Tuesday, December 3, 2024 | Red Balloons Lessons

Lesson #13

Wow, it's always so fun when parents come to class. Can you believe we only have 2 more weeks of Red Balloons?

If you are paying monthly, tuition is due this week.

When doing the soundtrack and bell practice you may at times, feel it is unessential 'busy work' and one more 'to do' for you to accomplish that day. Keep in mind each LPM activity does have a purpose and that the key to successful musicianship and smarter kids are parents willing to take the time to do small and simple things daily in a fun playful way. These activities may seem insignificant, but the final product will astound you. Stay focused on the end goal and the play practice time will seem more meaningful. 

In a Humble Manger
This is a fun song to help kids understand how to keep a steady beat. We also talked about the term lullaby.   
    
Pull Away
With this song we also participated in what a steady beat feels like and our ears heard the MI RE DO pattern! Each song helps us to internalize many facets of music.   
    
Let’s Play Music
Today our ears heard layers of sound as we sang the MI RE DO and SOL SOL DO ending to “Let’s Play Music” at the same time. Singing in harmony helps us to sing in tune and eventually sing in parts.   
    
Echo Ed
Ware teaching the children relative pitch, which is the ability to sing any pitch in relation to a given pitch. A major goal of Let’s Play Music is to develop and train the ear so the students will develop the ability to sing middle C without any musical reference and then find any other note based on its relationship to middle C.

Do, Re, Mi
YES! WE READ MUSIC THIS WEEK in our DO RE MI activity! So exciting! We are teaching our students to read by relationships, (steps, skips, leaps) not by note names. This is a more natural way to teach children to read music and it produces better sight readers because their brain isn’t bogged down with have to interpret the note names yet.
    
Great Big Red Balloon
Today we practiced visualizing the staff. In putting a note up on the staff and covering it, we let the children close their eyes and see it in their heads. Having the children close their eyes and imagine where the balloon was is accomplishing this. If they can see it in their heads, they learn to internalize the staff and where the notes sit on the staff. Staff visualization ultimately results in learning to quickly read music.

Waltz of the Flowers
Play contains repetition, which is essential to a child’s security. As musical concepts and skills are presented in a playful, joyful setting, children absorb knowledge and increase ability.

Did you know that our puppet show "Waltz of the Flowers" uses different instruments for the different themes? Here's a videothat shows some of the instruments playing the song!

Check out one of our amazing Let's Play Music graduates!

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, November 19, 2024 | Red Balloons Lessons

Lesson #12

Next week parents attend and tuition is due for those making monthly payments! (Last one this semester!) 

We are heading toward the end of the year, which means we will be finishing up Red Balloons and moving to our Blue Bugs Semester. I’m so excited to start Blue Bugs! The time has flown by and I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching your children! It is amazing to watch as they learn concepts and develop skills that seem simple and fun to them, but are quite complex in their musical meaning, we just haven’t labeled them yet. We call this subconscious learning.
   
I hope you have enjoyed your ‘musical time,’ (aka play practice & music exposure) working with your children and helping them on their journey to not only develop lifelong musical aptitude but cementing skills and concepts that will serve them the rest of their lives. 

Who Took the Cookie?
This may seem to be a simple child’s game, but there is wonderful rhythm component. When you talk during the chant the child is learning to keep a steady beat and verbally respond to and anticipate the rhythm.

Chords in Pieces
Our ears were in training during this activity. The students were learning to hear and identify a right or wrong chord. So essential to developing the musician inside.

Puppet Show
Today we did something a little different. We identified instrumentation by listening to the butterfly kissing the flower! When the students can hear different sounds and instruments within a piece it comes alive and they become sensitive listeners.

Enjoy the following thoughts on why music is such a gift to your children. They are an insightful review of why music education is so important.   
   
3 Big Ways to Boost Your Child's Brain Using 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, November 12, 2024 | Red Balloons Lessons

Lesson #11

Thank you for coming to class and being such great parents. I hope you are enjoying this musical journey. I surely am. Remember, when you come to class, the kids may act a little differently than when they come alone. Your child may sit and watch certain activities, instead of participating that day. Or they may act worked-up and fidgety. Just remember these types of behaviors are normal and expected. As the teacher, I will always strive for and encourage active involvement but realize, at times, kids simply want to watch and then will participate the next time.
  
Everyone is progressing quite nicely. Even though some aren’t quite matching pitch yet, don’t be fooled. With consistent practice in class and home exposure, it will come! 

Baby Steps
We're starting to read from the staff!! AMAZING! This week we played a ‘baby step’ on the bells. We’ve been playing with baby steps on the staff up to this point, but today we added what it sounds and looks like on the bells! What discoveries were happening! It was fun! By learning to read notes—starting with learning note relationships, instead of note names—we accelerate the reading process, giving the students quicker success and accuracy. We will learn note names in 3rd Year, but for now we look mainly at up, down, steps, skips, and leaps.

