Let's Memorize Music!

As your children are preparing for their Let's Play Music Recital, or any performance, they'll need to memorize some music. It may seem overwhelming to memorize a piece of music, but this challenge is well worth the effort!

Benefits of Memorization

We don't spend tons of time working on memorizing music in our classes, but this is one element of musicianship that we want you to get a taste of! Why is memorizing beneficial?

Memorizing trains memory. Some people will tell you not to waste time memorizing because you'll fill up your brain and run out of room. Nope! The opposite is true- the more you work on memorization, the better and more efficient you get at it. 

Learning more helps you learn more. Memorizing music improves your skill at memorizing other types of information, too. Memorizing can help improve students' ability to learn.

Actually, one factor that makes learning a challenge for some kids is having a poor 'working memory' or short-term memory. You must be able to remember what you're working on long enough to get to the end of the math problem, the challenging sentence, or the phrase of music. Practicing CAN improve your working memory. Music can provide a brilliant exercise to improve your mind.

Memorizing is a work out. All of your awesome brain functions work hard when you learn something challenging or memorize it. Pushing yourself to maintain focus on these challenges trains your brain to work through struggles and stay focused. It can be exhausting because it's a workout! Learn how to handle tough mental work by giving yourself a few minutes of tough workout every day.  Students who have these skills and resilience are great thinkers!

Rote learning improves overall thinking. Memorization benefits the hippocampal foundation, a structure in the brain involved in memory. Repeated activation of the structure leads to more neuronal plasticity. So, again, you're making yourself a quick-thinker and better problem solver.

'Knowing' improves creativity. When you 'just know' facts, equations, bits of music, etc. your brain is free to use processing energy on... finding creative solutions.  Memorizing lots of music in a variety of styles makes you a better composer; as you are putting together your own new piece, you have loads of samples you can draw up from memory to emulate and alter. 

7 Tips for Memorization

Teachers Joy Morin and Laura Evans shared their favorite strategies for memorizing.  Gently encourage your child and share these ideas.

Memorize in small sections, even two to four measures at a time. When you have mastered one small section, then go on to the next small section. Then go back and put the two sections together. In the same way you gradually mastered a new piece, you can memorize it. Don't expect or try to get it all at once! Celebrate when you can add a few measures to your memory.

Try to play without the music in front of you - see how far you get! Place your music on the floor or turn the page around so you don't have the temptation to look at those notes. Then go back and work on the part where you have trouble remembering, and try again.

Practice the music away from the piano. Sit at the table, on the couch or in the car and practice your song without the music or the piano. If you can "play" it (sing the tune, tap you fingers) without the instrument or music, then it is a good indication that you have the piece memorized well!

Watch your hands as you play. Simply closing your eyes may not always produce the best memorization. By watching your hands you can get a better understanding of the music and have an anchor of familiarity when performing in a new environment.

Memorize hands alone, especially the often neglected left hand. Make sure that you know the bass line so it will flow naturally when memorizing both hands together.

Sing the note letter names out loud, in rhythm, in each hand without playing them. Singing note names is tricky. If you are able to sing them then it's proof that your brain knows those details of the music so well that it will remember them despite any nerves, mix-ups or stumbles. You will be able to play through at the performance and if you make a small mistake, it should help you to continue without having to start over completely at the beginning of the piece.

Analyze the music by looking at its form (is it ABA format?), it's harmonic rhythm (red, red, yellow, red), etc. This will create a mental road map to follow as you memorize the piece.

Spaced Repetition & Memory

When we learn a new bit of information on Day 0, we all start to forget the information right away. It's a bummer, but that's just how the brain works. Our brains need cues to get the message, "hey, this stuff is worth remembering." 

So even though you JUST memorized some music, you start forgetting right away. 

The forgetting curve looks like an exponential decay curve. 

Each time we review what we know (and start to forget again right away), the decay curve is a little bit flatter.  Each time we can allow longer periods between review, and we can remember just a little bit longer before we start to forget. 

