I was curious to see if any of my students would notice the new Circle of Fifths poster adorning our studio wall this week (surprisingly, it arrived just two days after I ordered it!). Sure enough, the observant ones among the bunch mentioned it as soon as they walked into the studio! A couple of […]
Scales
A Fun Key Signature Activity!
As I mentioned several weeks ago in the I See the Pattern post, Claire has been working on learning and understanding key signatures. For the latest key signature activity, I had her roll a block with letter names to determine the name of a Major key, then had her place magnets and write the note […]
I see the pattern!
One of my favorite aspects of teaching is leading students to a discovery of knowledge. Renowned pedagogue Frances Clark reminded us, “Teaching is not telling.” As easy, and seemingly efficient, as it is to fall into the rut of telling students what I want them to know, the reality is that they will almost assuredly […]
Scales and Key Signatures – The Method Behind the Music
Here’s another wonderful treasure from the draft archives. This is a simple, concise overview of scales and key signatures with easy-to-understand graphics: Scales and Key Signatures – The Method Behind the Music
The Speedy Scale Game for Piano Students!
As I mentioned last week, I love to incorporate a variety of games to reinforce and evaluate music theory concepts with my students. This week we tried a Speedy Scale game to help students develop visual-spatial skills (they weren’t allowed to look at the piano keyboard, but had to visualize it in their mind) and […]
Snapshots From This Week’s Group Class
In addition to performing for each other this week we practiced sharing definitions and descriptions of the musical elements of our pieces. Composing with the fun new game Compose Yourself! A game of notating Major and minor scales accurately by following the correct pattern. Major and minor scale-building game at the piano keyboard! We […]
