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!

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!

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!

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.

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!

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!

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!

Jen has some wonderfully creative and helpful (and free!) game and activity ideas and worksheets that you can download and use in your studio. I really love this Major/minor scale identification manipulative activity set with little feet representing the half and whole steps. What fun! I also love these Symbol Search worksheets. What a great way to help students identify all the symbols they should know in a piece of music. I’m sure you’ll have as much fun exploring this site as I did!

Piece:
Composer:
Time Period:

Then I played approximately one minute of each of the selections and instructed them to listen and see if they could correctly identify any or all of the above criteria for each piece. They were allowed to refer to the timeline, which contained almost all of the selected composers. Here are the works that I selected:

1. Hallelujah Chorus – George Frederic Handel – Baroque

2. The Entertainer – Scott Joplin – 20th Century

3. March from the Nutcracker – Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky – Romantic

4. Symphony No. 5 in C Minor – Ludwig van Beethoven – Classical

5. Spring from the Four Seasons – Antonio Vivaldi – Baroque

6. Hoedown from Rodeo – Aaron Copland – 20th Century

All of my students loved this activity! Even the ones that were a little hesitant at first were surprised at how many of the pieces they recognized. If they were stuck on the name of the piece or the composer, I gave them hints or pointed out certain elements in the recording that might help them identify the time period or the ethnicity of the music.

One of the things that prompted me to do this activity was the realization of how much of our time and activities are focused on doing and playing and mastering skills, concepts, etc. Rarely do I devote much time to music appreciation – just listening to and pointing out elements in music, discussing the composers, the historical eras. We do this a lot as we learn new repertoire, but there’s something different about taking a few minutes to listen to these timeless masterpieces. This is an activity that I’ll definitely be repeating in the future (with different selections, of course!).