Thursday, January 30, 2025 | Yellow Arrows Lessons

Lesson #4

Parents attend next week and tuition is due for those of you who did not pay the semester up front. You can use Zelle (using my phone number) or Venmo (@musikandme).

Please add your yellow stickers to your keyboard so they look like this. We have now learned the yellow chord, which is played with fingers 5, 3, and 1 on the left hand. We "glue" our thumb down and slide fingers 3 and 5 down by one baby step. Please be sure your child practices using the correct fingers! (In left hand we use the same fingers as the red chord!) Your child needs to be confident with left hand chords alone before attempting to play both hands together. We would like success, rather than frustration!

Within the next month we will start enrolling for next year. If you have friends or family that you want on my waiting list to start 1st Year, please share the link ASAP so I can get their information before I begin open enrollment up to the general public.

Please respond to my survey so I know what days/times work for you for next fall! I want to be sure you have a class! Here's the link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScoOpytQHGi9c2Ggj7sAH-XW7ipGDH-5b3p1R1UiSp-zhX2cg/viewform

Celebrate Connection

A few ideas to bring playfulness to practice time!

• Have a contest between yourself and your child to see who can play the most transitions between the red and yellow chord with the left hand in 30 seconds! Have your child try to beat his/her own record!
• Practice chord transitions from red to yellow with your eyes shut! Use your ears to tell you if you are playing the right notes. Make sure you always use the correct fingers for each chord! (5, 3, and 1 for both chords.)
• Guess the chord. Have your child play a chord and you guess which color chord it is. Then switch roles and have your child guess what you are playing!

C Position & Middle C Position
We learned where the RH and LH rest on the keyboard for both of these positions. With C Position the RH Thumb (Finger 1) is on Middle C and LH Pinky (Finger 5) is on Bass C. With Middle C Position both Thumbs (Fingers 1) share Middle C. We liken this position to a butterfly. The two thumbs resting on middle c together are the butterfly body and their hands are the wings. Are their soft wings (fingers) resting gently on the keys? Don't forget your "BUBBLEFLIES!" (That's bubble hand butterflies...I made that up myself!)  

A fun review is to chant each position, simply moving the LEFT HAND back and forth. Practice in the air, at the kitchen table, in the car running errands, and of course on the piano! 

Caterpillar Song  
This week when we played Caterpillar Song in class, I was SO impressed with how well the kids "glued" their fingers to the keys! This song is only meant to be fast if fingers aren't flying off the keyboard. Remember, CATERPILLARS DON'T FLY! Please be sure the kids practice this way EVERY TIME they play this song. Having good "BUBBLEFLIES" (for this song especially) will help them develop the correct habits that will manifest themselves in all our other songs!

C Major Scale
We learned how to play UP the C Major Scale (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do) with our LEFT HAND. We don’t have enough fingers to play this scale, so we learned how to POP our bubble hands and then reset them to complete the scale. Practice this SLOWLY to ensure that your child plays this correctly. 1) Play Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol with 5-4-3-2-1 fingers with a rounded bubble hand. 2) To play La, POP finger number 3 over the thumb. 3) Reset the BUBBLE and proceed to play La, Ti, Do with finger numbers 3-2-1. Sing the scale with finger numbers: 5-4-3-2-1-3-2-1. 

Don't have them try to play down yet, just UP.      

I am Robin Hood
Enjoy ‘drumming’ the slow slugs on the piano with the interval of a 5th using Left Hand Bass Clef fingers 5 and 1 when practicing this song. Sing the melody together while parents drum along on laps, the edge of the piano, clap along to keep a steady slug beat or drum with any can, canister, or container from around the home. Switch places so parents can play and kiddos can drum!      

Do You Want to Build a YELLOW Snowman?
This bottom heavy snowman built with a 3rd on the bottom and a 4th on the top is melting from the YELLOW sun! We play this chord with fingers 5-3-1. Place Left Hand in C Position. SLIDE Finger 5 (pinky) and Finger 3 (middle finger) down one baby step while Finger 1 (thumb) stays put. Now time your musician for 30 seconds and count how many bass clef Yellow Chords they can play!

