Has anyone else been emphasizing key signatures this month? Or have you tried another theme for the month? I’d love to hear your thoughts on what has worked well, what hasn’t worked well, and any other ideas for improvement. Also, does anyone have ideas for future themes? Also…just so you know, I scheduled my spring […]
Teaching
Group Music Class – Songs from Around the World and Key Signature Games
Tuesday evening, we held our fifth Private Eye Workshop of the year. Our theme for this one was Folk Songs from Around the World. Here are some picture highlights from the event: In keeping with our Key Signature theme for the month, we started out with a game. One at a time, I had each […]
Key Signature Game with Mr. Whacker!
As I mentioned Friday, I’m doing a “Simon Says” game this week to reinforce our key signature theme of the month. I wasn’t quite sure how to adapt the idea to a private lesson, but after a bit of brainstorming, this is what I came up with. I have the student spread out two sets […]
Monday Mailbag – Teaching Pentascales
When do you introduce the five finger pentascale to a student? Any information regarding pentascales would be greatly appreciated. I usually introduce pentascales as soon as the student has learned the names of all the white keys and understands half steps and whole steps. We start with the C-Major pentascale, and I teach them the […]
Fresh and Fun! Idea for Key Signatures
Steve, over at Music Ed Lounge, is the one who first suggested a theme of key signatures for this month (thanks, Steve!). Next week, I’m planning to use his Fresh and Fun! idea of “Simon Says” with my students. If you have a Fresh and Fun! idea you’d like to contribute for focusing on Key […]
Major Minor Scale Matchup Free Worksheet
Since my students have been doing well with the Key Signature – Scale Matchup worksheets, I thought it might be helpful to use a similar format to help them understand the relationship between relative keys. In the Major-Minor Scale Matchup worksheet, students are supposed to draw a line connecting each scale in the left hand […]
