Kersti

P.S.  If you would like a worksheet to complete this week to keep you in practice with your music theory, here is sheet on the Musical Alphabet – Naming the White Keys for Itai and for Quinn: The White Keys – Spelling by Letter Name .

Have fun and keep on playing!

Kersti.

At our last class, Itai worked on ant tunnels with Mr. Joplin, completing lesson 12.  Remember to keep your finger on their ‘tip toes’ to make sure there is always room for the ants to march through the ant tunnel and keep your wrist in line with your arm (not raised).  Do you remember what we call the part of your hand that should be highest?  That’s right – the bridge.  I’m glad you gave the new stepping stones game a try – it turned out to be fun after all and you did a great job at remembering your finger numbers.

After completing lesson 20 on the musical alphabet with Miss Mendelssohn, Quinn started lesson 21 with a brand new teacher – Mr. Villa Lobos.  Do you remember where Mr. Villa Lobos was from and what instrument he first learned to play?  You worked on a finger number tune you’ve heard before by your first teacher – Mr. Beethoven.  The ‘Ode to Joy’ is one of my favourite pieces.  I’m glad you enjoyed the new falling leaves game.  You’re getting good at recognizing all the notes on the piano.

Together, you both learned an ensemble piece with some accompaniment – I was very impressed that you knew what ‘accompaniment’ means.  Hot Cross Buns is the piece we will play together next week at our mini-recital, to which your parents or other special guests are invited.  We’ll start the lesson with a quick review and preparation and guests are welcome to join us at 2:20 so that you can show them what you’ve been learning over the past few months.  If you feel up to it, you can each also play a solo from the library that you started working on last week.  We’ll also show our guests the improv room and maybe even challenge them with some rhythms.  Do you remember how to play Hot Cross Buns?  Just in case you’ve forgotten, here are the finger numbers (right hand) for you to practice:

3    2    1

3    2    1

1  1  1  1

2  2  2  2

3    2    1

We’ve worked on the musical alphabet quite a bit – saying it forwards and backwards and filling in the missing notes.  Here is a worksheet for you Itai to trace the letters of the musical alphabet.  Once you trace them, can you practice saying them forwards and backwards?

Quinn – this worksheet will help you practice recognizing the white keys on the piano keyboard.  Have fun with it.

See you both on Wednesday for our last class of the term.

We started class by visiting Miss Melody and reviewing what you had learnt in your previous class. Itai reviewed double notes and higher and higher, lower and lower and completed lesson 10 (‘Towards Middle C’) with Mr. Bach and you even managed to start lesson 11 ‘Making a 5-finger Ant Tunnel’ with a brand new teacher – Mr. Scott Joplin. Did Mr. Joplin’s music make you want to dance? Do you remember how he had a chance to learn and practice piano? What a lot of work you did today. You are doing very well at recognizing when notes are going higher or lower. Remember that the notes on the line are middle C, any notes below the line are on the bottom (left) half of the keyboard – the low whale notes and notes written above the line are on the top (right) side of the keyboard – the high bird notes. Your rhythms are getting better and better – remember to repeat them out loud as you play them to help you play them correctly every time. I really liked the nice, strong notes you were playing today. Doing the ‘finger push-ups’ we practiced on our knees will help each finger get stronger as you work on your ant tunnels and playing with each finger separately. Remember to curve your fingers as you play and keep them over the white keys, but keep your wrist straight. We’ll work on this more next week.

Quinn completed lesson 20 (Musical Alphabet) after reviewing lesson 19 (Grown Up Notes) with Miss Mendelssohn. Next week you will have a brand new computer teacher. Very good work playing the finger number tunes. Your ant tunnels are looking very nice too. Remember to sit up straight while you are playing.

We looked at a couple of woodwind instruments today – a hickory wood flute and a metal flute, like you might find in an orchestra. Do you remember what other instruments you might see in an orchestra? We also had a sample of what the practice chanter sounds like – this is a reed instrument. It isn’t as loud as the bagpipes, but still sounds a little funny, doesn’t it?

Finally, we practiced clapping some holding notes (4 beat, 2 beat and even 3 beat followed by a quarter or 1 beat note) to Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’. Your counting was excellent.

I sent some worksheets home with you. Please try to bring them back next week so that I can see your work. Itai – you have Bach word search, double notes and finger number sheets to work on. Quinn – you will be working on moving step by step, line notes and space notes and Miss Mendelssohn word search sheets.

