How did you do, Buddy?

Back in my house, Bella and Mia loved the game, especially when the elastic was raised higher and higher, all the way to their knees, and jumping got harder.

After 5 minutes my mom excused herself and went out the room.

2 minutes later, all of a sudden, while we were playing, the Music Fairy appeared in the room. This time she was not alone - she brought an icicle puppy with her!

“Hi, children. Meet my little crystal friend, a magic icicle puppy”, she explained. This is a musical puppy. Follow it on the Fantasy Bridge and it will teach you play some tunes you like”.

That puppy was a great surprise!

“Let’s all fly to the Magic Bridge”, the Fairy invited everyone.

She whistled loud and almost immediately, the spaceship, blinking with red lights, appeared in the room. As the spaceship's door opened, I ran to the captain’s cockpit, followed by the Fairy, the Magic Puppy, Bella and Mia.

My little listener, I did get too excited. However, I did not forget about you. This time you can be a captain. Just don’t forget the magic words. Say them loud: Con Brio, Entering Galaxy, Beautiful and Delightful Fantasy Advanture!

C, E G, B and D F A

o n a e e a d

n t l a l n v

e l u i t e

B r a t g a n

r i x i h s t

i n y f t y u

o g u f r

l u e

l

Let’s fly high! And don’t forget to land the spaceship slowly.

Thank you, captain, for bringing us back to the Fantasy Plante!

Good landing, thank you!!

Are you ready to hear what happened next?

We came out of the spaceship and I ran to the Fantasy Bridge.

First I ran up and down the clouds. The clouds were much thicker this time. In fact, every time I jumped on a cloud, it felt like I was jumping on a trampoline!

Captain,

Go ahead, hurry up, set up your bridge with clouds on the floor, so you can follow what I did. You can use 5 sticks or rulers for the bridge, and paper circles or coasters, sponges, foam animals, or anything else your parents allow you to use for the clouds.

First make the icicle bridge by placing whatever you decided to use instead of 5 icicles far enough for your foot to fit in between.

Finished? Next put your circle-clouds between the sticks.

Add one more short stick on the bottom. Put a cloud between

the long and short stick.

To finish up, put the rest of your circles on each stick, short and long.

And the last thing: make 2 signs: UP and DOWN to remind you which way you are going. Just like this:

Does your set up remind you of anything you have seen before on our spaceship?

Before you begin to follow the story, you can place your favorite toy to watch what you’ll do.

Are you ready to start jumping on your own cloud-circles?

Start from a cloud on the short icicle by the sign DOWN, LOW.

Now walk on every circle going up to the HIGH, UP sign.

And now, go down without missing a cloud.

Well done!

Ready for a harder mission? Then follow along with the story.

I decided to skip each cloud resting on the icicles: up the bridge, then down the bridge.

Then I thought to skip each cloud laying between the icicles.

How did you do, buddy? No problem?

The icicle puppy ran up to me, squealing a little. I knelt and gently touched the puppy.

“The puppy is asking you for help to find the starting place on the bridge”, the Music Fairy whispered into my ear. “Don’t worry, I’ll tell you what to do.

First, step on the cloud resting on the short icicle on the bottom of the bridge and say the magic words: Con brio.”

That was easy – I just stepped on the cloud which was on top of the short icicle at the bottom of the Icicle Bridge, and said aloud: “Con brio.”

C E G B and D F A

o n a e e a d

n t l a l n v

e a u i t e

B r x t g a n

r i y i h s t

i n , f t y u

o g u f , r

, l u e

l

“Now skip one cloud to land on the cloud resting on the long icicle above and say the next magic word: Entering”.

I skipped up and over a cloud, landing on a puffy cloud sitting on top of a long icicle, and yelled out “Entering”.

The icicle puppy followed me and landed on the same cloud with me.

Then it was my turn to follow the icicle puppy. We jumped up and down on the clouds like this:

We started on the cloud resting on the bottom long icicle, jumping on it once, then jumping down, down, up, up, 2 more times on this cloud, down, 2 more times on this cloud, up, 2 more times on this cloud.

Captain, now let’s do it together this time.

First, find your starting cloud-circle. Get onto the short stick below your Magic Bridge and say: ”Con Brio”, then jump over the circle your toes are touching and onto the circle on the long stick and say “Entering”.

This is it! You are ready to follow the steps that the icicle puppy taught me. Let me help you get onto the right circles-clouds.

First jump on the circle you are standing on, then jump on the circle down, down circle again, now up circle, and up circle again. Now jump 2 times on the same circle.

Let’s do it over with me one more time.

Go to the short stick on the bottom and say “Con Brio”, step over a circle your toes are pointing to onto a long stick and say “Entering”. Jump in place, down, down, up, up, same, same.

Do you want to repeat it or you remember the steps and want to do them by yourself?

You did great! And now you are ready to do the same steps on the piano – that’s what the Music Fairy taught me next!

