As I was working on some plans for the upcoming year of lessons the other day, it suddenly occurred to me that I could design some flashcards and print them fairly inexpensively using VistaPrint. I don’t know why I’ve never thought of that before, but now I’m so excited about all the possibilities for utilizing these cards!

As you can see, I used a colorful design for the back of the cards (the same one I use for my students’ manuscript books) and intentionally made them all the same so that I can use the cards for memory-type games. Then I used a blank staff design for one set of cards and a blank keyboard design for another set. I have several specific game ideas in mind that I’m hoping to post about in the coming months after I try them out and see if they work! In the meantime, though, I thought I would post the files here in case anyone else wants to get their own printed so that you can customize them for use with your students.

Follow these simple instructions to have your own flashcards printed in no time at all!

1. Right click on the above three flashcard images (one at a time) and select “Save As” or “Save Target As” in order to save the image files to your computer.
2. If you don’t already have an account at VistaPrint.com, click on over there and select the “Get Started” button for the postcard option.
3. Click on the upload your own design button. Navigate to where you downloaded the above images and upload them as prompted (they are sized exactly for the postcard printing).
4. Upload the colorful music image for the front and the staff or keyboard image for the back. (This is so that the glossy finish is actually on the back of the flashcard and you can use a marker to customize the other side without having to worry about smearing.)
5. Finish the order process until you get to the checkout page. When given the option, set up an account so that your images will be stored for future use.
6. Do a quick Google search for something along the lines of “free postcards vistaprint coupon code.” This should turn up several options that will allow you to either click on a link or enter a coupon code to get 100 postcards for free. (Even if you use the option where you have to click on another link, your postcard designs should still be in your cart, so just navigate to the checkout page and they should now show up as being free.)
7. Complete the checkout process, pay for the shipping (there will probably be a small fee for uploading the images as well, but this is a one-time fee for these images), and start dreaming up all the creative ways you can use your custom cards!
8. Repeat the same process for the other set of cards as well. I ordered my sets separately because even though you have to pay for shipping twice, you can use the coupon code again this way to get the cards themselves for free. If you put them on the same order then the free 100 postcards will only apply to one set of cards.

Let me know if you end up getting some of these printed for your students and/or if you have some creative ideas for using them!

Our first six-week Pre-Piano Camp session just ended last week and I’m excited to report that it was a success! I learned a lot in the process and the students and I had a fabulous time. We launched into the session with specific objectives and a ton of activity ideas to help communicate and reinforce those objectives. I definitely had to do some tweaking as we went, but now I’m thrilled to have a curriculum and student workbook that I can use over and over again to offer a class like this any time of year!

The curriculum is designed to run for six days (I did one morning per week for six weeks) and works best with students 4-5 years old. I scheduled the class to run for one hour each week, but would highly recommend doing an hour and fifteen minutes or an hour and a half instead because we were always running out of time. Each week is structured in 10-minute segments, focusing on rhythm and pulse, keyboard skills, memory work and choir (including hymn history stories), written theory, and music appreciation (including listening to music and stories about the lives of the great composers).

The Pre-Piano Camp package includes an overview of the class, including student prerequisites, objectives, a general weekly outline; plus a week-by-week guide for each class, complete with supplementary resource recommendations and links. Plus, when you order the package, you’ll also receive a free 31-page student workbook that correlates with the lesson plans and provides each student with a fun keepsake from their musical adventure!

As I mentioned last week, in A Peak Into Our Pre-Piano Camp, we’ve been having a blast at this fun piano camp this year! We just finished our final week yesterday, so I’m busy getting all the files and links ready so that I can make them available for any other teachers who want to do a similar camp. In the meantime, here’s another look at one of the super fun games that we played.

After learning A-F, it was time to do some reviewing and make sure we understood the proper order of the notes on the keyboard. For that, we needed to call in some reinforcements.

Each of these stuffed friends was given a flashcard for one of the keys on the piano (I just taped them to their chests). After the cards were all placed, I mixed the bears up and then let each student take a turn putting them back in the correct order so that we could say the names of the keys in the proper order. They got such a kick out of playing the game with the stuffed teddy bears!

There are so many great suggestions and ideas that get buried in the comments on various blog posts (some from years ago!) that I thought it would be kind of cool to have a “Comment of the Week” feature. Each week – probably on Friday – I’ll post a comment that was left that week that seems especially insightful, creative, resourceful, humorous, etc. If the commenter has a blog or website, I’ll include a link to that as well.

So, without further ado, here is a comment from Migna that I just love and can’t wait to try with some of my students!

I hate saying “you need to try that again…and again…and again”  and nothing improves because they’re not focusing.  So here’s a game I play, similar to the penny game, that helps them intensely focus on what they’re doing.  I will put a little toy frog, dinosaur, dog, or whatever I have on hand if I’m at their home, and place it on the last 5-6-7 keys (or however many you choose).  Each time they play the measure/section PERFECTLY, they may move ahead.  If they make a mistake, they must move back. I have them move it forward or back themselves.  It seems to “hurt” more and they have to reposition their hands again. Sometimes I have the frog jump on the last 5 black keys.  Goal is to have the marker go off the piano.  A 6 year old student of mine told me how his sister put a pretty rock they use on the first low white key and she made him practice 2 measures until he got it perfect 66 times!

This summer I’m trying something completely new – a pre-piano camp for 3-5 year-olds. Wow, it has been a blast! Even though I only had two students enroll in this session, I decided to go ahead with it because I knew it would help me tweak my plans and make sure they were age-appropriate. It’s been such a hit with these two, though, and there were quite a few other families that were interested but couldn’t do the summer session that I’m considering offering the class again in the fall.

