Scale Degrees and Chord Colors

Scale Degrees

In the greater musical world, the chords are not identified by color, but by the scale degree on which the chord root sits.

First things first: what are scale degrees?  Think of a any scale and just assign a number to each step of the scale. Do=1, Re=2, etc.

Build a triad on top of the root notes. A triad is made of intervals of a 3rd and a 5th stacked on top of a root. First, I'll draw them in "snowman" shape so you can easily see which notes are in the triad/chord.

Our favorite triads/chords are 1=Red. 4=Blue. 5=Yellow.  In the key of C that means the C chord is RED, The F chord is BLUE, and the G chord is YELLOW. Can you see it in this illustration? 

Because we don't like having to jump our hand around on the keyboard, we can rearrange the notes of the triad (inversions).  We make the blue chord look like it's stretching up high. We make the yellow chord look like it's crouching down. 

But we didn't change the notes of any chords!  Red has CEG. Blue has FAC. Yellow has GBD. Now you can play all of those chords with your hand in C position, and you only have to stretch a tiny bit.

Don't they all look very familiar in those inversions?

*This is all we have shown our second year students so far, so they always say a snowman-shaped C chord is a RED chord.*. And YES, that C chord is RED when Do is C.

Key of F

This time I will show you the key signature with one flat. The RED chord is F. The BLUE is Bb. The YELLOW is C.

Can you can find the same snowman-shaped C chord in this illustration that was in the illustration above?

It's yellow now! (I drew CEG twice on step 5 so you could see that either one would still be a C chord). Nothing about the chord actually changed, but DO HAS MOVED, so the C chord plays a different role/ does a different job in this song.

A C chord can be RED (I) if Do is C.  It's YELLOW (V) if Do is F.

Key of G

Just for fun, can you find the C chord one more time?  Notice the key signature has changed. One sharp means this is the key of G.

You found a triad built on a middle C?  THIS time the C chord is on the 4th step of the scale so it is a BLUE chord.

That C chord can be RED (I) when Do is C, BLUE (IV) when Do is G or YELLOW (V) when Do is F! It's like saying a woman is a mother, daughter, and grand-daughter, depending on where you start counting.

A woman can also be an aunt and a cousin and a wife, so it's not surprising that in other keys, our C chord can play other interesting roles, too. 

What if Do were Bb or E? C would not be Red, Blue or Yellow.  Maybe orange or pink would be fun colors to represent chords built on the 2nd or 6th step of the scale.

The roles of triads built on other steps of the scale is a little beyond Let's Play Music, but you have a great foundational understanding of how scale degrees give chords ROLES to function in songs, and you'll love introducing new characters to your family of chords in any key. Enjoy!

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

Is This Chord Red, Blue, or Yellow?

Let's start with a trick question.  

Is this a Red, Blue, or Yellow chord? I see that it is made of the notes C-E-G.

I was being really sneaky because I didn't show you the key signature (the sharps and flats next to the clef, that define where DO is.). 

Second year students will always tell me this is a RED chord, and for now, they are correct. But third year students have learned the magic of key change.  

But those smart third year students will say, "That's a C-chord and it could be RED or BLUE or YELLOW!  It depends where Do is!"

The Role of Chords

Imagine I were going to tell you 3 stories, and Linda happens to be in them all.  Here's a photo of Linda, a new mother.  Linda is the mother in the first story.

And here's another look at Linda with her mom. Linda is still the same, but she'll play the role of daughter in the second story.

Finally, Linda plays the role of  grand-daughter in my third story.  Linda didn't change anything about herself, but depending on who she was with, her role in the story changed.  





Now let's think about chords! A chord can play the role of RED, BLUE, or YELLOW depending on which other chords it is with and where DO is.  


Red, Blue, Yellow

The Red, Blue, and Yellow chords play roles in songs and music.

The RED CHORD is HOME. Songs begin and end with RED. It just doesn't feel complete otherwise.

The BLUE CHORD gives us a traveling, moving sensations in our music. We sing "we like to run and roam" because the BLUE CHORD helps us add interest and movement.

