In the spirit of gratitude...

Since we are in the middle of the most wonderful time of the year, let us consider the blessings we've been given in having access to not only food, water and shelter but also the gift of music.  Music can change lives! What a gift you are giving your children!  Merry Christmas!

No Class Next Week

Hello friends!  I hope that your Thanksgiving is a fabulous one!  Just a reminder, there is no class next week due to Thanksgiving.  If your class is on Tuesday I'll see you on November 27.  If you're a Wednesday class I'll see you back on November 28.  Have a great break!

Sound Beginnings Registration!

It's that time again!  We are now registering for January 2013 Sound Beginnings classes!  If you would like to register your child for a Sound Beginnings class please fill out the registration form and return it to me with your registration fee.  Sound Beginnings is a phenomenal toddler class for children ages 2-4.  We learn music concepts, preschool and Kindergarten concepts and skills as well as telling time, alphabet, name recognition, numbers and more!  The best part is that we are playing and having a ball while doing it!  We use the same research-based techniques used in Let's Play Music: full body movement, utilizing the young child's ability to absorb greater amounts of information, group interaction, using music to teach music and of course FUN!  Please contact me with any questions that you might have!

Early Music Lessons Have Longtime Benefits

If you already knew that music contributes to a greater success in academics, keep reading.  This article published by the New York Times gives us information on some of the latest studies done that show that early music lessons continue to show their effects long into adulthood and even into senior years.  Their study shows a difference in attention and memory skills as well as picking apart linguistics and auditory abilities in dealing with hearing loss. It is SUPER interesting and gives you yet one more reason to give yourself a HIGH  FIVE for a job well done in getting involved with music!  To read the article go here: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/10/early-music-lessons-have-longtime-benefits/

Do you have to be a musician to appreciate music?

Do you have to be a musician to appreciate music?  Well, friends, the answer is no!  Any untrained ear can appreciate music.  Just take a look!  With just a little bit of instruction the untrained (human) ear can be taught to hear themes, dynamics, sequences, repetition, chord structure and so much more.  That's why we use "puppet shows" in Let's Play Music and "dances" in Sound Beginnings.  We are training these little 2-7 year old ears to pick up on all of these complicated things...and have fun while doing it!

Let's Play Music - featured on the news!

Hello out there!  If you have been wondering what Let's Play Music is all about here is a great video.  Let's Play Music was featured on the news!  Check it out and see what you think.  If it sounds like something you'd be interested in contact me to learn more.

What have you been doing this June?

Every June Let's Play Music holds a convention for all LPM teachers.  I'll be honest, it's a little hard to get there with coordinating schedules, taking time away from family, traveling, expenses, etc.  I really had second thoughts about going before I left, but let me tell you it was the BEST experience ever!  I left with even more excitement about Let's Play Music (if you can believe that!) and even more tricks and tips up my sleeve for running class.

It was a two day event, with one of those days being my birthday!  My team and I wore birthday hats and then the whole group of 150 + ladies sang me the most beautiful version of happy birthday that I've ever heard.  When you have so many musically talented people together it is amazing the music that they can make!  That was definitely one of the highlights of the trip and a memory that I will always treasure.  Here are a few of us on the way to our evening event.


I hope that June is wonderful for you wherever you are and with whatever you are doing!  Keep the music going!

The results are in!

The Daily Herald's Best of Utah County 2012 has voted Let's Play Music in the top three for Music Instruction!  Hip, hip, hooray!!  And if you still haven't heard what all the hype is about, check us out here:  letsplaymusicsite.com

Recital Success!

I'd like to give a great, big, giant thank you to all of the families of our Let's Play Music students!  The recital this weekend was a grand success!  Without you it would not have been possible for it to run so smoothly, or for your children to have learned so much this past year.  It was so fun to showcase some of things that we have learned and to show our families just how much fun it is to PLAY music!  That was a lovely conclusion to our LPM year.  I hope that everyone has a spectacular summer!  Stay tuned though....there will be more posts to come about my summer LPM experiences.  I cannot even wait!

