4th Grade Specific -- Reading Sheet Music Help

Dear 4th Grade Families,

After a class last week which made it clear that our step into reading sheet music while playing the violin was frustrating because it was either too challenging or too easy, we had an indoor class in which I retold the story of the Bremen Town Musicians, and using the donkey, dog, cat, and rooster as metaphors for our 4 strings of the violin, related the reading of sheet music to mapping the journeys of these animals.  I showed a Whidbey Island map that students had drawn with Ms. White and compared the musical staff and measure lines with the grid the students used to help draw and read the map.  While some students still need more help, other students began to see more sense in musical notation.

As a follow-up, I have made copies of pages 18-19 in Strictly Strings Book 1.  On these pages I have written the left hand fingering above the notes--some students said they would find this helpful (and often a teacher in a private lesson will write in fingerings if it helps).  These copies are on the big desk in the lobby.  Please take one home.  We will start on pages 18-19 after the break, and some students might feel more confident with a preview.

The book Strictly Strings strives to help students read music.  After class on Tuesday, I observed one student in a private lesson feeling confident about reading music without the extra fingerings.  This is to say, if my added notations do not help, please do not use them--for some of us (like me), the fewer additional marks on the page, the more fluently we can read the sheet music.

Thanks for supporting our students at home,

William Geoffrey Dolde