The YELLOW CHORD has a distinct sound that really pulls back to RED. "Yellow is the chord that leads us back to home."


Our songs are harmonized with these three players.

A chord can be ANY of these colors, depending on where Do is.  I'll explain more in the next post! Read it here.

- Gina Weibel, MS
Let's Play Music Teacher

Piano Technique: How Much Do We Need?

Let's Play Music is intentionally different from traditional piano lessons. It's so different that we don't even label it as a piano program but a three-year complete musicianship program.  

That might leave pianist parents wondering: 
Will my child learn proper piano technique in Let's Play Music!?

A Piano Dilemma

First, a quick reminder that Let's Play Music was created in large part to solve a specific dilemma.  We know piano has a star role in early musicianship education (post), but children don't have full development and control of motor function in their hands until about age 8.  Should we avoid teaching piano to children until they are 8?

But, children are most sensitive to hearing pitches and laying neural foundation for ear training when they are babies. The sensitivity decreases as children age and settle into language and environment. We need to start teaching music as early as possible, and using the right tools. That means playing instruments, and piano is the place to begin.

If we put our 4 and 5 year olds on pianos so they can learn what the brains and ears are ready to learn, the fingers will be frustrated.  Let's Play music solves the finger-strength-dilemma in two ways.  

First: we spend a year playing the auto-harp and bells. Students have a whole year to let the brain and ears lay a foundation of how music works, how notes work, how chords work, how rhythm works.


Second: when we teach piano technique during years 2-3, we go very light on technique drills.  We DO teach technique exercises including relaxation, posture, and several 5-finger drills (technique post) but we can't shake a stick at how a private teacher will train an older student. 

So, should we avoid teaching piano to children younger than 8? No! We should simply avoid expecting perfect technique from children younger than 8, and instead put our focus on every other aspect of musicianship. (Musicianship)

Right now you might be a little sad that there's not much focus on technique. Trust me, the grass is greener on this side. After graduation, most students are less-than-excited that private lessons focus on technique at the expense of time spent on the rest of musicianship skills.

Did you know? Presto!, a new course from Making Musicians, teaches students ages 7-11 the same skills as taught in Let's Play Music. The program is heavy on technique training... because the students are ready for it!

Why Chords?

Little fingers are not super strong. So, does it seem surprising that we ask students to play intervals and chords right away?  That's even tougher than playing single-note melodies. What gives?

From a musical perspective, chords are the right place to start.  Most music that the children know can be harmonized with the I, IV, and V chords. It makes perfect sense that the most effective way to hand them the awesome power of creation and the joy of real music is to show them how to take these chords and make them work!  

By playing chord harmonizations on the piano and singing along, students experience success and joyful performance from day one.  In class, your teacher will sing songs (Old MacDonald, etc.) and have the students decide which chords to play.  That's power! That's creation! That's what we teach.

So, the tradeoff: Some tiny hands might not be able to manage playing these chords this year.  We allow students to play just the root and 5th, or just the root, or other modifications if they have particularly small or weak hands. Nobody is held back for not being able to execute "perfectly" on songs.

Her brain learned it. Her ear learned it. She felt inspired. She felt joy.  She has the rest of her life for her hand to catch up. We're not overly worried.

The Graduate and the Novice

When a private teacher receives an 8-year-old LPM graduate, the teacher should expect the graduate to be advanced in theory, composition, ear-training, reading notation, transcribing, and improvisation. Plus, she knows how to practice at home for 30 minutes each day. Let's Play Music has really paid off!

BUT, the graduate is probably equally novice in technique as his peer 8-year-old friend who is beginning piano with no musical background.  This presents some interesting challenges to the teacher, which is why we have our connections program, offering free materials to teachers to help them work with our graduates.  If you give both students exactly the same assignments for the first year, one of them will be unhappy.

At age 8, students are very flexible in their ways. They are only just coming into full dexterity and muscle control.  What I'm saying is, if your LPM student has been playing with slightly less-than-perfect technique, there is absolutely nothing permanent or incorrigible about that student. She can still be a competitive pianist when she's 9.  

