Try Something New!

Today at Ernestine's I had the pleasure of meeting a new student for a trial lesson. This student is 4 and has been having fun with music on their own, so I was excited to meet them. Together we sang some old favourites, ABC's and Twinkle Twinkle, and we took a ride with a big yellow truck. One on one focus on music is new for this student so it will take time to start to understand what to expect from a lesson. I will return with some fun games, music, and instruments, and together we will journey through music! Shout out to Ernestine's staff for their incredible support of these young music makers!

Three Little Birds

During this week's session our challenge was a classic Bob Marley song. We strummed and practiced chord changing to the pleasant and uplifting Three Little Birds. We also reviewed all the chords we have learned so far. Lots of fun!

On Our Feet!

My favourite classes are the ones where I feel like the kids are leading the class with their energy, and I’m just facilitating. That was definitely the case for this class, and it was clear within the first five minutes that the kids were intent on standing and moving as much as possible, so I skipped through early warm-up songs and went straight into standing songs. The kids were already warmed up! I also find that the grownups tend to participate more when there’s more active movement in the room, so even for songs that are normally sung sitting, we sung them standing and moving. However, the kids and grownups were focused on the floor when I brought out the spoons for Instrument Of The Week. One of the staff members was quick to bring over a stack of spoons for the kids to play with, and they kept rhythm very well! I always love encouraging the kids to make music and noise with whatever is around them, and the spoons are one of my favourite ways to show that truly anything can be a percussion instrument. I imagine their breakfasts are about to get a bit more lively!

Sing Hi, Sing Low

This week the students at Stonegate experimented with high and low notes. We discovered that if an object that makes a sound, like the strings on a guitar or piano, or the chimes on a xylophone, is large, the sound will be low, and if it is small the sound will be high! Together we hang the high and low notes in an octave! We also started learning Hakuna Matata. What a wonderful phrase!

What's That Sound!?

During this week's session we played "Guess The Instrument," adding a little twist. This time we focused on the concept of low and high pitch, while experimenting with all sorts of instruments and sounds. Another twist was the participants challenging me to guess what instrument was being played, as they played them with their cameras off.

No Worries!

Today's classes with the students at Sonegate were filled with laughs! Recently we extended the classes by 10 minutes and what a huge difference it makes. The students get time to talk and share their thoughts and feelings, and for me as the instructor it feels easy breezy. I love getting to know these young musicians. We talked about what they enjoy most about school, their friends and recess. I also learned what music they love to listen to: Bon Jovi, Queen, and Transformers SuperHero music (of course). We also played a musical guessing game. I played the melody to the next song we will learn and they guessed...Hakuna Matata!

Step in Time

Today we had fun reading rhythms! I re-introduced whole, half, quarter, and eighth notes. After our vocal warm up we had fun reading and playing different rhythms from flash cards with our drums. The final card had a treble clef and my student was shocked by this new symbol! Together we discovered that it wasn't a note but it represented "all of the notes" as my student said. It was a very fun discovery!

True Colours

Today we got into the nitty gritty of breaking down the vocal line of True Colours. We focused on singing the rhythms that are written and practiced the intervals carefully. It is a pleasure to be able to work with these thoughtful students who enjoy this detailed musical work.

Uke "Drum"

Today we flipped our ukulele and used the body as a drum! Together we tapped out rhythms. This will be the start of our music theory and rhythm reading exploration. We took turns leading the rhythms and challenging each other. Next week we will fit the rhythm into musical bars. The students are making progress which is very fun to watch.

A World of Possibilities

This week we experimented with a lot of different musical instruments through the game "Guess The Instrument". In this game, the students had to listen carefully and try to guess what instrument I was playing with my camera off. We got to learn about so many cool instruments and explored the concept of high and low sounds.