Featuring my 2nd Year Students

It really is exciting when my first year students get to start second year and transition to keyboards in class! I am amazed by how much they learn in so short a time.

These students can now play the three primary chords with both hands, sight read a simple melody, play a major scale with both hands, and play both hands together. And that's just some of the piano skills, not to mention all the note reading, rhythm, and harmony skills!






















It is such a privilege to bring the joy of learning music into these children's lives. I know it will impact their lives for good for many years to come. They are wonderful students with wonderful, supportive parents!

You are invited to a free sample class!

Are you wondering what a Let's Play Music class is really like?
Do you want something fun to do with your child (ages 4-6) during Spring Break?

Please join me at a free Sample Class!


Early Registration has begun! Click here to register, or email me for a registration form.

Put your child in music class, then pat yourself on the back!

There are so many good reasons to enroll your child in Let's Play Music! Learning music at a young age improves memory, reading skills, math skills, listening skills, problem-solving skills and more.

Here are some articles I have read recently that explain how and why this is true.

Learning Through Music: The Support of Brain Research

Can Music Improve Your Memory?

Early Music Lessons have Longtime Benefits

What Matters Most: Talent or Effort? This one talks more about how to encourage your child to practice music.

I love being able to teach music to children knowing I am making a difference in their lives.

If your child is already enrolled in Let's Play Music, then pat yourself on the back! If not, then you can enroll your child starting in March for classes, which begin in August. If you'd like me to email you when registration is open, simply click here and fill out the quick form. Thanks!

10 Ten Reasons for Learning Primary Chords

Red, yellow and blue.

In Let's Play Music, each of the primary chords gets assigned their own color. This greatly helps our young students learn these all-important chords without having to go into explanations of I, IV, and V or tonic, dominant and sub-dominant. We put a lot of emphasis on recognizing, playing, singing, and understanding these chords in all their forms.

WHY is this?

I have a list of Top 10 Reasons!
I give credit for these to Dave Meadows, a Let's Play Music teacher in Phoenix. 

10. Memorization is easier because you don’t have to memorize every single note in a piece of music. You just have to memorize the chord pattern. For example, instead of learning 342 different pieces of information for one song, when you learn it by recognizing and memorizing the chords, you can get it down to about 30 pieces of information.

9. Feeling the chord progression – When you train the muscles to know what each of the chords feels like, then when you see the chord on the page, your hand automatically knows where to go and how to be positioned. We can talk about chords all we want, but until you experience playing them (a lot) you don’t get the feel for them. The learning process for music is then sped up once the chords feel natural for your hands to play.

8. Tension and Release – All music is based on tension and release. It drives the song forward. Even when a song is sung a capella, there are underlying chords and harmonies that are felt despite not being played. It’s what provides the emotion in the music.

7. Can do more with written music – If you learn how to read music without actually understanding the chords, you are tied to what’s written on the page. You can’t do anything more with it. But when you know your primary chords and recognize them in the music you can easily add more notes based on the underlying chord, change the style the chords are played in, and basically pretty up the music however you want. And let's not forget that chords are the foundation for transposing music, too.

6. Faking it – Of course you prepare well for any performance, but sometimes the unexpected happens: your sheet music falls off the piano, the vocalist skips around in the song, you are missing a page of music, you make a mistake etc. If you know and can hear your primary chords, you can fake it, so no one knows there was a problem.

5. Recognizing key signatures – Knowing your chords helps you to be able to analyze music and easily tell what key you are in and whether it’s major or minor.

4. Improvisation –If you only know the melody to a song, you would be able to improvise an accompaniment. You can hear the change in the feel of the melody and match the appropriate chords to the music.

3. Composition – The culmination of Let’s Play Music is having all of our students compose a piece. Not every musician is going to be a composer, but they all should be encouraged to learn the skill. It will help them appreciate music more, be better analyzers of music, understand what they’re playing better, and be more excellent musicians. You have to know your chords to be able to come up with an accompaniment for a melody you compose.

2. Trust the Experts – Great musicians know them and Let’s Play Music teaches them, so they must be important!

1. Fun! You can have more fun with music when you understand it!

There are, of course, more chords than the three primary chords.  Other chords add interest and character to a song, but 90% of music is made up of our primary chords.

Learning chords = learning music!

