 Thanks for coming to class parents! We enjoy having you. What a great way to bond with your child and what a gift you are giving them! If you haven't already done so, be sure to register and enroll today! Be sure to enroll now so you don't get stuck with an added processing fee of $10 after April 10th! P.S. If you know of anyone interested in Sound Beginnings (ages 0–4), 1st year Let’s Play Music (ages 5–6), or Presto (ages 7–12) classes for the Fall, please send them my contact information or direct them to the Infusing Music Studios website. Be sure they let me know that you referred them so you can receive your referral credit! $10 tuition credit for Sound Beginnings students and $25 tuition credit for Let's Play Music and Presto students once fall classes begin and they are enrolled. Homework pp. 20–21: Students write in the number of steps the other animals take for each elephant step. What a fun way to subdivide!  On Top of Spaghetti Learning to hear chord progressions as well as each part of a chord is a vital skill when becoming a musician. This song and activity is very rich in its musical lessons. We play the autoharp which allows us to have our hands doing two different things, and our eyes are looking at the chord map and reading music. We are hearing the chord progressions and then we sing each piece of the chord as each student points to their triangles. It's so fun! Drunken Sailor This folk song teaches musical form: We hear a repeating theme while we do the same dance movement back and forth. Then at the end of the phrase "...early in the morning" we hear a strong cadence pull to DO. A cadence is two (or more) chords found at the end of a musical phrase. This cadence has a strong pull to our ears that indicates the musical sentence has finished. This cadence trains the ear how music sounds when it is complete or finished. Fox Hunt - NEW puppet show! Our new puppet show teaches us to identify rhythmic patterns and learn about classical form. Classical form is when you identify the reoccurring melodic themes and label them. Understanding this concept will help your student in 3rd year to compose their own music! (See attachment below) Jungle Rhythms - spatial skills As your child sees how the Jungle Rhythm chart divides space and hears how the music divides time, they become aware of how the two correlate. This develops their spatial awareness. Seeing the Jungle Rhythm chart shows children what the written form of subdividing looks like. Can't Bug Me Today in class we clapped bug rhythms without seeing the bug cards. That’s right! We clapped our rhythms today using the ‘real’ music notation, without the help of our musical bugs. They’re smart little cookies!
 Our new puppet show was written by Gioachino Antonio Rossini, who was born on February 29 (leap year!), 1792 in Italy to a family of musicians. His father played the horn and his mother was a singer. He was just six years old when he joined his father’s band where he played the triangle. When he was only 10 years old, he was often asked to play the piano and sing at their church. At that age, he began composing and soon became the most celebrated composer of Italian Opera. Our puppet show, “The Fox Hunt” is from the William Tell Overture. This famous piece has been imitated (top video) and heard in various "rock-n-roll" forms (bottom video) all over the world!
Parents come next week. Let's celebrate together the accomplishments of our fabulous students! Be on the lookout for an email with details about the End of Year Recital. Make sure to register online and then go to the Let's Play Music website to enroll your student and purchase their 2nd year materials. Enroll now to avoid the added processing fee of $10 added after April 10th! P.S. If you know of anyone interested in Sound Beginnings (ages 0–4), 1st year Let’s Play Music (ages 5–6), or Presto (ages 7–12) classes for the Fall, please send them my contact information or direct them to the Infusing Music Studios website. Be sure they let me know that you referred them so you can receive your referral credit! $10 tuition credit for Sound Beginnings students and $25 tuition credit for Let's Play Music and Presto students once fall classes begin and they are enrolled. Homework pp. 18–19: Students connect skipping notes with a green line and stepping notes with a purple line. Are You Sleeping? This song reinforces the solfege hand signs. Very soon we’ll sing in a round, letting us hear multiple layers of music. Hearing music in our head and being able to stay on the part we are singing is a great skill for musicians to learn. B-I-N-G-O Who knew BINGO had such rich music concepts to learn from? When we sing it, we feel the quiet internal beats and learn to anticipate when to clap. Chords in Pieces - audiation (hear in your head) As we sang “Chords in Pieces” we left out some of the chords and audiated them in our heads instead of singing them aloud. Again, much of the learning in 1st year is subconscious and unseen. The musical development that is happening to your little musician right now won't be seen by the naked eye, but will be harvested down the road! Bug Rhythms We mixed up the order of the bugs and with no verbal cues we sang and clapped the bug rhythms. Your amazing kiddos were able to do “Can’t Bug Me” perfectly. Wow, they are learning so quickly! It is easy to underestimate the significance of solfege. It helps us label something abstract like notes, uses whole body involvement, helps us understand scales and key signatures, aids in learning about intervals, helps us sight read/sing music, and so much more! Click here to read about the many reasons why we use solfege in Let's Play Music!
Thanks for coming to class this week! You’re amazing parents! It’s a miracle what can happen when small and simple things occur on a daily basis. Keep up the good work! Don’t forget that a child’s first instrument is the singing voice. Singing in tune while listening to the music is a fantastic way to internalize pitch, intervals, chords, and chord progression. Keep listening (and singing!) to the Blue Bugs music! Registration for next fall has begun. Check your registration email for details! Enroll now to avoid the added processing fee of $10 added after April 10th! Homework: pp. 16–17 Students trace solfege patterns and write them on the staff. I've Been to Harlem We took out the Do, Mi and Sol bells and played them all at the same time to create a "red" chord. We called this happy or "major"! I then changed the MIDDLE bell to make the sound sound sad or "minor". It's important for them to know that the MIDDLE note is the one that changes this sound. We are training the ears to recognize the difference between the two tonalities which helps us to recognize that music can help touch our emotions and influence those listening to music. Dinosaur Song We learned this new song today where we identify notes going up or down by moving our bodies and singing. The more senses you use as you learn the more your brain cements and internalizes the concepts. Sleep, My Treasure This lullaby increases the student's expressive awareness and reinforce major verses minor sounds. How To Skip In this activity we learned how to play steps and skips from notes written on the staff. Yes, we were reading music by looking at the relationships of the notes. Looking for the patterns and relationships of the notes to each other is the optimal way to sight read music. For a fun twist as you listen to our new "Sleep My Treasure" song, you can invite your kiddo to rock a stuffed animal while they listen. This helps them with keeping a steady beat, internalizing the beat and expanding their musical expressive awareness. So many great things from one little activity!
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Clara McDonaldAs a music educator of 25 years, my passion is infusing others with music! Archives
May 2023
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