J. W. MacLeod Elementary School Fri. May 9 2.45-3.45pm

We had a very good class today. The level 1 students, Miguel and Erika, were especially sounding well today. Chloe completed her composition assignment. I'm looking forward to next week where I am sure I'll be hearing compositions by the rest of you, Gabriel, Victoria, Anthony, Hannah, Rpse and Jeremey. To print off a new copy click HERE.

LEVEL 1 (Miguel and Erika):

• Warmed up with C major scales for the right hand and left hand.
• Practiced songs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Old Grey Goose and learned a new song, Pop goes the Weasel. Talked about playing loud and soft, legato (smooth) and staccato (detached).
  
• Watched a video on time signatures, note values and ties.
• Played games and improvised using the C major scale.

LEVEL 3 (Everyone else):

• Warmed up with C chromatic scales, C, F and G Pentatonic scales, and learned how to play the A minor scale (Same fingering as C major).
• Played songs The Baseball Game, Ode to Joy and Ten Little Indians. Started learning a new song, The Blue Danube Waltz.
  
• Discussed scale degrees and practiced naming intervals.
• Played games and improvised using the C pentatonic scale.
  

Excellent work. Have a good week everyone.

Westmount Elementary School. Grades 3-6. Friday May 9 12.15-1.15pm

Great work today guys. It was nice to welcome our guest, Micheal to the class today.

LEVEL 1 (Ivan and Micheal):

• Warmed up with C major scales for the right hand and left hand.
• Micheal learned how to play the song Old Grey Goose. 100% on his first try! Excellent sight reading.
• Practiced songs: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Pop goes the Weasel.
• Completed the worksheet on naming notes.
• Played games and improvised using the C major scale.

LEVEL 2 (William and Brett):

• Warmed up with C major scales in contrary motion.
  
• Played our songs Let it Be, Happy Birthday, and Clementine.
• Reviewed the terms legato and staccato. Practiced the exercise.
• Watched a video on time signatures, note values and ties.
• Played games and improvised in C.

LEVEL 3 (Dylan, Stephen and Justin):

• Warmed up with C chromatic scales, C, F and G Pentatonic scales, and learned how to play the A minor scale (Same fingering as C major).
• Played songs The Baseball Game, Ode to Joy and Ten Little Indians.
• Completed 2 worksheets on the C major scale and C pentatonic scale. Next week we will have a take home assignment that builds on the concept of the C pentatonic scale.
• Discussed scale degrees and practiced writing down roman numerals I-VII.
• Played games and improvised using the C pentatonic scale. Dylan created a wonderful piece based on a 'hip hop' rhythm using the C pentatonic scale. Well done everyone!

At the end of class we played a game of interval Faceoff as per request.
Happy playing this week!

BLT Elementary School Thurs. May 8 2.30-3.30pm

Today we had a fun class. I was very pleased with how much we accomplished, except we were missing quite a few of you.
Tyrique, Savanna, Krista, Kara and Jazlyn, hope to see you next week.

LEVEL 1 (Taylor and Dylan):

• C major scales. Right hand and Left hand.
  
• Songs: Old Grey Goose, Twinkle Twinkle, Pop Goes the Weasel and new song, On top of Old Smokey. Hands separately and then together.
  
• Review of note values, note naming and intervals.
• Games in the CMJ software,
• Improvisation with the C scale.

LEVEL 2 (Rama):

• C scale in Contrary Motion. New scale, C pentatonic (only 5 notes long).
• Try playing your scales legato and staccato. Here is an exercise to help you practice these two piano techniques: Legato/Stacccato Exercise
• Songs: Let it Be, Happy Birthday and new song, Clementine.
  
• Practiced playing with the metronome and reading by intervals.
• Ear training with CMJ.
• Improvised and recorded some C pentatonic melodies.

LEVEL 3 (Rachelle, Veronica and Grace):

• C Chromatic scale and C, F, and G Pentatonic scales.
• Songs: Ode to Joy, The Baseball Game, and new song, Ten Little Indians.
• Try playing your C pentatonic scale using this worksheet: C Pentatonic Scale. This will give you some practice with writing out your scales as well.
  
• Played a game of interval Face Off to help us in recognizing harmonic 4ths and 5ths.
• Improvised and recorded some C pentatonic melodies using the CMJ software.

Excellent work from all of you. The songs are sounding better and better.

Kingswood School Thurs. May 8 11.40-12.40pm

Great work today!
We got a lot done:

• C Chromatic scales, and C, F and G Pentatonic scales.
• Songs: Ode to Joy, The Baseball Game, Ten Little Indians and new song, The Blue Danube.
• Theory worksheet: Compose your own Pentatonic Melody. Please complete this assignment for next week's class.
• Reviewed time signatures, key signatures, dynamics (forte means loud, piano means soft, etc.) and the terms Legato and Staccato.
• Improvised C pentatonic melodies over the Blue Danube Waltz using the Children's Music Journey software.

Have a good week Josh, Aidan and Ben.
I'm looking forward to hearing what you come up with for your first composition assignment!

BLT Elementary School Wed. May 7 2.30-3.30pm

We had a great class. We had Kyheem Bowden join us this week. Welcome to MusIQ Club.
We were missing Cameron, Abbey, Connor and Jacob today though.
Don't forget next Wednesday!