Actually, the fact that the 8-year-old has been trying to use and control those muscles has strengthened them even as they were still developing.  If your child could not take ice skating lessons until age 5, you wouldn't prevent her from walking and running at age 4.  If you want your child to play with perfect form at age 9, be easy on her as she wends her way through LPM.

A good private teacher will be so delighted to have a gifted musician that she won't balk at needing to train the fingers and arms to catch up to the amazing mind and ears.

Igniting the Passion

Back when my daughter was 3, we joined a class called Storybook Ballet.   As we walked down the hall of the studio, I saw older ballet classes doing what I would expect in ballet class: proper technique with everyone lined up seriously. 

But Storybook class was nothing like that.

All of the 3-year-olds enjoyed warm-ups in a circle, then copied the teacher, prancing around the room with pre-ballet moves. They listened to a short storybook; one time it was Little Red Riding Hood. Finally, each day had the best possible ending: dressing up in a new costume and performing some loosely-choreographed moves to act out the story for parents.  

Storybook Ballet was a huge hit with our family. Obviously, it was age-appropriate. My 3-year-old couldn't tolerate long drills or high expectations. The class did introduce some ballet steps and terms, but mostly it captured the fun and exciting elements of ballet: dressing up, telling stories, creating moves, and performing!  

The role of storybook class wasn't to drill in technique, the purpose was to ignite the passion for dance.  It worked! Dance teachers could have spent time focusing more on getting those babies to do it 'right'.  But why? But instead they chose to share the joys of performance in every class.

Let's Play Music reminds me of that ballet class sometimes.  We show our students how to create music right away with chords. We don't tell them that they need perfect technique and a degree in theory before they start composing. We want them inventing. They're not just executors of music, but creators of it. We let them be silly. It should feel like play.

There will be time later for perfecting technique, but the best time for fanning the flames of passion is now.  Students who have an amazing experience in Let's Play Music build up passion and excitement that carries them through the next several years of (potentially boring) technique perfection.

So go out there and have fun! Good enough technique is good enough for now.

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

Block, Broken, Marching: Love those Chords!

Quick Reminder: What's a Chord?

Photo courtesy of Facebook user Sara Young

By now you're very familiar with the Red, Blue, and Yellow triangles your Let's Play Music teacher uses in class.  Triangles have 3 corners to emphasize that a chord has at least 3 notes heard together. (Yeah, when you graduate from LPM you will learn chords with more than 3 notes.)  
 

Block Chords

So, if a chord must have at least 3 notes, one straightforward way to play it is to strike all 3 notes simultaneously.  Your ear hears all 3 sounds merged together into one sweet creation: the block chord. Block chords can sound very strong, loud, and powerful in songs. Or they can sound rich and deep.

One of my favorite things about Let's Play Music is when my 5-year-olds sing and play "Old Paint" at the very begging of 2nd year. It's their first time on the piano and they already sound loud, rich, and complex because they are playing chords AND overlaying with the melody of their voice. It sounds SO GOOD from day one.  This is very motivating and the students want to sit down and play for hours!

When reading chord maps in year one, we touched each triangle as the entire chord was played on the beat.   We generally consider all chords played on the harp as block chords (students strum all notes in one swift movement, or at least they try to!)

Block Chord Ear training: Listen to this sample of block chords playing.  The first activity is just like ones we do in class to help students distinguish when we change from one chord to a different one.  The second activity is for to practice identifying which chords are heard in a pattern.  Ear training practice helps our students recognize cadences in music they hear every day, all around them!



Reading Blocks: Since music is read from left to right, notes that are stacked on top of one another are played at the same time.  Learning to recognize the familiar shapes of block chord structures, and teaching the hand muscles to quickly play them is a great skill that all Let's Play Music students graduate with.  As we mentioned in our post on note reading, musicians look at notes and chords in chunks.  You may scrutinize one note of the chord for accuracy, then let the shape of it guide your hand to magically perform the rest of the chord!

By graduation, students will have no trouble playing block chords all over the keyboard, like these.  If you ARE a third year student, what color are these chords!? (The answer is at the end of the post!)