Registration Almost Filled!

Hello out there in blogger land! I wanted to give everyone a final update that I only have 3 spots left for 1st year LPM starting in the fall. If you or a friend is interested in starting LPM next fall please hurry and get your registration form in to me. At the top of this page under "register for a class" you can fill out the registration form online if you like. Or, you're welcome to email me for a form. Make sure not to wait so that you can get the last spot!!

New This Week -- Lesson 14

Lesson #14

1. Sing a broken primary chord: We have gotten to know our primary chords and what they sound like while we sing them in our song. Now we remove the context of the song and sing the broken chord independently with the hand signs. The kids did awesome with this today! They are really getting these concepts!

Since we're nearing the end of our semester (only 1 more lesson!) we are really working on getting ready for our recital on April 28. Please be practicing at home with your child so that they will be all ready for our grand performance! Here are the assignments:

Group A - 9:30 class

Group B - 12:30 class

Group A

Bells: Do, Re, Mi (Major Scale up and down on bells! We WILL also play the DO MI MI, MI SOL SOL part of the song w/ CD.)

Singing: How to Skip, Primary Chords Song, Are you Sleeping, Can't Bug Me, May There Always Be Me

Group B

Bells: Are You Sleeping (lowercase do, sol, do while the rest of the group sings the words to the song)

Singing: How to Skip, Primary Chords Song, Can't Bug Me, May There Always Be Me and Do, Re, Mi (practice with solfeg hand signs. On the DMM part, they will sing the lyrics, "When you know the notes to sing...etc.)

Please contact me if you have any questions!

New This Week -- Lesson 13

Lesson #13

1. The Hokey Pokey: Who can resist the hokey pokey? We realized that the ending is actually our "sol, la, ti, do" pattern that we've been learning. It was hiding all that time!

2. Play a Skip or Step up or down from a given note: With two notes on our magnet board we had each child play whether they went up or down and if they were a skip or step. The kiddos are really reading music!

3. Recognize Bug Rhythms in Songs: We went through a few familiar songs and picked out the bugs (rhythms) that we have learned. They were everywhere!

Now Available -- Online Registering

Hello out there! I'm thrilled to tell you all that online registering is now available! At the top of the page click on "register for a class" and then click to register for Sound Beginnings or a 1st year Let's Play Music class. After I receive your form I will contact you and confirm your spot. It's that easy! Classes are filling up quickly, so act soon if you want a spot. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions.

New This Week -- Lesson 12

Lesson #12

1. Baby Butterfly: This is a new take on an old favorite "Baby Bumblebee". This song incorporates our rhythmic bugs into the song to help us hear rhythmic patterns and then in a few weeks to identify rhythmic notation.

2. The Ants Go Marching: What a fabulous song for feeling that steady beat. The heavy beat helps us comprehend time and meter, which is a rather complex and abstract concept. We also reiterate our cadence pattern of sol, la, ti, do. We had a ball with this one today!

New This Week -- Lesson 11

Lesson #11

1. Understanding the term "harmony": We learned today that "harmony" is two different sounds that sound good together. On Top of Spaghetti was sung while playing our broken chords on the piano. This created harmony while we sang the melody.

We are really working now on reading music. These cute kiddos have gotten extremely good at recognizing steps, skips and leaps and whether they go up or down. We use the Dinosaur notation to re-enforce reading the notes on the staff. Our bugs are instilling rhythmic notation so that we can understand the time value of each note. With these two concepts combined we're well on our way! Nice job blue bugs!

New This Week -- Lesson 10

Lesson #10

1. Play a song on the bells: Today we played our Dinosaur Song on the bells. This means that our kiddos looked at the notation on the staff, read the music and then played it on their bells. What an amazing accomplishment for our little 4 and 5 year olds! Not only are we reading music but we used that skill to play the entire song! Way to go!

While this was the only new concept for today we worked hard on cementing other things that we have learned: clapping bug patterns with only the notation cards, learning the rhythmic pattern of Bingo, playing major and minor on the autoharp, audiating, and reviewing solfeg by applying it to new songs, just to name a few.

