 Lesson #9  Thank you, parents, for coming to class! We enjoy having you here and bonding with your child. What a gift you are giving them! Tuition is due for those who didn’t pay for the entire semester up front. Registration starts this FRIDAY at NOON for the next semester of Let’s Play Music and we’ll start Purple Magic! If you register by March 20th, you don’t have to pay the $20 registration fee! I’ll have two class times available for 3rd Year. If you know anyone with a child the right age for LPM, I will be doing some preview classes the next couple weeks. Please sign up for any preview classes you would like. (Think of them as “make up” classes for any you may have missed!) Please let your friends know about the preview classes as well. Full preview classes are WAY more fun than small classes. I have to cancel any preview class that doesn’t have at least 3 families in it! You should have received a separate email about Spirit Month, so have fun earning as many tickets as you can! Celebrate Connection A few ideas to make the alphabet pieces game more playful! - Super Skippers:
Your child draws out an alphabet letter and places it on the keyboard as a ‘starter’. Next, she chooses another piece and checks to see if it can make a skip up or a skip down from the starter. If not, discard it and player 2 gets a turn to play (player 2 should start her skipping chain on a different octave from player 1). Keep taking turns until someone makes a chain, by adding skips at the top or bottom, that is 7 letters long and wins!
- Parking Lot Cars:
Draw a letter from the lot and park your car on the white key “parking space” that matches. Keep going until you run out of cars (or whatever counters you have).
- Cowboys and Indians:
Start one tiny plastic character (ANY tiny plastic figures you have will do: Pokemon, animals, cowboys, princesses, etc.) at one end of the keyboard on a white key, and another at the other end. Draw a tile out and move the low guy up to that key. Draw another tile and move the high guy down to that key. Keep going until they meet (and battle, or shake hands, or whatever you pretend!)
 Online Fun:
Do you need a review of your finger numbers? Try to match them as fast as you can! Finger Number Matching | | Bug Scale
We can now play UP the C Major Scale with our RH! Place the RH in C position and play with fingers 1-2-3 (CDE) then POP UNDER with the thumb to make a new bubble and continue playing with fingers 1-2-3-4-5 (FGABC). Choose your favorite BUG to practice this new skill. One way to remind where to pop is to insert POP with the bug like this: Butterfly, Butterfly, Butterfly, POPPERfly, Butterfly, etc. As always, we try to make our technique drills so fun that the kids don’t even notice they are getting practice!
A Warm Welcome to Middle B and Middle D
The 5 anchor notes used in 2nd year include the members of the “C” family: Treble C, Middle C, and Bass C and the Middle Friends including Middle B who is B-elow Middle C and Middle D who is Down under the first line on the staff. ?"Middle C, Middle C, has 2 Bud-Dies: B and D!"?
How to Skip
We will master all of our middle anchor notes with this song: Middle B, Middle C, Middle D. Use the same 3 fingers for the entire song: 1-3-5. Simply move your thumb to the appropriate starting note. Sing “C-skip-skip-skip, D-skip-skip” etc. emphasizing each anchor note. This is where the practice of seeing and playing those middle anchor notes connect!
I am Robin Hood
If your child can play each hand of “I am Robin Hood” comfortably, they are ready to put both hands together! Isolate 1 or 2 measures at a time to have a successful experience, then continue to add 1-2 measures until they can play the entire song with confidence! While practicing with your child, you can guide their eyes by pointing note by note with V fingers. Hooray for Hands Together! March of the Gnomes
What did you think of our new puppet show? Look in the back of the piano book and you’ll find the “March of the Gnomes” coloring pages.  Homework theory answer key, all skills videos, and make-up videos for missed classes:  (tap, click or scan) | | How instinctive is your child getting with their keyboard geography and naming all of the white keys? Time your child for 1 minute and see how many alphabet pieces they can put on the piano. Your student will treasure these game ideas as they continue to solidify all of the notes on the keyboard.
Also, I’ve added the March of the Gnomes puppets for you to download, print and let your child color the characters as you discuss their favorite part about the puppet show! (Don’t forget to listen to the music while coloring!) Perform the puppet show together for the rest of your family! Have a musical day!
-Ms. Bethany 🙂  |