Broken Chords
So, a chord has three or more notes.  A delightful variation is to play the notes one at a time instead of all at once.  Broken chords can change the feeling of a song into something delicate and lilting when played piano and legato or give a sharp and spicy impression when played forte and staccato!

A fabulous word that means 'broken chord' or 'notes of a chord played in sequence' is arpeggio.  Nothing beats having your five-year-old approach a guest over at your house, and announce, "I'd like to play you some arpeggios on the piano, for your listening pleasure."

In the first year of Let's Play Music, we played songs like "On Top of Spaghetti" to practice with broken chords.  Although we did use a chord map, we tapped each corner of the triangles while listening to the accompaniment to emphasize that we are hearing each note of the chord separately (broken chords.)  

Arpeggio Ear Training: Broken chords (arpeggios) are used in Let's Play Music ear-training just as often as block chords.  It is often easier for the students to figure out which chord I am playing if they can hear the notes one at a time, hearing the individual notes and intervals between them.  If I play a block chord and the student can't identify it, I usually play broken style and they can recognize it.  In each of these tracks, can you tell which chord I play? 


Reading Broken Chords: Just like you read a book left-to-right, you play the notes from left-to-right one at a time. You'll get excellent practice with songs like "Lullaby." Because arpeggios are so common, composers often write a block chord and put the arpeggiate symbol next to it.  It just means 'spread this out' and is a handy way to save paper if you write a lot of broken chords. If you want the chord to be played top-to-bottom, add a downward arrow to the symbol.

Some delightful variations that will be very useful in composing music are fun to experiment with now (why wait!?).  After playing the 3 notes of a chord, why not repeat the first note again an octave higher (shown above)? Play the arpeggio going up and then back down! Fancy!  (You'll have to use fingers 1-2-3-5; that's tricky!)

Looking for another way to add a fourth beat? Play the broken chord and then replay the middle note. This can really spice up an accompaniment.  Red, Blue, Yellow, and Red chords in broken style:

There's no need to play a boring bug-bug-bug-bug rhythm.  Take these notes and add a calypso rhythm to make your composition even fancier! That's what what you'll see when you play "Tinga Layo".

Marching Chords
In Let's Play Music we highlight one more fun way to play chords: Marching style.  Like a mixture of block and broken, the chord is played in two beats.  First play just the lowest note of the block, then play all the others. Voila! You've got some marching chords.

You can play around with marching in your own compositions.  Mix up the rhythms or repeat the low or high to create some cool sounds.  In third year we'll also play marching by having the right hand and left hand alternate for a marching sound.  Can you play this cool composition I just made completely of red chords?

 

Have Fun with Chords

Photo courtesy of Facebook user Juliane Wolf

Now that you know the secrets of block, broken, and marching chords, you can change the way you play songs!  In Let's Play Music classes, we train complete musicians. That means students understand how songs are put together, have the power to improvise the way they play what is written on the page, and can compose their own music. 

So give it a try! Go play with chords and create something new! 



Block Chord Reading Quiz Answer:These chords shown are shown in different inversions.  They are: Red, Red, Red, Blue, Blue, Yellow, Yellow, Red. Or you could say I, I, I, IV, IV, V, V, I.  You must look at the key signature to be sure that the first block chord is a I (Red)! Our 3rd year students are so smart!

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

Orange Roots and Bamboo Shoots

If your child is in the third year of Let's Play Music, your family is beginning the final semester: Orange Roots.  At a recent symposium, Let's Play Music creator Shelle Soelberg shared with me her process for choosing the semester icon, Orange Roots.  

It's Always Been About Making Musicians

By this final semester, Soelberg hoped parents would now have the years of experience to understand what creating a musician encompasses, to comprehend exactly what it takes, and then have a glorious moment to bask in the satisfaction of the achievement.  How could that all be conveyed in a semester name?

By now, Mom and Dad, your child has attended at least seventy-five classes: 3,675 minutes of classroom instruction.  You've found babysitters for siblings so you could be in class on parent week.  You've arranged schedules and meal-times and errands so your child could get to all seventy-five classes on time.  You set up a daily practice plan and played with your child and assisted in hundreds of hours of practice.  You helped with homework.  You may have even laminated ten complete sets of puppets!

