Left hand parts on the piano - octaves

Summary

Mix and match activities to create a fun lesson on the basics of playing octaves with the left hand.

🎲 What’s included in the activities:

• Warming up student's hands before playing octaves
• Understanding what an octave is
• Measuring and comparing the distance between students' pinkies and thumbs
• Finding the D key with the left hand
• Playing an octave from the D key with the left hand
• Playing the D-octave in a song
• Playing an octave from the E key with the left hand
• Combining and playing octaves from the D & E keys in a song
• Playing an octave from the C# key with the left hand
• Combining and playing octaves from the D, E & C# keys in a song
• Stretching hands

💻 Materials:

• Solfeg.io web app best used with Chrome browser
• Projector or computer and access to Wi-Fi
• Pianos or Keyboards for students

Stretch your hand!

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Stretch out and warm up student's hands before playing octaves
• Understand what an octave is
• Measure and compare distance between students' pinkies and thumbs

🎲 Activity:

• Ask your students to put their left thumbs on a table or another surface. Then ask them to stretch their pinkie fingers to the other side as much as possible, like in the picture. If possible, ask them to take a ruler and measure the space from their pinkie to thumb. Write out the measurements and see how different they are!

Can you point out any similarities between those with the widest space between their pinkie and thumb and the narrowest space? (e.g. those with the widest space are boys, with the narrowest space - girls or those who are the tallest have the widest space, those who are the shortest - narrowest space)

• Explain to your students what an octave is (the distance between one note and the next note bearing the same name), and that octaves are usually played with the left hand on the piano. The purpose is to 'deepen' the bass sound so that it could be heard better.

Fun fact: when you are playing an octave on a standard piano, the width between pinkie and thumb should be about 16cm (6in). Compare this with your measurement results!

‍Just the D key

🕐 Time: 10 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Find the D key on the piano with the left hand
• Learn and play an octave on the piano from the D key with the left hand

🎶 Recommended Songs:

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🎲 Activity:

• Ask students to put their left hand on the piano. See if their fingers are curved and their palm is lifted, not laying flat on the keys!
• Tell your students to find the same D key that you practiced on last time (one octave left from the middle of the keyboard). Tell them to play it with their left hand's thumb.
• Now, tell them to keep pressing the D key with their thumbs, find one more D key lower and try to press it with their left pinky.
• Next, practice the motion of pressing both the thumb and the pinky at once. Press the keys - lift up - press the keys - lift up - and so on.

Remind the students that the palm has to be lifted and curved - flat palms are usually the reason the students press other keys between the both D's by accident.

• When all the students have learned how to play this octave, press play on the Intro section of the song, and show your students how to play this octave in the song. Whenever the D key shows up, you should play the octave.
• Then, ask the students to repeat! You can loop this section, if necessary.

Left Hand in the Song!

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Learn to and play the D-octave in a song on the piano

🎶 Recommended Songs:

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🎲 Activity:

• Play the Intro of the song and listen to it with your students.
• Tell the students that they will now have to play the D-octave in this song.
• As soon as the D symbol passes the red line - play it! Other key symbols should be omitted now.
• Press play and let them practice pressing the D key with their left hand in the song! You can also press the loop button in the controls so that the Intro section would repeat multiple times.

Combine with E key

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Learn and play an octave on the piano from the E key with the left hand
• Combine playing octaves from the D & E keys

🎶 Recommended Songs:

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🎲 Activity:

• Let your students remember where the E key was located - it is the next white key to the D key. Ask them to play it with their left thumb!
• Next, tell the students to play an octave from the E key with their thumb and pinky!
• When the students have learned how to play the octave, ask the students to combine it with the D-octave they learned previously.

Play the D-octave - lift up your hand - play the E-octave - lift your hand - repeat!

• Let them practice the octaves and get familiar with them!

Two in a song

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Learn to and play the D-octave and E-octave in a song on the piano

🎶 Recommended Songs:

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🎲 Activity:

• Tell the students that they will now have to play both - the D-octave and E-octave in this song.
• As soon as the D or Em symbol passes the red line - play it! Other key symbols should be omitted now.

If the students are confused why the song is showing Em not E key symbol, you can tell them that Em is the underlying chord of this octave.

• Press play and let them practice pressing the D and E key with their left hand in the song! You can also press the loop button in the controls so that the Intro section would repeat multiple times.

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Add the C# key

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Learn and play an octave on the piano from the C# key with the left hand
• Combine playing octaves from the D, E & C# keys

🎶 Recommended Songs:

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🎲 Activity:

• Now, do the very same with the C# key!

Find the C# key;

Play it with the left thumb;

Find one C# key lower;

Play a C# octave with the left thumb and pinky;

Play the D-octave - lift up your hand - play the E-octave - lift your hand - play the - C# octave - lift your hand - repeat!

• Let the students practice this combo by themselves for some time. Encourage them to slowly build up the tempo if they feel comfortable enough.

The Intro + The Verse

🕐 Time: 10 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Play octaves from the D, E & C# keys on the piano with the left hand along a popular song

🎶 Recommended Songs:

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🎲 Activity:

• Press play on the Intro section of the song, and show your students how to play the whole section with octaves (D-octave - E-octave - C#-octave - D-octave).
• Then, ask the students to repeat! You can loop this section, if necessary.

If the tempo is too fast, you can press the minus button in Solfeg.io - that will slow down the tempo.

• If the students feel comfortable enough, you can try to play both - Intro and Verse 1! The key sequence will not change throughout the song.

Tired Hands

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Stretch and move hands

🎲 Activity:

• Playing octaves can be hard on the hand, so the lesson should be ended with some physical exercises.

First, your fingers in a fist, then open and stretch all fingers. Repeat multiple times with your students.

Second, move your wrists in a circle-like motion. Repeat multiple times with your students, then change direction and repeat again.

Third, move your shoulders in a circle-like motion. Repeat multiple times with your students, then change direction and repeat again.

Reflection

🕐 Time: 5 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Reflect on the learning process

🎲 Activity:

• Ask these questions to the class and have a short discussion

How did you like playing octaves?

Was it harder to play an octave in the song than playing just with the thumb? Why?

Would you like to learn the right-hand part for this song?

Homework assignment

🕐 Time: 3 min

🎯 Objectives:

• Practice the right-hand part of popular songs and combine it with the left-hand part

🎲 Activity:

Challenge students to go beyond the lesson by…

• Students can learn the right hand part of the same song and then try to combine both hands.
• Students can learn the basics of piano playing by completing Solfeg.io 10-day program on the mobile app - it contains both left and right hand parts for very easy songs.

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