Set A Goal For Musical Success

You're embarking on a big musical journey!  As you get into the swing of Let's Play Music classes, especially if this is your first year, take a deep breath and focus on the long-term vision.   You can get to your destination by focusing on the right goals and remembering  what we're out to accomplish!

S: Sing While Playing: Your voice is your first instrument, and the easiest measure of how well you are audiating music (hearing music in your mind.)  When you sing in class and while your child plays the piano, it helps him feel confident that singing is not an embarrassing thing to do; it's so fun he'll join in!  Even if your long-term plans don't include voice, singing at this stage of training will make you and your child better musicians.  So sing while you play bells or piano!

E: Encourage: Your child probably wants to be on time to class, and he likely wants to get his homework and practicing done every week.  At such a tender age, he cannot hold up these commitments without your encouragement.  Show him that you want him to succeed by making homework a special time together, helping him remember to practice, and prompting to get shoes on with plenty of time to get to class.

T: Together: Eventually, you hope your child will rush to the piano every day because he finds joy in playing, practicing, and challenging himself.  But this is all very new and he doesn't have a history of success and pleasure with piano yet.  Right now, he practices because he trusts you and your judgement that this is a worthwhile effort.  He's giving it a try because he wants to bond with you.  So sit with him during the first few practices each week, snuggle with him during class, sing with him, play duets, and let him feel that playing piano is something that brings you closer together.  This will have more impact on his future perceptions of music lessons than the teacher's explanation about roots of chords!

A: Applaud: Remember when your child took his first steps?  You cheered and clapped!  He's trying things now that are tricky and sometimes scary.  He wants to know that you love him even when the notes he plays sound slow and sticky.  So applaud the successes, and even more importantly, applaud the efforts! "I loved hearing you play just now, because I could tell that you were struggling but did not give up, and I appreciate that! Way to go!"

G: Giggle: Children learn most effortlessly when things are fun and lighthearted (admit it: we adults learn best when we're excited and finding fun, too!).  Seize the opportunities to giggle and make the arduous tasks into silly games.  

O: Overcome Hard Things: When your child is confronted with challenging assignments, be prepared to list the many difficult challenges he has overcome: learning to walk, learning to brush his own teeth, going to school alone, skipping, riding a bike, etc.  "Now that these things are so easy for you, it's probably hard for you to remember that they used to be really tricky!  Playing today's chords is really hard, but I know you can overcome hard things when you want to... let's keep working on it and in a few weeks this will be so easy you will feel so proud to have stuck with it!'

A: Appreciate: Every child learns at a different pace, finds ease with different aspects of the music lesson, and masters the skills in his own way.  Your child longs to know that he is doing okay in your eyes, especially if his performance looks slightly different from another student or sibling.  Take time to appreciate how special your musician is and honor the experience he is having.  "I love when you play your songs so beautifully- it makes me happy to see you learning so much and having fun, too!  I want you to know that even when the songs don't sound great, I love you.  I love you because you are YOU, and I would still love you even if you weren't a musician."  His sense of security will enhance his learning, whereas fear or threats tied to his musical experience might taint his future interest.

L: Laugh: Your child's first music lessons need to be joyful!  The attitude established in these 3 years is likely more important than the repertoire and theory amassed (although it will be impressive! and well-retained!).  As you SET A GOAL to embark on the Let's Play Music journey, keep in mind that this 3-year journey is the beginning of a lifelong journey into musicianship.  Help your child launch with joy and he'll have the steam to carry him for a lifetime.

-Gina Weibel, M.S.
Let's Play Music Teacher

Intervals: Know Them Very Well

If you're in the second year of Let's Play Music, you're about to get to know intervals very well.

in·ter·val /ˈintərvəl/  - the difference in pitch between two notes


Soon your student will reliably identify the sight and sound of harmonic intervals: two notes played at the same time, thanks to our turtle shells.  Astute students will also realize that melodies are made of up melodic intervals: notes played one after the other.  That's right...a baby step is a melodic second and a skip is a melodic third.

So, why the big emphasis on intervals?  Here are a few good reasons you'll be glad to hear, "My intervals: I know them very well!"

Music Reading

You may have heard that it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteers be at the rghit pclae.  That's not exactly true, but the take-home message is that humans read words in chunks, not letter-by-letter, and the parallel is true for music.

In the 3rd year of Let's Play Music, your child will learn how to read and play every note from the staff, but playing note-by-note through every song would be slow and laborious.  Musicians can learn to read music with ease and fluidity (remember how many hours of practice it took to read storybooks with ease and fluidity?), but they don't do it by thinking of each note as an 'A' or a 'G'.  They use intervals and chord shapes to quickly interpret music!

You've seen this on the bells in the first year classes: once the first note is identified, the melody can be quickly read by considering steps and skips up and down the staff.  Likewise, with  practice, your student can use intervals, scales and chord shapes to read chunks of notes with two part or thicker textures moving independently throughout a piece of piano music.

 Singing

Sight-singing is slightly different from reading at the piano.  Singers interpret the written music and audiate the melodic intervals.  This powerful skill can be improved with practice in Let's Play Music classes.  Hearing harmonic intervals also enables singers to harmonize a part in a choir, unlocking the joys of singing with friends and choir ensembles.

 Composing

Have you ever had a little tune playing in your mind?  Would you love to jot it down and flesh it out into a complete composition?  A first step is to follow that melody interval-by-interval to discover the notes.  Next, add some red, yellow, and blue chords for harmonization, and you'll be well on your way to creating an excellent composition like the 3rd year Let's Play Music students do.

So keep up the ear-training to identify those intervals, because, "that's the nicest sound I've ever heard!"

-Gina Weibel, M.S.
Let's Play Music Teacher

Traveling T-shirts Come Home

I strongly encourage all of my students to enter the national Let's Play Music fun contests!  Two families just won free tuition for a month...maybe next month it will be one of us :)