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Here you can find all the information for the classes each week!
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Green Turtle Shells #5
Thursday, September 26, 2024 | Green Turtle Shells Lessons
Lesson #5
Thank you for coming to class this week and having fun with your child. They love having you there to cheer them on!
Just a reminder, if you are paying monthly, tuition ($75) is due this week. You can scan the QR code on the right with your banking app or use my phone number to pay via Zelle. You can still pay me with Venmo, I just have to pay transaction fees that way.
The kiddos are quickly learning the keyboard basics and moving right along quite nicely. You may be yearning to hear your little one playing beautiful pieces, but remember, this is not just a piano course. We are learning harmony, ear training, singing, and classical music. In time, it will all come together in a more complete and satisfying way than just playing a piece. Enjoy this journey with your child!
I have noticed that the red stickers on the back of the books are still on many of your children's books, which means they aren't on your keyboards at home! Please be sure you use the stickers (which are just electrical tape and should be easy to clean off when the time comes to remove them!) to help your child feel confident with the red chord. We'll be adding another chord soon and they should be confident in playing the red chord before then. Please let me know if you have any questions about placement.
Celebrate Connection
A few ideas to bring playfulness to practice time!
- Play one song an octave lower
- Play a song at T - U - R - T - L - E speed
- Play for your favorite pet or toy
DO is Home
In Blue Bugs, when we sang “DO is Home,” we were singing middle C to develop relative pitch. The students will be playing the piano this year in the key of C, so we want them to know the name of this note. We also experience and want to instill in them that DO can change and isn’t always middle C.
Kit Kat Keyboard:
Playing all the C's and then all the F's as fast as we can builds our spatial awareness of the keyboard (octave spacing). As the students form visual conclusions about the keyboard layout, they will become comfortable distinguishing all the white keys and developing a feel for the keyboard spacing. By playing all the C's or all the F's as fast as they can, they gain a feel for how far apart each letter key is from the next key of the same letter (an octave). Mix it up later in the week by racing the song up the keyboard, or racing down the keyboard. Suggest they look at their fingers, then look away or even close their eyes!
Old Paint
As your child plays this song, you can help them get a feel for which fingers need to go down by pressing the back of the keys while their fingers are in bubble hand shape. If the child is struggling with this or any song, the best way to assist is to press the correct key down at the top of the key near the soundboard. This way, we won’t interfere with the brain trying to send a neural message to the hand.
Sol Fa Mi Re Do
“Who sits on your SOL-FA? MI and RE eating cookie DO!” A catchy phrase to remember the new melodic pattern we are learning. Our big goal is to HEAR and Recognize and also to SEE and Recognize and PLAY the melodic patterns. We will begin playing Sol Fa Mi Re Do next week!
Sally Go Round
This is a fun game to play at home! Emphasize all landing together on BOOM! We are discovering kinesthetic energy, the energy of movement in time. Children have to learn to predict when they need to jump in order to land exactly on the BOOM, just as they need to be able to predict when to lift their hand to play the chord exactly on the beat. This game takes this skill to a full body involvement level.
How to Play Intervals w/Right Hand
We are training the ear to hear layers of sound with the aquatic canon, Solfege Seafriends. By studying each individual part, we will be able to hear them distinctly even when they are played together. This is a great skill that even most adults don't have! (Page 73 in the reference section of your homework booklet shows which sea animal goes with which musical part.)
Check out this fun example of a canon.
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)
Please text to let me know your child's favorite Green Turtle Shells song so far! That way I know you've read this newsletter!
Have a musical day!
-Ms. Bethany :)
Bridge #18A
Wednesday, September 25, 2024 | Bridge Lessons
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Here is what we did in class this week:
This week we will do the red highlighted assignments at home!
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!
