Here are a few ideas to make virtual piano lessons fun and engaging for your students! I hope you see some new things that will help generate even more ideas for your own students!
The moment you call something a game your students immediately change their frame of mind! Game equals fun equals happiness (that's if they've been keeping up with their studying of musical terms and notes). The "games" help break up the monotony of a lesson (especially one that's online) as well as let's me know if they've been studying what they need to.
I hope you see a few ideas that are new and more importantly that will generate even more ideas from you for your own students! If a few of my ideas inspire you to come up with some of your own please share them. I'd love to hear from you!
1. Showing musical terms to your students (Picture above)
I have terms for every level that I teach. All I do is set my timer for a minute or two, show one term at a time, they say its name and its meaning.
2. Move a chip on particular notes that they must draw on the grand staff. For my more advanced students I just play notes on my piano that they must draw on their sheet. Using your phone as an extra camera either facing your piano or work space allows for more viewing options during lessons.
3. Guess the Musical Term
I choose 5 terms and give my students 1 minute to guess each term. If they can't figure the term out based on the letters in the puzzle once time is up I will give them a really good hint. Like "This is a tempo mark and it means to play slowly". Can you guess the term?
4. Locate notes on the piano
I hold up staff notes and my students have a few minutes to locate them on their piano.
5. Identify the melodic/harmonic interval and play them.
My students must tell me whether the interval that I'm showing them is melodic or harmonic as well as tell me if it's a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. Then they have to play it on their end.
7. Identifying key signatures, naming the primary chords as well as their inversions, and playing them.
8. Identifying key signature, primary chords in both major and minor keys.
9. Locating half steps up/down from the given note.
10. Drawing musical terms that I call out.
A blank piece of paper placed in a page protector works WONDERS for so many activities! Also, dry erase markers work really well on page protector surfaces.
Until next time. Piano blogger signing off....................