The trick for optimizing learning is to plan repetition of activities and information so that the reviews coincide with the intervals of time when students are starting to forget their facts.  With organized intervals of repetition, we can study smarter, not longer.

That's why we sing a new Let's Play Music song or game in every class, several times, when it is first presented. Then it comes back (less frequently) for us to review and sing.

Remember Every Song Forever

If you want to study smart, try creating your own spaced repetition learning: review pieces of information that you are retaining  less often than pieces that you are forgetting. 

Here's quick piano example: Make a list of all the songs you have memorized, ever. Attempt to play through the songs. Based on how accurately you can remember the song, decide if you will review it again tomorrow, next week, next month, in 4 months, or next year.

As part of your routine, each time you play piano, include some work on a new piece you are trying to memorize and some time for a play-through of a piece that you already know. 

If your list is short and you're having fun, you might play more songs than are on your list (playing memorized songs is really fun.) Or you might have a special  day each week when you use ALL of your practice time to play from memory!

The importance of a printed list is to remind you of your songs. If you wait too long, you'll eventually forget what you worked hard to memorize in the first place. 

Remember, the goal is to practice again just as you are about to forget, and that happens at increasing intervals each time.  By making it part of your routine to play through one old favorite (it's fun-you won't mind), you'll retain every song you've ever memorized, forever! 

One Last Benefit

I know your student is very young right now, but you'll be glad to know that memorization practices can stave off cognitive decline in aging populations.  Continue practicing songs you've memorized, continue learning new ones, and you'll stay sharp in your later years.  Music lessons really are a gift that stays with you your whole life long!


Have fun preparing for your recital, and plan to keep those songs in your memory forever.

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

Start With Piano! How Piano Study Prepares You

Does Billy dream of becoming an electric guitar player? Start with Piano!
Is Sally planning to be a violin maestro? Start with Piano!
Is Gretchen longing to jam on a trombone? Start with Piano!

No matter where your child is heading on his musical path, we know what STEP ONE is;  Developing a musical foundation of ear-training, note-reading, and piano-playing for 3 short years is the BEST way to launch on the right foot.
 

Advantages of Keyboard Learning

Want to play clarinet, or trumpet, or sousaphone? Yes, the keyboard is still the ideal first musical instrument.  Spend three years with us and you'll be a star in your orchestra/ marching band/ punk rock club.
   
First, every key on the keyboard relates directly to one note written on the staff. Go up the staff, go up the keyboard.  Step by step and skip by skip, the piano is a miraculous visual and tactile way to make sense of music notation. The keyboard’s arrangement promotes staff reading! Contrast this to a violin or a trumpet: step-wise notes are produced with random fingerings and positions. Ack! 

Learn to Read: the Right Tool
When a child is learning this all-new thing called reading music, let's take away the crazy tricky stuff, please.  The piano is the phonics storybook of the music world: so very logical and easy to deciper.  Extract the sesquipedalian and arcane circumlocution so a novice can decode your verbiage! You would not want that last sentence showing up in a kindergarten reading assignment, right? You would not give a dusty tome to a child, you'd give him a phonics book.

The saving grace for a LPM graduate when the time does come to learn a new and tricky instrument is that she already knows how to read music, and she already knows how it should sound.  Many LPM graduates can truly read the music: look at the notes and hear the melody in their mind. Check out our post to learn more about how we teach reading.  So next, hitting the note with the trumpet is pretty easy-peasy! She becomes the star of her concert band in no time! The foundational LPM years were SO worth it!

Contrast her experience with the student who can't discern any logic for how dots scattered on a paper correlate with fingering and instrument AND simultaneously does not have an inner ear helping him know if he hit the right tone! So tricky!

Part Of the Whole

The second reason the keyboard is a fantastic teaching tool is it gives the player the distinct ability to create all three elements of music – melody, harmony and rhythm – at the same time. 