Remember to keep improvising at home and have fun with the piano!

See you next week.

Itai completed lesson 7 today, working on more holding notes with Mr. Bach.  You are doing very well with these and your counting in the train game today was excellent.  Quinn completed lesson 16 and learned some stepping songs with a brand new teacher, Miss Mendelssohn.  You also started working on a brand new finger number tune:  Ode to Joy, by your old teacher, Mr. Beethoven.  We’ll keep practising this, so that you can play it with the accompaniment.  Soon both of you will start learning a song to play together.

Quinn also had a new challenge with the ‘buried treasure’ game.  You have to listen very carefully to get the exact note.  I find this game challenging too.

What do you remember about Mr. Bach and Mr. Joplin?  For next week, I would like each of you to tell me 3 things about your teacher (Itai – about Mr. Bach, Quinn – about Mr. Joplin).

Here are worksheets for you to complete for next week:

Itai – Lower and Lower Maze

Quinn – Mr. Joplin Word Search, Musical Alphabet Backwards

Have a great week and see you next Wednesday.

Kersti

We started class by talking a little more about the instruments in an orchestra and the different sounds they make.  Do you remember some of the groups of instruments?  Strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion.  Can you name an instrument from each of these groups?  Do you think your parents can name an instrument from each group?  Test them and find out!  Some of them make high sounds, some make low sounds and some have a wide range of sounds.

You remembered a lot about Mr. Beethoven.  Today, after a quick review in lesson 5 with Mr. Beethoven, you had a brand new teacher for lesson 6 Itai – Mr. Bach.  Do you remember what he told you about his life when he introduced himself?  We’ll talk some more about him next week and find out what Quinn remembers from his lessons with Mr. Bach.  We’ll also learn a little more about Quinn’s teacher, Mr. Joplin.

Mr. Bach introduced you to holding notes today and the train game helped you practise holding notes for the right amount of time.  You did a fantastic job at reading the music and holding the notes in your lesson and practise session pieces today Itai.

Quinn worked some more on his ‘ant tunnels’ (which are getting very nice), fingering and playing with two hands with Mr. Joplin and started some more work on the musical alphabet.  I love the piece you composed during you lesson today!  Your compositions are getting more and more complicated.  You also had a new game to practise building the musical alphabet.  We all played a game to help recognize notes that are one step apart and we had a tie finish – not a mistake to be seen – congratulations!  Quinn also worked on some finger number playbacks.  We’ll continue these in the coming weeks.

I would like both of you to pay close attention to rhythm this week – when you are listening to music, practising your clap backs or improvising.  With the clap backs (or playing back the rhythms in Children’s Music Journey), remember that it is easier when you repeat the phrase or counts out loud as you clap or play.  This will help you keep an even rhythm.  You both did a great job at emphasizing the 1st beat when we were clapping in groups of 4 and 3.  Can you find count “1″ when you listen to different pieces of music on the radio?  Try clapping to the music.  Gradually, as you get used to counting out loud, it will get easier to count in your head.  Counting is especially important now that both of you know how to play holding notes and need to be able to tell the difference in the length of different notes.

Here is a worksheet for you to complete this week Itai: Higher and Higher – Maze.  Next week we will look at notes getting higher and higher and lower and lower with Mr. Bach and Miss Melody.

Quinn – you can complete this finding the 3 beat groups worksheet and keep practising clapping 4-beat measures and 3-beat measures, making sure that count 1 is a little stronger each time.

I look forward to our next class.  Have a great week!

Kersti

Itai completed the practice room for lesson 3 and all of lesson 4 today. It’s exciting to move on to circle notes from the pictures you were using before. You made the transition very smoothly. Quinn completed lesson 13 – playing with two hands. Good work!

Everybody remember to listen very carefully to the rhythm playbacks. It helps to say the phrases or count as you are playing or clapping the rhythm back. Some rhythms are more difficult than others. Don’t get frustrated with them. Practice makes perfect and playing The Bongo Boy game is a great way to practice your 4 count rhythms. I know his drum sounds a little scary, but remember- he’s just a cartoon.

We reviewed a bit about Mr. Beethoven today and listened to some of his pieces that you are getting good at recognizing. Itai also listened to a piece written by Beethoven’s teacher. Do you remember his name? He loved jokes and surprises and often wrote them right into his music. Quinn listened to a waltz by Mr. Strauss. Do you remember what is special about a waltz? How many counts does it have in each bar? Did it make you feel like dancing? I sure wanted to get up and dance. You also practiced a right hand finger tune.

