June 2020
NOTES FROM MELIA & JUSTIN
In our group class at the end of May, we started talking about our composer focus for the summer: Ludwig Van Beethoven! Many students recognized his name as well as some of his most famous works ("Ode to Joy," anyone?). We are excited to explore the life and music of Beethoven this summer through many avenues: playing and listening to his music, learning about his life, using themes from his music to learn about theory and composition concepts, and understanding his place in history. At Yellow Door, we use our core learning objectives to offer not simply piano lessons, but musical experiences, and we hope this summer session does just that! Keep reading to learn more about our summer semester will look like from week to week.
Excited for summer!
Melia & Justin
SUMMER SEMESTER:
HOW DOES THIS WORK?
You’ve signed up for lesson times: Now what?
Our summer session has three main elements:
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ONE-ON-ONE LESSONS
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The format of these lessons will differ according to the goals of each individual student! Because we won’t see you on a weekly basis, your teacher may assign more objectives/bullseyes than usual to keep you motivated between lessons. Older students may study a piece of Beethoven’s piano music. Younger students may use their extra time for some new piano games. :)
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AT-HOME ACTIVITIES
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Every Monday, we will send out an email with links and activities. While these are optional, they’ll greatly help your participation in group classes and help you "Beethoven-ify" your summer semester! These activities are aimed at all ages, but feel free to pick and choose what interests you. Weekly emails will include something to:
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WATCH: a fun informative video, a cool performance, or a funny sketch about Beethoven and his music
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READ: short articles or stories related to Beethoven
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LISTEN: we will slowly build our “Beethoven's Best" playlist and learn to recognize his most famous pieces by the end of summer
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DO: coloring pages, activities, or small projects
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The resources we send out each week will help us all prepare for group classes each month!
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GROUP CLASSES
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Three Saturday morning (11 AM) group classes will have a Beethovenian focus:
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June 13: Compose like Beethoven and Beethoven Bingo!
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July 18: Beethoven’s 5th: What's a motive?
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August 15: Let’s play Beethoven! We’ll share pieces we’ve learned over the summer (Beethoven or otherwise) and wrap up the summer semester together.
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Throughout the summer, please check in with us and let us know what you think of this format! We’re excited to use our summer semester to try new things, and we want to know what you like or don’t like!
STUDIO UPDATES
How do I "annotate" in Zoom?
During Zoom lessons, your teacher may ask you to draw on the screen with them (especially when games are involved!). Not sure how? In this short video, Melia shows how to use the “annotate” feature in Zoom. Below, screenshots show how to access annotate on a tablet or mobile device. Happy screensharing!
PIANO IN THE NEWS
Our friends at West Michigan Piano (remember our in-person fall recital?) know the importance of having a good instrument to practice on! Click the photo to how they helped MSU students keep their piano study going during the pandemic:
Tablet / Mobile:
Desktop:
Zoom Update
Zoom recently released a software update, which includes important security features. Be sure to update your version of the software before our first lesson of the summer!
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
In our May group class, students teamed up with Justin and Melia to talk about the elements of composing and created their own composition!
ILLUSTRATING BEETHOVEN
In case you missed our group class in May, here’s the video we watched introducing us to Beethoven. Keep your eyes peeled to see what shape the drawing make at the end!
