Piano Lessons

Unit 1 Lessons 1–20

Repertoire

  • Hot Cross Buns
  • D Journey
  • C Boogie
  • Five Woodpeckers
  • Frog in the Middle
  • Chocolate
  • Listen for Bells

Skills

  • Piano posture
  • C & D major pentascales
  • Transposing
  • Rhythmic dictation
  • Composing rhythms
  • Improvisation basics
  • Adding chords while playing the melody

Knowledge

  • Solfège: do, re, mi, fa, so
  • Musical alphabet
  • Names of all white keys on piano
  • Rhythms: quarter note, quarter rest, eighth notes, half notes
  • Finger numbers
  • Terms: stepping, skipping, repeating, high, low, improvisation, composition, sharp, rhythmic dictation, solfège, transpose

Unit 2 Lessons 21–40

Repertoire

  • Mouse in the House
  • Rain Come Wet Me
  • Who’s That?
  • Let Us Chase the Squirrel
  • Dinah
  • The Wild Horses

Skills

  • Playing 3-note chords
  • "Stepping & Skipping" Finger Exercise
  • I & V7 chords
  • Minor pentascales
  • New pentascales: C, D, G minor and G major
  • Melodic dictation: stepping, skipping, repeating on staff
  • Ear training: basic patterns in major pentascale

Knowledge

  • Grand staff basics: treble clef, bass clef
  • Guide notes: treble G, middle C, bass F
  • New rhythms: dotted half note, sixteenth notes
  • Solfège: ti (for V7 chord)
  • Repeat sign
  • Terms: harmonize, blues scale, melodic dictation, treble clef, bass clef, grand staff

Unit 3 Lessons 41–60

Repertoire

  • Love Somebody
  • Mary Had a Little Lamb
  • Silver Birch Tree
  • I Have a Dog
  • Oranges and Lemons

Skills

  • New pentascales: E major and minor, F major and minor
  • Reading repertoire from the grand staff
  • Sight reading simple melodies on the treble and bass staves
  • Notating a song 'by ear' on the staff

Knowledge

  • Time signature, measures, and barlines
  • New rhythms: Dotted eighth-sixteenth notes
  • Half-steps, sharps, and flats
  • Terms: similar and contrary motion

Unit 4 Lessons 61–80

Repertoire

  • Lavender's Blue
  • Spinning Song
  • Spinning Upside Down
  • Bagpipe
  • Debka Hora
  • Ode to Joy

Skills

  • Recognizing and identifying intervals
  • Counting the beat
  • New pentascales: A major & minor
  • Identifying Guide Notes on the staff
  • New articulation: staccato
  • Composing in binary form

Knowledge

  • Terms: intervals, staccato, legato, binary form
  • New rhythms: eighth with 2 sixteenths, dotted quarter with flagged eighth
  • New Guide Notes: Treble C, Ground G, Flag F
  • Dynamics: forte, piano

Unit 5 Lessons 81–100

Repertoire

  • Row, Row, Row Your Boat
  • Lady, Lady
  • I Hear the Mill Wheel
  • Au Clair de la Lune
  • La Cinquantaine

Skills

  • New pentascales: D-flat, E-flat, and A-flat major and minor
  • Improvising an accompaniment using chord symbols
  • Voicing a melody over an accompaniment
  • Counting rhythms using a subdivided beat
  • Composing original music using a haiku
  • Playing a duet

Knowledge

  • New rhythm: eighth rests
  • Meaning of and how to differentiate slurs and ties
  • Reading upper ledger lines on the bass staff
  • Building a major or minor pentascale starting on any key using whole steps and half steps
  • Terms: enharmonic, tie, slur, fermata, duet, melody, accompaniment

Unit 6 Lessons 101–120

Repertoire

  • Honeybee
  • Kye Kye Kule
  • Harvest Dance
  • Happy Birthday to You
  • Vivace

Skills

  • New pentascales: B, B-flat, and F-sharp major and minor
  • Reading notes on lower ledger lines of the treble staff
  • Counting syncopated rhythms using a subdivided beat
  • Review all 12 major and minor pentascales using circle of 5ths
  • Improvising using a “blues” scale