She gave me a hint on how to solve the secret about those magic words “Con Brio, Entering”. Remember we saw them on the map in the spaceship’s cabin?

Listen to the story and do exactly as the Music Fairy says, and you will unlock the secret of these words!

“Now we need to find a magic key to start playing the tune you just did on the bridge.” The Music Fairy sounded so excited!

“Sit at the piano. Spread your arms to touch both sides of the piano and then move your hands fast towards each other until they meet. Did they meet somewhere in the middle of the piano where there are 2 black keys (3keys don’t count as 2)? White key closest to the lower black key is called middle C? There is another reason why this C is called middle C. I will reveal you that secret a little bit later.” – the Music Fairy explained.

I did not forget about you, my little buddy. Watch how my friends JonTiger and EuTiger find the middle C on the piano.

Hey bud, did you find the middle C on your piano?

Play it and say: “Con Brio”.

Are there more C keys on your piano? How many? Let me check my piano while you are counting.

How many C’s did you get? _________

I got 7 on my piano.

Let’s warm up all of your right hand fingers and give them turns. Cup your right hand on your knee. Put Thumbkin on C. Remember the Wrists-trays game we played? Hold your hand like in that game. Play C now. Let other fingers-woodpeckers play too.

And now play

Skip over one key in the direction of the UP, HIGH sign, play it and say “Entering”. Don’t move your finger now. No matter what I say now – don’t move your finger! This is where we start our jumps.

Oops. Almost forgot. Do you want to know the secret of these 2 words: Con Brio and Entering?

Here is the clue: the first letter of each word is the name of each key you just played.

What is the first letter of Con Brio?

You got it – C. Yes, you just played C in the middle of the piano – middle C.

And what about Entering? What is the first letter of this word?

You got that one too: E. The second key you played and where you left your finger is called E. There, you already know the names of 2 piano keys!

Is your finger still on E? Then you are ready to play your first tune!!! We will do the same steps as on the bridge, except that instead of jumping with our feet we will use our fingers. Here we go:

Play E, down, down, up, up, same, same.

You did it!!! Do it again:

Play E, down, down, up, up, same, same.

Do you recognize the song?

Let’s play the rest of the song. Play what you already know and leave your finger on the last key you play and I will tell you the rest of the song.

Play E, down, down, up, up, same, same.

Continue: down, same, same, up, same, same.

Yes! You did it! Let’s do it again:

Play E, down, down, up, up, same, same,

down, same, same, up, same, same.

My little pianist, try playing this

Let’s do it over and remember to hold your hands like when we played Wrists-Trays game.

Now let’s follow what the Music Fairy taught me next. She gave me another great present – actually three presents – 3 magic rings!

She told me to put #3 ring on my tallest finger, #1 – on my shortest, and #2 on the finger between 1 & 3. Just like this:

Do I see a large crab or a spider? Do you have two of them – right and left?

Don’t get upset if you don’t have those rings. You can use a sticky paper tape or a bag tie to wrap around your finger. But first write a number 1, 2 or 3 on it.

“Now we need to find a magic piano key to start the tune you just did on the bridge.

“Spread your arms on both sides of the piano and then move them fast towards each other until they meet. Did they meet somewhere in the middle of the piano where there are 2 black notes (3 notes don’t count as 2)? White piano key closest to the lower black key is called middle C? There is another reason why this C is called middle C. I will reveal you that secret a little bit later.” – the Music Fairy explained.

Put finger with the ring #1 on it and say “Con Brio”. Skip over one note up and put finger with the ring #3 on it and say “Entering” and don’t move your finger

Here is the secret of these 2 words – the first letter of each word is the name of the note. You got it: C and E.

(make the picture without D)

Now do the steps we did on the bridge: As you move down, use fingers 2 and then 1 – it will make it easier and faster for you to play.

E, down, down, up, up (2 more times this note),

Stop,

down (2 more times this note), up (2 more times).

Does it sound familiar? Play it again. Read on after you finish.

I recorded my steps on the bridge into a notebook so I could play what I learnt later. It looked like this:

The Music Fairy looked at my drawing and suggested to add UP and DOWN signs, and put some bar lines to make it easier for me to read. Like this:

I played the tune 2 more times.

The Music Fairy enjoyed my playing piano. “Do you know the names of the notes you just played?, she asked me.

Yes, I remembered: Careful, Entering – that’s C and E. And the one in the middle must be D! There, I learnt 3 music notes!

Or on the piano, C, D & E look like this:

“See if you find these music notes anywhere else on the piano. How many C’s, D’s and E’s did you find?”

Read on after you finish.

I decided to make a card, so I would not forget where C, D, and E go:

Would you like to make yours too? Go ahead. You can either print mine or make your own.

Would you like to make these cards so we can play a game with them? Here is a blank card for you to write your own notes. Just click on the picture below, and then print it. You can cut out 9 cards from it.

“Buddy, you can write any card you like. For example, you can write C two times, followed by D.

Read on after you are done.