Color In My Piano » music theory

Music Worksheet: Identifying Space Notes on the Staff

joy (admin) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:00:26 +0000

Here’s a new free music worksheet that I just added to the Printables page:

This worksheet introduces the idea of identifying the space notes on the staff using the mnemonics FACE and All Cows Eat Grass. These are the only two mnemonics I use. I don’t teach separate mnemonics for the line notes anymore (like Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge or Great Big Dogs Fight Animals) because it’s simply too much to try to keep 4 different mnemonics straight! I have found that it’s easier for students to remember just two mnemonics and then learn to jump up a step from the nearest space note to identify a line note.

To download, visit the Printables > Worksheets page and scroll down to the I’s for “Identifying Space Notes on the Staff.” Enjoy!

[Visit Music Worksheet: Identifying Space Notes on the Staff to view the original blog post at Color In My Piano.]

Just Added: Treble & Bass Clef Worksheet

joy (admin) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:38:27 +0000

Today, a new worksheet was added to the Printables page, all about the treble clef and bass clef!

This worksheet uses dotted lines to teach the student how to draw the treble clef and bass clef. I also included a couple of illustrations in this worksheet showing the development of the clefs over the centuries. Our modern clefs still bear some resemblance to the letters G and F, which can be a helpful tool for students for remembering those landmark notes. Students will find this bit of history interesting and memorable as they learn about the clefs!

To download this worksheet, please visit the Printables > Worksheets page and scroll down to the T’s for “Treble & Bass Clef Worksheet.” Enjoy!

P.S.: Don’t forget to enter the giveaways from last week if you haven’t already. Winners are going to be announced this week starting tomorrow!

[Visit Just Added: Treble & Bass Clef Worksheet to view the original blog post at Color In My Piano.]

Just Added: Music Staff Paper for Stickers of all Sizes

joy (admin) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 13:22:07 +0000

Guess what! Tomorrow is Color In My Piano’s THREE YEAR anniversary! Woohoo! I’ve got a few fun posts and giveaways planned for later this week in honor of our anniversary. But today, I thought I’d share this new printable:

I love having my piano students compose their own music, even when they are young beginners. I try to make it easy and fun for them. That’s why I created this pdf: music staff paper for composing with stickers! I must give credit to my friend Michelle from Michigan for the idea of using stickers for composing with students (Thanks, Michelle!).

This pdf contains a variety of various sizes of staff paper for use with any stickers you might find. You can find plain, round stickers at most office supply stores or even the dollar store. Other stickers like star- or heart-shaped ones will probably work fine too, and might be a fun way to reflect whatever holiday is coming up. I would recommend using large stickers with young students, and smaller stickers with older students. On the bottom of each page in the pdf, it indicates what size stickers you’ll need with each sheet of staff paper. The various colors of the stickers can represent certain rhythm values or sections of the composition. Be creative!

(Please forgive the gray markings on the paper you can see in the photos — my printer’s toner is low!)

Here’s a couple of quick ideas for using this printable:

Send students home with a sheet of stickers and a few pieces of staff paper, and assign them to create a short composition using whatever concepts you are currently learning about. E.g., steps, skips, forte and piano, eighth notes, etc.
Composing with stickers could be a fun activity during group lessons too! It helps speed up the composing process too, because writing out notation can be a laborious activity for young beginners. Students could later be assigned to transcribe their piece into tradition notation. I plan to use this staff paper to compose with stickers during one of my summer camps: “So, You Want To Be A Composer?”.
Try doing melodic dictation with stickers!

You can download this pdf by visiting the Printables > Other Resources page and scrolling down to the S’s for Staff Paper for Composing with Stickers.

Let me know if you have requests for other staff sizes to fit whatever stickers you have. Enjoy!

[Visit Just Added: Music Staff Paper for Stickers of all Sizes to view the original blog post at Color In My Piano.]

Just Added: “Gallery of Music” Symbol Drawing Worksheets

joy (admin) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:03:31 +0000

Happy Valentine’s Day! I have a free printable to share today…

This is a set of simple worksheets for having students learn to draw various music symbols. The worksheets can be used singly or in groups, depending on what concepts your students are currently learning. I would encourage students to use colorful crayons to draw the symbols.

Here are the symbols covered on each page:

Quarter, half, dotted-quarter, and whole notes.
Quarter, half, dotted-quarter, and whole rests.
Single eighth note, beamed eighth notes, eighth rest, and dotted quarter note.
Treble clef, bass clef, staff, and grand staff.
Barline, double barline, repeat sign, and time signature.
Forte, piano, mezzo forte, and mezzo piano.
Sharp, flat, natural, quarter note with flat.
Slur, tie, staccato, accent.

If you have suggestions for more symbols to include in additional worksheets, let me know!

To download this set of worksheets, visit the Printables > Worksheets page and scroll down to the G’s for “Gallery of Music – Symbol Drawing Worksheets.”

