July PVL Personalized Coaching Video

The July ‘Piano Video Lessons’ ‘Personalized Coaching Video’

& and my notes from the teacher's comments.

The July drawing it was a lot of fun.  Here are the two practice songs I used for the video for the teacher to critique for me and my notes from the PCV.  The teacher's PCV link to her reply is in the last section of this post if you want to get right to it.  I enjoyed Lisa’s help and pointers to use as I continue to learn to play the piano.

Let’s Go Skipping Hands Together

First I chose to practice ‘Let’s Go Skipping Hands Together’ from Unit 2 Lesson 7.  Here is a previous practice session I recorded of this song when I was working on this lesson before I removed the last of the keyboard ‘helpers’.  Lesson 7 was one of my marker lessons I wanted to come back to review but had not done.  Consequently when I came back to record it for a second time for my PCV, instead of showing improvements, I had to do go through it several times until I got to where I was before.  Notes from Teacher comments: Rhythm steady, Beats and count perfect, Natural curved hands, not tense.  Can’t see wrist position in video.  Move hands into keys toward black keys.  Missed one note, I played F instead of G key.  Included tips on hand and arm posture.

Ode to Joy

The second song I played was ‘Ode to Joy’ from Unit 2 Lesson 11 that I am currently working on.  This is a song I plan to continue to practice and play for friends, and so is a song I wish to continue to improve on and add complexities to it, such as playing some real chords with it.  I would enjoy a few simple upgrades to the song I could add.  I will no doubt want to make another future practice video of this song to compare with as well.  Perhaps even for another Personalized Coaching Video for PVL. Notes from Teacher comments: Line 1:  Left hand wrist not level but angled pinky(5) down.  Line 2: A little bit of volume weakness in right pinky.  Line 3: Good but slower and more cautiously which is ok.  Played correct notes but need to practice line 3.  Line 4: Had some errors because of pressure just coming off of line 3 that I had trouble with.

During my video I asked how to add some ‘upgrades’ to my playing of ‘Ode to Joy’’ I would like to make a future video using some of these improvements.  Here are the teachers suggestions:  Notes on the Teachers tips about adding more to my playing of ‘Ode to Joy’: Play C triad chord for line 1, 2 and 4.  For line 3 can play the G chord.  Another option is to play the song left and right hand in unison.  Can also play left hand lower an octave in the base for lines 1, 2, and 4 for stronger ‘forte’ but move back up for lie 3 for lighter ‘piano’.  Can also use pedal.  Add dotted quarter rhythm to last 3 notes in lines 1, 2, 4 - dotted quarter - eighth - half as in original.  So here is my teacher's reply to my PCV practice session at PVL on YouTube.  I hope it benefits others. Thank you Lisa for providing the July PCV for me.