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Level 1
Student Book
2nd Edition
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1. Your teacher will write your daily assignments on the Practice Chart.
2. Look at your daily schedule and decide the best time to practice.
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Student Signature
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Teacher Signature
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Parent Signature
45 Minute Lesson:
Relaxation exercises: 5 minutes
Technique: Scales, Exercises, sight reading 10 minutes
Piano and Performance Books: 20 minutes
Theory/Vocabulary/Music Appreciation: 10 minutes
Relaxation Exercises:
Before each practice session, it is important for you to be relaxed and focused. These exercises will
help you.
1. Breathing Exercise: In a standing position, inhale through your nose, deeply. Exhale
through your mouth. Do this 10 times each day.
2. Shoulder Rotations: Sometimes our shoulders are very tight and we need to relax them.
In a standing position, lift your shoulders up, almost touching your ears. Press them
forward, towards your chest, down and back. Do this several times forward and several
times backwards.
3. Hand Shaking: This may look silly, but it helps the blood flow through your hands,
warming them up and ready to play beautiful music. Raise your arms above your head.
Shake your hands for 15 seconds. Now put your arms out in front, shake your hands for
15 seconds. Finally drop your arms to your sides and shake your hands for 15 seconds.
This should make your hands and fingers feel very tingly.
Pages
Assignments Sheets 5
Scales 47
Warm-up Exercises 64
Theory 73
Vocabulary 93
Music Appreciation 95
Lesson Day: 1 2 3 4 5 6
Total Minutes:
Parent Signature
Weekly Assignments:
Scales: C Major HT G Major HT D Major HT A Major HT
E Major HT B Major HT F Major HT
Warm-Up Exercises: ____________________________________________
1: _______________________________________________________________
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2: _______________________________________
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3: _______________________________________________________________
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4: _______________________________________
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Teacher Comments: Parent Comments:
Musicians study scales, which means ladder in Latin, to help understand how our
music is put together.
You will be learning seven different scales this year.
They are C Major, G Major, D Major, A Major, E Major, B Major and F Major.
All begin on white keys.
Each scale is put together in a pattern.
The pattern for these scales is made up of whole steps and half steps.
The order in which you put each step is very important.
There are five whole steps and two half steps.
The pattern is as follows:
Half-step
Whole-step
Whole-step
Whole-step
Half-step
Whole-step
Whole-step
Starting note
Remember that a half step is just two notes, right next door to one another.
Most half-steps are black-to-white or white-to-black.
There are two white-to-white half steps.
They are E-F and B-C.
A whole step is two half steps put together.
In our Major scales, we always have the half steps between notes 3-4 and 7-8.
When we write Major scales and chords, we always use CAPITAL LETTERS.
Speed: 1. _________________________
2. _________________________
3._________________________
C D E F G A B (C)
The fingering is as follows:
Right Hand: C-1 D-2 E-3 F-1 G-2 A-3 B-4 C-5
Left Hand: C-5 D-4 E-3 F-2 G-1 A-3 B-2 C-1
C E G
You play all of these notes at the same time.
C G (C)
When you play the cadence, you will play the C Major Chord in root position (stacked
in intervals of 3rds-skips).
The G Major Chord is stacked in intervals of 3rds and 4ths.
Notice that the note G is in the same place in both chords.
The fingering is as follows:
Once you have mastered those hands separately, you may play them HANDS
TOGETHER (HT).
C Major
Right Hand Scale
Fingering
Fingering
Fingering
Fingering
Fingering
1 2 1 2
5 3 5 3
4 4
2. Double Bar Line: two vertical lines ( || ) placed side-by-side on the staff. It tells
the performer that it is the end of a section or a piece.
5. Final Bar Line: a double bar line with one thin line followed by one thicker line
on the staff. It tells the performer that it is the end of the piece.
Lesson 2
The inside of the piano has many different parts.
The largest part is a cast iron frame; just like a frame surrounds and holds a picture in
place, this frame holds the strings and soundboard together. The frame is placed on top of
the soundboard and it holds almost everything.
The lowest strings run the entire length of a grand piano. The highest notes have strings
that are less than 12 long.
The hammers are below or behind the strings. When you press a note, it pushes the
hammer into the strings, causing the strings to make their sounds.
The dampers, which sit on top of the strings, are also pushed up. When the hammer falls
away from the strings, the damper then falls back onto the strings and quiets the sound.
Have your teacher show you all of these different parts inside his or her piano. Then go home and
see if you can find them on your piano.
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CONGRATULATIONS!
You are now ready to go to Level 2 of
The Piano Lesson Companion BooK
Page | 17 2007 The Piano Curriculum Series LLC PCS002