P.S.: I received an email yesterday from the MTNA Collegiate Chapter at Butler University, asking if I’d send a link to the survey they created about online marketing for piano teachers. They are looking for responses to help them with a session they will be presenting at the MTNA National Conference in NYC next month. Please take a minute of your time to help them out! http://tinyurl.com/butlersurvey2012

P.S.S.: Today is the last day to sign up to attend the MTNA National Conference at the early registration discount! Visit mtna.org to learn more. Hope to see you in NYC!

[Visit Just Added: “Gallery of Music” Symbol Drawing Worksheets to view the original blog post at Color In My Piano.]

DIY Floor Music Staff for $10

joy (admin) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:01:43 +0000

I’ve been wanting a floor staff for a long time. Now I finally have one!

Here’s the materials I used:

oblong vinyl tablecloth (mine is 52” x 90”) or a shower curtain. (I paid $8 at Wal-Mart for my tablecloth.)
black masking tape, or electrical tape. (I found a roll of black masking tape for $1.29 at my local craft store. Masking tape is 1” wide. If you want thinner lines, use electrical tape.)
ruler
pencil

I’m happy with my decision to go with a vinyl tablecloth over a shower curtain. I got the tablecloth suggestion from a friend of mine from back in Michigan (thanks, Michelle!). The vinyl is a little bit stiff which helps it stay flat on the ground (although it’s pretty wrinkly from the packaging – hopefully those little bumps will smooth out with time), and the fabric backing prevents it from slipping around on my hardwood floor. The vinyl will be easy to sweep or wipe off if needed, and I love that my floor staff folds up easily for storage!

After some math, I determined that I would make the spaces 3.5” wide. Using a pencil and ruler, I marked where the tape should go using a little dash every 18” or so. I wanted to make sure the tape lines were nice and straight!

I would have liked to make the spaces larger so I originally considered using the tablecloth vertically instead of horizontally, but I also wanted to have plenty of room down the length of the tablecloth. My own two feet don’t really fit well in the spaces, but it will probably be just the right size for my students’ little feet. Fortunately, my beanie animals fit just right too!

The plush alphabet letters pictured in the first photo came from Goodwill. It was a near-complete set of 2 of all 26 letters for just $1. I removed A-G from the set and plan to give the rest to my 3-year-old nephew, who is obsessed with letters right now. :) If you wanted to make your own set of colorful letters, you could make them by cutting letters out of felt.

I’d like to sew some black, round bean bags to use as music note heads, but I think for now I’m going to buy a package of small black paper plates at the dollar store and cut out the middles to fit on the staff. Another idea is to buy a package of pre-cut round foam discs from a craft store or dollar store.

Now I just need to make a treble clef and a bass clef! I don’t think masking tape is going to work well for making the curvy treble clef shape, so I’m trying to think of an easier way. I might just cut the clefs out of cardboard or out of a dollar store shower curtain, and then spray paint it black. Any other ideas?

I can’t wait to show my new floor staff to my students! I found a few floor staff games here at Jennifer’s Pianimation blog. Please let me know if you know of some other great floor staff games. :)

[Visit DIY Floor Music Staff for $10 to view the original blog post at Color In My Piano.]

Just Added: Musical Flashcard Sorting game

joy (admin) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:27:42 +0000

This is a simple game to play with groups of students that makes note-naming flashcards a bit more interesting. It involves sorting the flashcards onto alphabet letter signs on the floor, as pictured on the right (the “A” flashcards would go in the blank space on the right side of the page).

The game is pretty flexible, because beforehand you can sort out exactly which flashcards you want to focus on with your students. This also allows you to control how long you wish the game to continue.

You can also use different flashcards. With my Homeschool Music Class this week, we used my Piano Key naming flashcards (they came with the MiniMusic set I purchased earlier this year). With my Piano Readiness Class, we’ve been doing on-staff work so we used regular staff-note-naming flashcards (I use this set from Faber & Faber, but any flashcards will do).

Another tip with this game: if you are using the note-naming flashcards, arrange the musical alphabet signs on the floor in a column, so that A is at the bottom and G is at the top. I recommend this because this arrangement resembles the staff, where the musical alphabet progresses vertically. If you are using piano-key-naming flashcards, I would arrange the signs on the floor horizontally, just like the keyboard.

Download the pdf of the alphabet signs and detailed gameplay instructions by visiting the Printables > Games page. Scroll down to the M’s for “Musical Flashcard Sorting game.”

[Visit Just Added: Musical Flashcard Sorting game to view the original blog post at Color In My Piano.]

Staff Paper – Large Staff for Simple Compositions

joy (admin) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:44:32 +0000

With my Piano Readiness Class, we’ve been learning about staff notation. Last week, each student composed a mini-composition on the piano and then we together notated the piece. We used colorful markers to label the notes (A, B, C, etc) and also wrote in finger numbers, so they can continue playing their compositions at home. They loved the idea of being composers!

This is the sheet paper we used to notate our compositions. Young students tend to draw rather large notes :) , so I left plenty of room between the lines of the staff.

