The Key of C Major

The key of C Major has a happy sound. All major keys are happy in sound. C Major has no sharps or flats in its key signature. C is the root. The C chord is the most important chord in the Key of C Major. Write out the musical notes from C to C: C D E F G A B C. That is the C Major Scale. To play it on the piano with your right hand you would start with your thumb which is called the first finger, D would get your pointer finger, E would get your third (middle) finger, then you would put your thumb under the third finger and F would get your thumb, followed by your second finger on G, third finger on A, fourth finger (ring finger) on B, and your fifth (pinky) finger on high C.

The next more important chord in the Key of C Major is the G chord. That is because it is 5 notes above the root note. If you know the C and G chords only, you can play over 500 songs! A song usually starts on the root and ends on the root.


If you have a question you would like me to answer about learning music please email me at Catherines.Music.Notes@gmail.com

Have A Musical Day!!! *smiles*

Catherine
"Music lessons should be about the student. Each student learns in different ways, and at different speeds. Music is a journey, and on that journey, we will work and learn together." - Catherine

Books with CDs include:
Impressions Volume One, Two, and Three
Marches
The Frog Prince
CDs include:
Wedding Bells
Lullabies

http://sites.google.com/site/musicbycatherine
www.ShoutLife.com/ClassyKeys
http://catherinesmusicnotes.blogspot.com

Questions and Answers

1. Why is it important to learn music?
Learning music along with academics and sports helps to make you a well-rounded individual. Here are a few studies about how music helps:

Young children who take music lessons show different brain development and improved memory over the course of a year, compared to children who do not receive musical training. Musically trained children performed better in a memory test that is correlated with general intelligence skills such as literacy, verbal memory, visiospatial processing, mathematics, and IQ. - Dr. Laurel Trarinor, Prof. of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behavior at McMaster University, 2006.

Playing a musical instrument significantly enhances the brain stem's sensitivity to speech sounds. This relates to encoding skills involved with music and language. Experience with music at a young age can "fine-tune" the brain's auditory system. - Nature Neuroscience, April 2007.

1997 - Researchers found that children given piano lessons improved much more dramatically in their spatial-temporal IQ scores (important for some types of mathematical reasoning) than children who received computer lessons or no lessons.

1997 - A research team exploring the link between music and intelligence reported that music training is far superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children's abstract reasoning skills, the skills necessary for learning math and science.

A study with 69 children with autism, attention deficit disorder, and epilepsy showed that while they are exposed to music, (and in some cases, for significant periods afterwards), their social skills and concentration improved dramatically in almost all cases. A related study proved that after a year of piano lessons and music therapy, the seizures in 79% of epilepsy patients disappeared completely.

Music students out-perform non-music students on achievement tests in reading and math. Skills such as reading, anticipating, memory, listening, forecasting, recall, and concentration are developed in musical performance and these skills are valuable to students in math, reading, and science. - B. Friedman, "An Evaluation of the Achievement in Reading and Arithmetic of Pupils in Elementary School Instrument Music Classes, "Dissertation Abstracts Internationa."

If you have a question you would like me to answer about learning music please email me at Catherines.Music.Notes@gmail.com

Have a Musical Day!!! *smiles*

Catherine

"Music lessons should be about the student. Each student learns in different ways, and at different speeds. Music is a journey, and on that journey, we will work and learn together." - Catherine

Books with CDs include:
Impressions Volume One, Two, and Three
Marches
The Frog Prince
CDs include:
Wedding Bells
Lullabies

http://sites.google.com/site/musicbycatherine
www.ShoutLife.com/ClassyKeys
http://catherinesmusicnotes.blogspot.com/

Discovery Page


The most accepted story of the first Thanksgiving is that Thanksgiving took place in Plymouth Colony in what is now Massachusetts in 1621.

Find out the answer to these questions and then see how many of your family and friends know the answers. (The answers are at the bottom of this blog.)

1. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, what is the largest pumpkin pie ever baked?

