Finger Strength Achieved Through FUN!

My barely 5-yo daughter is thrilled to be a Green Turtle student and play songs on the piano like her older siblings.  Unlike her brothers who took Let's Play Music years ago, she has tiny, weak (darling!) little fingers.  Today I share some ideas for strengthening little fingers with ideas you can do both with and without the keyboard.

The Wisdom of Let's Play Music
I am relieved that my daughter has had a year of ear-training, note-reading, vocal-training and harp-playing before being required to demonstrate dexterity and finger strength.  Her mind and ear were ready for Red and Blue level theory and exercises, and she soaked them up.  It would have been a frustrating waste of time, effort and motivation if she'd been sitting at a piano all year, wishing her fingers could keep up with the amazing pace of her mind!  Fingers develop at a slow pace, even for kids with sharp minds, and Let's Play Music planned for it.

Strengthening At the Piano
I can't say enough good things about the drills assigned by LPM teachers.  If your kiddo has weak fingers, never skimp on bubble holding and tapping, individual finger-playing, and kit-kat key pressing!   

This video shows exactly what bubble-hands could look like:


I also have my daughter play the kit-kat song with 2 fingers for the group of 2 (pressing them 4 times before moving on) and 3 fingers on the group of 3.  Our goal is to do it with those nice rounded fingers.

Strengthening Without A Piano
I can't keep her at the piano all day, but luckily there are scores of playful ways to strengthen fingers when we're on-the-go.  The dollar store likely has everything you need for games that will strengthen overall grip/flexion, improve individual finger strength, and improve individual finger control and independent movement.

Sponges: Make a game of filling containers (perhaps during bath time) with water by squeezing a soggy sponge into the container.  Squeezing strengthens wrist muscles and finger flexors.

Bulb Syringe: Maybe you have one of these bulbs left over from when your student was a newborn!? Let her enjoy filling and squeezing the bulb with water at bath time. Ask her to try squeezing with different fingers (only thumb and finger 2? only thumb and finger 3?) Of course every activity is more fun if you fill the bulbs with paint and make it a craft.

Spray bottles: Make cool designs on the sidewalk by squirting water on the cement.  If squeezing seems easy, try using fewer fingers on the trigger! If you've got good weather, fill spray bottles and squeeze bottles with home-made sidewalk spray paint.

Play-doh: We play "mushy pushy."  My daughter holds a ball of dough in her hand and when I say a finger number (or roll a die), she squishes only that finger deep into the dough. There are plenty of play-doh games online to keep your kiddo entertained and squeezing for hours.

Stress-balls: We made our own stress ball by putting flour in a balloon.  Just to be silly, we sing the "flat little red balloon" song instead of "great big red balloon" while squishing it and strengthening fingers.

Finger Exerciser: $6 is a pretty cheap price to pay for a GYM MEMBERSHIP for your fingers. That's what you get when you buy a finger exerciser (available on Amazon.) You can work the whole grip, or each finger individually.

Clothespins: Pick up small items using a clothespin as tongs, or clip clothespins around the edge of your Green Turtles songbook.  Look online for dozens of clothespin educational games  or super-cute animal crafts with opening mouths made from clothespins.  Try opening with different combinations of fingers!

Tennis Ball Puppet: Make a puppet by cutting a mouth slit in a tennis ball.  It takes a strong grip to squeeze his mouth open (and you can hide small objects in there!) Draw eyes with marker or glue on some googley eyes.

I Love You:  Teach your child the classic handsign for "I Love You" and flash it to each other every day!  The ASL (American Sign Language) alphabet and counting numbers also require finger strength and control to shape little hands.  Ask math questions and make a game of only answering with fingers.

I hope these ideas help you and your little one strengthen fingers without getting too frustrated in these early weeks at the piano.  In no time at all her hands will be stronger and she'll be playing chords and intervals with confidence AND be able to remember those hand positions for life.

-Gina Weibel, M.S.
Let's Play Music Teacher

Musical Superpower: Perfect Pitch!

Now your child is enrolled in Let's Play Music classes and you're getting excited about the long list of amazing skills that will be taught during 3 power-packed years.  One fantastic super-power you'll see signs of in your child is perfect pitch.

What is Perfect Pitch?
Perfect pitch is also referred to as absolute pitch (AP).  Pitch defines how high or low a tone sounds; a person with perfect pitch can identify the tone without hearing a reference.  For example, if you play a note on the piano without letting your child see, and he correctly exclaims, "That was a D," he's able to discern the pitch! Amazing!  If you ask him to sing a middle C and he can hit it exactly, he's demonstrating absolute pitch.

Children who speak a tonal language (one where pitch of voice is an important consideration, like most forms of Chinese) usually have an easier time developing perfect pitch, although the tonal languages rely on relative pitch (the change in pitch during speaking).   It is still possible and worthwhile to improve pitch skills for all young children. In fact, it is recognized that although anyone can improve AP skills, only those who start very young can truly gain Perfect Pitch. Read a bit more about it in this BBC article.