And now something wonderful and exciting is finally happening: your child is learning some serious music theory, performing some fantastic songs, and even composing and transcribing her own music. Finally, your bamboo has sprouted!

The "Bamboo Lesson"

Shelle shared the popular motivational allegory , the "Bamboo Lesson" with me, and it makes perfect sense that this final semester should be a celebration of roots.  Before I share my version of the allegory with you... I invite you to watch this fantastic stop-film of a bamboo as it grows one meter per day!

There once was a music parent who felt discouraged.

Her child had been attending Red Balloon music lessons, 

but it didn't look like her daughter was becoming a great musician.

She began to lose hope, so she went to speak to the LPM teacher.

The teacher said, 

"Come, watch this fantastic stop-frame film of a bamboo tree growing."
Together they watched one day of growth.
The sprout rose from the ground and grew three feet.
Over the next several days it continued to explode upward.
At the end of six weeks, the bamboo was ninety feet tall.

Then he teacher asked, 
"So, how long did it take for the bamboo to grow to that impressive height?"
"Six Weeks!" the parent excitedly replied.

"Ah.  This interpretation will definitely set a person up for disappointment," 
said the teacher. 

 You see, this bamboo was grown from a seed:
Shortly after  planting, a tiny and fragile seedling appeared.
For a year, the grower watered and tended the seedling in a heated greenhouse, 
but the seedling did not appear to change. 

For a second year, the sensitive seedling was kept warm.
The farmer carefully watered and fertilized it.
Still it appeared unchanged.

For a third year, the seedling was kept in the greenhouse and carefully tended.
Finally, it was robust and stable enough to transplant outdoors.

For the fourth, fifth, and sixth years, the seedling was tended.
Each spring, a few new shoots appeared.  
Each spring, the shoots grew a bit taller, and a bit stronger.

In the seventh year, during the wet spring, new shoots sprang up.
They grew three impressive feet in the first day!
After six weeks, they reached 90 feet tall.  
It took seven years for the bamboo to develop, unseen, 
the strength to produce the 90 foot shoots.

What was happening during all those years when there was no visible growth?

Underneath the ground, out of sight,

a  network of roots was developing to support the bamboo's sudden growth.
If at any time the grower had stopped fertilizing and tending the bamboo
there would be no amazing performance in the seventh year.

Growth takes patience and perseverance.

Every practice session counts.

You might not see the change right away, but growth is happening!
During the entire Let's Play Music program, 
your child is developing an enormous network of roots.
Your child is growing a musical foundation that will support future years of practice.
Your child's roots will support amazing performance!

How Deep Are the Roots?

In Let's Play Music, we train students with a wide range of skills for musicianship; creating a foundation like musical roots that will support the fantastic growth that comes in this final year and for many years to come. In every aspect of music learning in the program, we grew the foundational skills first. This is the way to cultivate more than a students who can play piano...but students who are musicians.

For all these years, Mom and Dad, you watered and nurtured your bamboo and didn't give up!  When the teacher was asking your child to audiate, and you had no idea what she was really hearing in her mind; it was like trusting that roots were growing unseen below the ground.   All the time spent on listening to the chords, perfecting the hand shapes for playing, and singing cadences may have left you thinking, "Why doesn't my child just play something amazing already, and stop with these games!?"  Well, that bamboo would have missed out developing a critical foundation without those games.

But NOW you WILL really start to see the evidence of that watering and pruning and care: students who understand how music is put together and are ready to write their own songs.  Students who can talk about notes and rhythms using the correct terminology, and play correctly with correct counting.  Students who can harmonize a song (add chords to a melody) or hear chord progressions in music, and transpose it to other kids.  Students who ARE real musicians!

The "Chord Root" Lesson

The story of the bamboo forests and the importance of building a solid foundation (roots) is not the only reason we have Orange Roots as a semester name.

Students are now ready to learn how to build chords upon a root note.  You'll be learning this at Orange Lesson 5, but in case you get home and it's become a blur, let me run it by you one more time.

