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Honoka & Azita: An Incredible Ukulele Duo
Starting the week of September 12th, I will be announcing our third and final topic of the year, “Playing Music”. Students will be introduced to the instruments they will be playing with their cluster. Red & Silver clusters will be playing beginner level mallet percussion instruments (xylophones, glockenspiels, and metallophones). Indigo & Orange clusters will…
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Choosing a Recorder for Home Practice
This year at Open School, we be offering an after-school music class in order for students to learn to play the recorder! In our program, the students are given recorders to use in the class and for supervised practice sessions and to keep when they move on from our recorder programs. However, it is up…
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Introduction Ukuleles, Recorders, & Mallet Percussion
Starting the week of September 12th, I will be announcing our third and final topic of the year, “Playing Music”. Students will be introduced to the instruments they will be playing with their cluster. Red & Silver clusters will be playing beginner level mallet percussion instruments (xylophones, glockenspiels, and metallophones). Indigo & Orange clusters will…
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Recommended Compact Keyboards for Beginner Piano Practice
Practice is an essential part of learning anything. And, having a piano or keyboard at home for students to practice is a key to their success with music lessons. Below are a range of decent and extremely affordable keyboard options, starting with one that is around the cost of just a couple lessons! Gone are…
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From A Capella to a Marble Machine, Thinking Outside the “Music” Box
This week, my students are being introduced to the second of three themes we will cover this year: “Music is Connected“. The specific lesson topic is “Thinking Outside the ‘Music’ Box”. Students will be encouraged to think differently about music. Our lesson will connect music to science. And, we discover the idea of inventing new…
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First “Great Musician” of the Year: Arturo Sandoval
The first week of school, students were introduced to the first theme of the year “Great Musicians“. We discussed traits that make a music great. We played a game to help us learn the rules for the music class. We learned that this year students will have an opportunity to earn musicianship awards (more on…
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Arturo Sandoval Playlist
This week in my music classes at Open School, I will be teaching the students about the great musician Arturo Sandoval. He has had quite a life and his music is absolutely incredible. In particular, we will be discussing diversity in music. We will hear music from Arturo spanning across many genres. And, we will…
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Math in Music Series: Fibonacci Part 1
I recently came across a video of a piano piece composed based on the Fibonacci sequence. I totally geeked out and decided to share it with a few of my private piano students. Turns out, some of them are as geeky as me and not only love math, but get fired up about seeing it…
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Note Names Exercises
Last week, I introduced the first of a series of custom music exercises I will be building from the tools over at musictheory.net. These exercises are all free and should work in any web browser on any computer or mobile device. The following exercises are Note Names exercises specifically for my students needs. I hope…
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Piano Key Naming Exercises
The great people at musictheory.net have put together some excellent free exercises for learning and practicing musical concepts. The following are some custom Piano Key exercises I have built with their tools specifically for my students needs. I hope they will be helpful to you and anyone who comes across this site. Directions: 1. Choose…
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