Category Archives: Group Class Ideas

Music Videos in 1900?!

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In doing some research for a curriculum I’m working on for Adventures In Character, I came across this fascinating history of music videos on the PBS Kids website. Sheet music publishers often used music videos (a.k.a. illustrated songs) to boost sheet music sales. It was highly effective. The Little Lost Child, one of the first illustrated songs, sold millions of copies!

This is great information to share with students! And I could see even using it as inspiration for a special project, maybe as part of a composition project where they create a music video to promote their newly composed work…

Rhythm Ensemble Activity – Free Download

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One of the other activities at our Travel Tour last Thursday night was a Rhythm Ensemble. This was our first activity of the evening, so as students arrived I let them look through the stack of seven parts and select the one that they felt most confident being able to accurately play. Each of the parts progresses in difficulty, and the rhythmic elements of each part correlate with the requirements of our state Music Progressions curriculum.

Once all the students had arrived, I distributed a selection of rhythm instruments and we all had fun playing the various parts together. Those who didn’t get an instrument snapped the pulse with me while the others played. We traded around instruments so that everyone got a chance to be a part of the rhythm ensemble. It was a simple, fun, musical way to start the class! Feel free to download and print the Rhythm Ensemble parts for use in your studio!

The 1-Minute Documentary Project

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For Travel Tour (a.k.a. Group Class) #5 last night, one of our activities was what I dubbed, “The 1-Minute Documentary Project.” The idea was inspired by the fabulous Videolicious App, and it turned out to be a lot of fun!

I started by coming up with a handful of music-related topics, like a composer or a musical element. The students were grouped in pairs and each pair drew one of the topics. Here’s a rundown of the step-by-step process from that point on:

1. Read/study material about the topic (students were permitted to use any resource in the studio).
2. Select key information to include.
3. Write a 50 second narration.
4. Select and take 4-8 pictures to correlate with the narration.
5. Open Videolicious App.
6. Select General Video.
7. Select previously taken pictures in the order you want them to appear in the video.
8. Film one student saying the narration.
9. Select an excerpt from your music library to play in the background (if the students have time during their research they can find and download a piece of music for this purpose).
10. Preview and publish the video.

In addition to being a lot of fun, the process was educational and provided a great opportunity for the students to work together. There is still plenty of room for improvement in a variety of aspects (especially the direction of some of the pictures!), but I thought they did a good job in a limited time. And we all enjoyed watching the finished documentaries at the end of the class:


Levi and Andrew on Dynamics


Desiree and Hayley on Bartolomeo Cristofori


Amanda and Mercy on Tempo


Lucas and Landon on Key Signatures


Olive and Noelle on Articulation


Tommy on Domenico Scarlatti

Art Projects Guaranteed to Get the Creative Juices Flowing

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Every once in a while you come across a true treasure trove on the internet and wonder how you ever got by without it. I don’t consider myself an artist, but when I came across this collection of hundreds of free art projects and lesson plans on the Blick website, my brain went into overdrive contemplating all the amazing ways these ideas could be used in a group class or piano camp setting!

These are some of the most colorful, creative, and resourceful art project ideas I’ve seen. Many of them are inspired by everyday products, but they look super cool! For example, I love the Sole Pendants that are created using the sole of a tennis shoe. Each project has a free downloadable lesson plan with a list of materials and step-by-step instructions and pictures. What a tremendous resource for educators. I know I’ll be back here many times for inspiration, especially as I start brainstorming and planning for this year’s piano camps!

Monday Mailbag – Group Class Assignments

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I’ve never done group lessons before, but I’d really like to try one. When you do a group lesson, what do you do about students’ individual assignments/songs they’ve learned the week before? And what do you assign them for the next week? Or do you think of group lessons totally differently than individual lessons?

In my studio, group classes are offered as an extra perk in addition to the regular lesson that week. They are scheduled approximately every 6 weeks on a Thursday evening for two hours. Since I set the schedule for the studio at the beginning of the fall semester, everyone can put the dates for all the classes on their calendars if they want to attend. This has worked out really well for quite a few years and usually around 15 of my students are able to make each group class.

