DIY Major Scale Mural

A Majorly Cute Scale

Here's a DIY to create a scale you can proudly display at home.  Have your child pose for 8 photos. In each photo, she'll sing ONE of the solfege and show the hand signs.  Print out the photos.

OPTION 1: Create a poster or chart with staff lines, and mount the cute photos going up, up, up.  Hang the chart in your child's room so they can practice solfege anytime!  Show me your charts- I want to see what you create :)

OPTION 2: Frame each photo in a cute frame and hang them in a vertical arrangement (have a tall, skinny wall space to fill?). Everyone who comes to your home will see your brilliant child showing off her solfege!  Here's a site that can teach you to make fabulous ribbon-hung vertical frames.

Show me what you make! I want to see some MAJORLY cute scales :)

-Gina Weibel MS

Let's Play Music Teacher

Itsy-Bitsy Spider Fun at Home

The Itsy Bitsy Spider, also sometimes sung as the Eensy Weensy Spider is a fun way to work on fine motor skills and dexterity in a playful way during Sound Beginnings class.  For young children, making fingers move independently and do just what they want can be frustrating and challenging.  Like the hero of our song, they'll have to overcome some obstacles and keep trying again and again to get their fingers to climb that spout!

Step-by-Step Instructions
When we adults demonstrate the spidery finger motions that go along with this song, youngsters are amazed by our dexterity! This website can teach you if you're not a master yet! 

Help your toddler by teaching with this washable-marker finger-painting trick, and by breaking actions down step-by-step. 

"Hold up both fists like me. Now point to the sky. Keep those fingers up, and let your thumbs come out." This may require some serious thinking, so leave time for figuring it out.

"I'm going to add some color dots to your fingers."  Put a red dot on one index finger and the opposite thumb.  Put a black dot on the other index finger and opposite thumb.
 
"Now make the red dots touch each other. Keep them touching...now make the black dot touch the other black dot."

"Keep the black touching, but let the reds come apart....weee...and then rotate them around so they can touch again. Now the black dots come apart...weee.  Keep climbing as we sing... it's okay to go slowly!"

Finger Puppet Fun

Here's a spidery finger puppet originally from Lalymom that's just right for Sound Beginnings students. Spiders have eight legs, so the fun comes when four of the legs are actually your kiddo's fingers, dancing and climbing and wiggling just like you'd expect.

Here's a clever time-saving tip for working with craft foam: use a plastic lid and a marker lid to PRESS into the craft foam instead of having to trace the shape.  

Materials Needed:
  Black craft foam
  Googly Eyes
  Pipe cleaners (2 black, 1 red)
  Plastic lid for pressing
  Marker lid for pressing
  Scissors, Glue

1. Place the lid on black foam and press down. Use scissors to complete the cutting of the imprinted circle. Press 4 circles (using the marker's lid) for finger holes. Complete cutting with scissors.
 
2.  Use scissors (or a pen) to poke 2 holes on each side for the black pipe cleaners, and feed them through the back. No need to cut them- they should be the right length.

3. Glue on eyes.

4. Poke 2 more holes below the eyes.  Fold red pipe cleaner in half and feed through the holes to make the mouth.  Now your puppet is ready to wear!

As a PIANO teacher, of course I love this particular puppet because I see some opportunity to encourage even more early finger control and dexterity in a fun way.  Make a spider for yourself, too, so you and your child can:

* Make your spider jump to the rhythm of the song while we sing (tap all fingers simultaneously on the table)
* Make your spider walk slowly (each finger taps one at a time-tricky!)
* Make your spider dance really fast (drum your fingers on the table)
* Make your spider copy mine (make up some spidery dances- 1,2,1,2 etc.)
* Repeat everything with a spider on your other hand
And of course...*Let's have our spiders go tickle someone (Daddy, Mommy, Sister, etc.)!

Spider Legs Build Strong Fingers

Strengthen fingers in yet another way with this game of adding and removing legs. You create a spider body from foam sheet and googly eyes, and the legs are bag clips.  Little hands and fingers get stronger from practice squeezing and controlling those clips.

We want to see YOUR cute spiders! Post pictures of any of your spidery crafts in the comments or on our Facebook Page!



Spiders Going Up Up Up

My other favorite spider craft is a little guy from this website that actually goes up and down his string.  Your child can make him go up and down as you sing together, visualizing the words of the song in action.

