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Here you can find all the information for the classes each week! 
Select the class your child is in to see all the posts so far for your class!


Brown
Teddy Bears
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Balloons
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Turtle Shells1710465964496.png		 Purple 
Magic

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Bridge

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Red Balloons #8

Tuesday, October 22, 2024 | Red Balloons Lessons

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Lesson #8


myzelleqrcode.pngParents come next week and tuition is due for those that didn't pay for the semester up front. 


We are having so much fun in class. I can’t believe how easily the kids understand the musical concepts we are learning. Remember, every song has a purpose. We aren’t just playing with barnyard animals and catching foxes to take up the time! Each activity we do has a musical skill and/or concept connected to it. As the teacher, I’m always striving to have fun with each activity, but making sure the kids feel the steady beat or hear the SOL SOL DO hiding in the last part of the song. Your student is subconsciously internalizing these things and they don’t even know it! Don’t you wish all learning could take place this way? I just love this curriculum!

 


Taking Baby Steps
Our purpose here is to imitate rhythm and reinforcing the concept of lines and spaces on the staff.  

Identify Solfege Patterns by Sound
I threw both a MI RE DO and a SOL SOL DO into our Let’s Play Music song and your student got to identify which one I was singing. Those ears are getting smarter everyday!  

Puppet Show
Today we performed the puppet show with our full bodies! We had fun learning the themes over the last 8 weeks. Next week we'll introduce a new puppet show.  

Ooooo Halloween
This is a great song for teaching internal rhythm. It helps us feel the internal beat while no music is sounding so each student will develop their own "sense of time." Feeling a metronome in their head and body is important when developing the full musician inside!



 Our world is full of rhythm. The waxing and waning of the moon, the ebb and flow of the tide, the very passage of time itself are all controlled by predictable rhythms. As humans, we spend nine months before birth listening to the rhythmic beating of our mother’s heart. The rest of our lives are lived out against the backdrop of our own rhythmic breathing. 
  
Our speech and movements are naturally rhythmic. Whether we are walking, running, swimming or dancing, rhythm permeates our lives to such an extent that we rarely think about it. It is virtually impossible to walk without some sense of rhythm. It is of no wonder then, that rhythm is often seen as the most important building block of music and that developing an accurate sense of rhythm is central to all music-making. Children love to move their bodies and this is one of the earliest musical skills they develop, swaying to the music, clapping and dancing. Simple activities and games involving dance and movement are therefore ideal as a starting point for this all important skill. Marching in time to music, drumming, clapping games and chanting rhymes are all quick and fun activities that young children will enjoy and gain instant gratification from. 
  
Also, parents if you have the time, read this article about how music improves babies brain responses. If you haven't done the Halloween activity, here it is again! 
  
Try this FUN rhythmic exercise about Mosquitos! (video)  https://youtu.be/AY-KjQ0ebAo


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 :)email_signature-1.png

Bridge #19B

Wednesday, October 16, 2024 | Bridge Lessons


Hello Bridge Families!


Here is what we did in class this week:
  • We learned about Charles Gounod
    • His most famous song is Ave Maria
    • He wrote the song we use for our March of the Gnomes puppet show
  • We practiced pencil pointing while counting out loud to our rhythms
  • We learned the key of D minor
    • There is just one flat, a B♭
    • D minor is the relative minor to F Major
    • The fingering is the same as a C scale, but there is a black key on the 6th degree


  • Land of the Silver Birch Triads song uses these same triads
    • In this song, we play the V chord MAJOR, rather than minor
      • To make a chord major, we move the middle note UP a half step
  • The kids were each given a primary song they will get to play for the recital at the end of the year (in addition to the song they will compose). 
    • Each child got something that they should be able to manage with some practice, but it shouldn't be too difficult. 
    • If they would like to sing the words to their song, just let me know and I'll give them a copy with lyrics. 
    • Here is a web page I made with all the primary songs and the MP3s so you know what they sound like.
    • Your child is welcome to learn any of the other primary songs AFTER they have learned their own song.


This week your child will do the blue highlighted assignments at home! Parents, please initial the whole page so your child can get their reward in class!