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Brown Teddy Bears #5
Wednesday, September 25, 2024 | Brown Teddy Bears Lessons
Lesson #5
Have you found your child replicating a class activity or song at home? Wonderful! Reinforce his/her learning by participating in the activity together (sing along, play the game, etc.) These songs and games your child is learning in class will open up additional teaching and bonding opportunities at home.
Next week we'll sing these in class:
- The Four Seasons
- Here is the Beehive
- Snowman
- Echo Edie
- Major Scale
- Little Boy Blue
- Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
- Rocky Mountain
- Mulberry Bush
- Grizzly Bear
- Flight of the Bumblebee
- Lavender's Blue
The younger the child, the smaller the vocal range is for singing. Echo Edie helps students hear, experience, and explore high sounds in their “head voice” as opposed to their natural, speaking “chest voice” . Through vocal play, Echo Edie will help to extend your child's vocal range, learn to sing in tune, match pitch, feel the beat, and repeat rhythms.
By echoing Edie with high voices, your children are discovering their head voice (or upper vocal range), which is so important for learning to sing in tune!
Life skills, such as doing chores around the house, or taking care of our bodies, are an important part of preschool education. Singing about these routines makes them more fun.
Optional home fun activity: Cut out the Little Boy Blue cards on page 27 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 video of our new class story Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? read aloud!
Have a musical day!
-Ms. Bethany :)
Purple Magic #5
Tuesday, September 24, 2024 | Purple Magic Lessons
Lesson #5
Thank you for coming to class this week! It is so fun to have you in class with us!
Tuition is due this week and is $280 for the Purple Magic semester. You can pay via Zelle using my phone number (preferred, so I don't have to pay Venmo transaction fees). Zelle is a way to transfer money from your bank account to my bank account without needing to wait or pay extra fees. It's easy to set up through your bank and even easier to use once it has been set up. You could pay via Venmo @musikandme if you really can't set up Zelle. If you need to make monthly payments, rather than paying for the semester, it will be $75/month. (You will save $20 by paying for the semester up front!)
Next week is our first "Showtime" week! Rather than take up time in class, I'd like for you to send me a Marco Polo video of your child playing at home. This week's song is "Bounce and Roll". I will be assessing that they understand the skills being taught within that repertoire piece. I never give "grades", this is just to help me get an idea of each child's individual progress on a song, their playing ability, and will also help me identify any "problem" spots that might need a little attention.
Celebrate Connection
- Play a different pattern each day for our "Let's Play Music" song and have your parent guess which one it is... then switch and have the parent play and child guess which pattern it is!
- Parent can use "V-fingers" when pointing to songs with different parts on the treble and bass clefs. Be sure you are sitting on the left side so your fingers don't cover up the music that is coming up. You can have your child do the V-fingers while you play as well!
Let's Play Music
Be sure your child is playing all five patterns. A different one each day is fine if it's a review, but if they haven't been doing it, they should play all five patterns every day.
Caterpillar Cousins
Remember that playing in parallel motion is not easy! This piece is not meant to be played quickly, but the focus should be on technique. Your child should be playing it with proper form (bubble hands) and play as evenly as possible, with "laser beam eyes" on the music.
Say It, Then Play It
Using the purple flashcards, the student may play this game at home by saying the note they see, then playing it on the keyboard as quickly as possible. Keep in mind, this is a complex two-step decoding process: they see where the note is on the staff so they know what letter it is, then they have to transfer that knowledge to the keyboard. This is the process of learning to read music!
Magic Keys
This song is a multi-tasker! It helps us understand key signatures and chord theory, plus gives us the opportunity to practice our scales and cadences while self accompanying. Wow! Now that's complete musicianship! Check out this blog post! We will not actually play this for several weeks, but it is before lesson 9 (when parents are in class again) so it was demonstrated in class. This is a concept that will continue to sink in as the kids play the songs. They don’t need to understand it now. Remember, experience precedes learning. They experience the key signature by playing in it. Learning the words is the most important thing for now.