I also like to sing "up up up" (going up a scale in pitch) as the spider climbs up, and "down down down" (decreasing pitch).  If you have an older child in the Red Balloons semester of Let's Play Music, she should be really helpful at singing for your spider. Play glissandos on the piano or other instrument, too, to match your busy spider.
 Materials

  One paper plate, painted black by your child
  Googly eyes
  One drinking straw
  String or yarn, beads for the ends
  Scissors, tape

1.  Cut the corrugated section off and save it. So you have one black circle.
2.  Trim the round shape to make it into a more spidery figure-8 shape.
2. Cut the corrugated section into 8 pieces and staple them on for legs. (Kids love to do the stapling!)
3. Glue or paint eyes.
4. Flip spidey over and tape down 2 short segments of drinking straw.
5. Thread the yarn through the straws and attach something (bead, broken crayon, whatever) to the bottom.
6. Attach the yarn up high, and as your child pulls the beads apart, the spider climbs.

A second climbing spider can be found HERE. Still uses string and beads, but instead of threading through straws, you will punch holes in a cardboard tube. Everyone's got a cardboard tube at home, right?

We want to see YOUR spider in action!  Post photos or videos to our Facebook Page!

Who Else Can Play?
Red Balloon students will show off their major scales ascending and descending, but the rest of the family can help your spider sing, too, with this handy CHORD MAP to print off.  

If you have an autoharp at home, of course you'll want to use it, but second and third year students (and parents) can play piano chords to accompany your spidery song, and graduates will even be ready to transpose it to other keys!

Wind Down with Storytime

The story of our spider friend is fairly short, but several authors have expanded the story in sing-along picture books.  I enjoy the version by Iza Trapani (and her other singable storybooks), because we find out what the spider does in addition to climbing water spouts all day! Find it at your library or Amazon.

If your child is interested in spiders, pick up some more nonfiction books from the library to learn amazing facts like: Spiders are covered in water-repellant hairs.  That means they don't get wet when water hits them, they can float, many can live underwater for long periods, and...they can climb right back up the waterspout!

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

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

Intervals By Ear: Fun with Turtle Tom and Tim

I love how the ear training components of Let's Play Music lessons train students to hear more in the music they are listening to and understand what they are hearing.  With the better understanding of what's happening in music, students are ready to be expressive (and "musical") in their own composing and playing.  It thrills me to know these skills can be taught- anyone can learn to be musically talented!

A Few Types of Ear Training
Let's Play Music classes incorporate chord training: listening to multiple notes played as triads to make Red, Yellow, and Blue chords that we can use to harmonize songs. But there's more!

What Interval Did You Hear?

Pitch Training refers to hearing and identifying specific notes.  C is always C.  G is always G. When we teach students to sing "Do is Home" or "Middle C" with the pitch of Middle C, with no reference to other notes, they are refining their  absolute pitch.

Interval Training refers to identifying one note based on another note by hearing the distance (interval) between the two pitches.  When students sing or identify specific intervals, they are working on their relative pitch.  I've written about the many reasons learning intervals is so helpful to musicians!

Our second year students are learning about playing intervals with their turtle pals in the song Turtle Shells, so I know they'll be excited for a bit more fun interval ear training with the turtles.

Reference Songs: Interval Training

An easy trick for improving relative pitch is to remember a list of your favorite interval reference songs.  Take the first 2 notes of a song you love, and use those notes as a reminder any time you want to sing that interval. 

Great news! Our students have learned lots of songs in Let's Play Music that will serve as great reference songs when I ask them to sing an interval for me.

Let's go an adventure with Tom and Tim, and sing the intervals!

Major 2nd: Sing the "Do-Re" of a major scale, or sing the first two "up, up" of The Red Balloon song.  Tom and Tim begin their adventure by going to the circus to sing the red balloon song to practice this interval.

Major 3rd: Sing "Do-Mi" of the Red chord, or sing "I Am" (first two notes) from the song How to Skip. Tom and Tim skip rope as they sing these notes.

Major 4th: Sing Do-Fa (or Sol-Do) by remembering "Boom Boom!" from the song Ain't it Great to Be Crazy or sing "Tallest Tree" from the song 5 Fat Turkeys. Tom and Tim's next adventure is to find 5 turkeys in that tree.

Major 5th: Sing Do-Sol, or "Hop Hop" from the ostinato of the song Frog Went A-Hoppin, or sing "Twinkle Twinkle" Little Star. Tom and Tim go to the pond and hop-hop-hop on some lily pads.

