Melodic Playing in the Thumb Position

SKU: YM.GTP01100873

ISBN 9784636106282.

The scale training exercise complete book, supervised by Yoshiko Kurokawa. This is a revolutionary collection of all-key scale exercises designed to help both aspiring and practicing pianists practice essential scales efficiently. The major and minor (harmonic and melodic minor) scales in the 12 keys are an important part of the practice for learning tonality and training the muscles and joints of the hand. The human hand is flexible, and the thumb and other fingers bend in different directions, making it easy to turn and play a wide range of notes. However, it is important to learn scales from an early age because the correct playing style is required, such as knowing how to turn the fingers when playing speed is faster, the position of the black keys and white keys, and how to use the wrist. To play scales smoothly with all five fingers (one hand), the turn of the first finger is significant. It is advisable to practice scales from an early age to improve the turns. The fingering of the scale changes depending on the key. It takes a lot of time to learn them because fingering is different for the right hand and the left hand as well. Also, although the scale is written in two-fourths time, if you are not used to it, you may end up playing one octave at a time. Various exercises are described in this book to help you solve these problems. It takes a lot of time to play scales well by nature, but that is why it is important to practice efficiently.

SKU: CF.YAS171

ISBN 9781491146514. UPC: 680160904013. 9 x 12 inches. Key: G major.

Dream Engine has all of the compositional thumb prints that have made the music of Larry Clark so popular for string orchestras. It is a concert overture in classic ABA form. The opening section has a tuneful melody over spiccato accompaniments that weaves throughout the ensemble. The middle B section is slow, lyrical, lush, and beautiful as a contrast to the lighter A section. Another piece from Larry Clark to showcase your ensemble at contest/festival.
One of the types of pieces I like to write for orchestra are pieces that use a contrast between staccato playing and more marcato melodic material.  Dream Engine is the result. The piece is set in a concert overture form with two fast sections based on the same theme and a slow lyrical second section in the middle.The piece begins right off with a short introduction of the spiccato accompaniment figures before it leads to the first statement of the main theme. Quarter notes in the main theme should be played full bow in contrast to the lilting staccato eighth notes. The bass line should be long as well. After a full ensemble statement of the theme, the piece moves to a bridge theme that is sort of an inversion of the main theme and is taken up by the cello; then the viola is added on a harmony part to the melody. Transition material is presented next that is used throughout the piece to connect all of the sections of the piece together. The main theme returns once more before the piece transitions into the slow and lyrical B-section. The B-section should be lush and as legato as possible to be in complete contrast to the A-section. This will be an excellent chance to work on the players’ expressive playing. Make sure to have a lot of rubato and generous rises and falls to the lines to make it as musical aspossible.At the completion of the B-section, the A-material returns with different orchestration for variety. This is followed by the transition material that leads to an aggressive coda that includes a brief quote from the B-section material. If you so chose, a slight increase in the tempo at the coda is acceptable to add to excitement of the ending.It has been my pleasure to have the opportunity to write this piece. I hope you and your students enjoy it and find it useful for your program.—Larry ClarkLakeland, FL 2017.

About Carl Fischer Young String Orchestra Series

This series of Grade 2/Grade 2.5 pieces is designed for second and third year ensembles. The pieces in this series are characterized by:
--Occasionally extending to third position
--Keys carefully considered for appropriate difficulty
--Addition of separate 2nd violin and viola parts
--Viola T.C. part included
--Increase in independence of parts over beginning levels