Humoresque proudly presents our Christmas Competition music!
You’ll need to open Humoresque in your browser to see and download the music chart. You can print it, or keep it available on one of your devices.
Competition Week is the week beginning Monday 23rd November. If you do not have a lesson during that week, you will play the competition piece in your lesson scheduled for the previous week, so please be aware of this! Everybody is taking part in the competition!
As with the summer competition, Kit and his students will be joining in. We’ll be making recordings of everyone’s performance and then we will make decisions on winners and runners-up.
There are four Categories. Roughly, they work out like this:
Category 1 is for beginners up to and including Grade 1. Learn the song as it’s written. You can print it out, or use the digital score on your device.
Category 2 is for Grades 2 and 3. Learn the song, and then learn it off by heart. Can you think of any way to make it more fun? Use your imagination! Experiment!
Category 3 is for Grades 4 and 5. I want you to add some extra music in the pause. Is the cyclist out of breath? Or enjoying the view from the top of the hill? How can you show this, musically? Try different ideas and find out what sounds right to you. And maybe, when you do the “D.C. al Fine”, you can change the music a little bit, so it’s different from the first time through? Try to tell the story. Use your imagination! Experiment!
Category 4 is for Grade 6 and above. Extemporise, using this song as your basic framework. What can you add? How can you develop the music? Can you vary the rhythms, the harmonies, the style and the vibe? Can you make a jazz version, a romantic version, or a baroque one? How creative can you get with “Cycling Home”? Try to tell the story. Use your imagination! Experiment!
You can decide for yourself which Category you’d like to be in, but please let Kit or me know. The Grades are just rough guides to the standard of playing, so if you feel more comfortable in a lower category, or if you want the challenge of a higher one, just let us know. We’re happy with whatever you decide.
And now, here’s the music (only available in your browser, I believe – these charts never show up in my emails, anyway):
Good_King_Wenceslas_FinalAs with Cycling Home, our Summer Competition, you’ll see a little diagram to show you exactly where to put your fingers. This is useful for everyone in Category 1. Once your fingers are in place, you do not need to change them!
The Competition is for you to tackle by yourself, but if you get stuck, please ask for help. Kit and I won’t actually teach you the music, but we’re always happy to answer questions – or give strong hints!
Keyboard Players – I can add chords to your score if you need me to. Bring it to your lesson and I’ll put them on for you.
There are prizes and certificates for the winners of each Category, certificates for the runners-up, and a huge round of applause for everyone!
Humoresque hopes you’ll find this fun – it’s meant to be!
I’d love to know what you think of this Humoresque. You can put a comment in the box below this post, or you can email me directly. I read and respond to everything.
Humoresque is available to anyone who might be interested. You don’t have to be one of my pupils, or even learning music. If you know anyone who might be interested in subscribing to Humoresque, please let me know. I will only need their name and their email address. Thanks.
Humoresque = a whimsical or fanciful piece of music. Be whimsical, be fanciful, but play in time!
This is Humoresque Number 49