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 :)