Each song in the skill building curriculum is presented in our KinderGuitar code (in addition to standard notation) for two main reasons: to make it easy for musically illiterate parents to follow and for parent and children to see how music notation is deconstructed into rhythm and pitch. Each song also has all the pitches of the song arranged from low to high pitch in the top corner of the page. Parents can use this “source material” to help their children build skills necessary for the song in question. It is useful for students to know these notes and to build their skills in playing them to the point where manipulation of the notes is easy. Approach the notes a s a warm-up and challenge yourself to come up with creative patterns for your child to practice. As a starting point, simply vary the number of notes played. As this gets easier, vary the rhythm by rotating in one or two faster notes. When this gets easier, vary the right hand fingering, etc…

For example, the notes above are numbered 1-6. Have your child play them in these varied ways:

112233445566 then 665544332211

111222333444555666 then 666555444333222111 (up to 7 per note is enough!)

12 1232 123432 12345432 12345654321 then 65 6545 654345 65432345 65432123456

try rhythms (treat a space like a rhythmic pause)

1 23 45 65 43 21

12 34 56 54 32 1

123 456 654 321

121 232 343 454 565 656 545 434 323 212 1

112 223 334 445 556 665 554 443 221

try varying right hand patterns (pick one pattern and play all the way through):

im

mi

am

ma

ima

ami

pi

pm

(i=index, m=middle, a=ring, p=thumb)

Playing the song in question after a good finger (and brain) warm-up will be easier physically and mentally.