Knowledge

  • Circle of 5ths
  • New rhythm concepts: syncopation, pick-up notes, downbeats
  • Question and answer phrases, phrase marks
  • All primary dynamic symbols and terms: pianissimo, piano, mezzo piano, mezzo forte, forte, fortissimo, crescendo, decrescendo, diminuendo
  • New articulation: accent

Unit 7 Lessons 121–140

Repertoire

  • Musette in D Major (BWV Anh. 126)
  • All the Pretty Horses
  • Dance
  • Are You Sleeping
  • Black Snake

Skills

  • Playing and identifying all 24 major and minor triads
  • Reading chord symbols and improvising an accompaniment from a lead sheet
  • Using a metronome to help build speed in playing a fast song
  • New finger power exercises based on Charles-Louis Hanon’s famous exercises
  • Playing the ii7 chord

Knowledge

  • Composer Johann Sebastian Bach and the Anna Magdelena Bach notebook
  • Spelling all major and minor triads: root, 3rd, and 5th
  • Tempo indications: largo, adagio, andante, moderato, allegretto, allegro, presto, prestissimo

Unit 8 Lessons 141–160

Repertoire

  • Canoe Song
  • Deta, Deta
  • Dragon Night
  • When the Saints Go Marching In
  • Follow Me
  • Chumbara

Skills

  • Finger cross-over and thumb-under
  • More variations on Hanon’s finger exercises
  • Dictating melodies by ear on the staff
  • Review reading chords from a lead sheet
  • 1-octave major scales using tetrachords in all sharp keys

Knowledge

  • Guide Notes and Ledger Lines: High C and Low C
  • Review syncopation
  • Rhythm review: how various rhythmic values all relate to one another and to the beat
  • Tetrachords
  • Ladder of 5hts
  • Key signatures for all major keys with sharps: C, G, D, E, B, F-sharp, C-sharp

Unit 9 Lessons 161–180

Repertoire

  • Melody for Left Hand by Ludvig Schytte
  • Etude by Albert Biehl
  • Morning Salute by Cornelius Gurlitt
  • The Hope by Samuel Cohen
  • Tarantella by Joseph Hoffman

Skills

  • Play one-octave scales in C & G major and A & E natural and harmonic minor
  • Play one-octave arpeggios in C & G major and A & E minor
  • Proper wrist and finger technique for playing scales and arpeggios
  • Voicing with melody in the left hand
  • Staccato in one hand with legato in the other hand

Knowledge

  • Correct fingerings for one-octave scales and arpeggios
  • Understanding and performing rhythms in compound meters: 3/8 and 6/8
  • Dictating rhythms in 3/8 and 6/8
  • New composers: Ludvig Schytte and Albert Biehl

Unit 10 Lessons 181–200

Repertoire

  • Promenade (A. Reinagle)
  • Heart and Soul
  • The Bear (V. Rebikov)
  • Minuet in C (J.-P. Rameau)
  • When Johnny Comes Marching Home

Skills

  • Play and identify all diatonic chords in a major key
  • Create chord progressions using diatonic chords
  • Play first and second inversion chords
  • Play one-octave scales and arpeggios in D major, F major, and D minor

Knowledge

  • Diatonic chords
  • Chord progressions
  • First and second inversion chords
  • A-blues scale
  • New composers: Vladimir Rebikov and Jean-Phillipe Rameau

Unit 11 Lessons 201–220

Repertoire

  • Andante (J. C. Bach)
  • Down By the Bay
  • The Village Prophet (J. J. Rousseau)
  • Amazing Day (J. Hoffman)
  • Land of the Silver Birch

Skills

  • Analyzing chords in a score
  • Playing a 2-octave scale and arpeggio in B-flat major and G minor
  • Proper technique for using the damper pedal
  • Advancing techniques for improvising an accompaniment from a lead sheet

