Musik & Me – Featuring Lets Play Music and Sound Beginnings

Thank you parents for coming this week! Your participation plays such a big role in your child’s success! Don’t forget tuition is due for those of you that didn’t pay for the semester up front. You can pay through Zelle (using my phone number) or Venmo me (@musikandme).

Here’s a little help with this week’s theory assignment. In a major scale, we start numbering each note at 1 and because it begins to repeat after number 7, we go back to 1. This is the same way we go back to DO or C. 

 Even though the students cannot play all three parts of New World at the same time, you (the parent) should be able to play a part or two with them at home. Have fun playing as a family ensemble!

This next week I will be meeting with your child in their 1st private lesson to begin creating their composition. We have been working during class to brainstorm ideas we might like to use, and have been encouraging ‘tinkering’ at the keyboard at home. Please encourage your child to be thinking about a musical question (and maybe an answer) that we could work on together next week. This could be a simple melody or some chords that they have written down, can play, or even just hum. Or if they have specific characters they want in their song, they can write a short melody for each character. This is only the beginning of this process, so I’m not looking for you to send a ‘finished’ product. Feel free to watch the supplemental videos with your child (links down below). Please send your child with their Orange Roots Songbook so we can look over their Composer’s Corner activities together. Thanks!

I’ll text the schedule for next week’s 20 minute private lesson. Please have your child watch the “Composition Help” video right away to spark ideas for how to write their composition. They don’t need to write anything beforehand if they don’t want to, but watching the video will help them feel more confident when they come to the private lesson. If you watch it with your child, you will see just how simple it can be to compose a song!

PLEASE be on time for drop off and pick up! This private lesson is only for the students, but if you need to come stay warm inside, you are welcome to!

Composition
The composition is the culminating event for your Let’s Play Music student! We have been experiencing, internalizing, and now labeling many things over our three year development as a young musician. We will rely on our knowledge of: major and minor, time signatures, chord uses and sounds, ABA song form, staccato and legato, theme and variations, block, broken, and marching chords, and MANY other skills that will help your child as they compose and create their own original composition.

Magic Keys
This is our 2nd song to graduate up with us from our purple semester. As we continue to sing (and play this song) we will further expand our understanding of key signatures and note relationships–This is the KEY in transposing music. Our new verse allows us to understand and play in the key of G Major, with our new magic key, F#.

G Major Cadence

Composition Help

Here are 3 helpful videos that break down 3 different ways to start a song. Your child might like to try one of these ways: Start with Melody, Start with Rhythm, Start with Chords.

Inspiration for composition can come in many ways. A man saw birds sitting on telephone wires and it inspired him to create his own composition. Can’t wait to see where all of our students get their inspiration from! Excited to meet them all individually next week.