Chapter 7 - Bridge gets longer. I find out the secret about the middle C’s name.

When we came to the bridge I saw the icicle puppy jumping on the Fantasy Bridge. Only this time the bridge was longer.

It had 5 more icicles below the short middle C icicle. Did I say middle C short icicle? That’s the icicle in the middle of 5 long icicles on each side! “Yes, the secret of the middle C just got revealed to you!” the Magic Fairy read my mind.

I watched the icicle puppy for a few minutes – it was jumping Mary had a little lamb on the new part of the Fantasy bridge!

Go ahead and throw 5 more sticks below the 5 and the short one that you already have. Then find where the puppy started jumping – the first long icicle below the middle C.

Remember our jumping pattern?

Jump, down, down, up, up (3 times), down (3 times), up (3 times).

Jump, down, down, up, up (4 times), down (2 times), up, down, down.

“Go ahead – copy into your notebook what the puppy is doing”, the Music Fairy handed me my music notebook.

This is what I wrote.

Did you write yours?

“Now put it on the piano and play what you wrote with left hand, one bar at a time. And don’t forget to wear your magic rings”

Continue reading my story after you finish.

Was it fun?

The Music Fairy looked at my notes and added this sign at the beginning:

“This is another clef for the lower notes. It’s named after the note that goes on the second top line where the fat dot is. I can give you a hint, if you like: skip from middle C down, then skip down again – total of 2 times like this:

Now go ahead to the piano and skip 2 times there. Do you remember this note?

What note follows it up?

(answer flap)

So what note is it?

(answer flap)

This clef is called F-clef.

We can make new cards now with the F-clef.

Let’s play quick Tricky Notes Game with these 3 cards now

STOP sign.

“And now, let us see how well you can jump”, the Music Fairy wanted to move herself, I saw it. “Let’s take turns. I go first”, the Fairy ran to the Fantasy Bridge.

“See if you can follow what I do – I have 3 tries.”

She jumped on middle C, and then on every long icicle above it. How many icicles total?

I got 6 also.

“Now play it on the piano – please put on the right hand these 5 rings - #5 goes on the shortest finger, #4 – on the finger next to it, and so on. Playing middle C with left hand, and then use fingers of the right hand: finger #1, then #2, and so on to #5. Remember to cup your hand on your knee before you start playing. Then wood peck the notes.”

A piece of cake! I slipped the rings on my right hand and ran to the piano.

Are you ready to do it with me?

First, let’s find the middle C. Let’s wood peck: middle C with left hand, skip a note going towards the UP sign, play it with #1 finger, skip a note up again, play it with #2 finger, skip with #3, skip with #4, skip and play it with #5.

“What notes did you play, do you know?” – the Music Fairy looked at me with a smile. Don’t worry if you don’t remember. Try it”

Let’s see. First I played middle C, then E, then G (that’s where the G-clef goes). What was after that?

I remembered that A followed G. Then if I skip A it is B,

then skip to D and then skip to F. Done!

Then the whole thing is: C, E, G, B, D, F.

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

Cows Eat Grass Before Day Fades Away

or backwards

Away Fades Day Before Grass is Eaten by Cows

Your favorite animals (short words):

Cow Elk Goat Bear Doe Fish Ape

Backwards:

Ape Fish Doe Bear Goat Elk Cow

Or a game:

1. Sing the melody for Twincle, twinkle little star”

2. Roll the ball to each other and sing:

C, E, G, B, D, F, A

A, F, D, B, G, E, C

“See if you can you sing these notes in groups of 3 while I play them?”, the Fairy at the piano.

“C, E, G.

E, G, B.

G, B, D.

B, D, F”

I just thought how to remember these letter combinations.

When you start from C: Cows Eat Grass.

When you start from E: Elephants Grow Big.

When you start from G: Great Baby Doll.

When you start from B: Big Dogs Fight.

Do you like to write your sentences? Do you want to share them with other kids? Then send them to the Music Fairy.

Read on after you finish.

Let’s also make 5 cards with these letters above.