Here are two more intervals that we aren't using today, but our students are ready to learn:
Minor 2nd: Sing a major scale and focus on Ti-Do at the end. 
Minor 3rd: Sing Sol-Mi, or Hickety Pickety Bumblebee, a song made entirely of this interval.  In our Sound Beginnings class, we have 2 songs every semester focusing on this important interval, since it's the first one young children can learn and sing back on pitch!

To help my daughter practice and remember these intervals (and because she requested something to color), we made the Adventures of Turtle Tom and Turtle Tim coloring storybook!  

BONUS: The turtles in this story arrange their bodies in the drawings to make each interval (stuck together, stacked up neat, etc.), while singing along to the very song that helps us remember the interval! Can you see how their shells make intervals?

Big Coloring Pages
If you are interested in having pictures to color on two full-sized sheets that are not formatted into a booklet, click HERE.  

MAKE A STORY BOOK BELOW:

Click Image to Download PDF

Assembling your little book:

1. Print the image on 8x11 paper.  Fold along the gray lines, to form 8 sections. Open.
2. Fold in half (short ends together) and cut along the dotted line.  Don't cut too far! 
3. Next, pinch the pages out so the newly-cut seam separates.
4. Adjust the pages nicely so you have a cute little book!  Let your child color and practice singing intervals.

Two Ways to Use The Book

I like to read the story with my daughter, pausing on each page to sing the song.  Then I ask her to sing me just the specified notes (interval) several times.  Then we sing those notes using the solfeg names instead of lyrics several times before going to the next page.

On other days, she has her book in hand, and I play a 'mystery interval' at the piano, or sing it with my voice ("bum-bum").  She flips through her book trying to decide which of the songs I was beginning to sing or play, in other words, she identifies which interval I played!
 



Wow, Interval Ear-Training Was Easy!
So now you have mastered a few intervals and are off to a great start!  There are a few more to learn (and be sure to recognize and sing them descending as well as ascending), and luckily there are some websites like this and this where you can add more songs and do some drills to get better.  Have fun!

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

Related Posts:
Musical Superpower: Perfect Pitch
Intervals are Worth Knowing

Practicing Autoharp at Home

At Let's Play Music, we recognize that your child is developmentally ready and excited for some fabulous musicianship training even though her young fingers don't have the dexterity she needs to practice those skills at the keyboard just yet. The autoharp gives us a beautiful way to grant her that learning experience while letting the fingers have just a little more time to mature and grow.

All first-year students enjoy playing the autoharp in class and a few lucky ones can also practice at home.  For the rest of us, here are some tips for the WHY and HOW of practicing autoharp skills at home without a harp!

Why Practice Autoharp?

Playing the autoharp in class gives students the chance to learn a multitude of skills simultaneously.  

A student coordinates both hands while playing the harp.

They read and interpret the chord map, push the correct button with one hand, and strum with the other hand.  

They establish  a steady beat then try to incorporate chord changes without losing it.  

They sing the melody, practicing their ability to harmonize with the accompaniment they create, and match pitch to the instrument.  

Each child's ability to hear chords and cadences and identify them will improve.  

When it comes time to play piano, these students will be prepared to have their eyes reading and hands working.  

They'll keep that beat and know how to time motions to play on the beat.  

They'll be listening to themselves and self-correcting.  

As they compose their own songs and accompaniments in year 2 and 3, their ear-training for chords will lead to success.

In light of all the learning going on, would you be delighted to practice all of those skills and have it be almost as effective as using a real harp?  

Use Your Book
Your child will make great strides in these skills simply by pointing to the chord changes in her book as she hears them on the CD, or by pressing the chord triangles as if they are buttons and strumming the floor, table or bumpy spine of the book.  Don't make the mistake of under-valuing this simple, elegant tool that's already at your fingertips!  

Option: Download an App 

If you have an iPad or an iPhone at home, consider autoharp apps that you can download to practice playing your Let's Play Music songs.  "Musical Autoharp" by Thumb Wizards is $0.99. 

Another fun option is to play autoharp ONLINE HERE. The letters on your computer keyboard correspond to the buttons, so you can strum by pressing keys or using the mouse to push buttons.  For example, letters E R T corresponds to the F C and G chords.  You could put Blue, Red, and Yellow stickers on E R T and your child is set to play.

