Cyberspace Detective - Grade 1 Piano

Teaching Notes

In the manner of a true detective, you need to be attentive to detail, as the composer even instructs us at the beginning, "Attentively". One of the biggest areas of attention is that of articulation, that is, whether notes are smooth or detached. There is a lot of detail given in the music with some surprises. For example, the first two bars are marked staccato in the RH but the third bar is legato. Sometimes similar bars are unexpectedly treated differently. Take bars 19 and 20. In bar 19 the LH has no staccato marking but there is in bar 20.

Another area of attention is rests. In the first two bars, be sure the there is no overlap, with lingering notes as you change hands. However, when you get to the 4th bar, notice that the RH semibreve is held right to the end of the bar while the LH descends its  mini scale.

From bar 9, we are presented with a dilemma as to how to articulate the RH, since there are no slur marks or staccato dots. In the performance above you will hear that these quavers are played legato.

A note on accents: The markings such as that on the LH chord in bar 1, indicate that these notes/chords should be placed with a little extra force to make them stand out. However, this must always be done in the context of the overall dynamic level at that moment. An accent in a piano passage is not as loud as one in a forte passage.

The final area of detective work is noticing all the dynamics. Be careful to differentiate between those that change gradually (which is most of them) and those that change suddenly such as the "p subito" in bar 17.