This lovely exercise plays a sweet melody with the left hand on the A string while keeping a very steady pattern with the right hand. As always, practice your right hand, keeping it steady and smooth, first and enough that it feels comfortable. Then start working on the fingering on the right hand chords. Always think about efficiency of movement and using gentle pressure. I think this is really a pretty piece with enough repitition to make it playable.
Continue to practice your scales. I recommend that you develop a habit of starting each practice session with a scale or two. Scales are important practice and it will really benefit you in the long run.
Also practice playing the harmonized scales I gave you last week. Look up the chords you don't know for an opportunity to expand your chord repertoire.... and then practice them again.
We talked about relative minor scales and chords - Every major chord, scale, or key has a relative minor chord, scale, or key. Relative major and minor keys share the same key signature and the same notes in their scale. The relative minor of any major key is the 6th degree of the scale. Therefore the relative minor of C is Am.
(On the circle of 5ths, the relative minor is shown right below the major).
If you play the C scale notes, but start the scale on the A, you will end up with the Natural A minor scale.
When changing from any major chord to it's relative minor, you add one note and that note is the root of the relative minor scale (it will replace the 5th note of the scale). We'll go over this a bit more next week to clarify.
Try making first position major chords and then changing them to their relative minor. It's pretty interesting, and fun....
Next week is our last class. We will do one more Meditation - the last one in the book - Chicago Dog Blues. And a wrap on the theory with a bit more chord theory.
(building other than major chords) And I will try to answer any questions you have and recommend good books and websites for reference.
Continue to practice your scales. I recommend that you develop a habit of starting each practice session with a scale or two. Scales are important practice and it will really benefit you in the long run.
Also practice playing the harmonized scales I gave you last week. Look up the chords you don't know for an opportunity to expand your chord repertoire.... and then practice them again.
We talked about relative minor scales and chords - Every major chord, scale, or key has a relative minor chord, scale, or key. Relative major and minor keys share the same key signature and the same notes in their scale. The relative minor of any major key is the 6th degree of the scale. Therefore the relative minor of C is Am.
(On the circle of 5ths, the relative minor is shown right below the major).
If you play the C scale notes, but start the scale on the A, you will end up with the Natural A minor scale.
When changing from any major chord to it's relative minor, you add one note and that note is the root of the relative minor scale (it will replace the 5th note of the scale). We'll go over this a bit more next week to clarify.
Try making first position major chords and then changing them to their relative minor. It's pretty interesting, and fun....
Next week is our last class. We will do one more Meditation - the last one in the book - Chicago Dog Blues. And a wrap on the theory with a bit more chord theory.
(building other than major chords) And I will try to answer any questions you have and recommend good books and websites for reference.
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