Does everybody remember what an ‘orchestra’ is? What instruments can you find in the orchestra? Do you have a favourite orchestral instrument?

Itai finished off with a bit of improvising. Those were some impressive ‘glissandos’ you used in your improvisation. Good job finding all the C’s too. I especially enjoyed the saxophone part of the improvisation on black notes.

For homework, please make up 3 word phrase rhythms for us to learn next week and try a little improvising. If your keyboard is not working, you can improvise with your voice, by clapping and stamping or using other instruments or objects around the house (check with your parents first that it is alright to use those objects as a musical instrument).

Do you remember how many beats we usually use in our clap back rhythms?  Very often we divide music into groups of four beats.  Here is a worksheet to try your hand at recognizing groups of 4. Please remember to bring your worksheets to class.

Kersti.

Itai completed lesson 2, which introduced middle C. You had no trouble finding the groups of two black notes and three black notes and did very well at locating all the C’s on the keyboard. Remember: “2 black notes, down to C” and you’ll always be able to find a C on any piano keyboard. You even had time to start lesson 3. Do you remember any of the pieces that Mr. Beethoven or Miss Melody played for you today? Did you feel like dancing when you listened to Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King”? Great listening in the “Save the Coconuts” game. You identified high notes, low notes and middle C correctly every time.

Quinn completed lesson 12, learning left hand fingering with Mr. Joplin. Great work in the library too on the folk song for the right hand “Lightly Row”. You did very well on the new finger number game. Remember to keep an eye out for which hand to use.

Everybody worked on clapping back some rhythms and tried their hand at making up a rhythm on the drum for us to clap back. You also did wonderfully at saying the musical alphabet backwards. Keep practicing this at home, so you can say it backwards just as easily as forwards and you’ll have no trouble finding the notes on the keyboard. Keep listening for high and low sounds around you too.

Home work – Please print out and complete this worksheet: High Notes, Low Notes and Middle C
and if you forgot to bring in your worksheet from last week, please bring both next week.

Keep up the good work!

Kersti

Itai completed lesson 1 with Mr. Beethoven, who we learned a little bit about today. Do you remember where Mr. Beethoven lived?  How about something that happened to him that caused him some frustration and added a challenge, but also lots of emotion to his composing?  We talked about high and low notes (or High Bird notes and Low Whale notes, as Mr. Beethoven and Miss Melody call them) and different things that we hear that make high and low sounds.

Quinn completed lesson 8 with Mr. Bach, trying out some double notes with both hands and continuing to work on holding notes.

Miss Melody helped us remember what we learned when we visited the practice room.  Remember that practising just a few minutes a day will help you remember all the new things you will be learning over the next term.  I think that everybody enjoyed our visit to the improv room.  Do you remember what “improvising” means?  Next week we will listen to the songs you created.

Homework:  Listen to the sounds around you during the week and tell us at the next class about 3 high sounds and 3 low sounds that you heard.  You might want to draw a picture or write a word to remind you of the sounds you collected.

Here is a link to a word search about Mr. Beethoven.  Try to do this and bring it to your next class:  Mr. Beethoven – Word Search

See you all on Wednesday.

Kersti

Level 1A completed lesson 11 with your new teacher, Mr. Joplin, on 5 finger ant-tunnels.  And what nice ant tunnels they were.  Remember to keep your fingers curved and play on the ‘tip-toes’ of your fingers.  Also, be sure to put your thumb on middle C and then one finger on each neighbouring note.  Your technique looked great today!  Do you remember how Mr. Joplin learned to play the piano?  Fantastic work with your clapbacks and backwards musical alphabet!  You also did very well with the finger playbacks that we did on our knees.  You discovered that some fingers are harder to play than others, but with practice this will become easier and easier.  In the improv room today you added some double and holding notes to your improvisations and many of you visited the library briefly for some extra songs.  It was great to see some of the worksheets come back so nicely done!  Here is a new worksheet on finger numbers to complete this week and bring back to your new teacher next week.

Level 1B completed lesson 21 in which you learned to play Ode to Joy.  You are playing some grown up pieces with your grown up notes.  Good work.  Remember to use all your fingers and keep your writsts relaxed.  You worked hard with Miss Melody too.  Excellent work on your rhythm clapbacks! We didn’t have a chance to review naming our white keys today, but here is a worksheet on white keys to help you practice recognizing them.  (If you were absent from class, please be sure to give the worksheet a try as well.)

