Lesson III

Lesson three is so exciting because we get to really tackle the first twinkle! Once your child has mastered the rhythm of Twinkle Variation A, you can now teach her to play the whole song. make sure that you listen the the twinkle, look at the music, become proficient in the rhythm as well as where the notes are. This is not difficult to do (hopefully) and if you have questions, please post them!

Here are our four skills for this lesson (all pertaining to Twinkle Variation A):

• Twinkle Var. A

1. Hand position while playing the rhythm
2. Tickled Ivories
3. Which notes to play?
4. Spider hand

1. Playing the first note of the song with correct rhythm and correct hand positioning is difficult. Be patient with your child during this skill development. Play the first note for him and ask him to repeat it with a baseball hand. If he does it well, reward him with a sticker.

VIDEO OF GOOD TWINKLE A HAND POSITION

2. This second skill is related to the first: we'll be working on tickling the key with our first finger on our favorite note. The notes love a good tickle - not too hard and not too soft! Stickers for good tickles!

VIDEO OF TICKLING THE KEY

3. Once the minutia is out of the way, we'll start teaching the notes. You may start with just the first part of the song (since there are three) or you can go right ahead and teach the whole thing - use your child as your guide. Also, feel free to show these videos to your child to reinforce what you are teaching.

VIDEO ME PLAYING TWINKLE VAR A.

4. Now teach your child to move her fingers like a spider would move his legs. Kids love this technique!

SPIDER HANDS VIDEO

As you've probably noticed, this is a short lesson but a VERY important one. We are starting technique and using our material (the first twinkle) as a catalyst for it. So this week we will only be practicing our technique, but doing it while playing the first twinkle, make sense?

Take a bow. Good!

Practicing:

1. Baseball hand
2. Tickling Ivories
3. Spider hand

Practice time should remain about 15 minutes per day.