Dear Parents,
We had a great lesson this past week! I enjoyed seeing all of the different costumes! Echo Edna loved dressing up too! We have been working on transitioning from the red to the yellow chord, hearing different parts of a song and recognizing the notation of the red, blue and yellow chord.
A couple of notes for when your kids practice this week.
1. After your child practices Turtle Shells, have him/her play examples of 2nds, 3rds and 4ths all over the key board.
2. Make sure your child is keeping his eyes on the music when playing Johnny's Hammers and work on he/she making the transition from a red to yellow chord without looking at his/her hands.
3. When practicing Bunny's Birdhouse practice the high and low 'rat-tat' part only. If your child masters playing that part, then try the descending rat-tats in the last 2 measures.
4. Your child needs to be singing along while he/she plays. This will help your child accompany him/herself.
The theory assignment is for your child to identify the notation of the red, blue and yellow chord, and color the chord it's correct color. Remember the red chord is a perfect snowman, the blue chord is a top-heavy snowman and the yellow chord is a bottom-heavy snowman.
When listening to "Solfege Seafriends" help your child to "tune in" to one specific part. Have him/her sing all the different parts and when all parts are sung together, have your child try to hear his/her favorite part. Follow the CD listening outlined in the homework book. Continue singing all the songs as often as possible!
Keep up the good work and I will see you all next week!
Yours Truly,
Miss Jessica
October 23, 2011
Dear Parents,
This past lesson was quite a full one with a lot of new material. I apologize for not getting this out sooner.
Keyboard practice: There are just a couple of things that might be confusing. Your child should only be practicing the FIRST line of Echo Edna! Also for Halloween is Coming, have your child put his/her hand in "F position" which is to have his/her thumb on F and a finger on every key after that. That way they can play along with the CD because they will be playing in the same key as the CD.
For the theory assignment, remind students that a block chord is when each note is stacked up on top of each other in one of the "snowman positions" we have been learning (perfect snowman, top heavy snowman, or bottom heavy snowman). A broken chord are the SAME NOTES as the block chord, but they are not stacked like a snowman and are played one at a time! For an example of a broken chord look at the last 3 notes of "Halloween is Coming". That is a minor red chord in broken form going down! In the homework, the broken chords need to be going up starting with the bottom note!
Use your keyboard flashcards you got on Tuesday to help your child continue learning all the names of the white notes. Also don't forget to bring your puppets, colored, cut out with your name on the back on Tuesday if you want them laminated!
Please do not forget to have your child wear his/her costume to class this week! Everyone will be dressing up including Miss Jessica and even Echo Edna! We will be having a special Halloween puppet show and a special Halloween treat at the end of class, so don't forget! Masks are okay, but they need to come off once class begins and stay off until class has ended!
Thank you parents for making sure your kids practice! They are doing great! I look forward to seeing them on Tuesday!
Miss Jessica
Weekly Newsletter October 12, 2011
Dear Parents,
We are half way through our Green Turtle Shell semester! Your kids are learning so fast and I love teaching them! Before we know it, the semester will be over!
This week we worked on playing "Halloween is Coming" both in major and minor. We also continued working on the "Firetruck" song. When your kids play the "dings", have them sing it as "sol-fa-mi-re-do". We colored in the chord colors when I introduced "Primary Cadence" on p. 14 of the songbook. When practicing, if you are finding that your child is having trouble identifying the chord he/she should play, feel free to have them color it in with crayon. We started playing "Echo Edna" on p.6. Make sure they practice the first line ONLY!
Make sure your kids are doing the keyboard practice outlined in the homework book and songbook. Believe it or not, I can tell if they really did practice. :)
Just a couple of administrative things. Cold and flu season seems to have come a little early this year. Please let me know if your child will not be able to come to class due to illness. Even if it is close to class time, please call or text me. If you are sick and it is a parent week, still send your child if at all possible.
Don't forget that next week tuition is due. Next week is also a parent week. If you have any questions about when your next tuition installment was due(if you have paid in advance), call or e-mail me and I can let you know.
Thank you for all of your support! Keep up the good work with your kids! See you next week!
Jessica
