Lesson 7

Great playing this week! I loved seeing C position, Firetruck dings, and red chords! We even listened to the minor chord! Isn't it scary??? And guess what? Our students can now recognize all of the Red, Yellow and Blue chords in notation, and it won't be long before they play them, too.

Don't forget to listen to the album and let your children play along to the accompaniment tracks! (Numbers given below). Thank you so much for your diligence at home! Your children are progressing nicely! Thanks for the sacrifices you make at home and getting them to class! It is worth it!

Celebrate Connection
A few ideas to bring playfulness to practice time!

• Put sticky notes over sections of the song and number each sticky note 1-6. Roll a die and remove the sticky note of the number shown on the face of the die. Play that section. Repeat, and play all measures that are uncovered. Continue until all stickies are removed and play the whole song.
• Hold a funny face throughout the whole song, then switch with your parent.
• Sing the melody of a song while pointing along to each note (you can do even do this laying on the floor or couch).

Homework: p. 30–31 Students will color chord triangles and identify chord shapes.

Three Blind Mice #26
We can play a Mi Re Do! How fun to be able to play along with the accompaniment tracks! This repetition is great for strengthening fingers and training ears to hear a melodic ostinato! Make sure they are singing along and playing with the accompaniment tracks to make this even more valuable. If you or anyone plays the guitar, or ukulele, have a jam session and sing along!

Turtle Shells #20
It’s important to understand that a 2nd does not have to always be a C and a D. Any two adjacent white notes are a 2nd. The same thinking goes for 3rds (skip one white key) and 4ths (skip two white keys). Knowing how intervals look on the staff, how they are spaced on the keyboard, and how they sound when played is invaluable ear training and staff reading knowledge!

Here's a great, quick video from our Making Musicians Blog on using "laser beam eyes" while following the notes on the page as you play! The goal is to keep our eyes on the book rather than our fingers which helps draw the correlation between what is written and what is being played.

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!