 Wow! What a fun lesson #6 was. I was blown away with your children's compositions this week! Everyone came to their private lesson with an idea of what they wanted to do. Some even had it notated on their staff pages for me. (Thank you moms and dads!) It was fun dreaming up ideas of what was to come next. Every student felt successful and happy with what they had accomplished. Please have your child play their piece for you and prepare to be amazed. Our compositions are not finished yet so encourage your child to keep working. Now that we have something on paper, encourage your student to continue practicing their composition and complete whatever notes from me I sent in the email. (i.e. finish filling in the chords or finish notating a melody line etc.) We will have another private lesson on Lesson 11. Let me know if your child needs a little extra help between now and then. Persuade them to start working on the next part of their song. Continue to add to your compositions. You’re on a roll, so don’t stop now! On From the New World, don't forget about the 'blue chord position' and special 'bass C' position that the LH will need to move to on pg. 15 of Part III. Here is a quick video to help with that. Homework: pp. 14–15 Students write the counts underneath each note in the treble clef. Be sure they also count out loud and play the familiar song!  Composition The composition is the culminating event for your Let's Play Music student! We have been experiencing, internalizing, and now labeling many things over our three year development as a young musician. We will rely on our knowledge of : major and minor, time signatures, chord uses and sounds, ABA song form, staccato and legato, theme and variations, block, broken, and marching chords, and MANY other skills that will help your child as they compose and create their own original composition.  Watch this video of a young prodigy composer who pulls four musical notes out of hat, improvising and composing a piano sonata in under a minute.
Thank you, parents, for coming this week! It was fun playing on our floor staff again. Remember, Scale Degrees are just a fancy name for counting the notes of the scale. We assign each note of a scale a number according to its relationship to DO (1). Musicians will usually use Roman Numerals to denote scale degrees but we are simplifying things for now and will introduce Roman Numerals later. Even though the students cannot play all three parts of New World at the same time, you (the parent) should be able to play a part or two with them at home. Have fun playing as a family ensemble! Next week I will meet with your child in their 1st private lesson to begin creating their composition. We have been working during class to brainstorm ideas we might like to use and have been encouraging 'tinkering' at the keyboard at home. Please encourage your child to be thinking about a musical question (and maybe an answer) that we could work on together next week. This could be a simple melody or some chords that they have written down, can play, or even just hum. This is only the beginning of this process, so I'm not looking for you to send a 'finished' product. Please send your child with their HW Booklet as well as their Orange Roots Songbook so we can look over their Composer's Corner activities together. Thanks! Homework: pp. 12–13 Students write in the scale degrees and answer questions. Be sure to use "1" for both low DO and high DO! Composition The composition is the culminating event for your Let's Play Music student! We have been experiencing, internalizing, and now labeling many things over our three year development as a young musician. We will rely on our knowledge of: major and minor, time signatures, chord uses and sounds, ABA song form, staccato and legato, theme and variations, block, broken, and marching chords, and MANY other skills that will help your child as they compose and create their own original composition. Magic Keys This is our 2nd song to graduate up with us from our purple semester. As we continue to sing (and play this song) we will further expand our understanding of key signatures and note relationships — this is the KEY in transposing music! Our new verse allows us to understand and play in the key of G Major. Click here for a quick video to help with practicing. I have also attached a parent help that dissects the lyrics to Magic Keys with visual examples and simple explanations to better help you understand the theory concepts I am teaching in class. 
Inspiration for composition can come in many ways. Here is a great story about a man who saw birds sitting on telephone wires and it inspired him to create his own composition. Can't wait to see where all of our students get their inspiration from! Excited to meet them all individually next week.
Reminder: Parents attend next week. We started working on chord inversions this week. Use the red stickers in 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 p. 10 of your HW Booklet. 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. We play the F Major Scale. The RH fingerings are unusual (no pinky). Here's a video to help. Help your child notice the difference between eighth and sixteenth notes by learning the new lyrics to Our Bugs Are So Fun! The 2nd set of rhythm flashcards can be unbanded this week. Here is a quick video help for the LH broken chords in Cockles and Mussels. Homework: pp. 10–11 Students write in the beats using the newly introduced "1 ee + a" counting method. 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 moves to the top 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 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. Click on the video link above to make sure you are setting up your red stickers correctly to be able to play this song with ease. 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 — and with some new lyrics! The new verse in 'Our Bugs are So Fun!' will help us 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.
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.
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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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