I. Choose Any Note.  We'll start the lesson by building a chord with three notes: a triad. (P.S. There's a song on your CD to teach you every triad.) You can choose ANY line or space note on the staff to begin; let's choose F for our example.

II. Add a Third and a Fifth.  You'll remember from our interval lessons that a third is also known as a skip.  So, a skip up from F is A.  A fifth up from F is C.  The top note is the "fifth", the middle note is the "third".  What special name do we have for the bottom note?  The ROOT! It's on the bottom, just like plant roots, and beautiful sounds grow out of it, just like beautiful flowers grow from roots.   

III. What shape do you see? Our chord is definitely looking like a snowman-shape.  It looks like a snowman because there are no gaps between the notes; they are all stacked up nice and neat.  We call this snowman-shape the ROOT POSITION.  Root position is super handy because it is super easy to identify the root: it's simply the guy on the bottom.  Since it's the root that gives a chord it's name, this is an F chord.

IV. Inversions. The reason this is an F chord is because it has F, A and C.  Even if those notes were in a different order, it would still be an F chord!  Let's try it...what if the F (root) were played on the TOP instead of the bottom? Gosh...now this chord has a very yellowy, bottom-heavy shape. We call this shape the FIRST INVERSION.  Well, drat, now when we look at something with this shape, how will we ever quickly identify the root?  The note above the gap's the root, it just has rearranged.  So...the root is STILL F. This is still an F CHORD.

V. Take it all the way.  That was fun, moving the F to the top.  Let's move the A to the top, too.  Well, now this thing has a very top-heavy, blue shape and we'll call it the SECOND INVERSION.  Even though it's a new shape, the note above the gap is STILL F, and this is still an F chord.  

Challenge Question: You just saw the F chord, and even though it was always the F chord (the root never changed), it was drawn with the shapes of what are commonly used for Red, Blue and Yellow chords.  So which one is it?  Now that you're in Orange Roots, it's time to learn that the SHAPE does not define the chord as red, blue or yellow.  It is the NOTES that define the chord.  In the key of C, an F chord is the BLUE chord (aka the IV chord because F is the 4th step up from C.)

Why Did We Do That?!

Now that you're a master of looking at these chords and finding the roots, you'll go through old songbooks and notice that our Red, Blue, and Yellow chords in the key of C are C chord, F chord, and G chord.  On page 1, you'll be playing the Primary Roots Song so you can see just how much jumping around your hand will have to do in order to play these 3 chords in root position all the time.  Jump your hand to C position, then F position, then G position! Whew!  (Mom and Dad, take the time to learn to play this song...it is not too tricky and teaches a great lesson.)  

With the blessed use of inversions, we can play the Primary Chord Song with the Red chord in root position, the Blue in second inversion, and the Yellow chord in first inversion.  You have mastered the hand shapes required to do these chord structures and you'll be able to play all 3 chords without having to move your hand away from C position.  Well, that is super helpful!


So, congratulations and welcome to ORANGE ROOTS! Our amazing musicians are really starting to shine now.

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

** Yes, folks, I changed the original bamboo lesson a bit because it didn't line up very well with the science of bamboo growth. In the original story, no shoot comes above ground for several years, and the very first shoot to ever come up achieves maximum growth rate and height.  In reality, it likely takes 15 years for a rhizome to mature enough to send up a culm of maximum height, and growing from seed is not a great idea (in part because bamboo flowers as rarely as every 50 years).  Bamboo is fascinating (read more), so I didn't want to propagate (pun intended) false data about it, but I do love a good parable when I hear one.  

Yankee Doodle Comes to LPM Class!

History of Yankee Doodle

"Yankee Doodle" was first sung as a ditty used by the British to mock the rag-tag, disheveled American soldiers.  Yankee began as a negative term to identify Americans.  The word itself might possibly have begun as a Native American mispronunciation of "English," resulting in "Yengeesh."  Doodle is an old word for a fool or simpleton.  Macaroni  was not pasta but a term for a man dressed in a ridiculous style.  So, this is a song about a rag-tag simpleton who thinks he is fancy even when he is ridiculous!

