J. W. MacLeod Elementary School Fri. May 2 2.45-3.45pm

Great class today. We accomplished quite a lot.

LEVEL 1 (Miguel and Erika):

• Practiced C major scales in group mode with the whole class.
• Songs, Old Grey Goose and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. These are getting better, but still not quite 100%.
• Reviewed note naming and watched the video on the Grand Staff in the Theory Thinker.
• Practiced counting exercises with the right and left hands.
• Played games in the Childrens' Music Journey Software.

LEVEL 2 (Jeremey, Gabriel, Hannah, Victoria, Chloe, Rose and Anthony):

• Practiced C major scales in group mode, with the metronome.
• Songs, Ode to Joy, The baseball game and Ten Little Indians.
• Discussed your homework assignment: Compose a melody using the C pentatonic scale.
• Reviewed time signatures. 4/4 means four quarter beats in a bar. 3/4 means three quarter beats in a bar. You can use either of these time signatures for your homework assignment.
• Improvised and recorded some pentatonic melodies in the Childrens' Music Journey Software.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with for next week. Remember that if you have piano books at home, or specific songs that you want to learn, you can bring in extra music to class and I'll be happy to hear you play and answer any questions you may have.

Westmount Elementary School. Grades 3-6. Friday May 2 12.15-1.15pm

Hello again.
You all did very well today, although I felt there was too much noise from some of you during lesson time. Let's not be distracting to others in the class. We all want to learn and have fun, so let's listen and try to stay on task while we are in class. Next week will be better.

Today we tried out the Group Performance Tool with our scales. Ivan played the C major scale with just his right hand. Brett and William tried playing it in contrary motion with both hands. Stephen, Dylan and Justin played their C chromatic scales for us hands separately. Scales are something all of you can work on at home. Remember to use the correct fingering and try to keep a steady beat - like we did with the metronome.

Next, we worked on songs. Ivan is playing Old Grey Goose and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Brett and William are playing Let it Be and Happy Birthday. Stephen, Dylan and Justin are working on Ode to Joy (hands together), The baseball game, and the new song Ten Little Indians.
We also practiced exercises in the theory thinker for reading notes by step and by skip. Ivan practiced his note naming.

We played a game of Interval Faceoff and the competition was fierce! All of you are really quick at recognizing intervals!
At the end of class we improvised some tunes in the CMJ software and played melody and rhythm eartraining games. Excellent work all of you :)
See you next time.

BLT Elementary School. Grades 3 to 6. Thurs. May 1 2.30-3.30pm

Today was a busy class - all of you are learning new songs, and we're adjusting to a new seating plan as well. Next class I will arrange for everyone to be sitting with the best partner for your level, and learning style. There were a couple of disagreements today between classmates. Let's all try to cooperate and help each other to learn and have fun in MusIQ Club.

LEVEL 1 (Dylan and Taylor):

• C major scale, hands separately. Taylor also tried the C scale in contrary motion - hands together. Great playing!
  
• Old Grey Goose, Twinkle Twinkle and Pop goes the Weasel. Watch out for counting quarter, half and whole notes.
  
• Theory Thinker - note naming and time signatures.
• Pop goes the Weasel has a 3/4 time signature, which means there are three beats in each bar. Also, notice whether you are moving by step or by skip when you read your music. Counting and playing the correct notes are the two most basic concepts that we are trying to master right now.
  
• Rhythm playbacks.
  

Level 2 (Jazlyn, Savanna, Krista, Rama - I am moving Rama to level 2 because she has successfully completed all the songs in level 1):

• C major scale in contrary motion. Hands start with both thumbs on Middle C (Middle C position).
• Let it be. Who wrote this famous song? Can you tell me for next week?
  
• Happy Birthday. Hands separately, than together.
• You watched the video about ties and odd note values (dotted half notes and dotted quarter notes) in the theory thinker software today.
• Improvised and played ear training games in the Children's music journey software.
  

