New This Week -- Lesson 13

Lesson #13

1. Sing Harmony Using Melodic Patterns: We put mi, re, do and sol, sol, do together to discover that they are beautiful played/sung at the same time.

2. Hear Layers of Sound: As we sung sol, sol, do and mi, re, do together we differentiated between two melodies happening at the same time, creating two layers of sound.

3. Reading the Staff: Today we actually read music! Truly! We looked at whether the notes went up or down and then played them accordingly on our bells. Not bad for our little 5 year olds...way to go!!

4. Staff Visualization: In order to internalize the image of the staff, we need to be able to visualize it in our minds. Having the children close their eyes and imagine where the balloon was helped us accomplish this.

New This Week -- Lesson 12

Lesson #12

1. Identify and hear the sound of a wrong chord: We learned that when you play the wrong chord it doesn't sound very good. A verbal cue for this would be, "Did your ears tell you that I was playing the wrong chord?"

2. Verbally respond in rhythm: With the song "Who Took the Cookie?" we learned that not only do notes have rhythm, but words do too. This is paired with keeping a steady beat.

3. Identify Instrumentation: During the "Waltz of the Flowers" song we differentiated and identified classical theme and instrumentation. While you listen to the song ask your child if they can point out when the butterfly kisses the flower.

New This Week -- Lesson 11

As a reminder we DO have class next week!! Can't wait to see you!

Lesson #11

1. Play a 'baby step' on bells: We played a baby step by playing the very next bell. A good dialogue to practice this at home would be, "You can play any two bells that are right next to each other - because that's a baby step!"

2. Imitate solfeg pattern: Now that we know all of our signs backwards and forwards we are learning to sing them in various patterns. Echo Ed was our special helper with this today.

3. Sing 'mi, re, do' or 'sol, sol, do' on command: We are learning to identify not only what these patterns look like but also what they sound like. Producing these sound patterns on their own then translates to identifying these patterns in everyday songs that are heard. (ie, Three Blind Mice)

New This Week -- Lesson 10

Lesson #10

1. Five Fat Turkeys: We asked focused listening questions. "What happened to the turkeys? Did they get cooked? Why not?" We'll be listening for the sol, sol, do pattern next week, but for now we worked on getting acquainted with the song.

2. Learn notation of a baby step: A baby step goes from a line to the next space or space to the next line. We learned to identify what this looks like on the staff. This cannot be practiced enough! We will use it over and over in the future.

3. Play the Autoharp independently: Using the Primary Chords Song each child got to play the autoharp on their own. And they did AWESOME!!

New This Week -- Lesson 9

Lesson # 9

1. New Puppet Show:

The new puppet show is called “Waltz of the Flowers” and the song is from The Nutcracker, a fairy tale ballet. The composer is Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Ask your student some fun questions about it. Did they like it?

2. Baby Steps and Leaps:

Baby Step: 2 notes that move up or down just a little bit. They sound close together.

Leap: 2 notes that move up or down a lot. They sound far apart.

Understanding this concept is CRUCIAL! We use it over and over again in 2nd and 3rd year. Be sure to really focus on cementing this early on!

3. Independently imitating a melodic pattern. Since the voice is a child's first instrument we will help him learn to play it correctly and in tune. Research shows that before first grade, every child should be able to sing in tune. With this exercise we help them to get there and build confidence in doing so -- all while playing!

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