We’ll write them on one side of the card. On the other side we’ll write the questions like: What letters (or words) come after C if you skip up 2 times? (for the C card).

“Can you play the notes backwards now?” asked the Fairy after she jumped 6 notes down from the top icicle.

I repeated what I played first from the middle C to find the F: C, E, G, B, D, F. It is easy now. # 5 on F, skip a note – use #4, skip #3, skip #2, skip #1, skip left hand. I did it! Did you?

“Can you draw these notes in your Sheet Music notebook?”, asked the Fairy giving me my favorite notebook.

That was easy – I just drew circles around all the lines, and then drew another circle below with a line through it for middle C. Did you do it? Read on after you finish.

Flip up the tab if you like to see my notes.

“I have one more try”, the Music Fairy went back to the Fantasy Bridge .

This time she stepped on a cloud between first long icicle above the middle C. Then she skipped one cloud up 3 times. That was so easy! I skipped and drew the circles in my Sheet Music notebook. Did you?

Read on after you finish.

Flip the tab if you like to see my work.

“Do you know the names of these notes?”, the Music Fairy smiled at me. “Remember where G clef a G go? And what comes before and after G in music?” the Music Fairy gave me a few hints.

What comes before G? That’s right – F. So that’s the first note. What comes after G – I did not say H – an A. Now it is easy: skip a letter after A – C, skip one letter after D – E.

So what did I get:

F A C E !

Then it was my turn. I ran to the Fantasy Bridge. I decided to challenge the Music Fairy by going down from middle C.

So I jumped on C. There were 5 long icicles below the C, so I skipped every other cloud 5 times: skip down, skip down, skip down, skip down, skip down.

The Music Fairy played it pretty well on the piano. Then she drew the sheet music notes too.

“Now you can read any sheet music!”, the Music Fairy hugged me. She took a Dry Erase and wrote this tune for me. “Try it on the Fantasy Bridge first, if you like”.

This is what it looked like:

I started from C. Do you want to do it with me?

C, skip up, skip up, skip down, up, skip up, skip up.

Skip down 2 clouds, down, down, down, down, skip up, skip down. Did you do it?

Now, we find middle C. Let’s play one bar at a time:

C, skip up, skip up, skip down,

up, skip up, skip up.

Skip down 2, down, down, down,

down, skip up, skip down.

Your turn to write. Can you, please, jump and play it for me? Thanks!

Please read on after you finish.

Chapter 8 – playing many different songs by ear.

“Surprise” – the Music Fairy held a few papers in her hands. “I wrote these songs you are familiar with. If you play them right, you’ll know what they are.”

And she showed me the first page. “Let’s go to our Fantasy Bridge!”

“Let me just tell you about the STOP signs in music – they are called Rest signs.

“And we also need to tune our ears to play the songs”, the Fairy winked at me.

“See if you hear when I skip a note or not, up or down. First I’ll show you a few notes.

It was easy. She showed me A skip up to C and C, D, E. and drew 2 cards for them. She put the magic rings on my right hand and asked me to use the fingers she wrote under the notes like this:

Then she played them at random and I had to guess which one she played. As I guessed the notes, I had to write them on a blank card. Do you want to play it with me or your friend?

You can read on after you finish.

Then she wrote these cards:

G, E, C and C, E, and E, D, and D, E – 4 cards this time. She put one card at a time on the piano and played it for me. Then I had to turn around and guess what she played.

Will you play it with me or your friend?

You can read on after you finish.

“You did great! Now I have a present for you. I wrote a song you’re familiar with. You can skip it on the Fantasy Bridge first, if you like and then play on the piano”, the Fantasy Fairy was so happy for me. This is the song she wrote:

“Don’t forget to wear the magic rings on your right hand for this song. Start with the finger #1”

(When the Saints are marching in).

After you learn this song we can play another game with you. We’ll write all the bars for the song on separate pieces of paper. The task will be to arrange them as they go in the song without looking at the song.

Would you like to copy the song, play it maybe 10 times (or until you remember it), and then we can cut it up into separate cards with one bar of the song on each card?

