This Week in Photos
Joey has made huge strides in his understanding and execution of scales this year, so I thought I would put him to the test with this fun Scale Scramble game. I placed all the scale blocks that corresponded to a particular scale on the fall board and then timed him to see how fast he could arrange them into the correct scale. It was a bit of a challenge at first, but we did several and he got pretty fast at it!
Luke is the acclaimed comedian in the studio. He has been known to give a gut-busting performance routine and I never quite know what to expect from him… 
I had seen him the night before his lesson at an event and we were discussing possible character descriptions for him in a drama role with another organization I work with. He said he would like to play a nervous, fidgety, quirky, sort of character and I asked him what that would look like. So, the next day he showed up for his lesson as “Herman” and I got a very good visual representation of such a character. He was hilarious and of course I had to take a picture!
I’ve been brainstorming different game ideas using flashcards and told Caleb I wanted to try one out on him. I started by giving him the treble clef C, D, and E. Then I played various patterns using those three notes and he had to arrange them in the correct order. He aced those, so we quickly moved on to 5-note patterns. The 5-note patterns usually took a couple of play-throughs, but he eventually got all but one of them correct. It turned out to be pretty fun and a great way to work on melodic dictation.
True to our agreement last week, I got to choose the game this week at the end of James’ lesson. I chose a variation of Whack-it!. I placed all the treble clef notes from middle C to high F on the floor and set the timer for one minute. As I called out note names, James had to whack the corresponding card. If he was correct, I took the card away and called out a new note name. If he was wrong, I placed a previously-removed card back in front of him. The goal was to collect as many cards as possible before the time ran out. Once we finished the treble clef, I took my turn with him calling the notes and then we repeated the game with bass clef notes from middle C down to low G. I pretty much creamed him – even with him implementing various stalling tactics when he was calling the note names. So he insisted that next week he gets to choose the game again.
Just wanted to let you know that we play Whack-it all the time now! It’s a studio hit! Thanks again for sharing!
That’s great to hear, Rebecca! Thanks for letting me know!
Natalie- I was just curious how long your lessons were?
Thanks for sharing the fun!
Most of them are 45 minutes. I have a couple that are an hour and one that is 30 minutes. I never offer 30 minute lessons anymore, though. There’s just no way to get everything in in that amount of time!
[...] from http://www.musicmattersblog.com invented. You can see her versions of those games here and here. These games are such hits with my students, so we’re always playing them. I did a small [...]
Natalie,
Love your site. Was just wondering what the bright colored squares were all about on the wall in the pic with the boy using flashcards. The pink square says “Listening Lieutenant” I think and has a sticker on it. Just curious.
Cecilly
Hi Cecilly!
That was part of my practice incentive theme this year – “Mastering the Mystery of Music.” There were eight different musical areas that the students were working to master. And along the way, they received clues that contained encoded words, eventually leading to a final discovery at the end of the year. It was really fun! I haven’t gotten around to posting the files yet, but hopefully I will eventually!
Hey Natalie, have you had a chance to post the files for your “Mastering the Mystery of Music” incentive yet (if so I haven’t found it). Would you mind emailing me the list of your different musical areas (chord commander, listening lieutenant, etc.) that are on the brightly colored paper behind the music rack on the piano in some of the above photos. Thanks so much. your site is totally inspiring.