BLT Elementary School Wed. Jan. 16 2.00-3.00pm

Today we had a lot of new students join us, which was wonderful - welcome Alyssa, Billy, Terry, Emma, Jacob F., Brandon and welcome back Cameron.

We now have 2 levels of students in the class.

Level 2:
You completed lessons 11 and 12 today.

We met your new computer teacher Scott Joplin. He was a famous American composer who is known for his piano 'ragtime' music.

Mr. Joplin taught us how to play with five-finger ant tunnels. Keep your wrist up and your fingers curved. Place your thumb on middle C. Each finger has a number. Thumbs are 1, Index fingers are 2, Middle fingers are3, and so on... little fingers are 5. You can practice with your Mom or Dad, calling out finger number patterns to play on the piano. Sing and play at the piano 3-2-1. Or 2-3-4. Or 5-3-1. (etc.)

Practice using both your Right hand and Left hand with the thumb on middle C.

Also, you can practice rhythm playbacks the way we did in class (1+2+3+4+).
If you have the CMJ software at home, please practice Folktunes for the Right Hand on the computer in the Library.

Level 1:
In your first lesson, you learned the five rooms of CMJ. Library, Games room, Lesson room, Practice room and Improvisation room.

You met your first computer teacher Mr. Beethoven. Ludwig van Beethoven is a famous German composer in music history who is known for writing symphonies, even though he was deaf (he could not hear).

You learned about high bird notes and low whale notes with Beethoven. You learned where middle C is on the piano, and that there are 7 letters in the musical alphabet. A, B, C, D, E, F, G, back to A. Practice naming the keys on your piano, repeating the 7 letters all the way up. You your left hand for low notes and right hand for high notes.

You also got to try out some rhythm playbacks with the level 2 kids.

Thanks for a really productive and fun class everyone.
Excellent work - see you next week!