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!