You will notice a common element in each of the following pictures. They are all a variation of the same game. I affectionately call it “The Dice Game.” Here are the basics of how it works:

* One die has the words “up” and “down” on it; the other one has either “steps” and “skips” or “half steps” and “whole steps” or pictures of intervals on a staff or pictures of intervals on a keyboard (you can view a close up shot of the interval dice in this treble clef game post). For the other “dice” I just use wooden blocks and write the words on them.

* Each player (the student and myself) selects a colored game marker and places it on middle C.

* Take turns rolling both dice and moving the game marker accordingly.

* Set a timer for five minutes.

* Whoever is the highest on the piano when the time runs out is the winner.

This is undoubtedly the favorite lesson game in my studio. For some reason I almost always lose. Hmm…maybe that’s why it’s the favorite…

Luke is still in the early stages of reading printed music and needs lots of reinforcement with the concept of steps versus skips. Now if we can just transfer this concept to staff reading, we’ll be all set!

Caleb is tackling some tough pieces right now and I thought faster identification of intervals on the staff and transfer to the keyboard might be a good objective for him. Sure enough, by the end of our game he was identifying the various intervals as they turned up on the dice with hardly any hesitation!

I was going to play a different game with James, but he begged me to play this one again. He has gotten really good at differentiating half and whole steps now and managed to maintain his undefeated title against me with this game. I told him I am never playing against him on it again and next week I get to choose a different game!