Level 3 (Grace, Rachelle, Veronica and Kara):

• C Chromatic scale and pentatonic scales.
• Ode to Joy and The Baseball game. Hands separately, than together.
  
• Watch out for sharps and flats. We reviewed the theory lesson on 'accidentals' today, to practice the exercises again. Sharps make a note a semitone higher. Flats make the note a semitone lower.
• Talked about intervals and worked on ear training.
• Played games in the Children's Music Journey software.

Finally, I distributed your assessments, report cards and certificates for the work you did in the previous term and the first few weeks of this term. That's a lot of work~ I also gave out some treats, just to say congratulations.

You're all doing great and I'm really impressed with the progress everyone is making from week to week. See you next time.

Kingswood School Thurs. May 1 11.40-12.40pm

Great work today Aidan, Ben and Josh. It was nice to have all three of you in attendance.

Here's what we learned together:

• Warmed up with the C, F and G pentatonic scales.
• Reviewed writing down major and pentatonic scales. Next week we will have a composition assignment where you will have to write an 8 bar melody using the C pentatonic scale.
  
• Practiced Ode to Joy, The Baseball Game and Ten Little Indians, hands separately, than together.
• Talked about triads. A triad is a three-note chord. A chord is a group of notes played at the same time.
• Played the Interval flashcard game, and worked on ear training - identifying the difference between an interval of a 3rd and an interval of a 5th.

Well done! I'm happy with the progress we're making in this class.

Fleming Tower Elementary School Mon. April 28 2.15-3.15pm

What a fun class we had today!
Here's what we did:
LEVEL 1 (Benjamine and Ryan)

• Lesson 3 and 4 with Mr. Beethoven.
  
• Reviewed high bird notes and low whale notes.
• Learned about Middle C. The note that comes right before the group of two black keys in the middle of the piano keyboard.
• Keeping a steady beat and curved finger hand position.
• Long sounds and short sounds. We learned about rhythm and how often times we divide music into groups of 4 beats. Very good work here.
  
• Practice lessons 1-4 if you have the CMJ software at home. If not, practice clapping four beat rhythms for your Mom and Dad. For example: My Par-rot talk a- lot (there is rhythm in language isn't there!), Long short short short short long!
  

LEVEL 1B (Jessica, Jacqueline, Lauren - we missed you Emma)

• Lesson 15 with Scott Joplin and a little bit of lesson 16 with Miss Mendelssohn.
  
• You're learning how to set both hands in Middle C position with all five fingers on the keys.
• Make sure to keep your wrists up and fingers curved.
• Keep a steady beat.
• You're learning about notes moving by step, one finger after the next. You can step higher (going up the keyboard) or lower (down the keyboard).
• We are becoming more familiar with note names now, A-B-C-D-E-F-F and back to A.
• For practice, try Folk Tunes for Both Hands, in the CMJ software. If not, practice your stepping exercises, and try playing different finger number patterns in Middle C position.

LEVEL 2A (Noah, Jared, Brianna, Reece, Aly and Jansyn)

• Lesson 29 with Mr. Dvorak.
• We talked about Dvorak's life. He came from the Czech republic. He moved to the U.S. when we was a little older and wrote the "New World" Symphony. Can you remember anything else about Dvorak?
• Practiced quarter, half, dotted half and whole notes.
  
• Practiced folk tunes for both hands.
• Play exercises stepping and skipping in Middle C position.
• Pretty soon you will be learning how to read notes in what we call the Grand Staff. Try looking at any music books you may have at home to see what this looks like. Can you see how your right hand plays the notes on top and the left hand plays the notes on the bottom. You've been learning how to do this all along - how exciting that you've come this far in such a short time!

At the end of class we played Keyboard Race, drawing cards to move our game pieces higher up the keyboard to learn the musical alphabet. Finally, we had a chocolate chip cookie and then went home. Have a good two day break everyone.
I'll see you next week.