As soon as we finish our last week, I’m planning to publish the lesson plans for those who might be interested, but in the meantime, I’ll give you a sneak peak into a couple of our favorite activities:

By the third week we had learned C, D, and E so I gave each of the girls three little game pieces and let them put them on any group of C-D-E they could find on the piano. Once they had correctly placed the pieces, they could improvise and play around on those three keys. Then we would find another group of C-D-E and do the same thing. It was a great way to provide some parameters, but then let them explore and be creative as well.

On week four we learned F and B as well, so it was time for a fun matching game! Each column of flashcards contained the five keys learned thus far. The girls took turns flipping over one of the yellow cards and then seeing if they could find a match by flipping over one of the orange cards. As they flipped over each card, they had to say the name of the key that was marked with the “X.” If it was a match, they got to keep it; if not, they had to turn them back over and it was the next one’s turn. It proved to be quite the challenge, but they eventually found all the matches!

For the last week of regular lessons this spring (the week before the Year-End Evaluations), I let each student choose whatever he/she wanted to do for the lesson. It was kind of fun to see what they chose! Some opted for a bunch of improvising, some wanted to play through their regular assignments, some wanted to do listening activities, and a great many wanted to play games!

Landon and Hayley both wanted to do games for their lesson, so we played several different ones. They really liked working together on this rhythmic dictation one. I just gave them a set of note and rest rhythm cards and then played a 2-measure rhythm pattern on the piano. They had to lay out the cards to correspond to what I played. It was a bit of a challenge at first, but they caught on really quickly! This is a great activity that is easily adaptable for individual lessons or with multiple teams in group lessons. Click here to download a set of single note and rest rhythm cards.

It’s simple. It’s fun. It requires no supplies or preparation. It’s Musical 20 Questions! If you’re looking for an easy, but fun game that can be played with any size group of students, you should give this a try. At our final group class last week, we played a round of Musical 20 Questions followed by a handful of performances, then another round of the game, followed by performances, and a third round of the game followed by the final performances.

The way we played it was by having one student come to the front and think of a musical term or symbol. Then all the other students took turns asking a “yes” or “no” question until someone thought that they knew what the term or symbol was. Whoever correctly guessed the term or symbol first got to be the next one to come to the front. This was great for three reasons:

1. It involved everyone. Even if a student wasn’t the one selecting the term/symbol or asking the question, everyone had to listen closely to the other questions and answers so that they could eliminate certain ideas and eventually arrive at the right conclusion.

2. It helped the students think more deeply about musical terms and symbols. If someone selected 8va and students asked questions like, “Does it affect the pitch of the note?” or “Does it have to do with the dynamics?” the answering student had to think about what the term/symbol really means and what effect it has on the sound.

3. It required no supplies, set-up, clean-up, etc. Super easy and super fun!

One of my high school boys has an insanely busy schedule this semester. In fact, in March his mom e-mailed me about the possibility of him taking off the months of April and May and resuming lessons in the fall when his schedule is a bit more open again. I explained to her that because I budget my income based on the number of students, I would have to fill that slot and couldn’t guarantee that there would be an opening again in the fall. Since I really didn’t want to lose this student and he didn’t want to discontinue lessons, I suggested that we just spend the remainder of the semester honing in on sight-reading skills and weekly reviewing one piece in preparation for his senior recital next year.

This worked really well until he took a job last week that has an unpredictable schedule. He wasn’t going to be able to make it for his lesson, so his mom had the brilliant idea of having his two younger brothers come for a theory lesson during that time. They both recently started playing other instruments, but she wants them to have a good understanding of theory and hasn’t been able to work with them on it much yet. That sounded like a great idea to me, so the first week they came, I introduced the concept of the staff and had them learn all the bass and treble clef notes. It was a huge chunk of information all at once, but we played some fun games and I sent them home with a worksheet. They ended up coming back again this week and we played a quick review game – both of them knew almost all their notes instantaneously! We moved into understanding pulse and rhythm and learned some basic note values, then did some rhythm activities. We had a blast!

So…thanks to this mom’s suggestion, we’ve discovered a great way to work with students who have busy schedules for a season, but still want to continue lessons and keep their spot – providing, of course, that they have younger siblings who could benefit from some fun theory classes!

Check out this giant-sized piano keyboard that Laura Lowe made using a bed sheet and permanent markers! I LOVE it! Especially as I work on plans for our pre-piano summer camp, I’m going to keep this in mind and hopefully make one. Don’t you think the little kiddos would have a blast with this?! I also love Laura’s ideas for teaching intervals, and could see using it for scales and chords, too. What fun!

You may remember that I was so enthralled with the Maestro! game at the MTNA Conference that I purchased it to use with my students. Well, the opportune time came last Thursday when we had our fifth Briefing Session (a.k.a. group class) of the year. We had some extra time at the end of all the performances and theory presentations, so I unwrapped the packaging and my students and I figured out how to play it.

There were 16 of us present (slightly more than the 2-4 players the game is designed for!), so I had them organize into 4 teams of 4. We were a bit squished, but still had plenty of fun!

One of the things that I love about the Maestro! game is the integration of a variety of different learning areas – history, geography, composer biographies, and strategy. Another thing I like is that the play is simple enough for any student to understand, but leaves lots of room for creative alterations. I also got to scan through all the pages that are included on the companion CD that I’m even contemplating the possibility of using this as my piano camp theme this year instead of writing my own! I’ve never done this before, so it will take some serious consideration before I make a final decision. But that’s how much I love this material that Suzanne has developed!