Making piano lessons fun and engaging!

 Happy Holidays everyone!  I hope that you are having a wonderful time with family and friends.   I received some pretty awesome gifts for Christmas this year including a few items that I'll be incorporating into my future lessons so stay tuned for some wacky ideas, games, and activities in the new year!  Are a few of your students having a little difficulty remembering the meanings of different tempo marks such as Adagio, Allegro, and Andante?  Throwing "snowballs" at varying tempos really helps my students remember which is which.  It's especially easy to get the "A" words mixed up when first learning them so I thought up this idea of  us throwing "snowballs" at each other based on which tempo mark I call out.  It's a great way to help teach and reinforce the different tempo marks. This is the perfect time of year to have an indoor "snowball fight' with your students using small styrofoam balls (about 2-21/2" in diameter) and ...

 Wow!  My students rocked the house last Friday night at their winter recital.  They did such a wonderful job.  I couldn't be more proud of them!  Now, on to more note ID games......I created this game "Note Rollers" close to 5 years ago.  It's a great game to reinforce quick note identification.  I bought a table top rubber piano from Toys R Us ® a few Christmas's ago and it has been such an asset to my piano program.  My students get a kick out of this flat rubber piano.  They think it's the coolest thing ever.  I use it for quite a few activities.  If you are interested in purchasing one of these, I'd suggest looking for sales now around the holidays.  I bought mine for half off the original price (about $13.00).  I wouldn't roll it up as they suggest since it actually damages the keys.  Keep it flat at all times.  I bought a few foam dice from a local teacher store (although I've seen them in craf...

I love thinking up ways to help my students quickly identify and locate piano notes. I came up with this game about 3 years ago and have been using it ever since. The beauty of a game like this is that it grows with your students. All you need for this game is card stock, magic markers, colored sticker dots, and a ball.  I'd suggest laminating anything you make. There's this store near to where I live that allows you to laminate your own stuff for only $.25 a foot!  I go in there at least once a week.  Great place! I lay down six to seven note cards on the floor.  Each with a  circle sticker adhered to a particular note. Then I hand my students the ball.  I hold up either a letter name or staff note (depending on their level of understanding) and they have to find the card on the floor that matches the card in my hand.  When they find it, I tell them to slam the ball down onto the card as hard as they'd like.  ...

WOW! It's been a while since I've blogged.  I just had to share this game I'm having my students play this week.  I like getting the kiddos outdoors every once in a while to take teaching beyond the four walls of my studio.  Since we're in the middle of our fall season I wanted to create an outdoor matching game where my students would match pumpkins to scarecrows.  I feel the best way to keep musical terms and note identification fresh in my students' minds is to constantly quiz them with  games. I got this idea as I was wandering the aisles of a local fabric store and spotted these amazing scarecrows.....DING!  The idea had been planted.  I then thought, "wouldn't it be cool if I could buy 10 ornamental (fake) pumpkins and have the kiddos run around my front yard matching pumpkins to scarecrows?" I kept visiting the fabric store until the scarecrows were discounted as far as they were going to go  (...

Since the weather has warmed up, my students have been blowing bubbles to the metronome beat outside. I bought a bubble pack with all sorts of different bubble wands. Even my older students enjoy this activity. They blow eighth, quarter, half, dotted half, and whole note bubbles. When blowing eighth note bubbles equip your students with one wand in each hand so they can alternate blows. I had one student dunk 5 wands in the bottle and held all five in one hand like a set of cards. This activity takes no more than two minutes of their lesson time but it adds that fun spontaneous element to the lesson. I like to use "Miracle Bubbles" brand bubbles since it coats the wands well and produces good bubbles but you can certainly make your own solution or buy these items at your local dollar store.

Phew!  What a whirlwind this past week was with my son being home sick.  He is well on his way to recovering so life can go back to normal now.  I've written out over 30 metronome rhythm sheets at this point from very simple patterns of quarter, half, and whole notes to more complex dotted quarter, eighth note, eighth rest patterns, to each hand playing different rhythm patterns at the same time.  This activity takes no more than 2 minutes of your students' instructional time and it is a great way to help your kiddos understand and develop rhythm sense.  You could have your students simply clap out the sheets while the metronome's clicking in the background but to make it even more fun you could hand them an instrument such as a tambourine, a pair of maracas, or a bongo drum to play while reading the rhythm sheets.  Have your students first read the sheet to a slow metronome beat then increase the speed and have them play the same patt...

"Splash Bombs" Here's a little metronome activity I thought of while visiting a local dollar store and hobby store.  I purchased a butterfly net and a set of throwing balls that you'd use at the swimming pool. This is the perfect time of year to visit a dollar and hobby store for summer items but if you can't find the net and balls there, places like Walmart ®, Toys R Us ®, and Target ® carry these items as well.  Give your student a set of three or four of the swimming pool balls depending on how many they can hold in their hand, put the metronome beat on a moderate speed, and have the student throw the balls in according to what note value you call.  The smaller the note value the closer you want to be to the student.  The bigger the note value, the farther away you want to be.  For instance, I hold the butterfly net pretty close to the student when I call out eighth or quarter note throws but as I call out half, dotted half, whole no...

