Ms. Kathy’s Music Classes

Our full school music program is going so beautifully!  I can hardly remember a smoother fall with all the classes, and that’s from 1996 till now!

Preprimary classes are using sticks, bells, chickitas, and resonator bars. They’re singing with me on every song, mostly on pitch, which is a focus at their ages. We’re continuing rhythmic and vocal development, and doing many seasonal songs. I’m pleased with their progress.

We divided kindergarteners into two music classes so everyone could sit across from me on the rug and see my glockenspiel. We’re learning high and low on the glock, and also reading the notes we’re using. After fall break the students surprised me by being ready to play melodies in addition to their usual steady beat on chord tones!  That’s about 3 months ahead of time. Terrific progress!

Lower elementary students are doing beautifully on their dulcimers, and love being able to play along as they’re singing!  I’m so happy they’re enjoying that, and we’re busily adding more songs every week.

Our new program, the upper elementary ukuleles, has proved to be hugely popular, and we’re moving very quickly now. The students tune their instruments with the digital tuner, I come in and check their tuning, and we’re ready to play new notes in under 5 minutes from the time I come into the room!  We’ve learned some strumming techniques, the terminology and basic principles of string instruments, and all the notes and fingerings of the pentatonic and the C scales. We’ve chorded some songs and played all the melody notes of others.  I’m extremely pleased with the various levels of musical development we’re able to learn through this instrument.

You’re invited to visit music classes, and I welcome your questions and feedback.