Knowledge

  • Key signature for B-flat major / G minor
  • Tools for identifying inversions
  • The damper pedal
  • New composers: Johann Christian Bach and Jean-Jaques Rousseau

Unit 12 Lessons 221–240

Repertoire

  • Arabesque (F. Burgmüller)
  • Greensleeves
  • Ballade (F. Burgmüller)
  • Musette in D

Skills

  • Two-octave scales and arpeggios in G, D & A major
  • Two-octave scales and arpeggios in A, D, G & C minor
  • Identify and play diatonic chords in minor keys
  • Harmonizing a melody using diatonic chords
  • Composing an original piece in ternary form
  • Improvising in blues scales over a 12-bar blues pattern

Knowledge

  • New terms: scherzando, leggiero, sforzando, countermelody, misterioso, con brio, dolce, augmented chord, animato
  • Tools for chord analysis
  • Practice strategies for playing fast passages with accuracy and evenness
  • Blues scales and improvising over a 12-bar blues chord progression

Unit 13 Lessons 241–260

Repertoire

  • Sonatina in C (1st, 2nd, and 3rd movements) by Muzio Clementi
  • America (My Country 'Tis of Thee)
  • Super Secret Agent (by Joseph Hoffman)

Skills

  • Counting rhythms in "cut time" (2/2 time signature)
  • Counting and performing eighth-note triplets
  • E-flat major scale (2-octave), arpeggio (2-octave), diatonic chords, and inversions
  • Creating your own original arrangement of a song
  • Chromatic scale

Knowledge

  • New terms: sonatina, movement, sonata-allegro form, Alberti bass, exposition, development, recapitulation, triplet, trill, opus, molto, forzato, roof top accent, subito
  • Identify and analyze sonata-allegro form

Unit 14 Lessons 261–280

Repertoire

  • Etude in D Minor (C. Gurlitt)
  • Minuet in G Major (C. Petzold)
  • The Wild Horseman (R. Schumann)
  • The Song of Twilight (Y. Nakada)

Skills

  • How to read and execute ornaments: trill, mordent, appoggiatura
  • More advanced applications of artistic elements: phrasing, voicing, damper pedal technique
  • Counting the beat using subdivided sixteenth notes ("1-ee-and-uh") as a tool for performing more complex rhythms

Knowledge

  • Dissonance vs consonance
  • Ornaments: Trill, mordent, appoggiatura
  • Formal analysis review: binary, ternary

Unit 15 Lessons 281–300

Repertoire

  • Sonatina in G, 1st and 2nd movements (L. Beethoven, Anh. 5, No. 1)
  • Autumn Moon (J. Hoffman)
  • Polonaise in G Minor (J. S. Bach, BWV Anh. 119)
  • The Mechanical Doll (D. Shostakovich)

Skills

  • B minor 2-octave scales (natural, harmonic, and melodic), arpeggios, and diatonic chords
  • Executing a "rolled" chord
  • Additional Hanon finger power exercises
  • Composing and improvising over a chord progression
  • Using form and phrase structure to guide your own original compositions
  • Improvising ornamentations and passing tones in a baroque piece

Knowledge

  • New terms: anhang (German), a tempo, poco rallentando, molto espressivo, dolce, rolled chord
  • Identifying chord tones vs non-chord tones
  • Learn about unique stylistic considerations for music of the Baroque Era (1600-1750)
  • Review: grace notes, 8va
  • How to identify shifting tonal centers in music

Unit 16 Lessons 301–322

Repertoire

  • Spinning Song (A. Ellmenreich, Op. 14, No. 4)
  • Prelude in C Minor (J. S. Bach, BWV 999)
  • El Matador (M. Bober)
  • Sonatina in F (L. Beethoven, Anh. 5, No. 2)

Skills

  • Learn the original version of C. L. Hanon's "The Virtuoso Pianist," Exercises 1-11
  • 3-octave scales and arpeggios, using triplets
  • E major scales, arpeggios, diatonic chords, and inversions

Knowledge

  • How composer catalogues work, including an understanding of the meaning of abbreviations like "BWV" and "K"
  • Key signature for E major: 4 sharps