2. The first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade took place in what year and in what city?

3. In what year did Congress (USA) finally make Thanksgiving Day an official national holiday?

Thought for the day: Do you think that music was played at the first Thanksgiving Feast? If so, what musical instruments did they use and what did the music sound like?

If you have a question you would like me to answer about learning music please email me at Catherines.Music.Notes@gmail.com

Have a Musical Day!!!

Catherine
"Music lessons should be about the student. Each student learns in different ways, and at different speeds. Music is a journey, and on that journey, we will work and learn together." - Catherine

Books with CDs include:
Impressions Volume One, Two, and Three
Marches The Frog Prince
CDs include:
Wedding Bells
Lullabies

http://sites.google.com/site/musicbycatherine
www.ShoutLife.com/ClassyKeys
http://catherinesmusicnotes.blogspot.com


Answers:
1. The pumpking pie weighed 2,020 pounds and was just over 12 feet long.
2. The years was 1924 and it took place in New York City.
3. 1941.

Preschoolers, Toddlers, and Babies

Did you walk that steady beat last month? If not, go back and walk to the music that I have posted there for you. That beat that you are walking is the quarter note. It looks like this:

Practice drawing the quarter note and coloring it in.

Here is an art project for you to do. On a plain white piece of paper trace around your hand. If you hold your hand with your thumb out and fingers seperated it looks like a turkey. *smiles* Number your fingers. Your thumb is number one, pointer is number two, tall man is number three, ring man is number four, and pinky is number five. This is the fingering that you use when you play the piano. *smiles* After you have numbered the fingers on the page, color your turkey.

If you have a question about music that you would like to ask me, please email me at Catherines.Music.Notes@gmail.com

Have a Musical Day!!! *smiles*

Catherine
"Music lessons should be about the student. Each student learns in different ways, and at different speeds. Music is a journey, and on that journey, we will work and learn together." - Catherine

Books with CDs include:
Impressions Volume One, Two, and Three
Marches
The Frog Prince
CDs include:
Wedding Bells
Lullabies

http://sites.google.com/site/musicbycatherine
www.ShoutLife.com/ClassyKeys
http://catherinesmusicnotes.blogspot.com

The Fife and Drum

Fifers and drummers were important in the military beginning in the 14th century. Fifers and drummers tended to be boys between the ages of 10 and 18. Fifes and drums served as signal instruments.

There have been times in history when the fife was replaced by similar instruments, but the high shrill sound of the fife carries in the field of battle making it an excellent choice to relay the commanders orders to the soldiers.

The snare drum belongs to the oldest instrumental family. The snare and bass drums were the drums used most often by the militias.

If you have a question you would like me to answer about learning music please email me at Catherines.Music.Notes@gmail.com

Have a Musical Day!!! *smiles*

Catherine
"Music lessons should be about the student. Each student learns in different ways, and at different speeds. Music is a journey, and on that journey, we will work and learn together." - Catherine

Books with CDs include:
Impressions Volume One, Two, and Three
Marches The Frog Prince
CDs include:
Wedding Bells
Lullabies

http://sites.google.com/site/musicbycatherine
www.ShoutLife.com/ClassyKeys
http://catherinesmusicnotes.blogspot.com

Questions and Answers

1. What is important in music lessons?
The student and teacher should have a rapport with each other. It is very important that the teacher teaches note reading, fingering, counting, music theory, and ear training. All these are important basics. Unfortunately, not all teachers teach these things.

2. What make music sound scary?
Most scary music is in a minor key. The next step to making music sound scary is to make sudden changes in the dynamics of the music. Also unusual instruments can be used. Create unfamiliar sounds. This confuses our senses and makes us 'scared'.

Something Musical to do: Write lyrics that would fit the Thanksgiving theme. The lyrics should be sung to a tune everyone know such as, "Mary Had A Little Lamb" or "Row, Row, Row Your Boat". Submit your lyrics to: Catherines.Music.Notes@gmail.com

During the month of November I'll post some of your lyrics on my blog.

