Tuesday, March 4, 2025 | Blue Bugs Lessons

Lesson #9

Thank you, parents, for coming to class! We enjoy having you here and bonding with your child. What a gift you are giving them!

SPIRIT WEEK IS UNDERWAY! Let me know if you need any substitutions for any of the squares. The BINGO card is in the Student Portal, if you lose yours and need to make a copy! As a reminder, some of the drawing prizes are some instruments and an MP3 player that you can put your class music on! 

One of the items on the BINGO card is to leave a Google review. I'm striving for a 5 star rating. If you don't plan to give me 5 stars, please talk to me BEFORE you post a review so I can address any issues you may have. Unfortunately, negative feedback has much more impact than positive feedback does, so please give me the chance to earn 5 stars if I'm not already there. Thanks! Here is the link to post a review on Google: https://g.page/musikandmebethany/review?gm

Registration is now open for current students! Please go to https://www.musikandme.com/Registration for instructions of how to enroll your student and purchase their 2nd year materials. There is a $20 registration fee, but you won't need to pay it if you register by March 28th! (You can earn 20 extra tickets by registering by March 15th!) My 2nd Year class will be Tuesdays at 5:30pm. I can possibly adjust this if necessary, but please register as soon as you can.

Tuition is due this week if you are making payments. Thank you!

On Top of Spaghetti
Learning to hear chord progressions as well as each part of a chord is a vital skill when becoming a musician. This song and activity is very rich in it's musical lessons. We play the autoharp which allows us to have our hands doing two different things, and our eyes are looking at the chord map and reading music. We are hearing the chord progressions and then we sing each piece of the chord as each student points to their triangles. It's so fun!      
      
Drunken Sailor
This folk song is a famous sea-shanty, a song which sailors sang while they worked. They sang to keep the beat as they worked together. Our dance teaches the children to feel and recognize musical form, which is the repetition, balance, phrasing, and construction of a song. You hear a theme that repeats a few times and we do the same dance movement back and forth. Then at the end of the phrase "...early in the morning" you hear a strong cadence pull to DO. A cadence is found at the end of a musical phrase. This cadence has a strong pull to our ears that indicates the musical sentence has finished. This cadence trains the ear how music sounds when it is complete or finished: it feels like we have come back home.  

Fox Hunt - NEW puppet show!
New puppet show! This fun song teaches us to identify rhythmic patterns and learn about classical form. Classical form is when you identify the reoccurring melodic themes and label them. Understanding this concept will help your student in 3rd year to compose their own music! I've attached the new puppets as well as put them in the student download portal!

Jungle Rhythms - spatial skills
As your child sees how the Jungle Rhythm chart divides space and hear how the music divides time, they become aware of how the two correlate. This develops their spatial awareness. 
Subdividing rhythms: abstract notation
Seeing the Jungle Rhythm chart exposes children to what the written form of subdividing looks like.

Can't Bug Me
This week in class we clapped bug rhythms without seeing the bug cards. That’s right! We clapped our rhythms today only using the ‘real’ music notation, without the help of our musical bugs. They’re smart little cookies!

Our new puppet show was written by Gioachino Antonio Rossini, who was born on February 29 (leap year!), 1792 in Italy to a family of musicians. His father played the horn and his mother was a singer. He was just six years old when he joined his father’s band – he played the triangle. When he was only 10 years old, he was asked often to play the piano and sing at their church. At that age, he began composing and soon became the most celebrated composer of Italian Opera. Our puppet show, “The Fox Hunt” is from the William Tell Overture. This famous piece has been imitated (top video) and heard in various "rock-n-roll" forms (bottom video) all over the world!
      
 
     

Here is a link to all the skills videos as well as the link to be able to purchase a class video to make up for a missed class. (tap or scan)

Have a musical day!
-Ms. Bethany :)

Tuesday, February 25, 2025 | Blue Bugs Lessons

Lesson #8

Parents come next week, tuition is due, and it's SPIRIT MONTH! (See separate email with details.) 

1st Year Registration & Enrollment
If you have a child you want to go through 1st year and aren't on my waiting list, or you know someone who wants to do Let's Play Music, email back and let me know their name and email address so they can get registered ASAP. After next week I'll open registration up to the general public.

Enrollment for next fall begins this SATURDAY at NOON!

Please go to https://musikandme.com/Registration-LPM-return for instructions of how to enroll your student and purchase their 2nd year materials. There is a $20 registration fee, but you won't need to pay it if you register by March 28th! (You can earn 10 extra tickets by registering before March 15th!) My 2nd Year class will be Tuesdays at 5:30pm. Please let me know if this time won't work for you and we'll discuss solutions. I can possibly adjust this if necessary, but please register as soon as you can.

