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.