Class was great this week! I was really impressed with how all my students discovered and played the blue chord in the left hand in class. They transferred the knowledge they gained last semester in the RH to LH so quickly! Be sure to add the blue stickers to your piano keyboard at home. They are on notes C-F-A and the correct fingering is 5-2-1. Check your kiddos often to be sure they are playing with the correct fingering. I demonstrated sticker placement and playing the Blue chord with LH in a Marco Polo video. We will learn the yellow chord in two weeks on  lesson 4!

A couple logistical notes: 

• Try your best to be on time to class. Shoot for getting here 5 minutes before class if possible.

• I know that sometimes there are factors that are out of our control when it comes to being on time. It would help me get through the lesson and end on time if you can help your child hang up their things, take off their shoes, get out their books and get settled into their keyboard if you are late. This is something I am able to do in the 5 minutes before class or even the first 2-3 minutes of class. But if I need to help remind your kids what to do when they come in the door WHILE I'm teaching, it really slows me down, can throw off the rest of the lesson, and makes it harder for me to finish on time.

• I realize that when you are late you want to cause minimal disruption and I'm grateful for that, but I think that having you help get them settled would actually be less of a disruption and allow me to continue on with the lesson and help your kid join in with more ease.

Thank you so much for reading this section of the email. This has the most timely and need-to-know info. The rest of the email is valuable, but this is the most pertinent section. Thank you thank you thank you!

Music Alphabet

“The first 3 notes just happen to be Do Re Mi!” Maria got it right teaching the von Trap children the solfege before note names. Now that our students can sing, play, and sight read notes through solfege, and keyboard geography is solid, we are getting ready to label all of the white keys on the piano. This begins with the music alphabet! The music alphabet includes the 1st seven notes of the English Alphabet except that it starts on the Letter C and after G comes letter A. The first 7 notes just happen to be C D E F G A B!

Block and Broken

Playing music is like reading a book. We start at the left side of the page and move our eyes to the right. When the note changes, so do our fingers. Help guide this song while sitting on the left of your child and pointing to the notes in each measure. Once your child is comfortable playing the song, practice making sure each measure gets 3 steady beats. Feel free to sing, “RED-2-3; DO (count 1) MI (count 2) SOL (count 3). BLUE-2-3; DO FA LA,” etc…This will help your student understand how to read the music and work towards playing this song with a steady beat.

Snowflakes Are Falling

Brrr it’s cold outside! Warm up inside your home by playing this ostinato on the tone bells. Sing starting on Re, “Snowflakes are falling, falling very gently”. Then play La, Sol, Fa, Mi for “down, down, down, down”. Keep singing the lyrics then repeating this DOWN pattern until you’re feeling toasty inside and finish the song by playing a final DOWN on the Re bell. Try it in a round as a family around the fire with the cd!

Who Am I? I’m the SPIDEY BLUE CHORD!  Spin a chord of fun playing the Left Hand Blue Chord with fingers 5-2-1.

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

Thank you!