Are You Sleeping?     
This song reinforces the solfege hand signs. Very soon we’ll sing in a round, letting us hear multiple layers of music. Hearing music in our head and being able to stay on the part we are singing is a great skill for musicians to learn.     
     
B-I-N-G-O     
Who knew BINGO had such music concepts to learn from? When we sing it, we feel the quiet internal beats and learn to anticipate when to clap. It's full of rich musical concepts.     

Chords in Pieces - auditation (hear in your head)
As we sang “Chords in Pieces” we left out some of the chords and auditated them in our heads instead of singing them aloud. Again, much of the learning in 1st year is subconscious and unseen. The musical development that is happening to your little musician right now won't be seen by the naked eye, but will be harvested down the road!     

Bug Rhythms
We mixed up the order of the bugs and with no verbal cues we sang and clapped the bug rhythms. Your amazing kiddos were able to do “Can’t Bug Me” perfectly! Wow, they are learning so quickly.

It is easy to underestimate the significance of solfege. It helps us label something abstract like notes, uses whole body involvement, helps us understand scales and key signatures, aids in learning about intervals, helps us sight read/sing music, and so much more! Click here to read about the many reasons why we use solfege in Let's Play Music!

Here is a link to all the skills videos as well as the link to be able to purchase a class video to make up for a missed class. (tap or scan)

Have a musical day!
-Ms. Bethany :)

Tuesday, February 18, 2025 | Blue Bugs Lessons

Lesson #7

Thanks for coming to class today! You’re amazing parents! It’s a miracle what can happen when small and simple things occur on a daily basis. Keep up the good work!
      
Don’t forget that a child’s first instrument is the singing voice. Singing in tune while listening to the music is a fantastic way to internalize pitch, intervals, chords, and chord progression. Keep listening (and singing!) to the Blue Bugs music!
      

Registration for next fall begins IN JUST A COUPLE WEEKS! You’ll want to get your registration complete quickly because classes fill up fast! I want to make sure you have the class time that works best for you. If you have not filled out the survey for when you can do classes next year, PLEASE do that as soon as you can:
https://forms.gle/sTUmc4MuPGf9NBAo7

I've Been to Harlem
We took out the Do, Mi and Sol bells and played them all at the same time to create a "red" chord. We called this happy or "major"! I then changed the MIDDLE bell to make the sound sound sad or "minor". It's important for them to know that the MIDDLE note is the one that changes this sound. We are training the ears to recognize the difference between the two tonalities which helps us to recognize that music can help touch our emotions and influence those listening to music.      

Dinosaur Song
We learned this new song today where we identify notes going up or down by moving our bodies and singing. The more senses you use as you learn the more your brain cements and internalizes the concepts.      

Sleep, My Treasure
This lullaby increases the student's expressive awareness and reinforce major verses minor sounds.      

How To Skip
In this activity we learned how to play steps and skips from notes written on the staff. Yes, we were reading music by looking at the relationships of the notes. Looking for the patterns and relationships of the notes to each other is the optimal way to sight read music.

How to Play "How to Skip" on bells

For a fun twist as you listen to our new "Sleep My Treasure" song, you can invite your kiddo to rock a stuffed animal while they listen. This helps them with keeping a steady beat, internalizing the beat and expanding their musical expressive awareness. So many great things from one little activity!

Here is a link to all the skills videos as well as the link to be able to purchase a class video to make up for a missed class. (tap or scan)

Have a musical day!
-Ms. Bethany :)

Tuesday, February 11, 2025 | Blue Bugs Lessons

Lesson #6

Don’t forget, parents come next week! :) 

Listening to the music can spontaneously include doing some of the actions too! For instance, if you hear the song Umburra, sit down and pick an object to pass around on the beat. If you are practicing Bill Grogan’s Goat, have your student clap 4 times or nod their heads 4 times, between each line, etc. The more senses you use while "playing" the more your student will internalize. If you have the storybook of Bill Grogan’s Goat read it to your child. Let your student pretend "teach" a Let's Play Music class to you, their siblings, or stuffed animals. This is great music practice and it's FUN for them!

Umburra
Learning to anticipate a beat and feel the beat internally is necessary when developing little musicians. The Umburra game helps us to do just that! Practice it at home when you are "playing" with your students. Pass the stick on the beat and whoever has it at the end of the song is the winner!

