Tuesday, August 27, 2024 | Red Balloons Lessons

Lesson #1

What a great class this week! Thanks, parents, for coming and supporting your students. I can tell we are going to have a  great year, great students and great consistent parents that make it happen! Thank you for singing along and doing the hand actions during class, this helps the students stay focused and builds a musical bond between you and your child. When they see that you enjoy music, they do too! 
  
Just a reminder for next class…

1. Parents don’t come next week (because it's an even numbered lesson), which means totes & bells don’t either. Just send your kids in WITH THEIR HOMEWORK BOOK and they will be ready 45 minutes later.
2. Remember in 1st year the practice process is all about fun and ongoing practice through play. Forget about the typical rigid "we are now practicing" approach to teaching children music. Put out the bells and let your child play with them. Listen to the music everyday in a natural way (bedtime, while in the car, etc.). Once a week sit down and do the theory homework. That's it! It's a piece of FUN cake.
    
3. Listen to the class music! The kids get so much more out of class when they are fully participating (which includes singing)!
   
4. Tuition is due this week and is $280 for the Red Balloons semester. You can pay via Zelle using my phone number (preferred, so I don't have to pay Venmo transaction fees). Zelle is a way to transfer money from your bank account to my bank account without needing to wait or pay extra fees. It's easy to set up through your bank and even easier to use once it has been set up. You could pay via Venmo @musikandme if you really can't set up Zelle. If you need to make monthly payments, rather than paying for the semester, it will be $75/month. (You will save $20 by paying for the semester up front!) 

Melodic Patterns             
Many activities in the first semester will concentrate on repetitions of certain melodic patterns. The first is MI-RE-DO. We will sing it, do solfeg hand signs, play it on the bells, see the notes on the staff, and feel it with our full body! The songs this week that have this pattern in it are: Let’s Play Music, Red Balloon, Do Re Mi, Three Blind Mice, and Frog in the Middle.
             
Steady Beat
A steady beat is an essential part of becoming a complete musician. We learn to hear, feel, identify and then reproduce a steady beat with every song in Let’s Play Music, but it is specifically addressed this week in Tambourine Train and Echo Ed. Establishing a steady beat is the precursor for hearing and playing different rhythms. You can’t read rhythms if you can’t keep a steady beat.
             
Minor 3rd Interval (helps to sing in tune)
Hickety Pickety and Echo Ed are key pieces in learning to match pitch. For a child to play and create music they must be able to hear and then reproduce what was heard. Using the minor 3rd SOL-MI and simple rhythmic variations we train the ear to identify what is being heard. 

Magical Lamp
Puppet shows use different characters to guide the child’s ear to identify motives, phrases, and themes. Students gain an educated appreciation of classical music, creating an intelligent listener.

Playing the Major Scale on the Bells

Click HERE to read why ear training is important and why it should be part of your child's music education.

Also, I've added the Magical Lamp 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 :)