Clementi: Sonatina in C, Op. 36, No. 1, I. Allegro

Preparation and Presentation 

Pieces that are helpful to have experienced or played before approaching this one:

• ​Lynn Freeman Olson – Beginning Sonatinas
• Nancy Faber - Classic Sonatina in C Major
• Dennis Alexander - Simply Sonatinas
• Theodore Latour - Sonatina No. 1 in C Major
• Thomas Attwood - Sonatina in G Major

Creative activities to explore before the first encounter with the score, to prepare a student for deeper engagement and more immediate success:

• ​Improvisation/composing: create a LH melody, four measures long; add a right hand accompaniment in stationary broken octaves; balance the hands with care (preparation for mm. 20-24).
• Explore sonatina form.
• Research about Clementi: birth and death dates, biography, how many sonatinas did he compose?

Features to pay attention to first; priority steps in reading and absorbing the music.

• ​Rests: tap and count mm. 1-4, 15, 19, 38, lifting in an exaggerated way for the rests; circle the rests.
• Bracket potentially tricky places for special practice: mm. 6-9, 8-12 (moving LH early), 22- 24, and other spots that are likely to need special attention.

Physical skills and drills for common technical challenges in the piece.

• ​one-octave scales ascending, down a 7th, ascending again
• broken octaves, RH 1 - 5 - 5 - 5 = strong-light-light-light. Work on free technique; avoid overly stretching the hand.
• broken triad inversions using Clementi's opening gesture/motive: "down and it's up up", then block
• LH cadence progressions with Alberti bass pattern
• 4-note broken chords with inversions

Ideas to connect and re­connect with the expressive and musical nature of the piece:

• ​Dynamic contrast: pause before each dynamic change, verbally state the next dynamic, then continue.
• Character contrast: discuss the abrupt shift in mood, mm. 16-24; how can shaping, balance, "body language" project this most effectively?
• Compare the recap (m. 24ff) with the exposition; come up with mood adjectives to describe the differences.
• Balance: "ghost" the accompaniment hand.
• Long lines: play or sing a G Major scale in whole notes while playing mm. 8-15 (or C major mm. 31-38); the whole section is one big scale!
• Feel the music in "2" vs. "4" for more natural flow and phrasing

Approaches to set up for success with refinements that will need attention a few weeks down the road:

• ​Students with strong tactile memory will benefit from working back and forth between measures 5-15 and 24-39.
• Play (and sing!) the melody without accompaniment to focus on expressive shaping of the melody in mm. 16-20, 35-end.

Process and Practice 

Tips for maintaining focus and engagement over time:

• ​Performance opportunities (group lessons, etc.) provide concrete goals and enable students to become more confident performers.
• Self-evaluation: students record their own performances and evaluate, making note of what is going especially well, and what specific goals they have for future practice.
• Creative practicing techniques: a variety of speeds, selected rhythms, and mixing up the order of phrases/sections in the piece.

Useful practice segments; how to connect them and plug them back into the whole:

• ​To build speed in mm. 8-16, 31-38: play at a faster tempo than the current performance tempo, pausing at each downbeat; follow by chaining two measures together, pausing at the downbeat of every other measure.
  

Tips for focusing on how the parts make up the whole:

• ​Structural analysis can help with interpretation and memorization.
• Detail how the first theme is modified in the recapitulation, how the development section makes use of the first theme to create a different mood.

Ideas for finding and maintaining tempo, managing modifications artistically:

• ​Sing and conduct the piece "in 2" to help with flow and breathing.
• Though metronome practice can be very useful, also play without the metronome and experiment with physical breathing and pacing between sections.

Tips for developing and refining a personal, internal sense of the piece:

• ​Develop a story about the piece: associate extra-musical ideas and/or assign descriptive words to each contrasting section.
• If student can vocalize or sing phrases in an expressive way, use this as a model for a more expressive and personal, organic interpretation; this works especially well with the development section, mm. 16-23.

Tips for securing memory:

• ​Harmonic analysis: label the scales in mm. 8 and 31; block and label LH chords in mm. 9, 11, 32, 34; block and label RH chords in mm. 1, 16, 17, 24, 28, 20.
• Play only the downbeats of mm. 8-12 and mm. 32-38 hands together; alternate between these sections, with the music and from memory.
• Keep playing with the score each day, even after memory is secured.
• Memory checkpoints: be able to start with and without the score from the following measures: 1, 5, 8, 12, 16, 24, 28, 31; before playing, verbally state the LH and RH starting notes, chord, etc.

Tips for ensuring performance readiness, maintaining freshness and spontaneity, and reinforcing an expressive personal connection:

• ​Continue with very slow practice, exaggerating every musical intention.
• Practice performing, even when alone: walk to the piano, take time, perform the piece in its entirety, do not stop even if not fully satisfied with the performance.
• Continue starting at a variety of spots in the music, with the score and from memory.
• Study the score without playing, imagining an "ideal" performance.