Most songs we play in class have a melody played by the right hand, chords (harmonies) played by the left hand, and of course they can each use different rhythms.  Often the left hand provides a steady rhythm for us while the right hand plays something interesting.

When your child plays in the orchestra or band, she'll be playing only one part of the big picture (and for most band instruments, only one note at a time).  If she plays flute, clarinet, or alto saxaphone, she'll probably play melody frequently.  If she plays french horn or baritone, more time will be spent harmonizing. Grasping what makes up the whole before narrowing down into the part is foundational for musicians.  A student who hasn't had practice listening to music and analyzing it for the parts might be frustrated to play a harmonizing part. A pianist learns to piece together all parts.

Multi-sensory Learning

Finally, the keyboard connects a child’s sense of touch and sight to the ear and mind, much like Solfeggio connects the voice to ear and mind and hands.  The student can see and feel the relationship of the melodic patterns he has internalized in Year One as he plays them on a keyboard.  A tactile feel of a step, skip, or leap further internalizes these relationships in the mind and ear.  

When a child sings a SFMRD and sees the notes going down on his staff in baby steps and simultaneously feels his fingers moving downward step by step, musical connections are made – not only in understanding the staff, but in understanding how music works.

The World is Your Oyster
This is a phrase I sometimes use with my students.  It means: You are in a position to take advantage of the opportunities life has to offer!  It's like the whole world is nothing but potential for creating pearls (or awesome experiences).  You've had a great whole-musician training, so NOW you are all set to excel in all kinds of music. Get out there and EXPLORE to find out where your passion may lie.

Here are some ways to expose your child to different instruments and musical venues:


* Take your child to the local symphony (many have special children's concerts and probably play some pieces you know from LPM!) Teacher Emy LeFevre in Chubbuck, ID (studio link) says: Our Idaho state civic symphony has a kid's Halloween concert and instrument "petting zoo". Kids love to try them out.

*If the symphony price tag or time commitment is prohibitive, take your child to the concert band, orchestra concerts, or musicals at your local high school.  If a particular instrument has a solo, quietly point it out to your child and help him identify the instruments.

* Watch parades and football games with a special eye on the band!  I refer to our sporting events as "Band Games."  I tell my son, "I really loved tonight's band game! You played so well!" It's no secret who I'm cheering for out there.  Help your child notice the different instruments as they perform.

* Visit music studios that form and coach youth bands (rock, jazz, Beatles cover, etc.)  Attend the student concerts so your child can see youngsters playing in small groups (and being awesome).  One such nationwide chain is School of Rock, but many independent local music businesses offer lessons in every instrument and help you form up a group! Call up any of these places and say "my child is considering lessons with you in the future, but we wan to check out your student performances/recitals first...when will they be?"

* Don't forget about PIANO! It's very motivational to listen to someone slightly older play something amazing. Kids get the idea "I could be doing that soon, too!"  In your area, google "piano teacher association" to find out if a local group is having contests and competitions- they can be exciting to watch.  Otherwise ask your potential future piano teacher if you can come to the next recital to hear the students perform.

* LPM Teacher Katie Anderson (Anthem, AZ studio link) suggests: Find family-friendly performances in your area. I took my kids to see a cute family of fiddlers performing group and my kids haven't stopped talking about it since.  And I got a ton of practice mileage off that show. Now they are entering a fiddling contest of their own! 

* LPM Teacher Megan Dougherty  in Westminster, CO (studio link) says: This summer we watched a few operas online through the Metropolitan Opera website (the kid friendly ones). I was expecting the kids to be bored but they LOVED them? I believe their puppet shows trained them to enjoy classical music!

* Don't forget singing! LPM Teacher Sarah McKay in Marietta, OH (studio link) says: For several years I have sung in the community choir hosted by the local college; my children would always have a chance to hear our performance. This year the college staged a children's choir and my daughter decided to audition- and she made it!

If you're ready to help your child get the best possible start, find a Let's Play Music teacher near you now!