If you have a question you would like me to answer about learning music please email me at Catherines.Music.Notes@gmail.com

Have A Musical Day! *smiles*

Catherine

"Music lessons should be about the student. Each student learns in different ways, and at different speeds. Music is a journey, and on that journey, we will work and learn together." - Catherine

Books with CDs include:
Impressions Volume One, Two, and Three
Marches

The Frog Prince
CDs include:
Wedding Bells
Lullabies

http://sites.google.com/site/musicbycatherine
www.ShoutLife.com/ClassyKeys
http://catherinesmusicnotes.blogspot.com

Discovery Page: "Halloween"

Find out the answer to these questions and then see how many of your family and friends know the answers. (The answers are at the bottom of this blog.)

1. The term Halloween is the shortened form of what?

2. True or False. Halloween has its origin in an ancient Celtic Festival.

3. True or False. The Festival of Samhain was a celebration of the end of the harvest.

Discover the Composer In You

Write a SCARY song for Halloween. The musical alphabet is A, B, C, D, E, F, G. So put those letters in any order on a piece of paper. Then decide if they should each be a fast, slow, or an in-between duration. The fast note would be the quarter note, the slow note would be the whole note, and the in-between note would be the half note. Then send your song to me. I'll put a few of the songs up on my blog during the month of October.

Here is a not so scary Halloween song to listen to. (click here to listen) This song is played on a pipe organ.

If you have a question you would like me to answer about learning music please email me at Catherines.Music.Notes@gmail.com

Have A Musical Day! *smiles*

Catherine
"Music lessons should be about the student. Each student learns in different ways, and at different speeds. Music is a journey, and on that journey, we will work and learn together." - Catherine

Books with CDs include:
Impressions Volume One, Two, and Three
Marches

The Frog Prince

CDs include:
Wedding Bells
Lullabies

http://sites.google.com/site/musicbycatherine
www.ShoutLife.com/ClassyKeys
http://catherinesmusicnotes.blogspot.com

Answers:
1. All Hallow's evening or the eve of All Hallow's Day, which is also known as the eve of All Saint's Day.
2. True. The festival is Samhain.
3. True.

Preschoolers, Toddlers, and Babies

This week, walk the steady beat. Remember in most songs the steady beat is the quarter note.
You can also get out your pots and pans band out and play the steady beat with that.

Clap the steady beat.

Click here for a song I wrote for you so that you can clap, play, or walk along with.

If you have a question you would like me to answer about learning music please email me at Catherines.Music.Notes@gmail.com

Have a Musical Day! *smiles*

Catherine
"Music lessons should be about the student. Each student learns in different ways, and at different speeds. Music is a journey, and on that journey, we will work and learn together." - Catherine

Books with CDs include:
Impressions Volume One and Two
Marches
The Frog Prince
CDs include:
Wedding Bells
Lullabies

http://sites.google.com/site/musicbycatherine
www.ShoutLife.com/ClassyKeys
http://catherinesmusicnotes.blogspot.com

A Bit About the History of:
Musical Instruments

Listen to a variety of different types of music from different eras of time and from different countries. Keep notes so that you can compare the music as you take this journey through music.

Even back in the prehistoric times people had music. It was very simple and had many uses. Early instruments were made from materials readily availabe in nature. Can you think of any instruments you could make that might have been used by prehistoric people?

In tombs in Persia, China, the pryamids or Egypt and other places, musical instruments were buried with the dead. Some of these instruments can still be played. We can actually hear the sounds that were made as long ago as 4,000 years.

Don't harps look a lot like bows? At first harps were made from bows by adding strings.

Pythagoras, a famous Greek scientist, related the pitch of a note to the length of the string.

Find other instrument families that started with early mankind. Write about them and send your writing to me. You might find your article on my blog or website. Wouldn't that be fun to see your name in print?

Have a musical day!
Catherine
"Music lessons should be about the student. Each student learns in different ways, and at different speeds. Music is a journey, and on that journey, we will work and learn together." - Catherine

Books with CDs include:
Impressions Volume One and Two
Marches
The Frog Prince - NEW
CDs include:
Wedding Bells
Lullabies

Questions and Answers

1. What is important in music lessons?
The student and teacher should have a rapport with each other. It is very important that the teacher teaches note reading, fingering, counting, music theory, and ear training. All these are important basics. Unfortunately not all teachers teach these things.

