Hope your summers are going well. Even though we are not meeting up for lessons, there are lots of other ways you can stay engaged to keep enjoying, learning and making music. Students may want to do this on their own or make this a family event this summer! Music is definitely more fun together.

You can:
  • Listen to music 
  • Sing together
  • Master One Skill (technique)
  • Review, Refine & Re-create
  • Learn New Pieces
  • Compose Your Own
  • Mix n' match any of the above or come up with your own ideas!

To share what we're all doing, please record one or more of the activities below that you & your family engaged in in the coming weeks and send them to me. I will post them here or under each category in the weeks to come.
What families are doing...
LISTEN
Music is an aural art. Listen to music to be inspired, to appreciate and understand music. I encourage you to listen to different genres or types of music regularly. 
From the website called FROM THE TOP:
FAMILY SING-A-LONG
Music-making does not have to be an individual activity. Pick some of your favourite songs or learn a new song with your family to sing together each week! 
Learn a song and sing together with the whole family!

​Voices only or accompany yourself on the piano or another instrument. 

Here's a list of songs to start with: 
Alphabet Song (Twinkle Twinkle), Happy Birthday, Zipadeedoodah, Down By the Bay...

If you don't know what they sound like, youtube it and sing along!
MASTER 1 SKILL
Technique are the skills and ability you develop in order to play your instrument well. This summer, try focusing on mastering just 1 skill. 
Follow these steps: 
1. Identify a skill you want to be good/better at. 
2. Listen to how other musicians express that skill through music you hear or videos of musicians you watch. 
2. Work on that skill in everything you do whether when you sing or play the piano. Record yourself and evaluate your own playing.

Some skills to select from: 
a. stay steady: count Du-de or Du-da-di OR a metronome 
b. body or finger/arm posture: either play with beautifully shaped hands, or stand/sit in a good position, or play with arm weight, or play with bodies that are free to move & not stiff with tension
c. expressing dynamics: play with softness and loudness in your music, not just the same sound throughout
REVIEW, REFINE & RE-CREATE
Take 2-3 pieces you learned this past year and:

a) practice it slowly

b) pick 1 or 2 things to improve on

c) change something about the piece, make it into a mash-up with parts of other pieces or combine it with other pieces to create a medley. 
LEARN
For Keyboard Games & Piano Safari (kids gr.4 and under), listen to and learn new pieces from your book!

​For Piano Safari (gr.4 +) and all older students, learn something from your book or select a piece from our online SHEET MUSIC LIBRARY. Note: This music is only for students in Drema's Music Studio as it is purchased with a license for our studio only. 
INSPIRED to COMPOSE
Is there something you've done or seen this summer that makes you want to write a song about? 

Try the following ABA song structure:
A-Experiment by using patterns you know to create a theme that sounds like what your topic is about
B-Make a different pattern out of your original pattern
A-Return to the original pattern