Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Notes From Mrs. Sykes

Hello 4th Grade Parents!

Be sure that your child remembers to bring his/her recorder to school on music days. Each class has one short 25 minute time and a long 50 minute time each week. Your child should NOT bring the recorder book to school because we have a classroom set in our music room. Please ask your child to keep the recorder book in a safe place so that he/she can practice the songs we learn while at home. Please do not let your child write the NOTE NAMES above or below the notes of the songs in the book, as that will keep them from truly learning to read the notes of the treble clef.

There will be a green folder that also comes home periodically that will contain extra songs in it.

Please encourage your child to practice with the book and recorder at home.

A few things that will ensure nice tone on the recorder are:
1.Make sure that the holes are fully covered by the fingers.
2.Make sure that the student is only whispering the syllable ”too” (NOT BLOWING) into the mouthpiece. Over blowing and “leaky fingers” over the holes of the recorder can result in an undesirable tone.

I hope your child has fun with the recorder at home and that you are not driven crazy by the sound!

Musically yours,
Julie Sykes