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 :)

Thursday, November 7, 2024 | Green Turtle Shells Lessons

Lesson #10

The students are mastering the fingering placement for the yellow chord and gaining confidence as they continue to have successful experiences in class as well as at home.
    
Blue Chord will be taught next week. This will be so much easier for the children if they are good at the red and yellow chords already! Please let me know if your child is struggling with this. I'd love to help!   
    
Celebrate Connection   
A few ideas to bring playfulness to practice time!

• Play with the practice tracks on your album.
• Play (and sing) dramatically and try not to laugh.
• Sing your song in a grandpa voice.

Red-Yellow Chord Transitions
Remember when playing songs with chord transitions, it's important that the whole hand NOT lift completely off the keyboard between chords. Students must then search to find out where it should land! Instead, remind your child for the red to yellow transition, ONLY the thumb should slide using fingers 1-2-5.
    
Bunny’s Birdhouse
The rat tat tats in Bunny's Birdhouse helps with independent finger movement, in which one finger alone must press down to play melody. It is important that the other fingers NOT lift way, way up off the keys (fly-aways!). Try to play with each finger gently staying on its key, so that the hand is always in C position.
    
Also while practicing the rat tat tats, the top note is a G which is on the 2nd line. When practicing you can sing 2nd line, middle C, 2nd line again OR 5-5-5, 1-1-1, 5-5-5-5-5. Or Sol-Sol-Sol, Do-Do-Do, Sol-Sol-Sol-Sol-Sol OR Number 5, Number 1, Number 5 Again! Sol or G should be played with finger number 5 and the middle C with finger number 1 or the thumb. The ending is a Sol-Fa-Mi-Re-Do played with descending fingers 54321.
    
Turtle Shells
Did you know that intervals can be played ANYWHERE on the keyboard? Any two keys right next to each other are a 2nd, skipping one key creates a 3rd and skipping two keys creates a 4th. Ask them to play for you a 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th anywhere on the keyboard. They are pros at this!

How to Play the Yellow Chord

BEEF, it’s what’s for dinner! Our new puppet show comes from a ballet named Rodeo written by Aaron Copland. Enjoy learning more about the composer and watching some excellent choreography while listening to the 4th movement of this ballet, Hoedown. Yee Haw!

And because we're playing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" now, here's a couple fun videos of just how fun it can be to CHANGE a few things about it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY9O4M8DS7c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsESxOwASuw

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 :)

Wednesday, November 6, 2024 | Bridge Lessons

Wednesday, November 6, 2024 | Brown Teddy Bears Lessons

Lesson #10

We are now three-quarters of the way through this semester. Time really does fly when you are having fun! If you are interested in continuing your musical adventure, be sure to register for next semester’s Pink Piggies class. Take advantage of the Early Bird Discount so you don't have to pay the $20 registration fee!   

Next week we'll sing these in class:

• Weather Bear
• It's Raining
• Name the Instruments
• Major Scale
• Down By the Bay
• March
• The Bear Went Over the Mountain
• A Tisket, A Tasket
• Old Brass Wagon

You may have noticed by now that a couple of our songs only have two pitches. Both ‘Fall is Here’ and ‘Snowman’ use the SOL-MI interval as it is the easiest interval for the child to learn to recognize, imitate, and sing in tune. Though this interval is part of the major scale, and therefore major in it’s tonality, it is a minor third. SOL-MI songs allow children to have successful singing experiences as they develop in-tune singing voices.

Our next semester of Sound Beginnings classes is Pink Piggies! We will be learning about money, Spanish, and farm animals. You will receive an email with information on how to get registered.

Optional home fun activity: Cut out the letter on page 31 in your workbook and play at home with your family!    
(Remember, these activities are optional but can be a great bonding experience to do with your child during the week.)  

Here's a video with a sweet big sister singing "You Are My Sunshine" to her little Down Syndrome brother. Near the end it shows her other brother singing along as well. SO CUTE!

Sound Beginnings is education through musical play! It prepares children for success in Kindergarten and Let’s Play Music. Sound beginnings provides research-based elements that stimulate growth in the areas particularly crucial to the development of the young child. These elements make up the foundation of the Sound Beginnings curriculum.  Here is just one:
	In class we experience steady beat and imitate rhythmic patterns with our voices, bodies, and through hands-on use of instruments. We incorporate Eurythmics, which is movement-based rhythm training that is perfect for toddlers!

Have a musical day!  
-Ms. Bethany :)

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 :)