Melody in F - Louis Kohler - Grade 1 Piano

Teaching  Notes

There is one element that the examiner will be particularly looking at in performances of this piece - that is the balance between the hands.

The melody is in the right hand and the left hand just provides an accompaniment. With this in mind, try to keep the left hand softer than the right at all times. You can try the following exercise to help:

With your left hand separately, play the notes as softly as possible, with your fingers hardly touching the keys. With your right hand, after you play each note and your finger is at the bottom of the key stroke, try to push further as if the key would go down even more (even though it can't). Then put hands together.

There are a few accents marked in this piece (e.g. bar 3), but rather than taking this literally, that is to play forcefully, in the context of this gentle melodic piece, just a slight lean on the note is needed.

Finally, be aware of the bars rest (bars 8, 16, 24, 32) where you need to make sure, that you let go of the right hand while playing the three crotchets in the left hand.