NEED TO KNOW
Purple Magic #11: Your kids are doing some pretty advanced musical stuff this year. They can play cadences in C Major, C Minor, and F Major! They can take songs that are written in C Major and play them in F Major! They are amazing!
IF YOUR STUDENT FEELS OVERWHELMED: It's okay! They are getting a LOT of music thrown at them quickly. Third Year of Let's Play Music is a thorough introduction to theory, but it doesn't give time for all students to gain mastery in the performing of it. Even if your student struggles with playing the music on the keyboard, know that they absolutely understand the concepts we cover when they're on the "Active" side of the classroom. Connecting it physically to the fingers and keyboard is a developmental level that some kids haven't reached yet. If your student gets frustrated and anxious about keyboard time, here are some steps to help them remember what they have learned, which will prepare their brains to take the next steps.
1. Have them play C position do-re-mi-fa-sol-fa-mi-re-do (like Caterpillar Cousins on page 7) with both hands (together or separately) to solidify the C position in their hands and brains.
2. Then play the C cadence (Red, Blue, Red, Yellow, Red) with both hands (together or separately).
3. Play the whole C scale with both hands (together or separately), popping in the correct places.
4. Change to F position (remember the Bb!) and play do-re-mi-fa-sol-fa-mi-re-do (the little box on top of Turkey in the Straw on page 21) with both hands (together or separately) to shift mental and physical gears to F Major.
5. Play the F cadence (Red, Blue with Bb, Red, Yellow, Red) with both hands (together or separately).
6. Take it step by step and celebrate wherever they are at. Playing hands separately is just fine. That is another developmental thing. Some kids just aren't ready to control both hands at the same time in that detail. Once their brains and fingers connect, they will progress quickly. Make sure they know that they are doing hard work!
HOMEWORK HELP: This week's homework is writing the chords for Jingle Bells on page 26. In class, we played the melody and experimented with which chords sounded best for the notes in the measure. In some classes, we did the first two lines and the kids will finish at home. In others, we got to the end of the song. In class, we wrote the color of chord underneath the measure, and for their homework they need to go through and finish writing the chord. Here are the first two lines filled in. They can finish the third and fourth lines. Hint: Line 3 is identical to Line 1 (hence the A and A), and will have the same red chord for the whole line. Line 2 is almost identical to Line 4 (hence the B and B), and will have the same chords except the last measure will be red. If they want a different chord, let them have it. It is not worth the battle, and creative harmonization can be awesome. Their homework is to finish writing the chords in the staff.
SHOWTIME: Next week we'll do Showtime for Song of Joy. The fun part about this one is that the Showtime is played all together in an ensemble. Your student gets to choose which part they want to play, and we'll put it all together in class!
GOOD TO KNOW
F MAJOR CADENCE: This week we played the F Major cadence in a broken style. This is layer upon layer upon layer of musical learning! It can be tricky, so here's another skills video from the online lessons to get a visual.
TURKEY IN THE STRAW: We've been transposing our Let's Play Music song for a while, playing in both the key of C and the key of F. This week we used those skills to play Turkey in the Straw in the key of F! This is some impressive stuff.
TWINKLE TWINKLE: When playing the melody of this song, the second two lines (B section) are easy! They are just a variation of the sol-fa-mi-re-(do) pattern, and we play that all the time! The first two lines are the first section of melody we've played that isn't entirely in C position. Remind your student to stretch their right hand into the "blue chord" position to touch 'Huggie G' with finger #4 and 'A' with finger #5. Then when coming back down (end of 2nd line), slide their thumb up to D then back to C, and they'll be back in C position to play the easy-peasy B section!
FUN TO KNOW
Theme and Variation is a style where there is a melody, then a whole bunch of ways to show off that melody. This is what Mozart did with the Twinkle Twinkle variations. Scott Bradlee (who went on to form Postmodern Jukebox), took the same Twinkle Twinkle melody and made 24 new variations, all based on specific styles and eras of music, including 50s Doo Wop, 70s Disco, even 90s Grunge and Gangsta Rap. Check it out here. Creative musicians are so much fun!
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