Yellow Arrows #11

NEED TO KNOW

Yellow Arrows #11: Thank you! Thank you for getting your registrations in for next year, and for being a part of my studio! I appreciate you!

REGISTRATION FOR THIRD YEAR: If you haven't gotten registered for the fall, please do so! Here is the link for that. It helps me more than I can tell to have my classes for fall set before classes end this spring. Also, once classes end, the supplies for fall 2nd and 3rd year classes will ship from the LPM offices to me. If you register after that, there will be an additional fee from the corporate office.

END-OF-YEAR RECITAL: Our End-of-Year Recital will be held on Saturday, April 25 at 5pm. Second year students will wear their LPM shirts with denim or black pants/skirts/leggings. Among other things, each student will get a "piano spotlight" where they can play whatever they love to play on the keyboard. There are a lot of options in class, including the Caterpillar Song, How to Skip, Primary Cadence, Scale in and Out, Tinga Layo, and even things from the Green Turtles songbook. Basically whatever they love to play! Each student will also get to play Robin Hood if they want. We'll talk about these in class and get everybody ready to go!

We are not a performing group, and the recital is more of a celebration of what we’ve learned rather than the pinnacle of the year’s activities. If your child can’t (or doesn’t want to) participate, is really no big deal. What we do in class is the real payback. With that being said, it would help me to know what folks are not planning on attending so that I can know what to expect for that day. Thank you!!

GOOD TO KNOW

SCALE IN AND OUT: This technique is teaching contrary motion, where the same finger numbers play together, moving in opposite direction. RH pinky (5) begins on Treble C and LH pinky (5) begins on Bass C. Play and sing IN the major scale with fingers 5-4-3-2-1-(POP)3-2-1. Both thumbs will land on Middle C. Then play back OUT using fingers 1-2-3-(POP)1-2-3-4-5. Here is a video of this skill from the online video lesson series.

OH WHEN THE SAINTS: MARCH, 2, 3, 4! We can march with our feet AND our fingers! A marching chord is a type of stylized chord that will make this song sound much more like a march. Play the bottom note of the chord alone, then the top two notes (interval) together and VOILA! The fingers are marching! March around the house as your child plays marching chords with this energetic song!

TINGA LAYO: I've had some questions about the "shoot-the-bug-bug" directions in the practice for this one. Here's a quick video to explain it!

FUN TO KNOW

With spring in the air, your blooming musician can hop on this life-sized keyboard to practice the music alphabet in the sunshine!