Follow the chord maps in the back of your child's Red and Blue semester practice books- you're all set! 

Where to Put Stickers
If you use the app, it does not have the colors of the chords, so  you may be left wondering what chords to play. If you look carefully, each button on the autoharp has a letter, as well as the word major or minor after it.  
There are two keys that our Let's Play Music harp songs are performed in: C or F.  We perform songs in whichever key ensures the melody falls within a comfortable range for children to sing. 

Red, Blue, and Yellow chords will be identified as I, IV, and V chords in the Orange semester. In the key of C, the scale degrees are: C=1, D=2, E=3, F=4, G=5, A=6, B=7.  Yes, you will be quizzed on this in Orange semester!

You can put Red, Yellow, and Blue stickers on your real harp, or your computer keyboard, but for the iPad app I found it easiest to have sticky notes on the edge pointing at the button (you can't put stickers right on the button.)

The key of C Major

Red chord (the I chord) = C Major        Put a RED sticker on C.

Blue chord (the V chord) = F Major       Put a BLUE sticker on F. 
Yellow chord (the IV chord) = G Major    Put a YELLOW sticker on G.

pg 55 Primary Chords Song, 
pg 57 Chords in Pieces, 
blog post 5 Fat Turkeys, 
and Blue Semester: pg 51 On top of Spaghetti
pg 54 Bill Grogan's Goat 

Here is a photo of my ipad, ready to be played in the KEY OF C  by my 4-year-old.  I used  post-it-notes to indicate the chord colors, and attached them around the edges of the screen.

The key of F Major

Red chord (the I chord) =F Major      Put a RED sticker on F.

Blue chord (the V chord) =Bb Major    Put a BLUE sticker on Bb (B flat)
Yellow chord (the IV chord) =C Major   Put a YELLOW sticker on C.

pg 56 Barnyard Boogie
pg 58 Ain't it Great to Be Crazy?

and from the  Blue Semester: pg 53 El Gallo

Here are the post-it-notes set up for the Key of F.

Make Your Own Autoharp: Easy 

It's quick and easy to go low-tech! One option is to print out a photo of the auto-harp push-buttons.  Now your child will have something to touch while reading the map and singing along. Done!

Make an Awesome Autoharp

I can already see the gears turning in the minds of artsy-crafty parents.  Why not make a full-on homemade autoharp!?

1. Start with a full photo of an autoharp.  Print it out in color (either 8x11 or 11x17).  I email files to my neighborhood office store and they print things for a small fee.

2. Mount it on some foam-core or cardboard or plywood to keep it sturdy.

3. Optional: Do you want to Mod-Podge over the image to protect it forever? 

4. If desired, add texture to the "strings" of the harp.  We used Elmer's glue and ran a bead of glue along each string image.  When it dried it left a ridge on each string that my daughter can feel as she glides her fingers across.  You could lay down a length of fishing line or fine string into the glue as well, to get the texture.  

5. Add real stickers to the appropriate chord buttons. (read on for help finding the chords)

Teacher Emy LeFevre cut plastic sheets into harp shape (this would also work with wood) and machined grooves to give texture for strings and buttons. Wow!

Buy An Autoharp
If all that crafty talk made your head spin, you might be interested in simply buying an autoharp.  The great news is that your family will be a huge hit around the campfire, on long road trips, at the family-reunion talent show, and during TV-free week.  

LOOK FOR an autoharp with at least 21 chords.  15 chords can get you through your Let's Play Music experience, but you'll wish you had more when you start to play with your own fake book of favorite songs.  If you see diatonic vs. chromatic harps, choose the chromatic; it has strings representing every note, like both the black and white keys on the piano.
Used harps can be excellent, and a good buy as low as $100, especially if they come with a recommended case for keeping the harp safe.  Ebay is the most common place to find a used harp and Oscar Schmidt is the most common maker of harps at our level, costing $250-$600 or more new. 
You'll also need to pick up a digital tuner and a tool for tuning your strings if it was not included.

AVOID a harp  that can't hold a tuning or that has pins that seem very loose, which might be expensive to replace.   
If a string is missing or broken, however, you can probably replace it inexpensively. If the harp is not holding tune for more than a few weeks, you may need to replace all strings (we recommend you do one at a time or take it to a shop to have it done.) If you buy a used harp and find that it needs the felt replaced, that is another job you can reasonably do at home with an ordered kit.

 
- Gina Weibel, MS
Let's Play Music Teacher