Green Turtles #10

NEED TO KNOW

Green Turtles #10: Your Green Turtles are mastering the finger placement for both the red and yellow chords and they are amazing!

CAREFUL FINGERING: Some students are playing the red chord with 1-3-5 and the yellow chord with 1-2-5 every time! Yay! Some students are sliding their 3rd finger down to play yellow with 1-3-5. (Totally understandable because red is 1-3-5 and we drilled red for 9 long weeks before we added yellow!) And some are so focused on playing 1-2-5 for yellow that they play the red with 1-2-5 as well. The good news is that they can restructure their hand and get muscle memory for a 1-3-5 red and a 1-2-5 yellow chord fairly quickly with some conscientious practice. Now's the time to do it! 

PRACTICING: Some Green Turtles are practicing like rock stars, and some are getting frustrated with practicing. If practicing is becoming a struggle, there are some ways to turn it around. The first idea is to change the wording. Use the word "play" rather than "practice." "Practicing" is a chore, but "playing" is fun. Here is a link to an LPM podcast episode that talks about some other ways to make it fun. I'm not naive enough to think that this will magically make at-home play wonderful, but it definitely gives some places to start. Let me know if you need more support. Some kids want to practice, but it's both physically and mentally overwhelming and more frustration hits. If this is the case for your student, restructure the expectations so they can succeed.

GOOD TO KNOW

RED-YELLOW CHORD TRANSITIONS: When playing songs with chord transitions, it's important that the whole hand NOT lift completely off the keyboard between chords. If that happens, students have to start over with figuring out where their hand should land. Instead, remind your student that for the red to yellow transition, ONLY the thumb should slide (1, 2, 3, 4, move your thumb and nothing more) using fingers 1-2-5 for the yellow chord.

BUNNY'S BIRDHOUSE: The rat-tat-tats in Bunny's Birdhouse help with independent finger movement, where each finger must press down to play a melody. It is important that the other fingers NOT lift way, way up off of the keys (fly-aways!) Try to play with each finger gently sticking on its key, so that the hand stays in C position.

Also, while practicing the rat-tat-tats, the top note is on the 2nd line of the treble clef. We know this note is Huggie G (prepare yourself for many hugs while discussing Huggie G!). When practicing, you can sing the rat-tat-tat parts as "2nd Line, Middle C, 2nd Line again," or "Huggie G, Middle C, Huggie G again," or "5-5-5, 1-1-1, 5-5-5-5-5," or "Sol-Sol-Sol, Do-Do-Do, Sol-Sol-Sol-Sol-Sol!" The options really are limitless! Sol or G should be played with finger number 5 (pinky) and the middle C with finger number 1 (thumb). The ending is a Sol-Fa-Mi-Re-Do played with descending fingers 5-4-3-2-1.

TURTLE SHELLS: We've been practicing our intervals based on Middle C, but intervals can be played ANYWHERE on the keyboard! Any two keys right next to each other are a 2nd, a skip with one key in between the two notes creates a 3rd, and skipping two keys creates a 4th. They can play a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th anywhere on the keyboard. They are pros at this!

FUN TO KNOW

Aaron Copland was born in 1900 and was intregal in helping to define a style of classical music that was truly American. He celebrated American life through music, using folk tunes and American themes throughout. Although some people like to fancify the ballet's name, Rodeo is pronounced "ROH-dee-oh," and not "roh-DAY-oh." Hoedown from Rodeo has been used in commercials, movies, TV shows, and was even in the opening ceremonies for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Check out this blogpost for more about Copland, Rodeo, and Hoedown.