We had two groups for piano parties on July 9, 2015 - the teen crowd and the princess group.
In recognition of Mississippi being credited as the "Birthplace of American Music", we started the parties with Miss Phyllis playing parts of the "Vignettes of Hattiesburg" by Dennis Alexander. The suite features Hattiesburg, Mississippi - which is about an hour north of where the parties were and all the students have been there. The suite consisted of "Mobile Street Rock!" (in 1936 this street in Hattiesburg was a popular recording site and had many piano players living there), "The Perfect Rose" (a lyrical movement depicting the beauty and color of the over 750 roses on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg) and "Hurricane Warning" (the sounds of the wind and storm are heard in this movement).
Time was sent discussing and learning some ways to practice. Practicing is important and we talked about the importance of working on the hard spots first and also about starting at end of the song and adding a little each time working up until finally all the song is played.
Next, students learned about the direction placement of the stems on notes. 3rd line is the key with notes on or above having their stems go down on the right. If notes are below the 3rd line - the stem goes up on the left. Catchy saying was used to help in placing the stem - notes make "Puppy Dogs" no "Quirky Birds" allowed!
Composer of the month was Ludwig van Beethoven. Students learned about his life and listened to several of his songs including the popular "Fur Elise" (which was really supposed to be for Theresa but because of his sloppy handwriting it was misread), the beautiful "Moonlight Sonata", "Victory Theme" from his 5th symphony (during WWII Allied Forces used this rhythmic pattern in signalling the letter V to declare victory) and "Ode to Joy" from the 9th symphony (written when he was totally deaf).
Most of the students really like Rhythm Cups. We spent some time having fun with them - we had a first by doing it with music.
And last, we learned about 4 tempo markings - Allegro, Moderato, Andante and Largo. Miss Phyllis brought her almost 50 year old metronome for students to see. Then, she also demonstrated the metronome app on her smartphone.
Piano party is a great opportunity to feature things we don't have time to cover in the lesson and also an opportunity to meet other students and have a good time with them.
In recognition of Mississippi being credited as the "Birthplace of American Music", we started the parties with Miss Phyllis playing parts of the "Vignettes of Hattiesburg" by Dennis Alexander. The suite features Hattiesburg, Mississippi - which is about an hour north of where the parties were and all the students have been there. The suite consisted of "Mobile Street Rock!" (in 1936 this street in Hattiesburg was a popular recording site and had many piano players living there), "The Perfect Rose" (a lyrical movement depicting the beauty and color of the over 750 roses on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg) and "Hurricane Warning" (the sounds of the wind and storm are heard in this movement).
Time was sent discussing and learning some ways to practice. Practicing is important and we talked about the importance of working on the hard spots first and also about starting at end of the song and adding a little each time working up until finally all the song is played.
Next, students learned about the direction placement of the stems on notes. 3rd line is the key with notes on or above having their stems go down on the right. If notes are below the 3rd line - the stem goes up on the left. Catchy saying was used to help in placing the stem - notes make "Puppy Dogs" no "Quirky Birds" allowed!
Composer of the month was Ludwig van Beethoven. Students learned about his life and listened to several of his songs including the popular "Fur Elise" (which was really supposed to be for Theresa but because of his sloppy handwriting it was misread), the beautiful "Moonlight Sonata", "Victory Theme" from his 5th symphony (during WWII Allied Forces used this rhythmic pattern in signalling the letter V to declare victory) and "Ode to Joy" from the 9th symphony (written when he was totally deaf).
Most of the students really like Rhythm Cups. We spent some time having fun with them - we had a first by doing it with music.
And last, we learned about 4 tempo markings - Allegro, Moderato, Andante and Largo. Miss Phyllis brought her almost 50 year old metronome for students to see. Then, she also demonstrated the metronome app on her smartphone.
Piano party is a great opportunity to feature things we don't have time to cover in the lesson and also an opportunity to meet other students and have a good time with them.