LEVEL 1A (Kyheem):

• Completed Lesson 1 and 2 with Mr. Beethoven.
• Learned about high 'bird' notes and low 'whale' notes. Remember, right hand plays high, left hand plays low.
• Learned where to find Middle C. Either hand can play middle C.
• Practiced songs with high, low and middle C notes, keeping a steady beat and curved finger hand position.
• Played games and improvised/recorded some tunes.

LEVEL 1B (Billy):

• Completed Lesson 18 and a little bit of lesson 19 with Miss Mendelssohn.
• Reviewed stepping and skipping in Middle C position. (Thumbs share middle C.)
• Played songs, including Mary had a little lamb and Mary had a big fat sheep.
  
• Talked about the musical alphabet and practiced naming notes backwards.
• Played games and improvised/recorded some tunes.

LEVEL 2 (Haylea):

• Completed Lesson 32 and 33 with Mr. Mozart.
• Began learning how to play in the grand staff. Your right hand plays the top staff and left hand plays the bottom staff. Remember where middle C is found on the grand staff. It has it's own line underneath the top staff.
• Learned how notes moving by step will follow the pattern, line-space-line-space-etc.
• Practiced drawing quarter, half and whole notes and line notes/space notes.
• Played games and improvised some tunes.
  

We also played a game of keyboard race to help us remember our musical alphabet. Haylea won, and we all had a lot of fun. We also practiced rhythm playbacks with the hand drum. Kyheem is already able to clap rhythms like a pro after only 1 lesson.

Excellent work.

Westmount Elementary School Tues May 6 12.15-1.15pm

Nice to see you again after the two week break. We had a good class today.

LEVEL 1 (Iris, Ryan and Sean):

• Completed lesson 21 and a little bit of lesson 22 with Mr. Villa-Lobos.
• Reviewed Middle C position and notes moving by step. Make sure both your thumbs are on middle C and you are using all five fingers in order when you play.
• Learned some new songs and some new games. Make sure you hold down your notes for the correct number of beats; quarter, half and whole.
  
• Talked about line notes and space notes and the musical alphabet, and drew some examples on the board.
  
• Practiced rhythms playbacks with the hand drum and improvised some tunes in the CMJ vol. 1 software.

LEVEL 2 (Sophia, Morgan, Aoiffe, Josie, Lidya and Cameron)

• Completed lesson 33 and a little bit of lesson 34 with Mr. Mozart.
• Reviewed the grand staff: Right hand plays high notes in the upper staff, left hand plays low notes in the lower staff. We are trying to memorize where the notes (C, D, E, F, G, A, B) are found on the staff. Remember that the notes go in order of the musical alphabet from bottom to top. If you know where middle C is, you can figure out any other note.
  
• Learned some new songs and the new game Guitar Girl. Very good note reading.
• Practiced drawing quarter, half and whole notes, as well as the Treble Clef.
• Ear training with 4-beat rhythms and improvised tunes in the CMJ vol. 2 software.

For homework you can review the lessons we completed this week and practice 4 or 5 note playback exercises with your Mom or Dad. Have them call out a series of four letters, or four numbers and you play them back. You should try this with your right and then your left hand in middle C position, keeping a steady beat.

Have fun and see you next time.

Fleming Tower Elementary School Mon. May 5 2.15-3.15pm

Great work today! We missed Brianna and Aly - they are on a trip to Cuba.
Welcome back Emma.

LEVEL 1 (Emma, Benjamine and Ryan):

• Completed Lesson 4 and 5 with Mr. Beethoven.
• Learned more about Rythms and started reading 'circle notes'.
• Played songs and rhythm exercises on my hand-drum.
  
• Practiced finding Middle C, High C and Low C.
• Improvised and recorded some songs.

LEVEL 2 (Jessica, Lauren and Jacqueline):

• Completed Lesson 16 and a little bit of Lesson 17 with Miss Mendelssohn.
• Learned about Middle C position and notes moving by step.
• Practiced songs in Middle C position.
• Played games and exercises for hearing notes getting higher and higher and notes getting lower and lower.
  
• Reviewed 5 finger numbers: Thumbs are 1, Index fingers are 2, Middle fingers are 3, Ring fingers are 4 and pinkies are 5.
• Improvised and recorded songs using the CMJ software.

LEVEL 3 (Noah, Jared, Reece and Jansyn):

• Completed Lesson 29 with Mr. Dvorak and Lesson 30 with Mr. Mozart.
• Practiced Rhythms and songs we from last term (Frere Jacques, Goin' Home, etc.)
• Talked about line notes and space notes and moving by step and skip.
• Played games and exercises for remembering Note Values: quarter, half, dotted half and whole notes. We also practiced drawing different types of notes on the white board.
• Improvised and recorded some songs.
  

For practice, try out all the songs on the computer in the Library with your CMJ software at home. You can also review the lesson and practice for your level this week.

For those students with pianos but no software, please practice finger number exercises in middle C position, keeping a steady beat. Mom or Dad can call out a sequence of 3 to 5 finger numbers and then you play them back keeping a steady beat and curved finger hand position. Try this with your right hand and then your left hand. See you next time.