Tuesday, January 28, 2025 | Orange Roots Lessons

Lesson #4

Parents come next week and tuition is due for those of you that didn't pay for the semester up front. You can pay through Zelle (using my phone number) or Venmo me (@musikandme). 

We started working on chord inversions this week. Use the red stickers on the cover of your child's homework booklet to help them easily jump from inversion to inversion. Starting on Middle C, put 6 red stickers on your keyboard at home as shown on Lesson 4. of your student manual. The stickers should be placed on middle C, middle E, middle G and treble C (the C above middle C), treble E and treble G.

Please, please make sure your child is using the correct fingers listed in the book. I made a chart for quick reference:

We learned how to play the F Major scale! We play the left hand the same as in a C Major scale (don't forget the B-flat)! The right hand is DIFFERENT! We learned a fun chant to help us remember what fingers to use:

For going up: 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4. Different than I played before!
And for going down: 4-3-2-1, 4-3-2-1. Wow, my F scale's lots of fun!

Do NOT have your child play hands together until they can do both LH and RH independently! We want them to feel successful, not frustrated!

We reviewed that eighth notes have one beam (the horizontal line) holding them together. They get half a count when bugs (quarter notes) get one. They are counted out loud: one and two and three and four and. 

Sixteenth notes have two beams and they get 1/4 of a count. They are counted out loud: one ee and a two ee and a three ee and a four ee and a. We write this a little more simply (as shown in the homework). 

Be sure to look at reference pages 50 and 51 in your homework book if you need a little clarification. If you still can't make heads or tails of it, please ask me! I know this is just as new to some of the parents as it is to the students.

Cockles and Mussels

Here's a video of how the LH chords step up and stay in root position. It also shows how to play broken chords if your student would like something additional to work on!

Inversions / Mixed Paint

We actually HAVE played our yellow and blue chords in inversions--we just didn't realize it. We are now ready to take a root position chord and 'invert' it. This just means re-arranging the pieces. The chord is still CEG, but C moves to the top, then the E moves to the top, then the G and you are in root position again. We will play Old Paint in a new 'Mixed' up way to help us hear that it's still a red chord no matter matter if it is in root position, 1st inversion or 2nd inversion. No matter what the shape or order is, it just has to retain the same 'pieces' (in this case C-E-G) for it to be a red (C) chord. Be sure to add your stickers to your keyboard! (See diagram above!)
  
New World Symphony

Our Let's Play Music students have created harmony in many different ways in 1st and 2nd year. Now in 3rd year we have the unique opportunity to play as an ensemble in class to produce harmony and a much fuller sound than they can accomplish playing by themselves. By listening to the CD, the children are provided the opportunity to model and to audiate the music in their heads as they practice.
  
Our Bugs are So Fun! (new verse)
A few of our songs from our purple CD have upgraded to our orange CD--with some new lyrics! The new verse in 'Our Bugs are So Fun!' will help us to learn to count those tricky 'beamed' rhythms that include eighth notes and sixteenths notes! If counting in this new way seems tricky, I have attached a parent help that dissects the lyrics to Our Bugs are So Fun! with visual examples and simple explanations to help.

F Major Scale

Check out this young group of musicians experiencing the value of playing as an ensemble. Your student will recognize this piece as our very own Largo from New World Symphony by Antonin Dvorak.

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 :)