Blue lesson #8

Today we worked a lot on playing steps, skips and leaps on our bells. We learned that anything MORE than 1 skip, is a leap. I asked the kids to practice the ostinato of "A Frog Went A Hoppin'" on their bells. To do this, they should go up and down their bells playing "Do-Sol-HighDo-Sol-Do-Sol-HighDo-" etc. If they can practice doing that WHILE singing, it works out their harmonization skills, as well as coordination, keeping a steady beat, and singing in tune. WOW!

We sang and rocked to "Sleep my Treasure". Echo Ed came out in a "minor" mood and we echoed his minor tones. We also compared a C major scale to a C minor scale. Everyone played "El Gallo" on the autoharp and did a wonderful job.

I am so proud of my adorable Blue Bugs!

Yellow Lesson #8

Greetings Yellow Indian Moms and Dads!

This week in class your kids played all of the patterns that we use at the end of our opening LPM song. These patterns are found on pg 14. Make sure they get into MIDDLE C position before starting to play the patterns. They are all also doing very well at playing their C major scale, and know right when to POP!

Echo Edna (who isn't grounded any more) "quizzed" each individual student this week on sightreading skips and steps. They did really really good!

'I'm an Indian' seems to be such a favorite song of theirs. This week we started the process of really playing 2 hands together. We started out playing our right hand (treble clef) while beating our laps with the left hand in the Indian Drum-slug beat. It takes some coordination and effort and PRACTICE, but soon they will all get it. What an accomplishment!

We learned that a downbeat is the first strong beat where we begin playing. In 'Lullaby and Goodnight' (pg 18), the downbeat is "by" in the word lullaby. They have been marching to the song 'When the Saints go marching in', and they start their march exactly on the word "saints" - because that's the downbeat!

Next week is lesson #9 and parents attend. Tuition is due next week as well. I hope everyone is healthy and avoiding all the "gom-boo" going around!

See you all soon.

Orange Lesson #8

I am excited to report that your kids have now played the piano in 5 DIFFERENT KEYS!! Yahoo!! Today we did an A Minor scale. It really isn't so hard, since there are no sharps or flats, and we use regular scale fingering. We've now played in C major, C minor, F major, G major and A minor. Holy Cow!! We're still just getting used to G major, and should always remember to play F# when playing in this key!

We reviewed and worked a lot on rhythms today and played "Musical Math". We also worked on finding the root of any chord, and tested their knowledge on which scale degree belongs to which chord. Did you know chords can be named in 3 different ways?? For instance, we can call our basic middle C chord: The Red Chord, C chord, or I chord.

We have a new addition to the Minute Club. Yippee Yahoo for Courtney!!

Every year, the ladies at corporate LPM hold a composition contest for 3rd year students. Prizes will be awarded! Here are the categories to give you a little motivation.

*Most original

*Best use of ABA form

*Best melody

*Best use of chords and chord variations

Keep working on your compositions. Don't hesitate to make changes. Also, call me if there are any questions, or if you need any guidance or ideas. Lesson #11 will be another private lesson where we finalize the songs.

Inversions: (pg. 6) Make sure your student is playing the inversions. There is no better teacher than experience. By playing these inversions, they are experiencing the theory behind it. This cannot be emphasized enough. Even if you are only playing the red chord with the RH, play it every practice session.

Next week is Lesson #9 and is PARENT ATTEND!! Tuition is due as well. Can you believe there are ONLY 5 MORE LPM lessons before your son or daughter is finished with the program? I am choosing to be in denial over this fact. I can't bear parting with your kids. I adore them too much!

See you all next week..

ORANGE LESSON # 6

Lesson #6 is a private lesson and boy are we having fun so far. (I've only seen half of the students at this point... More are coming tomorrow!) I have to say that I am THOROUGHLY impressed with what they have done. It is so gratifying as a teacher so see that what I've been teaching has sunk in! Every single student I've seen so far has put their knowledge to good use! I LOVE "MY" KIDS!!! SO STINKIN' MUCH!!

We have more "Minute Club" winners this week! Trey and Grace named all their flashcards in less than 60 seconds! Yeee-hah!

YELLOW LESSON # 6

This week in lesson #6, I did a lot of individual work with each student. I watched them throughout their chord transitions, and their scales up and down, and made a few corrections. Moms and dads, please watch your kids practice - at least the first couple of times after each class, to make sure they are playing correctly. The chord fingering is SO important. It's also important that they POP at the right time when playing scales. If you aren't sure yourself, please contact me.

I can honestly say that they ALL have the Indian rhythm down pat. Boy do they love that song! I have a mom last year who had 3 boys in the same 2nd year class of mine. They LOVED the song and played it nonstop. She told me she was going to shoo-ooot the arrow right at her own forehead if she had to hear that song again!! Funny!!

I asked the kids who was practicing their alphabet pieces game at home, and only about 1/2 of them raised their hands!! C'mon now!! They will get so much better if they know their keyboard geography and know exactly where those letter pieces go on the keys. Please be consistent in doing this for 2 more weeks. It will pay off I promise!

We played Lullaby and Goodnight in class. Many did a great job. If your child is struggling with this song, it might help to color in the chords on that page.

Happy Valentines Day everyone! I'll see ya real soon!

BLUE LESSON # 6

Today we had fun singing about El Gallo (the old rooster…he’s dead and won’t be saying cock-a-doodle anymore). It’s interesting to hear how children speaking other languages interpret the sounds that animals make! To learn the words to this song, I recommend you look up the lyrics in your parent manual.

