Lesson 12

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!