Thank you, parents, for attending today! Please note, there may be a typo in the "Play Piano" section of the practice this week. It says to play p. 4 of Turtle Shells, but it should say p. 5. This week, place the red Stickers on the bass C, E, and G for the Left Hand (LH) and remove the Right Hand (RH) stickers IF your child is ready. Think of the stickers as training wheels — we wouldn't use them forever but they're a great help when getting started! Celebrate Connection Focus on making practice time as fun and loving as possible — give your child warm, friendly eye contact, smile with your voice, be a little silly, show you are relaxed and happy to sit with your child, and look for the good in your child's effort. Notice the joy in your child's eyes. Verbalize the good you see and hug your child often. This is the beginning of the practice relationship that will be essential to your child's success in Let's Play Music. The more you invest your energy into positive interaction, the more solid and successful this habit will become. Homework pp. 4–5: Students trace the clefs and fill in the chord notes. Left Hand Finger Power through Bubble Hands & Turtle Shells This semester we will focus on strengthening our left hand finger muscles! Use Bubble Hands to strengthen and reinforce finger numbers. Thumb is 1, Pointer is 2, Middle is 3, Ring-man is 4, and Pinky is 5. LH pinky is on C, the bottom red dot. Playing Turtle Shells with the music album will ALSO help strengthen those fingers. Look closely at the music on the page and it will help you know what finger numbers to play. Do You Want To Build a Red Snowman? The Left Hand Red Chord looks like the right hand Red Chord: stacked up nice and neat with a 3rd on the bottom and a 3rd on the top in a snowman shape. Use LH finger numbers 5-3-1 (finger 5 on bass C, the bottom red dot). Invite your little musician to play Old Paint with the left hand this week! Caterpillar Song The proper hand position for this technique song is Middle C Position where both thumbs SHARE Middle C like a BUTTERFLY! Since both red chords are shaped like a snowman, how do we know which hand to play it with? By looking at which CLEF is on the staff. Introducing Treble and Bass Clef! The TREBLE CLEF has a lot of curls, like "Girls Curly Hair, (say it in a high pitched voice because those are the high notes that we play with our right hand). The BASS CLEF looks like "Father's Strong Arm and some fathers like to play bass-ball!" (say it in a deep voice because those are the low notes that we play with our left hand). You can download the Pirate Ships coloring book below. Enjoy coloring together while listening to the music!
Thank you for a fantastic Station Day wrap up to our Green Turtle Shells semester! The Yellow Arrows schedule can be found on the website: Calendar. Lesson 1 starts on Tuesday, January 17 — with parents again!. The goal for students now is to be able to recognize and play all chords (red, blue, and yellow) in RH with fairly quick and smooth transitions. Celebrate Connection This week, focus solely on celebrating all your child has learned and accomplished these last three semesters.
Holiday Ensemble Fun ways to incorporate the entire family with a Holiday Sing & Play-a-Long!
Here is one more Christmas Carol to add variety to daily practice and spread Holiday Cheer!
Next class is Station Day!!! Parents do attend. I am sooooo excited for Station Day! I have been preparing for the last couple weeks and spent several hours this weekend prepping so everyone will have so many fun activities to enjoy! Station Day is always a favorite for the students. You and your child have the opportunity to come and review the many musical concepts and skills we have learned during GTS. This review will help prepare us for Yellow Arrows. Please come with your child during their regular class time. I will have several learning stations set up, and you can move through those stations at your own pace in any order. Plan to spend 6–7 minutes at each station. One of the learning stations will be with me. We will discuss your child's many accomplishments, I will give you their progress report, and I will give you their YA materials. We are going to have so much fun celebrating everything we've accomplished in GTS! Be sure to bring your phone/camera into class for the Photo Booth! To help class run smoother, I will give instructions right at the beginning of class and hand out your Celebration Cards (used to keep track of completed stations). We will wrap up with “Let’s Say Goodbye!" Celebrate Connection A few ideas to bring playfulness to practice time!
Chord Transitions
Mom, did you know I can play my chords with my eyes shut? The goal is to have their eyes on the music while they are playing as much as possible, with only quick glances at their fingers. With their favorite song, invite them to memorize it and "see" the chords in their minds while they play with their eyes closed. Holiday Songs The holiday songs in the back of the songbook are great practice to reinforce chord transitions while being entertaining for your student and family. These songs will add cheer to the holidays and festivities and they will help solidify the transition between ALL of the chords in the right hand before we begin Yellow Arrows. Jingle away! |
Clara McDonaldAs a music educator of 25 years, my passion is infusing others with music! Archives
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