Why is it useful?
All varieties of pitch training are useful in helping your child become a complete musician, the focus of Let's Play Music.  With some absolute pitch skills, a musician can:

* Sing a song in a requested key.  
* Provide the starting note(s) for singers or musicians singing parts.
* Listen to a singer or other musician, determine what key they are in, and accompany them with appropriate chord progressions. This is especially helpful when you're at the piano during the Christmas party and Aunt Martha starts singing and she doesn't know what key she is in.
* Identify if stringed instruments are tuned properly. This is especially useful if you're sitting around the campfire without a pitch pipe iPhone app.
* Correct themselves while singing or playing an instrument, especially when sight-reading. Those with AP are amazing at playing new music. 
* Read musical scores in their minds. It really is like reading a book with a soundtrack!

* Master brass instruments or vocal music easily: the slight contractions of throat, oral, and lip muscles determine the pitch; only your ear will give you feedback as to whether you've hit the note exactly. Most musicians/singers without AP use a piano to check if they are hitting the correct note.
* Have success learning a tonal language as a second language.

What can we Do?
In Let's Play Music class, your teacher has specific games and activities designed to improve absolute pitch!  As your child sings "Do Is Home" using Middle C, she's practicing trying to find that pitch without reference, and learning to check herself.  You'll love seeing improvement by the end of the year.

I recommend you download a pitch pipe app or a keyboard app onto your phone, so you can recreate this type of activity at any time.  More practice leads to improved ability!  One family made it a habit to sing "We Are Here" every time they arrived at a destination in their car (checking the middle C pitch with an iPhone app.)  

It's also easy to play pitches on piano (or piano app) for you child and have him identify which note he hears.  To make it easier for my beginners, I use only white keys.

Don't Have Perfect Pitch?
Most Let's Play Music students will be able to sing a Middle C when requested.  Most will not develop complete perfect pitch.  Are we worried? No way!  

In addition to absolute pitch (AP), we will be training your child's ear for relative pitch, ability to identify chords by ear, ability to hear chord progressions, and ability to discern and identify rhythms by ear. Although a fun and desirable skill, very few famous musicians and composers have AP.  Let's Play Music class will prepare well-rounded musicians who have the ability to hear and understand music.

Shelle Soelberg, creator of Let's Play Music, knew that some solid practice in AP would benefit all young LPM students and set them on the road to acquiring true absolute pitch.  As each of her own children completed the program over the years, they were perfect at hitting Middle C along with other graduates.  With a bit more practice, four of her children acquired absolute pitch by age twelve!  Soelberg told me, "we made pitch practice a part of our daily habit….nothing structured, it just became a fun thing we all started doing.  The piano is near the kitchen, so during cooking, meals, and chores, it was natural to try to sing a pitch and go check, or play a pitch and quiz the family."

Whether or not you continue to practice AP games beyond the Let's Play Music years, your child will be blessed for life to have an ear a bit more sensitive to absolute pitches.

Not in a Let's Play Music class yet? Don't miss out - find a teacher near you now!



-Gina Weibel, M.S.

Related Posts:
Intervals are worth knowing
Ear-Training: Intervals with Turtle Tom and Tim

Your Very First Recital!

If you've just enjoyed most of your first year of the Let's Play Music curriculum, then that means you're preparing for your child's very first Let's Play Music recital!

Practice Counts
This year practice has been very flexible: do the homework assignment, listen to the CD  and sing along, practice the bell songs a few times, and repeat any games and activities from class that you love.  You didn't have to record if practice was daily.  It was easy and fun!

During these last few weeks, practicing becomes a bit more intense (and still fun); now your child will need to practice exactly the bell songs she's be assigned to perform for the recital.  It will be important to practice EVERY day for the week or two leading up to the show.

This gentle spurt of effort is a great way to prepare Blue Bugs for the joys of becoming Green Turtles, since they'll be expected to practice at least 5 times/ week.  Explore strategies for helping your child enjoy this daily practice now, and get her excited to continue daily practices next fall.

10-Day Practice Log
My daughter is very motivated by coloring, so I designed a 10-day practice log, scheduled to end on the day of the recital.  Click on the image to download one for your eager musician.  If she plays her songs 3-4 times every day for 10 days, she definitely will be perfectly prepared for the show.

Click the image to download the practice chart.

A Few Things They Learned
The recital is more than just darling children singing songs; it's an opportunity to delightfully reminisce about the fabulous skills they've learned this year!  I chose my favorite ten characters to feature in the practice log.  Maybe you'll want to revisit their songs as you color in each space. Let's see what they taught us:

Bill Grogan's Goat: We learned how to find a beat, feel the beat internally, and accompany singers on the harp while keeping the beat.  We even listened and identified out the common melody notes Sol-La-Ti-Do.

Frog Went Hoppin': We learned how to read leaps on the staff, and play a song with leaps on our bells.  We identified the bug-bug-slug rhythm of the ostinato.

Oooo Halloween: We expanded our vocal range and practiced singing with a pleasant head voice.  We carried the beat internally and were able to surprise our friends.

