Lesson 6

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!

• When the notes go up the keyboard, lean to the right; when the notes go down, lean to the left.
• Play (and sing) a song as *Forte* as you can!

​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.
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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!