2. What makes music sound scary?
Most scary music is in a minor key. The next stop to making music sound scary is to make sudden changes in the dynamics of the music. Also unusual musical instruments can be used. Create unfamiliar sounds. This confuses our senses and makes us 'scared'.

Something musical to do:
Any age can enter. Write a scary Halloween Song. Email your song to me. We'll put it on the blog as an mp3 for the month of October. If you can't make an mp3, I'll make it for you.

Have a Musical Day!!! *smiles*

Catherine
"Music lessons should be about the student. Each student learns in different ways, and at different speeds. Music is a journey, and on the journey we will work and learn together." - Catherine

Books and CDs include:
Impressions One and Two
Marches
The Frog Prince

CDs include:
Wedding Bells
Lullabies

Website: http://sites.google.com/site/musicbycatherine
Blog: http://catherinesmusicnotes.blogspot.com
Profile: http://www.ShoutLife.com/ClassyKeys

Discovery Page

Composers Births

September 1, 1653: Composer Johann Pachelbel was born.

September 26, 1898: George Gershwin is born.

September 13, 1819: Composer Clara Schumann was born. Listen to Clara Schumann's composition Opus 10, Scherzo. (Click here to listen)

Enjoy listening to Clara Schumann composition.

"Clara Schumann, wife of Robert, was a child prodigy who, after her husband's death, became one of the most famous performers and teachers in the 19th century. Her compositions are extremely well crafted and show great individuality as well as the influence of her husband Robert and friend Johannes Brahms". ~ Mary K. Scanlan, All Music Guide
Thank you Mary K. Scanlan for that information.

Topping the Charts

September 19, 1960: Today the song "The Twist" by Chubby Checker topped the charts and stayed there for a week. (1960)

Find the song "The Twist" and twist to it. Enjoy!!!

September 19, 1970: Today the song "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Diana Ross topped the charts and stayed there for 3 weeks. (1970)


Events from past Septembers

1908: The first stereo advertisement, for an Edison Phonograph, appears in the Saturday Evening Post.

Enjoy drawing a picture of the first phonograph!!!

1957: The musical "West Side Story", debuts on Broadway. This is the story of "Romeo and Juliet" but set in New York City with gang members.

If you have a question you would like me to answer about learning music please email me at Catherines.Music.Notes@gmail.com

Have a Musical Day! *smiles*

Catherine

"Music lessons should be about the student. Each student learns in different ways, and at different speeds. Music is a journey, and on that journey, we will work and learn together." - Catherine

Books with CDs include:
Impressions Volume One and Two
Marches

CDs include:
Wedding Bells
Lullabies

Website: http://sites.google.com/site/musicbycatherine
Blog: http://catherinesmusicnotes.blogspot.com
Profile: http://www.shoutlife.com/ClassyKeys

Preschoolers, Toddlers, and Babies

Remember the quarter note? It's usually that steady beat that we hear in music and dance to. It looks like this:

It gets one count or beat. We are using the words count or beat interchangeably here. Remember to count steady. Don't change the speed of your counting once you start.

Click here to count with me, then we will clap as we count, then we will add a rhythm to clap and count with.

Practice counting and clapping during the week. You can come back here and clap and count with me or you can clap to music you have at home. Also practice drawing quarter notes on black white paper.

Enjoy and have a Musical Week! *smiles*

If you have a question you would like me to answer about learning music please email me at Catherines.Music.Notes@gmail.com

Catherine
"Music lessons should be about the student. Each student learns in different ways, and at different speeds. Music is a journey, and on that journey, we will work and learn together." - Catherine

Books with CDs include:
Impressions Volume One and Two
Marches
CDs include:
Wedding Bells
Lullabies

http://sites.google.com/site/musicbycatherine
www.ShoutLife.com/ClassyKeys
http://catherinesmusicnotes.blogspot.com