My goodness, because of those two weeks I took off from blogging, I completely forgot to draw the winners of the “Matthew 6:33 Piano Teacher” eBook giveaway! Sorry about the delay. Here are the 5 winners:
Congrats to our winners! Winners — stay tuned for an email from the eBook’s author.
This morning with my homeschool music class, I played this game with my students:
As I was lesson planning last night, I was trying to think of a new way to practice the names of the piano keys. My homeschool music class is mostly a music history class, but we’ve been learning basic music/piano concepts too. My students already know how to figure them the piano key names by counting from Middle C, but they need more practice to get them memorized. So I came up with this game, which I called the “Spell-A-Keyboard Game.”
My students loved this game! I gave them each a set of cards with words containing only A-G (I gave them only the three-letter words for today) and a silent keyboard or paper keyboard, and three glass gems (pennies or buttons work too). Then I instructed them to “spell” the words from each flashcard by covering the right keys with glass gems. If you are playing this game with students at the piano, you can require that students spell the letters in order from left to right, but on a silent keyboard there might not be room to do so (as in the example shown in the photo).
This game is a great way to practice the piano key names without it actually feeling like a drill! My students really enjoyed seeing how quickly they could spell the words and were pretty proud of their work each time.
You can download the “Musical Alphabet Word Flashcards” on the Printables > Games page. When I created the cards, I tried to pick mostly words that kids would know. Enjoy!
Update: I just realized that Susan Paradis plays a game very similar to this, except the words are spelled on the staff! Read more here.
Update: Read about the outdoor version of this game here, where I describe my Musical Olympics Camp.
Update: I also found a way to adapt this game to be used with two floor keyboards indoors, with two teams. Click here for more info.
A few weeks ago, I received an email from a 16-year-old homeschooler, asking if I’d answer some interview questions for a research project about piano teaching. I was happy to oblige, and she was willing to let me post my answers here too. It was kind of fun!
How old were you when you first began learning/playing piano? Around 6 or 7.
Why did you start playing the piano? My mother got me started with her old piano book when I began showing interest by messing around on the piano. (The book was John Thompson’s “Teaching Little Fingers To Play,” for those of you interested! It starts right at the beginning with staff notation. 🙂
What music schools or institutions did you learn music at? I took private lessons with 3 different private teachers during my childhood and high school years. I attended Grand Rapids Community College for my first two years of college, transferred to Hope College to finished my Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance, and then afterwards completed a Master of Music degree in Piano Pedagogy. The college-level pedagogy courses I took were the most valuable — and second were the private lessons. I think every piano teacher should take or audit piano pedagogy courses at their local college if they ever have the opportunity. I am a much better teacher because of those classes than I could ever be otherwise!
Who have your teachers been? Various piano teachers in my town, and then college professors at whatever college I was attending at the time. Continue reading “Joy Gets Interviewed… :)”
I’m back! I ended up taking two weeks off instead of one, I know. 🙂 But it felt great. It feels great to be back too.
At the MTNA National Conference in NYC this year, one of the sessions I attended encouraged teachers to do yearly or quarterly assessments/evaluations of their students. Some teachers accompany these assessments with a parent-teacher-student conference. A few of the session’s attendees raised their hands to comment on their method of assessment and the benefits they’ve seen. I was quite intrigued with the idea, and decided I wanted to give it a try this year.
The only time when I’ve done something similar to this is when I was worked at a summer music camp in my hometown. I was the Theory & Composition Instructor, and the camp director asked each of us instructors to create some kind of assessment that we could send home with the students for the teachers and parents to be able to see what the student learned at camp. These assessments were very short and sweet, since we had only had contact with the student for four classes over four days.
I started looking around the internet for ideas, and eventually formed a template I’m pretty happy with. This assessment is not designed to do that same thing that standardized music testing is supposed to do. It’s much more general. It’s about communicating to the student and parent about the progress the student is making in various areas and the goals that I have in mind for them in upcoming months. It is a bit like a report card, but with no actual grades. Continue reading “Piano Student End-Of-The-Year Evaluations”
Just a quick post to let you know that I will be taking the week off from blogging. My brother is getting married this weekend, so my husband and I will be staying in Michigan with my family for a few days. And the early part of this week is going to be busy with the usual teaching in addition to the packing and preparations.