Thank you all for a wonderful term.  I have really enjoyed teaching you!  All the best for next session and keep up the great work!

Kersti.

Level 1 (now level 2) – you were very calm, cool and collected through your assessment and did very well.  Thanks for all the hard work you have put in this term. Keep enjoying and exploring music!

Level 2 – you are only a couple of weeks from completing this level.  Keep up the good work.  Today you learned F major.  Do you remember which accidental this scale has?  G major had one sharp, F major has one flat – which flat is it?  Remember that the right hand changes fingering to 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 to accommodate the flat, which would be very hard to reach with your thumb.  Your thumb tuck still works the same way, just goes after finger 4 instead.  The left hand fingering remains the same as for your other major scales (5 4 3 2 1 3 2 1).  Today you learned how to cancel a flat or sharp by using an accidental.  Naturals follow the same rules as flats and sharps – write them before the note on the grand staff (after if you are writing just the letter name) and they are valid through to the barline.  Lightly Row really sounded good today and your rhythm has improved 100% – great work!  Keep on working on Daydream Believer – the rhythm in this one is really challenging.  We also worked on playing staccatto the opposite of legato.  You remembered the wrist roll action that I had shown you in our first class together – good job.  Keep up the good work and enjoy the next session! Here is a legato and staccato exercise for you to work on.

We all played Row Your Boat together in a round – now you have first hand experience of just how important it is to keep a steady beat and you can imagine how challenging it can be to play with a lot of people all at once.  This is my “rushing” class – slow down a bit so that you don’t miss anything – then you can start running again!

Level 1:  The ladies completed lessons 22 and 23 on half, quarter and whole notes.  Do you remember how many beats each of these notes has?  Our gentleman completed lesson 21 and learned Ode to Joy, written by your very first teacher – Mr. Beethoven.  You all did a great job with your clap backs and your musical alphabet backwards.  Keep working on recognizing the notes on the keyboard, using your musical alphabet – soon you won’t even have to think about which note you’re playing.  Nice work drawing line and space notes.  Remember that the stems or ‘tales’ go up on the right side of the note and down on the left.  Here is another worksheet to help you with the white keys and one to remind you about Mr. Villa Lobos – your current teacher.

Level 2:  You are no longer in level 2!  You completed lesson 65, the first lesson of level 3 which had lots of review for you.  Keep working with the woodpecker!  Frustrating as he can be, I can hear the difference in your rhythm!  Great job!  Here is another review worksheet to work on, because starting next week you will be learning all kinds of new things, which I am certain you will enjoy.

Level 3:  You completed the final lesson of level 3A on playing hands together (lesson 74).  Great work.  Keep working at reading notes on the grand staff.  Remember that recognizing skips and steps gives you a clue as to where to move with the note and don’t forget your musical alphabet can always help you along.  You are doing very well with all those accidentals too (sharps, flats and naturals).  Keep up the great work!  Here is a review worksheet that covers a lot of what we learned this session.

Enjoy the spring term everybody!

Eric and Michael completed lesson 9 and 10 with Mr. Bach, did a bit of a review of Mr. Bach’s life (and we even talked a bit about Mr. Beethoven – your first teacher).  Your double and holding notes are great and your rhythm clap backs are getting better and better every class.  Keep up the good work next term.  You are almost finished level 1A and will begin the next level in a few weeks.  If you have not done the double notes worksheet from last week, please try to work on it this week.

Matthew completed lesson 20 on the musical alphabet.  What do you remember about your teacher?  Here is a Ms. Mendelssohn word search to jog your memory.  Your 3 note playbacks and rhythm clap backs were very good.  Try to stay focussed on your lesson, so that you can spend more time on games and improvising at the end of class.  You managed to stay at a good distance from your keyboard today, so your hand position looked great and your fingering was very good today as well.  Keep up the good work!  You only have a few weeks left to go before you complete level 1B and go on to the next level.

Bridgid completed lesson 23 on whole notes.  Remember that a whole note has 4 beats, a half note has 2 beats and a quarter note has 1 beat. You also did well with your playbacks and with drawing line and space notes.  Great job on the falling leaf game!  Keep up the wonderful work!  Here is a Mr. Villa Lobos word search to remind you about a few things on your current teacher.

Joel completed lesson 42 on playing soft (piano) and loud (forte).  You did some great playbacks and then put what you had learned in the lesson to work in the improv room.  We reviewed note values and writing notes.  You are doing very well recognizing the white notes on the keyboard.  I hope you keep enjoying the composer history too! I’m sure you’ll enjoy this Mr. Tchaikovsky Word Search.  Great work!

