March Update: Creative Flashes and sheet music for preschool

 In teaching, I have not had a creative flash in a while. At least, not since September or so.

   Studying for my ARCT Analysis is not conducive to creative flashes. Neither is the pandemic. (Hey, if we're going to blame something, might as well blame a virus, right? It has no feelings to hurt. ;)

   Last week I finally had a creative flash for my in-person students.

   I had the need to teach the Circle of 5ths and the desire to keep lessons Easter-themed floating around in my head, and this was the result. Each egg has a key name written on it, and my student's job was to place the right egg on the corresponding key signature. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough mini-baskets to go all the way around, but we got all the keys between B flat major and A major covered. I felt pretty good about myself. :) At least, I did. Until I spilled water - an entire glass of it - on my new Circle of 5ths earlier today. :(

   Ahh, yes....

   Speaking of flashes, there is one thing that is very stimulating to creativity in my life, and that's teaching an energetic child online. When lessons start, you never know what will happen, and you need to be prepared for anything. Like... them bringing about five different Lego creations to lesson just to show you. 

   Yes, it did really happen. 

   So I incorporated the toys into the lesson. For the next minute or two, I asked this student to place a specific creation on a specific key (A, B, C, etc.). Score!

Improv

   This month, I improved on teaching improv. By one step. 

   OK, OK. I'd love to say that I am creative and original enough to thrive on teaching improv, but I'm sorry to say -- I never learned how to do it myself. Which makes teaching it hard. But that doesn't stop me, especially not such a thing as improv packs out there. So far I've just taught melodic improv. This time, I gave some of my students who know chords an extra challenge: use the rhythms on the cards, and also make your melody chord-based. We used the very basic I-IV-V7-I progression, and it worked really well. 

Preschool

   Andrea and Trevor Dow are amazing people. If you've followed me for any length of time, you know that their games are a staple in my studio, and you probably guessed that I get my improv packs, mentioned above, from them. :) Also, because of their Wunderkeys series, I had the confidence needed to accept my first preschool student this year! 

   However, one thing they lack is supplemental music for those little ones. And since their system gives the fingers cute animal names instead of numbers, you can't use just anything from other sites.

   I found a way. 


Take a song from Music for Music Teachers (another great site by another wonderful person!) and one of the Wunderkeys Preschool printables, and a whole lot of tape, and you have a piece that works just fine for Wunderkeys preschoolers! 

Happy Easter!

   A quote from the late Dr. Adrian Rogers, founder of Love Worth Finding, for you to contemplate:
"Calvary: Earth's greatest tragedy. Heaven's greatest triumph."
Remember Christ, the One Who died for your salvation, this weekend! 



Location: Onoway, AB T0E 1V0, Canada

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