"Monsters" on Dancing with the Stars

On Monday, April 30th, this couple on Dancing with the Stars danced to Prokofiev's "Montagues and Capulets" from Romeo and Juliet! Did you see it? I just love the music. In the 3rd Year of Let's Play Music, we do a fun and scary puppet show to this very song. We call it Monsters!

Chord Inversions

Are you wondering why, oh why, we are teaching the children to play inversions on the piano?

Here's a great responses from a fellow LPM teacher, Alissa. Thanks Alissa!

"Inversions are just the block chord version of arpeggios.  Most piano teachers teach arpeggios at a young age because they teach the building blocks of the chords - the three notes that make a chord what it is - major or minor.  And by doing inversions and arpeggios, the child sees that no matter what order the notes are in, it's still a C chord or a G chord or whatever.  It also gives them a bigger picture of the entire keyboard.  They see the spatial relationships between major thirds, minor thirds, fourths and fifths and see how they relate to each other on the keyboard, even though they're not being taught all of that terminology.

And if all else fails, refer them to Disney and Aristocats!  Even little kittens learn their scales and their apreggios!      tee hee"

How cool is it that a child can take something as simple as a chord and play those 3 notes all over the keyboard! One of my students liked the inversions so much, she wrote them into her composition! It's such a great skill for making song writing great fun! 


It's also a great skill to have while improvising on songs. It's fun to take a song and change it up a bit by playing the chords in any place on the keyboard and in any shape (or inversion) you can imagine! And then to be able to play it in any style such as marching style or alberti style. It's so fun to create!

Sergei Prokofiev

The 3rd year Let's Play Music students are studying the music of Sergei Prokofiev this winter!

Sergei Prokofiev was a Ukrainian composer born in 1891.  Everyone around him could see what a great musician he was becoming.  By the age of 5, he wrote his first piece, called “Indian Gallop,” which was written down and saved by his mother.  She knew he would be famous one day!  

at the keyboard in 1900

http://www.prokofiev.org/pic10piano.html

At 11, he wrote his first symphony.  His family moved to Russia so he would have a better education.  When he was older, he spent time living in San Francisco and New York and Paris.  Each place he lived influenced how he wrote his music.  Not only famous as a composer, he was also an excellent piano player.  You can still find recordings he made on piano with the London Symphony Orchestra.  


One of his most famous works was something he wrote for children:  Peter and the Wolf.  

Our puppet show comes from his ballet, Romeo and Juliet, “Montagues and Capulets”. We call it "Monsters" as we listen to and act out the combined themes of Frankenstein, an Ogre, a dragon and more! 

Click here for a video of the ballet for this section of music!

PROKOFIEV - Romeo & Juliet - Ballet

Or, in the 3rd year of Let's Play Music, Monsters puppet show!
I loved this! But kinda missed the drama of the alligator chomp :)

Piano Posture

Click here  to go to The Well-Balanced Pianist for some great tips on sitting properly at the piano. 

Nice and comfortable and ready to play her best.

If you want to know just how you or your child should be sitting at the piano, this is a nice little page to read.

Composition Contest Videos posted!

To watch the winners of the contest perform their pieces, go to Let's Play Music's blog here! It's just adorable and will make your day. :) I've watched them a couple times already and still love it!

These graduates truly have a great future ahead of them. In music for sure, but music benefits all areas of life, so they're well on their way to an accomplished future! (To read more about how music benefits us, click here)

Honorable Mention for the Composition Contest!

Great job, Anne!

She worked hard and put lots of focus into her composition this year! Her piece, The River Song, earned her "Honorable Mention" out of all the many students who submitted their pieces.

Congratulations! I'm so proud of you!! I've enjoyed teaching you over the last 3 years! Keep up the good work!


Let's Play Music says, "After much deliberation, we are excited to announce the winners of our 2010 Composition Contest!! The quality of all entries was truly outstanding. Winners were chosen from the very best compositions from our newly graduated Orange Roots students.

A video of the winners playing their pieces will be shown at our 2010 Symposium in Mesa on June 5th and also on our blog on June 7th! We were amazed at the skill shown in these pieces... we think you will be too!

Congratulations to all participants! We had a great year!"

Fun Practice Ideas Plus Other Helps

For you Orange Roots...

Are your children working on their inversions now? Here's a fun idea to do at home to keep those practice sessions upbeat and positive. 

Put 3 small candies, such as Smarties, on the keyboard in the form of the first chord. For the red chord (aka C or I chord!) they'll be on CEG. Then have them move the candies on up the keyboard! The note on the bottom moves up an octave until you form the original chord an octave higher!

Learning is always more fun with candy ;)

Do they need more work on naming the notes with the flashcards? YES :) we all do :) Take on the challenge yourself!

Have your child trade you places, get his finger ready on the timer, and get ready to flip those flashcards for you! He'll have fun challenging you, then you can split your cookie reward with him for helping :)

For more GREAT practice tips, click here, or here

The Minute Club!

The Orange Roots (third year students) know all of the notes in treble clef and bass clef. Yay! They learned them by singing an awesome song called, Treble, Bass, Line, and Space, playing different games, and by studying their flash cards at home! There's one more thing to keep those note names fresh in their minds, The Minute Club!

If they can name each note in their flash cards in one minute or less, they get to sign their name on the Minute Club poster! They also will get a candybar - woohoo! and a little fame as they are spotlighted on the blog!

Online Note-Naming Drill

I hope everyone is having a great Christmas Break!


For you Purple Magician parents, here's a fun note-naming drill from emusictheory.com to help your child earn his place in The Minute Club and get his candybar! If your child gets a thrill out of using the computer, try this out for a change of pace.


The notes will scroll across the staff and when they turn black, click the correct name. Can you get 100%?! Go here to become a music staff genious! Good luck and have fun!

A Little Inspiration

A Let's Play Music teacher in Arizona says:

Every student has their ups and downs. Sometimes it's hard to get them to want to practice. I was having one of those days with my son. You know the line, "Why do I have to practice, I hate practicing!!!" Well, earlier that day I was searching for piano concerts at the Mesa Arts Center and came upon an amazing pianist, William Joseph. I remembered this when my son was asking "Why" and said, "I'll show you, come here"
As we watched the clip of this man playing, my son got very excited. I said, "See, this is why. This guy used to be just like you and now look how awesome he is. How often do you think he practiced?" Son: "A lot! Can we watch it again?" After about 5 times, he went back to the piano and practiced on his own. Sometimes we just need a little motivation, or inspiration.

Kendra here: My 2.5 year old also enjoyed watching it and wanted to watch it again and again and again!

3rd Year Composition Competition!