Seimpi Lesson 10

Okay folks, lesson 9 was last week on the 12 Sep but we were away on a holiday, therefore we missed it. However, by right, there was no lesson last week due to Seimpi Holiday but teacher Marcia made it up for this lesson to cover another lesson on 14 Nov due to herself not being able to make it on that day. But for this lesson 9 that we missed, we cannot do a make up lesson for it. So its on to lesson 10 for 19 Sep 2010.

We had finished the homework given the week before except i had forgotten to include 1 more piece.
Rachel has to colour the keys accordingly to the given letter name. Example: colour C key. So she has to find her C key & colour it. Or colour E key. Then she has to find her E key & colour accordingly. No specific colour though.

For homework, (which we missed last week), she's to do these 3 pieces:

This is a piece on Staff-Spaces where she has to memorize each colour on the example for each space & colour accordingly below.

Then she's to memorize the the number of each line & colour the respective line in accordance with the given colour stated.

About our left hand & right hand, she's to paste the correct number on top of every finger acoording to the example.

Today's lesson, we learned about Dynamics, Time Signatures & more about Bass Clef. What are dynamics? It refers to the volume of a sound or note.

From left to right: th symbols for piano, mezzo-piano, mezzo-forte & forte. The 2 basic indications are p for piano, meaning soft or f for forte, meaning loud. mp stands for mezzo-piano, meaning moderately soft & mf stands for mezzo-forte, meaning moderately loud. But teacher Marcia said in order not to confuse the child, we focus on p for piano & f for forte first.

This is the Time Signature. Rhythm is expressed, stated and decribed with a time signature (time). If you look at the diagram where the left corner shows 2 numerals, 4 over 4.

The bottom numeral is the duration or length of the beat and is the counting note; in this case the quarter note, therefore each quarter note gets a count of 1 beat.

The top numeral is the number of beats per measure; so we will have 4 beats per measure. Count and clap: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4.

This time we are working with "three-four" time. How do we count it? Work it from the top numeral this time. "3" represents number of beats per measure, count and clap 1 - 2 - 3. "4" represents the time value of the beat - a quarter note.

Sounds complicated to me...help :P

And remember our dear old bass clef? Well, we learned more about it today.

We listened to the pitch played on the CD player. For bass clef, the first note begins with C, followd by B, then A, then G & lastly F. Each note sounds lower than the other. Instead of Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, this is So, Fa, Mi, Re, Do. Look at the above illustration (bottom row). Find C which is in purple colour with a short line across. Next comes B, sitting on the 5th line in blue. Then followed by A in yellow, sitting on the middle of the 5th line, etc...

And lastly not forgetting about a new topic, Staff - Spaces & Lines. In each staff, there are 4 spaces & 5 lines. See below illustration.

So for class activity, Rachel did this.

Paste 5 balloons' stickers on the 5 hanging lines & paste 4 rats' stickers in the 4 spaces on the ground.

Then if off to piano practising. Rachel played her piece of Apple & Bananas & teacher Marcia commented she will have to play slightly faster in the next lesson. So its practise & more practise.

For next week, the kids will have to do score reading & play the notes on the keyboard. Gasp! I am in total doubt on this score reading thingy. Lucky for me, there is a CD provided to help me grasp on its all about before i guide Rachel along. Oooooo............

Rachel got back a progress report from Seimpi.

She got a Good for Pitch, Rhythm, Songs/Rhymes, Music Theory, Score Reading, Keyboard Playing, Memory except for Focus, she got a Fair. Comments: Rachel is very participative in class. She has shown interest in music. She has a good memory skills. Keep it up!

I was like: " Huh? a progress report for even a music class? But is good to know her progress. And also to keep in mind, she is only 3 years old. Again, there is no gurantee that she will continue or will show more interest in music.

For next week's lesson, we got 2. One at 1045am with teacher Eigene (make up lesson for 26 Aug 2010) & our own at 3pm with teacher Marcia. I'm still wondering how to while away the time in between. Its a rush if we choose to go home but if we hang around, we have 3 hours in between.

You see, we start at 1045, then ends at 1145. Travelling time to & fro home takes about an hour, arriving home at 1245. Then its lunch & back to sch, leaving at 2pm for classes at 3pm. If we hang ard, from 12 noon to 3pm, what are we gonna do? Catch a movie? Any suggestions from u readers out there?