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

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star: Variations in Compositions

Theme and variation is a popular musical form in which a composer states a melody and then repeats it several times with changes to create interest and variety. 

You could think of the theme as a plain cupcake. First, the composer shows the plain cupcake to the audience.  The variations are like decorated cupcakes.  Once the audience understands the plain cupcake, the  decorated ones are displayed for everyone to enjoy with their fancy differences.  Nevertheless, they are still recognizable as cupcakes!  Let's take a look at "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and taste the deliciousness of what your young composer is learning from studying it during the 3rd year of Let's Play Music!

The Poem
Lyrics for this popular lullaby come from an 1806 poem, "Star", published by Jane Taylor. Jane was a real trailblazer because she and her sister helped introduce the novel idea of writing poetry just for children.  Here is the entire original poem:

   

A sing-along storybook is available. By Jane Cabrera.

  Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
     How I wonder what you are!
     Up above the world so high,
     Like a diamond in the sky.

     When the blazing sun is gone,
     When he nothing shines upon,
     Then you show your little light,
     Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

     Then the traveller in the dark
     Thanks you for your tiny sparks;
     He could not see which way to go,
     If you did not twinkle so.

     In the dark blue sky you keep,
     And often through my curtains peep,
     For you never shut your eye
     'Till the sun is in the sky.

     As your bright and tiny spark
     Lights the traveller in the dark,
     Though I know not what you are,
     Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

The Melody (and a Silly Game)
"Twinkle" is only one of many international songs that have been sung to the melody Ah! Vous dirai-je, Maman, a popular 18th century French children's tune.  In English, "The Alphabet Song" and "Baa-baa Blacksheep" are two more songs sung to the tune.

As a kid, I played a singing game with my sisters, and you might like to try it in your family: each of three singers (or teams) choose one of the above songs, then all sing at the same time.  Although the lyrics are different, the melody is the same for everyone.  Silly, right!?  For an even trickier song, sing in a round, starting a few measures behind the previous singer, still singing different lyrics.  Still not silly enough?!  For the best song yet, all start singing together, but each time the leader claps, switch to different lyrics!  Each group will end up singing a different crazy song, perhaps like this:

     SINGER 1                                                      SINGER 2
     Twinkle, twinkle, little star  (CLAP)                    Baa, Baa black sheep have you any wool?
     yes sir, yes sir, three bags full  (CLAP)              H I J K, LMNOP
     Q R S, T U V  (CLAP)                                       Up above the world so high
     Like a diamond in the sky…                              And one for the little boy who lives...

Apparently the best time to try this game is while trapped in the car with the entire family on a very long road trip.  We "entertained" our brothers and parents for hours and hours with our giggling.  

Nevertheless, if a melody is simple and memorable, it's likely to be the perfect place to start for creating variations.

Variations: Frosting on the Cake
The composition we study in Let's Play Music during the Orange semester is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's, "Variations on 'Ah vous dirai-je, Maman!'" with his twelve variations of the tune.  You know all about ABA form, but this is A-AI-AII-AIII-AIV….AXII form.

Just about every student of composition utilizes Theme and Variation to stretch their composing skills, and you can too.  Actually, after Mozart composed variations on this particular tune in 1781, the SAME TUNE was used by several other composers to create their own variations, including: Bach, Schulhoff, Dohnanyi, Liszt, Rinck, and Cardon!

Now your child (and you!) are ready to have some fun with variations.  It's like you want to decorate some of those beautiful cupcakes.  Options are limitless, but first you want to know: What colors of frosting are available?  What kinds of sprinkles do we have? What sizes of piping tips are there? Yes, if you want to decorate, it's good to understand your tools, so lets look inside Mozart's toolbox.

Variations are created by altering the rhythm, melody, harmony, pitch, tempo, or dynamics of the tune.  

