• We learned the order of sharps, which are always added in a specific order!
  • Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle
  • F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, B#
• We learned to play a song that will help us remember the sharps & flats order
  • To hear what it sounds like, you can click here!
  • The first half of the song is for the sharps and the second half is for the flats.
  • This week we only need to learn the first half of the song.
• We played different variations of the Heart and Soul chord progressions AT THE SAME TIME! To pass this song off, I'd like to see a video of your child playing a fun variation of the chord progression at least 3 times in a row. If someone wants to play a duet by playing the melody at the same time, that would be fun to see as well!
• By now the kids should be really good at Bull Fighter's Dance so it's a great one to get passed off this week by sending me a video!
• We practiced playing different rhythms with different instruments
• We learned about Frederic Chopin and a little about the Romantic Period.

This week we will do the blue highlighted assignments at home! This week a parent will need to initial the boxes to show that all the work has been completed! I will only be giving out prizes after the second week of each lesson. That way you can have 2 weeks to complete each actual lesson if necessary. I think it will be less confusing this way because they don't really complete any of the sections the first week.

Don't forget to 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.

• We reviewed our pitch relationships with "bug, bug" which went "DO, RE, DO, ME, DO, FA" etc.
• We tried singing from the hi DO (treble C) and went backwards!
  • DO, TI, DO, LA, DO, SOL" etc.
• We practiced listening to rhythms and writing them, we wrote a D-Major scale, and we sight read in our songbooks
• We reviewed our letter names on the floor staff
• We reviewed inversions (root, bottom heavy, top heavy, root)
• We learned a few more things in the key of D-Major
  • Chord Progressions, Arpeggios, and Inversions

This week we will do the red highlighted assignments! You don't need to initial the books until the second week. I will only be giving out prizes after the second week of each lesson. That way you can have 2 weeks to complete each actual lesson if necessary. I think it will be less confusing this way because they don't really complete any of the sections the first week.

Don't forget to 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.

• We reviewed our pitch relationships with "grasshopper, bug" which went "DO, DO DO RE, DO, DO DO ME," etc.
• We practiced write, listen, and read in our songbooks
• We reviewed triads and scale degrees
  • red, blue and yellow chords are the I, IV, and V degrees.
  • triads are made from our skipping snakes
  • skipping snakes can be checked by singing our "Treble, Bass, Line, Space" song
  • our Dinosaur Triads song has all these triads in it
  • a pattern of chords that is repeated is called a "chord progression"
• Heart and Soul is made from the chord progression 8(1), 6, 4, 5 repeated over and over.
  • by following the instructions on p. 30 of the songbook, we can add improvisation to the song to make it more interesting
  • the melody can be played on top of the chord progression as a duet
• We learned the key of D-Major
  • there are 2 sharps: F# and C#
  • the fingering is the same as a C scale, but there are black keys
  • Lavender's Blue Triads song uses these same triads

We will be simplifying how we do homework. The activities the kids will work on the first week of each lesson will be highlighted in red and the activities that will be worked on the second week will be highlighted in blue. The kids will highlight these in class, but I'll attach the worksheet here each week with the colors on it, just in case you have any questions.

They are expected to get 5 tally marks on each row for the week that is highlighted. It is definitely best to get one tally mark each day, not 5 tally marks all on the same day. If they get the page filled out completely and bring it back with parent initials on each section, they will get a treasure from the treasure box. They should be able to do that every other week! But it has to be initialed!

The kids will now have the chance to earn pins for all the songs they pass off. These pins can be attached to their tote bags to show off how awesome they are! There will be pins for all the repertoire songs we've learned so far and all the scales, triads, progressions, arpeggios & inversions in the different keys. To earn these, all they have to do is send me a video of them playing it. You can send a text video or Marco Polo. I will make the pins after they have passed the songs off and give them to the students the next class. It will be fun to see how many pins the kids earn by the end of the year!

Here's all the pins they can earn!