  
Echo Ed
Echo Ed gave everyone the chance to independently sing the solfege patterns. Man, these are some smart kiddos! It is so fun to see their ears developing and getting smarter.
  
Solfege Patterns
Today we sang a MI RE DO or SOL SOL DO on command! They were able to do it without any hints! They have these patterns down now which shows you are exposing them to the patterns at home with your music playtime. Nice job parents!
  
DO is Home
We practiced singing “Do is Home” with no sound cues. They’re really starting to get it! Pulling a middle C out of thin air is what we are training the ear to do! The experts say developing perfect pitch isn’t possible, but we’re going to prove them wrong with learning at least one note perfectly!

Do, Re, Mi
We counted the notes of our major scale in class, but there is more to it than JUST counting notes. THIS counting is actually the scale degrees and is the beginning of labeling the roots of the chords, which we start to identify in 3rd Year. (We're sneaking in the learning!)

Read this short blog article on Musical Superpower: Perfect Pitch

Also, learn how babies develop perfect pitch! How to help your Child develop Perfect Pitch

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, November 5, 2024 | Red Balloons Lessons

Lesson #10

Parents come next week! Please remember that if ever you aren’t able to come to class please call or email to let me know so that everyone is accounted for. Thank you, thank you!
   
I just can’t tell you how great your kids are. I know I keep bragging about them, but they have been so much fun and truly such wonderful students. In the Red Balloon Student Manual it states, “Young children will assimilate the concepts I introduce in class ONLY if they experience repetition and consistency at home during the week.” I can tell you parents are really trying to create consistency. Because of this, you will produce great musicians and fine children. Kudos to you! 

Five Fat Turkeys
We introduced this song this week. It helps us feel that steady beat and soon we’ll find the SOL SOL DO hiding in it.
   
Baby Steps
The line to a space, or space to a line pattern tells us that we’re moving on the staff in baby steps. This week was exciting because we actually notated a baby step on the staff. The kids are “getting” it! It’s so fun to watch their minds take it all in!
   
Primary Chord Song
In class we played the autoharp independently - YUP! They played the autoharp all on the their own this week as we practiced the “Primary Chords Song”! So exciting!

This week we notated baby steps on the staff. So for fun, we'd like to encourage you to get some playdough and have your child make 5 lines, 4 spaces and then some notes. You can use different colors or the same colors. It's up to you. Then put the notes on the lines or spaces and see if you can make some baby steps!
   
Check out this video and see how this violin teacher helps her students with clay.
   

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, October 29, 2024 | Red Balloons Lessons

Lesson #9

Let your kids have fun coloring your new puppet show pages! You can download them from your student portal. Please let me know if you have trouble logging in! No parents in class next week.
   
The kids are doing great! Parents, thank you for being so consistent and supportive to your kiddos. You help me, as the teacher, to add another layer of knowledge each week because you have so nicely cemented the previous week’s concepts and skills. Keep up the good work! Your kids will thank you for this. You’re creating smarties!

Tuition is due today if you are paying monthly. If you can use Zelle, it will save me from paying Venmo fees (just use my phone number), but you are still welcome to pay that way if you want.

Hear How the Bells
When a child is introduced to harmonious sounds of music, a physical and emotional reaction. Harmony is an excellent stimulation which increases brain activity musically and academically.

Baby Step, Leap
We sing, dance, and notate on the staff board a step and a leap when we sing this song. The students are subconsciously learning intervals. In the second year, we will bring this knowledge to their conscious mind by labeling the steps and skips.
   
Waltz of the Flowers
Today I performed our new puppet show for the whole class! This activity helps train our ears to hear patterns and how music is put together. We call this classical form. Research shows that emotions are actually vibrations felt within the body. Music is also a vibration. Music helps us process our emotions by feeling them more deeply and more profoundly. As you come to class with your child, your shared emotional processing will lead to a greater connection, trust, and bond.
   
Echo Ed
We used Echo Ed to give the children a chance to independently imitate a melodic pattern. Singing develops the ear too!
   
Ooooo Halloween
Ooooo Halloween allows us to hear in our heads (audiate) the beats that aren’t played aloud. This activity subconsciously teaches the students how to feel a steady beat and anticipate the beat. It's so fun!

Click here to watch this video and learn interesting facts about the composer of the song Waltz of the Flowers! 

 

Also, I've added the Waltz of the Flowers Coloring book for you to download. Log in at www.musikandme.com and you can download and print these two pages out and let your child color the characters as you discuss their favorite part about the puppet show! (Don't forget to listen to the music while coloring!)

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 :)