New This Week -- Lesson 9

Lesson #9

1. On Top of Spaghetti: Today was just an introduction to this well-loved song. Eventually, it will train our ears to hear a broken chord accompaniment, sing harmony using that accompaniment and also allow us to practice our autoharp playing skills.

2. Drunken Sailor: This is a silly song that actually teaches us quite a few essential musical elements. We learn simple song form in identifying cadences and phrases. Each form has a different action, which helps our kiddos to recognize when the form changes.

3. Fox Hunt: This is our new puppet show! What did you think? With each of these new shows we learn to identify classical form and rhythmic patterns...all while having fun pretending to be different characters! Ingenious!

4. Clap bug rhythm without seeing the cards: Today we eliminated the bugs and clapped only to the rhythm notation. Sneeky, eh? These kids don't even know how much they are learning!

5. Spatial Skills: Using our Jungle Rhythm song today we all pretended to be a different jungle animal. With the help of our chart we were able to subdivide the beat and see visually the space that each animal (or note) would get in relation to the others. Remember that this spacehelps us to see how to divide the time.

6. How subdividing rhythm looks -- abstract notation: This skill was taught using the technique explained in # 5 above.

New This Week -- Lesson 8

Lesson #8

1. Are You Sleeping?: This well-known children's song is one that we use to practice our solfeg symbols and practice audiation. Pretty soon we'll practice harmony using a round.

2. B-I-N-G-O: The internal beat is what you "feel" when you clap the letters that aren't sung. Along with emphasizing an internal beat we also re-enforce the rhythmic pattern.

3. Clap bug rhythms without saying them: How exciting! We know these backward and forward so today we take out the words and only clap.

4. Audiation with Primary Chords: When we sing the chords and leave one out we allow the children to audiate that chord, or in other words, hear it in their head even though we're not singing it.

Please note parents that pre-registration has begun! Get signed up for a class quickly before registration is opened to the public on March 1. If you love LPM, share the love with a friend! Every referral that registers gives you a $15 credit for fall's tuition...who wouldn't love that?!

New This Week -- Lesson 7

Lesson #7

1. Dinosaur Song: This is one of my favorites! This fun song teaches us steps and skips on the staff as well as on the bells. We have those concepts independently but not incorporated in a song yet, so this song applies the knowledge.

2. Sleep, My Treasure: One of the benefits of LPM is parent-child bonding. While this song teaches minor tonality and vocal channeling it also gives us the chance to hold our little kiddos and rock them to the beat. As we share this experience together the concepts are solidified even further. Ingenious!

3. Playing a song from notated music: Now that we are virtually professionals at identifying steps and skips we applied it today to play what we saw from our music. It stills floors me every time these kids read music at such a young age! Way to go!

New This Week -- Lesson 6

Lesson #6

1. El Gallo: This song teaches harmony using a round. It also allows us to practice our autoharp playing as well as reading our chord maps. (And the kids learned a little Spanish too!)

2. A Frog Went a-Hoppin': Today we simply got our feet wet (ha, ha!) learning this song, but pretty soon we'll figure out that it teaches us leaps. We'll learn these leaps not only on our bells but also the notation on the staff.

3. Subdividing a beat: This is a very tricky concept that LPM makes easy by using our Jungle Animals. The kids were elephants (half notes) while I was a lion (quarter notes). We heard both animals "walking" at the same time, teaching us the relationship of half and quarter notes in subdividing a beat.

4. Major/minor chords and tonality: We have labeled major and minor as happy and sad, but today we saw that changing the middle note of the chord is what makes that happy or sad sound. We also introduced the terms "major" and "minor". Learning chord structure as a 5 year old....who knew it could be done?!

New This Week -- Lesson 5

Lesson #5

1. Umburra: This song is reinforcing hearing the beat of the music. As we pass our stick on the beat we chant "pass-pass-pass-pass" to overemphasis what that beat is.

