Making piano lessons fun and engaging!

  Glockenspiel Hi All! I like to add other mediums to my piano program that make the lessons even more fun and engaging for my kiddos! See this glockenspiel? I have my beginner students play their Middle C and C Position songs on it.  Now we don't use the mallets as they are traditionally intended to be used and I let them know this before they begin playing.  I use this instrument for the purpose of reinforcing piano concepts.  I have my students use their right hand mallet to play treble clef notes and their left hand mallet to play bass clef notes.  This is so good for reinforcing things like note identification and location, being aware of which hand to use based on the clef sign, the dynamics, and the direction in which the notes go (either up or down). They LOVE using different musical mediums to play their songs but there's so much more you can do with them. How about having your students play their songs or parts of their lesson songs in this flat tabletop piano? This o

Happy October!  This week my kiddos will be drawing musical terms in sand.  This game is super easy to set up.  Purchase some colored sand, fabric leaves, adhesive hooks, a box, and some pines cones (optional), plus something for them to draw in the sand with. Fill the bottom of the box with colored sand and add a few pine cones and fabric leaves to the sand for decoration like the picture above.  On the inside of the box lid adhere 5 hooks like the picture below.  Make sure to make space at the bottom of the lid for you to be able to tuck part of the lid under the bottom of the box so that it can serve as your display for the leaves you'll be testing your kiddos on.   Draw a musical term on each fabric leaf with a thin tipped permanent marker.  Make sure to put a piece of paper or card stock beneath the leaves so the ink doesn't seep through onto the surface you are drawing or writing on.  I test no more than 10 musical terms.  Once they are done drawing the five terms in