I have added additional flashcards to my Quizlet collection. You can access those on my website, or through Quizlet.com. I have also added a few sets to the "Repertoire" section of the Student Portal. Please let me know if you are using these resources so I can continue adding to it! Also let me know if you can't get them to work! (Sometimes things work fine for me as the teacher, but not so well for the students and I have no way of knowing if nobody tells me they aren't working!)


Don't forget to please help your child pass off their songs and scales to earn pins! You just need to send me a video of them playing. The scales can be played with or without the back track, but they need to be perfect at least one time with both hands.


Please let me know if you have any questions!


Have a musical day!                        
-Ms. Bethany :)

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Green Turtle Shells #7

Thursday, October 10, 2024 | Green Turtle Shells Lessons

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Lesson #7


Great playing this week!! I loved seeing C position, Firetruck dings, and red chords! We even listened to the minor chord! Isn't it scary??? And guess what? Our students can now recognize all of the Red (snowman), Yellow (bottom heavy) and Blue (top heavy) chords in notation, and it won't be long before they play them, too.   
    
Don't forget to listen to the Green Turtle Shells class music and let your children play along to the accompaniment tracks! (Numbers given below). Thank you so much for your diligence at home! Your children are progressing nicely! Thanks for the sacrifices you make at home and getting them to class! It is worth it!   
    
Celebrate Connection    
A few ideas to bring playfulness to practice time!   

  • Put sticky notes over sections of the song and number each sticky note 1-6. Roll a die and remove the sticky note of the number shown on the face of the die. Play that section. Repeat, and play all measures that are uncovered. Continue until all stickies are removed and play the whole song.
  • Hold a funny face throughout the whole song, then switch with your parent.
  • Sing the melody of a song while pointing along to each note (you can do even do this laying on the floor or couch).



Three Blind Mice (track #26)   
We can play a Mi Re Do! How fun to be able to play along with the accompaniment tracks! This repetition is great for strengthening fingers, and training ears to hear a melodic ostinato! Make sure they are singing along and playing with the accompaniment tracks to make this even more valuable. If you or anyone plays the guitar, or ukulele, have a jam session and sing along!   
    
Turtle Shells (track #20)   
It’s important to understand that a 2nd does not have to always be a C and a D. Any two adjacent white notes are a 2nd. The same thinking goes for 3rds (skip one white key) and 4ths (skip two white keys). Knowing how intervals look on the staff, how they are spaced on the keyboard, and how they sound when played is invaluable ear training and staff reading knowledge!   


skills_video.pngHurry, Hurry, Drive the Firetruck


skills_video.pngThree Blind Mice w/ Mi, Re, Do


skills_video.pngSolfege Seafriends Notation & Harmony



Here's a great, quick video from our Making Musicians Blog on using "laser beam eyes" while following the notes on the page as you play! The goal is to keep our eyes on the book rather than our fingers which helps draw the correlation between what is written and what is being played.


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 :)email_signature-1.png

Brown Teddy Bears #7

Wednesday, October 9, 2024 | Brown Teddy Bears Lessons

Lesson #7


Even young infants who do not show outward signs of learning are actually gaining from attending Sound Beginnings. A baby’s brain is highly sensitized to stimulus and will develop synapses based on the type of input received. Social engagement, pleasant interaction, movement, sounds, and patterns occurring in music will all stimulate the infant brain and enhance development.


Next week we'll sing these in class:

  • Weather Bear
  • Here is the Beehive
  • Baby Bumblebee
  • Name the Instruments
  • Snowman
  • Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
  • Baby Bumblebee
  • Flight of the Bumblebee
  • Old Brass Wagon
  • You Are My Sunshine



The development of the singing voice grows from a child’s natural desire to imitate. Children may sing spontaneously because it is joyous, playful, personal, expressive, and creative. By age 4 or 5, many children have developed their singing range; typically from the pitches of middle C to treble C. Sound Beginnings songs are designed to fall within children’s natural range.


Our transition activity allows us to feel steady beat and experience subdivision!


When children engage in pretend play they develop cognitive flexibility and creativity.


