the page. Look at the words and symbols the composer has written in the score. Work step by step. 

C is for composition/theory. Have fun exploring the sounds and symbols of music.  Write in your theory or composition book, but also have fun improvising and creating melodies and harmonies without writing everything down. From September through December, C also stands for Christmas pieces!

It's simple as M.U.S.I.C.
Make every day a musical day!
Mrs. D.
J.J.