Hickety Pickety Bumblebee: We sang a minor 3rd interval (Sol-Mi) on correct pitch and played the song on our bells with 3 different melodic endings that we learned to identify by ear or notation.  We learned to play this song in the key of C (Do is C) and F (Do is F).

Jungle Drums: We were able to keep a steady beat while subdividing.  We noticed the mathematics of subdividing and played our rhythm while others played different rhythms.

Bug Rhythms: We learned to read rhythms and play them correctly with or without using our voice.

The Dinosaur Song: We learned how to read steps and skips and play this song using steps and skips on our bells.  We learned that songs have melody, and we identified and sang the solfeg.   **For the dinosaur enthusiasts: Yes, I have been told that dinosaurs of that diplodocus-like shape did NOT have spikes, but all the dinosaurs that DO have spikes are not really shaped for climbing up and sliding down.  So, this drawing is a dinosaur dressed up as a stegosaurus for Halloween.**

The Red Balloon: We learned to sing a major scale ascending and descending, and identify a major scale by ear or notation.  We learned all the solfeg and accompanying hand signs.

Five Fat Turkeys: We were able to pick out the melody and identify sol-sol-do in this song.  We learned to keep the beat while singing and doing hand actions, and we played this song on the autoharp while reading from a chording sheet.

BINGO: We clapped and audiated rhythms, and even identified the bug rhythms used in this song.  With careful listening, we discovered the melody, too, and notated the sol-la-ti-do at the end!


Have a wonderful time coloring and I wish you the best at your very first Let's Play Music recital!

-Gina Weibel, M.S.
Let's Play Music Teacher

Identifying Minor Sounds is A Majorly Important Skill

Your first-year student has been carefully listening to songs and determining if the tunes sound major or minor.  Hearing and identifying major and minor sounds prepares her to play both types of music on the keyboard next year, transpose between major and minor keys, and write her own composition that may include a minor key!  Her musicianship skills are blossoming!

I've Been to Harlem

This fun folk song gives students a chance to hear the same tune sung major, then again minor for comparison.  Did you know your tone bells give you a chance to explore major and minor at home further?

As you'll remember from our posts on solfeg, DO could be on any note.  With your bells, you can only make a complete major scale if DO is on C, but don't let that stop you from experimenting with assigning other bells to be Do.

Since your student is learning how to skip, have her pull out the C bell, and take a skip, and another to create the Red chord in C Major: CEG or Do-Mi-Sol.  Play this chord and hear that it sounds Major.   Try again starting with the F bell, to create the Red chord in the key of F Major: FAC.  It also sounds Major, and is another Do-Mi-Sol; this time Do was F.

What if you start with D (DFA) or E (EGB)?  This creates a Red chord in the key of D minor and E minor.  Play it with your child and see if she can hear the difference.  The minor triad is Do-Me-Sol, pronounced Doh-MAY-Soh.

With each of those groupings of 3 notes, it was the MIDDLE note that determined that the chord was major or minor. Without the middle bell you can't assign major or minor.

Here's a video of a 4-year-old student creating a few triads, and playing the song "I've Been to Harlem" in C Major and E minor.  (You'll learn a lot more about triads in year 3).  I don't recommend using your feet to hold mallets, nor drinking pickle juice for real.

How did that sound?

Major scales sound brighter and cheerier than the sad (or sleepy or spooky or somber) minor scales.  Nothing beats experience and exposure for helping you learn to recognize the difference between major and minor.  If you want some more practice, here is a short little ear-training quiz with some major and minor chords.  Who got more answers correct, you or your child!?

Teacher Justine Turcott, in Rexburg, ID, shares a conversation between a first-year student and another 4 year-old as they made hot cocoa:

Jaymie: Did you put in enough powder?
Bailey: Yeah.
Jaymie: Well, are you sure? Does it taste Major or Minor?
Bailey: What?
Jaymie: Major is happy and Minor is sad. Does it taste Major?

Here at Let's Play Music, we love to give a multi-sensory approach to learning, and these students found a way to bring the sense of taste into the lesson, too!

  
The Cup Game

The song, "I've Been to Harlem" is also commonly used to play tricky cup rhythm games like this or this.  Part of the fun is having a complex rhythm different from the rhythm of the song lyrics.  I wanted to share the fun of a cup rhythm game with my young family, so we came up with a much simpler routine.

Before singing the song, help your child chant "Beetle, Butterfly, Clap- Pick, Pass" with a cup until she can remember the routine shown in the video below.  The rhythm is beetle-butterfly-beetle-bug.  Ask your child to keep thinking of that rhythm while you sing the song.  Eventually she'll be able to sing along and keep the rhythm going, too.

Here's one Blue Bugs class with Let's Play Music teacher, Robin Flores in Windsor, Colorado playing the cup passing game. You can try it at home, too!




All ages find this game irresistible and will be singing "I've Been to Harlem" and requesting more chances to play the cup game!  They laugh when they make a mistake and feel exhilarated when it works out.

I hope you find some time to extend your fun with "Harlem" and get more exposure to major and minor sounds this month.

- Gina Weibel, M.S.
Let's Play Music Teacher