Green Turtles #5

NEED TO KNOW

Green Turtles #5: Having grownups come to class makes for such sweet moments. Thank you for making time in your schedule to be here.

HARD THINGS: There is a lot being asked of your Green Turtles right now. Physically sitting at the keyboard and holding their hands in good piano position while using their fingers individually but still having them work together is hard! And they're doing it!

PLUS MORE THINGS: Besides all the hard things above, we are also learning harmony, ear training, singing, and classical music. In time, it will come together in a satisfying way to make a complete musician. Enjoy this journey!

RED DOT/CHORD HELPER: You should have a red dot on your Middle C note at home. And either a Chord Helper ready to be put on top of it (or it can always belong there), with the dots aligning, or more stickers to finish out the red chord. Let me know if you need another Chord Helper or more stickers! 

CELEBRATION CONNECTION: Make playing time fun! Play the songs at a s-l-o-w  t-u-r-t-l-e speed, or play a concert for a favorite pet or stuffy.

TUITION: Thank you for paying tuition! It helps me so much to have it in and done on time! If it's not in, I'll send a reminder/request.

GOOD TO KNOW

KIT KAT KEYBOARD: Playing all of the Cs and then all of the Fs as fast as possible can help build spatial awareness of the keyboard. Mix it up this week by racing the song up the keyboard, then down the keyboard. 

SOL-FA-MI-RE-DO: Who sits on the SOL-FA? MI and RE eating cookie DO! We have a new pattern! Our goal is to recognize these patterns as we HEAR and SEE them so we can PLAY them. We will begin playing SOL-FA-MI-RE-DO next week!

SALLY GO ROUND: It takes kinetic energy to prepare to jump and land on the BOOM at the end of this game. In the same way, hands and fingers need to prepare before the beat in order to come in when you want to.  We actually didn't get to this activity... we'll get it next week!

FUN TO KNOW

We are training the ear to hear layers of sound with the aquatic canon Solfege Seafriends (visual music found on page 73 of your student's workbook). By studying each individual part, we will be able to hear them distinctly even when they are played together. This is a great skill that is hard to acquire, but Billy Joel and Jimmy Fallon do it with style!

Green Turtles #4

NEED TO KNOW

Green Turtles #4: Your students are doing such a great job! I love their enthusiasm and their rock-star red chords!

CHORD HELPER/STICKERS: Be sure your student has one of these helps to solidify their red chords! It doesn't matter to me whether you use the Chord Helper or have the stickers on the keys. But it DOES matter to me that you do one of them! It will help them so much! For more info, including a video of cutting out the Helper and pictures on how and where things go, scroll down to the Parent Note from Green Turtles #3.

HARD STUFF: I feel that the first part of Green Turtles is one of the most intense parts of Let's Play Music. Sitting at the piano, putting beautiful bubble hands in C position, and asking fingers to work with each other but not at the same time is HARD STUFF. Give your Green Turtle a squeeze! They are doing hard things and should be proud of themselves!

CELEBRATE CONNECTION: To add some fun to practice, roll a die and play that many groups of twos or threes, or play Old Paint while singing with a cowboy voice, an opera voice, a baby voice, or any silly sound. Send a video to grandma and grandpa so they can enjoy the fun too!

PARENT WEEK AND TUITION DUE: Next week is a Parent Week and the next installment of tuition is due. I'll send a request through Wave this week. If you don't get one, it means you've already paid for this installment!

GOOD TO KNOW

WHITE KEYS: This week we reviewed anchor notes C & F in class with the 2nd verse of Kit Kat Keyboard. We also took some time to show how the black keys act as the map of the keyboard... cover them up and you don't know where you are!

RED CHORD: Do you want to build a snowman? This year, a red chord will always be "snowman red," stacked up nice and neat with a third on the bottom and a third on the top. Enjoy drawing rounded snowmen for the theory assignment this week!

OLD PAINT: Now that we know how to read and play a red chord, we get to revisit our favorite Old Paint! When you sing together, exaggerate the down beat: Good BYE Old PAINT, I'm LEAV-in' Chey-ENNE. I told the kids to play this until their mom gets sick of it, which I know you never will because who would ever get sick of Old Paint!?!?

FUN TO KNOW

TURTLE CRAFTING: Your Green Turtles have been working so hard! If they need a break from the keyboard, check out this fun turtle-out-of-an-egg-carton craft!

Green Turtles #3

NEED TO KNOW

Green Turtles #3: Your kids were great this week! We played the red chord! And we used the correct fingers!

RED CHORD CORRECT FINGERING: Your little piano player should have red dots on the fingernails of their THUMB (finger #1), MIDDLE FINGER (finger #3), and PINKY (finger #5) of their right hand. These are the fingers that are used to play the RED chord. Some kids were a bit wary about my drawing on their fingernails and worried that you'd be mad. I promised that if you are mad, you'll be mad at me and not them!