Cadences
When If your child is really struggling to reach the A-flat in the blue chord, have them drop the middle note and only play the C and A-flat. This will be easier for them to reach while still working toward playing the full chord.
Bounce and Roll
Since this is one of the first songs where left and right hand have independent rhythms, it is a good one to use "V" fingers while pointing in the book. This pointing technique helps the child to read the notes and line them up vertically with his eyes to understand what notes are played simultaneously and what notes are played alone. You can also use a highlighter to draw a vertical line through notes played simultaneously.
A Royal Problem
We learn so much from studying classical music. Understanding how music is put together will help us when we compose our own songs next semester!
Scratch My Back
When a cadence pattern doesn't make it back 'home' to a red chord, it gets stuck halfway on a yellow chord. This fun activity helps us not only hear, but 'feel' an unresolved half cadence with our whole body!
Everyone did a great job pointing out flat, sharps and naturals on their quiet keyboards in class this week. Here's an online version that you and your student can play at home (or on the go) any time, and here's a little 'accidental' humor for you this week.
Now that we have 'unbanded' all of the Treble Clef notes in our flashcards, you and your child will enjoy this Treble Clef parody of Taylor Swift's I Knew You Were Trouble!
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 :)
Red Balloons #5
Tuesday, September 24, 2024 | Red Balloons Lessons
Lesson #5
Thanks for coming this week! YOU are a vital part of your child’s music education. :) Please continue to listen to the music at home (or in your car!) so that the children are familiar with the songs. It makes class time so much more productive and fun if the children already know the music!
Just a reminder, if you are paying monthly, tuition ($70) is due this week. You can scan the QR code on the right with your banking app or use my phone number to pay via Zelle. You can still pay with Venmo, but it charges me transaction fees.
You’ll notice that the bulk of new concepts and skills are presented on Parent days. We want you to see how the activities are done so that you’ll know just what to do at home. If ever you have questions however, feel free to contact me.
Student behavior - I feel so lucky to be teaching such amazing students! You have brilliant, eager students that are so receptive at this age. I love teaching them and can't wait to see them next week.
We had a lot of new stuff we learned this week! Below are a few highlighted activities and their purpose.
May There Always Be Me
We taught the kids to feel their heartbeat and introduced the concept of keeping a steady beat. This is important when you're teaching a child to internally feel the value of notes.
A-Hunting We Will Go
We identified the MI RE DO pattern and sang it independently. The solfege patterns are important in training the ear. All the patterns we will learn in Let's Play Music have a strong cadence pull to DO. When the ear hears these patterns over and over again they aurally can start predicting where the music is heading. Patterning plays a major role in the construction of music.
Chords in Pieces
We actually read music today! Well, our eyes followed a chord map, and we sang the broken chords. I'm feeling so smart....yeah! The chord map is there to guide the eyes to see the color as their ears hear the chord in the music and their finger points on the beat to each chord. This eye-ear connection will train the ear to associate the sound of each chord with its color.
Ding Dong, Ding Dong
Correctly imitate pitches is important in learning to sing in tune, which puts us on a path to becoming a complete musician.
The Staff (Great Big Red Balloon)
It was so fun to identify the 5 lines and 4 spaces on the staff today!! We are taking time to let the kids visually familiarize themselves with the single staff. We used our Red Balloon song to accomplish this! This activity helps the children begin to visualize the staff, which will help them gain a feel for staff relationships.
We LOVE having our parents come to class on parent day. It was so much fun singing our lullaby and rocking back and forth feeling the steady beat of the music. Music is healing and can help us feel emotions. Music is powerful and every child needs music in their life. And not just for the reasons and benefits we normally think of as music educators.
Read Carson's story and witness how the power of music aided in healing a traumatic event in his young life.
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 :)
Categories
- Bridge Lessons (13)
- Brown Teddy Bears Lessons (12)
- Green Turtle Shells Lessons (12)
- Purple Magic Lessons (12)
- Red Balloons Lessons (12)
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