As I mentioned in my Summer Musings post, we gave piano camps a bit of a twist this year in my studio. I wanted to give my older students an opportunity to study music in a more intensive way than we are able to throughout the year. Thus was borne, “Kick-it-up-a-Notch!” It has been a […]
Group Class Ideas
Boil ’em Cabbage Down is a Hit!
A couple weeks ago, I mentioned my group class collaborative experiment. As you’ll notice in the video clip below, we didn’t get everything polished, but we did have a ton of fun! We only had a few minutes for this activity, so it was all sight-reading and playing by ear for the students. They all […]
Group Class Experiment with Collaborative Music
Normally I don’t post about group activities and games until after I’ve tried them, but I’m so excited about this one that I thought I’d go ahead and post it anyway. I’m hoping to use it at tomorrow’s group class, so I’ll try to let you know how it goes after the fact, too! A […]
The Perfect Game for Reinforcing Stem Placement
My students do a lot of notating, whether for compositions or for various games. One thing that always gets me is how much I have to remind them which direction the stems should go and on which side of the note they should be placed. It doesn’t seem like it should be that complicated, but […]
Another Winning Group Music Game!
This game was even more popular than the Musical Terms and Symbols game I mentioned yesterday! This one is called, Who’s the Leader? Here a couple video clips and the instructions for how to play it: Who’s the Leader? Players stand in a circle. One player goes out of the room. A leader is appointed. […]
Fun Group Music Game for Knowing Your Terms and Symbols!
Last Thursday was our fourth Investment Club Meeting (a.k.a. group class) of the year. One of the new games we tried is one I dubbed, “Call-it!” The inspiration came from a really old Fun Encyclopedia that I picked up years ago at an antique shop. Here are the instructions: Call-it! Dump a set of scrabble […]
