Finding Focus. That was the title I gave to our first activity each day of last week’s Kick-it-up-a-Notch! piano camp. Prior to the class I selected a piece of music approximately 10 minutes long. I printed the title at the top of a page in the student workbooks, but other than that I left the […]
Group Class Ideas
Kick-it-up-a-Notch! Kicks Off!
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 […]
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. […]
