To the parents of Beginning Orchestra students

Welcome, Parents, to our Delicious Music website!

I hope you’ll find what you’re looking for to help you help your child not only learn their instrument but also some great life skills as well!

Before the semester begins, YOU have some homework!

1. Plan to attend the first day of class with your child. If possible, please arrange for someone to care for any younger siblings so that you can be there focusing on your Beginning Orchestra student. We will meet, as parents,

2. Read over the first lesson practice plan, the home practice reportpracticing tips, and praising page. These will help prepare you for practicing 6 days a week for 10 minutes, focusing on your child and having a fun time learning together.

3. Learn, along with your orchestra student, the Delicious Music theme song, so you’ll be ready to sing with us on our first day of class!

We’re excited for a fabulous semester of music-making. See you soon!

Liz Livingston

P.S. Please contact me with any questions or concerns: Liz@freedeliciousmusic.org

Lesson Plans Update

Here’s what’s been happening with Delicious Music:

I have been teaching lessons at school but haven’t had time to get my lesson plans online due to my family needs and the holidays. I hope to post those lessons when I can! It might be next year when I cycle back through to teach them again, but hopefully it will be before then! I have learned that when fitting this project into my life, I have to just keep on moving forward and add more the next time I repeat the cycle.

I have an opportunity to teach my own children in our beginning orchestra class at school, and so I am now going to focus on those lesson plans and support materials. You’ll find them under the Lesson Plans tab. My goal is to post information for the parents in my blog and hope that the parents will make comments on the pages to provide feedback on how things are going for them as they help their child learn as the program rolls out.

I’ve written a couple of extremely simple songs (nothing fancy here) that I can use both in the kindergarten classes and in orchestra, the idea being that when the children join beginning orchestra, they will already have the songs in their head. That way they focus their energies more on learning how to play a song more than on learning the song itself.

I’m really excited to be building this string instruction on the knowledge that a number of my students gained when I taught them music in kindergarten! Teaching music is really fun, even for an inexperienced neophyte like me.