I’m tossing around the possibility of trying a different approach next year just to change things up a bit and try some new ideas, but we’ll see if I actually end up doing it or not! I know a number of teachers schedule group classes in place of regular lessons for the week, but I’m not sure how individual assignments would be handled in that case. Anyone want to chime in? If they are performing for each other and participating in various group activities at the class, perhaps you could incorporate specific practice suggestions and/or give them new assignments as part of the class that would give them something to continue working on until their next lesson.

I also tend to think that if students have taken some ownership for their own musical progress that they will be able to continue working on their own for two weeks and moving forward even without new specific assignments from the teacher. Some students are great at this; others, of course, will take the extra week as a “get-out-of-jail-free” (a.k.a. take-a-week-off-of-practicing) card. :-)

Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!

Mixed Messages

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In last Friday’s post, I mentioned that we played a game at our group class called Mixed Messages. Students had to translate Italian music terms and then write the definitions to complete English sentences. All the students were split into two teams and whichever team finished all their sentences first won a Free Travel Pass. One of my older students who has attended lots of group classes and played lots of games remarked that this was one of her favorite games! Here’s a list of the Mixed Messages we used (with an obvious Italian travel theme):

  1. The Mediterranean Sea is so bella and pacifico this time of year.
  2. If you ritardando in the streets of Naples you might get run over!
  3. The street performers in Rome are allegro and full of giocoso.
  4. Gelato is a dolce way to fine a meal.
  5. If that luggage is troppo pesante, just fermata and we will have someone else carry it for you.
  6. We are dolente that our trip will presto be over.
  7. I would like a poco piu cheese on my pizza.
  8. Please accelerando so that we get to da capo of the bus line in time to catch a ride.
  9. The sound of the train is crescendo.
  10. The people of Italy are assai friendly.
  11. It’s sempre exciting to travel to new places.
  12. See if you can find loco to stay for meno than €100 a night.
  13. Let’s sit by the fuoco and sip a mezzo cup of coffee largo.
  14. The dancers in the ballet moved around so leggiero and grazioso.

And for your convenience, here’s a handy list of the same messages with the Italian terms translated into English. Of course, these are not necessarily the Italian words you would actually use in that context; I just tried to stick with ones that my students would be somewhat familiar with from their music studies.

  1. The Mediterranean Sea is so beautiful and peaceful this time of year.
  2. If you gradually get slower in the streets of Naples you might get run over!
  3. The street performers in Rome are fast and lively and full of humor.
  4. Gelato is a sweet way to end a meal.
  5. If that luggage is too heavy, just stop and we will have someone else carry it for you.
  6. We are sorrowful that our trip will quickly be over.
  7. I would like a little morecheese on my pizza.
  8. Please gradually get faster so that we get to the beginning of the bus line in time to catch a ride.
  9. The sound of the train is gradually getting louder.
  10. The people of Italy are very friendly.
  11. It’s always exciting to travel to new places.
  12. See if you can find a place to stay for less than €100 a night.
  13. Let’s sit by the fireand sip a medium cup of coffee slowly.
  14. The dancers in the ballet moved around so lightlyand gracefully.

Travel Tour #3 – Including Out-of-State Students via Skype!

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Last night was our third Travel Tour of the year, going along with our theme: An Italian Intrigue. For the first time ever we included a couple of my out-of-state students via Skype. It worked wonderfully! Here’s a brief video recap from the occasion:

Activities for the group class included:
Mixed Messages – students had to translate Italian musical terms to complete English sentences. The winning team members each won a Free Travel Pass!

Board Patrol – as each student performed, the others were placed in pairs and given a board labeled with one of the following: Dynamics Board, Tempo Board, Articulation Board, and Mood Board. They had to listen and write on the board as many elements as they could come up with that they heard in the performance.

Key Signature Lesson and Scramble – Thanks to the Teach Piano Today blog for the inspiration for this activity!

A Wonderful Piano Improvisation Project

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Anyone who’s been reading here very long knows that I’m practically in love with the Pattern Play series by Forest and Akiko Kinney. So I was thrilled to recently come across this fabulous improvisation project that Anne Crosby Gaudet used with her students! Read the post for a complete description of how she set the project up with her students and then watch this wonderful photo montage with improvised music by one of her students:

I can hardly wait to try this in my studio!