Thank you for getting back into the groove with me! I'm loving watching the kids blossom!! I hope they're having fun at home practicing their compositions and coming up with great endings! I had SO much fun doing their compositions with them! Lots of very creative ideas and music!

Next week's spotlight is Cockles and Mussels. If you have not already done so, send a video on Marco Polo, email, or text to me before class next week. I am specifically looking for them to be able to play the root position of each chord, and be able to play the song using broken chords.

Here are video helps for this week:

C Minor Cadence

Cockles and Mussels

New World Symphony

Magic Keys

John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith

F Major Scale

C Major Scale

Here is a breakdown of what we did in class this week:

DO is HOME: After we did our usual "Do is Home" exercise, we sang up to G in our heads (audiate!) and then had a volunteer sing the G. We noticed the SOL is G. We then changed our DO is G, and sang "G is Home". I asked them, "When is G Do?" (In G Major). What makes it G Major? (F#).

Let's Play Music: We sang Let's Play Music in G Major, and they turned to page 1 and practiced making their own sharps. We noticed that the F line goes through the MIDDLE of the sharp. We then did our dictation, using eighth notes. I played DRDTD, and they wrote down what they heard, in all eighty notes.

Scales: We played the C scale, and talked about the scale degrees of each note. "What is the 2nd scale degree? (D)". What is the 4th scale degree? (F). Etc.

We then played the C scale, counting as we played.

We switched to the LH, and played beetles (playing each key two times). We counting 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + while we played.

We then played the F Major scale using half notes, remembering there is no stinky pinky when playing with the RH.

Cadence Blues: We played the G Major cadence and played the Cadence Blues with the app in C, F AND G Major!!!! WOWOWOWOWOW!!!

Echo Edison: Echo Edison praised the student composers for all their creative ideas. He asked them trickier questions now that he's got official composers in the class! DMSS, DMSLSSS, DRDMSSS, .... The students came up with great answers, trying to use the pattern in the question to form their answer, and always ending on DO.

Mixed Paint: We played p. 6 together as a class. We then looked at p. 8, and talked about inversions. When we mix up the notes of a chord, it's called an "inversion". We looked at our red chord first, and named the C as our root. We saw the root in every inversion of the red chord. We then looked at the blue chord, and placed our blue counters on each key played in our blue chord. I placed the blue chord on the staff, and moved up each note as they children moved up their blue counters to play the chord in each inversion.

F chord inversions- We started playing the blue chord in its inversions today. We used 3 blue counters on the keyboards - putting them on middle C, F and A, (which is actually 2nd inversion) and then jumped the first blue counter up to the next octave C - for the root position version of this triad. Remember, the letter names stay the same, the order is just mixed up! Here's a quick demo video to help visualize

I'd like them to practice playing their inversions at home. Go on to blue if red is easy, or keep playing red if they need more practice on it.

Let's Find the Root: I introduced the REAL chord names of the red, blue and yellow chord today! We talked about what scale degree the root of each chord is, and named that chord that number. The Red Chord is actually called a "One" chord, because it's root is the first step of the scale. The Blue chord is the "Four" chord because it's root is the fourth step of the scale. The Yellow Chord is the "Five" chord, because it's root is the fifth step of the scale. I told them that other music teachers will never call those chords red, blue, and yellow, but they will be called by the numbers 1, 4, and 5.

New World Symphony: We played ALL the parts! We learned about Dvorak, the composer of this beautiful symphony.

Next Week we will really work hard on counting eighth and sixteenth notes.

Here are the counting cards that we are using in class. Feel free to print these to get some extra practice counting at home. PLEASE practice counting with them at home!!! We will continue to back track with the gaps due to the lessons being neglectful of rhythm reading.

Orange Counting Cards Set 1

Orange Counting Cards Set 2

Orange Counting Cards Set 3

Ms. Sally

Text or call me at (770) 490-7638