"Five Fat Turkeys" for Thanksgiving!

Get ready for some Thanksgiving fun!

If you find yourself with a week without music class, don’t fret! We’ve got some exciting activities featuring 5 fat turkeys to keep you entertained and in the holiday spirit.

First Year Students

Singing the "Five Fat Turkeys" song is a lot of fun! You can enjoy this video that answers some questions: Can turkeys really climb trees? What do wild turkeys look like?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w01pkrkMOFw

Want to act it out? Make some turkey finger puppets with felt, clay, or paper to play with. They’ll also look great on your table!

Open up the autoharp feature in our Let's Play Music app to use the chord map below and play along (You'll need to toggle to the Key of F.)

One reason we love using this song with autoharp and keyboard for 1st and 2nd Years is the long string of red chords. They help students focus on maintaining a steady rhythm before adding some chord changes.

Second Year Students

You’re never too old for the turkey song! Print out the colored chord map above and use it to play the song on your piano. If you haven’t learned the BLUE chord in class yet, just rest quietly on that beat.

With your experience, you might enjoy printing the blank chord map below and using your ear to decide the colors for each triangle. Play each chord and see which sounds best—let your ear be your guide!

You can also print out the sheet music (below) and color in the chords if you’d like.

Third Year Students

Print out this sheet music and practice playing the chords with each hand while singing the melody!

For a challenge, try playing the melody with your right hand. Look closely at the melody; there’s a note lower than middle C. Can you find it? It’s a G, which is a 4th below C. You have a few options for playing it:

• Let your left hand play the G while your right hand plays the chords.

• If your left hand is playing the chords, you can let your right hand rest on that note.

• You can also jump down with your right hand to play the G and then return to C position.

  
  

Maybe your uncle, who you only see twice a year, will join you for a duet—playing left hand while you play right! Piano is a great way to bond!

Graduates

If you have some Let's Play Music graduates around, go through the assignments for the younger years and listen to the accompaniment in the video above. Can you spot what the pianist did to make the chords sound fancy? During the instrumental part, the pianist really has fun! Now it's your turn to improvise and add your own flair!

Hints:

1. Review "Yankee Doodle" from the Orange semester for two-handed marching ideas.

2. To fit a broken chord into 4/4 time, add an extra note, like Do-Mi-Sol-Mi.

   
   

Put On A Show

Now that you have at least one song to sing and play, why not gather a few of your other favorite songs and put on a show? Thanksgiving is a great time for family to enjoy music together. If you have Let's Play Music students at different levels, everyone can join in! You could even teach your relatives the parts of your favorite puppet show and perform together while waiting for the turkey to cook.

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