Very often as pianists our hands are required to play two separate musical thoughts whether it be with the notes, dynamic signs, and/or rhythm patterns.  For example while our left hand fingers are playing eighth notes our right hand fingers could be playing a combination of dotted quarter, quarter, and eighth notes.  In addition to playing different note values we could also be required to play one hand softer or louder than the other hand.  Do you remember someone asking you to tap your head and rub your belly at the same time when you were young? How long did it take you to get it? It took me a few tries. My elementary school friends and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world at the time. We'd giggle and laugh with each other at our feeble attempts at mastering this exercise but when we finally got it....boy, did it feel as though we had just moved a mountain!  No wonder studies have shown that children who play...

Wow! What an exciting Superbowl game between the Patriots and the Giants.  I am not a big sports buff but even I got drawn into the excitement of the game.  Well, this week my students in addition to playing a Valentine's Day game (in anticipation of next Tuesday) will be swatting notes to help further develop their sense of rhythm.  All you need is poster board, magic markers, and a fly swatter.  It's so easy and fast to create.  Laminate it, store it, and bring it out every once in a while for total fun!  Purchase a few extra sheets of poster board and create new patterns.  I wrote out patterns on the front and  back of the poster board as you see on the left hand side of this entry to fit different stages of rhythmic development.  My more advanced students will be swatting dotted quarter and eighth note patterns while my newer students will be swatting quarter, half, and whole note patterns.  I taped the board onto my front doo...

In my opinion.......mistakes are WONDERFUL!  How else can we get better at something if we don't make mistakes? If we're not allowed to make mistakes?  Observing a baby learn to walk is the best example I know of learning from our mistakes.  I have learned so many precious lessons by simply observing my son, Matthew.  I thank God for giving me such an amazing child!  When he was first learning to walk, he'd pick himself off the floor from a nearby table, wobble, let go of the table, and fall back down.  Do you think that stopped him?  Of course not!  He'd get up and try again and again until eventually he was able to stand on his own and take his first steps forward just like most every baby before him and most every child after him.  And my husband and I (as every parent) were encouraging.  We'd praise him for making the simplest attempt at getting up.  We'd clap our hands and smile at him and when he'd finally ...

 POOF ® football Most of my students participate in some sort of organized sport such as football, soccer, basketball, etc.. so what I do is incorporate whatever sport is in season at the time into my metronome exercises.  Since were are now in the throws of football season my students and I will occasionally pass a football to varying metronome speeds.  We also pass the ball to different note values.  Most everyone has a football laying around somewhere.  We own two real footballs but I chose to purchase a soft POOF ® football www.poof-slinky.com to prevent surrounding equipment from breaking just in case the ball was thrown too hard. Even though I remind my kiddos to gently throw the ball they sometimes get caught up in the moment and imagine they are throwing the ball down the field to a team player who'll score a touchdown.  Gotta love children's imaginations!  I am no good at throwing a football so I have my football p...

Sometimes I do tend to think  way outside the box.  I've found that the more outrageous the activity the more engaged and excited my students get.  Well, I get pretty darn excited as well. I had some pretty odd items on my Christmas wish list this year.  One of the things I asked "Santa" to give me was a bow and arrow set for my piano lessons.  "A bow and arrow set?", you ask . "What would she need with a bow and arrow set and how on earth would she be able to tie this into a piano lesson?"  Oh , but you can and the kiddos have been eating this activity up for the past two weeks.  I tend to showcase activities like this one for a "limited time" and bring them out once or twice a year to keep their interest up.  After this week, it's getting packed away.  This set was purchased from "toys to grow on" ® and it's called "My First Archery Set" www.toystogrowon.com What I am doing with this "exercise" is...

Be-Bopping to note cards:  All you'll need for this activity is card stock, and a black marker.  I use different colors but you don't need to.  Draw a few quarter, half, dotted half, whole, and eighth notes on  card stock.  Make a few of each note so that your rhythm combinations are endless.  Laminate your cards.  Lay down a rhythm pattern vertically on the floor based on what your students have learned so far.  Turn on the metronome to a slow speed and have your children walk next to (not on) the cards to the metronome beat.  Have them go through the pattern a few times to a faster speed each time.  Some kiddos will be able to step next to the cards and go through the rhythm sequence with very little help while others will need a few lessons to "get it". I have students who have been with me for over four years who still ask for this activity!

I include metronome "exercises" in every lesson.  The kiddos look forward to this and these exercises alone have helped keep children in my program for much longer than if they were in a traditional program where they'd be expected to sit at the piano for the entire lesson.  The younger the child, the more wiggly they are.  So I say, "Let them wiggle" but in a way that still teaches them what they need to know as pianists.  Even my older students love the movement portion of the lessons.  Maybe it's just me but the most memorable classes I participated in were the ones that challenged me on many different levels. The activities take no more than 4 minutes tops and the benefits my students are reaping from these exercises have been huge.  They are developing such a phenomenal sense of rhythm that quite a few of my middle schoolers have been personally asked by their school band directors to join the percussion team! It's amazi...