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

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
  

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

Learning Chords: Use the Correct Fingering

The Password to Learning

I have four children, and at some point each day one of them asks to use the computer for something.  Since I'm usually elbow-deep in some other task, I answer, "okay- today's password to unlock the computer is PIANO."  And of course I change my password every day!

The other day, as I was leaving the computer to go jogging on my treadmill, I chose JOGGING as my password.  Hours later when someone wanted to use the computer, the password didn't work!  My teenage sons were diligent about trying every misspelling of JOGGING that I could have typed, switching letters, putting fingers in different positions- nothing worked.  Whatever misspelling I had used had been typed in TWICE by me to change the password, without my notice.  How could that be!?

Eventually even I was frustrated and wanting to use the computer again.  I sat down and typed JOGGING as fast I could, without thinking about it.  It worked!  What!?  I slowly replayed what my fingers had just done...J-O-G....G-I-N....A!  My name is GINA, so when my fingers felt me type "GIN" they finished with an A automatically and I didn't even notice it had happened. THREE TIMES!  My fingers are so used to typing the word GINA that it's hard for me NOT to type it once they've started the pattern.

What is Muscle Memory?

When our muscles learn a pattern of movement through repetition, our brains "chunk" that pattern into memory.  It becomes ingrained in our MUSCLE MEMORY and takes no effort to recall, so we can perform the physical tasks without conscious effort.  Our very efficient brains use muscle memory (or motor learning) to reduce the need for attention on activities that are repeated frequently.  Now that you've been driving your manual-transmission car for so many years, you can focus on things around you without having to think about shifting.  Now that you've been typing for so many years you can blog as fast as you can think up the words to share!

Muscle Memory at the Piano

Your second-year Let's Play Music student is hard at work learning the Red, Blue, and Yellow chords with right and left hands.  Your teacher (and booklet) demonstrate the fingering your child should use to play each chord.  It is crucial that you help your child learn these exact hand-shapes, even if your child finds something that initially seems easier (like using the stronger finger 3 instead of finger 2).  As your child progresses in music, these shapes will come up time and again- we want your child's fingers to automatically know exactly how far to move or reach to play these shapes!  It will make future piano pursuits SO much easier.  This is the same reason we insist that you use a keyboard with full-sized keys: your child's hand is memorizing exactly how far to stretch, and will forevermore remember the distance that "feels like" the intervals we've learned.

Once the brain has the "feel" for these chords and intervals memorized, that will free up the pianists attention to other things, like the progression of chords and the notes on the page!  Playing and sight-reading become easier when the pianist looks for common chord-shapes and melodic patterns, then lets her hands "do it" without having to think!

Practice Makes Permanent

You were hoping "practice makes perfect", right?  Sorry!  Only perfect practice will get you there.  Sloppy practice will lead to permanent sloppy results.  So, here's what your brain needs to help you wire in the best muscle memories:
1. Repetition:  Playing these chords and completing the Let's Play Music program should give your child enough repetition to have them stick for a lifetime!
2. Attention to Technique: Watch your child to look for bubble-hand, fingers touching keys, and correct fingering.  Remind your child it's better to have good technique and go slow at first.
3. Visualization: Muscle-memory is a brain activity! It's almost as powerful to THINK of doing this correctly as it is to actually do it.  When go on that spring break trip, bring along the keyboard image from your songbook and have your child "practice" on it.   
 
How To Help Your Child Learn the Chords

When first learning, movements will be slow.  Lots of mental focus will be required to engage just the exact fingers and to move them (or stop them from moving) just the exact amount.  Be aware that correct fingering is the most important thing at this point- NOT SPEED!  Lovingly remind your child to slow down and not go faster on chord transitions than she can go with correct fingering.

For the Right Hand Yellow Chord or the Left Hand Blue Chord, have your student practice sliding her thumb over one key, and then back home, without playing any notes.  Focus on keeping the other fingers in place, curved and gently touching their keys.  When fingers float up into the air, the child loses the muscle sense of how they must be positioned.  After warming up with finger-sliding, slowly transition back and forth between chords.

For the Right Hand Blue Chord or the Left Hand Yellow Chord, have your student practice extending the hand, all fingers sliding over into position, and then sliding back home.  This time the thumb is the anchor-it is critical the thumb remains gently touching the key or the pianist will have to look down at her hands to see where to set them.  Simply sliding back and forth helps the hand start to learn the exact distance to move!  After this warm-up, slowly transition back and forth between chords.

In this short video clip, I show a warm-up and some chord transitions, along with a simple game using dice to determine how many  times she plays each chord before transitioning.  At first I give extra beats during the transition, and when she gets better I'll expect her to transition and continue playing without missing any beats.

