Making piano lessons fun and engaging!

Hi Everyone!  Continuing on with how I teach time signature to my students (especially my younger ones), I'm going to share how I teach what the bottom number of the time signature represents.  When I first started teaching piano about 10 years ago (after I taught in the public school system for 10 years as an elementary school teacher)  I have to be honest and say I dreaded teaching the bottom number of time signature to my students because they just wouldn't get it no matter how many fraction examples I gave them. Then I decided to approach the bottom number from a different angle; one that my younger students especially could understand.  First I show my students a paper circle and ask them what shape it is.  Then I show them a laminated circle made from card stock outlined in black representing a whole note (upper left hand corner pic if you're looking at the web version of this blog).  I say, "A whole circle represents a whole note".  T...

Hello!  Wow, what a month this has been so far.  My kiddos had an awesome spring recital, we visited New York (which I absolutely LOVED), and my son graduated from high school!  Things are finally starting to settle down but the summer months tend to go at a more relaxed pace than the rest of the year, don't you think?  I hope that you have amazing things planned for the next few months; picnics, pool outings, concerts in the park, hikes, etc. Okay, so I have decided to do a series on how I teach time signature to my students, especially my younger ones.  I'm not sure yet just how many parts there will be to this so I'm adding "Part 1, Part 2,....." so I can easily refer back to certain entries if needed. The first thing I do when introducing time signature is I have my students look at the numbers stacked above and below each other at the very beginning of their songs.  I share with them that this is a HUGE concept in music.  That it's th...

Hi Folks!  As promised I'm giving an update on the Twisted "Twister" piano game my sibling students played this past week.  If you'd like more details on how I made this work for piano lessons, please read the post "Twisted Twister" prior to this one.  That's Mabry and Chase in the photo above! With the feedback I got from my students these are the improvements I made: -I enlarged the pieces so that they could see them better -I went back to using the "Twister" spinner but simply helped it along if it ended up landing on the same body part too many times in a row -Instead of checking items off of a sheet, I simply called items out from the mat.  This made everything SO much easier.  I'd spin the spinner, call out the body part and color, and simply looked at the terms I adhered to the mat for that color, and called out one of the terms. -I set the timer for about 6 minutes.  Ten minutes seemed to take too long.  Six to Seven minutes ...

Before I jump into the game I have to brag on my child a little!  My son is graduating high school with honors; summa cum laude!  We just attended the ceremony and it was incredible.  Who knew that my crazy kid who used to scream off the top of his lungs in supermarkets and try to run away from me in department stores would grow up to be such a responsible, talented, super smart young man.  I'm so proud of him!  What a tough year it's been for me, though, as a mom knowing that my chickadee is ready to leave the nest......sniffle.  I'm grateful, though, that he chose to attend college in state! Okay, this week my sibling students will be playing "Twister" with a twist.  I adhered musical terms, notes, and Melodic/Harmonic Intervals to the mat with velcro dots; two items per circle.  By adhering two items per circle I can accommodate each sibling's level of instruction.  I then typed out the terms for each color to keep track ...

My younger kiddos up to the 3rd grade absolutely loved playing this game!  Both boys and girls enjoyed it.  I bought this rug from Amazon with a gift card I received from one of my piano parents.  I find that the more 3-dimensional the games are, the more excited my kiddos are to play them.  The games keep terms, techniques, and notes fresh in their minds but in a fun way.  Their enthusiasm to come to their lessons is what inspires me! I already had toy cars in my studio and velcro dots.  I always have a huge supply of velcro dots.  The dots allow me to change out game pieces quickly between lessons based on whatever terms/notes my students are learning.  I made this game two-fold for students who either knew their white notes or staff notes. If the kiddos were learning about white note letter names then their parking lot was a simple modified keyboard (I just drew this).  The cars were parked on certain keys.  I'd call out a le...

I've said it before but I'll say it again....I LOVE "Pinterest"! I'll look up activities for children unrelated to piano and I'll piano-fy them. I get so many great ideas on that site.   This game came directly from "Pinterest" I simply added onto it and made it my own.   All you need are craft sticks (sold in craft stores), a sharpie, a mug to hold the sticks in, and a timer (sometimes the dollar store sells these). I made up rhythm patterns that fit the levels of my students.  I had beginner sticks with 3/4 and 4/4 time signatures and simple note values like quarter, half, and whole notes.  The more advanced students would clap rhythm sticks with different rest values, eighth notes, dotted quarter notes, etc. The kiddos had one minute to correctly clap as many sticks as they could.  They could clap fast or slow.  I left that up to them.  I would keep track of their scores and at the end of each day I would write down the names of th...

Happy New Year!  It's been a bit cold here where I live but the sun is shining today so all is well!  My son says that the reason why I can relate to and understand kids so well is because I'm a kid at heart.  He may be right.  As an adult, if I had to choose between a class I was required to sit through for 60 minutes versus a class where I could play games, do hands-on activities, and move around, I know which class I'd pick!  That's just the way my brain works.  I soak in and retain a lot more information when it's presented to me in a variety of ways and this method of teaching seems to work really well with kids too.  Check out this individual, Dr. Howard Gardner and his work on multiple intelligences!  I learned about him when I was getting my bachelors degree in education.  Some of his theories has made a huge impact on the way I teach. The "Treasure Wheel"!  My students LOVED playing this game.  It's very much like "Whee...