To download, visit the Printables > Other Resources page and scroll down to “Staff Paper — Large Staff for Simple Compositions.”

[Visit Staff Paper – Large Staff for Simple Compositions to view the original blog post at Color In My Piano.]

Recent Purchases: Scale Blocks & A Technique Monkey

joy (admin) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:19:14 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I’m always on the lookout for creative and inexpensive items for my teaching. The dollar store is one of my favorite places to go!

In the craft aisle at Dollar Tree right now, there are packages of foam cubes, as shown in the picture. I’ve always wanted to make scale blocks like Natalie Wickham’s, but have never got around to buying the wood blocks and paint. These foam cubes seem like a pretty good alternative, although they may not last as long I suppose. On the upside, it doesn’t take long to write the alphabet letters on these little cubes with a marker! I am going to go back to buy a couple more packages, so I can make a nice set of scale blocks using the orange colored cubes.

With the rest of the colors, I am going to make rhythm dice, Major/minor/augmented/dimished dice, time signature dice, and whatever else I can come up with. I’m sure they will be useful for games down the road!

Now, you may be wondering about the “technique monkey” mentioned in the title of this post. Well, I can’t claim this idea as my own either. Irina Gorin uses a similar monkey with her students, to teach them about arm weight.

This little friend (yes, also from the dollar store) has velcro on his paws, so you can wrap the monkey around the student’s wrist and have them swing the monkey for a ride with loose, weighty arms. I always find teaching basic piano technique to young ages pretty challenging, so I’m happy to have any kind of prop that may help! Once the student has experienced an awareness of arm weight away from the piano, they can hopefully begin to transfer the same feeling over to when they are at the piano. :)

[Visit Recent Purchases: Scale Blocks & A Technique Monkey to view the original blog post at Color In My Piano.]

Just Added: Musical Alphabet Cards

joy (admin) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 12:30:27 +0000

There are others who have shared alphabet card printables similar to what I’m posting today, but I’m adding mine to the mix anyway. :) I wanted some that would work well to print onto colored cardstock paper. Since I don’t have a color printer, this is an easy way I can still get colorful things to use with my students!

I used these cards with my new weekly Homeschool Music Class (just started last week, thanks to Sheryl’s recent post at her Notable Music Studio blog) and with my Piano Readiness Class. My students LOVED making “musical alphabet snakes” in order to learn how the musical alphabet is different from the regular alphabet. Included in the pdf is a card which outlines some other possible activities to do using the cards. These activities work great in both group settings and private lessons.

Do you have some other activities to share that involve alphabet cards? Share them in the comments!

To Download: visit the Printables > Other Resources page and scroll down to the M’s for Musical Alphabet Cards.

[Visit Just Added: Musical Alphabet Cards to view the original blog post at Color In My Piano.]

Just Updated: Scale & Arpeggio Fingering (2 Octaves) Reference Sheet

joy (admin) — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 10:43:32 +0000

Some of you may remember the Scale & Arpeggio Fingering reference sheet I posted in December of 2010. About a month ago, a friendly reader made some very helpful suggestions for improvement, and so I spent quite a bit of time revising the printable. It’s called “Scale and Arpeggio Fingering for Piano (2 Octaves)” and you can find it on the Printables > Other Resources page.

I originally created this printable with my intermediate/advanced students in mind who are working on 2- and 4- octave scales/arpeggios and have trouble keeping all their fingerings straight in their head once they start getting them under their fingers. It’s nice to have a guide tucked inside the front cover of a book to refer to now and then!

The document contains three pages:

Page 1: Rules and tricks for remembering scale and arpeggio fingerings (as shown on the right).

Page 2: A listing of the fingerings for each Major and Harmonic Minor scale/arpeggio (2-octave) for piano.

Page 3: A continuation of page 2.

Of course, there are a few different ways to finger scales and arpeggios, so I’m sorry if the fingerings listed in this printable do not correspond with the ones you prefer to teach your students. These are the ones I like to use, and I thought I’d share it with anyone who might happen to find it useful.

If anyone else finds typos or inconsistencies, please let me know! I did my best to proof-read the fingerings, but it is certainly possible that I still may have missed something!

[Visit Just Updated: Scale & Arpeggio Fingering (2 Octaves) Reference Sheet to view the original blog post at Color In My Piano.]

Color In My Piano » music theory

Music Worksheet: Identifying Space Notes on the Staff

Related Posts:

Just Added: Treble & Bass Clef Worksheet

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Just Added: Music Staff Paper for Stickers of all Sizes

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Just Added: “Gallery of Music” Symbol Drawing Worksheets

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DIY Floor Music Staff for $10

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Just Added: Musical Flashcard Sorting game

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Staff Paper – Large Staff for Simple Compositions

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Recent Purchases: Scale Blocks & A Technique Monkey

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Just Added: Musical Alphabet Cards

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Just Updated: Scale & Arpeggio Fingering (2 Octaves) Reference Sheet

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