Tuesday, November 5, 2024 | Purple Magic Lessons

Lesson #10

Thank you to those of you who sent Marco Polo, text or email videos of your Showtime songs. It helps class get started much faster if I don't have to hear each student play during class time. It's not too late to send a video of any/all of the Showtime songs we have done so far, if you haven't already. Even if I heard them during class, it's still fun to see them play and to be able to compliment their progress.

We discovered that the reason playing a scale with both hands together is so tricky is because the "pop" comes at different times on each hand. It is perfectly fine to practice one hand at a time a few times to get a feel for it before putting them together. 

Finding F from C is as easy as singing "DO, RE, MI, FA" and then we know where F is! If C is DO, then F is FA! (I've demonstrated this frequently with no extensive explanation as we prepare to sing "Let's Play Music" at the beginning of class!)

Celebrate Connection

• Close your eyes and run your finger over your music then stop and open your eyes. Start from wherever your finger landed and play through to the end.
• Blink each time you play a chord. Then the parent can blink whenever they hear a chord!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
This familiar childhood song is a great way to learn about theme and variation. You can still hear the main theme in each of the variations, it is just sort of disguised in different ways each time. As we continue to study this song throughout the semester we will discover that it is ALSO written in our classical ABA form, and will help our fingers play in an extended C position. 

C Major Scale hands together

Thanksgiving will be here before you know it. Our Let's Play Music Blog has some fun ideas for a few Turkey extras your whole family can enjoy! Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is one of the most popular English nursery rhymes. It combines the tune of the 1761 French melody "Ah! vous dirai-je, Maman" with an English poem, "The Star", by Jane Taylor.
    
It is often thought that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was the original writer of this melody. Reinforced by its appearance as a "correct answer" in the original edition of Trivial Pursuit and "Snapple Facts" (among others), many believe that the song was written by Mozart when he was four or five years old. Mozart was this age at the time the original French melody was written. Much later in his life, he did write a lot of variations on the original theme-- which we hear on our CD! I told the kids I'd give them a special treat if they can tell me exactly how many variations there are! They will need to listen to their music to find out! 

Check out this parrot singing his OWN variation of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!

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 :)