CHORD HELPER: Now is the time to start using your Chord Helper. Check out this video for how to get it ready if you need a visual. (You have a new and better version of the Chord Helper, but the prep is the same! Just pull out the shaded portions instead of the ones with an X.) Or you can use the stickers so that they stay on the keyboard and don't get lost, that works too. I don't care what you use, but I do care that you use something! Solidifying the red chord is hard work and these visual assists are going to be like training wheels!

Here is a visual of what the keyboard should look like if you use the Chord Helper  (if you lose your Chord Helper, I can send home another one, or you can print one from the website here):

And what it should look like if you use stickers (again, if you need more stickers, let me know!):

MORE ON THE RED CHORD: It is going to be tricky for some kids to press down ONLY on the 1-3-5 fingers. We'll keep strengthening those fingers and soon it will be easier. If they need to use their left hand to brace the other two fingers up (or just the 4th finger... that's the trickiest one!) while they play, that's okay. The most important thing is that they are using the correct fingers. Some kids were trying to use their index, middle, and ring fingers or their thumb, index, and middle fingers because they are naturally stronger. They could play the chord better now, but it'll make for problems down the road. Check out this blog post about muscle memory and how important it is. 

BEAD BAGGIES: If you send the bead baggies back with your kid (just clipped in their workbooks), I'll reuse them. If you don't, no worries. I'm not keeping tabs on them, but will reuse anything that comes back!

GOOD TO KNOW

KIT KAT KEYBOARD: Now that we've mastered the black keys, we're starting on the white keys! We will use the black key pattern to learn the names of the other keys. It is important for them to look closely and frequently at the keyboard to reinforce the keyboard geography. When they are hunting for Cs and Fs, don't give them too many verbal cues, just the key phrases of "find a group of 2, down one is C" and "a group of 3 leads to F, yippee!"

C POSITION CHANT: We also learned C Position this week. Our right "Thumb on Middle C and each finger on a key!" This is the position to play the red chord, and will be the position we use for most of the things we do in 2nd year. We practiced (and will repeat every week!) floating our bubble hands up, then landing them on the keys at C Position.

FUN TO KNOW

INTERVALS ARE TURTLE SHELLS: When they're stacked up nice and neat it's called a third!

Green Turtles #2

NEED TO KNOW

Green Turtles #2: Your students are amazing! We had so much fun in class and they're such a joy to have back!

BEADS: Your students are already doing some great at-home playing. I am proud of them! The practice beads they earned are clipped into their workbooks, and we clipped the strings onto their bag loop. You can send the baggies back and I'll reuse them (but know that I'm not keeping track so no worries if they don't make it back). Here's a video of how to secure the beads on their green lanyard-y things (I know the video is purple and yours are green, but they work the same way!). If they'd rather use the beads for another project and not have them on their bag, that's a-okay with me. Let me know if you didn't get strings and I'll get them to your student next week.

SETUP PICTURES: I love seeing your Turtles at their home keyboards! Their feet are looking solid and their arms are L-shaped! If you haven't sent me a pic of your student at their place with their correct posture, I'm excited to get it!

CELEBRATE CONNECTION: Practice being silly! See if your student can play Kit Kat Keyboard with their elbows. Or have them lay on the ground or upside down on the couch to practice their bubble hands with their finger numbers.

ANOTHER NON-PARENT DAY: Next week is ANOTHER NON-PARENT DAY! Some Green Turtles are way too excited about this thought!

GOOD TO KNOW

KIT KAT KEYBOARD:  If you have a digital keyboard at home, explore the fun and groovy sounds your keyboard can make while you play Kit Kat Keyboard! 

BUBBLE HANDS: This week we learned finger numbers! When they do their bubble exercise, ask them to wiggle their 3 finger, their 5 finger, etc. You can also quiz them on this without their bubble in the car or on a walk. This exercise can be hard! Especially with finger #4. But using the bubble will help build finger strength and dexterity. Reminder to keep your bubble at home by your keyboard. I have a class set for use here. Here is a list of what we say in class and a visual of finger numbers if you'd like a reminder. This chart is also in the Reference Section of your student's homework booklet.

One's your thumb.

Pointer's two.

Middle's three/Tall man's three.

Ring is four/Tricky tricky four.

Pinky's five.

INTERVALS ARE TURTLE SHELLS: An interval is the distance between two notes. Learn more about the importance of recognizing intervals while learning how to read and play music in this blog post. 

MISSING CLASSES: Life happens and sometimes you miss class. It's no biggie! There is a lot of repetition built into the classes and your student will be just fine. But if you miss a class (or a bunch of classes) for whatever reason and want to do a makeup, you can purchase access to those classes produced for the LPM Online program. You can read more about that at this link. I will suggest using these if you end up missing three or more classes in a row, but overall they're only if you want more exposure. But I did want you to be aware of the option! 

FUN TO KNOW

In Let's Play Music, we look at the notes of our intervals as turtle shells. Dr Seuss might see the fifths in a completely different way!