I sent home a sheet of alphabet pieces glued to a piece of foam (this helps the pieces not fall down into the piano keys). Please cut them out, keep them in the bag, and have fun playing the Alphabet Pieces Game with your child to help them learn their white key names! We practiced this in class and it's important to allow them time to decipher where to put the alphabet piece by looking at the diagram (identifying whether the letter is in a group of two or a group of three and then placing the piece in the correct spot on the keyboard). I have a video demonstrating this game.

Thanks for sending your kids to class this week! Thanks for taking the time to practice the piano with your child. We learn in class, but the real leg-work of this program happens at home at their piano/keyboard. Please reach out to me if you need more explanation on a song they are assigned. Also keep in mind that sitting down to practice should take no more than 10 minutes a day. Make it a fun moment to sit down, spend some time with your child, and enjoy music together.

Thanks again for all you do, parents, I truly do appreciate each of you. If you haven't yet, please fill out my Summer Camp Survey! I would love your valuable feedback. 

Melodic Patterns

We get to PLAY all of the melodic patterns this week! The value of this daily practice technique is to SEE, SING and PLAY each pattern all at once. Though their well-trained ears might tempt them to play each pattern by ear, insist they look at the book with their goggles, binoculars, laser beam eyes, telescopic vision, x-ray vision, heat vision, freeze vision, or night vision eyes while they play and sing! 

Here are the verbal cues we sing in class with our hand signs. Invite them to sing these cues, finger numbers, or be creative and make up different words on the pitches of each melodic pattern. 

MRD-Baby Steps Down 

SFMRD-Baby Steps Go-Ing Down 

SMD-Skipping Down 

SSD- Same Same Leap-up 

SLTD-Ba-By Steps Up

Can't Bug Me

Drumroll please…..Introducing BEAT BUG! “The BEAT is the BUG and the others play a long!” The Beat Bug sets the tempo on the metronome! He might go fast or slow but the beat is a ‘bug’ (quarter note) and the other rhythms (beetles, caterpillars, grasshoppers, butterflies, slugs) follow and fit within that given tempo. 

Lullaby and Goodnight & Go To Sleep

After we solidify the chord transitions in our lullabies, we will make them sound more serene and calming by stylizing them with broken chords. Feel free to invite your child to color the chords in their piano book to make this an easier transition.

Primary Chords Song/Primary Cadence

Time to put on a show for the family! Your child can play ALL chords with BOTH HANDS! Invite them to perform the chords Ray Charles style while singing the chords out loud! Play them hands separate, then try hands together with the correct fingerings!

Why the importance of chords in piano playing? Kristi Ison, a Let’s Play Music teacher in Mesa, Arizona, shares the Top 10 Reasons for Learning Primary Chords!

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

Thank you!