Prodigy Piano Academy Blog

Lesson Summary

Pitch Exploration –
Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do on desk bells. Sabera is now playing the whole piece of  Honeybee on bells
We started playing the first line of The Itsy Bitsy Spider on bells

Keyboard Geography/Repertoire-
Water Lilies – measures 1-7
Honeybee – whole piece, RH then LH
Itsy Bitsy Spider – line 1
Do Not Fly Nightingale – small chords made of the third interval

Tall Tower/Woodpecker Technique-
Russian School of Piano playing –
Exercises 1-10 reviewed
Exercises 11 & 12  introduced
Singing along using finger numbers 1, 2, 3 – RH then LH.

Theory Lesson- PPA worksheet –  high and low pitches using different animal sounds.


Lesson Journal

In today’s lesson, Sabera began with desk bells, confidently playing the scale from Do to Do. She is now able to perform the full piece of Honeybee on the bells, and we also started working on the first line of the Itsy Bitsy Spider. She delighted in singing while playing, which reinforced her sense of the melody and pitch.

Sabera continued her work on Water Lilies by W. Gillock. She has successfully memorized measures 1 through 7, and our focus was on connecting them so they flow seamlessly as one continuous musical thought.

Sabera was eager to move forward and specifically asked to measure 6 and 7. She chose light blue as the color to box off this new section, which gave her an extra sense of ownership over the learning process. Remarkably, this was the fastest she has ever learned a section—the notes and patterns seemed to come to her naturally. After only a short time, she was able to play it with confidence and ease.

At the piano, Sabera is developing more control in her left hand and is now studying Honeybee —  hands separately, playing it fully with both right and left. She had great fun learning and singing the opening line of the Itsy Bitsy Spider, showing joy and playfulness in the process. I also played my own duet arrangement with her from the Russian School of Piano Playing — Do Not Fly Nightingale. Sabera was so excited by the sound of harmony that she asked to learn chords, so I introduced her to simple two-note chords in thirds using fingers 1 and 3. She was absolutely thrilled and played them with eagerness!

In technique work, we reviewed Exercises 1 through 10 in the Russian School of Piano Playing and introduced Exercises 11 and 12.

I reinforced the “Tall Tower” concept, emphasizing a steady posture with quiet feet. This week we incorporated the thumb into her exercises, and I was pleased to see how naturally she kept a beautiful, rounded hand shape. Sabera is also showing maturity by pausing to set up her hand position before beginning to play. She has memorized the words to her review exercises and enjoys singing them out with finger numbers, first in the right hand and then in the left.

For our theory worksheet, we explored the concept of high and low sounds through an engaging activity with animal voices. I introduced the idea by asking Sabera to imagine the kinds of sounds different animals make and whether they are high or low. Together, we compared sounds such as the elephant’s trumpet, lion’s roar, and cow’s moo for low sounds, versus the bird’s chirp, cat’s meow, and mouse’s squeak for high sounds.