Today in MusIQ Club!

Another good class!  I’m glad you didn’t forget anything over the break.

We did some 4 note playbacks today to give you an extra challenge and you did a great job with them.  Keep listening for whether the notes are getting higher or lower and if they are stepping or skipping down.  Your scales are sounding fantastic.  Nice and even, legato and great fingering.

Level 1:  You worked on two new songs today – the Mexican Clapping Song and Get Up.  As you practice this song, count out loud so that you keep the rhythm steady and if you have any trouble with just one or two bars, practice those bars a few times over, then put them back into the whole piece.  Try to memorize the piece that you have chosen for your assessment, but don’t worry if you aren’t able to – I’ll have copies of the music handy.  We reviewed intervals and how to identify them.  Remember to count both notes and each line and space in between.  You remembered that harmonic intervals are played at the same time (with the notes written one over the other) and melodic intervals a played seperately with one note following the other.  This Interval Naming worksheet is good practice for identifying your intervals (you may have already completed and just forgotten to bring it in).  We also reviewed all of the note and rest values that you have learned, the parts of the grand staff and the meaning of legato.  Don’t forget to bring back the practice test that I gave you.  We will correct this together next week and answer any questions you may have before proceeding to the actual test – which is in exactly the same format and has the same type of questions as the practice test – nothing to worry about.  You are doing a great job.

Level 2:  Your C and G pentatonic scales are really sounding good and the fingering is coming more naturally.  You put Daydream Believer hands together – great job.  There is some tricky rhythm in this piece as well as some accidentals.  Try to count the last few bars as you play them – all the ties can make it pretty confusing, but if you break each bar down into 1+2+3+4+ and match up the notes accordingly, it will make more sense.  This piece also has a lot of dotted quarter notes, which take up 1.5 beats, so they are always followed by either an eighth note or eighth rest (to complete the missing half beat).  Take your time and don’t forget to hold the longer notes and rests for their entire value.  Do you know who wrote Daydream Believer?  It is by another famous  60′s band.  Try asking some adults or check on the internet and let me know what you find next week (I may actually have mentioned it in a previous blog) – if you can, bring one interesting fact about this group to share with us.  We also learned about flats today – the opposite of sharps – which make a note a semi-tone lower and then you spent some time in theory thinker (3-3) reviewing tones and semitones.  Here a couple of worksheets for practicing sharps and flats.  You had a few minutes to look at Lightly Row and started to learn the right hand part.  Keep working on this piece.  Keep up the great work!

Filed under: Prospect Road Elementary Tagged: | Practice Test, sheet music, worksheets