Today marked the first day of our new, Arts-based schedule.
After a morning snuggle up and read session in bed, we got up to stretch and exercise, then had breakfast and a nice chat with our house guest, who was heading home today.
Then it was time for the boys' first singing lesson. Trevor from Oklahoma worked with Alex and Simon on some vocal warm ups and singing a few songs. For the rest of the day, I had to listen to "Mommy-Made-Me-Mash-My-MnMs", up and down, over and over and over again.
I guess they enjoyed the singing lesson. :)
After lunch, we headed off to Gabriel's, for some piano lessons. It was so much fun!! Gabriel believes in a differentiated approach to teaching music, and his diverse teaching and reaching repertoire showed.
For this first class, Alex and Simon were together (they'll go separately starting tomorrow). Gabriel had the them begin playing right away--no naming of notes or writing anything down yet--they improvised on the black keys only while he did an initial assessment of their melodic and rhythmic abilities.
Next, he taught them to play a piece of music by ear (again using only the black keys), in sections, using a story about cars to teach them. I was very impressed.
After a morning snuggle up and read session in bed, we got up to stretch and exercise, then had breakfast and a nice chat with our house guest, who was heading home today.
Then it was time for the boys' first singing lesson. Trevor from Oklahoma worked with Alex and Simon on some vocal warm ups and singing a few songs. For the rest of the day, I had to listen to "Mommy-Made-Me-Mash-My-MnMs", up and down, over and over and over again.
I guess they enjoyed the singing lesson. :)
After lunch, we headed off to Gabriel's, for some piano lessons. It was so much fun!! Gabriel believes in a differentiated approach to teaching music, and his diverse teaching and reaching repertoire showed.
For this first class, Alex and Simon were together (they'll go separately starting tomorrow). Gabriel had the them begin playing right away--no naming of notes or writing anything down yet--they improvised on the black keys only while he did an initial assessment of their melodic and rhythmic abilities.
Next, he taught them to play a piece of music by ear (again using only the black keys), in sections, using a story about cars to teach them. I was very impressed.
Then there was a call and response exercise -- first black, then white keys (I was surprised how much one of the boys struggled with this, mixing up directions of the melody, up and down!!!) More improv on black keys followed, with various restrictions (just pointer fingers, then right hand only, then both hands in turn...)
The lesson ended with another story, a party this time, in two parts (each boy played the melody, with Gabriel playing a sort of jazzy accompaniment).
The story (and subsequently the piece of music) had many sections: the walking and shopping in preparation for the party, then singing, then baking a birthday cake, more singing, and finally, cleaning the room after the party, followed by a final song -- it sounded great when they played it together!
We're looking forward to our next lesson.
The story (and subsequently the piece of music) had many sections: the walking and shopping in preparation for the party, then singing, then baking a birthday cake, more singing, and finally, cleaning the room after the party, followed by a final song -- it sounded great when they played it together!
We're looking forward to our next lesson.