Ironically, this song was adopted and adored by early Americans proud to be identified as Yankees.  It has even become the official state song of Connecticut! Just as Yankees took control of the British during the Revolution, they also took command of this song and sang it proudly as an anthem to tease their foes.  

Lyrics and Tune

Lyrics were written in 1755 by an English doctor, Dr. Shackburg during the French and Indian War to describe those ramshackle colonists fighting alongside the well-dressed British soldiers.  Because the tune was popular and easy to remember (it's a turn on the nursery rhyme tune Lucy Locket), new versions of lyrics were written during the American Revolution and the Civil War. Of course the South sang lyrics mocking the North, and the vice versa. The song has over 190 versions from different dates.

The song was revived in 1904 by George M. Cohan with "Yankee Doodle Boy", providing the verses most of us are familiar with. You can hear them here.  John Philip Sousa was so fond of the tune that he used it in many of his works.

Since the lyrics to this melody have been written and rewritten many times for inumerable uses, let's write some Yankee Doodle verses  just for Let's Play Music! If you and your child come up with additional LPM verses, please add them in the comments!

Yankee Doodle went to class

Singin' a soprano

He played the harp, he played the bells

And then he played piano.

*Chorus* Yankee Doodle Do Mi Re,

Yankee Here We Go Now

Mind the solfeg and the chords

and sing Sol La Ti Do, Oh!

A Red Balloon went up up up

as Yankee Doodle watched it.

When it came down the Major scale

He reached right up and caught it!

Yankee Doodle sang on pitch
He knew that 'Do is  Ho-ome'
He always followed Echo Ed
and never sang alo-ne.

Bill Grogan's goat was eating shirts

All down his throat they'd go-

He coughed one up and stopped a train

With just Sol La Ti Do-o!

Yankee Doodle had two pets
in little turtle she-lls,
seconds, thirds, and fourths and fifths,
he learned them very we-ll!

Yankee Doodle found the root

Of each and every chord

He harmonized I, IV, and V

And rarely needed more!

Why Use Folk Music?

True folk tunes withstand the test of time.  If Yankee Doodle had poor melodic or rhythmic qualities, it would not have been recreated over 190 times and passed down through generations of oral history.  These simple tunes have excellent, simple structure for students to study when developing an understanding of musical composition and theory or experimenting with playing styles as we do in Orange semester. Even the greatest composers began with a foundation in folk music.

And in terms of your musical foundation, hold on to your Orange book because there are many ways to progress as a musician as you play with Yankee Doodle.  Here are some ideas to help you progress, especially if you'd like to keep practicing into summer to complete them all:

Easy: Play block chords as written and sing the melody.

Nice: Play 2-handed marching style chords and sing the meldoy.

Double Nice: Play 2-handed marching style while your friend plays the RH melody an octave above, then switch roles.

 Fantastic: Play the melody with RH and block chords with LH.

Superstar: Play the melody with RH and play marching LH chords. 

Tricky: In some of my lyrics above I refer to Ti Sol La Ti Do Do as the last two measures of the song, which is a very common ending for this tune. In your Orange songbook, another common variation (Ti Ti La Ti Do Do) is written; it's easier for you to play since you won't have to move your RH in a great jump to get down to Sol.  If you would like to play the Sol La Ti Do ending, give it a try!

Brilliant: Now that you know how to examine a song, figure out the chords, and play them in 2-handed marching style, try it with the song Hurry Hurry Drive the Firetruck from your Green songbook. You still have your Green book, right!? First use careful listening to decide which chords are needed for each measure.  Use half notes, just like we did in Yankee Doodle. (Here's a hint: you will only need red and yellow chords.)  Then proceed through all the levels of mastery as listed above. Tip: when playing measure 4 RH, use fingering 1 2 1 'pop'2.  You'll have to really reach that 2 finger over to the G.  If you have a younger sibling in Let's Play Music, s/he is really going to love playing a duet with you on this song.

Have fun and post your additional lyrics to share in the comments!

- Gina Weibel, M.S.

Other Posts of Interest:

A Happy Ending for 3 Blind Mice; Why use folk music?

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