 How is your child’s mastery of Melodic Patterns and Chord Fingerings? Practice together p. 16 Melodic Patterns and p. 14 Primary Cadence with correct notes and fingerings in both hands! Celebrate Connection A few ideas to bring playfulness to practice time!
Homework pp. 14–15: Students identify all the Middle Cs with a red x, then identify the various melodic patterns by circling them with a specified color. These melodic patterns are used in SO many songs and students will benefit greatly in their future music making endeavors by being able to quickly identify and play them!  Melodic Patterns We get to PLAY all of the melodic patterns this week! Use laser beam eyes to SEE the notes, SING the patterns with the hints below, and PLAY with the correct fingers. Here are some helpful singing hints: MRD—Baby Steps Down SFMRD—Baby Steps Go-Ing Down SMD—Skip-Ping Down SSD—Same Same Leap-up SLTD—Baby Steps Going Up Can’t Bug Me Drumroll please…..Introducing BEAT BUG! “The BEAT is the BUG and the others play a long!” The Beat Bug sets the tempo on the metronome! He might go fast or slow but the beat is a ‘bug’ (quarter note) and the other rhythms (beetles, caterpillars, grasshoppers, butterflies, slugs) follow and fit within that given tempo. Lullaby and Goodnight & Go to Sleep After we solidify the chord transitions in our lullabies, we will make them sound more serene and calm by stylizing them with broken chords. Feel free to invite your child to color the chords in their piano book to make this an easier transition. Primary Chord Song/Primary Cadence Time to put on a show for the family! Your child can play ALL chords with BOTH HANDS! Invite them to perform the chords Ray Charles style while singing the chords out loud with sunglasses on! Play them hands separate, then try hands together with the correct fingerings!  Why the importance of chords in piano playing? Kristi Ison, a Let’s Play Music teacher in Mesa, Arizona, shares the Top 10 Reasons for Learning Primary Chords!
Parents, thank you for coming today! Be sure to practice keyboard letter names with the Alphabet Pieces Game. Remember that students should be using the visual cue card in the back of their songbook, rather than counting up to find their notes. Celebrate Connection A few ideas to bring playfulness to practice time!
Homework pp. 12–13: Students fill in keyboard letter names and identify notes. Bass C and Treble C The 3 C’s are in a family; they have different first names and the same last name! We’ve known Middle C since last semester. This week we introduced Bass C and Treble C. Ask your child to sing "The 2nd Space is C in the BASS" AND "Space 1, 2, 3 is Treble C"! These anchor notes on the staff will help orient us as we expand our keyboard skills. C Major Scale Knowing Treble C, we can play the C Major Scale going DOWN. Begin with RH finger number 5 on Treble C. (The C above middle C.) Play Do, Ti, La, Sol, Fa (fingers 5-4-3-2-1) then POP finger number 3 over the thumb to play MI. Reset the BUBBLE hand and finish the scale with Re-Do (fingers 2-1). I am Robin Hood "Shoo-oot the Ar-row, Waa-atch it fly ...", teaches us how to feel and play the dotted quarter eighth note pattern right on target. To feel this rhythm more accurately, dance with the music, stomp out the rhythm with hands and feet, or even sit them on your lap and bounce your knees up and down to the rhythm while chanting the song together. Mix up practice with this song by playing the bass clef 5th an octave lower to really sound like a deep drum! Hickory Dickory Dock This song introduces parallel motion as well as following a steady beat using a metronome. Have students "tick-tock" their hands back and forth in the air to get used to the motion of play LH 5 and RH 1, then tipping to the other side for LH 1 and RH 5. Mr. Rest Could you believe all the musical symbols Old MacDonald had on his musical farm? A rest, though played with silence, is a very important aspect of music. Mozart said, “The music is not in the notes but in the silence between.” Rests are powerful! Playing the Alphabet Pieces game every day will help us solidify keyboard geography by learning the names of ALL of the white keys. Enjoy playing this game with its theme and variations!
Reminder: Parents attend next week. Be sure to put your yellow stickers on Bass Clef Notes B, D, G for the left hand. Celebrate Connection
Homework pp. 10–11: Students write the finger numbers on the keys for C position and Middle C position. We went over this several times in class but students can certainly use the Reference Section p. 55 to check out the answers. C Position & Middle C Position How can you tell the difference between these two hand positions? 1. C Position: RH Thumb (Finger 1) is on Middle C and LH Pinky (Finger 5) is on Bass C. 2. Middle C Position: both Thumbs (Fingers 1) share Middle C. We call it butterfly position! A fun review is to chant each position, simply moving the LEFT HAND back and forth. Practice in the air, at the kitchen table, in the car running errands, and of course on the piano! C Major Scale We learned how to play UP the C Major Scale (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do) with our LEFT HAND. We don’t have enough fingers to play this scale, so we learned how to POP our bubble hands and then reset them to complete the scale. I am Robin Hood Sing the melody together while parents drum along on laps, the edge of the piano, or on a pot. Switch places so parents can play and kiddos can drum! Students should enjoy ‘drumming’ the slow slugs on the piano with the interval of a 5th using Left Hand fingers 5 and 1 when practicing this song. YELLOW Chord This bottom heavy chord is built with a 3rd on the bottom and a 4th on the top using LH fingers 5-3-1. Place Left Hand in C Position. SLIDE Finger 5 (pinky) and Finger 3 (middle finger) down one baby step while Finger 1 (thumb) stays put. We call our new puppet show “The Pirate Ship” but the real title is Hungarian Dance No. 5 by Johannes Brahms. The Hungarian Dances are a set of 21 lively dance tunes based mostly on Hungarian themes. They are among Brahms' most popular works, and were certainly the most profitable for him. Each dance has been arranged for a wide variety of instruments and ensembles. Brahms originally wrote the version for piano four-hands and later arranged the first 10 dances for solo piano. The most famous is Hungarian Dance No. 5.
|
Clara McDonaldAs a music educator of 25 years, my passion is infusing others with music! Archives
April 2023
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed