A Dozen A Day: Pre-Practice Technical Exercises For The Piano [Book 1 Primary]

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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. Dozen A Day exercises can also be used as the starting point for improvising and composing in a lesson.

A Dozen A Day_ Book 1 - Edna Mae Burnam.pdf - Documents and E A Dozen A Day_ Book 1 - Edna Mae Burnam.pdf - Documents and E

I was struggling with the main pieces and especially with finger strength, flexibility and familiarity with common shapes and notes. As a teacher using this material over several decades, I have found that while A Dozen A Day can be tremendously helpful as a set of technical exercises, the resource can also be used holistically to support many other learning objectives, as appropriate to each student’s needs and musical interests. The aim is to learn two or three exercises at a time, which should be played each day before practising. Only when these are mastered should you add another. When all in the first group are mastered, the next group may be introduced. Many of these exercises may be transposed to different keys. The Thematic Index must have taken a while to produce, and gratitude is due to Christopher Hussey, who produced it.

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Andrew Eales is a widely respected piano educator, writer and composer based on Milton Keynes UK. His book HOW TO PRACTISE MUSIC is published by Hal Leonard. Do not try to learn the entire first dozen exercises the first week you study this book! Just learn two or three exercises and do them each day before practising. When these are mastered, add another, then another, and keep adding until the twelve can be played perfectly. When the first dozen exercises, Group I, have been mastered and perfected, Group II may be introduced in the the same manner, and so on for the other Groups.” Dozen A Day exercises naturally lend themselves to written theory too, building on all the points made above.

A Dozen A Day Songbook: Book 2 - Early Intermediate: Early

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: 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.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? 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. 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. The Dozen a Day books are universally recognized as one of the most remarkable technique series on the market for all ages! Each book in this series contains short warm-up exercises to be played at the beginning of each practice session, providing excellent day-to-day training for the student. This book helped me with a series of very small and manageable exercises to improve my finger dexterity and flexibility. Some exercises gradually get harder and test your hand and finger coordination and geography (playing both hands together). It tests and improves different aspects of your piano practice and should be done daily to achieve the best results.

A Dozen a Day, Book 3 - Edna Mae Burnam: 9780711960985 - AbeBooks A Dozen a Day, Book 3 - Edna Mae Burnam: 9780711960985 - AbeBooks

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.” In her introduction to the books, Burnam gets straight to the point in explaining the value of A Dozen A Day: Many people do physical exercises every morning before they go to work. Likewise—we should give our fingers exercises every day before we begin our practising.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.