I hope you’ll miss me while I’m away! 🙂 See you all next week.
A large percentage of my studio right now is beginner/early elementary students. I like having simple and short games to play with them at the end of the lesson that reinforce concepts we are learning in their books. Motor Music Match is a game that I created with these things in mind. Take a look:
The point of the game is to match each car and sign to its proper place on the road where the rhythm value’s names are. It’s a great game that only takes a minute or two, so it’s perfect for the end of the lesson where you have a little bit of extra time. It would also work well to keep a copy of this game in your studio’s waiting room area.
When I first tested out this game with a student, he said, “There should be another level where it’s harder.” That’s when I added the street signs. 🙂 So, to follow his suggestion, first ask your student to match the cars. When they are able to do that successfully, clear the road and add the signs to make the game a little harder.
To download the pdf for this game, visit the Printables > Games page and scroll down to the M’s for “Music Motor Match.” Enjoy!
As I mentioned yesterday, our Spring Recital was Saturday! Here’s how it went down:
I don’t think I can share video of the recital since the pieces performed are under copyright, but I hope to share a photo slideshow soon!
Do you all have Spring Recitals coming up? I like holding mine early in the Spring because May and June are such a busy months.
As I mentioned last week, during my recent Piano Party/recital rehearsal I gave a listening sheet to my young beginners to complete as they listened to their fellow students perform. Here’s what it looked like:
I put each sheet in a plastic sheet protector and gave them a dry erase marker with a piece of felt so they could re-use the sheet for each piece they heard. It worked pretty well — my students were very attentive and really liked telling me about what they circled between pieces!
This worksheet would also work well for private lessons or group classes with beginner students to use while listening to recordings — like Carnival of the Animals, or whatever.
I do wish the sheet protector cleaned off a little better. The ones I used have kind of a matte surface…maybe I need to get some of the thicker, shiny ones? Or try laminating?
Anyway, my students really enjoyed this listening sheet! I found the clip art on some various public domain clip art sites. You could easily design your own the same way. Or if you’d like to download mine, visit the Printables > Worksheets page and scroll down to the L’s for “Listening Sheet for Young Students.”
P.S.: As requested, I added a page to the Rhythm Value Cards pdf: three beamed eighth note cards for use in compound time signatures. (Thanks for catching that, Bee!)
Australian composer Daniel McFarlane has composed a number of student-level repertoire books which are available on his website. Daniel was kind enough to send me digital copies of his books so I could review them here.
In appearance, all of Daniel’s books have easy-to-read scores with no illustrations. The titles of each piece are in fun fonts depending on the subject of each piece.
All of Daniel’s books can be purchased in hard copies or as digital copies (be careful that you’ve selected the right one when you check-out! The digital ones clearly say “Digital Edition” in the title, and allow for one print-out of the book). The prices for the music of Daniel’s website are in Australian dollars. Daniel assured me that when you check-out, the conversion to your currency would be made properly. The current rate of AUD compared to USD is about 1:1.
Soundscapes Book 1The pieces in Sounscapes Book 1 have a pop-ish and almost rock music sound to them, while retaining elements of classical music and good educational writing for students. The pieces feature repetitive patterns and chord progressions, catchy tunes, lyrical RH melodies, syncopated rhythms, and repeated LH notes.
I would use this book with an early intermediate student (probably no younger than age 9) who has good technique and an excellent sense of rhythm. It could also be a great option for teenagers or adult students at that level of playing. The pieces are very appealing in sound and would be a great option for boy students.
As you read this review, open another window and listen to the pieces here. Continue reading “Review: Daniel McFarlane’s Repertoire for Students”
Here they are…the rhythm value cards I mentioned in my post yesterday!
Continue reading “Rhythm Value Cards for Dictation and More”
On Saturday, I held a Piano Party for my students. It was basically a group lesson and rehearsal for our Spring Recital which is coming up in a few weeks. Most of my students have never met each other, so this was a good opportunity for them to learn a little about each other and to share their pieces. I’d like to hold group lessons more regularly now that I have enough students to do so…..so this was a good start!
Here’s what we did:
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 & Line Notes on the Staff.” Enjoy!
Identifying Space & Line Notes on the Staff worksheets (170.6 KiB, 56,371 hits)
Your Cart is Empty