Mozart's Toolbox of Variations

Mozart

Grab your Orange Roots CD and read this post as you listen along. Let's figure out what he did to create each variation. (Yes, all twelve. You may need a cupcake for nourishment).  Then YOU, TOO, will have the power to add variation to YOUR compositions.  Let's also imagine you have a really simple composition to work with, like Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol, and maybe we will play with it just like Mozart would.

Theme: First Mozart presents the theme, which sounds pretty much like "Twinkle."

 Variation 1: The right hand still plays the melody, but it is embellished with running notes (notes running between the important ones that carry the actual melody).  That is to say, where a single note was played in the 'theme', three extra notes have been squished in.  So each quarter note bug has been turned into four sixteenth notes (a caterpillar). It sounds fast and busy. 

What you can do: You could add the easiest ever extra notes…just double or triple notes of your theme by turning bugs into beetles.  Do-do Re-re Mi-mi, etc. is a variation.  Or to really make them running notes (moving up and down scales) you can add just about any baby steps, so long as you remember to hit your important melody notes sometimes.  Maybe you'll have Do-re-mi-re Re-mi-fa-mi Mi-fa-sol-fa, etc.  The bold notes are just reminders of what part of this new tune came from the theme.

Variation 2: The right hand still plays the melody, but the left hand is filled with running sixteenth notes (caterpillars). 

What you can do: We didn't talk about your left hand part, but most of my students begin with block chords. There are many ways you could get some extra fun notes in there.  You could start playing the low note of the chord, jump to the high note, and add a few baby steps down. Do-sol-fa-mi, Ti-sol-fa-mi, Do-sol-fa-mi  replaces a slow Red, Yellow, Red.  That sounds fast and fun!

Variation 3: The right hand plays the melody in triplets. A triplet means three notes make up one count.  We don't formally introduce this rhythm, but for fun (after I point out what is going on at this point), I like to have the class pat their laps while chanting "bug. bug. bug."  I come in with "one-trip-let. two-trip-let. three-trip-let." just so they can hear how I manage to fit three claps into their one beat.

Variation 4: You guessed it. Mozart plays triplets with the left hand.

Variation 5: The right hand plays the melody in an off-beat pattern.  This is a really whimsical way to dramatically change the rhythm. The right hand plays an eighth note- quarter note pair, then the left hand plays a pair, and they take turns.  

What you can do: When you mastered Yankee Doodle recently, you got the feeling of having your hands take turns. Yeah, both hands don't always have to strike at the exact same!  Play a creative rhythm to go along with some of your melody notes, then give the left hand a chance to play something with that rhythm.  Take turns. Fun!

Variation 6: The right hand STILL plays the melody but this is cool: instead of playing one note for melody, the note is played as part of a chord. Yay! Our students know how to do that!  Doesn't it sound big and strong and smashing?  The left hand goes back to playing with running caterpillars.

What you can do: If you want to stick to the Red, Yellow, and Blue chords, you can find a chord that includes each note of your melody.  Do-Re-Mi-Fa could use Red-Yellow-Red-Blue.  Now, to play those chords but make them sound like melody, choose an inversion of the chord so that the melody note is at the top.  You can do it! You know how to play with inversions. Take your time. The right hand gets to play slowly in this variation so you can jump your hand around if you need to.

Variation 7: The right hand goes back to running caterpillars. This time Mozart really did push to make the running notes into almost complete scales instead of just zig-zagging baby steps. He also mixes in his cool idea of having the left hand strike a note while the right hand rests. Fancy!

Variation 8: This variation is in C minor. That alone can make for an exciting change, but he also has the left hand echo the notes after the right hand plays.

What you can do: Whatever key you have written your composition in, you will add flats to change a few solfeggi.  Do-Re-me-Fa-Sol-le-te-Do is the minor scale we presented in class a few times. (The minor solfeggi are pronounced 'may', 'lay' and 'tay'.)  Figure out where your three flats need to be and you are ready to fly minor!

Variation 9: The theme is played staccato.  Your student knows all about staccato and could easily give it a try in her own work.

