Making Musicians

the roots of success

We all know that success grows little by little, from strong, healthy, deep roots.  As I look at my Jess, I remember him in his final Let's Play Music recital, proudly playing his own composition at age 6.  Age 6!  His feet didn't even touch the floor when he sat at the piano!  But, he had some roots there. Serious musical roots.  Notice his confident little face as he displays his piece of music and his trophy! 

Now, at 10, he plays the saxophone and guitar, and is fabulous on the piano. He sightreads, sings harmony and composes all the time.  And he loves music!

Now those are some serious ROOTS!

our homes are alive....with the sound of music

Mary Drinkwater shared this darling exchange that happened last week at their house:

Jane (6, in Orange Roots):  Mom, you were in The Sound of Music, right?
Mary:  Yes, That was the summer before I married your dad.
Susanna (4 in Blue Bugs ):  And, were you the girl that taught the children a major scale?

bye-bye, binder!

Announcing our newest improvement to our incredible line of Student Materials!  The Home Study Guide, Weekly Theory Assignments and Parents' Reference Section will be in individual semester booklets with perforated pages for the Theory Assignments!  No more binders, tabs or loose pages!  We know you'll love this streamlining of these fabulous resources! 

3-Year-Old Outsmarts Blue Bugs

My little 3 year old daughter sat in my blue bugs class this week.  I brought out the chord triangles and we sang our primary chords song.  I hid the triangles and asked the class, "What chord has a 'do, fa, la' in it?"  and my daughter quickly shouted "BLUE".  We all started laughing in amazement.  It's amazing how young they can catch on to these skills! 

Jenny   

how smart they'll get!

Oh, how I LOVE the music alphabet!  Josh is a Yellow Indian and we just started learning the names of the white keys last week!  I love to see him pick up a  letter, look at the picture, and find it on the key!  He is loving this simple game and having no idea how smart he'll get with his music alphabet!

Victory Bells

CONGRATULATIONS to our winners!

Lori Halverson of Oceanside CA said:

"This is my first year teaching & I have a fabulous class! One student in particular was so excited about his bells the first week. His mom told me he would play on them so much, she'd have to beg him to come and eat! After only 1 or 2 lessons he could almost play the 'Do-Mi-Mi' part all the way through...and he's 5! That was just amazing to me.

I have another student who started the class at lesson 10 b/c his little sister was in the class and I had a spot open up. He is familiar with the material, but because he hasn't had all the beginning training, I didn't expect him to be able to do so well on his bells already. I just did lesson 13, and this is the first time the students actually 'read' notes on the staff and play them on their bells. Well he did it perfectly! Obviously Mom is doing a great job at home getting him up to speed! I was so impressed with my little 'new-comer!'"

And Aria Lambson of Mesa AZ said:

"I have had two boys in the Let's Play Music program and now I am a teacher. Needless to say, there is never a day that goes by where we don't sing "Do is home." A few months ago I went to a second hand store with my two year old. She found a little alligator toy with bells on it and she insisted that I take it off the shelf for her. When I gave it to her, she took the mallet, hit a note and sang (no joke) "Do is home." That was the longest sentence she had ever said. I bought the alligator and she is now singing a major scale at 2 years old."

They're both new teachers and both won bell step ladders to use in their first year classes!

THANKS for letting us know about your successes with BELLS!!