I started out by reviewing books one and two of the curriculum, The Fundamentals and Getting Creative, respectively, and then sat down to read through the 50-page Teacher’s Guide that accompanies the curriculum. I quickly realized that I had done things backwards and should have read the Teacher’s Guide first. What a treasure trove of philosophical nuggets and practical gems! It was both inspiring and full of helpful ideas that could easily be adopted by any music teacher.

Mr. Griffin’s approach is based on the philosophy that students should be actively involved in the music-making process, rather than just listening to music or learning musical facts. Through this curriculum, students are introduced to music by learning to play the keyboard. Rhythm, notation, music history, and more are taught as part of the process of learning to play fun, familiar songs on the keyboard – something that is sure to motivate and appeal to any Middle School student!

Here are some of the specific things I really like about the curriculum:
• Students are instructed to draw a keyboard diagram in the first lesson (Now why haven’t I ever thought of having students do that?!). These can then be referenced and used for the duration of the year.

• After each piece there is a place on the page for both the student and teacher to sign and date, affirming that, “This piece has been played successfully.” Mr. Griffin especially encourages teachers to require their students to sign before asking the teacher whether they can pass the piece. This challenges the students to take responsibility for their own progress and also frees them up to move on to the next lesson without having to wait for the availability of the teacher.

• Good questions at the conclusion of most lessons gauge the students’ comprehension of the concepts. I really like that these questions are not mindless, but force the student to think and/or find additional information on their own. (i.e. Find a definition for a musical scale.)

• Specific listening assignments are scattered throughout the lessons.

• A few Research Projects are assigned and the students are given very thought-provoking questions to help them conduct their research.

• A Student Reflections page in the back of the book gives students a place to record positive or frustrating moments in their keyboard studies.

• I loved the inclusion of lots of familiar Classical tunes that students will be familiar with and will be motivated to learn.

Book One covers a lot of the fundamentals of music and then Book Two builds on those and delves more into creative assignments, including transposition, form, dynamics, playing in a round, minor keys, using extended fingerings, learning accidentals, and improvisation. Here are a few things related to Book Two that I really like:

• Creative and helpful learning strategies are laid out step-by-step for the student.

• Specific guidelines are given for improvisation activities that still leave the students plenty of room for experimentation and individuality.

• For one of the activities, students are placed in a group and instructed to create a two-minute story (they may select from a list of possible story themes) and support it with special effects from the keyboard.

• I absolutely love the student teacher idea! (Read more about this in the forthcoming interview with Michael Griffin.)

Mr. Griffin has also started a page on his website with additional resources that correspond to the lessons in the curriculum. This will be extremely helpful to teachers as they develop their lesson plans! If you are interested in purchasing the Music and Keyboard in the Classroom curriculum and Teacher Guide, please contact Mr. Griffin by e-mail.

Pricing Info:
Book 1 The Fundamentals $19.99
Book 2 Getting Creative $19.99
Teacher’s Manual $34.99 (compulsory purchase with other books as it explains the pedagogy)
Payment may be made by credit card or via PayPal.

Join us tomorrow for an exclusive interview with Music and Keyboard in the Classroom author, Michael Griffin!

1. Sign the Guestbook to receive a ballot by e-mail.

2. Watch the videos that have been posted by competitors. There are 33 pianists, each with a video 5-10 minutes in length.

3. Cast an e-ballot for your favorite pianist any time between May 1-May 15.

Have fun listening to some great pianists!

So, I’ve been exploring the Music Learning Community website more indepth and considering whether I should develop my computer lab around it to start with. I’ve heard wonderful reviews of it from lots of teachers and I know my students love the free games they play on it. The site offers “more than 450 web-based, fully interactive, multimedia learning games for music students — beginners through Level 4.” Pretty impressive!

Anyway, I’m putting this on my list of things to explore and figure out this summer. If any of you offer a computer lab or use Music Learning Community in your studio I’d love to know how it works for you and if you have any tips for someone just starting out.

I was thrilled to discover that there is an entire website full of Songs for Teaching! There are songs for a whole variety of subjects and lots of songs within each subject. To be honest, I didn’t care for some of the music (a few of the ones I listened to were more like a rap song and didn’t have much of a melody), but I think it would be easy enough to sing the lyrics to a different tune. Plus, I’ve only scratched the surface of the hundreds of songs available! They even have some music-related ones that might come in handy.

1. Clearly identify the skills you actually want to build.

2. Set aside time every day - or on an extremely regular schedule - to focus specifically on building those skills.

3. Develop a game plan for building a specific skill.

4. Invest in top-quality resources for learning.

5. Set a clear goal that you want to reach.

6. Use something in the “real world” to work on as you learn.

7. Gather support for this skill growth.

8. Share the progress you’re making along the way.

9. Capitalize on your newly-found skill by applying it to a project that you can share with others.

10. Get started. Now. Not later.

Trent explains each of these tactics further in his post and then gives some excellent, practical examples of how he’s developing new skills in his own life (including learning to play the piano!).

Stay tuned later this month for my announcement about a new project I’m working on that goes along with this idea…

I have a hanging file for each day of the week that I teach. If I get a new book for a student, I just drop it in the file for the appropriate day. If a student accidentally forgets a book in the studio, I drop it in their lesson day file. Same goes for worksheets I want to remember to give to a specific student.

