Please remember that there is no class next week! Have a fun Halloween holiday and we'll see you on Nov. 7th. 

We learned the Blue Chord! The kids did great and I did check every kid's hand while they learned it and they all executed it beautifully. Their hands are getting stronger and more capable. They were thrilled to see the blue dots on the keyboard when they got to class and they are thirsty to learn more keyboard skills! I love it!

Place Blue Chord Stickers on C-F-A.  

Reiterate using fingers 1-3-5, the thumb is an anchor on Middle C and the rest of the hand shifts up a baby step. 

If your child wasn't able to make it class, they can color the chords on page 16 (Primary Chords Song) and page 14 (Blue Sky). This helps the kids distinguish the notation of each chord and is a good exercise noticing the difference between what the two chords look like as they color them. I have the children look at my chord poster to help them remember which chord is which and you can open up to page 70 in the small booklet as a reference.

Turtle Shells

We will continue to reinforce to your Green Turtle Shell that intervals can show up anywhere on the staff and be played anywhere on the keyboard! Have fun playing an interval game with any two objects by creating an interval and asking your child what it is and then inviting them to play it on the keyboard. Ideas of objects to use: coins, counters, erasers, cereal, candies, Legos, rocks, etc.

Echo Edna

Echo Edna gave each child their own 'secret code' (using steps and skips) to ‘decipher’ (sight read) on the magnet board. We used our laser beam eyes to solve the code while playing it on the keyboards at the same time! 

Now that we are more comfortable with keyboard geography, hand position, how to build chords notated and on the piano, we are ready to keep our eyes on the book and not look down at our fingers while we play each of the songs in the songbook! We’ve already introduced Laser Beam Eyes. Here are some other fun ways to keep our eyes on the book while we practice. Parents, don’t forget to follow the notes with your finger and sing along with your child! 

(Fill in any of the ideas below with the musical focus of choice. Ideas include: red, blue or yellow chord, specific intervals, different melodic patterns, specific notes, Middle c’s, rat-tat-tats, steps or skips, different bugs (slug, beetle), etc.) 

1. Keep your eye on the [rat-tat-tats]. 

2. [Insert Child’s Name], time to turn on your Laser Beam Eyes while we play Blue Sky! 

3. Freeze Ray the Middle C’s with your freeze vision! 

4. I’ve got my eye on [the steps in Echo Edna]! 

5. I’m watching you [Yellow Chords]. Always watching, always! 

I value open and honest communication so please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, concerns, or comments.

Thank you!