Have you ever had students completely blow the performance of a piece that they’ve played numerous times without a glitch? Or have you ever been that performer? I raise my hand. Learning how to memorize cognitively has made all the difference for me, and I’ve used it over and over again to help students (even […]
Game Ideas
A Fun Group Piano Class Rhythm Game
The last week of each month I hold a 1-hour group class in addition to the regular lessons for that week. This gives the students an opportunity to perform for each other, participate in ensembles, and play a variety of games to help reinforce musical concepts. Since one of our primary focuses this year is […]
A Simple and Fun Rhythm Activity for the Piano Lesson
Since one of my main objectives this year is to help my students master rhythm skills, we are finding a variety of ways at each lesson to help students decipher, play, and notate rhythms accurately. Here’s a fun multi-sensory rhythm activity we tried this week that was very effective! This is adapted from Have a […]
Note Categories – A Music Note Identification Game
After getting a good start on our NoteStars challenge, I also assigned every student the Note Categories game. This game is very simple, but definitely challenging for students. I use one of each letter name scale block and time the student as they go through the set of student music note flashcards, placing each one […]
3 Tips to Turn Students into Music Theory Rockstars – Guest Series by Kristin Jensen
3. Apply it What is the one thing you could do that would best give kids the internal drive to master music theory? Teach them the application. When kids realize that music theory empowers them to create their own fun songs they’ll want to learn everything they can from you. Far too often kids study […]
3 Tips to Turn Students into Music Theory Rockstars – Guest Series by Kristin Jensen
2. Make it social Studying piano can be kind of lonely. Kids practice by themselves. Then they sit in a small room with an “old” teacher who for 30 minutes tells them everything they’re doing wrong. Then they go home and repeat. One reason why so many kids end up choosing sports over piano is […]
