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Hussey has also written a new performance piece to conclude each of the six books, bringing the total exercise count up to 366. All Year Round, indeed! Using the Material Many people do exercises every morning before they go to work. Likewise, we should all give our fingers exercises every day BEFORE we begin our practising.”
There is much to enjoy in A Dozen A Day, including the exercises’ creative use of the whole instrument from the earliest stages, their adaptability, and the way that their good-natured, humorous characterisations stimulate the player’s imagination. I have been using these little books with my students since I first started teaching in the 1990’s, and although they have featured less prominently in my studio in recent years, they continue to make their appearance, and offer a hugely useful resource which can be used from the very first lessons, and right up to advanced level. Several types of goods are exempt from being returned. Perishable goods such as food, flowers, newspapers or magazines cannot be returned. We also do not accept products that are intimate or sanitary goods, hazardous materials, or flammable liquids or gases.Because we are using the exercises holistically, rather than designating them as a “sight reading test”, we can get past any trauma that the student might associate with grade exams. How might the musical ideas from two or three simple exercises be combined into a larger piece? What narrative can the piece then be given, and how will it develop? Can a basic Dozen A Day exercise be used as the core material for a piece which expresses a particular emotion, idea, story, mood or colour?
Together the exercises form a rich resource for piano teachers and students to draw upon, and with the addition of the book’s special thematic index, it’s easy to focus on specific areas of technique.” Depending on where you live, the time it may take for your exchanged product to reach you, may vary.However you choose to introduce and use exercises from A Dozen A Day, remember that like any cycle of technical exercises, using them inappropriately won’t just potentially mitigate against any benefits, but could cause fresh problems for players. The advice of an expert teacher is always crucial when developing good technique at the piano. If your goal is weight loss, you can find more information in How Not to Diet and the accompanying Twenty-One Tweaks. In How Not to Diet, I noted: “A systematic review of successful weight-loss strategies concluded that given the metabolic slowing and increased appetite that accompanies weight loss, to achieve significant weight loss, calorie counts may need to drop as low as 1,200 calories a day for women and 1,500 calories a day for men.” It is also worth noting at this point that Burnam herself suggested learning a couple of exercises at a time, playing them slowly and softly at first, then introducing a range of dynamics and speeding up the tempi. With its brilliant Thematic Index, and kept ever within reach, this bumper book succeeds wonderfully as a teacher’s companion, making Burnam’s exercises ever-accessible without encroaching too seriously on lesson time.
Understanding intervals, reworking an exercise using a different time signature (e.g. simple vs. compound), writing in different octaves, key signatures and clefs can all be explored as they relevantly relate to the learner’s ongoing music tuition. In the context of an integrated approach to piano education, here are just some of the strategies which I have found productive and helpful for students: A bonus: it can be helpful to talk to the student about technical problems the exercise helps with, asking them to identify passages in their new, active and recent repertoire which will benefit. Any item not in its original condition, is damaged or missing parts for reasons not due to our error
A Dozen a Day Mini Book
Taken as a while, A Dozen a Day is a unique resource, and an extraordinary legacy that we are fortunate indeed to have at our disposal today. What is New?
While various songbooks and extras have appeared over the years, the core Dozen A Day material comprises six short exercise books: The combination of simple joy and pedagogic value embedded in this classic material has not only stood the test of time, but remains as accessible, worthwhile and engaging as ever, seemingly transcending the fads of fashion. The last exercise in each dozen, across all six books, is always called Fit As A Fiddle And Ready To Go. The obvious idea here is that at the start of practice, the current Group of 12 exercises provide a suitably varied and helpful warmup routine. I would suggest this may depend on other factors, of course, and much can be gained from targeted use of individual exercises from within the cycle, as I will explain later. In her introduction to the books, Burnam gets straight to the point in explaining the value of A Dozen A Day:I hope that the suggestions in this review will help teachers and learners alike to find fresh engagement with these little marvels. Closing Thoughts
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