Now Registering for Winter Semester of Sound Beginnings

Registration has begun for our winter semester of Sound Beginnings, SILVER BUTTONS.  Registration forms are available online (CLICK HERE Silver Buttons Reg. Form) or in person.  Semesters are non-sequential so kids can join at any point without missing and pre-requisites.

My experience with this program has been amazing!  I have a blast with these little ones and have marveled at the concepts that are grasped as young as 18 months.  My own son, 18 months, loves to practice the "Smart Moves" dances that teach kids to appreciate classical music.  He can recognize different themes and motives and do the "dance" associated with it and doesn't even know how much he is learning :)

What Is the Best Way to Do Bell Practice?

As a parent I know that sometimes other activities my child is interested in compete with all that they have to do, so keeping bell practice fresh and fun is important.  How can we do this? This answer from veteran LPM Teacher and administrator Jenny Smith:

"Tone bell practice should be fun for them and done at least once a week.  I like turning the CD on and putting the bells down by the CD player and just letting my child go at it- I walk away...  No pressure, just fun.  If they do this once a week, the children start to play along with the CD after a while... There is no set time to practice, when they get bored or stop having fun the learning opportunity is gone.  So my advice to t[you] would be to be enthusiastic in [your] tone of voice saying things like, "Let's see what your teacher wants you to do this week! I wonder if it will be hard or easy"  Or "I love playing bells, bells are so fun! What songs do you get to play this week?"    It all boils down to parent's attitude.  We just don't want to force, we want to encourage."

So go ahead and let them be free with what they are doing and they might just surprise you with what they can pick out by ear!

Practice Helps for Songs Ending in MRD or SSD

Looking ahead to lesson 6, we will be discussing different ending to songs (MRD and SSD).  If you aren't familiar with the "Five Ducks" song you can listen and sing along here:
http://www.kinderplanet.com/fiveduck.htm

You can also check out these other sites that have tunes and lyrics to additional songs:

http://www.kididdles.com/lyrics/index.html

http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/musicchild.htm

http://www.theteachersguide.com/ChildrensSongs.htm

You can use any of the above sites to listen to random songs and ask, "does it end with a Mi re do?  Does it have a sol-sol-do?"  As we learn more and more patterns, you're child will start to recognize and catch on to more and more of the common melodies used in music. 

Off to a Great Start!

We've already done 3-4weeks of classes and have learned so much.  I bet your child doesn't realize that they've gotten so much good stuff out of play, but here's a list of what we've learned so far.

Concepts and skills introduced in Red Balloons this far:
Solfege and accompanying hand signs, Major scale (playing and terminology), following and imitating a given rhythm, recognizing themes in classical music, audiation, defining function of our primary chords, designating home pitch, identifying lines and spaces on the staff, imitating melodic patterns, and playing an ostinato on the bells, and singing in harmony using an ostinato.

Concepts and skills introduced in Sound Beginning White Horses Semester:
Feeling and keeping the beat, solfege, major scale ascending, in-tune singing, pitch matching, head register, tracking (reading concept/preparation for reading), singing and recognizing the alphabet, develoving recognition of theme and form in music, colors, numbers, developing relative pitch, time on a face clock, sequencing, name recognition

Almost here...

With school starting in less than a month (sigh), at least we have Let's Play Music to look forward to.  A few dates to mark on your calendar:

• August 2@ 10:30  Sound Beginnings Sample Class - come see what this new program is about

• August 16 @ 7:30  First Year Parent Orientation - I promise to make it fun (and keep it short)

• August 23 - Sound Beginnings (White Horses) and Let's Play Music (Red Balloons) Semesters start

Ready, Set, Go!

I am just coming back from the corporate symposium and am SO EXCITED for classes to start this fall!  I don't know if it's possible to be more excited about everything I learned there than I was being accepted to teach and train for this program.  It was a blast! These LPM friends know how to work and play hard.

I can hardly wait for this fall!  I still have an opening in the Let's Play Music first year classes and several openings left in the Sound Beginnings classes.

I am holding free Sound Beginnings sample classes on Tuesday, June 26 at 11:00 and 6 :45.  Spots are reserved on a first come, first served basis so contact me to secure your spot and come see what fun we're having making music!