El Gallo
El Gallo translated means “The Rooster”. During your "play" time have fun working on the pronunciation of these words. Soon we’ll be singing it in harmony using a round and learning harmonic rhythm. When a child sings harmony they develop the ability to sing in tune and independently sing parts of music. It's quite a skill!     

A Frog went A-Hoppin'
Today we simply introduced this song, but this song will soon teach us how to read leaps on the staff and play leaps on the bells.     

Jungle Rhythm
Using our “Jungle Rhythm” song we had the students walk like the elephant while I was the lion. This allowed them to hear how a beat can be divided and subdivided.     

I've Been to Harlem
On the autoharp we played the song, I’ve Been to Harlem in major and then again in minor. We are training the ears to recognize the difference between the two tonalities which helps us to recognize that music can help touch our emotions and influence those listening to music.

Rhythmic Notation     
Today in class the students each got their own bug and matched it with it's rhythmic representation. They are picking up on this concept so quickly! Help them get it even more solidly by placing their flashcards bug side down and have them say the bug and flip over the card to see if they are right!

I've Been to Harlem- Maj/Min on Bells & Piano

Your student has been taking baby steps and skipping around in class for sometime. Now, we get to take the concepts that we've been experiencing and start applying them to reading music on the staff. This approach to reading music is somewhat unique to Let's Play Music. Young children will be reading from the staff without knowing any note names, read more details on how this effective method works.

http://makingmusicianslpm.blogspot.com/2014/12/learning-to-read-music.html?inf

ADDED BONUS BELOW!!!

Since your children are now more familiar with the bug rhythms, I think they're ready for this fun matching game I made called "Rhythm Foods"! You will find it in the student portal in the online resources section.

Instructions:

Print the PDF in color or black/white.

Cut out the notes on the first page (there are 3 extra notes). If you'd like to make them more durable, cut them into strips and put shipping tape on both sides before cutting them out individually.

You may keep the other 4 pages as they are, or cut them into 4 sections so each of the 16 foods is a separate card.

Begin with ONLY the first food page (the one with Pop Tarts) to be sure they understand the concepts, then add the other 3 pages once they understand how to play.

Have your child clap and say each food with you.

The answers are on the last page (printing that page is optional).

Please let me know if you use this game and let me know what you think. Your honest feedback is greatly appreciated!

Here is a link to all the skills videos as well as the link to be able to purchase a class video to make up for a missed class. (tap or scan)

Have a musical day!
-Ms. Bethany :)

Tuesday, February 4, 2025 | Blue Bugs Lessons

Lesson #5

Are you turning the Blue Bugs music on everyday? ♫ Your whole family will benefit. Thanks for being such great supportive parents! These kids come to class ready to learn and have fun. They are just soaking up the musical concepts and skills I am teaching. They could not do it without great parents like you, working right alongside them. Give yourselves a big pat on the back. Great work!

Please respond to my survey so I know what days/times work for you for next fall! I want to be sure you will have a 2nd year class! If you're not sure of your schedule, just give your best estimate. I will adjust classes if necessary as time gets closer to ensure that everyone can be in a second year class. (I would like a starting point though!) Here's the link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfA3REXyPiXlAJsxZmwJeUK01pciRaS7HKve2iVr5zd2KThmg/viewform

P.S. Tuition is due this week (if you haven't already paid it)!

Umburra
Learning to anticipate a beat and feel the beat internally is necessary when developing little musicians. The Umburra game helps us to do just that! Practice it at home when you are "playing" with your students. Pass the stick on the beat and whoever has it at the end of the song is the winner!

Playing Skips on the Bells!
We are learning piano skills when we play skips on our bells. Even though the students don't know it, what we learn on the bells will transfer directly over to the piano. It's better to sight read using "relationships" like steps and skips because it reduces the processing your mind has to interpret when reading notes. Plus, we can do it BEFORE they learn note names. It's brilliant!

Rhythmic Notation
Today in class we added another layer of knowledge using our bugs! We saw that our musical bugs match with musical rhythms!! It was a great ah-ha moment and musical discovery for your student. They got to match each bug with it with it's rhythmic representation. (That's our home fun writing activity this week!)

We have a great article on subdividing. Check it out here!  
 

Let's take a walk in the jungle! "Walking In The Jungle" uses full body involvement (walking, stomping, jumping, skipping) with some creative play to teach steady beat. Gather your children and teach this song to the whole family.

Here is a link to all the skills videos as well as the link to be able to purchase a class video to make up for a missed class. (tap or scan)

Have a musical day!
-Ms. Bethany :)