Variation 10: The left hand plays the melody, and the right hand embellishes.  Mozart has the right hand rest on the beats when the melody notes are played by the left. It really helps those notes stand out.

What you can do: I have several students who love to "flip" their work and let the left hand carry the melody while the right hand does something else.  The right hand could play a chord root, or a broken chord, or experiment with simple embellishments like Mozart does. I will play the left hand melody slowly and let the student use his right hand to experiment with possible ideas until we find something that sounds interesting.

Variation 11: This is one of the only variations where tempo, Adagio, is indicated.  Adagio means slow.  The theme is played in a singing style; you could certainly imagine someone humming or singing these lullaby notes.  Musical style indicates a piece follows conventions that give it a distinct sound, characteristic to the group.  We had fun with the Monsters puppet show by Prokofiev when we showed it performed in seven different styles.  I especially love the reverse: when pianists take pop songs and play them in classical style!

What you can do: Your student experimented this semester with how to change the stylistic feel of a song by playing chords in a broken style, root-note-only, or even a two-handed marching style.  You can take one melody all the way from a big loud parade march to a nice, slow, lullaby by changing the stylistic interpretation.  Try some of the ideas from class on your song.

Variation 12: This time the tempo is indicated as Allegro, which means fast. The melody has interesting rhythms and decorations, and the left hand is back to those caterpillars.  When I listen to this big, fast, exciting ending, I can just feel my heartbeat start picking up pace.

What you can do: Think of something special (loud? quiet? fast?) and slightly different to end your song with just the right feeling to send your audience home with.

This is not an exhaustive toolbox, but now you know some ways Mozart made his music interesting, so give them a try in your composing. If you hit a creative block, take a break to bake some cupcakes and they'll surely get your creative juices flowing.

- 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

You can Play "Let it Go" from Frozen

Now that the school year is winding down, could you use something inspirational to draw your second- or third-year student to the piano?  Then make your child's day with a simple and fun version of "Let It Go," arranged by Let's Play Music teacher, Nicci Lovell in Mesa, AZ.

CLICK ON IMAGE TO DOWNLOAD PDF

Second-Year Students:
Play the chords with your right hand.  Then try your left hand.  Then try hands together!  You sound great when you sing along (I am guessing there's a good chance you already knew the words to this one.)  Now you're having a great time and giving yourself more practice with our favorite chords and one interval (see the third?).

Here's a video of a student playing. He chose to use his left hand and was too shy to sing on camera, so I did the singing:

Third-Year Students and Graduates:
Play through those chords: pretty easy, right?  Now you have the freedom to improvise!  Instead of playing long whole notes, play two quarter-notes and a half note, or two half-notes, or some other combination you like.  Here's a video of some improvisation: after you play the chords with different rhythms with the left hand, you can learn to play the melody with your right hand and put it all together.

The Power of Chords

Delightfully,  many songs can be harmonized using the I, IV and V chords (or as you know them, Red, Blue and Yellow.)  With careful listening, you and your child will learn to pick out chord progressions as you hear them in songs, and be able to play your favorite songs!  Stay tuned for more popular songs for your LPM student.

You can click here for a piano video demonstrating how just a few chords can be used to harmonize over 40 popular songs.  To our 3rd-year students: A common chord pattern you'll hear over and over in that video is I-V-vi-IV.  Hey! it's the same pattern that we saw in "Let it Go".  That 3rd in "Let it Go" (C-E) was not a full triad, was it?  Do you see we could complete it to make an A triad?  Or we could call it the vi chord, since A is the 6th step of the C scale.

Have fun exploring with chords!

-Gina Weibel, M.S.

Let's Play Music Teacher

Keyboard Geography: Alphabet Pieces Games

Second year students are ready to create their ALPHABET PIECES and use them in fun games for learning the white keys.