Petra completed lesson 65 – a review with Mr. Dvorak.  We did some 2 bar clapbacks – that’s a lot to remember and you did very well.  Your playbacks were also very good.  We reviewed note values as well – remember that 2 eighth notes make up one beat (so each eighth note is only half a beat each).  Here is a review worksheet for you to work on at home.  Keep up the great work!  Your rhythm was excellent today.

Level 1A:  You did a double lesson today with Mr. Bach.  In lesson 9, you worked on notes getting higher and higher and lower and lower and then reinforced what you learned with a game of cliffhanger – great listening!  Remember when you have notes getting higher, not to play the highest note right away, because then you won’t be able to get any higher for the next note.  Same with the lowest note if you have notes getting lower and lower.  In lesson 10 you worked on moving towards middle C and created some pretty complex compositions with Miss Melody.  You all had a chance to visit the library and choose a piece to play and then in the improv room, you added some double and holding notes to your improvisations.  All that and some of you still finished early!  If you have any worksheets from previous weeks that you have completed and not brought in (linked to previous blogs), please try to remember to bring them next week.

Level 1B:  You completed lesson 20 on the musical alphabet with Miss Mendelssohn.  Remember to use your left hand to play the notes below middle C and your right hand to play the notes above middle C.  Doing this will also give you a clue which side to put the stem on when you are drawing grown-up line and space notes – which you did very well today.  The stem or ‘tail’ goes down on the left side for the left hand notes that we know below middle C and up on the right side, for the right hand notes.  You did a great job playing treasure hunt today – that requires some very attentive listening.  Keep up the good work.  Here is a worksheet on naming white keys on your keyboard to work on this week.

We finished the class off with a game of hot potato while singing the musical alphabet backwards to the tune of  “Twinkle, Twinkle little star”.   Great work!  See you all next week.

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!

Level 1B:  You met a new teacher today in lesson 21 – Mr. Hector Villa Lobos.  Do you remember where he came from?  He was very proud of his country and he helped many people in his country learn more about their folk music when he created a nation wide school music education program.  He also brought the sounds of Brazil with him when he toured abroad.  Mr. Villa Lobos taught you a very famous piece by your first teacher – Mr. Beethoven.  It is called “Ode to Joy” and is part of Beethoven’s last symphony (#9).  You had a new game today – ‘falling leaves’ – which helped you to work on recognizing the notes on the keyboard.  Remember to use your musical alphabet going forward as notes get higher and backwards as notes get lower to identify them.  You all remember “2 black notes down to C”.  Keeping in mind “3 black notes down to F” will help you find F and its neighbouring notes more easily. This worksheet will give you some more practice in Naming the White Keys.  Great work creating your own version of Mr. Villa Lobos’ piece “The Balloon falls and Falls” in the improv room today.

Level 2C:  Fantastic work today – congratulations on completing all the material for this level.  Please remember to do the level 2C review worksheet that I gave you and bring it back next week.  You practiced with Miss Melody for the Recital with Mr. Chopin (lesson 60)  and did a lot of work on your repertoire.  I know that the woodpecker is not your favourite, but he is a very good practice tool to help you play the pieces using the correct rhythm.  Remember to keep your hands ready in middle C position as you play a piece, so that you have all the notes “at your finger tips”.  You had a chance to play all 10 games today – I hope you enjoyed that.

Level 3A:  You worked on playing with both hands at the same time with Ms. Chaminade in lesson 73.  Your hands fall into a very nice position when you sit away from the keyboard and give your arms some room, so remember not to sit too close.  Remember to use your musical alphabet to figure out and play the correct note, rather than just hitting random notes until you get the right one.  I know that when you take your time, you can figure it out – don’t rush.  Great work recognizing and playing your accidentals (sharps, flats and naturals).  You had some challenging pieces in this class and did very well with them.  You also did a great job with the rhythmic dictations that I clapped for you and you remember all of your notes values.  We finished off with the C major scale going up with the right hand and going down with the left – your fingering ( 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5) was perfect.  Keep working on getting the thumb tuck nice and smooth, so that it connects right from the next note.  You thumb can start tucking as soon as it is free from playing the C, so when its next turn comes, it is right there.  Keep up the good work! Here is Ms. Chaminade Word Search to help you remember some of the things you have learned about her.