The class detectives discovered a sol-la-ti-do in the song Bill Grogan’s Goat and learned to match the term MAJOR to songs that sound happy and MINOR to those that are sad, tired, or mysterious. They learned that to make a chord MINOR from MAJOR, that you change the middle note. We played this both on the bells, and on the piano. They are little sponges, and totally understood!!

While singing the Jungle Rhythms, continue to encourage your child to use his voice along with his hand actions. (chant "BOOM BOOM" for the elephant while stomping. chant "PUM PUM" for the lion - etc) This adds another dimension and will help him to stay on his rhythm. Next week we will be doing musical math!!

Happy Valentines Day my adorable Blue Bugs!!

Blue Lesson #5

Now that we can skip on the staff (line-to-line or space-to-space) AND on the bells (you get to skip OVER one bell) our melody reading is gong to get to be really fun! Pull out your bells sometime and play a skip up or down, and have your child figure out which ONE bell you skipped over. Also, play a skip without her looking, and see if she can tell if it goes up or down!

Aren’t those bugs so musical? Now that we’ve matched the rhythms to the bug pictures, show the note rhythm cards to your child and see if they can guess which bug it is (this is also the homework this week). Clap out the rhythms (be sure she uses her HANDS and VOICE simultaneously.)

Isn’t it fun to audiate the puppet show? While listening, quickly turn the music down low, and just SING the part that you know should be playing. After a few moments, turn the sound back up. Being able to hear the melodies in the mind is one of the skills that a person with “musical talent” has mastered. Yes, we can teach our kids to have talent! We added a dragon to the puppet show this week to add even more flair to the show.

By the way, I want to tell the dads in the Thursday 6pm class how AMAZED I am with them. They made class so fun. Thanks to all you parents who are so supportive. It will really pay off in spades. See ya soon!

Yellow #5

Get out your scissors! YES, I really want you to ACTUALLY CUT your music book. On the last page, you'll need to cut out all the alphabet letters and keep them in a small container or ziploc. Each day, play the alphabet game (put letters on piano keys) by looking at the diagram in the book. Encourage your child to find “E” by thinking “find a group of two and go up” NOT by finding C and counting over to E. Brush the papers forward onto a flat music book to catch them and clean them up.

Everyone did a nice job bubble popping today! I was pleased to see how quickly the cross-over we worked on for the left hand transferred to the right hand. As your child gets better at this, look for rounded fingers, fingers touching keys (not flying away), one note being played at a time, and finally…eyes up! Of course, those are end goals…not immediate results.

By now your child knows how to identify treble clef, bass clef, rests, Low C, Middle C, and (today) High C. As you’re sitting with him, ask “what’s this called?” or “can you find the Middle C’s?”

Keep up the good work! I sure am amazed by your kids. They are AWESOME!!!

Orange Lesson #5

I just love it when parents come to class! We had so much fun at Lesson #5. We started out doing our cadences in F major, as well as the scale in F major. This is a tricky scale because of the fingering! On the Right hand, make sure you never use the "stinky pinky" and your fingering is 1-2-3-4, pop! 1-2-3-4. Going down is the opposite, 4-3-2-1 pop! 4-3-2-1. It's also important to remember the good ol' B flat. ("Oh the key of F is a lovely key.......") To confuse the whole scale thing even further, the Left Hand fingering remains the same as C major. You pop after the 3rd finger. Have your kids practice one hand at a time, and then oh-so-slowly do both hands (when feeling confident!)

Speaking of magic keys - we added a new magic key! We sang the entire magic key song and learned about G position! To get into G position, move all of your fingers UP ONE KEY from F position. When in G position, we must always remember to use F SHARP! So many fun little rules to remember, huh? Soon it will be easy peasy!

Inversions CAN be difficult to understand, so we played a few games to help the theory sink in. If we start with a C triad, in root position, we spell out C - E - G. To get to the first inversion, the C jumps up to the next octave C. We then have E - G - C. Now we're not in root position. There is a gap on the staff. " The note above the gaps the root, it just has rearranged, bam bam bam" Where are my glasses??? It is still a C triad! To get to the 2nd inversion, the E jumps up to the next octave E. Then the G jumps up and voila!! We are back in root position! For 2 years now, your kids have been used to seeing a chord in root position as a red chord. BUT!! Now that they are older and wiser, they can be introduced to the fact that it is the root of the chord, and the notes in that chord that matter, not the way the notes are arranged in the triad. They might not understand this right away, but as they play the inversion exercizes on page 6 of their songbook, it will become more clear.

We also learned 3 different ways to NAME or SING a scale. First we sang solfeg syllables. DO-RE-MI-FA-SOL-LA-TI-DO. Then we sang the names of the notes of the C scale: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. Lastly, we sang the scale degrees. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8. In the C scale, C or Do is degree #1. If you look on pg 41 of the orange student manual - you will see a full explanation of this. This weeks theory assignment. The students will name the scale degrees in C major and F major. Please consult the student manual, or call me if there are questions.

Everyone was time tested with flashcards this week. I wrote down everyones times, and we will see if they are getting faster each week. Please make sure flashcards come to class each week. Bigtime congratulations to Bella, Preston and Daniel M., who made it into the minute club this week. Yahoo!!!!!

Next week at lesson #6, each student will have a private lesson. There are no regular class times. Everyone has been given a private lesson time. Contact me if you're not sure what yours is, or if you need to change it. I will email you a reminder a couple of days before. Please be prompt when dropping off and picking up your child. Also, please have them bring their composition booklet, which hopefully has a few measures of the song they've started.

Phew!! That's it for now. 3rd year sure is full of fun isn't it??