C Major Scale Left Hand

Middle C vs C Position & Review Caterpillar Song

We call our new puppet show “The Pirate Ship” but the real title is Hungarian Dance No. 5 by Johannes Brahms. The Hungarian Dances are a set of 21 lively dance tunes based mostly on Hungarian themes. They are among Brahms' most popular works, and were certainly the most profitable for him. Each dance has been arranged for a wide variety of instruments and ensembles. Brahms originally wrote the version for piano four-hands and later arranged the first 10 dances for solo piano. The most famous is Hungarian Dance No. 5.

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, January 29, 2025 | Pink Piggies Lessons

Lesson #4

Even young infants benefit from the interactive nature of Sound Beginnings classes. A baby’s hearing is fully developed and the brain is highly sensitized and wired for learning. Studies indicate multiple benefits of interactive musical play in very young children:

• better developed early communication skills
• earlier and more sophisticated brain responses to music.
• earlier ability to imitate and match pitch
• accelerated language acquisition

To name just a few!

Next week we'll sing these in class:

• Ten Little Pennies
• Picaflor
• DO Pentatonic Scale
• Little Turtle
• How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?
• March of the Toreadors
• Uno, Dos, Tres
• A Rum Sum Sum
• Hush Little Baby
• This Little Piggy

In order to develop muscle strength, balance, and hand-eye coordination, children need opportunities to practice these motor skills, and to have interested adults and other children participate with them. Smart Moves dances provide an optimal whole-body movement experience with the added bonus of exposure to classical music. While increasing their physical capabilities, children are also training their ear to hear musical elements such as theme, dynamics, and phrasing.

Optional home fun activity: Color the ‘March of the Toreadors’ on page 15          
(Remember, these activities are optional but can be a great bonding experience to do with your child during the week.)  

Want to see the instruments that play our Bullfighter's Dance song? Check our this video!

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:
	Little hands need to be strong in order to perform life and learning skills such as dressing oneself and writing. In class, students gain finger dexterity and hand strength as they participate in finger plays to favorite nursery rhymes and manipulate tactile props and instruments.

Have a musical day!        
-Ms. Bethany :)

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 :)

Tuesday, January 28, 2025 | Blue Bugs Lessons

Lesson #4

Just a reminder that parents come next week & tuition is due for those of you who didn't pay for the semester up front.
  
Thank you for all of your consistency the last few weeks! I found myself singing solo this week on a few songs. We are going to be learning a lot of new songs in the coming weeks. So, make sure the music is being played daily in your home. Even while the kids are playing and/or not really focusing on the music itself, they will internalize what is happening in the background. Their brain has the ability to listen and take it in. Remember, they are designed to extract information from their confusion rich environment!! Daily music exposure is so important for so many reasons. If you don't get to it during the daytime, let them quietly listen to the music as they fall asleep. If you have questions, let me know!
  
In case you need some help remembering the chords in pieces, there is a reference under the focus concept to remind you which color matches with which pieces.

Within the next month we will start enrolling for next year. If you have friends or family that you want on my waiting list to start 1st Year, please share the link ASAP so I can get their information before I begin open enrollment up to the general public.

Please respond to my survey so I know what days/times work for you for next fall! I want to be sure you have a class! Here's the link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdFOK8x1nAVeCZe5Kmer7dKzu6N-dPuS9011FakQp-FGtAVjg/viewform

Jungle Rhythm
Today when we played Jungle Rhythm, we moved to a steady beat, divided and subdivided a beat and it was all done through play! Your students didn't even realize they were subconsciously learning how to perform rhythms! Now this is how music should be taught!
  
Bill Grogan's Goat
This song has great musical value. We feel the beat and clap on the internal (non-sung) beats. Every time we "play" this activity the students are internalizing how to organize rhythm into time. This is a very complex music skill, but can be done at such a young age!
  
