Sunday, January 13, 2013

A Slow and Informal Keyboard Study Progresses Apace

Ever since October, when I finally decided to stop fretting about figuring out formal music lessons and just have us all learn our collection of instruments as we liked, we've actually been doing well with our music study. There's nothing like the sense of accomplishment that comes from exchanging worry for action!

On the weekends, when I'm finalizing the girls' lesson plans for the following week, I ask them which of our instruments they'd like a "lesson" on. I figure out the next logical skill that we should be working on for that instrument and how to present it, and we have our lesson for it on Monday, so that the girls can practice that skill for the rest of the week.

And yes, you may practice your keyboard balanced on the back of the couch!

This is our most recent keyboard skill:


We've all previously learned how to find C, and how to find middle C, so this lesson involved starting each hand on C and playing a scale with both hands at the same time. Tricky!

When they've got that mastered, the C Major chord is next, and then, perhaps, a first melody?

2 comments:

Tina said...

I have been thinking about trying to introduce music "lessons", but we may wait a bit for that. We have had one successful week of structure schooling so I don't need to get ahead of myself. Plus, we live in an apartment and I worry that we might tick off the neighbors.

That being said, one of my goals this year is to relearn how to play the guitar. Maybe if I practice during the middle of the day no one will be bothered. Well, except Emma :0)

julie said...

Guitar hasn't been super hard to teach myself, but to be honest, I AM finding it challenging to help the girls learn stringed instruments. There's just so much going on when you play a stringed instrument! It's difficult to negotiate making a "lesson" that's simple enough for them to master--for instance, this week I simply want Willow to practice playing each open string on the violin with good posture and bowing--and that's interesting enough for the kid--Willow doesn't WANT to bow open strings. She wants to play a song!!!

Guitar is easier than violin, though, because you have frets to aim for, although it's much harder on those teeny little fingers.