Let’s do it! Set the clock to see how much time it took you, so you could let me know.

When you’re done, we’ll play the game. Go ahead and put the sticker on the STOP sign below to know where you stopped reading the book.

STOP sign.

Did you cut out the song – one bar per card? Now try to put the whole song back together. You should do it at the piano – this way you can play what’s on the card.

STOP sign

Great job – that was a lot of work and YOU DID IT!

Play it after you finish. Did it sound right? Don’t get upset if you made mistakes – that is the best way to learn. I always remember something if I make a mistake. You can compare your song with the Fairy’s, if you like.

(Dreidel)

(Old Mc Donald)

(London Bridge is falling down)

(Dreidel)

(Old Mc Donald)

(Jingle Bells)

(this old man)

(Twincle)

(Three blind mice)

(Yankee Doodle)

Heart and Soul

Chopsticks

Who’s Afraid of Big Bad Wolf

When I was home I showed my Grandpa skipping notes and their names. Guess what he came up with for me to remember the music notes:

City Eagle Grabbed Brown Dove’s Face.

Or to go backwards:

Face of a Dove which was Brown was Grabbed by an Eagle in the City.

Then I decided to make a game for skipping alphabet letters up and down. What should I call this game?

I made cards with the letters we skipped on one side, followed by my sentences like this:

6 cards to skip letters up:

C, E, G, B, D, F.

C, E, G. (cows eat grass)

E, G, B.

G, B, D.

B, D, F

F, A, C, E

And 6 cards for skipping letters down:

F, D, B, G, E, C

G, E, C

B, G, E

D, B, G

F, D, B

E, C, A, F

On the other side I wrote a question like: What letters (or words) come after C if you skip up 2 times? (for the second C card).

When you finish writing your cards, do you want to play with me? We’ll pull one card at a time from a stack of cards. If you don’t know the answer, you flip the card to read the answer and put it back inside the deck of cards. Let’s play the game at the piano.

Chapter 8.

I have this magic mat for you, which will help you learn write and read music right away! You can pick an imaginary friend to play with you – a frog or a gorilla or a dog, or maybe even woodpecker.

Let’s start!

Lesson 1 – you are a composer!

1. Place 5 Velcro lines on your magic mat parallel to each other so that there is enough room to put your foot in between. Just like this:

___________________________________________

___________________________________________

2. Now place Velcro circles either on the lines or between the lines, Up sign on top & Down sign on the bottom, just like this:

Now walk on them. Start on the 1st line from the

bottom. Walk up to the next circle. Jump in place 3 times. Now walk down to the circle next to yours.

Now go to the piano. Find the starting point. It is here, in the middle of the piano:

This note is called E. Can you find other Es on the piano? Three black notes together don’t count.

How many Es did you find?

Now just do what you did on the magic mat – play the first note, move up to the next note & play it 3 times, go down one & play it.

Now let’s write it on music paper.

Now is your turn. Start from the same circle & do what you like. Just remember your sequence. Now go ahead & play it. Now write it on the music paper. This is your composition! Do you want to name it?

Congratulations, composer!!!

You deserve a break.

Lesson2.- Little Woodpeckers.

When you play piano, use the bottoms of your fingers, which are below your nails. I call mine little pillows, because after so many years of playing piano they became like little pillows. Yours now are probably cute & flat, so we’ll call them woodpeckers. Cup your knee with your hand – this is how you’ll hold your hand on the piano.

picture

Go ahead and “Woodpeck” on the piano using both hands and different fingers. Play whatever you like.

Now play the low keys (where you put the DOWN sign). Don’t the keys sound like a bear?

Go to the other side of the piano (UP sign). Now play 2 close notes quickly (black & white). Doesn’t it sound like a bird?

Now find your own sounds on the piano.

Lesson 3 – wearing rings.

How many woodpeckers do you have on each hand?

Let’s put the longest woodpecker on the right hand on the E. Put a ring with #3 on it. Now put ring #1 on the fattest woodpecker. You got it! Now put the #2 on (between #1 & #3).

Now woodpeck 3 2 1 starting at E.

