Rock & Roll 101

February 14th, 2020

Elliott's birthday was today! Unfortunately the little guy was having a hard day. If you're okay with it, I think it might be best to return your cheques and refund you for any overpaid amount.

He says he wants to start again in a little while. I think he likes the idea of taking music lessons, but once he gets in the room, has a lot of emotions and finds it hard to be enthusiastic.

If you want to call me my number is 613-344-1717. I'm sorry I've been having such a challenge motivating him lately. I'm not sure what else to try.

January 24th, 2020

A student was sick today, so Elliott was able to start half an hour earlier. He did a good job today. (Their bus was a bit late from gymnastics, but we went ahead with the lesson, and went over time a bit).

We went through some quizzing like where are notes on the piano, where are sharps, etc. and played a game where he got points for guessing correctly.

After that he played Jingle Bells again for me - I wanted to do more other songs, maybe add a new one, but we ran out of time - we'll add a new song next week maybe you can help Elliott think of a new song to learn. (Old Town Road is a little hard to learn).

Next week is a PA day, so no lessons.

Have a nice weekend (and Elliott says, "feel better mommy!"

Update: Elliott wants to learn Paw Patrol next, so in two weeks.

January 17th, 2020

Today in lessons Elliott wanted to learn "Old Time Road," so I taught him the piano part, which basically repeats throughout the whole song. We played it through twice, at a slower speed than the original recording (Youtube at 75%, I believe).

He also said he'd like to learn Star Wars for next week, so we'll plan on that.

January 10th, 2020

December 20th, 2019

We reviewed Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer twice - it's still not super smooth, but I'm impressed with how well Elliot can follow the music and remember where the keys are. If you can encourage him to memorize the melody, it will be much more smooth, as he will be able to play it without stopping and looking up.

After that, I added "Silent Night" in his book. We played through this a couple of times.

Merry Christmas!

December 13th, 2019

I took Eliott at an earlier time slot, since another student was away today.

We went over Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and then added the second part to it and went over it.

I wrote out a little "game" to help him want to get to the end, but we didn't have time to play it because he kept trying to distract me. :)

December 6th, 2019

I think I've found the secret to keeping Elliott motivated! I hope it's okay with mom - we made a game out of practicing the song, by timing him - the number of seconds shorter than 2 minutes it takes him to play through add up as points, and every time he reaches 10 points, I give him a Skittles.

I didn't have skittles today, but if it's okay with you, I'll bring them next week.

Elliott really seems like a remarkable little guy to me - he was doing head math in his head and doesn't seem to have any trouble remembering where the notes are and so on with the piano. I hope that you can encourage him to practice at home, because he's got a lot of potential!

And please try to remember to send the book with him. :)

November 22nd, 2019

Elliot didn't remember his book today, so we wrote out Frosty the Snowman, and played it through a few times.

I also introduced Elliot to 'chords,' to play with his left hand - he wasn't very enthusiastic about it, but at least it's an introduction. If you can get him to play them while he plays the right, that'd be great. Alternatively, he can play just a single note (just a C note, F, note, and G note at each spot the chord is written in capital letters.

Also, it'd be great if the book came back every week so we could be writing these songs in the same place.

November 15th, 2019

Elliot is away to the Ryan Centre today on Wolfe Island.

November 8th, 2019

Elliot was away sick today. I hope he feels better!

October 25th, 2019

I moved Elliott to a new time slot today, since another student was at a hockey tournament.

Elliott forgot his book today, so we wrote out a new song - I would have liked to continue with what we were working on last week, so please try to remember to include his book next week.

We wrote out "O Canada," and played it through, and in exchange for him playing it I agreed to play a game with him.

If you know of anyway I can get him to put more time / effort into lessons, I'd love to know. :)

October 18th, 2019

Elliott had gym class in his lesson today and didn't want to miss it, so we postponed 15 minutes.

We had to trade tic-tac-toe for playing music. If he played for me, then I promised a game of ttt. We went through Jingle Bells and Rudolph again. He promised me that next week he would agree to try two hands.

He's really got a natural ability - I'm quite surprised at how quickly he picks things up.

October 11th, 2019

Elliott didn't have a book with him today. Please get him some little note book or something (dollar store is fine) for writing his songs in.

He said that he probably wasn't even going to get a piano to play on. If that's the case, please let me know, as I really only teach students who can practice at home during the week.

I wrote out Jingle Bells again, and we also did Old MacDonald and Happy Birthday, for his mom who's birthday is coming up.

(Have fun at the movies!)

I took a photo of him at the piano for the website. May I use it?

October 4th, 2019

Elliott has, what seems to me, as a natural aptitude to music. Especially with a sense of rhythm, I was pleasantly surprised at his instinct for timing.

Today's lesson was mostly with getting acquainted and covering some of the real basics, such as key names. He was pretty good at naming them, but I showed him a little note story to help - I wrote it in his book.

We talked about sharps and flats, and then wrote two songs out using just letters for notes. We'll be doing this in the beginning before we introduce real note reading.

We wrote out Jingle Bells and the first part of Rudolph.

He should practice every day, for at least 10 minutes. He told me he doesn't have an instrument to play on, so that might be a problem. Please let me know if he'll not be able to practice.