Here’s a closer look at some of the other items I keep in the organizer:

This handy notepad is where I keep track of all the music I need to look for or purchase the next time I make a trip to the music store.

I love these music flashcards! The ones I use the most are the notes on the staff. I like that each card has the full staff, regardless of whether the note is in the treble or bass clef. And I really like the second and third sections on each card that contain short patterns incorporating the specific note so that students can practice identifying and playing the note in a context similar to what they would find in a piece of music.

A collection of dice and pawns that can be used for various games at the keyboard. Very handy!

An assortment of magnets that I use with a magnetic white board. I use these for melodic dictation or I draw a quick staff on the board and use the magnets for note or interval identification.

The white board and markers get used every day in my studio! I can’t imagine functioning without them. Whether it’s something simple like writing out the Major scale pattern or practicing drawing treble clefs to fine-tuning notation skills or writing answers for listening activities, this board is well-used (obviously, since it’s falling apart!). Using a white board and markers provides an easy way to incorporate activities that address all three major learning styles - aural, visual and kinesthetic.

I’d love to know if you have tips for staying organized in your studio! I’m constantly looking for ways to run things more efficiently and love to know what’s working well for other teachers!

Here’s the outline for the evening detailed descriptions of each of the activities:
* Terms That Stretch My Brain Object Lesson
I got this idea from a children’s conference I attended years ago and I just love it! (My students loved it too and kept asking, “How are you doing that? Are you magic?”) Here are step-by-step instructions for how to conduct this activity:

1. Print out the Terms That Stretch My Brain cards and display sign on cardstock paper. Cut along the dashed lines.

2. Introduce each term one at a time to the group of students. Have a student volunteer come to the front of the room and hold the term card in one hand and the definition card in the other hand. Say the term and definition once and then have all the students repeat it together after you (e.g. “Tempo means rate of speed”, “Key Signature means the sharps or flats notated at the beginning of the piece.”) Continue this process with each of the terms and definitions, having a new student volunteer come to the front and hold each pair. After adding each new term, review all the previous terms by having the students recite them together as you point to each student volunteer.

3. Collect the pairs from each student, placing the cards face down and making two separate stacks with all the terms in one stack and all the definitions in the other stack. Be sure that the location of the cards in the stack corresponds to the matching card in the other stack. Once all the cards are stacked, place one stack on top of the other. Shuffle the cards by placing the top card on the bottom until the students give the signal for you to stop. Count out six cards off the top and place them one at a time face down in a stack. Place the remaining six cards beside it without counting the cards off the top.

4. Refer to your Terms That Stretch My Brain display sign and tell the students that you will place the top card of either stack on the bottom of that stack for each letter of the word “Terms.” At any time one of the students can yell switch and you must switch to the other stack, placing the top card on the bottom. Once you move the card for the last letter of the word, flip over the top card on one of the stacks. Show it to the students and ask them if they can correctly recite either the matching term or definition (depending on which one is on the card you already showed them). Once they do so, flip over the card on the top of the other pile to see if they are correct. The top of the other card will be the match for the first card. If they are correct, let that student hold the matching pair. Continue the same process with each of the words on the display sign. Amazingly, the top cards on each pile will be a matching pair every time!

* Making Musical Term Posters

I divided the students into four groups and assigned each group a term (Tempo, Dynamics, Articulation, Mood). Their job was to design a poster for that term, including the term name and definition that we learned and all the symbols or other terms that would be included in that category. (e.g. Dynamics would include crescendo and diminuendo marks, forte and piano symbols, etc.) I had a stack of music dictionaries available for reference and the students had fun looking things up and learning new words (ever heard of Allegrissimo?). I also provided each group with a sheet of posterboard and lots of markers, crayons, colored pencils and stickers. After the allotted time was up, I had each group stand at the front of the room and show their poster to the other students and explain the symbols and terms they included on it.

* Performances
For the performance time, the students took their turns according to their term groupings. All the students from the Tempo group went first. As each of them played, the observing students were instructed to listen specifically for musical sounds they heard that related to Tempo. After each performance, we shared what things we heard, reinforcing the vocabulary of terms they learned while designing their posters. We followed the same procedure for each of the other three term categories.

We had a really great time and went over our scheduled hour and a half by almost 20 minutes. I told the students that I’ll keep their posters in the studio and if they come across new terms in their pieces or by doing their own research we can add them to the posters. I even agreed to give them extra points if they came up with new terms that aren’t already on the posters. And maybe, just maybe, in addition to having fun they’ll even start to become fluent in this often elusive language of music.

If you could automatically improve one area of your piano skills, what would it be?

* Increasing my piano level.
* Learning hard pieces.
* Sight-reading.
* Lesson work.
* Romantic sounding pieces.
* Sight-reading.
* Sight-reading.
* Sight-reading (understanding chord structures, etc.).
* Curving fingers.
* Scales.
* Staying on beat.
* Improving my piano skills faster.
* Sight-reading.
* Playing really hard notes.
* Keeping fingers curved.
* Play all the songs in the world.
* Everything! (Learn more difficult pieces faster)
* Listening and playing big compositions by ear.
* Not having pauses.