PIANO RECITAL/EXAM BOOTCAMP! :-)

It’s that time of year again! Some esteemed individuals are about to board a plane to the country to assess our students (including we teachers as well! albeit indirectly). A stressful time of year! But it doesn't have to be that way, thankfully :-) I came across this errmmmm. "exercise" and thought it an exciting and refreshing way of preparing the students. Would you try it? I even tried it on myself! i.e on the piece I'm working on currently and all I can say is.... the outcome is best left between God and I.. he!he!he! :-D

Still - give it a try! Enjoy!! :-D

PIANO RECITAL/EXAM TRAINING

(Student is sitting in a chair across the room, you call out each of the directions below)

Ready… begin!

1.       Race from your chair to the piano bench.  Announce your piece title and the composer.

2.       Race back to your chair. Sing the right hand melody to “la la la” for the first  3 bars.

3.       Race back to the piano bench. Play the final note or chord of your piece. Shout out the note your right hand is playing.

4.       Turn backwards on the piano bench. Clap the rhythm of the first bar of the right hand.

5.       Stand up and give me your most professional bow.

6.       Sit properly on the bench and play me the first 2 lines of your piece with as much dynamics and expression as you can muster.

7.       Return to your chair. Tell me the first 3 notes your left hand plays.

8.       Race to the piano bench. Start the bar I am pointing to and play to the end.

9.       Play the right hand only of the entire piece with your eyes closed. No peeking!

10.   Stand up and play the left hand lf the final 3 bars of the piece while standing.

11.   Give me your most professional bow.

12.   Play through your entire piece while I make rustling, coughing, crinkling and baby crying sounds behind you.

13.   Stand up and announce your piece title and the composer.

14.   Play the first line of your piece, but start one note higher than is written and transpose accordingly.

15.   Play the bar I am pointing to 4 times in a row.

16.   Sit back in your chair. Tell me the key signature of your piece.

17.   Race to the piano bench. Play through your piece until I yell STOP!

18.   Stand up, spin in a circle 3 times. Return to the bench and continue playing from the bar I just stopped you at.

19.   Give me your most professional bow.

20.   Stand up while playing the first two lines of your piece.

STOP!    Record your student’s time. Can they beat their time next week? Can they be more accurate? You can bet they won’t forget any of this come recital/exam day! J