Now woodpeck: 3 2 1 2 3 3 3.

Now let’s go to our magic mat. Set it up: put the 5 lines & the circles on, UP & DOWN signs. Good job!

Now let’s jump or walk on the circles. Starting position: circle on the first (bottom) line. Remember, that’s called E.

Let’s do this:

E.down, down, up , up (2 more times this circle), down (2 more times this circle), up (2 more times).

Do it again & see if you can remember it.. Now play it on the piano.

Sounds familiar? Yes, this is Mary had a little lamb.

Here is the whole song (Mary had a little lamb).

Start from E. Do this on the magic mat first.

1st half:

E.down, down, up , up (2 more times this circle), down (2 more times this circle), up (2 more times).

Do it again & see if you can remember it. Now play it on the piano.

2nd half.

E.down, down, up , up (3 more times this circle), down (1 more time this circle), up, down, down.

Do it one more time to remember the sequence. Now go ahead & play it on the piano. You got it!

Now play the whole song.

Yes, YOU DID IT!!! Play it again!

Lesson4 – name those notes.

Let me hear the alphabet from A to to G.

Can you write those letters down?

Now go to the piano with your list of letters. Find the E note (finger #3).

What letter comes before E?

That’s right, D. And before D? (flap to cover the answer)

Play D with finger #2.

And what letter comes before D?

C.

Play it with finger #1. So now you know where these 3 notes are on the piano: A, B, and C.

When I woke up I ran outside looking for my Piano Fairy.

The sun was shining brightly, quickly erasing away white snow hats, blankets, ice cream cones and balls; sheets of snow were sliding down the roofs dragging cascades of snow icicles and crashing onto the ground with a loud smash. Our front porch still had many icicles left full of sparkling bubbles. It was interesting to watch them: tiny drops were hanging on the bottoms of the long icicles, while short and thin icicles-tears were dripping down fast. The shorter the icicle was, the faster it was dripping. They got their beat: one quarter by a long icicle’s drop together with two eighth drops of the short icicle, one whole note, four quarters, four quarter notes, drip, drip, drip-ping, drip-ping, drip-ping, drip, drop and on and on non-stop ...

I was about to open the front door to go back in when guess what I found by the curb – the ice puppy!

I was a little bit confused now – did I dream everything or it really happened?

I ran back inside to see if I could play piano. I remembered everything that happened to me, every song and every game I played! I could play piano now, read music and compose my own! I was so happy! “Thank you, Music Fairy!” I said aloud.

“My pleasure! And if you teach anybody else how to play piano, ask them to send their picture to Music Fairy Eugeniya”, the Music Fairy spoke behind my back all of a sudden.

“Eugeniya, my Mom” I shouted as I turned around and ran to hug my fairy.

“And I love you more than anything else in the world, my musician! Always!” my mom lifted me up in the air.

“Mom, come see the icicle puppy outside the front door” I screamed excitedly hugging my mom.

We ran outside with Rainbow. “Vow, how beautiful! Hurry up get a camera before it melts” my Mom exclaimed. I got the camera from home and took the picture of the little icicle puppy!

We went in to play more piano.

When we finished and went outside, it got really warm. The icicle puppy turned into a small pool of bubbling icicles, patches of snow were lying disorderly everywhere. In such a short time magic winter landscapes disappeared, as if the Winter was saying “I finished my job”.

“Winter will come back. And it left plenty of water for the Spring to feed the Earth” my Mom spoke quietly. “Soon everything will start waking up outside again, just like last year: the trees and bushes will unfold their new leaves, soft fuzzy willow buds will get puffy, first flowers washed by the morning dew will spring as if from nowhere, young trees will grow by an hour - all accompanied by everlasting birds’ trills! Come on inside – I’ll help you play Bingo!”

I like that song. We went inside and My Fairy gave me the sheet music with Bingo. This is how it looked.

I asked my Mom about a few things I haven’t seen before:

(flat and sharp)

“Now you know all the notes. You can read and play by ear anything you want. And I am always here to help you!” my Mom was so happy for me.