CUT the rectangle of alphabet letters out of your yellow songbook.  YES, cut your book!  Trim a piece of adhesive-back foam (like this kind) to match the size of your letters.  (If you happen to be making a bunch of these, you can fit 3 rectangles on a 8"x12" foam sheet.)  Affix the letters to the foam. 

Need a replacement printout of the letters? Grab one HERE.

Next, cut the strip of Cs, trim them apart, and have your child place each of them on a C on the piano.  Repeat with D, and each letter, then brush them off and store them in a cute box or container on your piano.  

Now you're ready for some fun!  *If you decide to skip the foam, that's okay, too.  In that case, to prevent papers from falling between the keys, always brush them off toward you.*

At the beginning of each practice, play an alphabet games for 2 minutes to get warmed up.  Here are a few games to change it up each day of the week.

Alphabet Race:

Have your child take one alphabet piece from the box and quickly set it on the correct white key.  Continue until the box is empty!  Time yourself and see if you can beat yesterday's time.  For students who struggle, have the student look at the picture (key-group diagram) in the back of the Yellow Songbook and form his own visual conclusion.

Take a Second:

Have your child choose two alphabet pieces and place them on the keyboard.  Identify what interval they make, and play the interval.  If it's anything other than a 2nd, play again!  The game ends when you take a second to make a 2nd. 

Alpha-frogger:

Pretend each alphabet foam piece is a tiny frog.  Have your child choose an alphabet frog, then hop it across the keyboard helping froggie find all keys of that letter. These frogs don't croak- each time the "frog" lands on one of her special lily pads, sing the letter (on pitch!). 

Hiss:

Place one letter on the keyboard as a starter snake.  Each player takes turns drawing a letter and checking to see if they can add it to the head or the tail with baby steps to make the snake longer.  If not, start a new snake somewhere else on the keyboard.  Anytime someone makes a snake with 8 or more segments, they get to remove it from the keyboard and keep the points (1 per segment)! Play until the pieces run out.  It's pretty cool if you are able to join 2 snakes by drawing the missing link between them, and win a really long snake!  You might enjoy non-piano Hiss, too.

Go Fish:

Each player starts with 3 alphabet tiles hidden in his hand.  Try to make matches by asking the other player: "Do you have a.." then PLAY the note on the piano to make your request.  If you end up with an empty hand, draw 3 more tiles.  Keep playing until the tiles are all gone, and see who got more matches.

Silly Songs:

Have your child draw out 5-10 alphabet notes and line them up along the music stand.  With her right hand in C position, play each note with the finger touching that key.  If the note is a B, slide the thumb down to yellow position to reach it;  if the note is an A, slide the hand into blue position to reach it.  This might be a wacky song, or it might be something cool.  If you like the tune, play it again!

Super Skippers:

Your child draws out an alphabet letter and places it on the keyboard as a 'starter'.  Next, she chooses another piece and checks to see if it can make a skip up or a skip down from the starter.  If not, discard it and player 2 gets a turn to play (player 2 should start her skipping chain on a different octave from player 1).  Keep taking turns until someone makes a chain, by adding skips at the top or bottom, that is 7 letters long and wins!

Parking Lot Cars:
Draw a letter from the lot and park your car on the white key "parking space" that matches.  Works great with cars like these from the learning shop. Keep going until you run out of cars (or whatever counters you have).

Cowboys and Indians:
Start one tiny plastic character (ANY tiny plastic figures you have will do: Pokemon, animals, cowboys, princesses, etc.) at one end of the keyboard on a white key, and another at the other end.  Draw a tile out and move the low guy up to that key. Draw another tile and move the high guy down to that key.  Keep going until they meet (and battle, or shake hands, or whatever you pretend!)
   
Have a Game Idea?

We hope you use your ALPHABET PIECES every day and get great at identifying the white keys.  Do you have another game idea using alphabet pieces?  Send it to us and we'll share it with our blog readers!

- Gina Weibel, M.S.

Let's Play Music Teacher

*Thanks to Amy Brinton and Kendra Flake for additional game ideas.*