2. Play a skip on the bells: We can sing a skip, identify it's notation on the staff and now we can even play it on our bells! The cue words are "we skip just one note".

3. Rhythmic notation: Our bugs just turned into "rhythm bugs" or "musical bugs" as we called them in class today. We were able to decipher each rhythm card and then lay it out with the corresponding bug to learn the notation of the rhythm. Now we know what 16th notes, 8th notes, quarter notes and half notes look like as well as what rhythm they represent. Hurray!!

Exciting News!

I have the most exciting news to share! LPM has a wonderful new program that is starting fall 2012 called Sound Beginnings. The LPM website has spectacular information about the program at http://letsplaymusicsite.com/sound-beginnings . This program is for 2-4 year olds and teaches preschool, kindergarten and pre LPM concepts through singing, movement, games, stories, and activities. I am thrilled to announce that I will be teaching this program in the fall! Corporate is limiting the number of teachers that will be teaching this, so it might be hard to find a teacher in your area. (As a side note I have to give myself a woot, woot that I was approved to teach!) I only plan to teach one Sound Beginnings class next fall, so be sure to let me know early if you're interested!

New This Week -- Lesson 4

Lesson #4

1. Jungle Rhythm: Each animal represents a different rhythm. This takes an abstract concept like rhythm notation and makes it understandable. We are learning to subdivide the beat with half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes.

2. Bill Grogan's Goat: There are 4 beats that we internalize and don't sing. This teaches us to "hear" the beat even when it's not being played.

3. I've Been to Harlem: This new song teaches major versus minor chords. As we hear these different chords and become familiar with them we will identify the minor chord structure and how it sounds different from the major chords we have been using. In class we label major as "happy" and minor as "sad".

New This Week -- Lesson 3

Lesson #3

1. "Read" bug rhythm cards: Today we switched up our bug cards to see if we could read the different rhythms. We were able to clap and read half notes, quarter notes, eight notes, 4 sixteenth notes together, 1 eighth with 2 sixteenth notes, and 2 sixteenth notes with 1 eight note. Pretty soon we will switch out the bug illustrations for the actual note.

2. Now that we know the "Old Paint" song so well we are playing "do, mi, sol" on our bells while we sing it. We are training our ears to hear a broken chord. (It is the red chord, played in pieces rather than all at once.)

New This Week -- Lesson 2

Lesson #2

1. V-A-L-E-N-T-I-N-E: We introduced this song today. It is a fun one that the kids enjoy singing. Little do they know that hidden at the end is our sol, la, ti, do pattern. Soon we'll be singing this new solfeg pattern in the song, now that we know how to sign it and read it on the staff.

2. Clap bug rhythms: We are learning to subdivide a beat as well as rhythm notation and identification. Pretty soon we'll see that those bugs actually have notes associated with them. Be sure to practice these at home so that the beat patterns become second nature.

As a side note, the most exciting thing happened in class last week! When we practice "do is home" we are learning relative pitch. ("Relative pitch" varies from "perfect pitch" in that you "teach" how to have correct pitch rather than being born with the ability.) Last week in one of my classes we had a student who got that pitch perfectly! There is something so rewarding about a child finding the right pitch and repeating it herself! Be patient with this practice if your child doesn't have it yet. It is an accomplishment worth waiting for! Great job blue bugs!

Welcome Blue Bugs!

Today we started a new semester! We are now known as "Blue Bugs"!! How exciting! There are so many new songs that we began to learn today that, in time, will teach us all kinds of new concepts and skills. Here are some new concepts for today.

Lesson #1

1. We have added sol, la, ti, do to our solfeg patterns that we are learning. Today we learned to sign it as well as the notation on the staff.

2. Triumphant March: This is our new puppet show! I know that the parents were ready for a new one after seeing the other two so many times. What did you think? I'd love to hear your feedback of these puppet shows! They are just a ball for me to do, so hopefully there are lots of positive things happening with these at home in regards to recognizing patterns in music, classical form, and what emotions or "stories" music can create, just to name a few.