Optional home fun activity: Color the Weather Bear and cut out his clothes on pages 21-25 in your workbook      
(Remember, these activities are optional but can be a great bonding experience to do with your child during the week.)  


Here's a fun video of The Flight of the Bumblebee played on piano with a fun visual of all the notes that are in this fast song!


And I found this and just had to share because I thought it was so funny!


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:
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Research has shown that singing improves reading. Our classes prepare children for kindergarten by exploring concepts and skills such as name recognition, alphabet and phonetic awareness, counting, identifying colors, rhyming, telling time, and sequencing.

Have a musical day!    
-Ms. Bethany :)email_signature.gif

Bridge #19A

Tuesday, October 8, 2024 | Bridge Lessons


Hello Bridge Families!


Here is what we did in class this week:
  • We reviewed that chords can be any shape, but it is the pieces that matter!
    • We color coded our song on page 16 of the blue songbook based on what number the chord is, rather than by its shape. 
      • Red is always the I chord (1st scale degree) 
        • In the key of F, the root is F
        • In our song, these are the top heavy chords (2nd inversion)
      • Blue is always the IV chord (4th scale degree)
        • In the key of F, the root is B♭
        • In our song we don't have any bottom heavy chords (1st inversion)
      • Yellow is always the V chord (5th scale degree) 
        • In the key of F, the root is C
        • In our song, these are the snowman shaped chords (root position)
  • We learned a new chord in our Hanon #1 song on page 5 of our red technique book!
    • The second chord on the bottom line is iv
      • This is the only minor chord (lower case roman numerals) that we play in this chord progression, the rest are Major chords (capital roman numerals)
      • We will refer to this new chord as the Purple chord
      • It is only one note different than the red chord, but the fingering is different for the middle note!
        • RH fingering is 1, 2, 5
        • LH fingering is 5, 3, 1
      • It feels EXACTLY the same as the fingering for a yellow chord, BUT your bottom finger (5 in LH and 1 in RH) stays where it is and the other fingers move up from when you play a red chord.


  • Have your child practice going back and forth between the red and purple chords and between the purple and blue chords
  • We reviewed our different Chord Progressions for the song "Canon in C"
    • Have your child experiment with the different styles at the bottom of the page while playing the chords in the order they are in the box in the middle of the page.
    • I made a recording of how each variation sounds as they are being played. You can listen to them here!
      • There is a track for hearing each style one time each and another track that has each style played two times in a row.
      • Have your child play along with the recordings!
      • The 3rd style is detailed out individually because it's the one the kids liked the most.
  • The kids all got to perform something they were proud of in class today!
  • We reviewed our tempo terms and listened to songs that go along with the different speeds
    • Largo: very slow 
      • New World Symphony
    • Andante: walking speed
      • Waltz of the Flowers
    • Moderato: medium speed
      • Skaters
    • Allegro: fast
      • Hoedown
    • Presto: very fast
      • Flight of the Bumblebee
    • You can hear all of these examples in a file that is in the Online Resources area of the Student Portal on my website (www.musikandme.com). You will need to be logged in (at the bottom on a phone or in the right panel on a computer) to be able to get to this file. It is called "tempo examples-slow to fast" and you can play it directly from the website once you get to it.


This week your child will do the red highlighted assignments at home! This week is a very easy week, so please be sure your child is getting 5 tally marks on each red item! It won't need to be initialed this week, but if the tally marks are there, they will earn a treat!

I have added additional flashcards to my Quizlet collection. You can access those on my website, or through Quizlet.com. I have also added a few sets to the "Repertoire" section of the Student Portal. Please let me know if you are using these resources so I can continue adding to it! Also let me know if you can't get them to work! (Sometimes things work fine for me as the teacher, but not so well for the students and I have no way of knowing if nobody tells me they aren't working!)


Don't forget to please help your child pass off their songs and scales to earn pins! You just need to send me a video of them playing. The scales can be played with or without the back track, but they need to be perfect at least one time with both hands.


Please let me know if you have any questions!


Have a musical day!                      
-Ms. Bethany :)

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