In this second video, I show a common error: playing the Yellow chord with finger 3 instead of 2.  I tell my daughter this finger is UNDER ARREST! or IN JAIL! and it's not allowed to leave the white key it is hand-cuffed (finger-cuffed) to.  In this video, I actually do restrain her finger from leaving the white key, but after this one time, I won't touch her hand again- I'll just say "put that finger 3 back in handcuffs!" and she will giggle and stick it back in place.

Teacher Kari Mickelson in Monroeville, PA, uses these soft hair-ties to label students fingers as a reminder for learning chords.  I like to paint the fingernails to help students with whichever chord we are working on. Give it a try!

What's Next?

As your child masters the chords, she'll be delighted to have fun sight-reading music with red, yellow, and blue chords! It will take very little effort for her hand to move into position and keep up with new music.  In the third year of Let's Play Music, she'll use these same hand-shapes to play chords in other keys AND to play chords with different inversions.  After graduating from Let's Play Music, she'll find these same chord shapes, intervals, and melodic patterns in written music everywhere and will have ease in playing them because her muscles have learned the patterns!  Okay, I think I'll set my computer password for as "muscle memory."  Good luck with your chords today!

-Gina Weibel, MS
Let's Play Music Teacher

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

Thanksgiving Fun: 5 Fat Turkeys!

Chances are good that you have a week with no music class coming up.  Don't be too sad! Here are some fun Turkey extras to keep you busy.

First Year Students

It's great fun to sing the 5 Fat Turkeys song, so you can enjoy singing along with this video that answers a few basic student questions: Can turkeys really go in trees? What do real, wild turkeys look like?

Of course you might be wanting to act it out, so craft up a felt or clay or paper version of Turkey finger puppets to play with (and make your table pretty afterward, too.)

If you happen to have an autoharp at home, you can play this song using the chord map below, or you can point along to the map while singing with your CD.  No harp?  You could download a harp app for your ipad or just tap along while listening to your CD.  (The CD is in the key of F: Red=F, Blue=Bb, Yellow=C)

One main I love using this song on harp and keyboard for years 1 and 2 is the long string of red chords that give students a chance to focus on defining a steady rhythm before tossing a few chord changes.

Second Year Students

You're not too old for the turkey song!  Print out the chord map above, and use it to play the song on your piano.  If you haven't learned the BLUE chord in class yet, you can rest silently on that beat.

As a matter of fact, you have enough experience that you might even enjoy printing out a blank chord map, then using your ear to guess which color each triangle should be colored in.  Try playing each chord and see which sounds best!  Your ear will be your guide.

Chord maps aren't all you know how to read- you can also play from the real sheet music, and color in the chords if you like.

Third Year Students

Print out the blank chord map above and color it in (use your ear to figure out which chord is best)!  Practice playing chords with both hands and singing using your newly colored map or the sheet music.

For some really third-year work, use your right hand to play the melody of this song.
Before you begin, carefully look at the melody- there is a note played that is lower than middle C.  Can you figure out which note it is?  Walk down space, line, space below middle C....take baby steps to find out it's a G!  It's a FOURTH below C.  You have some options as to how you will play that note:  with your left hand in C position, you could just let your LH play that note when you come to it.  If you are playing the chords of the song with your LH, your chord is going to strike the G anyway, so you could decide to let your RH rest instead of playing G.  Finally, you could play it as written and have your RH jump down to G and then back up to C position.

Perhaps your uncle you only see twice a year will play a duet with you and play LH while you play RH.  Piano is a very fun way to bond!

Graduates

Have some Let's Play Music graduates in the house?  Play through the assignments for the younger years, then listen to the accompaniment as played in the video above.  Can you tell what the pianist has done with the chords to make it fancy?  During the instrumental verse, the pianist really has fun! Now YOU improvise as you play and make yours sound fancy, too!

Hint #1: Review Yankee Doodle from Orange semester for two-handed marching ideas.
Hint #2: To have a broken chord fit in 4/4 time, add one extra note, ie: Do-Mi-Sol-Mi.

Put On A Show

Now that you have at least one song to sing (and play), why not round up a few of your other favorite songs and put on a show!?  Thanksgiving is a great time for family to gather and share the love of music.  If you're lucky enough to have Let's Play Music students in different levels, you can ALL enjoy this song.  Perhaps you can also teach your relatives the parts to your favorite puppet show, and perform it together while waiting for the turkey to come out of the oven.

Happy Thanksgiving!

-Gina Weibel, MS
Let's Play Music Teacher