Thank you for coming and for your ongoing support. Your children LOVE to have you next to them in class! Next week is Showtime for Twinkle, Jingle Bells, and Away in a Manger. For Twinkle, Twinkle, have your child focus on one 'variation' to play for you — maybe they can even come up with their own minor or fancy variation. Here is one of our very own Let's Play Music graduates playing their 'snazzy' variation of Twinkle Twinkle. There will be a Theory Quiz during Lesson 14. Have no fear — I will walk students through each part of it during class! We want to celebrate all that they have learned this year so far. And to help with celebrating, we will enjoy Station Day for Lesson 15 (parents attend again) in a couple weeks. Homework: p. 44–45 Students practice writing the chords in their HW Booklet and then transpose Jingle Bells to the Key of F in their Songbook. (They don't need to play it yet.) Away in a Manger This repertoire piece is a fun one that uses a unique hand position of both hands in the treble clef. It's kind of a bonus song along with Jingle Bells. We will show off that we understand the skills in class, but don't forget these fun songs and keep working on them over the semester break. Check out these musical 'play on words' for you and your 3rd year student to decipher together! With the holidays approaching here is a Gift-Buying Guide for Musical Kids. For my convenience, I have preloaded content for the whole semester. I will update each future post with specific time-sensitive info before I send the link each week. If you choose to read ahead you might see details that don’t apply to your child’s class. For this reason I do not recommend reading ahead. Thank you!
Next week is parent week and tuition is due on the 20th! It is also Showtime for Turkey in the Straw. Please send a video (Marco Polo) of your child playing either their favorite part (about 4 measures) or the entire song. I love seeing your children play by themselves! As we continue to work on melodic dictation, students continue to develop their listening ears to help them determine what is being played. This program truly develops the complete musician! And now that we are working in the key of F Major, students are practicing drawing flats (B-flat in this case) in addition to treble clefs and notes on the staff. Just a head's up: Parents attend for the last lesson of the semester which is Station Day! Station Day offers a chance for me to meet one-on-one with you both (parent and student) to celebrate your child’s accomplishments thus far! Just like last year, students will enjoy a sort of “progressive dinner” approach to several stations set up in the studio to enjoy and review skills learned throughout the semester. Let’s Play Music is a results-based program and Station Days are a fun tradition to highlight and celebrate those accomplishments. It is also a fun reminder that we are halfway through the process that is working to develop complete musicians! Homework: p. 42–43 Students draw on the staff: bar lines based on the time signatures, B-flats, double bar lines, and write in counts under each measure. Jingle Bells Our fun Holiday song gave us a chance to add chords to a melody. Just like learning any new language, after you speak it, you learn to write it. Once our fingers get comfortable with playing it we will have another opportunity to transpose from C Major to F Major! Try this fun improvisation activity at home during your break, and sing all the things you're thankful for! Play as explained in the video, or switch it and sing a melody and then add the chords that sound nice with it. If you get stuck, try fill-in-the-blank lyrics like "I am thankful for _______." or leave out the 'thankful' part and just sing two words like "____ and ____" (pumpkin pie and ice cream/music and piano/family and friends and especially YOU!) For my convenience, I have preloaded content for the whole semester. I will update each future post with specific time-sensitive info before I send the link each week. If you choose to read ahead you might see details that don’t apply to your child’s class. For this reason I do not recommend reading ahead. Thank you!
Next week is Showtime for Song of Joy. Students can choose their favorite part of the song to play for me — just 4–8 measures please! Send me a video via text or Marco Polo. Thanks! I enjoyed watching each student play their 'bug' scale hands together this week! Encourage your child to keep practicing. No one played it 'perfectly,' so everyone will benefit from continuing to practice. Also, be sure to start using a metronome when your child practices. This will help them keep a steady beat — a skill that is critical to being a top notch musician! Students can also play along with the accompaniment tracks (#14–37 on the album) to keep a steady beat. We are continuing to work on absolute pitch and relative pitch by singing middle C and then finding F from it. We also played Let's Play Music and Turkey in the Straw in the key of F. F position is coming easily now! These kiddos will be transposing so easily due to their interval and solfege understanding and execution! In class we started taking melodic dictation. I played a few musical notes, and the students had to listen and figure out what they were hearing, then decode how it should be written. We will continue developing this aural perception skill throughout the rest of the school year. We also played a little bit of Twinkle, Twinkle (pg.22) : As we start to play this first theme, remind your student to stretch their right hand into the "Blue Chord" position to touch 'G' with finger 4, and 'A' with finger 5. Then when coming back down, slide your thumb from 'D' to 'C', and you'll be back in C position again! Homework: p. 40–41 Students practice drawing Red, Blue, and Yellow Chords in their HW Booklet. Then they need to play the melody of Jingle Bells to determine which chord should be played in each measure and write in the chords on the blank bass staff. Wow! What great ear training! Turkey in the Straw This repertoire piece will have us playing the melody in the right hand and NOW the left hand as well. It will also give us another opportunity to practice our transposing. Your student is doing some pretty impressive stuff! Thanksgiving will be here before you know it. Our Let's Play Music Blog has some fun ideas for a few Turkey extras your whole family can enjoy! For my convenience, I have preloaded content for the whole semester. I will update each future post with specific time-sensitive info before I send the link each week. If you choose to read ahead you might see details that don’t apply to your child’s class. For this reason I do not recommend reading ahead. Thank you!
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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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