I've Been to Harlem
Teaching the ear to hear and distinguish between ‘happy’ (major) and ‘sad’ (minor) chords is our objective of this song. We can teach a child to compose their own music based on how they are feeling and how they want the listener to feel. This concept builds sensitive music listeners and caring intuitive individuals. Yep, your right... music actually teaches life lessons and builds character!

Identifying minor songs is a majorly important skill! Read why here...
  
Also, watch this video with your student about major and minor!  

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, January 23, 2025 | Yellow Arrows Lessons

Lesson #3

Use this week to get your left hand red-blue chord transition solidified before we add the yellow chord next week. We should be getting to the point where we can play this transition with our eyes closed and even hands together! (that's tricky because the fingering is different for the RH than the LH. Only try it hands together when the muscle memory is solid in each hand separately).
   
Here are some practice tips to change things up. The winter blues might be setting in! Try putting red and blue stickers or candies on the keys that should be played for each chord. After practicing them a few times, they get to keep the stickers or eat the candies. Have a parent play through the practice and kiddo watches to be sure mom or dad is getting it right!

Celebrate Connection

A few ideas to bring playfulness to practice time!

• Play "Freeze ad Thaw" - Parent or child will say "start". Child will play until parent randomly says "freeze". Child will freeze until parent says "thaw". Then trade places.
• Play your chords with a small washcloth or towel over your hands. Can you do it without peeking? Use your ears to tell you if you are playing the right notes. Make sure you always use the right fingers for each chord!
• Name that tune! In how few of notes can you name a song?

Caterpillar Song
WOW! Our caterpillars are getting smoother and steadier with this 5 finger pattern! As your child progresses playing this song, watch for these 4 things:  

1. Bubble Hand- at beginning and end of playing, but eventually throughout. Visualize fingers stuck in bubble hand position with honey, caramel, glue, Velcro, etc. to keep them from flying away!
2. Strong Independent Fingers- strike the key and make sure that finger comes up when you strike another note. Sing finger numbers with hands together.  
   
3. Smooth Sound- indicates finger strength and coordination. Remember SLOW is the way to GO!  
   
4. Steady Rhythm- fingers 1, 2, 3 are stronger and they like to go a little faster. Singing and emphasizing finger numbers 5-4-3-2-1-2-3-4-5, Ca-Ter-Pill-Ar, and the lyrics out loud will help keep a steady caterpillar.

Turtle Shells 
This week we focused playing the “Turtle Shell” intervals with the left hand. Everyone agrees that it’s harder than the right hand! Using fingers 4 & 5 is tougher than using 1 & 2. Before playing, warm up with “Where is 4? Where is 5?” then have your child play the interval (a 2nd) with fingers 4 & 5. Repeat for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th. If he masters the intervals with the left hand, play hands together. Enjoy a little twist on the classic game Twister to reinforce and strengthen those finger numbers.  

Love Somebody  
We LOVE when our parents play along with us! Share more love with your child by playing and singing the melody an octave higher or accompanying together with the chords using the CD. Ask your child to teach your family the ‘LOVELY’ game that accompanies this song!  

I am Robin Hood 
"I am Robin Hood" is used to introduce quarter rests and the dotted quarter - eighth note pattern. The philosophy that feeling a "pulling" feeling will promote correct performance of that particular rhythm pattern, is brought to life in a playful way through the "pulling" of arrows. The open 5th in the left hand is a particularly satisfying sound to young children, resembles the sound of drums and is easy to play! 

Teaching our students to read music using steps and skips leads to more fluent playing and better sight-readers. Echo Edna helps our students in class be able to recognize steps and skips on the staff, sing them, AND play them. Simon Says to Step or Skip is a fun game to practice this concept at home. You can print and cut out the cards in the student download portal, or make your own and shuffle them in two different piles (one with step/skip and the other with up/down). ‘Simon’ chooses any note to start on, then chooses one card from each pile and invites the other person to follow those directions. After a few rounds, switch roles. Did you do as Simon Said? A fun way to add tactile and visual reinforcement is to use small pencil top erasers or any small toy as a starting note and then step or skip with another one. It’s so fun!

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 :)