Magical Lamp Puppet Show-dress-up time

In Let's Play Music we love our puppet shows!  They help us appreciate and listen intelligently to classical music.  The children learn to distinguish the different parts, instruments, and themes while doing actions that tell a story.

For our last week of performing "Aragonnaise" from Carmen by Georges Bizet (aka "The Magical Lamp"), the kids got to use dress ups to act it out.  With so many girls in this particular class, they all wanted to be princesses, so we had to take turns.  I did at least have two princess costumes!

Beautiful Faces - Brilliant Students

Look at the beautiful faces of these wonderful students!


We have already learned so much this year.  The first year students know how to sing a major scale with hand signs, follow a given rhythm, recognize themes in classical music, distinguish high and low notes, keep a steady beat, follow chord maps, and more!



The second year students have learned their finger numbers, intervals, keyboard layout, and notation for Middle C.  They can play the "red" chord (tonic) as accompaniment, read steps and skips from the staff and play them on the keyboard, read 'note rhythm' cards, and imitate keyboard patterns. Wow!

This may sound like a lot of work, but we have so much fun while doing it!

Why Study Music? Top 10 reasons (And when do I need to register for classes?)

Soccer, dance, baseball, scouts ... with so many activities to choose from and so many full days, why should parents make certain their children are learning music?

While musical activities can help children develop leadership skills, enhance self-esteem and foster a work ethic and dedication to excellence, so can many other activities.  What is unique about music that makes it so important for children to learn?

Here are my top 10 reasons:
(adapted from an article by Don Hodges, at The International Society of Music Education.)

1. Feelings.  From vague to specific, from grief to joy, music is intrinsically connected with feelings.  Music helps us express our feelings and share others emotions.

2. Aesthetic experiences.  All human beings have a need for beauty and to activate their innate responsiveness to the organized expressive sounds that we call music.

3.  The ineffable.  Precisely because music is a nonverbal form of expression it is a powerful means to express or to know that which is difficult or impossible to put into words. Two of the most common human experiences that are frequently known through music are love and spiritual awareness.

4.  Thinking.   Musical thought is just as viable as linguistic, mathematical, or visual thought. It can be a potent means of expressing ideas and of knowing truth.

5. Structure.  Closely allied to the idea of thinking is structure. The human mind seeks patterns, structure, order, and logic. Music provides a unique way of structuring sounds across time, as well as a providing a means of structuring thoughts, feelings, and human experiences. This translates into children doing better in math, science, reading and other school subjects.

6. Time and space.  Time and space are the "stuff" of the universe. All human knowledge systems provide ways of dealing with time and space. Although music occurs in "real" time, it deals more with "felt" time. Music, in connection with dance (bodily-kinesthetic knowledge system), is a primary means of experiencing space in time.  Let's Play Music uses full body movement to facilitate learning.

7. Self-knowledge and self-identity.  Music's role in intrinsic, and especially peak (transcendent, life-changing) learning experiences, provides for powerful insights into our private, inner worlds. Many gain their sense of self through a variety of musical activities and experiences.

8. Group Identity.  Group identity through music is both inclusive and exclusive in that: (a) music helps cement the bonding of those members of a group who share common ideas, beliefs, and behaviors, and (b) music helps isolate and separate one group from another.  In Let's Play Music, we promote bonding between parent and child through music, and we experience music in group lessons.

9. Healing and wholeness.  From more specific applications of music in therapy and medicine to more general interactions, music has profound effects on human beings. Music provides a vehicle for the integration of body, mind, and spirit.

10.  Fun.   Music has the power to brighten your day, make you want to move, and connect you with others.  Music is FUN!  Let's Play Music classes are centered on learning through fun.

All students should have an opportunity to experience and develop their capabilities in music!

So how do you find out more about Let's Play Music and why it's so special?

You can start by exploring the links at the top of this blog and by visiting the Let's Play Music website.  Go ahead and register here before classes fill up!

Or if you want to see what classes are really like first, you are welcome to join in on a class for free before signing up (contact me to find out when to come) or watch this demo video.

Here are some important dates to remember for 2012 registration:

• Wednesday, August 1: Date to REGISTER BY to receive materials on time 
• Saturday, August 11: Parent Orientation meeting for ALL PARENTS 
• Thursday, August 16: Classes START for 1st year students 
• Thursday, September 6: LATE registration deadline for any spots still available

Go ahead and sign up now! You'll be glad you did!